French and Belgian police are seeking two new suspects accused of aiding the fugitive suspect from the Paris attacks Salah Abdeslam, the federal prosecutor’s office says.
The two suspects are “armed and dangerous” and are thought to have helped Salah Abdeslam travel to Hungary in September.
Investigators say Salah Abdeslam may have driven the suicide bombers at the Stade de France to their target on the night of the Paris attacks.
The November 13 attacks left 130 people dead and more than 350 wounded.
Salah Abdeslam was stopped at the Hungary-Austria border in September accompanied by two men with fake IDs bearing the names Soufiane Kayal and Samir Bouzid, Belgian police said.
“The Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the investigating judge wish to appeal to the public again to look out for two new suspects the investigators are actively searching for,” the Belgian prosecutor’s statement said.
Salah Abdeslam’s precise role in the attacks remains unclear. There are suggestions he was meant to carry out a suicide attack on the night but decided against it.
The name Soufiane Kayal was used to rent a house searched in November after the Paris attacks.
The identity card of Samir Bouzid was used to transfer money to Hasna Aitboulahcen, the cousin of attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, four days after the attacks, police said.
Both Hasna Aitboulahcen and Abdelhamid Abaaoud were killed in a police raid on the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, along with a third, as-yet unidentified person.
On December 4, the Paris cafe La Bonne Biere became the first of the venues targeted during the co-ordinated assaults to reopen its doors.
India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) is facing online mockery after posting on Twitter an edited image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveying deadly Chennai floods.
The state-run bureau initially re-tweeted Narendra Modi’s photo of himself looking through a plane window, with submerged fields and buildings visible.
Hours later, they tweeted the same image again, but with a much clearer scene pasted on to the window.
The second tweet was deleted but not in time to prevent social media ridicule.
The PIB has made no public comment yet.
Photo Twitter
PM Narendra Modi flew to Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu state on December 3 to see the damage caused by the widespread flooding, which has left more than 260 people dead since last month.
A large-scale rescue operation is under way, amid neck-high water in some areas.
It isn’t the first time Narendra Modi has fallen victim to some amateur image editing.
In 2014, before Narendra Modi became prime minister, a fake photo showing President Barack Obama watching one of his speeches went viral.
Commentators on Twitter suggested the image was released by an ardent Narendra Modi supporter trying to imply the US president was following Modi’s election campaign.
A bid by Takata and Honda to end a class action lawsuit representing millions of owners of cars with potentially faulty air bags has been rejected by a Miami court.
Air bag maker Takata along with other carmakers will continue to face the lawsuit that alleges that they violated anti-racketeering laws, district judge Federico Mareno ruled.
The companies have been moving quickly to settle US death claims.
Over 19 million US cars have been recalled since 2008 due to the air bags.
The two compaies have agreed to undisclosed settlements for six of the eight deaths linked to ruptured Takata airbag inflators in Honda vehicles.
Takata’s air bag inflators use ammonium nitrate and can deploy with too much force, spraying metal shrapnel.
A Honda spokesman told Reuters that the Japanese auto giant had been working quickly to settle the claims and had worked in good faith to resolve the concerns of the families affected.
However, the judge ruled on December 2 that the lawsuit still stands.
The lawsuit claims that owners overpaid for the cars with the faulty air bags and that the value of those vehicles has been reduced by the recalls.
Globally, tens of millions of cars with Takata airbags have been recalled since 2008.
Honda – Japan’s third biggest automaker – has been the hardest hit with 24.5 million cars recalled – more than half the global total.
Last month, Honda announced that it would no longer use front air bag inflators made by Takata, after the equipment maker was fined $70 million by the US auto safety regulator.
Honda was Takata’s biggest air bag customer and made up about 10% of Takata’s global sales.
Asian markets traded lower on December 4, following a global trend, as investors reacted negatively to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) policy-easing moves.
The ECB cut its deposit rate by 0.1 percentage point to -0.3%.
The bank also extended its asset purchase program, but did not increase its monthly government bond purchases.
Investors were expecting a bigger cut in the rates, analysts said.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.2% to 19,504.48, leading losses across the region.
The six-month extension of its stimulus program was seen as the bare minimum. Traders were looking for a one-year extension of the plan – or even an open-ended option.
China’s stock market fell after four consecutive days of gains, with Shanghai Composite index closing down 1.67% at 3,524.99.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 0.81% at 22,235.89, in line with global markets.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 1.5% at 5,151.60 despite retail sales rising 0.5% in October from the month before.
It was the third month of solid growth as shoppers spent big on household goods and at department stores.
South Korea’s Kospi index finished lower, falling by 1% to 1,974.4.
The European Commission has opened an investigation into fast food giant McDonald’s tax affairs.
The investigation will focus on McDonald’s tax deals with Luxembourg.
According to the Commission, the deals allowed McDonald’s to avoid paying taxes in both Luxembourg and the US on royalties from Europe and Russia.
It follows similar investigations into tax deals made by Starbucks and Amazon with some authorities in Europe.
The Commission said two tax rulings given by the Luxembourg authorities in 2009 had allowed McDonald’s Europe Franchising to pay no corporation tax in Luxembourg since then, despite recording large profits. It added that in 2013, McDonald’s profits were more than €250 million.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of EU competition policy, said: “A tax ruling that agrees to McDonald’s paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the US has to be looked at very carefully under EU state aid rules.
“The purpose of double-taxation treaties between countries is to avoid double taxation – not to justify double non-taxation.”
McDonald’s said in a statement: “McDonald’s complies with all tax laws and rules in Europe and pays a significant amount of corporate income tax. In fact, from 2010-14, the McDonald’s companies paid more than $2.1 billion just in corporate taxes in the European Union, with an average tax rate of almost 27%.
“Additionally, we pay social, real estate and other taxes. Our independent franchisees, who own and operate approximately 75% of our restaurants in Europe, also pay corporate tax and many other taxes.
“We are confident that the inquiry will be resolved favorably.”
Under the first tax ruling in March 2009, tax authorities in Luxembourg agreed to allow McDonald’s to pay no corporation tax on its European earnings in the country, as long as the food chain could prove that it paid tax on those earnings in the US each year.
This was done to avoid McDonald’s becoming subject to double taxation in the EU and the US.
It was subsequently discovered that McDonald’s earnings in the EU were not registered in the US for tax purposes, leaving McDonald’s no way to prove it had paid tax on its European royalties there.
A second tax ruling in September allowed McDonald’s to pay no tax in Luxembourg on its European earnings, without needing to prove it paid tax on those earnings in the US. The Commission said it planned to investigate whether this amounted to state aid.
The latest Commission investigation comes two months after it ordered Luxembourg to recover up to €30 million from Fiat Chrysler and the Dutch to do the same for Starbucks, because their tax deals were seen as unlawful aid.
Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland has died at the age of 48.
Scott Weiland’s manager, Tom Vitorino, confirmed his death on December 3.
A statement, on Instagram, said Scott Weiland had “passed away in his sleep while on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minnesota, with his band The Wildabouts”.
Scott Weiland had a history of drug problems. He formed the Grammy-winning band Stone Temple Pilots, and was a member of supergroup Velvet Revolver.
According to TMZ, Scott Weiland’s body was discovered on his tour bus outside a motel, near the venue where the band was due to play.
Photo Twitter
Born in California, Scott Weiland formed the band Stone Temple Pilots with brothers Robert and Dean DeLeo in the late 1990s and went on to enjoy early critical and commercial success.
The success of tracks such as Big Empty, Vasoline and Interstate Love Song, which propelled the 1994 album Purple to the top of the US charts, was marred by in-fighting among band members.
Stone Temple Pilots took a number of breaks, with Scott Weiland eventually leaving and forming the supergroup Velvet Revolver – with former Guns N’ Roses members Slash (guitars), Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums) – in 2002.
However, Scott Weiland’s drug addiction issues were becoming increasingly problematic.
In 1995, the singer was convicted of buying crack cocaine and sentenced to probation.
He was jailed in 1999 for violating his probation after being convicted of heroin possession in 1998, and four years later, in 2003, sentenced to three years’ probation for drug possession.
In 2008, Scott Weiland was sentenced to eight days in jail after pleading no contest to a drink driving charge.
Velvet Revolver had to frequently alter its schedules to accommodate Scott Weiland’s court appearances and spells in rehab and the band’s 2007 release, Libertad, was the last to feature Weiland on vocals.
They split with Scott Weiland the following year, blaming the singer’s “erratic behavior”.
Scott Weiland later returned to the reformed Stone Temple Pilots – but in 2013, they too ejected him from the band, claiming he had been “misappropriating” their name to further his solo career.
Reports of Scott Weiland’s death began to circulate after musician Dave Navarro reportedly tweeted: “Just learned our friend Scott Weiland has died. So gutted, I am thinking of his family tonight.”
That tweet later appeared to have been removed.
No immediate cause of death was given in the official statement. The statement asked for “the privacy of Scott’s family be respected”.
Scott Weiland’s current band, Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts, were scheduled to play at a Medina, Minnesota, concert venue, on December 3. The event was canceled.
Coldplay will headline the halftime show at Super Bowl 50 in February 2016.
Frontman Chris Martin said the band was “excited and honored and thrilled” to take part in next year’s event. He has also described the show as the “greatest moment” in the band’s career.
Coldplay revealed the news on Twitter, saying the show would reflect the past, present and the next 50 years ahead.
A record 118.5 million viewers in the US watched Katy Perry perform in this year’s half-time show.
The NFL promised “fun, celebration and surprises” for the event at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Recent half-time headliners have also included Beyonce, Madonna and Bruno Mars, with Bruce Springsteen and The Who also playing in past years.
In a promotional video, Chris Martin said: “We are so excited and honored and thrilled to be playing the half-time show.
“It’s going to be wonderful and I hope we see you there.”
Coldplay’s artistic director, Phil Harvey, said there would be a “special guest” – but did not reveal their identity.
The band is planning to tour “early next year”, after only playing a handful of low-key shows to promote their last album, Ghost Stories.
It was also announced on Coldplay’s website that they were to play a free show in Paris for their French fans on December 9, weeks after the attacks in the city that left 130 dead, including many at the Bataclan theatre where the Eagles of Death Metal were performing.
Police have found bomb equipment, weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition at San Bernardino shooters’ home.
The attackers killed 14 people and wounded 21 at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center in California.
Authorities still have not found a motive in the attack by Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27.
According to police, the attack indicated there had been “some degree of planning”.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said it appeared that the duo was prepared to carry out another attack.
“There was obviously a mission here. We know that. We do not know why. We don’t know if this was the intended target or if there was something that triggered him to do this immediately,” said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
In the shootout with police hours after the attack, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik fired 76 rounds of ammunition at the officers and the officers fired 380 rounds back.
Two police officers were injured during the pursuit.
San Bernardino attack marks the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Authorities are expected to start releasing the names of the victims on December 3.
President Barack Obama said the FBI had taken over the investigation from local authorities.
“It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know. It’s also possible that this was workplace-related,” he said.
“We’re going to have to search ourselves as a society to make sure we can take basic steps that would make it harder – not impossible, but harder – for individuals to get access to weapons.”
Law enforcement officials are also looking at possible “co-conspirators” and have been in touch with the suspects’ relatives.
Syed Rizwan Farook, who was born in the US, was not “on the radar” of law enforcement, Jarrod Burguan said.
He worked for the past five years as a restaurant inspector for the San Bernardino County Health Department. The Los Angeles Times reported that co-workers said he was a devout Muslim but rarely discussed his religion.
He and Tashfeen Malik were recently married and had a six-month-old baby, who they dropped off at its grandmother’s house before the attack.
On December 2, Syed Rizwan Farook and his colleagues were attending a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center.
Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Syed Farook before he abruptly left, leaving his coat.
Wearing military-style clothing and armed with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, Syed Farook returned with Tashfeen Malik a short time later to open fire.
When the shooting started, Patrick Baccari took refuge in a bathroom and was hurt when shrapnel sliced through the wall.
Belgian authorities have detained two more suspects in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks.
One man was held on November 29 at an airport in Brussels trying to leave for Morocco, prosecutors said. Another was held the same day in Brussels’ Molenbeek area.
This brings the number of people detained in Belgium to eight.
Attackers armed with automatic rifles and suicide belts killed 130 people at a number of sites in Paris. Some of the attackers had lived in Belgium.
Belgian prosecutors said a 20-year-old Frenchman, listed as Samir Z, had been stopped at Zaventem airport, north-west of Brussels, preparing to board a flight to Morocco in the early hours of Sunday.
They said he was “considered to be part of the entourage of Bilal Hadfi”.
Bilal Hadfi was said to have blown himself up in a street after failing to get into the Stade de France at the soccer match between France and Germany on November 13.
Prosecutors said Samir Z was “under the suspicion of having attempted to leave for Syria at least twice in 2015”.
The second arrest was at dawn on Sunday, November 29. A Belgian national listed as Pierre N and born in 1987 was detained in his home in Molenbeek.
Both were placed in custody “on grounds of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization”, the prosecutors’ statement said.
They have appeared before a court, which has extended their detention.
Since the attacks, Belgian authorities have carried out a series of raids searching for key suspects believed to have lived in the Molenbeek area.
The verdict in Oscar Pistorius case has been changed to murder.
The Paralympic champion has been found guilty of murder after a South African appeals court overturned an earlier manslaughter verdict.
Oscar Pistorius, 28, killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after shooting her four times through a locked toilet door.
He is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.
Photo AP
Oscar Pistorius will have to return to court to be re-sentenced, for murder.
South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court did not correctly apply the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Oscar Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.
The minimum sentence for murder is 15 years but judges can apply some discretion.
South African law does not make provision for someone to be placed under house arrest for more than five years, so Pistorius will be going back to prison.
Oscar Pistorius’ family gave a brief response, saying lawyers are studying the finding who will advise them on “options going forward”.
Reading the ruling reached by a panel of five judges, Justice Eric Leach said that having armed himself with a high-caliber weapon, Oscar Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die.
“As a matter of common sense at the time the fatal shots were fired, the possibility of the death of the person behind the door was clearly an obvious result.
“And in firing not one but four shots, such a result became even more likely,” the judge said.
Oscar Pistorius always maintained that he believed there was an intruder in the house but the judge said that the identity of the person behind the door was “irrelevant to his guilt”.
Justice Eric Leach compared it to someone setting off a bomb in a public place not knowing who the victims might be.
The judge also rejected the argument that Oscar Pistorius had acted in self-defense.
Justice Eric Leach said that Oscar Pistorius’ life was not in danger at the time of the shooting, as the athelte did not know who was behind the door or if they posed a threat.
The judge added that Oscar Pistorius did “not take that most elementary precaution of firing a warning shot”.
The double amputee did not attend the hearing in Bloemfontein.
But Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, was present and afterwards she was seen outside the court being embraced by members of the African National Congress Women’s League, who were singing songs of celebration.
Many in South Africa were upset by the original acquittal on murder charges, with women’s rights groups arguing Oscar Pistorius should have been found guilty of murder as a deterrent because of the high number of women who are killed by their partners in the country.
The Paralympic champion was released from prison on October 19. Under South African law, he was eligible for release under “correctional supervision”, having served a sixth of his sentence.
Oscar Pistorius can challenge the ruling in the constitutional court but only if his lawyers can argue that his constitutional rights have been violated.
Two FIFA officials have been arrested in a dawn raid at the luxury Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on suspicion of accepting millions of dollars of bribes.
Police swooped on the luxury hotel, where several FIFA officials were arrested in May.
A two-day meeting of FIFA’s executive committee is taking place in Zurich, Switzerland, to vote on reforms.
“FIFA became aware of the actions taken today by the US Department of Justice,” the soccer’s world governing body said.
“FIFA will continue to co-operate fully with the US investigation as permitted by Swiss law, as well as with the investigation being led by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General.
“FIFA will have no further comment on today’s developments.”
In May, seven FIFA officials, including two vice presidents, were arrested at the same hotel at the request of a US investigation into corruption, as the organization was engulfed by claims of widespread wrongdoing.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) has said the two people arrested overnight are alleged to have taken money for selling marketing rights in connection with soccer tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches.
“A further two FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich today,” the Swiss FoJ said on December 3.
“They are being held in custody pending their extradition [to the US]. According to the US arrest requests, they are suspected of accepting bribes of millions of dollars.”
Swiss officials said they would release the names of the two arrested people and the outcomes of the hearings later on Thursday, December 3.
A Swiss criminal investigation into the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was also launched earlier this year, alongside the US inquiry.
Police have named two suspects killed after a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead at a social services center.
The man and woman, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were killed in an exchange of fire with police.
Syed Rizwan Farook had been a San Bernardino public health employee for five years, police chief Jarrod Burguan said.
The attack took place at an event on December 2 for Syed Rizwan Farook’s colleagues. None of the victims has been identified.
The Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place, provides services for people with developmental disabilities, but the shooting appeared to be unrelated to its clients.
The incident marks the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Jarrod Burguan, who said another 17 people were wounded, said police were “reasonably confident” that there were just two shooters.
A third person seen running from the scene was detained, but police said it was unclear whether that person was involved.
Both suspects were killed in their vehicle after a shoot-out with police involving 20 officers. A tip-off had earlier led police to a house in nearby Redlands.
The dead man and woman were believed to be a couple, the police chief said. They were armed with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns and wore military-style clothing.
According to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), two of the four guns recovered were linked to “an individual associated with this investigation”. They are investigating the origin of the other two guns.
One police officer was injured, but his injuries are not life threatening.
Three possible explosive devices were found at the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place.
Jarrod Burguan said that Syed Rizwan Farook had left the event – which was possibly a holiday party for employees or a meeting – “under some circumstances that were described as angry,” and returned with Tashfeen Malik.
Earlier, the FBI said it was not ruling out the possibility of terrorism but the situation was still being investigated.
San Bernardino is a city of about 200,000 people, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
The attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health was holding a social event, said Maybeth Field, the center’s president.
Syed Rizwan Farook, who was born in the US, worked for the county as an environmental health specialist, police said. They had no information on whether he had a criminal record, nor further details on Tashfeen Malik.
Colleagues told the Los Angeles Times that Syed Rizwan Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a new wife. The couple had a young baby, they said.
His brother-in-law, Farhan Khan, told a press conference he had “absolutely no idea” what could have prompted the shooting.
The mass shooting comes just days after three people were killed at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic.
President Barack Obama said in response to San Bernardino shooting: “One thing we do know is that we have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world.
“There are some steps that we could take, not to eliminate all incidents, but to make sure they happen less frequently.”
North Korea is building a new tunnel at its nuclear test site, recent satellite images indicate.
A report on 38 North, a website run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, studied images taken between April and November.
These appeared to show work in a new area of the Punggye-ri nuclear zone.
However, the report said, there is no sign that any nuclear test is imminent.
North Korea carried out three underground nuclear tests at Punggye-ri in 2006, 2009 and 2013. The country’s nuclear program has been a source of great concern for the international community.
The tunnel identified in the latest imagery is in a new area of the site, separate from three other tunnels that North Korea has excavated or used for tests in the past, the report said.
“While there are no indications that a nuclear test is imminent, the new tunnel adds to North Korea’s ability to conduct additional detonations over the coming years if it chooses to do so,” it added.
The commercially-available satellite imagery on which the researchers based their conclusions appear to show a new tunnel entrance, the site’s fourth, as well as signs of construction work taking place as recently as October and November.
The report says some analysts believe each entrance connects to a single tunnel but there is debate about the exact nature and structure of the underground testing facility.
It is not the first indication of construction activity at the site. In October, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean government source saying there were workers constructing a new tunnel at Punggye-ri.
In September, North Korea said that its reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the source of plutonium for the country’s nuclear weapons, had resumed normal operations.
Yongbyon’s reactor was shut down in 2007 but Pyongyang vowed to restart it in 2013, following its third nuclear test and amid high regional tensions.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed Russian claims he is benefiting from the oil trade with ISIS as “slander”.
Russia claims that Turkey is the biggest buyer of oil smuggled from ISIS-held territory, accusing Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of direct involvement.
However, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would resign if such allegations were proved.
Russia and Turkey are locked in an angry spat over the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish forces.
Responding to the allegations, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “no one has a right to engage in slander against Turkey by saying that Turkey is buying oil from Daesh [ISIS]”.
Earlier, Russia’s defense ministry displayed satellite images it said showed columns of trucks loaded with oil crossing from ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria into Turkey.
“According to available information, the highest level of the political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business,” Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the briefing in Moscow.
Russia said it was producing only “part of the evidence” for now and did not provide direct proof of their claim that Recep Tayyip Erdogan and family were involved.
The US has also rejected the allegations.
“We just don’t believe that to be true in any way, shape or form,” a State Department spokesman said.
President Vladimir Putin has already accused Ankara of downing the plane on its Syrian border to protect oil supply lines.
Turkey said the Russian SU-24 fighter plane intruded into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings to leave.
Russia and Turkey have important economic ties, and in the wake of the incident Moscow imposed visa requirements for Turkish visitors, and placed restrictions on trade with Ankara.
On December 2, Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Russia’s response “disproportional” and said Turkey would take their “own measures” if they continued, without specifying what they would be.
Despite the tensions Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is prepared to meet Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu at a security conference in Serbia this week.
It would be the first time the officials have met since the downing of the Russian fighter jet.
Brazil’s lower house of Congress has opened impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.
The process is based on allegations Dilma Rousseff broke the law in managing 2014 budget, President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha said.
Despite re-election in 2014, Dilma Rousseff’s popularity has slumped amid a corruption scandal involving the state-owned oil giant, Petrobras.
“I was outraged by the decision,” the president said in a televised speech.
“I haven’t committed any wrongful act,” she added.
Dilma Rousseff, who earlier called an emergency cabinet meeting, said she was confident that the impeachment motion would be rejected.
Two-thirds of the lower house must approve the process for it to proceed.
The governing coalition has a majority in the lower house of Congress.
The defeated opposition candidate in last year’s presidential election, Senator Aecio Neves, has tweeted that he supports the impeachment request.
“Everyone in the country must obey the law, especially the president,” he wrote.
Eduardo Cunha is himself facing corruption allegations, which he denies.
He has been accused of lying about a secret bank account in Switzerland.
An ethics committee is voting on whether to authorize action to eject him from his post of speaker.
Eduardo Cunha had been threatening to open impeachment proceedings if the governing party did not offer him backing.
His decision was “purely technical”, he said.
“It was a difficult decision. I did not become speaker of the Chamber of Deputies aiming to approve impeachment proceedings against the president,” said Eduardo Cunha.
The impeachment request had been filed by a distinguished jurist, Helio Bicudo, and some opposition members.
The document blames the government for the corruption scandal at Petrobras and says Dilma Rousseff violated Brazil’s fiscal responsibility laws.
In October an audit court ruled that Dilma Rousseff had borrowed money illegally from state banks to make up for budget shortfalls.
On December 1, the economy minister announced that Brazil’s economy shrank by 1.7% in the Q3 of 2015 compared with the second quarter, deepening the country’s worst recession in 25 years.
Compared with a year ago, the economy is 4.5% smaller.
The corruption scandal at Petrobras was partly to blame for the downturn, said Economy Minister Joaquim Levy.
California police are searching for up to three gunmen after a shooting at a facility for disabled people.
Fire officials in San Bernardino said it was responding to a “20 victim shooting incident” at the Inland Regional Center and it was working to clear the scene.
ABC News reports that there are 12 people dead but police have not confirmed that number.
It is still a “very active scene” and police were trying to secure the building, said a police spokeswoman.
There may be up to three gunmen, she said, and they were heavily armed and possibly wearing body armor.
The gunmen may have fled the scene in a black SUV and may have had long guns.
Photo AP
One man received a text from his daughter that said she was hiding inside the building, where she works.
Terry Petit told reporters his daughter wrote to him: “People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”
President Barack Obama has responded to the shooting.
“One thing we do know is that we have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world,” he said.
“There are some steps that we could take, not to eliminate all incidents, but to make sure they happen less frequently.”
A local reporter tweeted that people were being evacuated from the Inland Regional Center, a medical and health organization.
The organization administers help to people with disabilities like autism and other mental health problems.
The shooting is happening less than a week after a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado left three people dead and nine people wounded.
People are being seen wheeled away on stretchers with medics and police officers in attendance.
CNN reports that area hospitals are receiving at least 15 patients from the shooting.
An employee of the centre told CNN that the building was holding an event for county personnel inside an auditorium when the shooting occurred.
Representatives from the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are on the scene.
No arrests have been made yet.
There are also unconfirmed reports of an explosive device at the scene.
Witnesses told CNN they heard rapid shooting coming from nearby the building.
Police confirmed a report that the suspects entered a conference room in the building and started shooting but had no further details.
There are three buildings on the campus with more than 600 employees total, said Kristin Myricks, an employee of the centre who did not go to work today.
The facility has had active gunman training in the past. Badges are needed to enter the facility.
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If you’re running a private practice and you’re the only one around to transcribe your notes and check it for errors, you might miss a couple of things, not unless you spend countless hours reviewing your files. If the place is packed, though, and you’ve got more patients coming in, you might not even have enough time to sit down for sandwich, much less transcribe your own notes. Top Ten Review says that’s one reason you should hire a medical transcription service provider. A great transcriptionist won’t just help you transcribe your files, she’ll also make sure your files are free of errors. That’s one easy and simple way for you to maintain the accuracy of your files without having to require yourself to spend more time proofing and editing your patient documents.
Trained and Skilled Professionals
Self-growth says great transcriptionists have the right training and skills to help you out. Some of them undergo medical transcription training programs to develop familiarity with their subject matter as well as acquire the skills they need. This should include fast typing as well as great skill in editing and writing. Some transcriptionists also enroll themselves in online courses just to make sure they’re updated with the latest in terms of trends and practices. They never stop learning. So if you find a medical transcription service provider, one of the first things you should definitely ask about is the current skill level of the staff on board and the types of training they have to ensure they’re on top of the game.
Quick Delivery of Results
Great transcriptionists deliver the goods and they do it quick and efficient. That’s the kind of service you want from your transcription provider. Some companies, like Eyered Transcription, are able to provide neurology medical transcription assistance and results within less than 24 hours. The faster turnaround times the company is capable of, the better.
However, fast delivery, in itself, doesn’t automatically mean quality. So make sure you still check the quality of the work before you load it up into your system. Never put anything automatically into your system without thoroughly checking the work. Hiring professionals for the job mean you don’t have to work as much on file documentation. However, it still pays to keep an eye on the work. That way, if and when your transcriptionist misses something, you’ll be there to pick up the slack.
Instructions are Followed to a Tee
According to Transcription Pro, great transcriptionists are a stickler for following client instructions. Most of them like to cross their Ts. That works to your advantage, of course. If they do it right the first time, then the dictations can be completed and sent back to you right on time. That means no delays in the delivery schedule. Another tip to keep delays from happening, though, is to ensure your instructions are clear and easily understood. Clarifications, while welcome, take time to explain as well. Even if you only need to clarify the instructions for a few minutes, that’s still a few minutes more of your transcriptionist’s time spent away from the work. So if you want to make the most out of the services you paid for, send out clear, concise instructions every time.
Dependable and Reliable
Another great thing about great transcriptionists is that they’re utterly reliable. In business, deadlines are often a binding contract. Meaning, if you tell your clients to expect something by a given date or time, then you should have the power and skills to make that happen. Otherwise, people may stop trusting you. Don’t let delays detract from your professional credibility and the value of your service. With a reliable transcription service provider on your side, being reliable in your deadlines will be easy and simple enough to manage.
These are spot-on reasons to hire a transcription service provider to take care of your transcription needs for you. If you want more time, less stress, and a better way to manage your files, take a gander into hiring the right transcription service.
Maravilloso real or magic surrealism is a style of writing largely associated with Latin America, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most prominent literary figures for the genre, along with Isabel Allende and Jorge Luis Borges, among others. Stories that employ the magic surrealism often depict unbelievable or unsettling events or characters in a realistic way. Haven’t read much yet in the way of genre classics? Here are a few pieces to serve as an excellent introduction to the style:
Two Words by Isabel Allende
Image: Flickr- Pedro Cambra
This is a short story about Belisa Crepusculario, a young woman who sells words for a living. The narrative starts out with a description of how life began for Belisa, born to a family so poor they didn’t even have names for their children. We see her survive her family’s deaths, wandering around, and finally finding salvation in an old newspaper: she finally learns what words are and finds a priest to teach her how to read and write. That’s how she honed her craft. And so one august morning, we see her carried off by a soldier and brought to camp because the dreaded leader, Colonel, wanted to be president. And he needed a speech. And who better to provide that than a woman who sells words? From there, the story unfolds in a simple but absorbing way. When Belisa finally finishes the speech and renders all the men at camp in tears, she’s let go and paid for her services. But before she goes, she offers two secrets words for the Colonel alone.
From town to town, we see the Colonel succeed, the speech giving the man the fame and support he needs. But the Colonel himself doesn’t see that, repeating the secret words over and over. So the solider captures Belisa again, this time and brings her to the Colonel, this time to demand that the Colonel give back the two words. Read the story and find out how it ends. It’s a wonderful tale about the spellbinding power of words, of how a speech can sway an entire nation or a mere two mere words steal your heart. If you haven’t downloaded this yet, no worries. Plenty of online bookstores carry it. Nook Ebook store offers classics on its list. So browse through the selection and download the whole book.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
While Kafka wrote other stories representative of the genre—like The Hunger Artist, The Judgment—it is, perhaps, The Metamorphosis that remains one of the most well-known of his works, possibly due to the tone of the material. It starts off with Gregor Samsa waking up one day to discover he has turned into an insect, which according to a lot of sources, seems to be a beetle. The New Yorker describes it as a reference to a life that has gone out of control. Soon, he becomes a housekeeping problem for his family, who keeps him out of sight. Gregor is an anti-hero typical of Kafka’s works. Before his transformation, he was practically the family’s sole source of income. As a bug, Gregor is unable to work, much less speak to his family. However, he understands them quite clearly and when his father expresses the opinion that Gregor ought to simply leave, he retreats back to his room and dies. The writing is detailed, harrowing, and darkly amusing.
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
Included in his famous collection, Ficciones, this short story about a library, a colossal collection of books arranged in a geometric fashion. The Paris Review says that the library contains all the possible permutation of 22 spaces, commas, letters as well as periods. It contains books of nonsense but it also contains, based on those permutations, all the books ever written or ever will be. Somewhere in the chaos, there’s that one book that contains all the names of the books in the library, like a magic master list and those caught in the library’s labyrinth are eager to chase after this book or the ‘Man of the Book,’ who they believe has read it. The story borrows elements from mathematics. If you’ve got a taste for the elusive and haunting, even challenging in your reading material, this one should pass the time quite nicely.
Super Frog Saves Tokyo
A remarkable story from of Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake collection, it’s about a frog who tries to persuade a bank teller to take on an evil worm in combat that promises to be a fight to the death. Where else can you find a frog that quotes Dostoevsky and Hemingway? Contemporary in tone and heart, the story is unquestionably set in the intensely dreamlike and metaphysical prose we associate with Murakami and his greatest works.
So if you haven’t dipped your toes yet in surrealist literature, here’s your chance. Read up on more surrealist stories and discover a world of dreams and reality woven together, a universe where everything and everyone is deliciously possible.
Kim Jong-un’s aunt, Ko Yong-suk has filed a defamation case against three North Korean defectors who “spread false stories” about her.
Ko Yong-suk claims the defectors – who fled to South Korea in the 1990s – lied about her having plastic surgery and managing a secret fund.
Her lawyer says she is seeking 60 million won ($51,600) in a South Korean court.
The move is unusual – ruling family members living outside North Korea tend to avoid the public eye.
The defectors appeared on talk shows and claimed that Ko Yong-suk used plastic surgery to hide after having Kim Jong-un’s half-brother expelled from North Korea, her lawyer said.
“These defectors who often make appearances on TV are not in a position to know about her directly and what they are saying is not true,” he told Reuters.
“She and her husband find it very unpleasant.”
Ko Yong-suk took asylum in the US with her husband in 1998. She took care of Kim Jong-un when he was a teenager studying in Switzerland, according to her lawyer.
It is not clear if she will appear in court.
Ko Yong-suk’s lawyer told AFP news agency: “I’m not 100% sure, but her husband indicated she could come.”
Greece has been threatened with Schengen suspension if the EU country fails to improve conditions for refugees, reports say.
EU officials accuse Greece of refusing to accept help in accepting more refugees. Greece would become the first country to be suspended since passport-free travel was established in 1985.
More than 740,000 people have arrived on the shores of Greece in 2015 before moving north across Europe.
A top EU official has warned that children are dying on Greek beaches because of a lack of medical help.
There is also anger that Greece has been slow to let in EU experts and improve its registration of refugees.
The influx of refugees across countries with few border restrictions has alarmed European leaders and raised doubts about the very future of the 1985 Schengen accord.
According to the Financial Times, Greece has been repeatedly warned this week that it could be suspended from the 26-member zone if it fails to take action before an EU leaders’ summit in mid-December.
Separately, unnamed officials in Brussels have said that a suspension has been discussed in recent days in an attempt to persuade the Athens government to improve its handling of migrants and refugees.
Greece is not only struggling to cope with the numbers of people arriving on the islands closest to Turkey such as Lesbos, but thousands of people are camped on the northern border with Macedonia, which has erected a fence to stop people crossing.
Greece’s EU partners are frustrated that the Athens government has been slow to accept offers of help from the border agency, Frontex, to better manage its sea border. The offer is particularly sensitive in Greece because of concerns over its national sovereignty.
While suspension from the Schengen accord would directly affect Greeks travelling to the 25 other members of the passport-free zone, it is unclear what effect it would have on the refugee crisis.
None of the Balkan countries on the refugee route between Greece and Hungary are part of Schengen.
Greek businesses are becoming increasingly concerned by the crisis on the Macedonian border because protests on the railway line have halted rail traffic.
Montenegro has been invited to join NATO, in its first expansion for six years.
The decision, described by NATO head Jens Stoltenberg as “historic”, comes 16 years after the alliance bombed Montenegro during the Kosovo war, when it was still part of Yugoslavia.
Russia has reacted to the news. Montenegro’s accession would result in “retaliatory actions”, said a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Accession talks are expected to take about a year to complete.
The invitation to Montenegro is NATO’s first expansion into Eastern Europe since Albania and Croatia joined in 2009.
The mountainous Adriatic state of 650,000 people has a small military with about 2,000 active members.
NATO diplomats say it sends a message to Russia that it cannot veto the alliance’s expansion – but Russia has said it will retaliate.
“The continued eastward expansion of NATO and NATO’s military infrastructure cannot but result in retaliatory actions from the east, i.e. from the Russian side, in terms of ensuring security and supporting the parity of interests,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Dmitry Peskov added that it was too early to specify what the retaliatory actions would be.
Montenegrins themselves remain divided over joining.
Many remain angry that NATO bombed Serbia and Montenegro in 1999 as part of a strategy to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Serbia’s then southern province of Kosovo.
Montenegro has also seen an influx of Russian money, homebuyers and tourists since splitting from Serbia in 2006.
Milo Djukanovic’s government – which is in favor of joining – has resisted calls from some opposition parties for a referendum on the issue.
However, NATO diplomats point to polls that suggest public opinion is narrowly in favor of joining.
Besides Montenegro and Georgia, the other current candidates for NATO membership are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.
The Bank of China is facing a daily fine in the US if it does not comply with a court request to give details of customers accused of selling fake goods.
The state-owned lender was held in contempt of court in Manhattan last week for refusing to turn over the records.
The bank is appealing the civil contempt order and fine of $50,000 a day starting on December 8.
The BOC said it would be violating China’s privacy law if it gave the information.
The records stem from a 2010 lawsuit by a group of luxury retailers including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent that sued a group of Chinese companies for allegedly selling counterfeits goods like handbags.
The luxury brands had asked US district judge Richard Sullivan to order the BOC to pay $12 million to cover their losses from counterfeiting or impose a fine.
The judge had initially ordered the BOC to provide the customer information in 2011 and then renewed the order in September.
“BOC’s refusal to comply with US law, while it continues to receive the benefits attendant to its banking activity in the US, has inflicted a significant harm on plaintiffs and the general public,” Richard Sullivan said.
“Only a large fine will have a coercive effect on BOC at this stage.”
He has also ordered the top-four Chinese lender to cover the retailers’ legal costs.
But the BOC said the judge lacked the jurisdiction to force its compliance.
The BOC is China’s fourth biggest lender by assets and made a profit of nearly $28 billion in 2014.
The Canadian economy emerged from recession in Q3 of 2015 after exports picked up, official figures show.
Canada’s GDP rose at an annualized rate of 2.3% compared with 2014.
Higher consumer spending and a more buoyant housing market also added to growth.
On December 2, Canada’s central bank meets to decide the level of interest rates. The bank has cut rates twice this year to 0.5%.
Exports were 9.4% higher in the third quarter compared with 2014, boosted by demand for motor vehicles. Oil exports were also higher.
Previous figures showed GDP shrank by an annualized rate of 0.5% between April and June.
That followed a contraction of 0.8% in Q1, meaning the Canadian economy saw two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the usual definition of recession.
VW has seen its US sales decline sharply as a result of the continuing emissions scandal.
November sales were down by 24.7% from the previous year.
The German automaker said the drop reflected “the impact of the recent stop-sale for all 2.0L 4-cylinder TDI vehicles as well as for the 3.0L V6”.
VW was forced to stop selling 2 and 3 liter diesel engine cars after it was discovered they contained software that disguised emission levels.
The group sold fewer than 24,000 cars in November, with the Golf and Passat models seeing the steepest declines.
VW saw a very minor sales decline of 0.24% in October. The US is not a large market for Volkswagen. Even before the scandal it had struggled to gain traction in a market where larger SUVs and trucks are popular.
Volkswagen has admitted to installing devices that lowered the emissions levels of diesel engine cars during testing, but that increased emissions during normal driving.
VW CEO Matthias Muller has previously apologized for the scandal and said: “My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group.”
Other automakers have seen a steady rise in US sales this year.
Sales of General Motors cars rose by 1.5% in November. Toyota and Fiat Chrysler each reported a 3% increase in their November sales compared with 2014.
