Datasets:
| {"event_trigger":"November_2009 A Peruvian court orders the arrest of two Chilean military officers on charges of spying, causing a diplomatic row between the two countries. (AFP) (BBC)","document":"A new diplomatic row has erupted between Peru and Chile after a Peruvian court ordered the arrest of two Chilean military officers over alleged spying.\nThe court accused the officers of paying a Peruvian air force officer to reveal national secrets. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez has denied his government has been involved in espionage. But Peru's President Alan Garcia said he was leaving the Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore a day early over the row. He also said he had cancelled planned talks with his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, at the Apec summit. \"I am returning 24 hours earlier than scheduled so I can obtain complete and sufficient information (on the issue) and to be able to speak from Peru,\" Mr Garcia said, quoted by AFP new agency. Reports in the Peruvian media said Lima had recalled its ambassador to Chile for talks. Claims dismissed\nSpeaking in Singapore, Chile's foreign minister said: \"Chile does not engage in espionage. \"We dismiss any charges [that] the Chilean government is involved in anything illegal in regards to relations between the two countries,\" Mr Fernandez added. The Peruvian air force officer, Victor Ariza Mendoza, has been arrested and charged with spying. Lima-based El Comercio reported that Mr Ariza had worked at the Peruvian embassy in Santiago in 2003. Tensions are already strained between the two countries following a military exercise staged by Chile last month near its disputed border with Peru. Peru and Chile have been embroiled in a bitter border dispute since the late 19th century, when Chile defeated Peru in the War of the Pacific. The countries also disagree on their maritime border, and last year Peru took Chile to the international court in The Hague to seek a resolution.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Peruvian court"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["alleged spying"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["two Chilean military officers"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2009 Italian police arrest two Pakistani nationals suspected of providing logistical support to the group responsible for the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. (The Hindu) (Reuters) (BBC News)","document":"Italian police have arrested two Pakistanis suspected of providing logistical support for last year's attacks in Mumbai.\nThe father and son were detained in an early morning raid in the northern city of Brescia, police said. They are accused of supplying cash from their money transfer agency to pay for an internet phone account used by people in contact with the attackers. More than 170 people, nine of them gunmen, died in the November attacks. Mohammad Yaqub Janjua, 60, and Aamer Yaqub Janjua, 31, are accused of aiding and abetting international terrorism as well as illegal financial activity. They were identified after leads from India and the FBI, police said. In July, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab - a 21-year-old Pakistani man and the sole surviving attacker - pleaded guilty to 86 charges, including waging war on India, murder and possessing explosives. He could face the death penalty if judges agree to impose the maximum sentence.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["last year","November"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Italian police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["supplying cash from their money transfer agency to pay for an internet phone account used by people in contact with the attackers"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Mohammad Yaqub Janjua","Aamer Yaqub Janjua"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2009 Italian police arrest two Pakistani nationals suspected of providing logistical support to the group responsible for the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. (The Hindu) (Reuters) (BBC News)","document":"MILAN (Reuters) - Italian anti-terrorist police have arrested two Pakistanis suspected of helping to finance the Islamic militant group responsible for the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, that killed 166 people.\nPolice said in a statement on Saturday the men, identified using leads from Indian authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sent funds overseas using the money transfer business they owned in the north Italian town of Brescia.\nShortly before the Mumbai attacks, the two men transferred money to pay the Internet phone calls of individuals in direct contact with the militants, the statement said.\nThe 10 gunmen attacked several targets in the western Indian city last year including two plush hotels and a Jewish center. The incident frayed already tense ties between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan.\nTwo other Pakistani citizens were arrested in the investigation, accused of links to illegal people trafficking.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["November 2008"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Italian anti-terrorist police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["illegal people trafficking"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["two Pakistanis"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2005 Five U.S. Marines have been arrested after they were accused of raping a local Filipino woman. The USSEssex(LHD2) was prevented from leaving the Philippines until the men were apprehended. (BBC) (Xinhua)","document":"The woman, 22, was allegedly raped by troops who were in the Philippines for joint military exercises. Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said he was \"deeply concerned\" about the claims, and the US embassy in Manila said it took the report very seriously.\nAnalysts say the incident could fuel local opposition to America's military presence in the Philippines.\nUS troops often take part in counter-terrorism training in the country, together with Filipino soldiers.\nAccording to the French news agency AFP, the Subic Bay authority said the alleged victim had been visiting a karaoke bar when she met the five men, on 1 November.\nThey had then reportedly invited her to get into a rented van with them.\nA few hours later, witnesses said they saw the woman being dumped from the van into a road.\n\"The perpetrators of this heinous crime shall be brought to justice,\" said Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.\n\"The US takes reports of violations of US and Philippine law by US military personnel very seriously, and will fully co-operate with the Philippine authorities in the investigation of this incident,\" the US embassy in Manila said in a statement.\nAccording to press reports, the Philippine authorities briefly delayed the departure of a US warship while searching for the marines.\nThe five men were then prevented from leaving the country with the rest of their compatriots on Wednesday, and are currently in the custody of the US embassy in Manila.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["1 November"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["rape","violations of US and Philippine law"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["US military personnel"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"March_2006 Thomas Lubanga, former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, becomes the first person arrested on behalf of, and then referred to the International Criminal Court for war crimes. (ICC)","document":"On 17 March 2006, in Kinshasa,Mr Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese national and alleged founder and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court as part of the judicial proceedings under the Rome Statute (the “Statute”). Thomas Lubangais alleged to have committed war crimes as set out in article 8 of the Statute, committed in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since July 2002.\nPre-Trial Chamber I issued a sealed warrant of arrest against Mr Lubanga on 10 February 2006. The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Lubanga had committed the following war crime: conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities. The Chamber also requested that the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrest and surrender him to the Court. The Registrar notified the Congolese authorities of the decision on14 March 2006, as instructed by the Pre-Trial Chamber.\nOn 17 March 2006, Pre-Trial Chamber I unsealed the warrant of arrest against Mr Thomas Lubanga.\nAs provided under article 59 of the Statute, Mr Lubanga appeared before the competent judicial authority in Kinshasa. The Congolese authorities cooperated with the Court in the spirit of the Statute by promptly executing its request. The French Government agreed to cooperate with the Court and, for the purpose of executing the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I, provided a military aircraft to transfer Mr Lubanga. MONUC also provided support to the operation.\nMr Lubanga is the first person to be arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court since the entry into force of the Statute in July 2002. The Prosecutor of the Court initiated investigations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004 after the Congolese Government referred the situation in that country to the Court.\nThe Court issued its first warrants of arrest in July 2005 in the situation in Uganda against five leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Investigations are also ongoing in the situation in Darfur which was referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court by the United Nations Security Council on 31 March 2005. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["July 2002"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["war crime: conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Thomas Lubanga Dyilo"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2006 Egyptian police arrest 10 people in relation to the 2006 Dahab bombings, which has killed 24 people and injured more than 80 on 24 April. (Independent)","document":" Egyptian police arrested 10 people yesterday as divers began the task of retrieving human remains from the sea after Monday's triple bombing attack. The onslaught on the Sinai beach resort at Dahab, at the height of Egypt's tourist season, killed 24 people and injured more than 80, many of them foreigners. Witnesses described scenes of havoc in Dahab's main hospital after the explosions. Holidaymakers told reporters of medics unable to cope with the injured victims and of botched treatments.\nA local diving instructor, whose offer of blood to the hospital was refused, told local media: \"I could see children bleeding everywhere - it was a nightmare.\"\nThe blasts injured at least 40 Egyptians, three Danes, two Britons, two Italians, an American and an Israeli, according to the Interior Ministry. The small town, which is popular with students and backpackers, has limited facilities compared to the larger resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and was clearly overwhelmed by number of casualties. The injured were told by staff to \"go to Sharm\" - referring to the larger resort 50 miles to the south.\nMany of the injured were eventually transferred to hospitals in Sharm el-Sheikh and Cairo. The two Britons hurt, Henry Luce, 60, and Sam Still, 75, have been transferred to the Nasser Hospital in Cairo. The British embassy said their injuries were not life-threatening, but a British doctor was being flown to Cairo to oversee their care. Embassy staff were still working to identify the remaining injured.\nIsrael, which closed a border crossing with Egypt following the blasts and issued a travel warning to its citizens, offered medical assistance but it was refused.\nZoheir Garana, the Minister of Tourism, refused to be drawn on the identity of the attackers.\nEgyptian security services have conducted a shadowy campaign in the peninsula in the past 12 months, arresting more than 135 people they believe were related to the Taba bombings in October 2004.\nDahab has long held the reputation as Egypt's most relaxed holiday resort. But it was always the poor relation of nearby Sharm el-Sheikh, more popular with young backpackers than those with more money to spend. A slew of cheap eateries and bars line the seafront and nothing much happens quickly. Visitors sit on pillows, eat fish, smoke pipes and watch the stars.\nOfficial sources, who have been keen to deny al-Qa'ida involvement in Sinai, are at odds about the means of attack. The governor of South Sinai province, Mohamed Hani, said on Monday that he thought suicide bombers were responsible, while local security officials were quoted as saying the explosions were from time bombs. The attacks were designed to maximise casualties against Egyptians, coming as they did on the busy holiday of Shem al-Nessim.\nOver the past two years, more than 100 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Sinai, leading commentators to conclude that the government is ineffective at handling the problem. Since Egypt's repossession of the Sinai in 1979, the expanding tourist industry has not benefited local Bedouin and some analysts believe the government has little real knowledge of the level of disaffection among local people. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Monday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Egyptian police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["triple bombing attack"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["10 people"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2016 An Iraqi court has issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a Londonbased panArab newspaper Asharq alAwsat over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women. (The Huffington Post) (The Independent) (The National)","document":"A Baghdad court has issued arrest warrants for two correspondents with a Saudi newspaper over a false news report accusing Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women.\nA senior source in Iraq’s judiciary said the warrants, based on the penal code’s article 372 on religious hate crimes, were issued against the Asharq Al Awsat daily’s two Baghdad-based Iraqi journalists.\nThe article, published on Sunday in the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, caused an uproar in Iraq, where the prime minister and several other prominent figures issued public condemnations.\nOne of the two correspondents, Hamza Mustafa, denied any responsibility for the article and said he was resigning in protest.\nAnother journalist working for the newspaper in Baghdad, Maad Fayyad, said he had nothing to do with the controversial article.\nThe pair’s whereabouts on Wednesday were unclear.\nZiad Ajili, from the Baghdad-based Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, condemned the warrants as an “incitement to murder”.\nThe article was published as Arbaeen, a Shiite pilgrimage that commemorates the 680 AD death of Imam Hussein and is one of the world’s largest religious events, was peaking in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala.\nIt quoted a purported World Health Organisation spokesman as saying that after last year’s pilgrimage more than 169 Iraqi women became pregnant out of wedlock.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Baghdad court"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["Iranian pilgrims of sexually harassing Iraqi women","religious hate crimes"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["two correspondents"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2016 Three women, the Imatra Town Council chairwoman and two local reporters, are shot dead outside a restaurant in Imatra, Finland, a town east of the capital, Helsinki. A 23-year-old suspect is apprehended by police. (YLE) (AP)","document":"A fatal shooting occurred at midnight on Saturday in the city of Imatra, where a 23-year-old assailant killed three women with a rifle, police say.\nOne of the victims was the chair of the Imatra City Council, and the two others were local print journalists. Police deny all rumours surrounding the motivation of the crime, which they are treating as murder.\nThe hunting rifle used in the murder had a permit, but did not belong to the attacker, police say.\nThe shooter has been apprehended and the scene of the crime, restaurant Vuoksenvahti, has been cordoned off.\n\"The persons were exiting the restaurant when they were fired upon,\" Yle reporter Jari Tanskanen said on site this morning. \"People here are devastated.\"\nPolice received an alert at 00.00 on Saturday of a man with a gun in front of restaurant Vuoksenvahti. Police were some 300 metres from the scene at the time of the call.\nAs the patrol came nearer to the scene local people directed the police to the front of the restaurant, where the situation was described as hectic. A 23-year-old man was pointed out and allegedly identified as the shooter.\nThe man was standing in front of a parked car in front of the restaurant. He followed police orders and was apprehended without incident.\nThree lifeless female bodies were found lying in front of the restaurant. The women had sustained gunshot wounds to the head and torso. No other victims are reported.\nAn ambulance and several police patrols also arrived at the scene. The suspect has not yet been interrogated.\nPolice say they do not yet know the alleged shooter's motive for the crime. The man is suspected to have used a rifle to carry out the shooting.\nA local emergency crisis centre has been opened in Imatra for all those shocked by the crime. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["The hunting rifle"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["murder"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["A 23-year-old man"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2016 Six people are arrested in Ankara for alleged involvement in the murder of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)","document":"Turkish police have detained six people over the killing of the Russian ambassador, who was shot in the back as he gave a speech in Ankara by an off-duty police officer shouting \"Don't forget Aleppo\" and \"Allahu Akbar\".\nRussia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was making a speech at the opening of a photographic exhibition when he was shot and killed by Melvut Mert Aydintas, a 22-year old member of Ankara's riot police squad.\nAydintas was later killed in a shootout with police, while three others were wounded in the attack, authorities said.\nThe state-run Anadolu media agency said the attacker's mother, father, sister and two other relatives have been held in the western province of Aydin, while his flatmate in Ankara has also been detained.\nPolice paced up and down behind a cordon on Tuesday morning outside the art gallery where the ambassador was shot. A crime scene investigation van was parked outside the building.\n\nAydintas was wearing a dark suit and tie and fired at least eight shots, at one point walking around Mr Karlov as he lay motionless and shooting him again at close range.\nA video showed the attacker shouting: \"Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!\" and \"Allahu Akbar\" (\"God is Greatest\") as screams rang out.\n\"We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad,\" he also yelled in Arabic.\nHe paced about and shouted as he held the gun in one hand and waved his other hand in the air.\nThe United States said its three missions in Turkey would be closed for a day after a gun was fired in front of the US embassy in Ankara on Monday night.\nThe embassy was near the art gallery where Mr Karlov was shot and Turkish police detained a man over the incident, state media reported.\nTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed in a telephone call that their cooperation in fighting terrorism should be even stronger after the killing.\nMr Putin said it was aimed at derailing Russia's attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for the Syria crisis.\nThe countries' foreign ministers were meeting on Tuesday.\n\nTurkey faces multiple security threats, including from the Islamic State militant group. A spokesman for the hard-line Sunni Muslim group urged sympathisers around the world this month to carry out a fresh wave of attacks, singling out Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests as preferred targets.\nHowever, a senior Turkish security official said there were \"very strong signs\" the gunman belonged to the network of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in July.\nThe official also cited the fact the attacker had taken July 15-17 as a holiday. The Government may argue the timing of his holiday demonstrated foreknowledge of the July 15 coup.\nMr Erdogan has denounced Mr Gulen as a terrorist, but the cleric, a former ally, denies the accusation, and has also denied any role in the assassination.\nRussia is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its air strikes helped Syrian forces end rebel resistance last week in the northern city of Aleppo.\nTurkey, which seeks Mr Assad's ouster, has been repairing ties with Moscow after shooting down a Russian warplane over Syria last year.\nAustralian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop condemned the \"shocking\" attack on Twitter and extended her condolences to his family and the Russian people.\nRussia's Ambassador to Australia, Grigory Logvinov, worked with Mr Karlov for decades in North Asia and the Russian diplomatic service. He said Mr Karlov's death was a tragedy.\n\"When a diplomat, especially a top ranked diplomat, an ambassador, is killed it goes beyond all limits and is extraordinary, because the life mission of a diplomat is to prevent war, to prevent fight.\" \n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Tuesday morning"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Turkish police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["killing of the Russian ambassador"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["six people"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2016 Two activists are arrested in Indonesia for advocating West Papuan independence. (Radio New Zealand)","document":"Two West Papuans have been charged with treason after being arrested by Indonesian police for staging a demonstration in Jayapura on Monday.\nOver 500 people were reportedly arrested from West Papua demonstrations in Indonesia. \nThe Jayapura demonstration was one of more than 14 rallies in Indonesian cities, calling for West Papuan rights to self-determination to be respected.\nMore than 500 people were reported to have been arrested for participating in the rallies.\nWhile the vast majority were released later in the day, two arrested in the Papua provincial capital have been charged.\nDemonstrators march in Timika in West Papua. Photo: Supplied\nHosea Yemo and Ismael Alua are reportedly members of the West Papua National Committee, (KNPB), the pro-independence representative group which organised some of the rallies.\nPapua provincial police said the two were arrested after allegedly inciting sedition or treason against the state, and provoking other participants of the rally to commit treason.\nA treason charge could lead to a jail term of up to 15 years in Indonesia.\nDemonstrators in Timika, West Papua. \nPolice said that from the Jayapura demo, they also found 1kg of hashish at the KNPB's premises, and confiscated a number of weapons from the crowd.\nLaw and order has been maintained in the cities and the situation was back to normal, according to police who said they avoided using excessive force in handling the demonstrations.\nHowever, Jakarta-based human rights monitoring groups have condemned intimidation and violence by police officers in the Jayapura rally.\nWest Papuan photographic journalist Whens Tebay Photo: Tabloid Jubi\nThe Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, and its local partner in Papua, Elsham Papua, said it condemned intimidation and violence by police officers against photographic journalist Whens Tebay during the rally.\nMr Tebay said police arrested, interrogated and hit him, later confiscated his camera and forced him to erase all photos taken during the rally.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Monday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Indonesian police"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["treason"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Two West Papuans"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2017 Chicago Police arrest four African-American suspects after they stream a video on Facebook showing themselves torturing and scalping a bound and gagged, kidnapped, white man with a mental disorder. The four suspects will face elevated hate crime charges. (The Guardian), (AP)","document":"Chicago police are investigating a video appearing to show a man tied up and assaulted while attackers shout ‘fuck Donald Trump’ and ‘fuck white people’ First published on Thu 5 Jan 2017 03.39 GMT\nChicago police have arrested four suspects after a Facebook Live broadcast appeared to show a man bound, gagged and brutally attacked amid shouts of “fuck Donald Trump”.\nThe footage, which was live-streamed on Facebook, showed several people taunting and assaulting the man while he was sitting in the corner of a room, restrained and with his mouth taped closed.\nPolice superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that the suspects, who are likely to be charged in the next 24 hours, would face “the full weight of the Chicago police department”.\n“Video of a brutal act towards an adult male with mental health challenges made its way onto social media,” Johnson said. “The images in the video put on display the brazenness of the offenders who assaulted the victim and then broadcast it for the entire world to see.”\nPolice said all four suspects, two men and two women, all of whom they said were “young adults”, were in custody and being questioned. Asked about the shouts of “fuck Trump” and “fuck white people” heard in the video, police commander Kevin Duffin said they would form part of their investigation into whether the attack constituted a hate crime. He added that investigators were attempting to determine “whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving”.\nThe individuals captured on video tormenting the victim are black. The victim, who at one point appears to be forced to shout the words “fuck Trump”, is white.\nDuffin added the victim, who is from the suburbs of Chicago, was a school acquaintance of one of the four suspects. “It’s quite a possibility it is a kidnapping,” Duffin said, noting that the suspects stole a van in the suburbs and “brought him out to Chicago”.\nHe said the victim had been reported missing and spent at least 24 hours and possibly up to 48 hours with the suspects.\n“He’s traumatized by the incident and it’s very tough to communicate with him at this point,” he said. “It took most of the night for him to calm down enough to be able to talk to us.”\nPolice spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Guardian that the department was considering a range of possible hate crime charges but did not believe the suspects attacked the victim due to his race.\n“This group of individuals was not traveling around looking to apprehend a white man,” he said. “He was not targeted because he was white.”\nThe disturbing footage, which gained a wider audience when it was shared on Wednesday via YouTube, lasts around 30 minutes and, at one point, appeared to have 16,000 Facebook views. Large parts consist of a woman, who police confirmed is among the suspects, smoking and talking animatedly into the camera. She appears to respond to real-time comments from other Facebook users. “My sister said it’s not funny,” the woman said. A male voice interjects: “Tell Donald Trump that’s not funny.”\nThe references to the president-elect are peppered throughout the video.\nCPD press conference regarding disturbing live social media video depicting a battery ; victim was tied up https://t.co/jDrjfz4sJV\nAt another point, a male suspect appears to take a knife to the top of the victim’s head. Subsequent footage appears to show the victim bleeding.\n“Look at him, tied up,” one man can be heard saying, laughing and threatening to put the victim “in a trunk”. A suspect appears to grab the victim by his neck and tighten the ties around him.\n“I’ll torture the fuck out of you,” a man later said in the video, looking at the camera. Another male voice can be heard: “There’s going to be a murder here.”\nPolice said the victim was discovered by patrol officers on Tuesday, disoriented and confused and transported to hospital for treatment. Officers later responded to a battery at a residence nearby where “they discovered signs of a struggle and damage to the property” and linked the case to the hospitalized man, police said.\nA Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: “We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed.”","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Wednesday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["Facebook Live broadcast appeared to show a man bound, gagged and brutally attacked amid shouts of “fuck Donald Trump”"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["four suspects"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2017 Noor Salman, the wife of Omar Mateen who committed the 2016 Orlando mass shooting is arrested and charged with obstructing the investigation of the case. (New York Times)","document":"WASHINGTON The F.B.I. arrested the wife of the man who carried out a deadly terrorist attack in Orlando, Fla., and charged her with obstructing the investigation of the mass shooting, law enforcement officials said on Monday.\nNoor Salman, whose husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and wounded dozens in an Orlando nightclub that was popular with gays, was also charged with aiding and abetting by providing material support, the officials said.\nShe was taken into custody by F.B.I. agents at her home outside San Francisco, where she had been living with her young son. Prosecutors had been weighing charges against her for months in the aftermath of the attack by her husband on June 12, 2016.\nInvestigators interviewed Ms. Salman for hours after the attack and came to believe she was not telling the truth about her husband’s plans to carry out the rampage.\nA Justice Department spokesman said Ms. Salman would make her initial appearance on Tuesday morning in federal court in Oakland, Calif.\nThe Justice Department’s decision to prosecute Ms. Salman, 30, ends part of the mystery that has surrounded her since the first days after the attack, when she became a central subject of the wide-ranging investigation into her husband.\n“Noor Salman had no foreknowledge nor could she predict what Omar Mateen intended to do that tragic night,” said her lawyer, Linda Moreno. “Noor has told her story of abuse at his hands. We believe it is misguided and wrong to prosecute her and that it dishonors the memories of the victims to punish an innocent person.”\nAccounts of what happened from officials and witnesses.\nThe aiding and abetting, a terrorism charge, suggests that prosecutors believe that Ms. Salman helped him in some way either before or after the terrorist attack.\nThe decision to charge her is not without risks for prosecutors. If the case goes to trial, prosecutors will have to contend with a jury that could be sympathetic to Ms. Salman, who said she was in an abusive relationship and living in fear.\nIn an interview last year with The New York Times, Ms. Salman said she was “unaware of everything” in connection with the attack.\nMs. Salman said she had accompanied her husband to Orlando with their child once when he scouted the club but did not know the purpose of the trip. On the day her husband drove to Orlando, she claimed he said he was going to visit a friend, named Nemo, who lived in Florida. But Nemo was not living in Florida at the time, a fact Ms. Salman said she did not know.\nShe also said she had no reason to suspect that ammunition he bought in the days leading up to the attack was to be used in the shooting, given that her husband was a security guard who frequently purchased ammunition. On the day of the shooting, she bought her husband a Father’s Day card, expecting him to return that evening. Her lawyers believe that supports her story that she did not know about the attack.\nDuring his rampage, Mr. Mateen used Facebook to pledge his allegiance to the Islamic State. President Obama has said that Mr. Mateen “took in extremist information and propaganda over the internet and became radicalized.”\nFederal investigators do not believe that Mr. Mateen, who was 29 and who was killed by the police after the shooting, received any specific training or support from the Islamic State. Part of their inquiry has focused on whether anyone in the United States assisted in his plans for the attack.\nThere has perhaps been no figure more central to those questions than Ms. Salman, who grew up in an avocado-colored home in Rodeo, Calif., near San Francisco. In Rodeo, on a diverse block populated by Chinese, Indian, Korean and Mexican families, neighbors recalled a younger Ms. Salman as warm and kind.\nMs. Salman married Mr. Mateen in a ceremony near her childhood home in Northern California, a second marriage for both. After the wedding, Ms. Salman moved to Fort Pierce, Fla., where she and Mr. Mateen lived in a condominium complex.\nTheir marriage in 2011 caused consternation among some of Ms. Salman’s relatives, mostly because of her Palestinian heritage and Mr. Mateen’s ancestral ties to Afghanistan. Ms. Salman said in the interview with The Times that her husband beat her repeatedly and verbally abused her.\nMembers of Mr. Mateen’s family, who have tried to shield Ms. Salman from public scrutiny, have said they believe she did nothing improper.\n“She is shocked, that poor lady,” Seddique Mateen, Mr. Mateen’s father, said in June 2016. “And she doesn’t know anything.”\nThe Orlando police chief, John W. Mina, said in a statement that he was “glad to see” that Ms. Salman had been arrested.\n“Nothing can erase the pain we all feel about the senseless and brutal murders of 49 of our neighbors, friends, family members and loved ones,” the chief said. “But today, there is some relief in knowing that someone will be held accountable for that horrific crime.”\nIn two recent mass shootings, prosecutors have brought charges against people with ties to the attackers.\nIn South Carolina, a friend of Dylann S. Roof, who was convicted of killing nine people on June 17, 2015, in a Charleston church, pleaded guilty in April to lying to federal investigators and misprision of a felony, or failing to inform authorities that a felony had been committed. The friend did not testify against Mr. Roof, who was sentenced to death last week.\nIn 2015, the federal authorities in California brought charges against a neighbor of the husband and wife who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in San Bernardino. The man, who bought the rifles used in the attack on Dec. 2, 2015, was accused of lying on forms filled out in connection with the purchase. Although he was also accused of planning a terrorist attack several years ago, the man was not charged with having a direct role in the San Bernardino rampage.\nHowever, federal prosecutors in the summer of 2014 declined to prosecute Katherine Russell, the wife of one of the assailants in the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. F.B.I. agents believed she had made false statements to investigators and concealed knowledge of a crime.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":["Linda Moreno"]},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["June 12, 2016"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["obstructing the investigation of the mass shooting"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Noor Salman"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2017 The Kremlin arrests four people, Kaspersky Lab's Ruslan Stoyanov, and three officials in the Federal Security Service (FSB previously KGB) Center for Information Security, reportedly on treason charges for passing information to America's CIA. (New York Daily News), (The Washington Times), (The New York Times Jan 25), (AP)","document":" Russian spy officials have been accused of treason because they were cooperating with the CIA, according to a report.\n The arrests of Sergei Mikhailov and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchaev, who worked for the KGB successor FSB's Center for Information Security, were first reported by Russian media earlier this month.\n Unidentified officials confirmed to Interfax, one of Russia's major news agencies, on Tuesday that the two men were accused of working with the CIA.\n It was not immediately clear what the exact alleged conduct was, though U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the FSB of hacking U.S. targets and Russia's other agency, the GRU, of releasing information to help the election of President Trump.\n A report from Novaya Gazeta said that Mikhailov is accused of passing on information regarding a breach of election systems in Arizona and Illinois last summer, which is not attributed in the U.S. intelligence hacking explainer released earlier this month.\n He was taken out of an FSB meeting in December with a bag over his head and has not been heard from since, the independent newspaper reported.\n Beyond Mikhailov and Dokuchaev, private cybersecurity expert Ruslan Stoyanov and one other person have reportedly been arrested, with Interfax saying that up to eight people were being spoken to as possible witnesses.\n A source told the agency that some of those people were involved in cyber attacks, and that others were not involved in the hacking but accused of working with foreign powers.\n The arrests come amid a flurry of attention to the Russian security services, which beyond hacking were accused in a former British spy's unsubstantiated dossier of holding \"kompromat\" on Trump.\n A former FSB officer and close associate of Russian oil company head Igor Sechin, who was named in the documents, was found dead behind the wheel in late December\n Police told Russian media that Oleg Erovinkin, 61, died of a heart attack.\n Multiple reports have also cited possible connections between Mikhailov and hacking group Shaltai-Boltai (Humpty Dumpty), which has previously leaked information about Russian government figures and is believed to be linked to a faction of officials inside the government.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["December"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["treason because they were cooperating with the CIA"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Mikhailov and Dokuchaev, private cybersecurity expert Ruslan Stoyanov and one other person"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"February_2017 French police arrest three men and a 16yearold girl found with bombmaking materials in a Montpellier flat. The female suspect had been spotted online saying she wanted to either leave for the SyriaIraq conflict or mount an attack in France, and recorded a video in which she pledged allegiance to ISIL. (BBC)","document":"An \"imminent\" terror attack on French soil has been averted with the arrest of four suspects in Montpellier, Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said.\nThree men and a girl of 16 were found with bomb-making materials by anti-terrorist police in a raid on a flat in the southern city.\nHome-made explosives similar to those used in the Paris attacks of November 2015 were discovered.\nReports suggest the girl had made jihadist declarations online.\nSince the beginning of 2015, at least 230 people have been killed in jihadist attacks in France.\nLast week, a soldier received minor injuries when a machete-wielding man tried to enter the Louvre museum in Paris. The man, a 29-year-old Egyptian named Abdullah Hamamy, was shot and critically injured. Photos from the scene in Montpellier show debris outside the door of the flat that police stormed on Friday morning.\nEarly reports suggested that one of the Montpellier detainees was a would-be suicide attacker. A local news site, M6 Info, said the four were planning to attack a tourist site in Paris but a police source told AFP news agency that investigators had not been able to establish the exact target. The suspects were arrested after buying acetone, a police source told AFP. Acetone is an ingredient used in the making of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a high explosive. TATP, the same explosive used in bomb vests worn by militants in the Paris attacks, was found in the city along with the acetone, a judicial source said.\nAccording to AFP, the female suspect had been spotted on social networks saying she wanted to leave for the Syria-Iraq conflict zone or mount an attack in France instead.\nShe recorded a video in which she pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS), M6 Info reports. Meanwhile, France's top constitutional court struck down a law which penalised those who consult jihadist websites.\nThe Constitutional Council found that the law infringed on people's freedom of communication unnecessarily.\nSeparately, prosecutors in Denmark charged a 16-year-old girl with attempted terrorism for allegedly planning to bomb two schools in and around Copenhagen, one of them Jewish.\nThe girl, a convert to Islam, was arrested in Kundby, near the capital, in January last year, and had been held in custody ever since.\nProsecutors believe she was trying to prepare TATP herself. She will go on trial in Holbaek in April.\nA 25-year-old man arrested in the same case has been released without charge.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["An \"imminent\" terror attack on French soil","charged a 16-year-old girl with attempted terrorism for allegedly planning to bomb two schools in and around Copenhagen, one of them Jewish"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Three men and a girl of 16"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"March_2017 Juan M. Thompson, a 31-year-old ex-journalist, is arrested and charged with making at least eight threats against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, as well as a threat made against the Anti-Defamation League, while allegedly impersonating a former girlfriend. (BBC)","document":"A former journalist has been arrested on suspicion of making threats against Jewish community centres - in a bizarre plot against an ex-girlfriend.\nJuan Thompson, 31, \"allegedly caused havoc, expending hundreds of hours of police and law enforcement resources\", said NYPD Commissioner James P O'Neill.\nNew York prosecutors said he was \"stalking a former romantic interest\". The Missouri man was allegedly behind eight of some 100 threats to Jewish Community Centers (JCC) this year.\nMuslims offer to guard US Jewish sites 'Disruption and anxiety' in US Jewish centres Mr Thompson was arrested on Friday in St Louis, Missouri, and will be in court later in the day.\nAs well as the threats against the JCCs in January and February, he is also accused of emailing a threat in his ex-girlfriend's name to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York City.\nThe next day the offices of the Jewish anti-bigotry group received a phone call claiming that explosive material had been placed inside the building.\n\"Today, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League,\" New York-based US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.\nA spokesman for the White House said \"it's still too early for us to say too much about it, but the process worked\".\nMr Thompson is accused of cyber-stalking his ex-girlfriend - known in court documents as Victim-1 - which can carry a sentence of up to five years in jail.\nHe is also alleged to have made threats using his own real name, in a ploy to make it look like she was trying to frame him.\nOn 7 February, he allegedly wrote an email to the JCC offices in Manhattan, saying: \"Juan Thompson put two bombs in the office of the Jewish center today. \"He wants to create Jewish newtown tomorrow.\" This was a reference to the 2012 school shooting in Connecticut in which a gunman murdered 26 people.\nIn several tweets presented by investigators, Mr Thompson repeatedly accused his former girlfriend of making bomb threats in his name, in order to pin the crime on him.\nHe claimed she had hacked his email account.\n\"[Victim-1], though I can't prove it, even sent a bomb threat in my name to a Jewish center, which was odd given her antisemitic statement,\" he posted on 24 February 2017.\nHe also made several posts condemning the anti-Jewish threats.\nIt was allegedly part of a months-long campaign against his former partner after they broke up in July 2016.\nThompson began by sending an email to her manager at a New York-area social service organisation.\nThe message claimed she had been pulled over for drunk driving and sued for spreading a sexually transmitted disease.\nHe allegedly went on to threaten to publish nude photos of the woman, before escalating to the bomb threats this year.\nOn 24 February, he posted on Twitter: \"Y'all know how to get a social worker in NY barred? I'm being stalked and harassed by a white nasty white woman.\"\nMr Thompson was fired last year from the Intercept, a news website, over \"fabricated sources and quotes in his articles\". Intercept management released a statement on Friday saying they were \"horrified\" to learn about the arrest, and that they condemn the \"heinous\" threats.\nAt least 100 phone threats have been made to Jewish centres, childcare facilities and schools in three dozen states since the beginning of January, according to the JCC Association of North America.\nThree Jewish cemeteries, including one near St Louis, have also faced vandalism attacks.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":["Preet Bharara"]},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["January and February"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["threats against the JCCs","emailing a threat in his ex-girlfriend's name to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Juan Thompson"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2018 A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been arrested in the state of Texas on suspicion of killing four women. (BBC)","document":"A US Border Patrol agent has been arrested in the state of Texas on suspicion of killing four women.\nOfficers began looking for Juan David Ortiz in the city of Laredo after a fifth woman allegedly escaped from him and got help from local police.\nMr Ortiz, who has worked for the force for a decade, initially fled but was later arrested in a hotel parking lot.\nThe names of the four victims have not been revealed. Police said they had been working as prostitutes.\nWebb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said police believed Mr Ortiz had acted alone.\n\"The county, the city can rest assured we have the serial killer in custody,\" Sheriff Cuellar said, in quotes reported by the Laredo Times newspaper.\nTwo of the victims were found earlier this month in a rural area by the Interstate 35 road, and the third and fourth victims were found in the same area in recent days, according to local reports. A 42-year-old woman had been found injured on Thursday but died in hospital.\nDistrict Attorney Isidro Alaniz described the killings as a \"horrific case\" and confirmed Mr Ortiz was set to face four charges of murder and one of aggravated kidnapping.\nHe said the cause of death was similar for all four women who, authorities believe, were killed over two weeks. He said all of the victims had worked as prostitutes and that investigators were trying to find a motive for the killings. Two of the victims were US citizens and one was a transgender woman, he added. Few other details have been released. The Texas Tribune reports the fifth woman fled from a petrol station after Mr Ortiz allegedly pointed a gun at her when she tried to get out of his vehicle.\nAndrew Meehan, assistant commissioner for public affairs for US Customs and Border Protection, confirmed in a statement that the agency was co-operating with police. \"Our sincerest condolences go out to the victims' family and friends,\" he said.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Thursday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["four charges of murder and one of aggravated kidnapping"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Juan David Ortiz"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2018 An arrest warrant is issued in Texas for 3Dprinted gun rights activist and Defense Distributed owner Cody Wilson in connection with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson was last known to be in Taiwan. (ABC News) (Gizmodo)","document":"Cody Rutledge Wilson, the 30-year-old Texas man who’s been fighting with the U.S. government to publish instructions for 3D-printed guns on the internet, was charged today with the sexual assault of a child. Wilson allegedly met the girl on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com.\nWilson allegedly paid the girl, whose name has been withheld in court documents, $500 for sex at a hotel in Austin, Texas. The exact age of the victim is not immediately clear, though the affidavit for the arrest warrant explains that she’s under the age of 17.\nAs local news station KVUE notes, Wilson allegedly used the name “Sanjuro” on SugarDaddyMeet.com and told the child victim that he was a “big deal,” according to court documents. The girl allegedly met Wilson at Bennu Coffee on 515 South Congress Ave. in Austin where he arrived in a black Ford SUV that matched a license plate registered under his firearms business, Defense Distributed. The police apparently have video of the meeting.\nThis is a modal window.\nWilson allegedly took the girl to Archer Hotel in Austin where surveillance video reportedly also captured images of the two together. Wilson has not yet been booked into jail, according to the Austin Statesman, and it’s not even clear if he’s been arrested yet.\nCody Wilson made national headlines recently when he became the loudest voice defending 3D-printed guns. Defense Distributed sells 3D printers that can manufacture guns for $2,000. Federal courts have blocked Wilson from publishing the plans for guns, but he began emailing the plans to people who ordered them in August. Wilson just seemed happy to define how the issue was being talked about.\n“It seems like I’ve crystallized the terms of the debate according to how I wanted it,” Wilson told the New York Times over the summer. “The argument that I’m making, although not always very well, is that what I’m doing is actually a pretty mainline American idea.”\nWilson was named one of “The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World” in 2012 by Wired, though at the time the publication was only referring to his association with guns.\n[KVUE and Austin Statesman]\nUpdate, 5:50pm: According to Ars Technica, Wilson is in Taipei, Taiwan and didn’t get on a return flight to the United States after getting a tip off that he’s wanted for these charges.\nAt the press conference, [the Austin Police Department] shared a few more details on the situation not previously included in the court documents. The alleged victim is 16 years old and lives in Central Texas. Regarding her entry on SugarDaddyMeet, Cmdr. Officer said authorities have no reason to believe that “anyone other than the victim” signed up for the site.\n“The charge is sexual assault, and the statute says a victim under 17 is considered a child,” Cmdr. Officer said. “My detectives have interviewed and spoken with this victim, and in their opinion if someone mistakes their age, it’d be because she’s younger not older.”\nCmdr. Officer added that the allegations against Wilson would constitute a second degree felony, which is punishable by up to 20 years and a $10,000 fine.\nThe judge in the case set a bond at $150,000 despite the fact that Wilson still hasn’t been arrested. If he returns to the United States he’ll have to surrender his passport.\nUpdate, September 20, 2018: U.S. Marshals have released a wanted poster for Wilson, who’s believed to still be on the run in Taiwan.\nWilson was staying at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei on September 6th and checked out on the 7th, according to the UDN news site. Taiwanese authorities are now in contact with their U.S. counterparts but Wilson’s exact whereabouts are unknown.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["August"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["the sexual assault of a child"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Cody Rutledge Wilson"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2018 American boxer Victor Ortiz is arrested for allegedly raping a woman in March, and is expected to be charged with three felonies. (EOnline)","document":"Victor Ortiz, a champion boxer who also competed on Season 16 of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday for allegedly raping a woman in March, the Oxnard Police Department said. Ortiz surrendered at 2:55 p.m. at the Ventura County Sheriff Department's East Valley Station and was charged with three counts of felony sexual assault.\nThe 31-year-old athlete's bail was set at $100,000 after Ortiz was formally charged with suspicion of forcible digital penetration, forcible oral copulation and forcible rape. The police department added that if people have additional information regarding the alleged incident, they are encouraged to contact detective Kevin Adair at 805-385-7663; should anyone wish to remain anonymous, police said people can call their Violent Crimes Hotline at 805-982-7070.\nPolice began investigating Ortiz after his alleged victim contacted them March 19 and claimed he had sexually assaulted her \"inside a residence in the city of Oxnard.\" The Family Protection Unit conducted an investigation for \"several months,\" police said, and it was \"presented to the Venture County District Attorney's Office for filing.\" A warrant for Ortiz's arrest was issued.\nOrtiz's rep has not commented on the charges. He has a televised fight scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 30, at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif., against former world title challenger John Molina, Jr. Ortiz is out on bail, but it remains unclear of the fight will go ahead. Molina, for his part, is still ready for the fight and sharing photos of his meal prep on Instagram.\nSince turning himself in, Ortiz (32-6-3, 25 KOs) has gone silent on social media. The boxer, who has also appeared in movies like Expendables 3 and Southpaw, previously had a run in with the law in 2015 when he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weaponhis footafter allegedly beating up a fan during a Kenny Chesney concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge and received three years of probation. A year later, Ortiz was arrested and charged with DUI; after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 2017, he was given three years' probation and sentenced to eight days in county jail.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["March"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["three counts of felony sexual assault"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Victor Ortiz"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"October_2018 A man in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, is arrested for attempting to steal one of four existing original copies of Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral. (NPR) (BBC News)","document":"A hammer-wielding man has been arrested after an attempted smash and grab of a Magna Carta from its display at Salisbury Cathedral.\nAlarms went off when the would-be thief tried to break through the glass box which protects the charter on Thursday.\nThe suspect was held on suspicion of attempted theft of the document - claimed to be the best preserved of four original Magna Cartas.\nIt was not damaged and nobody was injured, police said.\nThe man was wrestled to the ground by staff when he attempted to flee after the attempted raid at 16:45 BST, the Dean of Salisbury said.\nThe Very Reverend Nick Papadopoulos said: \"There were people around so the cry went up, it was pretty thick glass so it hadn't yielded easily despite having a hammer hit it.\n\"It was a great shock but everyone responded magnificently, both our staff and volunteers and members of the public. \"They raised a cry and he did not get away.\"\nThe drama unfolded just before Evensong near to closing time at the visitor centre.\nDean Papadopoulos added: \"He had been carrying a hammer so our guys were very courageous.\n\"They were able to restrain him and they held him for 12 minutes.\" A silent alarm was activated which alerted staff to the disturbance, he added.\nA 45-year-old man is being held on suspicion of attempted theft, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon.\nHe has been taken to Melksham police station where he is being questioned.\nMagna Carta is a charter of rights agreed by King John in 1215. It is considered one of Britain's most influential legal manuscripts.\nSeveral versions were sent around the country \"as evidence of the King's decision\", according to Salisbury Cathedral's website. Only four original copies survive today, and the cathedral is home to what is claimed to be \"the most beautiful\".\nThe charter was put on display at the cathedral three years ago as part of an exhibition funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.\nThe charter has been removed for safe-keeping while the case is refurbished, Dean Papadopoulos said.\nA facsimile copy of the charter will be displayed, and the visitor centre will re-open as soon as possible.\nMagna Carta outlined basic rights with the principle that no one was above the law, including the king.\nIt charted the right to a fair trial, and limits on taxation without representation.\nIt inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\nOnly three clauses are still valid - the one guaranteeing the liberties of the English Church; the clause confirming the privileges of the city of London and other towns; and the clause that states that no free man shall be imprisoned without the lawful judgement of his equals.\nThe British Library has two copies of the 1215 Magna Carta.\nSource: The British Library\nThe historical document is encased in two glass layers, Dean Papadopoulos added.\n\"The layer that is closest to the document itself was completely untouched by the individual concerned, but his hammer did do some damager to the initial glass screen.\"\nTwo copies of the Magna Carta that date from 1215 are held by the British Library and go on regular display there.\nThe Salisbury copy went on display in 2015 in the 13th Century Chapter House at the cathedral.\nBest-preserved Magna Carta on show\nBBC History","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Thursday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["attempted theft, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon","attempted theft of the document"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["A hammer-wielding man"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2018 Khadim Hussain Rizvi, chief of Pakistani political party TehreekeLabbaik Pakistan (TLP), together with his party leaders, is arrested after TLP's refusal to postpone their call for a public rally planned for 25 November at Liaqat Bagh, Rawalpindi. Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry clarifies that the action has no connection with the Asia Bibi case. (Dawn), (Pakistan Today)","document":"Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi was taken into \"protective custody\" by police from Lahore as law enforcement agencies launched a massive crackdown against workers of TLP and Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) on Friday night.\n\"Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been taken into protective custody by police and shifted to a guest house,\" said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry late Friday night, confirming reports of the incendiary leader's arrest via Twitter. High/red alert had been generated to heighten the security in the provincial capital.\nThe crackdown came ahead of Rizvi's call to party members to observe martyrs’ day on November 25 (Sunday). He had asked workers and supporters to gather at Faizabad in the federal capital the same venue where the party had staged a weeks-long sit-in last year that had virtually paralysed the federal capital and led to several people losing their lives.\nLaw enforcement personnel on Friday night also took in custody TLYRA head Dr Asif Ashraf Jalali. Furthermore, according to security sources, TLP patron Pir Afzal Qadri was also arrested the same night from Gujrat.\nSoon after the news of the arrest of the clerics spread, hundreds of activists of the two parties took to the streets and blocked many roads for traffic.\nA constable was seriously injured at Multan Road where the violent activists clashed with police.\nFollowing the unrest and severe clashes, Rangers reached Lahore, taking control of city’s major roads. Prior to the agitation, a police officer said, hundreds of trained police commandos and personnel of the anti-riot force were dispatched to the Multan Road after the information that violent activists of the TLP had held a senior police officer Iqbal Town SP Syed Ali hostage along with his guards.\nThe district authorities in Rawalpindi issued detainment orders for TLP divisional leader Inayatul Haq. According to the notification, Haq will be detained in a jail for 15 days.\nAccording to a correspondent in Sialkot, police arrested Sufi Mohammad Rafiq, district emir of the TLP, and four main activists of the party, identified as Saleem Shahid, Mehbub Hassan, Nasir Dogar and Syed Kaleemul Hassan Shah.\nOn Saturday, security officials said that since last night, at least 30 of the party's workers have been arrested from various parts of the capital. Around 100 police personnel have been deployed at Faizabad interchange.\nAccording to police sources, 143 TLP workers have so far been arrested from Rawalpindi, 18 from Attock, 55 from Jhelum and five from Chakwal, taking the total arrests from the four cities to 221. More than a hundred arrests were also made in Karachi, according to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) East Azfar Mahesar, who visited Numaish Chowrangi to brief police officials. According to a senior police official, “a total of 154 TLP workers were apprehended from different areas of the city”.\nAmong them, 53 were arrested from district East, 34 from Korangi, 31 from Malir, 17 from Central and 19 from district West. At least 27 other workers were detained by Pakistan Rangers Sindh who were later on handed over to the police for further legal action.\n\"The action was prompted by TLP's refusal to withdraw its call for protest on November 25. It’s to safeguard public life, property and order,\" Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry shared on Twitter on Friday night. The arrest \"has to do nothing with Asia Bibi case\", Chaudhry said, adding the TLP had insisted on coming to Rawalpindi \"refusing [the government's] proposal for alternative arrangements\".\n\"The TLP has become a continuous threat to the life and properties of the citizens and is doing politics under the guise of religion ... the situation is fully under control, people should remain peaceful and fully cooperate with authorities,\" he said in a tweet in Urdu.\nThe minister said the government \"did it[s] best\" to convince the party against convening for the protest, \"but they refused every offer and started to provoke violence\".\n\"State is responsible to defend finality and respect of Holy Prophet PBUH. Law shall take its course and it cannot be left to individuals,\" Chaudhry concluded.\n Prior to Chaudhry's tweets, a family member of Rizvi had confirmed to DawnNewsTV that the TLP chief had been taken into custody. “He was arrested from his hujra in Lahore,” a family member of Rizvi told Samaa TV.\nRizvi's son, Saad, while talking to 7 News said along with his father, all district leaders of TLP had been arrested.\nThe Punjab information and law ministers, however, had said they did not know about any such action being taken against Rizvi.\nExamine: Is TLP here to stay?\nTLP leader Pir Afzal Qadri in a video message had corroborated that police \"was raiding [their] mosques in order to arrest leaders\".\nThe reports of the arrests come weeks after the TLP led three-day protests across the country against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman whose blasphemy conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court at the end of last month.\nThe demonstrators during the protests had termed the chief justice “liable to be killed” and had called for a rebellion against the army chief “because he is a non-Muslim”.\nThis had led to Prime Minister Imran Khan issuing a stern warning to the agitators and telling them: \"Do not clash with the state\".\n“Do not take us [to a situation] where we are compelled to take [strict] action,” the prime minister had said in a televised speech.\nTwo days later, however, the TLP had agreed to end the nationwide protest sit-ins after reaching an agreement with the federal and Punjab governments under which the latter agreed to initiate the legal process to put Aasia Bibi's name on the Exit Control List (ECL) and refrain from objecting to review of the court judgement.\nThe TLP, in turn, had only offered an apology \"if it hurt the sentiments of or inconvenienced anyone without reason\".\nIn November 2017, TLP workers demanding the resignation of then law minister Zahid Hamid had staged a weeks-long sit-in at the Faizabad interchange that had virtually paralysed the federal capital and led to several people losing their lives.\nOn November 21 of the same month, the apex court had taken notice of the sit-in and directed the defence and interior secretaries to submit a detailed report on the matter.\nDays later, the then PML-N government had launched against the protesters an operation which, when failed, had forced the authorities to cave and Hamid to resign.\nThe Supreme Court on Thursday had reserved its verdict on the suo motu case over the Faizabad sit-in. The reserved verdict pertains to a variety of issues stemming from TLP's infamous sit-in, including its party registration as well as its violent protest.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["November 25"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":null},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Khadim Hussain Rizvi","Dr Asif Ashraf Jalali"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2018 Two people are arrested by Sussex Police and charged with \"criminal use of drones\". (The Guardian)","document":"Two held on Friday night, police say, as airport bosses expect to run full schedule on Saturday\nFirst published on Sat 22 Dec 2018 02.11 GMT\nA man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the “criminal use of drones” which has caused widespread disruption to flights at Gatwick airport, police have said.\nIn a statement released in the early hours of Saturday, Sussex police said the arrests were made in the Gatwick area just after 10pm on Friday night.\nGatwick airport said on Saturday morning that it was open for flights but urged passengers to check with their airline before travelling.\n“Our runway is open and we aim to run a full schedule 757 flights scheduled today, carrying 124,484 passengers,” a spokesman said.\n“Safety is Gatwick’s top priority and we are grateful for passengers’ continued patience as we work to get them to their final destination in time for Christmas.”\nThe airport was plunged into chaos on Wednesday night when drones spotted hovering near the runway forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled, delaying and stranding thousands of passengers.\nPolice and military experts were deployed to search for the operators of the drones, which reappeared near the airport every time the authorities tried to reopen the runways.\nAirlines scrambled to board passengers while the airport was reopened on Friday. But it was closed again on Friday afternoon when the drones reappeared. Military measures reassured operators that it was safe to reopen the runway shortly afterwards.\nSuperintendent James Collis said: “Our investigations are still ongoing, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones by deploying a range of tactics.\n“We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice.\n“The arrests we have made this evening are a result of our determination to keep the public safe from harm, every line of inquiry will remain open to us until we are confident that we have mitigated further threats to the safety of passengers.”\nAnyone with information was asked to call police on 101.\nA range of tactics have been used to combat the drones but few details have been released. One piece of equipment believed to have been deployed at the airport is the Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar. It can also jam communications between the drone and its operator, enabling authorities to take control of and land the drone.\nSpeaking on Friday, Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said the drone flights were “highly targeted” and have “been designed to close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas”.\nHe added: “These events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, government and all the other relevant authorities.\n“It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again.”\nA Gatwick spokesman said around 1,000 aircraft had been cancelled or diverted, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers, since Wednesday night.\nA handful of flights due to arrive into Gatwick on Saturday have been cancelled, according to the airport’s website, including an easyJet service from Milan-Linate and a TUI flight from Bridgetown, Barbados.\nThe arrests could bring relief for passengers angry at the ongoing disruption on Friday.\nOne woman due to fly to Sicily on Thursday said she was considering renting a car and driving there after her second flight in two days was cancelled following the fresh sighting.\nLaura Cammarata, 27, who lives in London, was due to travel to the island with her partner for Christmas. She said she was frustrated after their flight rescheduled from Thursday to Friday was cancelled.\nCammarata said: “We did the whole process again, we got the train, we started queuing up and at some point they said it’s cancelled again.\n“We’re trying to re-book and they’re saying they can’t book us on.”\nHer partner Giuseppe Alia, 28, also from London, said: “They should have some contingency to get people to other airports, I understand it’s not their fault but they should force airlines to collaborate in this situation.”\nMike, from London, had his flight cancelled on Friday and will miss his connection to Ghana. “We’re in limbo. We don’t actually know when we’ll be flying out at all because we haven’t been promised a rescheduled flight, we haven’t been promised any further information, any compensation. Nothing at all.”\nThe government on Friday denied accusations that it had been slow to combat the threat from drones, and had delayed plans to introduce laws to regulate their use.\nShadow transport spokesman Andy McDonald said the government had been too slow to act, despite growing concern over increasing numbers of near misses between drones and manned airports.\nThe Times reported that transport secretary Chris Grayling had shelved plans to introduce legislation amid pressure on his department, with civil servants being diverted to prepare for Brexit.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Wednesday night"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["connection with the “criminal use of drones”"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Laura Cammarata","Giuseppe Alia"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2018 Four people are killed in a shooting in St. Charles, Missouri, United States. Another person was stabbed but survived. A suspect was arrested soon after. (Associated Press), (The Daily Beast)","document":"ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) A St. Louis-area man shot to death his girlfriend, her two young children and her mother in the home they all shared, authorities said Saturday. He exchanged gunfire with officers as he fled and was captured several hours later in a convenience store, covered in blood and wounded.\nProsecutors filed 15 charges against Richard Darren Emery of St. Charles, Missouri, including first-degree murder, assault and attempted robbery. Authorities said Emery, 46, abandoned his own pickup and tried unsuccessfully to steal a woman’s car while on the run, attacking her as well.\nEmery remained in a local hospital with two gunshot wounds that authorities said did not appear self-inflicted and most likely came from the shootout with officers. St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said investigators did not know the motive for the shootings as of Saturday evening.\n“We may never know,” Lohmar said during a news conference. “This one in particular was the worst example of a domestic violence case. Anytime you have a domestic violence case you worry about the safety of the victim, and this would be your worst nightmare.”\nSt. Charles is a city of about 70,000 residents on the Missouri River northwest of St. Louis. Officials said it’s had of spate of deadly domestic violence incidents recently with six deaths in the past eight days that Lohmar said are unrelated.\nOfficials said police received a call just before midnight Friday about a shooting at the house where Emery and the victims lived. Lohmar said officers later found three victims dead of gunshot wounds in one bedroom. They were Zoe Kasten, 8; her brother, Jonathan Kasten, 10; and their grandmother, Jane Moeckel, 61.\nOfficers found the fourth victim, a 39-year-old woman, in the home’s master bedroom, suffering from gunshot wounds but still alive, Lohmar said. She was taken to an area hospital, where she died.\nAuthorities did not name the fourth victim but described her as the children’s mother, the daughter of the older woman and Emery’s girlfriend.\nThe initial call came to police came from inside the house, and Lohmar said investigators believe Moeckel made it.\n“During that phone call, the 911 operator could hear gunshots in the background,” St. Charles Police Lt. Tom Wilkison said.\nLohmar said Emery attempted to flee in his pickup and was stopped by a police car. He and the officers exchanged shots, and he fled on foot.\nAuthorities described his attempt to steal another vehicle as a carjacking and said she stabbed its female driver seven times. They said her injuries were not life-threatening.\nThe area is wooded, and Lohmar said Emery was able to elude police in the dark. But when he sought shelter in the bathroom of the convenience store a few miles away, an employee contacted police, Lohmar said.\nEach of the charges against Emery carries a possible penalty of 30 years to life in prison, Lohmar said, adding that more charges are possible and seeking the death penalty is an option under Missouri law.\n“It’s premature for us to make any sort of pronouncement about that right now, but I can tell you this thing looks and smells like a death penalty case,” he said.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":["Tim Lohmar"]},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday evening"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["first-degree murder, assault and attempted robbery"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Richard Darren Emery of St. Charles"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"December_2018 A French man is detained in Barcelona, Spain, upon entering the Sagrada Familia with a suitcase containing ammunition. The Catalan police do not consider it an act of terrorism. (Mirror)","document":"Police are on high alert over fears that Islamists were planning to launch an attack during the Christmas period\n\nSpanish police have arrested a man after he attempted to enter a popular tourist landmark with a suitcase filled with ammunition.\nThe major security alert took place Barcelona's Sagrada Familia basilica earlier on Sunday.\nThe incident comes just days after police stepped up security in the city amidst fears that a Christmas attack was being planned.\nThe Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a French citizen as he tried to enter the temple with five magazines for a nine-millimetre gun in a suitcase or backpack.\nSecurity officers stopped him as he went through metal detectors. It is understood no gun was found though there are reports a weapon was discovered in a nearby car.\nThe man is claiming he was invited to a private mass after going out for shooting practice and had \"forgotten\" he was still carrying ammunition. He says he is a French soldier but this has yet to be verified.\nOfficers with the Catalan police have arrested him for illegal possession of arms.\nSpanish newspapers say the ammunition was detected inside a suitcase when the detainee crossed the security arch that protects the monument.\nThe Mossos d'Esquadra have initiated an investigation to clarify the facts. Police sources say the detainee is collaborating and that they do not believe that he intended to carry out an attack on the Sagrada Familia\nThis incident comes after the Catalan police reinforced surveillance and spot checks in crowded areas of Barcelona for fear of a possible terrorist threat during the Christmas holidays.\nThe security forces maintain the anti-terrorist alert at level 4 out of 5. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["a weapon was discovered in a nearby car"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["illegal possession of arms"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["a French citizen"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2019 Three residents of the U.S. state of Michigan are arrested at Gerald R. Ford International Airport for allegedly conspiring to support the Islamic State. (ABC News)","document":"Muse Abdikadir Muse, 20, was arrested by law enforcement officers during security screening at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after checking in for the first of a series of flights to Mogadishu, Somalia. His 23-year-old brother, Mohamud Abdikadir Muse, and their 26-year-old brother-in-law, Mohamed Salat Haji, were arrested in the airport terminal soon after, according to a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan.\nAll three men are naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Kenya and currently reside in Lansing, Michigan.\nThe family first came to the attention of the FBI in April 2016 when a review of Mohamud Abdikadir Muse's public Facebook page \"revealed frequent posts of photos, videos, and statements and commentary that were pro-ISIS in nature and what can be described as violent, extremist propaganda,\" the complaint states.\nAn undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS recruiter began communicating with the former Nebraska resident via Facebook in June 2017. Mohamud Abdikadir Muse said he wanted to join the terrorist group, was saving his money to travel to Syria and that he \"planned to die with a gun in his hand fighting for ISIS,\" according to the complaint.\nSearch warrants later revealed that his younger brother, Muse Abdikadir Muse, and their brother-in-law, Haji, allegedly discussed with each other via Facebook \"their desire to fight for ISIS and support for the killing of non-believers.\" The pair also allegedly talked about the possibility of using a car \"as a weapon for a planned attack\" here in the United States if they could not travel overseas to fight for the terrorist group, the complaint states.\nAnother undercover FBI employee posing as a man in Somalia started communicating with Muse Abdikadir Muse in the fall of 2018. Muse Abdikadir Muse said he planned to travel to Somalia and sent a video pledging his allegiance to ISIS, according to the complaint.\nThe undercover operative told Muse Abdikadir Muse that he presented the oath video to ISIS leadership in Somalia and it was accepted. Muse Abdikadir Muse later sent oath videos from his brother and brother-in-law, which the agent confirmed were also accepted by ISIS leadership, according to the complaint.\nAfter Muse Abdikadir Muse requested $1,200 from ISIS to help pay for airfare to Somalia's capital, the funds were sent by the FBI -- posing as ISIS -- in increments to the three relatives as well as a third undercover FBI employee whom they believed planned to accompany them on the journey. Earlier this month, Muse Abdikadir Muse purchased his ticket to Mogadishu via a series of connecting flights, according to the complaint.\nDuring a shopping trip at a Walmart in Lansing last week to prepare for the upcoming trip, Muse Abdikadir Muse and Haji told the undercover operative \"that if they failed in their attempt to join ISIS, they would conduct an attack or martyrdom operation,\" the complaint states.\nThe two brothers traveled with Haji to the airport in Grand Rapids on Monday. Following their arrests, federal agents executed search warrants at the siblings' residence, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.\nAll three men have been charged with engaging in a conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["April 2016"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["desire to fight for ISIS and support for the killing of non-believers","engaging in a conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Muse Abdikadir Muse"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2019 A 21-year-old man shoots and kills five people, including his parents and girlfriend, in two Louisiana parishes. The suspect fled to Virginia and was arrested the next day. (CBS News) (People)","document":" January 27, 2019 / 6:27 PM\n / CBS/AP\n Shootings in Louisiana: What we know\nNew Orleans Authorities in Louisiana said a 21-year-old accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate but related shootings Saturday has been arrested in Virginia after an overnight manhunt. Dakota Theriot, who faces charges of first-degree-murder, illegal use of weapons and home invasion, was captured Sunday in Richmond County, Virginia. The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office announced Theriot's arrest in a Facebook post Sunday morning and said he will be brought back to Louisiana to face charges.\nAuthorities say Theriot first shot and killed three people the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father in Livingston Parish before taking her father's truck and driving to neighboring Ascension Parish where he shot and killed his parents.\nDeputies with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office in Virginia said they received a request from a family member of Theriot's to check their residence. While the deputies were on site, Theriot arrived at the residence with a firearm pointed out the window of a vehicle, police said. The deputies sought cover and Theriot dropped the weapon upon command and was arrested, police said.\nAscension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre told a news conference that deputies were called to a trailer in the city of Gonzales for a \"domestic incident\" on Saturday morning. Upon arrival, deputies found two people who had been shot but were still alive: Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 51. CBS affiliate WAFB-TV reports the couple was shot in the bedroom, authorities said.\nDeputies were able to interview Keith Theriot before the couple was transported to a hospital in Baton Rouge, where they later died. From that interview, authorities identified Dakota Theriot, the couple's son, as \"our prime suspect in this case,\" Webre said.\nThe sheriff said three other shooting deaths occurred Saturday in neighboring Livingston parishes, about 70 miles west of New Orleans. Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed on Facebook that three deaths happened in his parish and identified the victims as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20.\nThere were two juveniles found at the scene, a 7-year-old and a 1-year-old, both of whom are safe, Ard said.\nArd said Summer Ernest and Dakota Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family for a few weeks.\nWebre said the three victims in Livingston were shot first, and he then shot his parents.\nTheriot had been considered \"armed and dangerous\" and was last seen driving a stolen 2004 gray and silver Dodge Ram pickup.\nEvelyn Ernest, the mother of Billy Ernst and grandmother of Tanner and Summer, told CBS News that Summer and the suspect were briefly in a romantic relationship. She said she met Theriot only once.\nTheriot's parents were shot in their trailer on Saturday morning.\n\"The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away,\" said Webre. But before he died, Webre said authorities were able to get a \"dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act.\"\nWebre had said there were indications that Theriot was traveling east and could have been in another state.\n\"We're going to work every lead. We're going to follow every tip,\" he said during the evening news conference.\nArd said Dakota Theriot was believed to be armed with at least one handgun.\n\"We do not have a motive. It is still undetermined,\" Ard said.\nCrystal DeYoung, Billy Ernest's sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.\n\"My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didn't get good vibes from him,\" DeYoung said. She said she wasn't sure how her niece and Theriot met, but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.\n\"My mom is a good judge of character and she just thought he was not good,\" DeYoung said of Theriot.\nDeYoung said she skipped the birthday party and didn't meet Theriot herself. DeYoung said Summer and Tanner Ernest were two of Billy's three children. He was also raising his wife's children.\nDeYoung said Theriot doesn't have a vehicle and she's not sure how he ended up at the Ernest home on Saturday, but after the killings, he took off in her brother's truck.\nThere were also two young children in the home at the time. DeYoung said a 7-year-old took the baby out of the house and went to a neighbor's.\nDeYoung said her brother, niece and nephew were good people.\n\"They all had very good hearts. They trusted people too much,\" she said, as she began crying. \"They all loved unconditionally.\"\nCharlenne Bordelon lives near the house where the Ernests were killed. She told The Advocate newspaper that two young children from the house ran to her home. They were uninjured and asked for help after the shooting.\nBordelon said Theriot was the older daughter's boyfriend and that he'd recently moved in with the family but she did not know him.\nWebre said Dakota had lived with his parents briefly but was asked to leave the residence and not return.\n\"I would not approach this vehicle. We feel no doubt that Dakota is going to be armed and dangerous, and we need to bring him to justice really quick,\" Webre said.\nWebre said Dakota Theriot had some run-ins with law enforcement in other parishes that he described as misdemeanor-type incidents that did not include violence: \"Certainly nothing of the magnitude that we've seen today.\"\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["first-degree-murder, illegal use of weapons and home invasion"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Dakota Theriot"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"January_2019 Police arrest five men, three from the mining company Vale and two engineers from a subsidiary company, in connection with the mine collapse. (BBC)","document":"Police in Brazil have arrested five people as part of an investigation into Friday's dam collapse in Brumadinho. At least 65 people died when sludge engulfed a company canteen and neighbouring residential buildings. Prosecutors in Brazil say three of those arrested were officials from the mining company Vale, whose responsibilities included dealing with environmental impact licences. Vale said it was co-operating with prosecutors.\nThe company is the world's biggest producer of iron ore and nickel.\nTwo engineers working for a subsidiary company were arrested in Sao Paulo. All five can be detained for 30 days and will be questioned by investigators in Belo Horizonte.\nRescuers are continuing to search for survivors in Brumadinho. Nearly 300 people are still missing and there is little hope they will be found alive.\nOn Monday, protesters gathered outside Vale's corporate headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and daubed slogans including \"Murderers!\" on its walls. In a statement following the arrests, Vale said: \"With regards to the warrants served this morning, Vale informs that it is fully co-operating with the authorities. \"Vale will continue to support the investigations in order to determine the facts, in addition to the unconditional support to the families.\"\nVale's share price plunged by nearly 25% on Monday on the Brazilian stock market. Vale halts bonuses after dam deaths","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Friday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["dam collapse in Brumadinho"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["five people"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"February_2019 Atlantabased rapper 21 Savage is taken into custody by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), accusing him of actually being a British national who has been in the United States unlawfully since his visa expired in July 2006. (Fox 5 Atlanta)","document":"Recording Artist 21 Savage attend his 21 Savage And His Leading By Example Foundation Host 3rd Annual Issa Back 2 School Drive on August 5, 2018, in Decatur, Georgia. (Photo by Moses Robinson/Getty Images for Leading By Example Foundation) ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Federal authorities detained the rapper known as 21 Savage during an immigration enforcement operation in metro Atlanta Sunday morning. Agents said the man, whose real name is Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, is in the country illegally and is also a convicted felon.\nApp users: View full article here\nThe rapper, songwriter, and record producer was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying his visa. The 26-year-old is a British national who arrived in America at the age of 14, according to the feds. Authorities said under the terms of his non-immigrant visa, 21 Savage was required to leave the U.S. by July 2006.\nSEE ALSO:Atlanta's Trap Museum opens hall of fame exhibit\nThe feds say he was convicted on drug charges in Fulton County in 2014. Officials say more charges are possible.\n%INLINE%\nICE released the following statement:\n“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested unlawfully present United Kingdom national Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph AKA “21 Savage” during a targeted operation with federal and local law enforcement partners early Sunday in metro Atlanta. Mr. Abraham-Joseph was taken into ICE custody as he is unlawfully present in the U.S. and also a convicted felon.\n\"Mr. Abraham-Joseph initially entered the U.S. legally in July 2005, but subsequently failed to depart under the terms of his nonimmigrant visa and he became unlawfully present in the U.S. when his visa expired in July 2006. In addition to being in violation of federal immigration law, Mr. Abraham-Joseph was convicted on felony drug charges in October 2014 in Fulton County, Georgia.\n\"Mr. Abraham-Joseph is presently in ICE custody in Georgia and has been placed into removal proceedings before the federal immigration courts. ICE will now await the outcome of his case before a federal immigration judge to determine future actions.”\nNo word yet from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Georgia on those charges.\nMeanwhile, a lawyer for 21 Savage says she is working to get the Grammy-nominated rapper out of federal immigration detention.\nLawyer Dina LaPolt said in an email to the Associated Press that she is working with authorities \"to clear up any misunderstandings.\" She says Abraham-Joseph is a role model to many young people in the U.S., especially in Atlanta.\n21 Savage is best known for his single “X” off the Metro Boomin collaborative album Savage Mode released in 2016. He also collaborated with Drake on the single “Sneakin.”","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":["Dina LaPolt"]},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["July 2006"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["overstaying his visa"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["21 Savage"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"February_2019 The Public Prosecutor General of Germany announces the arrest of two members of the Syrian military intelligence service on charges of crimes against humanity. The arrests happened the day before in the states of Berlin and RhinelandPalatinate. (DW)","document":"German serious crimes police arrested two alleged former Syrian secret service agents on charges of crimes against humanity committed in Syria. Both men are accused of torture, and one is also accused of murder.\nGermany's investigative police force (Bundeskriminalamt) has arrested two alleged former employees of the Syrian secret service suspected of having committedcrimes against humanity while working for the intelligence service in Syria.\nFederal prosecutorssaid the two men, 56-year-old Anwar R. and 42-year-old Eyad A.,were arrested by federal police in Berlin andRhineland-Palatinate state respectively. The arrest of the two men came after French authorities apprehended a third Syrian man near Paris.\nProsecutors said that Anwar R., ahigh-ranking member of Syria's General Intelligence Service, is accused of participating in the abuse of detainees at a prison he oversaw in Damascus.\nAs lead investigator, the manallegedly ordered the use of systematic and brutal torture onanti-government activists between the end of April 2011 and the beginning of September 2012.\nEyad A., prosecutors said, was part of a unit that arrested hundreds of activists and brought them to the prison run by the other suspect.\nBetween the beginning of July 2011 and mid-January 2012, Eyad A. is suspected of helping tokill two people and torture and physically abuseat least 2,000 people.\nBoth Anwar R. and Eyad A. left Syria in 2012, prosecutors said. Anwar R. has been in Germany since mid-2014 and Eyad A. since mid-2018. Both suspects applied for asylum in Germany.\nProsecutors said theSyrian regime has beenusingbrutal force tosuppress all opposition activities critical of the government throughout the country since April 2011, andthe Syrian secret services played an essential role.\nEditor's note: Deutsche Welle follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["between the end of April 2011 and the beginning of September 2012"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["crimes against humanity committed in Syria"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Anwar","Eyad"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"February_2019 Florida rapper YNW Melly is arrested for allegedly murdering two friends. (CTV News)","document":"\tMIRAMAR, Fla. -- Police have charged Florida rapper YNW Melly with killing two of his close friends who were also rising rap stars, and trying to make it appear they died in a drive-by shooting.\n\tOn Wednesday, Miramar police arrested 19-year-old YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons, on first-degree murder charges in October deaths of 19-year-old Christopher Thomas Jr. and 21-year-old Anthony Williams.\n\tThe rapper's 20-year-old friend Cortlen Henry also was arrested, in Houston last month, and extradited to Florida on Tuesday in connection with the killings.\n\tDemons was booked into Broward County Jail on Wednesday night.\n\tInvestigators said the victims were killed early in the morning of Oct. 26 and driven in a Jeep Compass to the emergency room entrance of Memorial Hospital Miramar, which is 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of Fort Lauderdale. Both were dead of multiple gunshot wounds, police said.\n\tIn a news release, Miramar police said Demons shot the men, who were his lifelong friends, and Henry drove the vehicle to the hospital. According to investigators, Demons and Henry staged the Jeep to make it appear as though the victims died in a drive-by shooting.\n\tHenry's statement to investigators didn't match the evidence discovered during the preliminary investigation, police said.\n\tThe victims were last seen alive around 3:20 a.m. on Oct. 26 in Fort Lauderdale, records show.\n\tThe Sun Sentinel reports the victims had recently moved from Vero Beach to Miramar and were trying to forge their own rap careers. Thomas went by the stage name YNW Juvy while Williams was known as YNW Sakchaser. Both were featured in the \"Melly\" documentary video posted to YNW Melly's YouTube page. The text at the end of the video notes that four days after the film was completed, \"YNW Melly and his friends were the target of a drive-by shooting...\"\n\tIn a post Wednesday on YNW Melly's official Instagram, he said \"a couple months ago I lost my two brothers by violence and now the system want to find justice.\"\n\tYNW Melly's first official studio album \"We All Shine\" was released last month. He had also recently collaborated with Kanye West.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["October"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["first-degree murder charges"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"March_2019 Tashonty Toney, son of a police officer, was arrested for vehicular homicide, vehicular negligent injury, hitandrun and reckless operation of a motor vehicle after he veered into a bike line near a Mardi Gras parade route in New Orleans. He accidentally killed 2 and injured 7 cyclists while drunk and drugged. (fox8live)(Advocate)","document":"NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - The man arrested in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed two people and injured seven in Bayou St. John Saturday night (March 3) is the son of a New Orleans Police Department officer, NOPD spokesman Andy Cunningham said in a news release.\nTashonty Toney was arrested on two counts of vehicular homicide, seven counts of vehicular negligent injury, hit-and-run and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, Cunningham said.\nInvestigators believe Toney was intoxicated when he crashed into a total of nine pedestrians over a span of three blocks on Esplanade Avenue, according to police. The night of the crash was Toney’s 32nd birthday, according to NOPD. As of early Sunday, police were waiting for the results of his blood-alcohol tests.\nCunningham said the fact Toney’s father is an NOPD officer will not affect the way the department handles the investigation.\n“This discovery does not change and will not impact our department’s investigation which will be open and transparent,” Cunningham said.\nThe department is working with the NOPD’s federal consent decree monitor, according to Cunningham, in order to “ensure a just and transparent investigation.” The monitors were on the scene Saturday night, Cunningham said, and NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson has been in “constant contact” with them.\nThe crash was reported just after 8 p.m. and Toney initially fled the scene after hitting all eight victims between the 3400 and 3200 blocks of Esplanade Avenue. Toney was arrested a short while later, according to police.\nNew Orleans EMS spokesman Lt. Jonathan Fourcade said the fatal victims were a man and a woman who were both about 30 years old.\nTwo 28-year-old women were injured and brought to University Medical Center’s trauma center, as was a 53-year-old woman. Two men were also brought to UMC, one is 56 and the other is 62, Fourcade said.\nEMS Director Emily Nichols said three of the five people brought to UMC were in critical condition.\nA 65-year-old man was also injured, but was in stable condition and refused treatment on the scene, Fourcade said. Officials initially reported there were a total of eight victims involved in the crash, but the ninth victim later sought medical attention “out of an aubundance of caution,\" Cunningham said. He was brought to the hospital in a private vehicle.\nAt least two damaged Blue Bikes -- the city’s bike sharing service -- could be seen on the street while investigators worked the scene in the 3200 block of Saturday night. Ferguson said investigators were not sure if all the victims were on bicycles when they were hit, but confirmed at least five or six were.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday night (March 3)"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["two counts of vehicular homicide, seven counts of vehicular negligent injury, hit-and-run and reckless operation of a motor vehicle"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Tashonty Toney"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2019 Police in Louisiana arrest Holden Matthews, a suspect in arson at three historically AfricanAmerican churches in the past weeks which the NAACP flagged as hate crimes. Matthews is the son of a local deputy sheriff. He has ties to black metal music and commented on memes about musician Varg Vikernes, a neoNazi who boasted about burning churches in Norway and was imprisoned for arson and murder, but researchers are unsure if they prove hate was his motive. (CBS) (Rolling Stone) (Daily Beast)","document":"Sheriff's deputy’s son took an interest in black metal and pagan social media pages, which had connections to neo-Nazism and white supremacy.\nSenior Researcher\nLouisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday described the three fires that destroyed predominantly black churches in rural Louisiana as an “evil act” committed by the son of a sheriff’s deputy.\nHolden Matthews was arrested Wednesday on three counts of simple arson for fires that on destroyed the churches in St. Landry Parish over ten days. The fires were set on March 26, April 2, and April 4, and destroyed St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, respectively. Matthews, 21, was booked into jail Wednesday evening.\nLouisiana State Fire Marshal “Butch” Browning, at a Thursday morning press conference, called the fires “an attack on our God and our religion.”\n“In my career, I have never seen such a spiritual mission that has come home so quickly,” said Browning, who noted that Matthews’ arrest was quick in part because “we felt that other crimes were imminent.”\nAn arrest warrant reportedly showed that officials connected Matthews to the crimes through the charred remains of a brand of gas can found at the scene of the April 4 fire. Matthews allegedly used his debit card and ID to purchase that same brand of gas can, along with a lighter and a 10 pack of automotive shop towels on March 25, The Advocate reports.\nThe same color and model pickup that Matthews drives was also present at two of the churches shortly before the fires were reported to 911, according to video footage referenced in the arrest warrant.\nFBI agent Eric J. Rommal, also at the press conference, said the bureau is investigating whether the crimes were “bias-motivated.”\n“Right now we are just making sure we gather all the facts,” he said, when pressed on the issue. A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Matthews showed he was active in pagan and black metal pages, and that he commented on two memes about far-right former neo-Nazi metal musician Varg Vikernes, who served 15 years in prison for killing a fellow metal musician and burning churches in Norway. The comments revealed little other than that they indicated his familiarity with the figure.\nThe pagan circles Matthews and Vikernes frequented can be popular with neo-Nazis. Matthews frequently posted about pagan beliefs, and recently uploaded a picture of a gun and a knife with the caption “I carry this..... maybe not legally but I only truly follow the law of Odin..... which says as you said, arm yourself...... Odins advice> modern law.” Odin is a pagan Norse god.\nOne of the pagan pages Matthews was active on specifically forbade racism and “nazi stuff.” Matthews also appeared aware of the religion's white supremacist associations. In one post, a group member noted that a drawing of a pagan figure had a swastika-like design on his belt. “well yea the belt gives him extra strength and power..... white power lmao jk jk I had to,” Matthews wrote.\nWhile Gov. Edwards said he didn’t know what Matthews’ alleged motive was, it cannot be justified or rationalized. It was an evil act.”\n“Let’s pray for Mr. Matthews and his family,\" Edwards added, and the audience responded with a resounding “yes.”\nPastor Gerald Toussaint, of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, said, “We’ve suffered, but I think it has a higher cause.”\n“Even though we’ve lost our churchour building, our buildinglook who’s been brought together,” Toussaint said. “Our country has to find out that the God we serve does not look on the outside. He sees the heart.”","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["March 26, April 2, and April 4"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["three counts of simple arson for fires that on destroyed the churches in St. Landry Parish"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Holden Matthews"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2019 Police in Louisiana arrest Holden Matthews, a suspect in arson at three historically AfricanAmerican churches in the past weeks which the NAACP flagged as hate crimes. Matthews is the son of a local deputy sheriff. He has ties to black metal music and commented on memes about musician Varg Vikernes, a neoNazi who boasted about burning churches in Norway and was imprisoned for arson and murder, but researchers are unsure if they prove hate was his motive. (CBS) (Rolling Stone) (Daily Beast)","document":"Updated on: April 11, 2019 / 11:51 AM\n / CBS News\n Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated that the suspect's father, Deputy Roy Matthews, turned his son in. In a press conference Thursday morning, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said that report was incorrect. Sheriff Guidroz said the suspect's father \"helped facilitate the arrest, he got the suspect away from home\" and had \"no knowledge\" of his son's activities.\nPolice arrested the 21-year-old son of a sheriff's deputy in connection to fires at three historically black churches in one Louisiana Parish in just 10 days. The fires were devastating to the St. Landry Parish community.\nInvestigators arrested suspect Holden Matthews Wednesday evening. He was charged Thursday morning with three counts of simple arson of a religious building.The maximum penalty for each counts is 15 years in prison. Matthews' social media shows he had an interest in black metal music and is the lead singer for a band called Vodka Vultures. Records show Matthews lives in Saint Landry Parish, where the churches burned just a few miles apart. Police have not yet revealed a motive.\nThe churches were empty at the time of each fire and no one was hurt. Earlier this week, the NAACP said the church burnings were \"domestic terrorism,\" targeting people because of their skin color and faith.\nAttacks on black churches have long been used as a way to intimidate the black community, most notably during the civil rights era. Though police in Saint Landry Parish have heightened security at nearby churches, parishioners have not stopped their Sunday worship and all the pastors say they will rebuild.\nThe fires began on March 26 at St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre followed by Greater Union Baptist on April 2 and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on April 4.\n\"There's still people that need to be helped, there's still ministry that has to be done, so we can't let this setback stop us from doing what God has initially called us to do,\" said Pastor Kyle Sylvester of St. Mary's Baptist Church. The FBI and ATF have been assisting local police with the investigation.\nAuthorities say they will announce \"significant updates\" at a press conference Thursday morning with Louisiana's governor.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["March 26"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["three counts of simple arson of a religious building"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Holden Matthews"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2019 John Earnest, a 19-year-old student at California State University, San Marcos, is arrested after Poway synagogue shooting. (VOA News)","document":"A 19-year-old college student has been arrested in the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, accused of killing one person and injuring three more.\nAuthorities said John Earnest, an honor roll student at California State University, San Marcos, fled the synagogue Saturday, the last day of Passover, after the shooting, but called the 911 emergency number to report the shooting and his whereabouts. He surrendered minutes later without incident.\nA person identifying himself as John Earnest posted an anti-Jewish diatribe online about an hour before the shooting unfolded at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. The person described himself as a nursing student and praised the suspects accused of the deadly attacks on Muslims at mosques in New Zealand last month and Jews at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue last October.\nSan Diego County Sheriff William Gore said hate crime charges are being considered against Earnest.\n\"Any time somebody goes into a house of worship and shoots the congregants, in my book, that's a hate crime,\" Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said.\nA 60-year-old woman, Lori Kayne, was killed in the attack, with Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, and two Israelis, an eight-year-old girl, Noya Dahan, and her uncle, Almog Peretz, 31, sustaining wounds.\n\"I was with my back to the shooter,\" Peretz told the Israeli YNet news site. \"I heard a shot or two and then turned around to face him and that's when he fired at me. I ran quickly, picking up a small girl in my hands. He hit me once in the leg and I kept running. I didn't feel it much since there were so many bullets flying by. I heard them and I saw them right next to me.\"\nSheriff Gore said a white male entered the synagogue shortly before 11:30 a.m. PDT and opened fire with an AR-type assault weapon that may have malfunctioned after the first several rounds.\nGore said an off-duty border patrol agent working as a security guard who saw the man fleeing the scene fired on the suspect. The suspect was not hit but his car was struck.\nPresident Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said, \"My deepest sympathies go to the families who were affected.\"\nHe added that the attack \"looks like a hate crime.\"\nTrump also said on Twitter, \"Sincerest THANK YOU to our great Border Patrol Agent who stopped the shooter at the Synagogue in Poway, California. He may have been off duty but his talents for Law Enforcement weren’t!\"\nSincerest THANK YOU to our great Border Patrol Agent who stopped the shooter at the Synagogue in Poway, California. He may have been off duty but his talents for Law Enforcement weren’t!\nKevin McAleenan, the chief of the U.S. Homeland Security agency, said his agency “will take every appropriate action to assist the investigation and ensure that those affected by this tragedy receive the closure and justice they deserve.”","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["killing one person and injuring three more"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["John Earnest"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"May_2019 SEBIN agents detain Juan Guaidó's deputy Edgar Zambrano, the Vice President of the opposition-held National Assembly, and are reported to have taken him to El Helicoide prison. He is the most high profile opposition politician arrested since the presidential crisis began in January. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle)","document":"The vice president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Edgar Zambrano, has been detained and towed to prison in his car. He was apprehended for alleged support of an uprising arranged by opposition leader Juan Guaido.\nVenezuelan intelligence agents on Wednesday detained Edgar Zambrano, the deputy leader of the opposition-dominated National Assembly, for supporting an attempted uprising on April 30.\nZambrano, opposition leader and self-declared President Juan Guaido's deputy as National Assembly speaker, was detained by agents in Caracas for backing the failed April 30 military uprising against President Nicolas Maduro, which was orchestrated by Guaido.\n\"We warn the people of Venezuela and the international community: the regime has kidnapped the first vice president\" of the National Assembly, Guaido wrote in a Twitter post. \"They are trying to destroy the power representing all Venezuelans, but they will not achieve it.\"\nThe Constituent Assembly has said it would suspend the immunity of any lawmakers who backed the uprising, which sparked two days of clashes between security forces and protesters.\nAttorney General Tarek William Saab says the clashes left six people dead. Dozens more were injured and more than 233 were arrested.\n\nParty head Carlos Prosperi said security forces towed Zambrano's car away while the lawmaker still inside.\nZambrano's exact whereabouts were unknown, but he tweeted that at 6:35 p.m. (2235 UTC) he left his party's headquarters and his car was surrounded by intelligence officers.\nHe wrote that he refused to leave the vehicle, which was subsequently towed with him inside it to the Helicoide, a government building in Caracas used for holding prisoners.\nOpposition lawmakers under investigation\nIn a separate case, Venezuela's Supreme Court indicted three more lawmakers for supporting Guaido's uprising.\nThe three lawmakers named as Freddy Superlano, Sergio Vergara and Juan Andres Mejia have been accused of high treason and conspiracy.\nTheir arrests come after acourt announced the indictment of seven others on Tuesday.\nGuaido, who is recognized as Venezuela's interim president by more than 50 countries, was also stripped of his immunity on April 2.\nIn response to the first indictments on Tuesday, Guaido said in a speech that the government's \"only response ... is to persecute, because they no longer govern, because they no longer have command.\"","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["April 30"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["support of an uprising arranged by opposition leader Juan Guaido"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Edgar Zambrano"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"May_2019 Former Tehran Mayor MohammadAli Najafi is arrested after confessing to the murder of his wife. (IFP)","document":"Mohammd Ali Najafi, a former Iranian vice-president and a one-time mayor of Tehran, has confessed to the murder of his wife.\nNajafi’s wife, Mitra Ostad, was murdered at her home in Tehran on Tuesday. Police found her body with several gunshots in her chest.\nNajafi has reportedly gone to the Criminal Police headquarters in person and confessed to the murder.\nNajafi had resigned from the post of Tehran’s mayor in April 2018, citing failing health for leaving the office.\nA graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 67-year-old Najafi was elected mayor of Tehran in August 2017.\nAffiliated with the reformist political faction, he used to serve as the minister of education and the minister of culture in various administrations.\nHe also took the helm at Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) during President Hassan Rouhani’s first term, but resigned after six months.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Tuesday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["murder of his wife"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Mohammd Ali Najafi"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2017 The Maldives Police Service arrests the country's opposition leader, Qasim Ibrahim, after his party's failed bid to impeach the Speaker of the People's Majlis. (Reuters)","document":"(Reuters) - Maldives police arrested an opposition leader on accusations of plotting to overthrow the government, they said on Friday, days after the opposition failed in a bid to impeach the speaker of parliament.\nQasim Ibrahim, the leader of the Jumhooree Party and a former presidential candidate, was remanded for six days by a Male court. Denying the allegations, his lawyer said Qasim had acted lawfully.\nThe largely Muslim island chain with a population of 400,000 and a reputation as a tourist paradise has been mired in political unrest for years.\nThe impeachment motion against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed, a close ally of President Abdulla Yameen, was defeated by 48 votes to zero in parliament after all opposition lawmakers walked out in protest at their colleagues’ expulsion from the chamber for unruly behavior.\nA second impeachment vote, against the deputy speaker, is scheduled for Monday.\nPolice in their charge sheet said Qasim was arrested for allegedly of bribing and “undue influencing of parliament members and state security forces” in the impeachment vote against the speaker.\nPolice also cited “unlawful incitement to the removal, from office, of the legitimate government”.\nHussein Shameem, Qasim’s lawyer, said his client was an opposition whip and was by law entitled to try to convince lawmakers to vote a certain way.\n“He has not used undue influence and no unlawful activities were done. He acted within the law,” Shameem told Reuters.\nQasim, a tourism tycoon who ran for the presidency in 2013, backed Yameen in the second round of the poll against former president Mohamed Nasheed. Yameen won by a slim margin.\nAfter he and Yameen fell out, Qasim formed an opposition coalition along with former presidents Nasheed and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a half brother of Yameen.\nThe Maldives has been plagued by unrest since Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012. He was later sentenced to 13 years in jail on terrorism charges after a widely criticized trial and now lives in exile.\nMany potential challengers to Yameen in elections due in 2018 have been arrested for alleged security offences. The opposition alleges his administration is trying to cover up corruption including money laundering.\nThe government denies this and says it does not influence law enforcement.\nSignificant numbers of radicalized Maldives youths have enlisted to fight for Islamic State in the Middle East.\nReporting by Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Nick Macfie and John Stonestreet\nOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.\nAll quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":["Hussein Shameem"]},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["plotting to overthrow the government"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Qasim Ibrahim"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"May_2017 As part of an ongoing investigation, British police arrest six people in connection with Monday's deadly explosion, including a 23-year-old man who was taken into custody Tuesday. (ABC News) (Reuters) (Reuters)","document":"MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Police scrambled to close down a network around the Manchester suicide bomber with arrests in Britain and Tripoli on Wednesday, as details about the investigation were leaked to U.S. media, infuriating authorities who fear a second attack is imminent.\nTroops deployed around London's Westminster as part of 'Operation Temperer'\n00:54\nBritish-born Salman Abedi, 22, who was known to security services, killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children on Monday.\nAuthorities believe he had help in building the bomb, which photographs published by the New York Times showed was sophisticated and powerful, and that his accomplices could be ready to strike again.\nManchester police arrested five men and one woman on Wednesday, bringing the total held for questioning to seven, and searched multiple addresses in northern and central England.\nExplosives were found at one site, the Independent reported, citing security service sources.\nA source said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build the suicide bomb.\n“I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,” police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.\n“And as I’ve said, it continues at a pace. There’s extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak.”\nAbedi, who was born in Manchester in 1994 to Libyan parents, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue at the end of a concert by U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands of children and teenagers.\nPolice in Tripoli on Wednesday arrested Abedi’s younger brother and his father, who said he did not expect the attack.\n“I spoke to [Salman Abedi] about five days ago ... there was nothing wrong, everything was normal,” Ramadan Abedi told Reuters, moments before he was arrested.\nA spokesman for the local counter-terrorism force said his brother Hashem Abedi was arrested on suspicion of links with Islamic State and was suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the Libyan capital.\nThe first arrest made in Britain on Tuesday was reported by British and U.S. media to be Abedi’s older brother.\nEarlier, interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber had recently returned from Libya. Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Islamic State and had probably visited Syria as well.\n\nAuthorities in Britain have become increasingly angered by U.S. leaks from the investigation, including the bomber’s name on Tuesday and the photos of blood-stained fragments from the bomb on Wednesday.\nBritish police chiefs said the breaches of trust between security service partners were undermining their efforts.\nRudd had earlier scolded U.S. officials for leaking details.\n“The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again,” she said.\nBut, hours after the warning, the New York Times published the detailed photographs.\nA government source told the Guardian newspaper, “Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our U.S. counterparts.”\nBritish Prime Minster Theresa May will meet U.S. President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, but officials said she would cut short the second leg of her trip to the G7 summit in Italy.\nThe Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe.\nCities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered militant attacks in the last two years.\nThe 22 victims in Manchester included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a 28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.\nBritain’s official terror threat level was raised to “critical”, the highest level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently.\nBut with just over two weeks to go until a national election, May’s Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in the coming days.\nThe Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.\nRudd said up to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain’s streets, taking on guard duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.\nSoldiers were seen at the Houses of Parliament, May’s Downing Street residence and at the London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.\nThe Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was canceled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of resources given the threat level.\nA source close to the bombing investigation told Reuters that the focus was on whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it had been done.\nThe bomb used in the attack appeared to contain carefully packed shrapnel and have a powerful, high velocity charge, according to leaked photographs from the investigation published by the New York Times.\nThe BBC reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for Abedi to have built by himself.\nPolice arrested three people in South Manchester, one woman in North Manchester, a man in the nearby town of Wigan, and another man in the central English town of Nuneaton.\nAriana Grande’s representative said on Wednesday she was suspending her tour to assess the situation and to “pay our proper respects to those lost”. The U.S. singer had been scheduled to perform two shows at London’s O2 arena this week.\nChelsea soccer club said it had canceled a victory parade that had been set to take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.\nSeveral high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on June 3.\nBritain also has a national election scheduled for June 8.\nAll campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on Friday.\nThe government said a minute’s silence would be held at all official buildings at 1000 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday.\nGreater Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families. They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.\nThe bombing also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.\nFrance, which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015, extended emergency powers.\n(For a graphic showing where the blast hit, click tmsnrt.rs/2rbQAay)\nAdditional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Costas Pitas, Kate Holton, Alistair Smout and Kylie MacLellan in London, and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Writing by Estelle Shirbon, Paul Sandle and William James; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Toni Reinhold\nOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.\nAll quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.\nExclusive: Fed’s Neel Kashkari opposes rate hikes at least through 2023 as the central bank becomes more hawkish","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Monday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["network around the Manchester suicide bomber"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Salman Abedi"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"June_2017 The body of a teenager from Reston, Virginia is found in a pond in Sterling, Virginia. A suspect is arrested and charged with murder. (USA Today)","document":"FAIRFAX, Va. - Police believe remains found in a Va. pond belong to a teen who was assaulted and killed after leaving aVirginia mosque early Sunday morning.\nNabraHassanen, 17, was with a group of friends near the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center Mosque following Ramadan prayersearlySunday when they got into a dispute with a man driving ared car, according to police. Hassanen's friends said the man assaulted the 17-year-old and they ran back to the ADAMS Center and left the teenbehind, police said.\nFairfax Police began searching at 4 a.m. Sunday. The body was found Sunday around 3 p.m. floating in a pond in Sterling, Virginia.\nPolice noticed a car driving suspiciously in the area and stopped it, arresting the driver, who was taken into custody and identified as 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, of Sterling. He has been charged with murder.\nFairfax County police tweeted Monday that theyare not investigating the attack as a hate crime.\nThe chief medical examiner will confirm the identity of the victim and determine the exact cause and manner of her death.\nNabra was a sophomore at South Lakes High School in Reston, Va., and would have been starting her junior year this fall, friends said.The slaying occurred during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from eating from dawn to sunset. Many mosques hold late night prayers, and people eat a pre-dawn meal calledsuhoor before they begin fasting.\nAcross the country, Muslimleaders have been sharing aGoFundMepageto help raise money forHassanen's family.\nMuslim leaders across the country have been sharing thisGoFundMepagethat has raised more than $20,000 to help support the family.\nThe ADAMs Center Mosque said in a statement that the community is \"devastated\" by the slaying.\n\"It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth. ADAMS has licensed counselors on site to assist anyone in need of counseling during these difficult times,\" the statement said.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Sunday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["murder"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Darwin Martinez Torres"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"June_2017 An American who formerly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency is arrested on charges of selling classified information to Chinese operatives in May 2017. (The Washington Post)","document":"A former CIA officer sold top secret and other classified documents to Chinese intelligence officials, according to charges filed Thursday in Alexandria federal court.\nKevin Patrick Mallory, 60, of Leesburg, Va., was arrested Thursday and appeared briefly in front of Judge Theresa Buchanan on counts of delivering defense information to aid a foreign government and making false statements. He asked to be represented by a public defender. Mallory had a top secret security clearance until he left the government in 2012, prosecutors say, having worked at various government agencies and defense contractors.\nAlthough the primary government agency in question is not named, two government officials confirm that Mallory worked for the CIA. Prosecutors say Mallory sent three documents containing classified information, one of which was labeled top secret, to a Chinese intelligence operative in May. “Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid for it,” Mallory wrote to the Chinese contact at around the same time, according to an affidavit from FBI agent Stephen Green filed in federal court. Mallory allegedly added that he would “bring the remainder of the documents” on a June trip. “My current object is to make sure your security (sic) and try to reimburse you,” the operative allegedly replied. The CIA declined to comment Thursday.\nAccording to the affidavit, Mallory told FBI agents in May that he had been contacted in February on a social media site by a recruiter for a Chinese think tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He spoke on the phone with the recruiter and was then introduced to a potential client, whom he traveled to Shanghai to meet in both March and April. In March, Mallory allegedly reached out to several former CIA coworkers and asked for help getting in touch with a specific department. He told one employee that he believed the people he had met with were working for Chinese intelligence, according to Green. He allegedly also said he had been given a device to communicate securely with the Chinese agent and been taught how to use it. Expecting to meet with the same CIA employee in May, Mallory was instead greeted by FBI agents. He let them search the device given to him by the Chinese operative. But, according to Green’s affidavit, Mallory was surprised that past conversations on the device had not been erased. He was showing the agents how to move a message from normal to secure mode when the secure messages appeared. Mallory allegedly told the Chinese agents he had destroyed his paper records and planned to destroy all electronic records once they were sent. He told the agents the documents on the phone were merely white papers he had written based on his own knowledge. While he told the FBI agents he had been paid $25,000 by the Chinese operatives, the court files show, he said the money was only for his consulting services in the country and expenses. Between 1990 and 2012 Mallory was stationed in Iraq, China and Taiwan; he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He founded a consulting company, GlobalEx, in 2010. He attended Brigham Young University and then served in the military. He also served in active army deployments in more recent years. Charlie Sherrod, a friend and former financial advisor, was shocked by the arrest and charges. “I find it very hard to believe that he would do something like that,” he said Thursday. He knew Mallory as “a strong Christian and a family man.” A woman who answered the phone at Mallory’s residence said she was unfamiliar with the charges and wanted to consult a lawyer before commenting. Mallory appeared in court wearing a loose tank top and gym shorts. He faces up to life in prison. He will return to court Friday for a detention and preliminary hearing. “The conduct alleged in this complaint is serious and should send a message to anyone who would consider violating the public’s trust and compromising our national security by disclosing classified information,” said Dana J. Boente, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":["Dana J. Boente"]},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["delivering defense information to aid a foreign government and making false statements"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Kevin Patrick Mallory"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"July_2017 A priest is arrested and questioned over an alleged druginduced gay orgy hosted in his apartment in the Vatican City. (International Business Times)","document":"A new scandal is rocking the Vatican as police recently raided a drugs and gay sex party at a cardinal's apartment near the city.\nWithout revealing the name of the occupant of the apartment, police said that the person is believed to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts and a personal adviser to Pope Francis.\nAccording to Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano which first published the news, police raided the apartment in June after complaints from neighbours who reported unusual behaviour among people visiting the apartment.\nThe newspaper quoted the police as saying that they found drugs and a group of men engaged in sexual activity when they entered the apartment.\nThe police have arrested the priest and taken him for questioning, presumably on drugs charges. It is not a criminal offence to engage in private same-sex activity in Vatican City.\nThe apartment belongs to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose duties include investigating clerical sexual abuse.\nCoccopalmerio had reportedly recommended his aide for promotion to bishop, but that consideration may be put on hold following this incident and two previous alleged drug overdoses.\nMeanwhile, the Pope is under huge pressure from sex abuse scandals involving Vatican churches, priests and cardinals. The latest are charges of child sex abuse against cardinal George Pell, who will return to Australia to stand trial. The Pope's critics have reportedly blamed him for picking wrong people for key positions.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":["complaints from neighbours"]},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["drugs charges"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"August_2006 John Mark Karr is arrested in Bangkok for the 1996 murder of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey. (Denver Post) (USA Today) (MSNBC)","document":"The suspect was identified as John Mark Karr, 42, by Ann Hurst, Homeland Security attach?at the U.S. Embassy, during a televised news conference from Bangkok just before 3 a.m. ET today. Karr has been charged in the state of Colorado with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of a child, Hurst said.\nLt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand's immigration police, told reporters Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest.\n\"He told police while under arrest that he did kill the girl but so far he has not pleaded guilty in writing,\" Suwat said.\nLin Wood, the Ramsey family attorney, said Karr is a schoolteacher who once lived in Conyers, Ga., outside Atlanta. The Ramseys lived in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody for several years before moving to Colorado in 1991.\nThai police said Karr had recently applied for a teacher's position at an international school in Thailand.\nKarr's brother, Nate, told Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren that he does not believe his brother killed JonBen?. JonBen? was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996. Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter. Ramsey and her husband, John, struggled for years under what a former Boulder police chief said was \"an umbrella of suspicion\" in the case. Patsy Ramsey died in June of ovarian cancer.\nOn Wednesday, John Ramsey expressed gratitude for the arrest. \"Patsy was aware that authorities were close to making an arrest in this case, and had she lived to see this day, would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today's development almost 10 years after our daughter's murder,\" he said in a statement released by Wood. The Ramseys had always insisted that JonBen? was killed by an intruder who broke into their expensive home on Christmas night.\nBoulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy officially announced the arrest of an unnamed suspect in a statement Wednesday. She said no details would be discussed until today.\nU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers assisted Boulder County authorities and the Royal Thai Police in locating the suspect, the federal agency said.\nWood credited Lacy with doggedly pursuing the case after others had concluded it might never be solved. \"The public mind was so poisoned against this family\" that few took \"an objective look at the evidence,\" Wood told MSNBC.\nThe case thwarted the efforts of police, private investigators, and amateur sleuths for nearly 10 years. JonBen?'s killing became a public obsession that spawned a flood of books, documentaries and lawsuits.\nPictures and videos of the pretty blonde posing coquettishly in her beauty contest costumes were widely printed in newspapers and broadcast on television.\nAn autopsy report revealed she had suffered severe head injuries and may have been sexually assaulted. For years, suspicion focused on her parents, a wealthy businessman and his homemaker wife. The parents had initially refused to submit to police interviews, and in 1997, Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said the family was under an \"umbrella of suspicion.\" In September 1998, a Boulder County grand jury began a new probe into the case after many months of inconclusive investigation by Boulder police. Thirteen months later, Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter announced that no indictments would be issued. Hunter said there was insufficient evidence to indict anyone. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":["Lin Wood"]},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Dec. 26, 1996"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["murder, kidnapping and sexual assault of a child"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["John Mark Karr"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"August_2006 John Mark Karr is arrested in Bangkok for the 1996 murder of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey. (Denver Post) (USA Today) (MSNBC)","document":"Hours after a 41-year-old man confessed to the 1996 killing of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, legal experts became skeptical of the claims made by John Mark Karr, arrested Wednesday by Thai officials. In the latest twist of a case characterized by aberrant developments, Karr’s confession to Thai officials is being widely disputed. Veteran Denver defense attorney Phil Cherner, who has represented clients who have falsely confessed, said he recognizes elements of duplicity in Karr’s words and behavior. “This guy seems to be not just confessing, but openly inviting everyone to a microphone to hear him confess. That raises questions in my mind as to his guilt,” Cherner said. He pointed out that “every credible and incredible fact” about the Ramsey murder “has found its way into the public domain. If there are facts not known, I’d be surprised.” The details that Karr has described, he said, are widely available. “The ability to make up a story that jibes with the government’s evidence is greater, in this case, than in many, many other cases. That’s why all this matters,” he said. Longtime Colorado defense attorney Larry Pozner said he firmly believes Karr did not murder JonBenét Ramsey, pointing out that the details of Karr’s account fail to jibe with known evidence. “The guy says he picked her up at school,” Pozner pointed out. JonBenét’s body was found in the Ramsey’s basement on the day after Christmas 1996. “He said he drugged her. There is no evidence to support that. There is no reason to think it is true.” Like JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, and the family’s lawyer, Lin Wood, Pozner cautioned against leaping to conclusions of Karr’s guilt. Pozner interpreted Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy’s Thursday press conference as a carefully-worded announcement that Karr’s arrest was more relevant to concerns about his imminent teaching job at an international school than it was to the Ramsey investigation. Noting Karr’s refusal to explain how he entered the Ramsey house that Christmas night, or why his account of drugging the girl is contradicted by the coroner’s report that found no drugs in her system, Posner finds more holes than corroborating evidence. Credible murderers, including the BTK killer in Wichita, provide minute details and chapter-and-verse descriptions of their modus operandi, Pozner said. The only thing Karr has done, he observed, is say “I confess.” “He is a footnote in history, but now he gets to be famous,” Pozner said. The sad case of the raped, tortured and murdered little beauty pageant girl has held the public rapt for nearly 10 years. Public sentiment divided between suspecting the child’s wealthy parents, and others associated with the Ramseys and their neighborhood. Karr’s confession satisfied many eager for a resolution. The fact that he once lived about 35 miles from the Ramseys’ suburban Atlanta home, along with a 2001 arrest for possessing child pornography, initially seemed plausible. Karr told Thai officials that he inadvertently killed the girl, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand’s immigration police. Thai and U.S. authorities arrested Karr Wednesday at his apartment on the 9th floor of a rundown building in a seedy Bangkok neighborhood. “I was with JonBenet when she died,” Karr told reporters on Thursday, visibly nervous and stuttering. “Her death was an accident.” Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: “No.” Karr refused to answer questions Thursday about how he knew JonBenet Ramsey. An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga. Suwat said Karr insisted that he meant to kidnap JonBenet for $118,000, but that the girl died when kidnapping attempt that went awry. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional,” Suwat said. “He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet.” A senior Thai police officer said Karr also told investigators he drugged and had sex with the 6-year-old beauty queen before accidentally killing her. An autopsy done a day after the girl’s body was discovered indicated no drugs or alcohol in her system but\nfound vaginal abrasions. As officials escorted Karr to pick up his belongings at the apartment, Karr told the AP: “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident.” Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: “It would take several hours to describe that. It’s a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It’s very painful for me to talk about it.” He told the AP he made “several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away,” referring to JonBenet’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, who died June 24 of cancer, “and it is my understanding that she did read my letters.” No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference Thursday about whether there was DNA evidence connecting him to the crime. Officials described his arrest as the result of a months-long investigation targeting Karr, whom they said knew telling case details so far unreleased to the public. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who\nspoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test are still pending.\n Karr will submit a second DNA sample for testing when he returns to the United States, the official said. Investigators have DNA evidence from the initial investigation when JonBenét’s body was discovered. The day before being taken into custody, Karr was beginning a job as a 2nd grade teacher at the International School system in Bangkok, according to Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy who spoke at a Boulder press conference today. Karr, a former substitute teacher in California, was arrested in California for possessing child pornography. He has traveled extensively since leaving the United States several years ago. He arrived in Bangkok on June 6, after leaving Malaysia, reportedly seeking work as a teacher. Working with officials in Thailand and the U.S., the Boulder D.A.’s office spent months locating, finding and arresting Karr. Lacy said she expects even more work on the case, now that Karr is in custody, Lacy said. Lacy emphasized that Karr is presumed innocent, and no charges against him have been filed at this time.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":["Phil Cherner"]},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["1996 killing of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["John Mark Karr"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"August_2006 Israeli police, at the request of the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, captured a man who broke in to the Embassy and demanded asylum, threatening to kill himself if his demands were not met. (BBC) (BBC)","document":"Nadim Injaz, 28, from Ramallah in the West Bank, had threatened to kill himself on live television if he did not get asylum.\nMr Injaz is a Palestinian and is reported to have been an informant.\nHe was chased down an alleyway by officers, held and taken off the compound, the BBC's Paul Adams said.\nOur correspondent said there were no shots fired and no injuries. He said it was believed food given to Mr Injaz may have contained a sedative to slow down his reactions.\nSomeone should come and help me. No one wants to help me\n Nadim Injaz\nMr Injaz was reported to have been armed with a pistol, but this was later found to have been a toy gun, police told Israel's Channel 10 TV, news agency Reuters reported.\nThe man, who entered the compound several hours earlier, had reportedly told another Israeli broadcaster, Channel 2: \"Someone should come and help me. No one wants to help me.\" Mr Injaz is said to have feared he may have been killed by Palestinian militants, and that Israeli authorities refused to help him.\nIt is thought he scaled a fence to enter the compound.\nThe UK Foreign Office said the Israeli police took action after British authorities asked for help dealing with the situation.\nEmbassy spokeswoman Karen Kaufman said: \"As far as the embassy is concerned, the event is over.\"\nBBC Jerusalem correspondent Nick Thorpe says the British embassy is a secure modern building near the seafront in Tel Aviv, with a high metal fence and security barriers.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["armed with a pistol, but this was later found to have been a toy gun"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["threatened to kill himself on live television if he did not get asylum"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Nadim Injaz"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2006 British police hold 14 men after antiterrorism raids on locations in south and east London including one restaurant. (Boston Globe), (BBC)","document":"Two people were held elsewhere in the city in what police said was an intelligence-led operation.\nPolice said the arrests were not connected to the alleged transatlantic jet bomb plot or the 7 July attacks.\nAn Islamic school near Tunbridge Wells has also been searched as part of the same operation.\nThe Jameah Islameah property, on Catt's Hill near Crowborough, East Sussex, was set up in 2003 as an Islamic teaching facility for boys aged between 11 and 16, according to Ofsted inspectors.\nAt the time of its last inspection the school only had nine pupils.\nThe BBC's Keith Doyle said the south London restaurant where the 12 arrests were made was a halal Chinese called The Bridge to China Town.\nHe said the raids came after \"months of surveillance into those suspected of recruiting or encouraging others to take part in terrorist activities\". Profile: Jameah Islameah\nThe restaurant was full of people, including children, when around 40 police officers wearing riot gear raided it shortly after 2200 BST on Friday.\nDiners were told they were being questioned under the Terrorism Act. Each was asked to give their name and address, after which those arrested were taken away in handcuffs.\nPolice said the men were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.\nAnti-terrorist officers also carried out raids on a number of addresses in other parts of London, with a search being carried out at an address in the north of the capital.\nThe restaurant's owner, Mehdi Belyani, 40, said a group of around 15 men and two small boys had come in for dinner at 9pm. He described them as aged between 25 and 35 and said some were wearing Islamic dress.\n\"It was surprising actually, because plenty of [police officers] suddenly came in all together. There were more than 50 or 60 of them,\" he said. \"They suddenly came inside because they were suspicious of some of the customers, and they talked to them. \"They talked to them [for] more than one hour, two hours. And they arrested some of them. \"So it was obviously surprising for me, my staff, for everyone anyway.\" Group bonding\nThe BBC's security correspondent, Gordon Corera, said the arrests were linked to allegations of \"training camps\" within the UK for people who want to engage in terrorist acts.\n\"This involves people suspected of facilitating training activity within the UK which might have allowed others to take part in terrorist activity,\" he said.\nPolice sealed off the restaurant while officers questioned customers\n\"Here in the UK it's more forms of bonding and getting groups together as well as radicalising those taking part. It's not necessarily military or terrorist training or blowing things up, it's more training in the sense of groups bonding and working together\".\nSome of the 7 July bombers were suspected of having undertaken this kind of training activity within the UK, although there is no link to those arrested overnight.\nA spokeswoman for Home Secretary John Reid said he had been \"kept fully informed\".\nMeanwhile, two men have also been arrested in other anti-terror raids in Manchester but a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said these arrests were not linked to the London raids.\nThe pair were detained under the Terrorism Act and three addresses in the Cheetham Hill area are being searched.\nA spokesman said both arrests followed an operation that took place on 23 August, when one man was held and a house in Elmfield Street in Cheetham Hill was searched.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Friday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["a group of around 15 men and two small boys"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2006 The security officers of Georgia arrest nearly 30 members of the opposition political party \"Samartlianoba\" (Justice) and its satellite organizations on suspicion of plotting a coup against the government. The party, which advocates closer political ties with the Russian Federation, is led by the nation's fugitive security chief Igor Giorgadze who is wanted by Interpol for his alleged involvement in the 1995 attempt on former Georgian President Shevardnadze's life. (BBC)","document":"They say those detained are supporters of Igor Giorgadze - the fugitive former head of the state security service. Lawyers for those arrested deny the coup accusations, saying the arrests amount to political persecution.\nMr Giorgadze fled Georgia after being accused of trying to assassinate then President Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995 - a charge he denies.\nSome 450 police officers took part in the morning raids on houses and offices across Georgia, the BBC's Matthew Collin in Tbilisi reports.\n\"They will be charged under Article 315 of the Georgian criminal code - plotting against the state and overthrowing the government,\" Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told reporters.\nAmong those detained are officials of two opposition parties - the pro-Russian Justice Party and the Conservative Monarchists.\nTensions with Russia\nThe Justice Party was founded by Mr Giorgadze in exile. Mr Giorgadze remains a wanted man in Georgia, but has appeared on television in Russia, our correspondent says.\nTbilisi says it will demand an explanation from Moscow about where the funding for the Justice Party comes from. The raids come amid growing tensions between the two countries. Georgia accuses Moscow of backing separatists in Georgia's breakaway regions, while Russia has banned the import of certain Georgian goods.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["1995"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["trying to assassinate then President Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Giorgadze"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"March_2007 2007 Zimbabwean political crisis: Three activists in the Zimbabwe opposition are arrested as they attempt to leave the country for South Africa including Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction in the Movement for Democratic Change. Two of the activists were seeking medical treatment after having been arrested a week ago. (AP via Washington Post)","document":"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Three Zimbabwean opposition activists were arrested as they tried to leave the country Saturday, including two who were allegedly beaten by police and were going to South Africa to seek medical treatment, a party official said.\nThe African Union, meanwhile, called on Zimbabwe to respect its citizens' human rights.\nArthur Mutambara, head of a faction of the Zimbabwean opposition group Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested at Harare International Airport as he was trying to leave for South Africa, said Roy Bennett, the movement's exiled treasurer-general.\nAlso arrested in a separate incident were Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland, who were to attempting to go to South Africa for medical treatment, he said.\n\"We are not sure why they were arrested. Tensions are very high,\" Bennett said.\nTawanda Mutasah, director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, said the two women, among the most severely injured when Zimbabwean police broke up a protest gathering last Sunday, were trying to travel to Johannesburg to receive specialized post-traumatic care.\nHe said the ambulance carrying the women from a clinic in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, to the airport, where they were to leave in a medical rescue aircraft, was stopped on the tarmac by officers from Zimbabwe's security forces.\nThe women's passports were taken and they were told they needed a clearance certificate from the Department of Health. They were then instructed to go to Harare's central police station but were later allowed to return to the clinic under police guard.\n\"That the Zimbabwean government now resorts to arresting people in ambulances in clear need of specialist care, is an indication of the repressive lengths they're prepared to go,\" said Mutasah, adding lawyers for the women were trying to get a court order to allow them to receive treatment.\nZimbabwean police used tear gas, water cannon and live ammunition to crush the March 11 protest gathering, and beat activists, including the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to opposition members.\nTsvangirai left the hospital Friday battered but defiant, pledging to \"soldier on until Zimbabwe is free.\" His supporters vowed to drive Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe from office with a campaign of civil disobedience.\nMugabe on Friday warned his opponents against inciting unrest.\n\"If they do it again, we will bash them again,\" he said in an address to his party's youth wing, state radio reported.\nThe latest violence has drawn new attention to a deteriorating situation in the southern African country, where the increasingly autocratic Mugabe is blamed by opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and inflation of 1,600 percent _ the highest in the world.\nThe 53-nation African Union issued a statement Saturday saying Commission Chief Alpha Oumar Konare \"has followed with great concern the recent developments in Zimbabwe\" and \"recalls the need for the scrupulous respect for human rights and democratic principles in Zimbabwe.\"\nSouthern African nations have come under increasing pressure for their failure to condemn Mugabe, especially South Africa and its President Thabo Mbeki, who has said quiet diplomacy is preferable to public condemnation.\nWestern government have uniformly condemned the crackdown, with the United States threatening to strengthen sanctions against Mugabe and his associates. The European Union renewed targeted sanctions last month that include asset freezes and a travel ban on Mugabe and more than 100 of his top associates.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["March 11"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":null},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Arthur Mutambara","Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"March_2007 Indonesian police shoot dead a suspected member of Jemaah Islamiyah, wound three people and arrest others in an antiterrorist raid. (AP via USA Today)","document":"Using information from those arrested, officers went to a nearby house Wednesday and seized automatic weapons, ammunition and explosive materials, according to an intelligence officer outside the property who showed reporters photographs of the hoard.\nThe officer spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of angering his superiors.\nThe operation that led to the death of the militant took place late Tuesday on a busy street in Yogyakarta, a city on Java island, said police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto in a text message sent by cellphone to reporters.\nHe said the suspects were believed to be from the network of Abu Dujana, referring to an Afghan-trained militant believed to be the current head of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for four major bombings against Western targets in Indonesia since 2002.\nHe did not say how many people were arrested, but local media reports said up to four people were being questioned.\nLocal police chief Hari Anwar said the suspects were riding motorbikes when police shot them. No other details were immediately available.\nIndonesia has arrested almost 300 suspected militants since 2002, but authorities say several other key terrorists remain on the run in the country, including Abu Dujana and Malaysian militant Noordin Top.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["automatic weapons, ammunition and explosive materials"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["since 2002"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["from the network of Abu Dujana, referring to an Afghan-trained militant believed to be the current head of Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for four major bombings against Western targets in Indonesia"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["suspected militants"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"April_2007 Garry Kasparov, Russian chess champion and opposition activist, is arrested with over 100 others while attempting to hold a protest march in Moscow. (RFE/RL)","document":"MOSCOW, April 14, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Russian police detained more than 100 anti-Kremlin activists today in a bid to stop an unauthorized opposition rally in Moscow, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported.\nAmong those detained was Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion and a leader of Other Russia. The opposition political bloc, which is critical of the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, says it is using peaceful pressure in an attempt to persuade the authorities to hold free and fair elections next year. Police and OMON special forces moved to break up the unauthorized rally before it began, but their detention of Kasparov looks certain to provide publicity for Russian opposition efforts. Police Pull No Punches\n\nMany of those detained went quietly, but others struggled and were forced into police vehicles by officers holding truncheons around the detainees' necks.\nWitnesses say Kasparov, who heads the United Civic Front opposition group, was hauled away to a police van, from which the chess whiz was seen waving and smiling to journalists near Pushkin Square in central Moscow.\nIn Moscow, Dima Tarasenkov of RFE/RL’s Russian Service said police also detained other leaders of the opposition umbrella group Other Russia. \"In Moscow's Pushkin Square, the leader of the youth group of the Yabloko opposition party, Ilya Yashin, was detained, along with another youth leader Maria Gaidar, and several Yabloko activists,\" he said.\nFormer Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, another key opposition leader, was blocked by police from entering Pushkin Square. Police also prevented other key opposition leaders from getting to the square, according to Tarasenkov. \"Nikita Belykh, the leader of the Union of Rightist Forces, as well as State Duma Deputy Vladimir Ryzkov tried to reach Pushkin Square but couldn't get there because the police had blocked it off,\" he said.\nProtestors Regroup\nStill, around 1,000 protesters went on to rally about 2 kilometers away in the city's Turgenev Square, where authorities had authorized their gathering.\nOther Russia has also called for a protest march in St. Petersburg on April 15. In recent months, three previous demonstrations -- all called March of Dissent rallies -- were either broken up harshly or smothered by police in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod. The rallies come after Boris Berezovsky, a Russian multimillionaire now living in London, said in an interview published on April 14 that he was fomenting a revolution to topple Putin.\nOther Russia has disassociated itself from Berezovsky's remarks, but they appeared to have raised the political temperature in Moscow.\nAlso today in the Russian capital, several other rallies took place with the approval of the authorities. The largest was a pro-government demonstration near Moscow State University organized by the youth wing of the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party. Organizers said some 15,000 people attended.\n(with material from AP, dpa, Reuters)\nDemonstrators in Moscow carry a coffin with a television in it to protest government control over broadcasting (TASS file photo)\nDO RUSSIANS LIKE THEIR GOVERNMENT? During a briefing at RFE/RL's Washington office on November 15, Richard Rose, director of the Center for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen, discussed the results of 14 surveys he has conducted since 1992 on Russian public opinion about democracy and the country's development. He discussed the implications of these opinions for relations with the West and for Russia's 2008 presidential election.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["April 14, 2007"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["an unauthorized opposition rally"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["nbsp;more than 100 anti-Kremlin","Garry Kasparov"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"May_2007 Israeli soldiers arrest 33 Hamas figures in Nablus, West Bank, including one cabinet member, Palestinian Education Minister Naser al-Shaer. (AFP via ABC Australia)","document":"Israeli soldiers arrested 33 senior Hamas figures in the West Bank today in order to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, an Israeli military spokesman says. The operation in the northern West Bank, mainly in the town of Nablus, netted Palestinian education minister Nasseredine al-Shaer, three law-makers and four mayors, among others. The Hamas officials had been arrested because they \"supported the firing of rockets,\" said the Israeli military spokesman. Israel resumed air strikes against Gaza last week as militants fired scores of rockets towards the Jewish state, breaking a six-month truce. The air strikes in Gaza have killed 12 civilians and 25 militants, but have failed to halt the rockets. More than 120 have slammed into Israel over the past week, killing a woman, wounding 16 others and sending hundreds fleeing the town of Sderot that has borne the brunt of the fire. Israel has warned that no leaders in Hamas - the senior movement in the Palestinian coalition government whose militants have been mostly responsible for the rocket attacks - were immune from attack. Last year Israel arrested several Hamas leaders including Mr Shaer, who was detained in August and released the following month. Israel also arrested more than 60 Hamas leaders in the West Bank as part of its efforts to secure the release of a soldier who was captured by Gaza militants in June 2005. - AFP","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":["Israeli soldiers"]},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["\"supported the firing of rockets,"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["33 senior Hamas figures","The Hamas officials"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"June_2007 The United States government arrests ten people, including former Laotian Army general Vang Pao, on charges of organizing a plot to overthrow the Laotian government. (CNN)","document":"(CNN) -- Ten people, including a former general in the Laotian army, were arrested and charged in the United States with an alleged plot to overthrow the Laotian government.\nMore than 200 federal and local enforcement agents were involved in the raid, which involved six Californian cities, early Monday. Prosecutors described the alleged plan as \"audacious\" and said it was aimed at obtaining guns, missiles, rockets and explosives. The suspects include Vang Pao, 77, who emigrated to the United States in 1975 after serving as a general in Laos, and Harrison Jack, 60, a West-Point educated former U.S. military officer, according to the prosecutor's office.\nIf convicted, the 10 suspects face possible life prison sentences.\n\"The United States cannot provide a safe harbor to those plotting to overthrow a government with whom we are at peace,\" said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in a statement. \"These defendants flagrantly violated numerous federal laws, including the Neutrality Act, in planning to topple the government of Laos.\"\nMost of the alleged conspirators were Hmong, an ethnic minority group in Laos that helped U.S. operatives fight communist insurgents during the Vietnam War. Vang led CIA-backed Hmong forces as a general in the Royal Army of Laos, while Jack was involved in covert operations during the Vietnam War, according to The Associated Press.\nAfter Laos fell to the communists in 1975, Hmong people began emigrating to the United States, and more than 500,000 now live in the country, according to the State Department.\nThe six cities where the arrest and search warrants were executed were: Los Angeles, Sacramento, Fresno, Chico, Stockton and Woodland. One suspect, Lo Cha Thao, discussed an operation to send special operations mercenaries into the Laotian capital, Vientiane, to blow up government buildings, according to prosecutors.\nThe work of an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms foiled the plot, leading suspects to believe he could supply them with the weapons they wanted, prosecutors said. Those included the powerful C-4 explosive, AK-47 automatic rifles and missiles, rockets and mines.\nLaos, like neighboring Vietnam, remains a communist country, but the government has liberalized the economy in recent years, allowing more private enterprise. The United States normalized trade relations with Laos in 2005.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["the powerful C-4 explosive, AK-47 automatic rifles and missiles, rockets and mines"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["an alleged plot to overthrow the Laotian government","plotting to overthrow a government","violated numerous federal laws, including the Neutrality Act, in planning to topple the government of Laos"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Vang Pao, 77","Harrison Jack, 60"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"June_2007 Police arrest two men in Cheshire in connection with the bombings. (Reuters via Canada.com)","document":"LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Sunday they had arrested two people in northern England in connection with an attempted car bombing in London and an incident at Glasgow airport when a car was rammed into the airport building.\n\"Police have this evening arrested two people in connection with events in London and Scotland on the 29th and 30th of June,\" London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.\nThe arrests were made in the county of Cheshire by counter-terrorism officers, the statement said.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["29th and 30th of June"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["connection with an attempted car bombing in London and an incident at Glasgow airport when a car was rammed into the airport building"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["two people in connection with events in London and Scotland on the 29th and 30th of June"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"July_2007 British detectives continue the hunt for suspects in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack and the 2007 London car bombs plot. Two doctors are among the seven people currently in custody in the UK in connection with the attacks with another person held in Brisbane, Queensland. (BBC) (BBC) (BBC) (The Melbourne Age)","document":"A 27-year-old man arrested in Queensland in connection with Britain's foiled car bomb plot was a registrar at the Gold Coast hospital, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock has revealed.\nPolice executed a number of search warrants in south-east Queensland, including at the hospital in Southport, after the man's arrest at Brisbane International Airport last night, Mr Ruddock told reporters in Canberra this morning.\n\"There were suggestions from the UK that in the context of their investigations there was some interest in (a) person abroad,\" he said.\n\"The situation is that the AFP Queensland Police acting on this advice that we have received specifically from UK authorities detained a 27-year-old man at Brisbane International Airport last night.\"\n\"The man is currently assisting police with their inquiries. No charges have been laid.\"\nSuspect 'trying to leave Australia'\nMr Ruddock said the man was attempting to leave Australia.\n\"The man was seeking to leave Australia and did not have a return ticket,\" he said.\nWhen asked if the man was an Australian citizen, Mr Ruddock said: \"My understanding is that the gentleman has been resident in Australia.\"\nAustralia would not be raising its terror threat level because it had no information a specific attack was planned, he said.\n\"The only other advice that I can give you is that while these matters are obviously of concern, there is no information that suggests the terror alert at medium should be varied,\" he said.\n\"And as I've said over the last day or so, when I use those words I use them very deliberately because what it means is that while a terrorist attack could certainly be possible in Australia, we have no specific information about any such planned action here.\"\nHospital 'stunned'\nReported claims by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock that a man arrested at Brisbane airport last night in connection with the foiled UK terror plot was a registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital, have caught the hospital's management in Southport by surprise.\nThis is what one stunned hospital official had to say just before 10.30am: \"Our switchboard's jammed at the moment and our public affairs lines are ringing constantly. So I've been instructed to tell people that we're unable to comment at the moment until we get more information and as soon as we do, we'll be preparing a media statement.\"\n'Be calm'\nEarlier this morning, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said a number of search warrants were being executed across south-east Queensland.\n\"Queenslanders, I just want to say, need to be calm about this,\" Mr Beattie said.\n\"We are not aware of any threat to any building or any activity in Queensland at all, so the threat remains as it was prior to this arrest.\"\nBritish police said in a statement the man was arrested at an undisclosed location in connection with the investigation into the incidents in London and Glasgow.\n\"He remains in custody,\" British police said.\nThe BBC earlier reported the man was arrested overseas, but did not say in which country.\nDoctors held\nTwo Arab doctors, both licensed to work in Britain, are amongthe eight peopleheld in connection with the foiled attacks, a police source said. The source named Bilal Abdulla, who qualified as a doctor in Baghdad in 2004, as one of the men held after ramming a jeep into a Glasgow airport terminal and setting it alight in a spectacular fireball on Saturday. Mohammed Asha, 26, a second doctor who qualified in Jordan the same year, was arrested with his wife on Saturday evening when unmarked police cars blocked a motorway in northern England to stop their car. Attacks linked Scotland Yard police declined to comment on a report on the website Muslim News that another suspect, arrested in Liverpool, was also a doctor, from India.\nBritish authorities say the Glasgow attack and the London bombs are linked, and suspect radical Islamists of being behind them. None of the suspects has been charged, and police have up to four weeks to question them. A security source said there was no indication the alleged plot involved bioterrorism or required specialist medical knowledge.\nNot 'a surprise' The source declined to discuss the individuals arrested but said that in previous investigations \"we have seen people who are well educated, from good middle-class backgrounds. I don't think it's a surprise.\" Britain's National Health Service employs large numbers of foreign doctors. A spokeswoman for the General Medical Council, with whom both Abdulla and Asha are registered to work in Britain, said: \"We are in contact with the police and will be cooperating with them where it's appropriate to do so.\" Foreign doctors coming to Britain must pass written tests and a clinical examination, and inquiries are also made with their home universities. \"We validate your medical qualifications with the university where you studied, we validate your identity, we go through a series of checks,\" spokeswoman Tanya Royer said. Successful applicants gain 'limited registration', entitling them to work as junior doctors in Britain typically for six months to one year, with a maximum of five years, she said. ","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":["Phillip Ruddock"]},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["Saturday"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["connection with Britain's foiled car bomb plot","ramming a jeep into a Glasgow airport terminal and setting it alight in a spectacular fireball"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["A 27-year-old man","eight peopleheld in connection with the foiled attacks","Mohammed Asha"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"June_2018 The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States announces the arrest of an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency whom they have charged with spying on the behalf of China. (BBC)","document":"A former US intelligence officer has appeared in court in Seattle charged with attempting to spy for China.\nRon Rockwell Hansen, 58, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday on his way to a Seattle airport for a flight to China.\nThe justice department says Mr Hansen attempted to pass on information and received at least $800,000 (600,000) for acting as a Chinese agent.\nHe agreed in a brief court appearance to be returned to his home state of Utah to face charges.\nMr Hansen, who lives in Syracuse, Utah, was charged with attempting to gather or deliver national defence information to aid a foreign government. Other charges - there are 15 in total - include acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions and smuggling goods from the US.\nIf convicted of attempted espionage, Mr Hansen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.\nAssistant Attorney General John Demers called Mr Hansen's alleged actions \"a betrayal of our nation's security\" and an \"affront to his former intelligence community colleagues\".\nJohn Huber, US attorney for the state of Utah, called the allegations \"very troubling\".\nAccording to court documents cited by the justice department, Mr Hansen served in the US Army as a warrant officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence, before being recruited by the DIA as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. The justice department says Mr Hansen, who is fluent in Mandarin and Russian, held top secret clearance \"for many years\" and travelled regularly between the US and China in 2013-17. He is alleged to have attempted repeatedly to regain access to classified information after he stopped working for the US government, thereby alerting authorities to his actions.\nThe Defense Intelligence Agency is a branch of the Department of Defense, responsible for analysing and disseminating military intelligence.\nThe agency's primary responsibility is providing foreign military intelligence for US combat missions. It was established in 1961 and now has about 17,000 employees.\nThe arrest comes at a challenging time for relations between the two countries. On Saturday, US Defence Secretary James Mattis accused China of attempting to intimidate its neighbours by deploying missiles to disputed islands in the South China Sea.\nA Chinese military official dismissed the comments as \"irresponsible\".\nTrade talks currently taking place between the two countries in Beijing have been overshadowed by a looming start date for US tariffs on Chinese goods.\nLate last month, the White House announced plans to place a 25% tariffs on $50bn (37bn) worth of Chinese imports, a significant escalation in a trade war between the two countries.\nMr Hansen is the latest in a string of former US intelligence officers caught up in spying cases related to China:","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["attempting to spy for China","attempting to gather or deliver national defence information to aid a foreign government"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Ron Rockwell Hansen"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2020 A Canadian woman is arrested for sending ricin poison to U.S. President Donald Trump last week. (The New York Times)","document":"Envelopes with ricin were intercepted last week on their way to the White House, a sheriff’s office and a detention facility in Texas.\nBy Katie Benner and Robert Draper\nWASHINGTON A Canadian national suspected of having mailed an envelope containing ricin to the White House was arrested on Sunday while trying to enter the United States from Canada, nearly a year after she had been deported from the United States for engaging in criminal activity, according to two American officials.\nCustoms and Border Protection agents detained the woman, who had a firearm, as she tried to cross the border into Buffalo, the officials said. Currently in the custody of border agents, she is set to be charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.\nThe suspect had been living in the United States last year and was arrested in March 2019 by the Mission, Texas, police for possession of an unlicensed weapon, resisting arrest and carrying a fake driver’s license, according to a senior intelligence official.\nWhile in the Hidalgo County Jail in Edinburg, Texas, authorities discovered that she had overstayed her six-month visa and had violated the terms of her passport by committing a crime while in the United States, and she was deported back to Canada, the official said.\nThe Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington has been leading the investigation into who sent an envelope containing ricin to the White House, addressed to President Trump, in recent days, as well as other envelopes containing ricin sent to a sheriff’s office and a detention facility in Texas.\nOnce discovered, the substance in the envelopes was confirmed to be ricin, a poison that is part of the waste produced when castor oil is made and has no known antidote.\nLaw enforcement officials said this weekend that the letters could have been sent from Canada, but that it was not clear when they were sent. The mail was intercepted last week, before it reached its destination.\nNo links to any international terrorist groups have been found, according to two law enforcement officials.\n“An arrest was made of an individual allegedly responsible for sending a suspicious letter,” the F.B.I. said in a statement. “The investigation is ongoing.”\nNBC News previously reported that the suspect had been detained.\nThe envelope addressed to Mr. Trump was intercepted at the final off-site processing facility before mail is sent to the White House mail room, according multiple law enforcement officials. All mail sent to the White House and other federal agencies in the Washington area is irradiated by the Postal Service and sorted in a facility that samples the air for suspicious substances.\nThis is the second time someone has tried to send ricin to Mr. Trump. In 2018, federal authorities intercepted mail suspected of containing ricin that was addressed to Mr. Trump and to top Pentagon and other national security officials. The Justice Department determined that the suspect, a Navy veteran named William Clyde Allen, had sent castor beans instead of ricin. He was charged in a seven-count federal indictment for threatening to use a biological toxin as a weapon.\nTwo people separately sent mail with ricin to President Barack Obama in the spring and summer of 2013. A Mississippi man, J. Everett Dutschke, received 25 years in prison for sending a ricin-laced letter to Mr. Obama and a Republican senator. And an actress, Shannon Richardson, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for mailing letters with ricin to Mr. Obama and other public figures.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":["Envelopes with ricin","unlicensed weapon","fake driver’s license"]},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["last week"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":null},{"role":"Accused People","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2020 Russian special forces, including Federal Security Service agents, arrest cult leader Vissarion, who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, after storming several remote hamlets occupied by his followers in Krasnoyarsk Krai. Russian authorities say he will be charged with organizing an \"illegal religious organisation\", as well as subjecting his followers to extortion and emotional abuse. (The Guardian)","document":"Russian authorities mounted a special operation to arrest a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has run a cult based in the depths of Siberia for the past three decades.\nHelicopters and armed officers stormed communities run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested him and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.\nTorop, 59, with long grey hair and a beard, was led by masked troops to a helicopter. The operation involved agents from Russia’s FSB security service as well as police and other agencies. Vadim Redkin, a former drummer in a Soviet-era boyband who is known as Vissarion’s right-hand man, was also arrested, along with another aide, Vladimir Vedernikov.\nTorop, who lost his job as a traffic officer in 1989, claimed he experienced an “awakening” as the Soviet regime began to collapse. In 1991 he founded a movement now known as the Church of the Last Testament.\nSeveral thousand followers live in a series of remote hamlets in the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. Converts to the cult have included professionals from across Russia as well as pilgrims from abroad.\n“I am not God. And it is a mistake to see Jesus as God. But I am the living word of God the father. Everything that God wants to say, he says through me,” Vissarion told the Guardian in 2002.\nRussian media reported that in the original ideology of the cult, Vissarion claimed Jesus was watching over people from an orbit close to Earth, and the Virgin Mary was “running Russia”, but later he declared himself to be Jesus.\nHis commune mixes a selection of rites drawn from Orthodox Christianity with environmental edicts and a series of other rules. Veganism is enforced and monetary exchange is banned inside the commune. Followers wear austere clothing and count years starting from 1961, the year of Vissarion’s birth, while Christmas has been replaced by a feast day on 14 January, his birthday.\nIt is not clear what will happen to the disciples now that their leader has been arrested, nor is it clear why authorities decided to move now. The official Russian Orthodox church has long condemned the group but officials have largely left the devotees alone. Some Russian media outlets reported that the community had become involved in a dispute with local business interests.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["starting from 1961"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["organising an illegal religious organisation","extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Torop","a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus","Vadim Redkin","Vladimir Vedernikov"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"September_2020 Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif is arrested amid a corruption scandal. (Al Jazeera)","document":"Opposition PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif is the latest high-profile figure to be arrested as part of PM Khan’s anti-corruption drive.\nIslamabad, Pakistan Pakistani authorities have arrested Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the opposition and president of the country’s main opposition party, on corruption charges, the latest high-profile arrest of an opposition figure by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.\nSharif was arrested from the premises of the high court in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, shortly after the court rejected his application for bail in a money laundering case.\nA large number of supporters of Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) political party had thronged the court for the hearing, and they raised chants and slogans against the government and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, as Sharif was led away by officials.\nSharif has denied all charges, contending that the assets that NAB is probing are in his relatives’ names and that he has no connection to them or how they were acquired.\n“Shehbaz Sharif will face all of these false allegations,” said Marriyum Aurangzeb, the PML-N’s spokesperson. “He has spent 70 days in NAB’s custody before … Imran Khan should not believe that we are afraid of these tactics.”\nAurangzeb said Sharif would contest the charges through the courts, and accused the government of arresting Sharif, whose elder brother Nawaz has been elected prime minister three times, each time being removed by either the country’s powerful military or on corruption charges.\n“Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest is clearly a way to combat the all-parties conference and it is a reaction to the plans [of the opposition],” she told reporters in Lahore.\nShehbaz Sharif will face all of these false allegations\nMarriyum Aurangzeb, the PML-N's spokesperson\nSpeaking to the media, Information Minister Shibli Faraz denied that the verdict was “politically motivated”.\nKhan has made an anti-corruption drive the centrepiece of his rule, with his government pursuing cases against many longtime political leaders, including the Sharifs, former President Asif Ali Zardari, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) group led by Fazl-ur-Rehman, and several members of each of their families.\nCritics, including the opposition, say the anti-corruption drive has been one-sided, mainly targeting Khan’s political opponents while leaving members of his ruling party or their allies largely untouched.\n“The [anti-corruption watchdog] seems reluctant in proceeding against people on one side of the political divide […] while those on the other side are being arrested and incarcerated for months and years without providing any sufficient cause,” read a Supreme Court verdict in a corruption case in July.\nThe PTI’s rule has also been marked by narrowing media freedoms, with coverage of opposition figures or criticism of the military restricted.\nIn October 2018, Shehbaz Sharif had been arrested in a separate corruption case related to the award of contracts while he was chief minister of Punjab province, the country’s most populous region, between 2013 and 2018.\nHe was released on bail four months later but continues to face multiple inquiries.\nThis month, an Islamabad court cancelled bail for his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, who left the country on medical bail last November and has not returned since.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["between 2013 and 2018"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["on corruption charges","money laundering"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Shehbaz Sharif"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2020 Hong Kong prodemocracy lawmakers Eddie Chu, Raymond Chan Chichuen, Wu Chiwai, Andrew Wan, Helena Wong, Fernando Cheung and Kwok Wingkin are arrested for \"scuffles with proBeijing legislators\" last May. (BBC)","document":"Seven pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong have been arrested over scuffles with pro-Beijing lawmakers in the city's Legislative Council in May. Police say they have been charged with contempt and interfering with members of the council. The two opposing camps came to blows, with heckling and shoving on both sides, over the appointment of the chair of a key committee. None of the pro-Beijing politicians involved have been detained.\nIt is the latest in a string of arrests of China critics in Hong Kong, after a sweeping new national security law was imposed by Beijing in June.\nA police statement said that six men and one woman had been arrested as part of an investigation into the 8 May meeting, which descended into chaos amid a row over who should control a key committee in the legislature. Those arrested include the Democratic Party's Wu Chi-wai, Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Helena Wong Pik-wan, and the Labour Party's Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung and Kwok Wing-kin.\nEx-legislators Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen were also detained on Sunday morning.\nThey face up to a year in prison if convicted. They were among a group of pro-democracy legislators who tried to storm the chairperson's seat in the Legislative Council after pro-Beijing councillors forcibly installed one of their politicians as the committee leader following months of deadlock. Mr Chu was carried out of the room by four security guards holding each of his limbs, after attempting to physically reach the chair.\nOne pro-Beijing politician was shown live on TV dragging Mr Chan out by his collar.Some lawmakers dashed towards the security guards surrounding the rostrum and made it impossible for the meeting to go on,\" police chief inspector Chan Wing-yu told reporters on Sunday.\n\"Law enforcement action is taken in accordance with law and evidence gathered during the recent police investigation... I wish to reiterate that enforcement action taken on that basis is not about the social status or political background\" of those arrested, he added.\nHowever, opposition politicians questioned why none of the legislators from the opposing side had been charged.\nThe Democratic Party described the arrests as \"arbitrary\", adding: \"We will not back down in the face of an authoritarian regime.\"\nThe 8 May incident was the first in a series of confrontations in the council over who would have the power to legislate controversial bills, including one approved later in June criminalising disrespect of the national anthem. Separately last week, teen activist Tony Chung became the second person to be charged under the new security law, which makes it easier to punish protesters, and gives Beijing extensive new powers to shape life in the territory.\nThe law has been widely condemned by western governments and human rights groups, with critics saying it ends freedoms guaranteed for 50 years after British rule ended in Hong Kong in 1997.\nThe way Hong Kong's electoral system is stacked in favour of pro-Beijing politicians was one of the central issues in last year's protests, the BBC's John Sudworth in Beijing reports.\nThe sweeping new national security law has come with warnings that it could be used to target future protests inside parliament, with much harsher sentences of 10 years, to life, our correspondent adds.\n","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":["8 May"]},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["Police say they have been charged with contempt and interfering with members of the council"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["Democratic Party's Wu Chi-wai, Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Helena Wong Pik-wan, and the Labour Party's Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung and Kwok Wing-kin","Seven pro-democracy politicians"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"November_2012 John Logue, President of the Union of Students in Ireland, is arrested and taken from Dáil ireann in handcuffs after turning his back on legislators while peacefully protesting against budget cuts. (Donegal Daily) (University Times)","document":"Donegal man John Logue, the head of the Union of Students in Ireland, was handcuffed and led away by Gardai in the Dail.\nGardai are questioning him about an alleged breach of Dail rules.\nIt’s understood he was taking part in a protest demanding student rights, particularly relating to the debacle in the student grant allocation which has left 50,000 students without a grant payment.\nHe was with 100 other students in the gallery observing a Private Members Bill from Fianna Fail.\nAll the students then stood up and turned their backs on proceedings in protest at amendments from Government parties.\nLogue was told to sit down by security staff and when he didn’t, he was arrested.\nA USI spokesman said: “John Logue was arrested for the simple act for turning his back on a Dáil which has turned its back on students.\n“By voting down an amendment that would have preserved the current level of the grant and stopped fee hikes, this government has once again failed students and families.\n“Logue was supported by over 100 students, including sabbatical officers from TCDSU, DITSU and NCISU. It was a peaceful act of civil disobedience, intended to highlight the issues facing students, especially as students face into 3000 fees, cuts to the grant and a grant system that has only paid out to a minority of students who qualify for it.”\nDonegal South West TD Pearse Doherty immediately demanded his release from custody.\nThe gallery in the Dail was packed with students at the time.\n“Mr Logue should be released without charge immediately,” said Deputy Doherty.\nHis party colleague Jonathon O’Brien commented: “It’s ironic that if you wreck the economy you get a 500k per year salary, but if you stand up for students you are slapped in handcuffs.”\nThe 23-year-old Letterkenny man has had an increasingly high profile in recent weeks as the grants crisis grew.","event_type":"CommitCrime - Accuse","arguments":[{"role":"Evidence","values":null},{"role":"Prosecution Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Defense Lawyer","values":null},{"role":"Time of the Case","values":null},{"role":"Witness","values":null},{"role":"Prosecutor","values":null},{"role":"Charged Crime","values":["breach of Dail rules","taking part in a protest demanding student rights"]},{"role":"Accused People","values":["John Logue"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO forms new expert group to study origin of COVID","document":"WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the news during his press briefing from Geneva, \"following a public call for experts.\" Geneva Updated on: October 14, 2021 11:07 IST URL copied WHO forms new expert group to study origin of COVID. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an expert group that will study the origins of new pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the news during his press briefing from Geneva, \"following a public call for experts.\" The proposed members of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) were selected for their expertise in areas such as epidemiology, animal health, clinical medicine, virology and genomics. The 26 experts were selected from over 700 applications and were chosen for their world-class expertise and experience in a range of disciplines, as well as their geographic and gender diversity. \"SAGO will advise WHO on the development of a global framework to define and guide studies into the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, including SARS-CoV-2,\" he said. \"The emergence of new viruses with the potential to spark epidemics and pandemics is a fact of nature, and while SARS-CoV-2 is the latest such virus, it will not be the last. \"A two-week public consultation period will take place for WHO to receive feedback on the proposed SAGO members. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead on COVID-19, said the world must be better prepared for any future \"Disease X\". Answering a question, she stated that SAGO will recommend further studies in China, and potentially elsewhere, to understand the origins of the new coronavirus, UN News reported. While SAGO will advise WHO, any future missions will be organized by the UN agency and the country in question. \"I want to make it very clear that the SAGO is not the next mission team. There's been some misrepresentation about that going forward,\" she said. A WHO-led team of scientists that travelled to China in early 2021 to investigate the origins of the virus struggled to get a clear picture of what research China was conducting beforehand, faced constraints during its visit, and had little power to conduct thorough and impartial research. ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead on COVID-19"]},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["SAGO will advise WHO on the development of a global framework to define and guide studies into the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, including SARS-CoV-2"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa","document":"World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference in Geneva Switzerland July 3, 2020. Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS GENEVA, June 21 (Reuters) - The WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce COVID-19 vaccines, in what President Cyril Ramaphosa called an historic step to spread lifesaving technology. The \"tech transfer hub\" could make it possible for African companies to begin manufacturing mRNA vaccines - the advanced technology now used in shots from Pfizer and Moderna - in as little as 9-12 months, the World Health Organization said. It announced two companies had signed up so far, and said it was in talks with Pfizer and Moderna about participating. \"Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development,\" said Ramaphosa, speaking by video link at the WHO press conference where the programme was launched. The WHO has long been calling for rich countries to share vaccine technology. The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40% over the past week. \"Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,\" WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. In a statement, the WHO described the hub as a training facility, \"where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology.\" The two South African companies participating so far were Afrigen Biologics, described as a development company, and Biovac, described as a manufacturer. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the WHO was in negotiations with Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna , which have both produced vaccines widely used in rich countries using new mRNA technology, which sends instructions into the body to make proteins that trigger an immune response. \"We could even expect to see within 9 to 12 months vaccines being produced in Africa, in South Africa,\" Swaminathan said. Ramaphosa said the development was \"historic\", but South Africa was also still pushing separately for a waiver to intellectual property rules governing COVID-19 vaccines.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["\"tech transfer hub\""]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","President Cyril Ramaphosa","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40% over the past week"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WTO has selected South Africa to establish the first mRNA technology transfer hub","document":"The World Health Organisation has selected South Africa to establish the first mRNA technology transfer hub. This is to boost vaccine manufacturing abilities in the region , as Africa continues to struggle in vaccine procurement. More than 50 proposals were submitted to the WHO by companies offering to transfer technology, knowledge and skills for the mRNA hubs. The global body says it will work with the Africa Centre for Disease Control to set up the guidelines and guidance for the project aimed at increasing vaccine manufacturing capacity. President Cyril Ramaphosa says this will help change the continent’s image and promote self-reliance. “Today marks an important move towards the achievement of one of the critical objectives of the African Unions Agenda 2063, the Africa we want. The ability to manufacture vaccines, medicines and other health-related commodities will help put Africa on a path to self-determination. Through this initiative and others, we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development. We will create a narrative that celebrates our successes in reducing the burden of disease and advancing self-reliance, also advancing sustainable development.” President Ramaphosa participates in a joint briefing on COVID-19 vaccines: Manufacturing could start in 9 to 12 months The WHO said the hub could start manufacturing doses in 9 to 12 months. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement aimed at boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where cases and deaths had increased by almost 40% over the past week. “Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish technology transfer hub in South Africa.” “The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, which will act as the hub both by manufacturing mRNA vaccines itself and by providing training to a manufacturer Biovac,” he said. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that there were several options on the table, mainly smaller companies and biotechs, adding: “But we are also in discussions with larger mRNA companies and hope very much they will come on board”. Pfizer and BioNTech, along with Moderna are the main producers of COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA technology. “We could see within 9-12 months vaccines being produced in Africa, South Africa,” Swaminathan said. – additional reporting by Reuters. ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["the first mRNA technology transfer hub"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["President Cyril Ramaphosa","WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["This is to boost vaccine manufacturing abilities in the region , as Africa continues to struggle in vaccine procurement"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO setting up hub to make COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa","document":"GENEVA (Reuters) – The WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce COVID-19 vaccines, in what President Cyril Ramaphosa called an historic step to spread lifesaving technology. The “tech transfer hub” could make it possible for African companies to begin manufacturing mRNA vaccines – the advanced technology now used in shots from Pfizer and Moderna – in as little as 9-12 months, the World Health Organization said. It announced two companies had signed up so far, and said it was in talks with Pfizer and Moderna about participating. “Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development,” said Ramaphosa, speaking by video link at the WHO press conference where the programme was launched. The WHO has long been calling for rich countries to share vaccine technology. The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40% over the past week. “Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. In a statement, the WHO described the hub as a training facility, “where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology.” The two South African companies participating so far were Afrigen Biologics, described as a development company, and Biovac, described as a manufacturer. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the WHO was in negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna <MRNA.O>, which have both produced vaccines widely used in rich countries using new mRNA technology, which sends instructions into the body to make proteins that trigger an immune response. “We could even expect to see within 9 to 12 months vaccines being produced in Africa, in South Africa,” Swaminathan said. Ramaphosa said the development was “historic”, but South Africa was also still pushing separately for a waiver to intellectual property rules governing COVID-19 vaccines. ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["“tech transfer hub”"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Ramaphosa","WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["he initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40% over the past week"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO setting up hub to make COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa: Tedros","document":"GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday (Jun 21) that it is setting up a technology transfer hub for producing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, which could start manufacturing doses in 9 to 12 months. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement aimed at boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where cases and deaths had increased by almost 40% over the past week. \"Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,\" Tedros told a news conference. \"The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, which will act as the hub both by manufacturing mRNA vaccines itself & by providing training to a manufacturer Biovac,\" he said. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that there were several options on the table, mainly smaller companies and biotechs, adding: \"But we are also in discussions with larger mRNA companies and hope very much they will come on board\". Pfizer and BioNTech, along with Moderna are the main producers of COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA technology. \"We could see within 9-12 months vaccines being produced in Africa, South Africa,\" Swaminathan said. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: \"Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development.\" Ramaphosa, referring to talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on its proposal for a waiver on intellectual property on COVID-19 vaccines, added: \"Today is historic and we see this as a step in the right direction but it does not distract us from our original proposal put together by India and South Africa that we should see a TRIPS waiver at the WTO.\" ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["a technology transfer hub for producing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan","South African President Cyril Ramaphosa"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["aimed at boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where cases and deaths had increased by almost 40% over the past week"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO setting up hub to make Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa - Tedros","document":"The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that it is setting up a technology transfer hub for producing mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa, which could start manufacturing doses in nine to 12 months. World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks as he attends the World Health Assembly (WHA) amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland, 24 May 2021. Christopher Black/World Health Organisation/Handout via Reuters WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement aimed at boosting access to vaccines across the African continent, where cases and deaths had increased by almost 40% over the past week. Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa. \"The consortium involves a company Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, which will act as the hub both by manufacturing mRNA vaccines itself & by providing training to a manufacturer Biovac,\" he said. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that there were several options on the table, mainly smaller companies and biotechs, adding: \"But we are also in discussions with larger mRNA companies and hope very much they will come on board.\" Pfizer and BioNTech, along with Moderna are the main producers of Covid-19 vaccines using mRNA technology. We could see within nine to 12 months vaccines being produced in Africa, South Africa. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: \"Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development.\" Ramaphosa, referring to talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on its proposal for a waiver on intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines, added: \"Today is historic and we see this as a step in the right direction but it does not distract us from our original proposal put together by India and South Africa that we should see a Trips waiver at the WTO.\"","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["a technology transfer hub for producing mRNA Covid-19 vaccines"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan","South African President Cyril Ramaphosa"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa to produce Covid-19 vaccines","document":"GENEVA (REUTERS) - The WHO is setting up a hub in South Africa to give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce Covid-19 vaccines, in what President Cyril Ramaphosa called an historic step to spread lifesaving technology. The “tech transfer hub” could make it possible for African companies to begin manufacturing mRNA vaccines – the advanced technology now used in shots from Pfizer and Moderna – in as little as 9-12 months, the World Health Organisation said. It announced two companies had signed up so far, and said it was in talks with Pfizer and Moderna about participating. “Through this initiative we will change the narrative of an Africa that is a centre of disease and poor development,” said Ramaphosa, speaking by video link at the WHO press conference where the programme was launched. The WHO has long been calling for rich countries to share vaccine technology. The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40 per cent over the past week. “Today I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. In a statement, the WHO described the hub as a training facility, “where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology.” The two South African companies participating so far were Afrigen Biologics, described as a development company, and Biovac, described as a manufacturer. WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the WHO was in negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna, which have both produced vaccines widely used in rich countries using new mRNA technology, which sends instructions into the body to make proteins that trigger an immune response. ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["“tech transfer hub”"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Ramaphosa","WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan"]},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["The initiative to help African countries produce vaccines is especially urgent at a time when cases and deaths on the continent have increased by almost 40 per cent over the past week"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO to create COVID-19 vaccine hub in South Africa","document":"South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the move to create a COVID-19 vaccine hub in his country will improve manufacturing for the entire continent. Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/EPA-EFE June 21 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization announced Monday it is establishing a hub in South Africa where manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries can gain the knowledge and licenses necessary to produce their own vaccines against the coronavirus. The WHO has for months warned against the inequitable access to vaccines worldwide with richer nations seeking to inoculate their entire populations against the virus at the expense of lives in poorer countries. In mid-April, due to the urgent need for vaccines in poorer nations, particularly those in Africa, the WHO issued a call to see interest in establishing a transfer hub for mRNA vaccine technology, which is used in the creation of some of the coronavirus jabs, in order to manufacture their own COVID-19 vaccines. \"Today, I am delighted to announce that WHO is in discussions with a consortium of companies and institutions to establish a technology transfer hub in South Africa,\" WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters during a press conference , explaining the WHO will lead the effort by establishing the criteria for technology transfer, assessing applications and developing standards and proving support and training. The WHO head said they had received more than 50 proposals from its April request from those wanting to participate in these training hubs -- half from companies and institutions wanting the mRNRA technology and half from those with the knowledge. Advertisement The majority of the companies involved in the endeavor are smaller firms but Soumya Swaminathan, WHO's lead scientist, said they are speaking with larger mRNA companies \"and hope very much they will come on board.\" \"We could see within nine to 12 months vaccines being produced in Africa,\" she said. RELATED 25% of young adults most likely won't get COVID-19 vaccine, CDC survey shows The announcement was made amid a push to vaccinate those in the African continent where the virus continues to surge. Tedros said while richer countries that are able to inoculate their citizens against the virus are seeing their daily cases and deaths decrease, the number in Africa has increased by nearly 40% in the past week with some countries experiencing their number of deaths triple or quadruple. According to Oxford University's Our World in Data project, while nearly 22% of the world has received at least one shot of a vaccine, only 0.9% of those in low-income nations have received the life-saving jab. RELATED China reaches milestone 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses On the African continent, the number is 2.4%, it said. In April, days before it issued its call for interest in the hub, the WHO said of the nearly 700 million vaccine doses administered less than 2% were in Africa where countries had only received their first shipments five weeks earlier. Advertisement The WHO said its COVAX distribution project aims to provide the 43 African nations with up to 600 million doses by the end of the year in order to inoculate at least 20% of its more than 1.3 billion people. It is unclear if these transfer hubs will alter those figures. However, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described the transfer as a \"landmark initiative\" in advancing efforts to build vaccine development and manufacturing on the continent in order for it to create \"a path to self determination.\" \"South Africa welcomes the opportunity to host a vaccine technology transfer hub and to build on the capacity and expertise that already exists on the continent to contribute to this effort,\" he said. South Africa has been leading an effort for the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines in order for poorer countries to gain the technology necessary to combat the virus. During the press conference Monday, he said they are continuing with this effort. \"We from Africa have been calling for the capability, the capacity that needs to be transferred to Africa, so that we can also make our own vaccines. It's been shown now that we cannot rely on vaccines that are made outside of Africa because they never come, they never arrive on time and people continue to die.\" Advertisement He called the creation of the hub \"a phenomenal step but it is a step that needs to be taken as we move to the realization of what we've proposed.\" Following the announcement, Doctors Without Borders called the idea of the hubs \"a welcomed step\" but urged companies such as Moderna and Pfizer-BioNtech, which are larger companies that produce COVID-19 vaccines through their own patented mRNA technology, to share their knowledge with it. \"What needs to happen next is Moderna and Pfizer-BioNtech must immediately shore their mRNA technology with the hub so that many more mRNA vaccines can be produced independently by manufacturers in South Africa and more broadly on the African continent,\" Kate Stegeman, advocacy coordinator at DWB's Access Campaign in South Africa, said in a statement.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["the criteria for technology transfer"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["South African President Cyril Ramaphosa","WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus","Soumya Swaminathan, WHO's lead scientist"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"WHO-backed vaccine hub for Africa to copy Moderna COVID-19 shot","document":"FILE PHOTO: Vials of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are seen in the town of Ricany near Prague, Czech Republic, February 25, 2021. Efforts to develop an African base for COVID-19 vaccine production will focus on trying to replicate Moderna’s shot, but a lack of progress in talks with the US company mean the project will take time, a senior WHO official told Reuters. The drive to produce vaccines in Africa is designed to help more developing countries access COVID-19 shots after rich nations bought up most of this year’s supply. Moderna said last October it would not enforce patents related to its shot during the pandemic, raising hopes that other companies might be able to copy it and help boost COVID-19 vaccine production. In practice, though, it is hard to replicate a vaccine without the information on how it is made, and the World Health Organization-backed tech transfer hub in South Africa – set up in June to give poorer nations the know-how to produce COVID-19 vaccines – has so far not reached a deal with the company. “The talks have not yielded any results,” Martin Friede, WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research coodinator, told Reuters. Moderna did not respond to a request for comment. The case highlights the challenges faced by the WHO as it battles to expand vaccine production to help address the glaring inequalities between rich and poor nations in the pandemic. More than three quarters of the 5.5 billion COVID-19 shots administered worldwide have gone to high and upper-middle income countries, which make up just over a third of the world’s population. Currently only 3% of Africa is vaccinated, the African Union’s top health official said last week, compared with more than half of the United States and three quarters of Spain. Friede said Moderna’s vaccine had been chosen as an abundance of public information and its pledge not to enforce patents made the shot slightly easier to copy than some rivals. “We have to make a choice now. The deadline is upon us; time to start ordering chemicals. We’ve chosen Moderna,” he said. But even if the hub manages without Moderna’s help, it could take more than a year to get a distributable vaccine as clinical trials would only begin in the latter half of 2022, he added. In May, the United States said it would support waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in order to help speed an end to the pandemic. But the idea has faced opposition from pharmaceutical firms, which argue they need to oversee any technology transfer due to the complexity of the manufacturing process. Pfizer (PFE.N) and its partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE) separately struck a deal in July for South Africa’s Biovac to help make around 100 million doses a year of their COVID-19 vaccine for Africa. Their shot, like Moderna’s, uses so-called mRNA technology. However, the deal is to “fill and finish” the vaccine, the final stages of production where the product is put into vials, sealed and packaged for shipping. It does not cover the complicated process of mRNA production, which Pfizer and BioNTech will do at their European plants. read more Neither responded to requests for comment. The WHO has been trying to persuade Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to join forces with its African tech transfer hub. But COVID-19 vaccine makers have warned that non-authorised producers would compete for vital raw materials and production gear that the established players – most of which have earned huge profits from vaccination – rely on. Hub consortium partner Afrigen Biologics will produce the initial batch of doses, before transferring the skills and technology to local manufacturing partner, Biovac Institute – both are Cape Town-based – which will mass produce the vaccines. “This is not something that we are asking industry to give us for free,” Friede said about talks with the companies for access to information, adding that royalties, territorial limitations and other constraints could be built into a deal. Healthcare analysts doubt the plan can be mobilised quickly. “There are many steps which will require lots of iterations before they can be ready for prime time commercial grade production,” said Prashant Yadav, a global healthcare supply chain expert at the Center for Global Development in Washington. AU Special Envoy on COVID-19 says Africa is not relying on vaccine donations: ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["the World Health Organization-backed tech transfer hub in South Africa"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":["June"]},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Martin Friede, WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research coodinator","Prashant Yadav, a global healthcare supply chain expert"]},{"role":"Location","values":["South Africa’"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["to give poorer nations the know-how to produce COVID-19 vaccines"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Not-for-profit Generic Drug Company Officially Established, Attracts Interest of More Than 120 Health Organizations","document":"Newsroom / Not-for-profit Generic Drug Company Officially Established, Attracts Interest of More Than 120 Health Organizations Not-for-profit Generic Drug Company Officially Established, Attracts Interest of More Than 120 Health Organizations 14 generic drugs used in hospitals are initial focus of efforts, CEO named September 06, 2018 Salt Lake City, UT – Civica Rx, the initiative previously known as Project Rx, is the name of a new not-for-profit generic drug company that will help patients by addressing shortages and high prices of lifesaving medications. Since the initiative was announced in January 2018, more than 120 health organizations representing about a third of the nation’s hospitals have contacted Civica Rx and expressed a commitment or interest in participating with the new company. The company is organized as a Delaware nonstock, not-for-profit corporation, and will be headquartered in Utah. Initial governing members of Civica Rx will include Catholic Health Initiatives, HCA Healthcare, Intermountain Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, Providence St. Joseph Health, SSM Health, and Trinity Health. These seven organizations, representing about 500 U.S. hospitals, will each provide leadership for the Civica Rx Board of Directors and will provide much of the initial capitalization for the company. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will also work in consultation with Civica Rx to address its particular needs. Other health systems participating with Civica Rx will be announced later this year. Three major philanthropies will also join Civica Rx as governing members: the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Peterson Center on Healthcare, and the Gary and Mary West Foundation.The engagement of philanthropic members is intended to further support and safeguard the company’s not-for-profit, social welfare mission. Civica Rx has identified 14 hospital-administered generic drugs as the initial focus of the company’s efforts. It will be an FDA approved manufacturer and will either directly manufacture generic drugs or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations. Martin VanTrieste, former chief quality officer for Amgen, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has been named CEO of Civica Rx. VanTrieste has more than 35 years of experience in pharmaceuticals and was ranked No. 2 on the 2018 Medicine Maker Power List of Industry Influencers. VanTrieste has agreed to lead Civica Rx without compensation. “We are creating a public asset with a mission to ensure that essential generic medications are accessible and affordable,” said VanTrieste. “The fact that a third of the country’s hospitals have either expressed interest or committed to participate with Civica Rx shows a great need for this initiative. This will improve the situation for patients by bringing much needed competition to the generic drug market.” Civica Rx will first seek to stabilize the supply of essential generic medications administered in hospitals, many of which have fallen into chronic shortage situations, putting patients at risk. The initiative will also result in lower costs and more predictable supplies of essential generic medicines, helping ensure that patients and their needs come first in the generic drug marketplace. Civica Rx expects to have its first products on the market as early as 2019. Research into the actual costs of manufacturing and distributing generic drugs suggests that, in many instances, prices for generic drugs used in hospitals can be reduced to a fraction of their current costs. This can save patients, and the healthcare systems that care for them, hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Civica Rx is collaborating with the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) newly formed AHA Center for Health Innovation to address inquiries about the initiative. Health systems and hospitals may call 800-242-4677 with questions, or visit www.civicarx.org for information. About Catholic Health Initiatives Catholic Health Initiatives, a faith-based health system formed in 1996, is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems. Based in Englewood, Colo., CHI operates in 18 states and comprises 100 hospitals, including two academic health centers, major teaching hospitals and 29 critical-access facilities, representing approximately 1,230 sites of care. In fiscal year 2017, CHI provided $2.1 billion in charity care and community benefit, with operating revenues of $15.5 billion. www.catholichealthinitiatives.org About the Gary and Mary West Foundation Inspired by its founders and sole funders, Gary and Mary West, the Gary and Mary West Foundation is dedicated to lowering healthcare costs and increasing access to high-quality, affordable models of care that enable seniors to successfully age in place. As part of the West Health family of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations based in San Diego and Washington D.C., the Foundation works with its Institute and Policy Center using philanthropy, applied medical research and advocacy to transform healthcare across America. About HCA Healthcare HCA Healthcare is a leading provider of healthcare, comprising 178 hospitals and approximately 1,800 care sites in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare is a learning healthcare system, using more than 28 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve care and save lives. About Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based not-for-profit system of 23 hospitals, 170 clinics, a Medical Group with about 2,300 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health plans group called SelectHealth, and other medical services. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare through high quality and sustainable costs. For more information about Intermountain, visit www.intermountainhealthcare.org . About Laura and John Arnold Foundation The Laura and John Arnold Foundation’s core objective is to improve the lives of individuals by strengthening our nation’s social, governmental, and economic systems. Its investments are focused on criminal justice, health care, sustainable public finance, evidence-based policy and several other key areas. LJAF has offices in Houston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. About Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic . Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network . About Peterson Center on Healthcare The Peterson Center on Healthcare is a non-profit organization dedicated to making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans. The organization is working to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system by finding innovative solutions that improve quality and lower costs, and accelerating their adoption on a national scale. Established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Center collaborates with stakeholders across the healthcare system and engages in grant-making, partnerships, and research. About Providence St. Joseph Health Providence St. Joseph Health is a national, Catholic not-for-profit health system, comprising a diverse family of organizations. Together, PSJH is committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, especially those who are poor and vulnerable. With 51 hospitals, 829 physician clinics, senior services, supportive housing and many other health and educational services, the health system and its partners employ 119,000 caregivers (employees) serving communities across seven states—Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington. For more information about PSJH, visit www.psjhealth.org . About SSM Health SSM Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system serving the comprehensive health needs of communities across the Midwest through a robust and fully integrated health care delivery system. With more than 40,000 employees and 10,000 providers, SSM Health includes 24 hospitals, more than 300 physician offices and other outpatient care sites, 10 post-acute facilities, comprehensive home care and hospice services, a pharmacy benefit company, a health insurance company, an accountable care organization, and virtual care. About Trinity Health Trinity Health is one of the largest Catholic health systems in the nation, serving communities through 94 hospitals and 109 continuing care locations in 22 states by the efforts of 133,000 colleagues and 7,800 employed physicians and clinicians. Based in Livonia, Mich., and with annual operating revenues of $17.6 billion and assets of $24.7 billion, the organization returns $1.1 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Civica Rx"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Martin VanTrieste"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["VanTrieste"]},{"role":"Location","values":["Utah"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["help patients by addressing shortages and high prices of lifesaving medications"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Group Established to Connect, Inspire and Empower UCI Women in Technology","document":"To connect, inspire, and empower women working, researching, and teaching in technology-related fields across campus, the University of California, Irvine has established a new diversity affinity group, Women in Technology at UCI (WiT UCI). Through strategic partnerships, career development, educational events, and networking activities, Women in Technology at UCI will strengthen the community of women in technology on campus. Its objective is to engage with staff, faculty, students, and alumni to further the group’s vision and build an alliance of female innovators and leaders and those who support them. “Our slogan is to ‘advance, inspire, empower and act.’ WiT UCI is an organization that will work tirelessly to make a positive difference by focusing on diversity, equality and inclusion. Its vision extends across all areas of technology at UCI, and our goal is to initiate change that advances, inspires and empowers women,” said Shohreh Bozorgmehri, WiT UCI founder and inaugural chair, as well as director of student and academic services in the Office of Information Technology. WiT UCI has established a diverse advisory board of faculty and staff in technology roles at the Office of Information Technology, the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, the School of Social Ecology, the School of Medicine and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. They were selected by the organization’s leadership because of their professional accomplishments; dedication to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion; and commitment to UCI’s mission. The advisory board will work with campus partners and collaborators to achieve the following goals: Build a strong community of women and their allies who support Women in Technology at UCI’s vision. This will include students, faculty, staff, alumni and strategic partners; all gender identities are welcome. Highlight the accomplishments, research and thought leadership of UCI women in technology and UCI women who creatively apply technology to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s opportunities. Increase the retention and advancement of women in staff and academic roles at UCI. Connect women with role models who can support them and provide mentorship. Partner with like-minded organizations and associations to promote complementary initiatives, such as Academic & Professional Women of UCI. Make a measurable difference in the metrics that matter. Influence through outreach to the greater community, including K-12. Change attitudes, remove barriers, and equip and empower UCI women to succeed and lead in the digital economy. “Our goal is to support the advancement of women in information technology from hire to retire while raising awareness of gender and racial and ethnic gaps across campus,” said advisory board member Debra Richardson, professor emeritus of informatics and founding dean of the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Women in Technology at UCI (WiT UCI)"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Shohreh Bozorgmehri"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["advisory board member Debra Richardson"]},{"role":"Location","values":["the University of California, Irvine"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["To connect, inspire, and empower women working, researching, and teaching in technology-related fields across campus"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"State Department establishes task force on Ethiopia as conflict rages","document":"The State Department has established a new task force to oversee its \"planning, management and logistics related to events in Ethiopia ,\" a spokesperson confirmed Friday. The creation of the Ethiopia Conflict Task Force suggests the department is growing increasingly concerned about the situation in the country . It comes as the conflict there continues to escalate and rebel groups claim territorial advances toward the capital city of Addis Ababa and as the State Department warns Americans to depart Ethiopia \"as soon as possible.\" The new task force was first reported by Foreign Policy. On Wednesday, the State Department authorized the departure of non-emergency US government personnel and family members from the embassy in the capital \"due to armed conflict, civil unrest, and possible supply shortages.\" The day prior, shortly after the Ethiopian government had announced a state of emergency, the State Department raised its travel advisory for the country to Level 4: Do Not Travel, warning that \"further escalation is likely, and may cause supply chain shortages, communications blackouts and travel disruptions.\" \"Incidents of civil unrest and ethnic violence may occur without warning,\" the advisory said. The State Department spokesperson told CNN on Friday that they \"are monitoring commercial flight availability closely and encourage US citizens to have departure plans that do not involve the US government.\" They also urged US citizens in the country to register with the State Department \"so we can reach them with updates as needed.\" US officials have expressed grave concern at the escalation of the yearlong conflict, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling Thursday for the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed \"to halt its military campaign, including air strikes in population centers in Tigray and mobilization of ethnic militias,\" the Eritrean government to remove its troops from Ethiopia and \"the forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) to immediately stop the current advance towards Addis Ababa.\" Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, in a January 29, 2017, file photo. US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman traveled to Ethiopia this week in a further attempt to press the parties to end hostilities and come to the negotiating table. The State Department spokesperson noted that Feltman remained in the Ethiopian capital on Friday. \"As evidenced by his visit, the United States continues to engage the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front to secure a commitment to immediate ceasefire negotiations and lay the groundwork for a durable, peaceful solution,\" the spokesperson said. \"This is the message Special Envoy Feltman delivered in Addis.\" \"Our diplomats, in Addis and across the world, continue to press for a deescalation of the current crisis,\" they said.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["the Ethiopia Conflict Task Force"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":null},{"role":"Location","values":["Ethiopia"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["the department is growing increasingly concerned about the situation in the country"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"U.S. 5th Fleet Launches Task Force to Integrate Unmanned Systems, AI","document":"U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) established a new task force Thursday to rapidly integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence with maritime operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations. Task Force 59 is the first U.S. Navy task force of its kind. The U.S. 5th Fleet region’s unique geography, climate, and strategic importance offer an ideal environment for innovation. “The bottom line on why we’re doing this is so that we can develop and integrate unmanned systems and AI as a means to do two things,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. “One, enhance our maritime domain awareness, and two, increase deterrence.” Cooper also stated the task force would rely heavily on regional and coalition partnerships. Cooper appointed Capt. Michael D. Brasseur, an expert in maritime robotics, as Task Force 59’s first commodore during a commissioning ceremony onboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain, Thursday. Brasseur served as a founding member of the NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative prior to arriving in Bahrain. Brasseur’s staff includes experienced operators with region-specific expertise, including directors for unmanned systems; unmanned exercises; task force integration; cyber, AI and space; and partnership opportunities. In the coming weeks, the task force aims to build trust and confidence in human-machine teaming through a series of operations at sea. International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 22, slated for next year, will provide NAVCENT a real-world opportunity to demonstrate the resiliency and scalability of human-machine teaming technologies. IMX-22 will include more than 60 nations and international organizations and features the extensive use of unmanned systems in various operational scenarios designed to challenge the technology in a dynamic environment and ultimately enhance partner capabilities through manned and unmanned teaming. The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses nearly 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The region is comprised of 21 countries and includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab-al-Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen. ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Task Force 59"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Capt. Michael D. Brasseur"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces"]},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["to rapidly integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence with maritime operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"New SEC enforcement task force to focus on climate, ESG compliance","document":"The SEC is creating a Climate and ESG Task Force in its Division of Enforcement to develop initiatives to proactively identify misconduct related to environmental, social, and governance issues. Initially, the task force will identify any material gaps or misstatements in issuers’ disclosure of climate risks under existing rules, the SEC said in its announcement of the new task force Thursday. The task force also will analyze disclosure and compliance issues relating to investment advisers’ and funds’ ESG strategies. Sophisticated data analysis will be used to mine and assess information across registrants to identify potential violations. “Climate risks and sustainability are critical issues for the investing public and our capital markets,” SEC Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee said in a news release. “The task force announced today will play an important role in enhancing and coordinating the efforts of the Division of Enforcement, the Office of the Whistleblower, and other parts of the agency to bolster the efforts of the commission as a whole on these vital matters.” The Climate and ESG Task Force also will evaluate and pursue tips, referrals, and whistleblower complaints on ESG-related issues, and will provide expertise and insight to teams working on ESG-related matters. “Proactively addressing emerging disclosure gaps that threaten investors and the market has always been core to the SEC’s mission,” Kelly L. Gibson, the acting deputy director of enforcement who will lead the task force, said in a news release. “This task force brings together a broad array of experience and expertise, which will allow us to better police the market, pursue misconduct, and protect investors.”","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Climate and ESG Task Force"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Kelly L. Gibson"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["SEC Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee"]},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["to develop initiatives to proactively identify misconduct related to environmental, social, and governance issues"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"NAVCENT Creates Task Force for AI, Unmanned Tech Integration; Michael Brasseur Quoted","document":"Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) has launched a new task force to accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence and unmanned platforms across the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Task Force 59 will integrate these technologies in alignment with the unique climate, geography and strategic characteristics present in the 5th Fleet's area of operations, NAVCENT said Thursday. Capt. Michael Brasseur will contribute his maritime robotics expertise to lead the task force as commodore. He was recently a member of NATO's Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative. “As we continue to adapt and implement cutting edge technology, I fully expect our talented team will enrich and enhance the 5th Fleet mission,” Brasseur said. The task force will build human trust in AI over the coming weeks in preparation for next year's International Maritime Exercise, which will demonstrate unmanned systems in multiple dynamic scenarios.","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Task Force 59"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Capt. Michael Brasseur"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Brasseur"]},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["to accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence and unmanned platforms across the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Navy to launch new unmanned and AI systems task force in the Middle East","document":"An MQ-9 Sea Guardian unmanned maritime surveillance aircraft system flies over Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Coronado during U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem 21 on April 21, 2021. (Shannon Renfroe/U.S. Navy) WASHINGTON — The Navy will launch its first task force dedicated to unmanned systems and artificial intelligence in the Middle East on Thursday as the U.S. military continues to shift its counterterrorism forces within the region, the service announced. Naval Forces Central Command will oversee Task Force 59, which will concentrate unmanned and AI capabilities from across the Navy and roll them out for sailors to use in a real-world, complex setting, said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of NAVCENT and 5th Fleet. “We need to get unmanned systems out into the fleet into the hands of operators, so this is exactly what we're doing here at NAVCENT with Task Force 59,” he said Wednesday. Cooper declined to say whether the new task force would be involved with counterterrorism missions, though he said NAVCENT has “been very involved with Afghanistan from a [noncombatant evacuation] standpoint.” The establishment of the Navy task force in the Middle East comes as the U.S. boosts its reliance on unmanned capabilities in the region after withdrawing all American forces from Afghanistan last week and ending 20 years of military involvement in that country. U.S. Central Command has said it will continue to conduct “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan if needed. That included two drone strikes on Islamic State fighters in Kabul in the final days of U.S. evacuation efforts from the city. The Task Force will employ some technologies that have not yet been used in daily operations. The idea is to evaluate the systems in a real-world setting, which “is exactly what will help us accelerate the technology development and integration across the fleet,\" Cooper said. “This effort is really to get the unmanned systems in the hands of the operators so they can put it against real problems and determine whether it helps solve those problems and if it doesn't, perhaps we should look for [other options,]” he said. Task Force 59 will integrate the Navy’s arsenal of aerial, surface and undersea drones and AI systems “as a means to do two things: enhance our maritime domain awareness and to increase our deterrence,” Cooper said. Among those unmanned and AI technologies are those used in the Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Battle Problem 21, a weeklong exercise in April that tested manned and unmanned capabilities in invented scenarios, Cooper said. The initiative comes as the Pentagon pushes to further integrate AI and unmanned capabilities into the forces as it focuses on confronting near-peer adversaries such as China. In its 2022 budget, the Defense Department requested $112 billion for development, testing and evaluation — its largest-ever request for the category that includes AI and autonomous systems development. “Beijing already talks about using AI for a range of missions, from surveillance to cyberattacks to autonomous weapons,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in July. “China’s leaders have made clear they intend to be globally dominant in AI by the year 2030.” Primarily, the drones and AI systems will be used to offer a more complex picture of the surrounding environment, from above and below the surface, Cooper said. “An unmanned surface vessel nested with five or six or 10 other unmanned surface vessels patrolling a certain area in this region offers us the ability to see what's happening in that region and would obviously deter malign activity that would happen there,” he said. The 5th Fleet region, which spans from the Red Sea to parts of the Indian Ocean, offers benefits to testing the equipment in operational settings as “the waterways are ripe for real-world evaluation” with its 5,000 miles of coastline and “three critical choke points,” including the Strait of Hormuz, the only passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, and the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, Cooper said. “I think that environment really suits us well to experiment and move faster,” he said. “Our belief is if the new systems can work here, they can probably work anywhere else.” ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Task Force 59"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":null},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":["Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of NAVCENT and 5th Fleet"]},{"role":"Location","values":["the Middle East"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["The initiative comes as the Pentagon pushes to further integrate AI and unmanned capabilities into the forces as it focuses on confronting near-peer adversaries such as China"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"UNITED STATES: SEC Announces Enforcement Task Force Focused on Climate and ESG Issues","document":" The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force in the Division of Enforcement. The task force will be led by Kelly L. Gibson, the Acting Deputy Director of Enforcement, who will oversee a Division-wide effort, with 22 members drawn from the SEC’s headquarters, regional offices, and Enforcement specialized units. Consistent with increasing investor focus and reliance on climate and ESG-related disclosure and investment, the Climate and ESG Task Force will develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct. The task force will also coordinate the effective use of Division resources, including through the use of sophisticated data analysis to mine and assess information across registrants, to identify potential violations. The initial focus will be to identify any material gaps or misstatements in issuers’ disclosure of climate risks under existing rules. The task force will also analyze disclosure and compliance issues relating to investment advisers’ and funds’ ESG strategies. Its work will complement the agency’s other initiatives in this area, including the recent appointment of Satyam Khanna as a Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and ESG . As an integral component of the agency’s efforts to address these risks to investors, the task force will work closely with other SEC Divisions and Offices, including the Divisions of Corporation Finance, Investment Management, and Examinations. In addition, the Climate and ESG Task Force will evaluate and pursue tips, referrals, and whistleblower complaints on ESG-related issues, and provide expertise and insight to teams working on ESG-related matters across the Division. ESG related tips, referrals and whistleblower complaints can be submitted here . ","event_type":"Organization Established","arguments":[{"role":"Organization","values":["Climate and ESG Task Force"]},{"role":"Registered Capital","values":null},{"role":"Date","values":null},{"role":"Head of Institution","values":["Kelly L. Gibson"]},{"role":"Spokenmen","values":null},{"role":"Location","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["Consistent with increasing investor focus and reliance on climate and ESG-related disclosure and investment, the Climate and ESG Task Force will develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Annular 'ring of fire' solar eclipse spotted in the Northern Hemisphere sky from Beijing to New York","document":"Annular 'ring of fire' solar eclipse spotted in the Northern Hemisphere sky from Beijing to New York The top of the world got a sunrise special on Thursday — a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse was seen from vantage points from the Canadian province of Ontario, through Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun. An annular eclipse occurs when a new Moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn’t completely blot out the Sun when it's dead center. The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia enjoyed a partial eclipse, at least where the skies were clear. At those locations, the Moon appeared to take a bite out of the Sun. It was the first eclipse of the Sun visible from North America since August 2017, when a dramatic total solar eclipse crisscrossed the US. The next is coming up in 2024. A total lunar eclipse graced the skies two weeks ago. ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["Thursday","August 2017","2024","two weeks ago"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia","the Northern Hemisphere sky from Beijing to New York","the Canadian province of Ontario, through Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["Annular 'ring of fire' solar eclipse","a partial eclipse","A total lunar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["when a new Moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn’t completely blot out the Sun when it's dead center"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Annular solar eclipse: Crowds in Asia gather to see 'ring of fire'","document":"People across Asia are witnessing an annular solar eclipse, which is also known as a \"ring of fire\". Crowds have gathered to watch the natural phenomenon in a number of countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia. In an annular eclipse, the moon covers the centre of the Sun, giving the appearance of a bright ring. There are usually two solar eclipses on Earth every year, and they occur only when the Earth is completely or partially in the Moon's shadow. The previous solar eclipse was on 2 July and was visible almost exclusively over South America. The next total solar eclipse will be on 14 December 2020, and will be visible across parts of southern Chile and Argentina, as well as south-west Africa and Antarctica. Solar eclipse in South America delights thousands When is the next solar eclipse in my country? Total solar eclipse hits South America Americans gaze at eclipse wonder German Covid cases hit new high after Merkel warning Awkward conversations for US with its neighbours Travis Scott named in $750m Astroworld legal case One family, 40 failed border crossings. VideoOne family, 40 failed border crossings The students taking the 'world's hardest' exams. VideoThe students taking the 'world's hardest' exams The mums using Instagram to offer advice to new parents The man who could be India's first gay judge Awkward conversations for US with its neighbours How Ethiopia's once mighty army has been outflanked 'I've seen irreversible change but hope too for planet' Why Mexico is not prepared for the migrant caravan. VideoWhy Mexico is not prepared for the migrant caravan","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["2 July","14 December 2020"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["parts of southern Chile and Argentina, as well as south-west Africa and Antarctica","South America","Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia","Asia"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar eclipse","total solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Partial solar eclipse to darken Irish skies","document":"People in the southeast of the country look set to have the best opportunity to witness a rare solar event tomorrow morning. A Partial Solar Eclipse, where almost half of the Sun's diameter is covered, will occur, and will be the deepest partial eclipse since 20 March 2015. According to Astronomy Ireland, there will not be a deeper partial solar eclipse from Ireland until 29 March 2025. Editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine David Moore said that although Ireland is a long way from the centre line of the Annular Eclipse, if skies are clear tomorrow, people should get a chance to see \"this extremely rare natural spectacle\". Eclipses happen once or twice every year around the world, but are often only visible in very inaccessible remote places. \"The good news for Ireland is that the eclipse will be high in the sky, about 50 degrees up in the southeast,\" said Mr Moore. He said the eclipse will begin just before 10am, with the \"first bite\" being taken out of the Sun, and it should end just before 12.30pm. The maximum eclipse will occur a few minutes after 11am where people in Donegal may see up to 45% of the Sun’s diameter being covered, while people in other places around Ireland will see at least 40% of the Sun covered. Ireland's last Total Solar Eclipse was in 1724, with the next one not due until 23 September 2090. If you are planning to check the skies tomorrow morning, remember you must never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or with devices such as telescopes or binoculars, as it can severely damage your eyes. There are some safe ways to view the eclipse, however, including CE approved special eclipse viewers, which have filters on them that protect the eyes from the harmful effects of the Sun. A simple pinhole projector, made with a piece of card or stiff paper, will also work. Punch a hole in the card and hold this in front of a second piece of paper and the image of the Sun will be projected through the hole onto the second piece of paper, keeping your eyes safe. Alternatively, there will be many viewing events, including one by Astronomy Ireland, which plans to livestream the eclipse. Researchers at I-LOFAR in Birr Castle Demesne, Co Offaly and DIAS Dunsink Observatory in Dublin will have solar telescopes with cameras set up at both locations and will be also be live streaming the event. Met Éireann is forecasting a warm and humid day tomorrow, with cloudy conditions in the western half of the country.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["tomorrow morning","20 March 2015","29 March 2025","before 10am","1724","23 September 2090"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Ireland","I-LOFAR in Birr Castle Demesne, Co Offaly and DIAS Dunsink Observatory in Dublin"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["A Partial Solar Eclipse","the Annular Eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["There are some safe ways to view the eclipse, however, including CE approved special eclipse viewers, which have filters on them that protect the eyes from the harmful effects of the Sun. A simple pinhole projector, made with a piece of card or stiff paper, will also work. Punch a hole in the card and hold this in front of a second piece of paper and the image of the Sun will be projected through the hole onto the second piece of paper, keeping your eyes safe"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":["Astronomy Ireland"]},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["Astronomy Ireland","Met Éireann"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["before 12.30pm"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"All you need to know about today's solar eclipse","document":"Analysis: we can expect Irish skies to turn a little darker as 30% of the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon Between 10am and midday on Thursday June 10th, Irish skies will turn a little darker as a result of 30% of the Sun being eclipsed by the Moon, with parts of the Earth entering the moon's shadow. As the Moon orbits in a nearly but not quite circular path around the Earth, it sometimes comes in between the Sun and the Earth itself, casting a shadow at specific locations on our planet. This phenomenon - known as a solar eclipse - occurs when the Moon blocks out part of the Sun's area as seen from Earth, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching our planet. We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences NASA Scientific Visualization Studio visualization of the Moon's shadow during tomorrow's annular solar eclipse In this week's eclipse as seen from Ireland (weather permitting), a maximum of about 30% of the Sun’s area will be blocked out by the Moon at 11:09am Irish time. If you imagine the Sun as a biscuit, it will look at that point as if someone has taken a bite off it and removed about 30% of its top-left portion. Since not all of the Sun’s area will be blocked out, this eclipse is known as a partial solar eclipse. The eclipse will start around 10:01am Irish time, reach its maximum darkness (maximum blocked-out area) at 11:09am and end at around 12:21pm. The exact times and maximum blocked out area depend slightly on your exact viewing location. Solar eclipses are seen from different parts of the globe usually a couple of times per year, but it occurs a lot less often over Ireland. In the Irish skies, the last partial Solar eclipse took place in August 2017 but then the Moon only blocked out 4% of the Sun. The last major (though still partial) eclipse took place in March 2015, when as much as 92% of the Sun was blocked out by the Moon. Viewers in parts of Canada, Russia, and Greenland will be extremely fortunate as they will be blessed with a spectacular, and rare annular 'Ring of Fire' eclipse. That means that the Moon doesn’t quite block out the entirety of the Sun’s disk (in what would be called a total solar eclipse), but fits just inside it, creating an astonishing ring of light. Only the youngest among us will be able to witness a total and an annular solar eclipse in Ireland, which are due in 2090 and 2093. However, we will not have to travel far or wait too long to witness the incredible spectacle that is a total solar eclipse, with one due to be visible from Northern and Eastern Spain, as well as Greenland and Iceland, in August 2026. Time to book tickets! We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences From RTÉ Archives, RTÉ News report on the 1999 solar eclipse While solar eclipses are breathtaking phenomena, it is crucial to remember that eclipses should NOT be viewed unfiltered. Do not attempt to look directly at the Sun with your own naked eyes, with normal sunglasses, or any optical devices that are not specifically designed and certified for eclipse viewing. Even when using sunglasses, looking at the Sun for even a very short period of time is extremely dangerous, and can cause permanent damage to your eye, even leading to blindness. To safely view the eclipse, you should - Get your hands on certified eclipse viewing glasses - Project an image of the eclipsed sun onto a sheet of paper by creating a hole on a stiff piece of paper or cardboard , or even just a colander ? For an even better projected view, using a cardboard box such as a shoebox also helps ? View the eclipse online through the many remote events organised by astronomers in Ireland or worldwide if you want to witness the full annular 'Ring of Fire’ eclipse. The latest update from Met Éireann forecasts that Thursday morning skies should be largely overcast but with some potential breaks in the cloud cover, particularly on the East coast. Keep your eclipse glasses, or your DIY eclipse projecting equipment, to hand and be ready for any break in the clouds! Eclipse data from Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Chris O’Byrne at NASA’s GFSC, and from Stellarium planetarium open source code v0.21.0 The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["11:09am","Between 10am and midday on Thursday June 10th","around 10:01am Irish time","August 2017","March 2015","2090 and 2093","August 2026","1999"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["parts of Canada, Russia, and Greenland","Ireland","Northern and Eastern Spain, as well as Greenland and Iceland"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar eclipse","a partial solar eclipse","annular solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["Get your hands on certified eclipse viewing glasses - Project an image of the eclipsed sun onto a sheet of paper by creating a hole on a stiff piece of paper or cardboard , or even just a colander ? For an even better projected view, using a cardboard box such as a shoebox also helps"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["Met Éireann","Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Chris O’Byrne at NASA’s GFSC","Stellarium planetarium open source code v0.21.0"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["12:21pm"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["when the Moon blocks out part of the Sun's area as seen from Earth, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching our planet"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"‘Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse: When You'll Be Able to See It in the Chicago Area","document":"The eclipse, known as a “Ring of Fire” eclipse, will not be a total eclipse, as the moon is too far away from the Earth to cover the sun completely, according to astronomers. A bright “annulus” will surround the new moon at the midpoint of the eclipse. The best views of the eclipse, which will take place early in the morning of June 10, will be found in Canada just to the north of Lake Superior, according to astronomers. Other areas will be treated to a partial view of the eclipse, including the Chicago area. According to the Adler Planetarium, the eclipse is set to begin before sunrise, which is at 5:15 a.m. on June 10. The eclipse will end at 5:39 a.m., experts say. Because of how early the eclipse will take place, the sun will be less than five degrees above the horizon, meaning that Chicago area residents who want to catch a glimpse of the eclipse will have to find an area with a clear line of sight toward the east-northeast horizon. Even with that view, the eclipse will only cover approximately one-quarter of the sun at its visible peak, according to astronomers. Chicagoans who wake up to see the eclipse are reminded to NEVER look at the sun without using a safe solar viewer. Permanent eye damage can result from looking at the sun, especially during an eclipse. For those residents hoping for another solar eclipse in 2021, there is another one set for Dec. 4, but that one will only be visible from Antarctica.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["the morning of June 10","at 5:15 a.m","Dec. 4"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["the Chicago area","Canada","the north of Lake Superior"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["a “Ring of Fire” eclipse","a total eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["the Adler Planetarium"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["at 5:39 a.m"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["the moon is too far away from the Earth to cover the sun completely"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"‘Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse Appears Above NYC, East Coast: See the Rare View","document":"This morning, there was a rare sighting of the ‘Ring of Fire’ Eclipse in sky above, making it the first celestial spectacle of its kind. After a few days of nasty weather, the tri-state area is getting a nice break with not only partly clear skies and lower humidity but also a celestial spectacle known as the \"ring of fire.\" New York City and nearby areas, along with the U.S. East Coast, were the ideal locations Thursday morning to watch the partial solar eclipse where the moon blocks about 60%-80% of the left side of the sun as they rise together, according to the Great American Eclipse website. It was only visible for about four minutes before the moon moved out of the sun's way. The event, known as an annular solar eclipse, occurs when the moon is too far from Earth to block out the entire sun, leaving the sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a \"ring of fire,“ NASA said. According to Space.com, the eclipse was completely visible in a narrow path starting at 4:12 a.m. ET from the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada, and moving over Greenland, the North Pole and finally ending at 9:11 a.m. ET over northeastern Siberia. Like with all solar eclipses, observers are advised against looking directly at the sun's rays as it can permanently damage the eyes. NASA says when watching a solar eclipse, wear certified solar viewing or eclipse glasses — those known to block not just the visible, but also the invisible, damaging infrared and ultraviolet rays — throughout the entire eclipse if you want to face the sun. Regular sunglasses are not safe for viewing the sun. The last time such major event occurred in the U.S. was in 2017 and it won't happen again until 2024. ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["4:12 a.m. ET","Thursday morning","2017","2024"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["New York City and nearby areas, along with the U.S. East Coast","the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada, and moving over Greenland, the North Pole","northeastern Siberia"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["an annular solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA","the Great American Eclipse website"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["about four minutes"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["9:11 a.m. ET"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["when the moon is too far from Earth to block out the entire sun, leaving the sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a \"ring of fire,"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Skies darkened under partial solar eclipse","document":"A Partial Solar Eclipse, where almost half of the Sun's diameter was covered, was visible for around two-and-a-half hours this morning. It is the deepest partial eclipse since 20 March 2015, and according to Astronomy Ireland, there will not be a deeper partial solar eclipse from Ireland until 29 March 2025. A Partial Solar Eclipse, where almost half of the Sun's diameter is covered is visible in Ireland this morning. (Don't look up whatever you do) #rtenews #SolarEclipse pic.twitter.com/lCemCxs55T Eclipses happen once or twice every year around the world, but are often only visible in very inaccessible remote places. The eclipse began just before 10am, with the \"first bite\" being taken out of the Sun, and it ended around 12.30pm. Astronomy Ireland viewing in Dublin of the partial solar eclipse where is it visible @rtenews pic.twitter.com/mDKjHv30ET Several people gathered at the Astronomy Ireland headquarters in Blanchardstown in Dublin to try and catch a glimpse of this rare phenomenon. Over the two hours, the scattered clouds cleared for long spells to give clear visibility of the partial eclipse. It was a momentous day for Tony Gannon, who is originally from Mayo but now lives in Dunboyne in Co Meath. He has been trying to view a partial eclipse for the best part of three decades without success until today. \"I think this is the third one I've tried to see in the last 25-30 odd years and this is the first time I've seen it. Every other time it's been cloudy, that's the problem with living in Ireland. \"It's like a piece taken out of a cake. It's hard to describe without seeing it.\" Gary Brady from Dublin who came along with his greyhound to watch the celestial event described what he saw through his special eclipse shades. \"So I'm seeing the sun and slowly there's a little bite or disc of the moon is starting to cover it from the top. And it's just slowly coming over the moon and you can see a little bit of very high cloud flying over as well so it's really amazing.\" \"It's lovely to be able to see it because I've seen it so many times on TV so to see it for real happen here in Dublin is amazing.\" Amalia Martin Barrera who lives in Dublin but is originally from the Canary Islands was taking pictures with a special filter in front of the camera. She told RTÉ News that photographing the eclipse without the right protection on the camera can damage the sensor. \"Back in Spain I watched one there but this is amazing because I have my glasses to protect my eyes so I can watch it properly. It's a great experience, I've always liked universe and these things so being able to watch it is really really nice.\" David Moore from Astronomy Ireland describe how special the occurrence is. \"For the moon, the Earth and the sun to line up, you see diagrams in books and magazines that make them look very big and close but in fact, the moon is 30 times the Earth's width away from us. So it's really a tiny target and to get it to pass directly in front of the sun is extremely difficult. \"It only clipped the top edge of the sun today. The last time it went completely in front of the sun was 1724, from Ireland, and it won't happen again 'til 2090.\" Ireland's last Total Solar Eclipse was in 1724, with the next one not due until 23 September 2090. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences All you need to know about today's solar eclipse Finally some visibility! Partial Solar #Eclipse2021 in #Dublin pic.twitter.com/2ETOkYbUQY The eclipse was also partly visible to observers in North America, other parts of Europe including France and the UK, and some of northern Asia. In London, where the moon covered 20% of the sun as the eclipse reached totality, sky-gazers glimpsed the event through cloud cover. Observers on the east coast of the United States were treated to a rare eclipsed sunrise. In northern Canada, northern Russia, northwest Greenland and the North Pole, the sun was 88% obscured by the moon. Many live stream views from various locations broadcast on YouTube were also subject to cloud cover. However, those with maximum visibility - and the necessary protective eyewear - would have seen the moon's silhouette ringed by the sun for a few minutes of the two-hour event. Ahead of the eclipse, experts warned people not to try and look at the sun directly, even through the clouds. The eclipse was the first annular - meaning \"ring-like\" - eclipse of 2021 and the 16th this century. Annular eclipses occur when the diameter of the moon visible from earth is less than that of the sun, leaving a \"ring of fire\" visible around its silhouette. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the sun's disk, momentarily plunging a portion of the Earth into complete darkness. The next total solar eclipse will occur on 4 December, but will only be visible from Antarctica.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["20 March 2015","around two-and-a-half hours this morning","before 10am","1724","4 December"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Dublin","North America, other parts of Europe including France and the UK, and some of northern Asia","the east coast of the United States","northern Canada, northern Russia, northwest Greenland and the North Pole"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["A Partial Solar Eclipse","Total Solar Eclipse","Annular eclipses"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["with a special filter in front of the camera"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":["YouTube"]},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["Astronomy Ireland","Ireland"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["two hours"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["around 12.30pm"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"No, It’s Not An ‘Annual’ Solar Eclipse. Discover The Celestial Cycles Behind This Week’s ‘Ring Of Light’ Solar Eclipse","document":"Map of the world by Edward Stanford Limited marked with the paths of totality for the Saros cycle of ... [+] eclipses from 1927-2164. The time and location of solar and lunar eclipses repeat themselves over a period of about 18 years. This series was discovered by Chaldeans over 2,500 years ago, and named by them the Saros. This map was modified by the drawing office of the Science Museum, London, for an exhibition held in 1927. The display at the Science Museum was to celebrate the total solar eclipse that was going to pass over North Wales and North West England that year. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images) Go type “annular” into your word processing software. It got changed to “annual,” right? The rare solar eclipse coming to North America on June 10, 2021 is one that commonly gets mis-named and, therefore, completely misunderstood. So let’s clear this up: there is no such thing as an “annual solar eclipse.” What happens on June 10, 2021 will be an annular solar eclipse. Here’s everything you need to know about the science that makes it happen: XIAMEN, CHINA - JUNE 21, 2020 - An annular eclipse of the sun, photographed on the rooftop of the ... [+] tallest hotel in kulangsu, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China, June 21, 2020. - PHOTOGRAPH BY Costfoto / Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing (Photo credit should read Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) PROMOTED Annular means ring-shaped—hence the colloquial term “ring of fire” (though “ring of light” is more accurate). During this event 89% of the Sun will be blocked by the Moon—as seen from a path through Canada, Greenland and Russia—to create a bright ring around the Sun. Much of northeast U.S. will see a big partial eclipse of the Sun around sunrise. Everyone will have to wear solar eclipses glasses and use solar filters on their cameras and telescopes. So the “annual” thing is a complete mis-type or auto-correct? Don’t solar eclipses happen every year? Well, actually, yes they do—usually—but there is no annual pattern whatsoever. It’s way more intricate and incredible than that. “About every 18 months” is usually what’s quoted for the recurrence of a particular kind of solar eclipse, but that’s not actually correct. Here are the annular solar eclipses coming up in the next decade: You can see no pattern at all, right? And yet there is usually an annular solar eclipse every year or two. So what’s going on? How an annular eclipse appears depending on whether your location is in the antumbra or penumbra. Rather, eclipses of the Sun and Moon occur every Saros—Greek for cycle. A Saros lasts for 6,585 days—18 years, 11 days and eight hours. Every Saros the Sun, Moon and Earth come full circle and for a few brief minutes they line-up to cause a spectacular totality (or annularity, which depends on the distance of the Moon from Earth). The eclipses in the same Saros throw a shadow onto the Earth that’s incredibly similar in geometry. The 18 years, 11 days difference means their date drifts 11 days forward for each subsequent eclipse, and the eight hours means that the Earth rotates a third, so the path shifts roughly 120º west. This pattern repeats, though each Saros begins as a set of repeating partial solar solar eclipses, then becomes annular, then total, then annular, then partial again before fizzling out. This process takes centuries. Let’s take this week’s solar eclipse on June 10, 2021 as an example. It’s an annular solar eclipse and it’s a member of Saros 147. It’s been causing eclipses since 1624 and will do so until 3049. Here’s what it’s been doing, and will do, in our immediate era—with each event exactly 18 years, 11 days and eight hours apart: You can see the pattern in the dates, above, and the westward drift of the paths of annularity. It’s exactly the same process for total solar eclipses, which are from a Saros that is currently producing totalities. In the same way, the totality experienced by 12 million Americans on August 21, 2017’s “Great American Eclipse” was part of Saros 145, so was witnessed 18 years, 11 days and eight hours previously on August 11, 1999 in the U.K. and Europe. Almost precisely the same shadow across Earth will fall on September 2, 2035, but this time on China, Japan and the Pacific Ocean. That’s not to say that eclipses close to each other aren’t related. “Most people don’t realize that eclipses follow each other,” said Dr. Jackie Faherty, Senior Scientist and Senior Education Manager jointly in the Department of Astrophysics and the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History. “It’s not a coincidence that two weeks prior to this we had a total lunar eclipse—it’s the way it goes.” We’re in the middle of an eclipse season. “The Earth, Moon and Sun line up on one side and it takes a while for it to move out of that lined-up position, so just two weeks later it’s going to bring you right back into that lineup,” said Faherty. “You’re either lined-up where you get the Earth’s shadow on the Moon or your lined-up where the Moon throws a shadow on the Earth.” The Moon’s orbit of Earth is tilted by 5º to the ecliptic, but it must cross the ecliptic twice each month. Those two positions are called nodes. Usually it reaches these nodes when the the Sun and Moon seem far apart from our point of view on Earth. This is why an eclipse does not occur each and every New Moon (because the Moon is above or below the Sun) and full Moon (because the Moon is above or below Earth’s shadow). But solar eclipses occurring outside the same eclipse season are unrelated. So when you’re watching a solar eclipse, remember that it’s part of a pattern that’s far larger than a human lifespan. It repeats through the ages, almost like a mathematical heartbeat as our Sun, Moon and Earth come full circle. Disclaimer: I am the Editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel,... Read More I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel, ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["June 10, 2021","June 21, 2020","August 21, 2017","August 11, 1999","1624","3049"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["kulangsu, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China","China, Japan and the Pacific Ocean","North Wales and North West England","North America","Canada, Greenland and Russia","Much of northeast U.S","the U.K. and Europe","September 2, 2035"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar and lunar eclipses","total solar eclipse","a total lunar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["wear solar eclipses glasses and use solar filters on their cameras and telescopes"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["Edward Stanford Limited"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["a few brief minutes"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Solar eclipse on June 10th 2021","document":"The Institute for Research on Exoplanets and its partners the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic and the Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec invite you to admire the solar eclipse taking place at sunrise on the morning of June 10th 2021. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, hiding it partially or completely. In southern Canada, the eclipse will be partial, which means the Sun will not be completely hidden. In Montreal, the eclipse will have already begun at sunrise, around 5:07 am, and the maximum will be reached at 5:39 am. At that time, 79% of the Sun’s surface will be hidden by the Moon. One hour later, at 6:39 am, the eclipse will be over. This map shows the different zones where the eclipse of June 10th 2021, will be visible in Quebec: in the dark blue region, the eclipse will be annular, while in the green and yellow regions, it will be partial. In Montreal, which is in the yellow zone, for example, the Sun will already be eclipsed at sunrise. Credit: ASTROLab du Parc National du Mont-Mégantic and Discover the Universe. “Solar eclipses, even partial ones, are rare astronomical phenomena, as they are only visible in a limited area of the globe. It is truly an event that is worth admiring!”, explains Frédérique Baron, astrophysicist at the Université de Montréal. The astronomical show will be most impressive in a corridor stretching from northern Ontario and Quebec to Siberia, passing through Nunavut, where the Moon’s silhouette will be placed directly on the Sun, hiding its entire centre and leaving only a ring of the Sun visible. “This is the first time that such an eclipse – an annular eclipse – will be observed in Quebec sky’s since 1930! “adds Nathalie Ouellette, Coordinator of the iREx, and also an astrophysicist at the Université de Montréal. The Institute and its partners are participating in several initiatives to encourage you to get up early on June 10th to enjoy this rare event! Careful! Never observe the Sun directly, during an eclipse or at any other time. Even partially eclipsed, the Sun is still a serious danger to your eye’s retina. “To observe the Sun safely you must use a solar filter that allows only a tiny fraction of the light to pass through, in accordance with the standard [ISO 12312-2: 2015], or observe the show indirectly, using a projection mechanism. “explains Frédérique Baron. Information cards with a detachable filter are available in several libraries in the city of Montreal. The filter allows allows for safe observations of the Sun. Credit: Space for Life. In Montreal, more than 4,000 solar filters will be distributed free of charge thanks to a joint initiative of the iREx, the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium at Space for Life, the Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec, the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic and the Société d’astronomie du Planétarium de Montréal. To obtain an information card with a detachable filter that allows you to look at the Sun safely, you can also go to the Bibliothèque des sciences at the campus MIL’s Complexe des sciences, at the Bibliothèque de mathématiques et informatique in the André-Aisenstadt Building, or to your local Montreal library. Most of them will be distributing the filters starting June 1st. Hurry! Quantities are limited! You can create a customised projection simply with two sheets of paper, as in this example with the logo of the Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique du Québec. Credit: CRAQ. Even without a solar filter, it is possible to observe the eclipse by watching a projection of the Sun, which can be created very easily. The Eclipse Challenge, launched by Discover the Universe, in partnership with iREx, encourages you to create your own projection system to safely follow the eclipse. “One might think it’s complicated to create a projection system to observe a solar eclipse safely, but it’s not! ” Marie-Eve Naud, astrophysicist at Université de Montréal and Project Manager for Discover the Universe, explains. “We can make one in less than a minute with two sheets of paper and a sharp object like a pencil, use a colander or a hollowed-out utensil, or even without any material at all, using our hands! “. Two iREx summer interns, Sarah Thiele and Maude Larivière, have created short video clips on our YouTube Channel (in English and French) to show you how to build an observation tube. Warning! The holes in a small tube must be really small to create a sharp image! Try using a pin! On the day of the observation, go – ideally before sunrise! – to a spot where the horizon is clear in the East-North-East direction. To guide your observations, a special episode of Les Astrophysiciennes podcast will be online early in the morning of June 10th. Our astrophysicists Frédérique Baron and Nathalie Ouellette, as well as contributors from Space for Life and Discover the Universe, will be on the air to tell you more about solar eclipses. On the morning of June 10th, grab your solar filter or projection device, listen to Les Astrophysiciennes, and come out to see the eclipse! ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["the morning of June 10th 2021","around 5:07 am","at 5:39 am","1930"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Quebec","northern Ontario and Quebec to Siberia, passing through Nunavut","Montreal","southern Canada"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar eclipse","an annular eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["use a solar filter that allows only a tiny fraction of the light to pass through, in accordance with the standard [ISO 12312-2: 2015], or observe the show indirectly, using a projection mechanism"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":["Space for Life and Discover the Universe","Les Astrophysiciennes podcast"]},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["at 6:39 am"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, hiding it partially or completely"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"A ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse will light up the sky this Thursday","document":"(CNN) — The moon will partially block out the sun this Thursday to create a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. Some people in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to catch the first of two solar eclipses this year on June 10. A solar eclipse happens when the moon crosses between the sun and the Earth, which blocks a portion of the sun’s rays, according to NASA. This eclipse is an annular eclipse, meaning the moon is far enough away from the Earth that it appears smaller than the sun. When the moon crosses paths with the fiery star, it will look smaller than the sun, leaving room for bright light to glow around the edges. This is called “the ring of fire” and will be visible to some people in Greenland, northern Russia and Canada, NASA said. The name “annular” comes from the Latin word “annulus,” which means ring-shaped, according to Farmers’ Almanac. Other countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, will be able to see a partial eclipse, which is where the moon only covers a portion of the sun. A fingernail-shaped shadow will cover a different percentage of the sun, depending on your location. The path of annularity — which traces where the ring of fire is visible — will begin over the northern United States, then cross over the Arctic before finishing in northeastern Russia, the Farmers’ Almanac said. The moon will begin to cover the sun at 4:12 a.m. ET (1:42 p.m. IST in India) on June 10, according to Farmers’ Almanac. The annular eclipse starts at 5:50 a.m. ET (3:20 p.m. IST), is at its greatest at 6:42 a.m. ET (4:12 p.m. IST) and ends at 7:34 a.m. ET (5:04 p.m. IST). Finally, the partial eclipse ends at 9:11 a.m. ET (6:41 p.m. IST). For more specific times related to your geographic location, check out TimeAndDate.com. If you’re unable to see the eclipse, NASA and The Virtual Telescope Project will be streaming live views. Because some of the sun’s rays will be glowing from behind the moon, it’s important to wear proper eye protection when viewing the solar eclipse, according to the American Astronomical Society. Make sure when you purchase a solar filter that it meets the ISO 12312-2 international standard to protect your eyes. “Eclipse glasses” cost a couple dollars and are the only safe way to view the eclipse, AAS said. Here are some additional safety tips to remember, according to the American Astronomical Society: This year, in addition to the two solar eclipses, there will be two eclipses of the moon — and three of these will be visible for some in North America, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. After the solar eclipse on June 10, the next opportunity to see an eclipse won’t come until November 19. This partial eclipse of the moon can be viewed by skywatchers in North America and Hawaii between 1 a.m. ET and 7:06 a.m. ET. And the year will end with a total eclipse of the sun on December 4. It won’t be visible in North America, but those in the Falkland Islands, the southern tip of Africa, Antarctica and southeastern Australia will be able to spot it. Here is what else you can look forward to in 2021. Typical of a normal year, 2021 will have 12 full moons. (There were 13 full moons last year, two of which were in October.) Here are all of the full moons remaining this year and their names, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac: June 24 — strawberry moon July 23 — buck moon August 22 — sturgeon moon September 20 — harvest moon October 20 — hunter’s moon November 19 — beaver moon December 18 — cold moon Be sure to check for the other names of these moons as well, attributed to their respective Native American tribes. The Delta Aquariids are best seen from the southern tropics and will peak between July 28 and 29, when the moon is 74% full. Interestingly, another meteor shower peaks on the same night — the Alpha Capricornids. This is a much weaker shower, but it has been known to produce some bright fireballs during its peak. The Carpicornids will be visible for everyone no matter which side of the equator you are on. The Perseid meteor shower, the most popular of the year, will peak between August 11 and 12 in the Northern Hemisphere, when the moon is only 13% full. Here is the meteor shower schedule for the rest of the year, according to EarthSky’s meteor shower outlook. October 8: Draconids October 21: Orionids November 4 to 5: South Taurids November 11 to 12: North Taurids November 17: Leonids December 13 to 14: Geminids December 22: Ursids Skywatchers will have multiple opportunities to spot the planets in our sky during certain mornings and evenings throughout 2021, according to the Farmer’s Almanac planetary guide. It’s possible to see most of these with the naked eye, with the exception of distant Neptune, but binoculars or a telescope will provide the best view. Mercury will look like a bright star in the morning sky from June 27 to July 16 and October 18 to November 1. The planet will shine in the night sky from August 31 to September 21 and November 29 to December 31. Venus, our closest neighbor in the solar system, is visible in the western sky at dusk in the evenings until December 31. It’s the second-brightest object in our sky, after the moon. Mars makes its reddish appearance in the morning sky between November 24 and December 31, and it will appear in the evening sky through August 22. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is the third-brightest object in our sky. The giant will be on display in the morning sky through August 19. Look for it in the evenings August 20 to December 31 — but it will be at its brightest from August 8 to September 2. Saturn’s rings are only visible through a telescope, but the planet itself can still be seen with the naked eye in the mornings through August 1 and in the evenings August 2 to December 31. It will be at its brightest during the first four days of August. Binoculars or a telescope will help you spot the greenish glow of Uranus on the mornings of May 16 to November 3 and the evenings of November 4 to December 31. The planet will be at its brightest between August 28 and December 31. And our most distant neighbor in the solar system, Neptune, will be visible through a telescope in the mornings through September 13 and during the evenings September 14 to December 31. The planetary outlier will be at its brightest between July 19 and November 8.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["5:50 a.m. ET (3:20 p.m. IST)","4:12 a.m. ET (1:42 p.m. IST in India)","June 10","from June 27 to July 16 and October 18 to November 1","August 19","December 13 to 14","November 24 and December 31","December 22","August 8 to September 2","November 19","August 28 and December 3","from August 31 to September 21 and November 29 to December 31","in the mornings through August 1 and in the evenings August 2 to December 31","November 11 to 12","May 16 to November 3 and the evenings of November 4 to December 31","August 11 and 12","the mornings through September 13 and during the evenings September 14 to December 31","August 22","December 18","31","July 28 and 29","June 24","October 8","November 4 to 5"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["the Northern Hemisphere","North America","Greenland, northern Russia and Canada","the United Kingdom and Ireland","the northern United States","the Arctic","northeastern Russia","Hawaii","the Falkland Islands, the southern tip of Africa, Antarctica and southeastern Australia","the southern tropics"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["A solar eclipse","hunter’s moon","Neptune","an annular eclipse","The Delta Aquariids","the Alpha Capricornids","The Perseid meteor shower","Draconids","October 21","Orionids","South Taurids","North Taurids","Leonids","Geminids","Ursids","Mercury","Venus","Mars","Jupiter","Saturn","Uranus"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["it’s important to wear proper eye protection when viewing the solar eclipse, according to the American Astronomical Society. Make sure when you purchase a solar filter that it meets the ISO 12312-2 international standard to protect your eyes","t’s possible to see most of these with the naked eye, with the exception of distant Neptune, but binoculars or a telescope will provide the best view","Binoculars or a telescope"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":["NASA and The Virtual Telescope Project"]},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["7:34 a.m. ET (5:04 p.m. IST)","9:11 a.m. ET (6:41 p.m. IST)","December 4"]},{"role":"Cause","values":["when the moon crosses between the sun and the Earth, which blocks a portion of the sun’s rays"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Best Places To See The Great American Total Solar Eclipse","document":"Are you planning to see the first total eclipse of the sun in the U.S. in 99 years, knowing that the next one here isn't until 2024? And do you want to find somewhere to see it worth the trip just for the festivities? On Monday, Aug. 21, astronomers and world-wide sky chasers will seek out a corridor from Oregon to South Carolina. PROMOTED For more details of this \"eclipse of the century\" -- arguably one of the world's greatest natural experiences -- do check out Space.com's complete guide, including where and when to see it, how long it lasts, what to expect, and how to plan ahead. Here are six interesting places where you can best view this rare solar phenomenon -- most venues offer lectures; great food; science, film art and music events as well. Whether you're an umbraphile (who loves total eclipses) or just someone who likes to be where the awesome action is, you'll find both celestial spectacle and true Americana: (EclipseCasper.com/media) The Wyoming Eclipse Festival, Casper Because the state's second-largest city has an altitude over 5k feet and usually clear skies, it holds Astrocon, the national convention of the Astronomical League, this year Aug. 16-19, preceding the eclipse. Events in and around Casper will focus on the sun event, but also other stars. Carhenge has been named the No. 2 wackiest attraction in America by TripAdvisor. (AP Photo/Nati... [+] Harnik) Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska Think Stonehenge on England's Salisbury Plain -- except cars replace the stone slabs, and this folk-art replica is in western Nebraska. Thirty-nine vintage automobiles are placed in the same proportions as Stonehenge, with a 1962 Cadillac marking the heel stone. The Missouri River in St. Joseph, Missouri. (Tim Kiser, Wikimedia Commons) St. Joseph, Missouri A weekend of workshops and lectures in St. Joseph leads up to the eclipse, with a huge, free public viewing event at Rosecrans Memorial Airport, where the duration of totality will be 2 minutes and 39 seconds, one second less than the max possible for this eclipse. Plus, Missouri barbeque! Giant City State Park. (Kbh3rd, Wikimedia Commons) Southern Illinois University & Vineyard, Carbondale The eclipse track will last the longest — 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds — inside Giant City State Park in southern Illinois, next to the Blue Sky Vineyard in Makanda. So you can raise a glass or more of wine to the sun show. SIU is billing Carbondale as the \"Eclipse Crossroads of America,\" because if you miss this year's total eclipse, you can wait for 2024 when Carbondale will be in the path of the next one to pass over the U.S. Hopkinsville, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz) Ground Zero (or Solar Zero), Hopkinsville, Kentucky Hopkinsville in western Kentucky is the ninth-largest city in the state and is the population center closest to where the axis of the moon's shadow passes closest to the center of Earth -- about 12 miles northwest of the city center. The city will offer certified viewing sites and science seminars, and a movie series. City organizers are also moving the now rebranded \"Summer Salute\" festival to coincide with the eclipse. Nashville. (Shutterstock) Planetarium, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the largest city in the eclipse's path, and its Adventure Science Center will offer a public eclipse event. The Sudekum Planetarium, with a Goto Chiron optical star projector capable of projecting up to 6.5 million stars, will present \"Eclipse: The Sun Revealed.\" And remember these safety tips: -- Never look directly at the sun, even when it's partially covered by the moon. This can causeserious eye damage or blindness. (You can however, look at the sun during the brief total eclipse.) -- Use proper eye protection. Find out how to view the eclipse safely. -- Consider protecting pets' eyes. Host of award-winning travel podcast Places I Remember with Lea Lane. Follow wherever you listen, or at my website, placesirememberlealane.com. Author of the award-winning... Read More Host of award-winning travel podcast Places I Remember with Lea Lane. Follow wherever you listen, or at my website, placesirememberlealane.com. Author of the award-winning ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["On Monday, Aug. 21","2024"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["the U.S","from Oregon to South Carolina"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["total eclipse of the sun"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["Use proper eye protection"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["2 minutes and 40.2 seconds"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"'Ring of fire' solar eclipse thrills northern hemisphere","document":"'Ring of Fire' solar eclipse caught on camera over Atlantic City The \"ring of fire\" is an annular solar eclipse. NASA says it happens because the moon is too far away from Earth and cannot completely block out the sun's view, leaving what appears to be a fiery ring around the moon. The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday – a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun late on Thursday night (NZT). An annular eclipse occurs when a new moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn’t completely blot out the sun when it's dead centre. The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia enjoyed a partial eclipse, at least where the skies were clear. READ MORE: * The top astronomical events to look forward to in 2021, from 'supermoons' to eclipses * 'A wonderful shade of red': Rare blood supermoon delights NZ stargazers * Kiwi's Milky Way photo named one of the world's best * In pictures: Blood supermoon lights up the skies of Aotearoa At those locations, the moon appeared to take a bite out of the sun. It was the first eclipse of the sun visible from North America since August 2017, when a dramatic total solar eclipse crisscrossed the US. The next one is coming up in 2024. A total lunar eclipse also graced the skies two weeks ago. That lunar eclipse was particularly impressive in New Zealand, where it resulted in a rare blood supermoon. It was the first time such a spectacle had been seen in Aotearoa in about 40 years.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["late on Thursday night","August 2017","2024","two weeks ago"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["the US","Aotearoa","The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia","Atlantic City","began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia","New Zealand"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["an annular solar eclipse","supermoons'","total solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":["because the moon is too far away from Earth and cannot completely block out the sun's view, leaving what appears to be a fiery ring around the moon"]}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Here’s what you need to know about viewing the upcoming solar eclipse","document":"It’s hard to imagine that only about four years ago we had a total solar eclipse across much of the United States. In August that year, millions of people watched from Oregon to the Carolinas as the moon’s shadow rapidly crossed, putting those areas under total darkness and providing a spectacular experience. On Thursday we’re once again going to find the moon sandwiched between Earth and the sun, but unlike four years ago there will not be a path of totality. A partial solar eclipse can still be viewed and is still beautiful, but provides a very different feeling. One of my favorite places to view these is in a forest. If the sun is high enough the leaves act as nature’s pinhole camera — you can see the eclipse appear on the leaves as thousands of little crescents. In order to see the eclipse the weather needs to cooperate, which is possible Thursday morning. The other requirement is an unobstructed view of the sunrise. This time of the year the sun comes up at about 5:07 a.m., which means you need to be at the beach by then looking north from due east. If you are a mariner or have a compass, the sunrise is specifically at 57 degrees Thursday morning. This is as close to far north as it gets all year. You must use proper viewing techniques to view this eclipse; looking at it directly can cause irreversible damage to your eyes. Here in Boston, the eclipse will reach its peak at 5:33 a.m. and completely end at 6:32 a.m. The moon will cover just about 73 percent of the sun, which will look kind of like a shark fin rising out of the ocean. The proportion of the sun’s diameter covered by the moon’s shadow is determined by something called the magnitude. Locally, at the peak, magnitude will be about .73. Another way to think about how much of the sun will be covered is by looking at the obscuration. This term refers to the percentage of the sun’s disk covered by the moon at peak eclipse. Using both of these numbers, we can get an idea of just what to expect on Thursday morning. Advertisement Of course, none of this matters if we can’t see it. Presently, the models are clearing out the low and middle clouds by sunrise Thursday, but leaving some high clouds in the wake of a frontal passage. The thickness of these clouds may be thin enough to still see the eclipse, and we won’t know exactly how much of the sky will be visible until the event is almost here. If you aren’t willing to get up super early to see this week’s eclipse, don’t worry, there’s another, more impressive one just a few years away. If the weather cooperates, which in April is a big if, parts of New England will be treated to totality! Plan now, the best views will be just a few hours’ drive away.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["Thursday","Thursday morning","August","at 5:33 a.m","April"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["much of the United States","from Oregon to the Carolinas","Boston","New England"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["a total solar eclipse","A partial solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["at 6:32 a.m"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Eclipsed: Spectacular Photos of Thursday's Annular Solar Eclipse","document":"Type at least three characters to start auto complete. Recently searched locations will be displayed if there is no search query. The first option will be automatically selected. Use up and down arrows to change selection. Use escape to clear. A rare solar eclipse graced Northern Hemisphere skies early Thursday morning. Stargazers in the eastern half of North America and parts of Europe were able to see the annular solar eclipse, in which the moon's silhouette covered the middle of the sun, leaving a thin \"ring of fire\" around the outside. Space.com reported that the full annular eclipse was mostly visible over Canada, Greenland, Siberia and a small portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Although not all viewers could witness the full effect, photos show angles of a partial solar eclipse that are nonetheless spectacular, as the eclipse aligned with sunrise in many locations. The next solar eclipse is set to occur on December 4, but totality will only be visible from Antarctica and from the nearby ocean. MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: May's Total Lunar Eclipse ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["early Thursday morning","December 4","May"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Northern Hemisphere","the eastern half of North America and parts of Europe","Canada, Greenland, Siberia and a small portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula","from Antarctica and from the nearby ocean"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["the annular solar eclipse","a partial solar eclipse","Total Lunar Eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["Space.com"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Places where June 10 Solar Eclipse will be visible","document":"The Solar Eclipse on June 10 is the first solar eclipse for year 2021, and will start (partial) at 11:42 AM Indian Standard Time (IST). The annular eclipse will start from 3:30 PM (IST) and will continue till 4:52 PM. The last phase of the eclipse will end at around 6 PM. If you are in India and are keen to watch the eclipse, know that the phenomenon will only be visible from Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh for a short duration. The partial solar eclipse tomorrow will be visible in Arunachal Pradesh and a few other states in the east. Only a part of it would be visible from Arunachal's Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary at 5:52 PM., right before the sunset. It is predicted that the eclipse would be visible from here for a very short time, a maximum of 3-4 minutes. Anyone keen to do so much take proper precautions and not watch the phenomenon with naked eyes. A number of places in Europe will be audience to the year's first solar eclipse. A lot of countries across Europe are perfect for watching the celestial event this time. June 10 solar eclipse would also be visible from a number of places in Eastern America and the surrounding places. In addition, the eclipse would also be visible from Canada and North Atlantic Sea. Another place in India which will have glimpses of tomorrow's solar eclipse is Ladakh. It would be visible in Ladakh at 12:25 PM and will be visible till 12:51 PM. A stunning destination, it can be a perfect place to watch the event. It will be visible over the northern border of Ladakh for a short duration. Another region to watch tomorrow's solar eclipse is the Caribbean. A number of island in the region would be privy to the celestial event. Other than these places, part of northern Africa, Asia, northern Alaska are also perfect to watch the eclipse. The finest stays in the Western Ghats Most Instagrammed UNESCO World Heritage Sites of 2021! Luxury redefined: seven-star hotels in the world Wildlife sanctuaries in India that are perfect for winters Offbeat destinations in India to visit this long weekend 10 best international destinations for solo travellers Places that celebrate Christmas in India World’s famous hippie destinations! Adventurous high-altitude national parks in India Beachside hotels in Goa for Christmas","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["3:30 PM (IST)","11:42 AM Indian Standard Time (IST)","5:52 PM","June 10","12:25 PM"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Arunachal's Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary","from Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh","part of northern Africa, Asia, northern Alaska","Europe","a few other states in the east","Eastern America and the surrounding places","Canada and North Atlantic Sea","the Caribbean"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["Solar Eclipse","The annular eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["3-4 minutes"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["4:52 PM","6 PM","12:51 PM"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"2024 Total Solar Eclipse","document":"On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will occur over North America, traveling across the United States from Texas to Maine — and Bloomington happens to be in the center of the path of totality. Located most directly on the path's centerline of all Indiana cities, the duration of totality will be approximately four minutes and two seconds, beginning at approximately 3:04 pm. Stay tuned for more information, events, and specials surrounding the eclipse as the date draws nearer. ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["April 8, 2024","3:04 pm"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["North America, traveling across the United States from Texas to Maine — and Bloomington","all Indiana cities"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["a total solar eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["four minutes and two seconds"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"First look at the 2024 total solar eclipse","document":"On August 21, 2017, millions who live in or traveled to the United States witnessed a spectacular event — the first total solar eclipse in the continental U.S. in 38 years. The narrow path of totality on American soil started in Oregon and ended in South Carolina, captivating all of those fortunate enough to witness it. But after the excitement of the Great American Eclipse died down, every viewer was left with just one question: “When is the next one?” The answer, happily, is April 8, 2024. That’s when the next total solar eclipse will cross the United States. And although six years and seven months (plus 19 days) sounds like a long time since August 21, 2017, it’s much shorter than the average time between two eclipses appearing at a given location on Earth (330 years in the Northern Hemisphere and 550 years south of the equator). The length of totality varies from one total solar eclipse to the next. That’s due to the fact that Earth is not always at the same distance from the Sun, and the Moon is not always the same distance from Earth. The Earth-Sun distance varies by 3 percent and the Moon-Earth distance by as much as 12 percent. The result is that maximum duration of totality for any eclipse between 2000 B.C. and A.D. 3000 is 7 minutes 29 seconds. (However, that extra-long eclipse doesn’t occur until July 16, 2186, so don’t get too excited for it.) While the maximum length of totality during the April 8, 2024, eclipse won’t be that long, it’s still a worthy chunk of time: 4 minutes, 28 seconds. And as with the Great American Eclipse in 2017, everyone in the contiguous U.S. will at least be treated to a partial eclipse. In fact, as long as you have clear skies on eclipse day, the Moon will cover no less than 16.15 percent of the Sun’s brilliant surface — and that minimum coverage comes at Tatoosh Island, a tiny speck of land west of Neah Bay, Washington. But keep in mind, although our satellite covering any part of the Sun’s disk sounds cool, you’ll want to set your sights higher. Likening a partial eclipse to a total eclipse is like comparing almost dying to dying. If you are outside during a solar eclipse with 16 percent coverage, you won’t even notice the Sun getting darker. And it doesn’t matter whether the partial eclipse above your location is 16, 56, or 96 percent; only totality reveals the true celestial spectacles: two diamond rings, the Sun’s glorious corona, 360° of sunset, and stars revealing themselves in the daytime. To see any of this, you must be in the path of totality. That said, your next goal is to be as close to the center line as possible. The fact that the Moon’s shadow is round means that the longest eclipse occurs at its center line, because that’s where you’ll experience the lunar shadow’s full width. The Moon’s shadow first touches Earth just north of Penrhyn Island, one of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. That location will experience a 98-percent partial eclipse. Seventy-three minutes later, totality first strikes land at Socorro Island, a possession of Mexico. If you choose that location to view the eclipse, be sure to position yourself at the island’s far southeastern tip — you’ll enjoy an extra 34 seconds of totality there. (The span is 3 minutes 36 seconds.) The shadow’s path covers a few more tiny islands before it encounters North America just southeast of Mazatlán, Mexico. Viewers at that location will enjoy an impressive 4 minutes 27 seconds of totality. And if you wish to stay in Mazatlán itself, you’ll lose only 10 seconds off that span. The greatest duration of totality — 4 minutes 28.1 seconds — occurs when the shadow reaches San Martín, north of Torreón and roughly half the distance from the coast to the Mexican border with Texas. Fortunately, the duration of totality along the center line is never more than 1 second less than this maximum during the shadow’s more than 550-mile (885 kilometers) voyage through Mexico. Totality first reaches the United States when the Moon’s shadow crosses the Rio Grande River at the wonderfully named Radar Base, Texas, which lies in Maverick County. There, totality lasts 4 minutes 27 seconds. As the eclipse progresses through the Lone Star State, a huge number of people won’t have to travel anywhere to see it. That said, venturing just a few miles to the center line can increase their duration of totality. San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Dallas, and Fort Worth all lie under the shadow, although none is on the center line. Still, that’s more than 11 million people who can experience the eclipse with little to no effort. And we’re not even out of Texas yet. The center line then passes through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont, and Maine. Those wishing to observe the eclipse from the same location the center line crossed during the August 21, 2017, eclipse should head to a location near Makanda, Illinois, which lies just south of Carbondale. A word of warning, if I may: The weather in Illinois in April — and I’m specifically talking about cloud cover here — is a far cry from what it is in August. Your chances of actually seeing the 2024 eclipse increase dramatically as you move toward the southwest. Not to mention that you’ll pick up an extra 15 seconds of totality from center-line locations near San Antonio. Other major cities in the 2024 eclipse path include Little Rock, Arkansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio (with northwestern parts of Cincinnati and Columbus under the shadow); Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, New York; and about half of Montréal, Québec, Canada. For those wanting to view another total solar eclipse in the contiguous United States after the 2024 event, it’ll be a 20-year wait until August 23, 2044, for the next one. Plus, that eclipse is visible only in north-eastern Montana and a tiny segment of North Dakota. Its greatest duration of totality, 2 minutes 4 seconds, happens over Canada’s Northwest Territories. At the intersection of the center line of the 2044 eclipse and the United States-Canada border, totality is 20 seconds shorter: 1 minute 44 seconds. The small towns near that point, namely Hogeland and Turner, Montana, experience totalities only a few tenths of a second less than that. And the Montana cities of Chinook, Zurich, Harlem, Dodson, and Malta lose only another second. After 2044, three more total solar eclipses track through the contiguous United States in the 21st century. So, if 2044’s eclipse disappoints you, you’ll be thrilled to know that another happens less than one year later. The event on August 12, 2045, is a truly spectacular cross-country eclipse — with totalities lasting 4 minutes 23 seconds on the Northern California coast to an amazing maximum of 6 minutes 6 seconds at Port St. Lucie, Florida. Next, the center line of the total solar eclipse on March 30, 2052, lands only on Florida and Georgia, but totality in that small path will only last between 3 minutes 30 seconds in Savannah, Georgia, and 3 minutes 44 seconds near Laguna Beach, Florida. The final total solar eclipse whose path intersects the contiguous United States in the 21st century occurs May 11, 2078. Like the eclipse in 2052, this one also tracks through the southeastern United States. Totality will last 5 minutes 17 seconds in Nags Head, North Carolina. For those of you who stood beneath the Moon’s shadow in 2017, no convincing will be necessary to get you to seek out darkness in 2024. If you can catch it, an eclipse is a sight you’ll never rate as anything other than awesome. Just be sure to check the weather first! 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| {"event_trigger":"America's next solar eclipse comes in 2024","document":"Updated on: August 21, 2017 / 8:06 PM / CBS/AP If you missed the solar eclipse on Monday, you won't need to wait another 99 years to see one. NASA says the next total solar eclipse visible from the U.S. will take place seven years from now, on April 8, 2024. But the next full coast-to-coast eclipse won't appear until 2045. During the 2024 eclipse, the moon's shadow will cross the U.S. border in southern Texas and move up into the eastern half of the country, passing over Dallas-Fort Worth; Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and on to Montreal. Curiously, it will also cross directly over Carbondale, Illinois, near the spot that experienced the longest stretch of totality during the 2017 eclipse. Millions of Americans who managed to catch the eclipse Monday saw the sun in the first solar eclipse visible in the U.S. since 1979 and the first to sweep the entire country from coast to coast in nearly a century. \"It's really, really, really, really awesome,\" said 9-year-old Cami Smith as she watched the fully eclipsed sun from a gravel lane near her grandfather's home at Beverly Beach, Oregon. The temperature dropped, birds quieted down, crickets chirped and the stars came out in the middle of the day as the line of darkness raced 2,600 miles across the continent in about 90 minutes, bringing forth oohs, aahs, shouts and screams. David Avison of Lake Oswego, Oregon, began looking for a place to watch the eclipse six years ago in 2011. That's when his wife's British third cousin emailed them to announce they would be visiting for the eclipse. Avison's wife tried to make reservations at a nearby resort that same day but they were already booked. Instead, they took an overnight train Monday from Avison's home in his Portland suburb to the Oregon State Fairgrounds. He says people who want to see the next eclipse in 2024 ought to make reservations now. In Boise, Idaho, where the sun was more than 99 percent blocked, people clapped and whooped, and the street lights came on briefly, while in Nashville, Tennessee, people craned their necks at the sky and knocked back longneck beers at Nudie's Honky Tonk bar. At the Nashville Zoo, the giraffes and rhinos started running around crazily when the sun came back. Several minor-league baseball teams -- one of them, the Columbia Fireflies, outfitted for the day in glow-in-the-dark jerseys -- briefly suspended play. At the White House, despite all the warnings from experts about the risk of eye damage, President Trump took off his eclipse glasses and looked directly at the sun. It was the most-observed and most-photographed eclipse in history, with many Americans staking out prime viewing spots and settling onto blankets and lawn chairs to watch, especially along the path of totality -- the line of deep shadow created when the sun is completely obscured except for the delicate ring of light known as the corona. The shadow -- a corridor just 60 to 70 miles wide -- came ashore in Oregon and then traveled diagonally across the Midwest to South Carolina, with darkness from the totality lasting only about two to three wondrous minutes in any one spot. Students from Central Washington University in Ellensburg planned to launch a weather balloon intended to capture live video and photos of the eclipse. The CWU students were among 52 teams from 31 states taking part in a NASA project to document the eclipse. A $680,000 grant from NASA is paying for the work, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports. Professor Darci Snowden told the Yakima Herald-Republic that the balloon, launched from Culver, Oregon, will reach near the edge of the atmosphere of Earth. The rest of North America was treated to a partial eclipse, as were Central American countries and the top of South America. \"We're all part of something celestial -- so much bigger than us, so mysterious,\" said Ed Sullivan, who traveled from Richmond, Virginia, to Glendo Reservoir in Wyoming. \"There is so much to ponder I don't even know what questions to ask, but I enjoy just feeling the mystery.\" With 200 million people within a day's drive from the path of totality, towns and parks saw big crowds. Skies were clear along most of the route, to the relief of those who feared cloud cover would spoil this once-in-a-lifetime moment. \"The show has just begun, people! What a gorgeous day! Isn't this great, people?\" Jim Todd, a director at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, told a crowd of thousands at an amphitheater in Salem, Oregon, as the moon took an ever-bigger bite out of the sun. NASA reported 4.4 million people were watching its TV coverage midway through the eclipse, the biggest livestream event in the space agency's history. \"It's like nothing else you will ever see or ever do,\" said veteran eclipse-watcher Mike O'Leary of San Diego, who set up his camera along with among hundreds of other amateur astronomers gathered in Casper, Wyoming. \"It can be religious. It makes you feel insignificant, like you're just a speck in the whole scheme of things.\" John Hays drove up from Bishop, California, for the total eclipse in Salem, Oregon, and said the experience will stay with him forever. \"That silvery ring is so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it does remind you of wizardry or like magic,\" he said. More than one parent was amazed to see teenagers actually look up from their cellphones. Matt Nagy, of Laramie, Wyoming, said that the eclipse made him \"whoop and holler\" and that even his two teenage daughters were impressed: \"It takes a lot to get a teenager excited about something.\" Astronomers were giddy with excitement. A solar eclipse is considered one of the grandest of cosmic spectacles. NASA solar physicist Alex Young said the last time earthlings had a connection like this to the heavens was during man's first flight to the moon, on Apollo 8 in 1968. The first, famous Earthrise photo came from that mission and, like this eclipse, showed us \"we are part of something bigger.\" NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, watched with delight from a plane flying over the Oregon coast and joked about the NASA official next to him: \"I'm about to fight this man for a window seat.\" Hoping to learn more about the sun's composition and activity, NASA and other scientists watched and analyzed from telescopes on the ground and in orbit, the International Space Station, airplanes and scores of high-altitude balloons beaming back live video. Citizen scientists monitored animal and plant behavior as day turned into twilight. Thousands of people streamed into the Nashville Zoo just to watch the animals' reaction and noticed how they got noisier at it got darker. The Earth, moon and sun line up perfectly every one to three years, briefly turning day into night for a sliver of the planet. But these sights normally are in no man's land, like the vast Pacific or Earth's poles. This is the first eclipse of the social media era to pass through such a heavily populated area. The moon hasn't thrown this much shade at the U.S. since 1918, during the nation's last coast-to-coast total eclipse. The last total solar eclipse on the U.S. was in 1979, but only five states in the Northwest experienced total darkness. The path of totality passed through 14 states, entering near Lincoln City, Oregon, at 1:16 p.m. EDT, moving over Casper, Wyoming; Carbondale, Illinois; and Nashville, Tennessee, and then exiting near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:47 p.m. EDT. Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois saw the longest stretch of darkness: 2 minutes and 44 seconds. Kim Kniseley drove overnight from Roanoke, Virginia, arriving in Madisonville, Tennessee, before dawn to get a parking spot at Kefauver Park, where by sunrise dozens of folks had claimed benches and set up tents. He said he could have stayed home in Roanoke and seen a partial eclipse of 90 percent, but that would have been like \"going to a rock concert and you're standing in the parking lot.\" ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["April 8, 2024","1:16 p.m. EDT","August 21, 2017","2045","1979","1918"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Casper, Wyoming; Carbondale, Illinois; and Nashville, Tennessee, and then exiting near Charleston, South Carolina","Oregon","Nashville, Tennessee","Carbondale, Illinois","across the Midwest to South Carolina","the U.S","Boise, Idaho","The rest of North America","Central American countries and the top of South America"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["total solar eclipse","full coast-to-coast eclipse"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":["NASA"]},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["about 90 minutes","about two to three wondrous minutes","2 minutes and 44 seconds"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["2:47 p.m. EDT"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Sun Releases Significant Solar Flare","document":"The Sun emitted a significant solar flare peaking at 11:35 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28, 2021. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This flare is classified as an X1-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. Flares that are classified X10 or stronger are considered unusually intense. To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center https://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as the research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["11:35 a.m. EDT","Oct. 28, 2021"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":null},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar flare"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"US Space Weather Center Issues Geomagnetic Storm Watch","document":"The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) Friday issued a Strong Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Saturday, saying power and communications systems could be affected after a significant solar flare was observed on the sun. The U.S. space agency NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory reported observing a significant solar flare — or \"coronal mass ejection\" (CME) — Thursday. Flares or CMEs are powerful eruptions on the sun’s surface that send tons of superheated gas and radiation into space. The observatory, which constantly monitors solar activity, captured an image of Thursday’s event. The bursts of radiation often head toward Earth, and while harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans, if they are strong enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and other communications signals travel. When solar activity could affect day-to-day activity on earth the SWPC, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issues a watch or warning. In this case, the center issued a strong, or G3, storm watch for Saturday, indicating the radiation could affect power systems, creating voltage irregularities, interference with communications systems or the operation of spacecraft, such as satellites. The watch is in effect from the North Pole south to the 50th parallel, roughly halfway to the equator. The prediction center said the aurora borealis — also known as the northern lights — may also be visible Saturday at unusually lower latitudes. It issued a G2 or moderate geomagnetic storm watch for Sunday. NASA and NOAA have developed the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan to help mitigate the effects of solar events. NASA works as the research arm of the nation's space weather effort, using a fleet of spacecraft that monitor the sun's activity, the solar atmosphere, as well as particles and magnetic fields in space surrounding Earth. NOAA established the SWPC in Boulder, Colorado, to monitor solar activity, much the way NOAA’s National Hurricane Center monitors tropical cyclones. Using NASA’s satellites and solar observatories, SWPC can give forecasts and warnings of solar activity that could impact the Earth.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["Saturday"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["from the North Pole south to the 50th parallel, roughly halfway to the equator"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar flare","a Strong Geomagnetic Storm","the aurora borealis","a G2 or moderate geomagnetic storm"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["The U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":["Sunday"]},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Immense eruption from the Sun","document":" Thursday, November 4th 2021, 1:04 pm - A spooky Halloween light show may shine in our skies thanks to an immense eruption from the Sun. We may be in for a special Halloween treat on Sunday night. Auroras may be dancing across our skies thanks to an immense solar storm the Sun blasted out into space. Update (Nov 4): although the solar storm did arrive at Earth, it took longer to reach us than space weather forecasters had anticipated. Perhaps as a result of its slower speed, and possibly due to the effects of it passing through a denser region of the solar wind, the CME's impact on Earth's geomagnetic field was weaker than predicted. Storm levels only reached G1 (weak), rather than the forecast G3 (strong) levels, thus the auroras produced remained farther north. As we are just entering a new solar cycle, increasing solar activity will result in more opportunities to see auroras in the future. The original story continues below. On Thursday, October 28, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was in the midst of its careful watch over the Sun. Of particular interest to space weather forecasters was a large, volatile sunspot cluster in the southern hemisphere, which they named Active Region 2887 (AR2887). This cluster had been sparking and sputtering with minor and moderate flares for days. Around midday on Thursday, though, it suddenly blasted out an intense X1-class solar flare. The release of energy during the flare set off a 'solar tsunami' — a shockwave that spread out across nearly the entire face of the Sun. The top panel of this composite image shows a closeup look at the southern hemisphere of the Sun and Active Region 2887, at the moment Thursday's X1 solar flare began. The three panels below track the solar tsunami that immediately radiated out across the Sun's surface over the next 30 minutes. Credit: NASA SDO/Scott Sutherland Immediately following the flare, the top of Earth's atmosphere was bombarded by intense ultraviolet radiation and solar x-rays. According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, this resulted in a strong radio blackout on the day side of Earth. Radio blackouts occur in the aftermath of strong solar flares, as the UV and x-rays from the flare disturb Earth's ionosphere, causing it to degrade or completely absorb high-frequency radio signals. This can completely disrupt radio communications between points on Earth's surface, and between the surface and satellite in orbit. A minor solar radiation storm has also been impacting Earth since the flare, due to solar protons being accelerated away from the flare region. Although the flare, the solar tsunami, and the radio blackout occurred roughly at the same time on Thursday, and the solar radiation storm began a short time after, there's one more impact from this event that we're still waiting for. In the aftermath of the flare, an immense coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted into space, aimed more or less directly at Earth. A CME, sometimes called a 'solar storm', is a cloud of charged solar particles that can blast away from the Sun during a solar flare. The initial CME eruption on Thursday was caught by SDO, but it was the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) that captured its full scope (as seen in the tweet below). SOHO has a special camera known as a coronagraph, which blocks out the direct light from the Sun using a small disk positioned in front of the camera lens. This allows the instrument to image the streamers of the solar wind. It can also capture coronal mass ejections as they erupt from the Sun's surface, revealing their size, what direction they are travelling, and even the speed at which they are expanding away from the Sun. While it only takes around 8 minutes for the light and x-rays from a solar flare to reach us, and solar protons arrive tens of minutes after, it takes CMEs a bit longer to cover the distance between the Sun and Earth. Typically, they pass us a few days after the eruption. CMEs from exceptionally strong flares, however, have taken as little as 16 hours to reach us. Watch Below: Chris St Clair talks to TWN science writer Scott Sutherland about the Sun, CMEs, geomagnetic storms and the Northern Lights According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, based on data from the ACE satellite (in orbit of Lagrange Point 1, between the Earth and the Sun), it appears the CME from Thursday was slower than initially estimated. It finally arrived just after 5 a.m. EDT (around 0900 UTC) on October 31. In their latest update, NOAA space weather forecasters are now predicting G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm levels starting around midday Sunday (EDT). These are expected to ramp up to G2 (moderate) through the afternoon, and reach G3 (strong) levels Sunday evening (EDT). NOAA SWPC ranks geomagnetic storms on a 5-point scale, from G1 (minor) through G5 (extreme). The severity is based on the predicted density, energy, and speed of the CME or solar wind. Geomagnetic storms are capable of causing issues with power grids here on the ground and they have been known to cause problems with orbiting satellites as well. The probability of seeing these effects goes up with the severity of the storm. Most often, though, the most noticeable impacts of a geomagnetic storm are the vibrant displays of aurorae we call the Northern and Southern Lights. Auroras can be seen at pretty much any time of year in the far northern regions of Canada. However, during a geomagnetic storm, the arc the auroras follow is pushed southward. The stronger the storm, the farther south the auroras can be seen. For a G3 geomagnetic storm, the auroras stretch down across all of Canada. They may even be seen from parts of southern Ontario, which are usually too far south to view these displays. Cloudy conditions will block visibility, of course. Be sure to check your local weather forecast for sky conditions before you head out. Also, even with clear skies, city light pollution makes it very difficult to spot auroras. They may appear very bright and vivid in photographs, but often those images are long-exposure images, and the auroras were only barely visible to the unaided eye. As such, even if you have clear skies, it's best to get away from city lights to view these events. ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["On Thursday, October 28","Thursday, November 4th 2021, 1:04 pm","midday Sunday (EDT)","after 5 a.m. EDT (around 0900 UTC) on October 31"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["across all of Canada","parts of southern Ontario"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar storm","Auroras","Active Region 2887","solar tsunami","CME","X1-class solar flare"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":["SOHO has a special camera known as a coronagraph, which blocks out the direct light from the Sun using a small disk positioned in front of the camera lens. This allows the instrument to image the streamers of the solar wind. It can also capture coronal mass ejections as they erupt from the Sun's surface, revealing their size, what direction they are travelling, and even the speed at which they are expanding away from the Sun"]},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA","NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":["around 8 minutes"]},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Solar magnetic storm expected to light up polar regions of Earth on Diwali","document":"In a cosmic coincidence, a solar flare that occurred on the Sun recently has launched a magnetic storm in space which is predicted to hit Earth on November 4, lighting up its atmosphere at polar regions in spectacular displays of aurora, just in time for Diwali. Solar scientists around the world — including at the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) at IISER Kolkata and at the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center — are studying the progress of this storm. Prof Dibyendu Nandi at CESSI, IISER Kolkata, told The Indian Express that if the storm does hit on November 4, it could be dubbed the ‘Diwali solar storm’. Solar storms have earlier been named based on the day they have originated or impacted Earth. For example, there was a solar storm named after Bastille Day in 2000, a Halloween Day storm that hit Earth in 2003 and a St Patrick’s Day storm that occurred in 2015. Solar flares are highly energetic phenomena that sometimes occur within strong magnetic structures on the Sun known as sunspots. Sunspots, generated by the solar magnetic cycle in the deep interior of the Sun, rise up, forming relatively dark spots at the surface. When a flare occurs, the energy stored in the magnetic structures are converted to heat and light energy, generating intense X-ray radiation and accelerating charged particles in the Sun’s atmosphere to very high speeds. Sometimes, they also eject a large amount of hot magnetised plasma from the Sun’s atmosphere into space, resulting in a solar storm, which are known as coronal mass ejections. These are the largest explosions in the solar system, generating as much energy as a billion atomic bombs. When a coronal mass ejection impacts the Earth’s magnetosphere, it can create geomagnetic storms that are hazardous to electric power grids, oil pipelines and under-sea internet cables. These solar storms also energse atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, resulting in the emission of multi-coloured lights that produce spectacular auroras across countries situated in high-latitude polar regions. Although solar storms impact our technologies, since the high-energy radiation from these events is absorbed by the Earth’s upper atmosphere, they are not harmful to the health of human beings. The current solar magnetic cycle is expected to be weak cycle, with lower than average solar storms expected, said Prof Nandi. Therefore, the recent spate of intense solar activity has solar physicists around the world all excited. In fact, a team of solar physicists at CESSI, IISER Kolkata including PhD student Suvadip Sinha and Prof Dibyendu Nandi had predicted the strong phase of current flaring activity based on their ongoing research. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre has released an independent forecast recently, which confirms the CESSI estimate and indicates that there is a strong possibility of geomagnetic storms, and hence of auroras lighting up the night skies. However, Prof Nandi also said that the field of space weather predictions is challenging because of the rarity of observations in interplanetary space. “Solar storms may get deflected just like cyclones veer off from their projected path. Only on the evening of Diwali will we know the actual impact of the storm once near-Earth observations become available,” he said. Professor Durgesh Tripathi from the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics said that prediction of solar eruptions is one of the holy grails in solar physics, and is very important for space weather. “CESSI has started predicting solar eruptions since last few months and doing it from our own soil is something to be proud of,” he said. “Atmospheric phenomena such as aurorae, which we do not see from our geographic location, and also upper atmospheric electrical disturbances, which can lead to outages in phone and internet connectivity, are caused by storms on the Sun. There has been massive solar activity, which is a gigantic coronal mass ejection of charged particles towards the Earth’s direction. Now, this has been successfully predicted by several groups, including CESSI solar astronomers at IISER Kolkata,” said Prof Somak Raychoudhury, director of IUCAA. “As the CME will reach the Earth throughout the night of November 3 and 4, and because of spectacular effects, it is in a way our own kind of lighting up for Diwali,” said Prof Raychoudhury. – Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["November 4","the night of November 3 and 4","2000","2003","2015"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":null},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar flare","Sunspots","Solar storms","aurora"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) at IISER Kolkata and at the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Physicists predict a Solar Deepavali this year","document":"A solar flare bursts off the left limb of the sun in this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2014. File | Photo Credit: Reuters The sun may well add to this year’s Deepavali celebrations, if predictions made by solar physicists come true. A solar flare that occurred on the Sun has triggered a magnetic storm which scientists predict will arrive at the Earth in the early hours of November 4, and this can give rise to spectacular displays of aurora in the polar regions, just in time for the Deepavali celebrations in India. The solar magnetic cycle that works in the deep interior of the Sun creates regions that rise to the surface and appear like dark spots. These are the sunspots. Solar flares are highly energetic phenomena that happen inside the sunspots. In a solar flare, the energy stored in the sun’s magnetic structures is converted into light and heat energy. This causes the emission of high energy x-ray radiation and highly accelerated charged particles to leave the sun’s surface. Sometimes solar flares also cause hot plasma to be ejected from the Sun, causing a solar storm, and this is called Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Coronal Mass Ejections can harbour energies exceeding that of a billion atomic bombs. The energy and radiation and high energy particles emitted by flares can affect Earth bound objects and life on Earth – it can affect the electronics within satellites and affect astronauts. Very powerful Earth-directed coronal mass ejections can cause failure of power grids and affect oil pipelines and deep-sea cables. They can also cause spectacular aurorae in the high-latitude and polar countries. The last time a major blackout due to a coronal mass ejection was recorded was in 1989 – a powerful geomagnetic storm that took down the North American power grid, plunging large parts of Canada in to darkness and triggering spectacular aurorae beyond the polar regions. A team of solar physicists from CESSI, in IISER Kolkata, which included PhD student Suvadip Sinha and Prof. Dibyendu Nandi, have predicted that a collection of sunspots denoted active region 12887 and 12891 could erupt into a so-called X-class flare and several M-class flares. These are the types of flare that are strongest and second strongest in terms of the intensity of x-ray radiation that they carry. This prediction has already proven to be true. The team expects the CME triggered by the M class flare that occurred in sunspot 12891 to impact the Earth with speeds upwards of 700 km/s late in the night of November 3 or early on November 4. According to Dibyendu Nandi, “This storm may well be dubbed the “Diwali solar storm,” in keeping with the naming of storms after Bastille Day (2000), Halloween Day (2003) or St Patrick’s Day (2015).” If the storm is strong enough, it could cause lighting effects or aurorae in the polar regions. Prof Nandi said, “Often when the solar wind speed is high and the magnetic field component in the wind is in the right orientation, auroras are triggered. For example, there is an auroral oval which is confined just over the poles which is often visible from space crafts. However, only during a storm does the aurora become more spectacular and become visible in countries like Canada, Northern USA, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Siberia etc.” ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["late in the night of November 3 or early on November 4","the early hours of November 4","2014","1989","2000","2003","2015"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["Canada, Northern USA, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Siberia","the polar regions"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar flare","sunspots","Coronal Mass Ejection","X-class flare","solar storm","aurora","hot plasma"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["CESSI","IISER Kolkata"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Sun lights up high-latitude countries in ‘a Solar Deepavali’","document":"The image of the flare (near the disk centre) captured in the AIA 131 channel. The AIA is an extreme ultraviolet imaging telescope attached to NASA's SDO satellite. | Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy CESSI A solar flare that occurred on the Sun triggered a magnetic storm which scientists from Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI), in Indian Institutes for Science Education and Research, Kolkata, had predicted will arrive at the Earth in the early hours of November 4, and they said that the magnitude of this storm would be such as to trigger spectacular displays of aurora (the coloured bands of light seen in the North and South poles) in the high-latitude and polar regions, just in time for the Deepavali celebrations in India. This prediction, which was based on models built by them and data from NASA’s observatories, seems to have come true, as people from several countries were tweeting pictures of aurorae. Judging by data from the NASA DSCOVR satellite, the scientists observed a steep jump in transverse magnetic fields, density and speeds of the plasma wind that are tell-tale signatures of the arrival of a coronal mass ejection shock front, according to Dibyendu Nandi of CESSI Kolkata whose team predicted the event. “This happened at 1.00 AM IST. We will know whether this is the CME flux based on its evolution as it passes through. These observations are taken at Lagrange Point L1,” he said on November 4, in a message to The Hindu. Dipankar Banerjee, a solar physicist and Director of Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) based in Nainital said about the prediction, “This is quite promising. It appears their predictions are matching the observations.” He was not involved in this work. The solar magnetic cycle that works in the deep interior of the Sun creates regions that rise to the surface and appear like dark spots. These are the sunspots. Solar flares are highly energetic phenomena that happen inside the sunspots. In a solar flare, the energy stored in the sun’s magnetic structures is converted into light and heat energy. This causes the emission of high energy x-ray radiation and highly accelerated charged particles to leave the sun’s surface. Sometimes solar flares also cause hot plasma to be ejected from the Sun, causing a solar storm, and this is called Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Coronal Mass Ejections can harbour energies exceeding that of a billion atomic bombs. The energy and radiation and high energy particles emitted by flares can affect Earth bound objects and life on Earth – it can affect the electronics within satellites and affect astronauts. Very powerful Earth-directed coronal mass ejections can cause failure of power grids and affect oil pipelines and deep-sea cables. They can also cause spectacular aurorae in the high-latitude and polar countries. The last time a major blackout due to a coronal mass ejection was recorded was in 1989 – a powerful geomagnetic storm that took down the North American power grid, plunging large parts of Canada into darkness and triggering spectacular aurorae beyond the polar regions. The process of prediction takes place in two steps: First the researchers analyse the possibility of a strong solar flare from an active region – that is, clusters of sunspots – using a machine learning algorithm which has been developed in CESSI, IISER Kolkata. “This algorithm needs observations of the sunspot magnetic fields, from which we extract various parameters to train the algorithm. We use data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, specifically, the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument, for this purpose,” says Dibyendu Nandi, who, along with his PhD student Suvadip Sinha, developed the algorithm at CESSI. The second step is estimating the time of arrival on Earth of coronal mass ejections and forecasting the geomagnetic storm. The group uses the near-Sun evolution of the coronal mass ejections through European Space Agency’s SOHO satellite and NASA's STEREO satellite to extract their speed. There is an associated flare, and its position on the Sun is used to extract the location of origin of the CME. The location of the source of the CME and the velocity are used as inputs by the group in a publicly available model widely called the Drag Based Ensemble Model to calculate the CME arrival times and speed. “This latter step has uncertainties as the physics of CME propagation is quite complex, but this is treated in a simplified manner in this model,” explains prof. Nandi. “When ISRO’s Aditya-L1 satellite is launched, we would be receiving similar data on solar storms from this observatory,” he adds. Commenting on the work done by Prof Nandi and group, Dr Banerjee said, “This is their first comprehensive work on this… the basic physics input and the model seems to be robust.” Some have been tweeting pictures of the aurorae seen in places such as Alberta in Canada, and Alaska, to name just a few. Prof Nandi further said, “Reports are already coming in which indicate we hit bull's eye with the prediction. Storm arrived within one hour of our forecast time with similar speeds to what we had estimated. Aurorae are being reported from unexpected countries such as Scotland, Ireland and states in the U.S. apart from the high latitude regions. Now NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center had upgraded the information on the geomagnetic storm resulting from the CME impact to be hazardous.” ","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["the early hours of November 4","1.00 AM IST"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["the high-latitude and polar regions","Alberta in Canada, and Alaska","Scotland, Ireland and states in the U.S"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["solar flare","coronal mass ejection","solar storm","aurora","sunspots"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NASA","CESSI","Indian Institutes for Science Education and Research, Kolkata","European Space Agency’s SOHO satellite"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |
| {"event_trigger":"Geomagnetic storm WARNING: Solar flare may directly hit Earth today, can disrupt power grids","document":" US agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a geomagnetic storm alert with a solar flare due to directly hit Earth today on October 11, 2021. As per NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC), the resultant geomagnetic storm will disrupt power grids in higher latitude regions where the exposure will be more. A solar flare is what scientists call a coronal mass ejection (CME). A CME was observed from the side of the sun that directly faces Earth on Saturday, October 9, 2021. The massive solar flare directly in Earth’s direction is due to hit the atmosphere today, with warnings of electricity grid fluctuations as well as the visibility of auroras up till New York. The solar flare hitting Earth directly may impact satellites in the low-Earth orbit, required ground control to redirect their orientations. As per SWPC, it will be a G2 category storm which is a moderate level geomagnetic storm. The storm is expected to arrive mid-day as per US time, which means later tonight for India. The effects of the geomagnetic storm are expected to be observed on October 12 as well. Nevertheless, astronomers are not expecting any major disruption from the solar flare induced geomagnetic storm event. As per astronomers, solar activity is on the rise. Last year, a newly discovered family of sunspots ejected the most massive solar flare observed since 2017.","event_type":"New Wonders in Nature","arguments":[{"role":"Spectacle Start Time","values":["Saturday, October 9, 2021","October 11, 2021","mid-day as per US time","later tonight for India","2017"]},{"role":"Spectacle Location","values":["New York"]},{"role":"Types of the Spectacle","values":["geomagnetic storm","solar flare","auroras","sunspots"]},{"role":"Best Way to Shoot","values":null},{"role":"Live Broadcast Platform","values":null},{"role":"Forecasting Agency","values":["NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre (SWPC)"]},{"role":"Spectacle Duration","values":null},{"role":"Spectacle End Time","values":null},{"role":"Cause","values":null}]} | |