United Airlines is changing its
policy on giving staff last-minute seats on full flights after a man was
dragged screaming from an overbooked plane.
The airline said that in future crew members would be allocated seats at least an hour before departure.
It
comes after passenger Dr David Dao lost two front teeth and suffered a
broken nose when he was forcibly removed from a flight last Sunday.
United Airlines said the move was aimed at improving its customer services.
The
incident involving Dr Dao caused outrage and widespread condemnation of
the airline after shocking footage was shared and watched by millions
of people online.
His daughter, Crystal Dao Pepper, later told a
news conference in Chicago that the family had been "sickened" by what
had happened.
Law enforcement officials dragged Dr Dao off a flight departing from
Chicago for Louisville, Kentucky, because it was fully booked, and the
airline wanted four passengers to make way for staff members.
The
69-year-old Vietnamese-American physician had refused to leave, saying
he needed to go home to see his patients. He was then dragged down the
aisle of the aircraft.
His lawyer later said that Dr Dao found the experience "more horrifying and harrowing than what he experienced when leaving Vietnam".
United Airline's public relations disaster
Why do airlines overbook?
The ordeal led to demonstrations at Chicago's O'Hare
International Airport and turned into a public relations disaster for
United Airlines.
The situation escalated when a response from the airline's chief
executive, Oscar Munoz, failed to mention any use of excessive force.
"This
is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologise for
having to re-accommodate these customers," he said in a statement. He
also said that Dr Dao was "disruptive and belligerent".
Days later
Mr Munoz, who was facing calls to resign from online petitions that had
received thousands of signatures, said he felt "shame and
embarrassment" and vowed that it would never happen again.
The airline offered compensation to all customers on board last Sunday's United Flight 3411.
Police in Cleveland are searching for a man who broadcast the fatal shooting of a "random" victim live on Facebook.
The suspect, Steve Stephens, later said in a separate video post that he had killed 13 people and was looking to kill more.
Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams confirmed one killing but said they did not know of any other victims.
Mr Williams said that "multiple forces" were looking for Mr Stephens, who "needs to turn himself in".
The victim has been identified by Cleveland police as 74-year-old Robert Goodwin.
"There
is no need for any further bloodshed in this incident tonight," police
chief Calvin Williams said at a news conference on Sunday.
"We need to bring this to a conclusion today," he said, adding: "We need to get Steve from the streets."
Chicago man shot dead during Facebook live-stream
French live-streaming suicide stirs social media fears
Mr Williams said that authorities had put out alerts "in the
state of Ohio and beyond" over the "senseless" incident, and urged
people not to approach the suspect, who he said was likely to remain
armed and dangerous.
The Cleveland police department issued a
photo of Mr Stephens on its website, describing him as a 6ft 1in (1.9m)
tall black male of medium complexion. Image copyrightCleveland PoliceImage caption
Police issued a photo of the suspect
He is thought to be driving a white or cream-coloured SUV (sports utility vehicle).
Mr Williams said that the victim appeared to have been selected at random in what he described as a "senseless" murder.
He added that Mr Stephens "clearly has a problem" and urged him to come forward in order to "receive the help that he needs".
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is collaborating with local police as it investigates the incident, CNN reports.
The mayor of Cleveland, Frank Jackson, said that he wanted Mr Stephens to know that "he will eventually be caught".
It
is not the first time that a fatal shooting has been captured on
Facebook Live. Last June, a man was shot dead while live-streaming a
video of himself on the streets of Chicago. In March, an unidentified
man was shot 16 times while broadcasting live.
Facebook's
live-streaming feature allows anyone to broadcast online in real time.
It was launched in 2010 but has become more central to the social
network's strategy in recent months.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has narrowly won a referendum to expand presidential powers,
which could keep him in office until 2029.
With 99.45% of ballots
counted, the "Yes" campaign had won 51.37% and "No" 48.63%, and the
electoral board called victory for "Yes".
Erdogan supporters say replacing the parliamentary system with an executive presidency will modernise the country.
Turkey's two main opposition parties said they would challenge the results.
The
Republican People's Party (CHP) demanded a recount of 60% of votes.
They criticised a decision to accept unstamped ballot papers as valid
unless proven otherwise.
As jubilant Erdogan supporters rallied in
the big cities, pots and pans were banged in Istanbul by opponents of
the referendum, in a traditional form of protest.
Three people
were shot dead near a polling station in the south-eastern province of
Diyarbakir, reportedly during a dispute over how they were voting.
The European Commission called on the Turkish authorities in a statement to "seek the broadest possible national consensus" when implementing the constitutional reforms.
Erdogan's Turkey: The full story
Turkey referendum: Key reactions
They are rejoicing into the night here outside the headquarters of
the governing AK party (AKP), confident in the victory claimed by
President Erdogan.
He and his government say more than 51% of
voters have backed the constitutional reform but the opposition has
cried foul, claiming massive irregularities over invalid votes and
vowing to challenge the result at the supreme electoral board.
Mr
Erdogan said the clear victory needed to be respected. In a typically
rabble-rousing speech, he proposed another referendum on reinstating the
death penalty, which would end Turkey's EU negotiations.
But
this has not been the resounding win he wanted and doubts will linger
over its legitimacy. It was hoped this vote might bring Turkey stability
but that still seems some way off.
Critics abroad fear Erdogan's reach
The day a Turkish writer's life changed
Death penalty next?
"Today...
Turkey has taken a historic decision," Mr Erdogan told a briefing at
his official Istanbul residence, the Huber Palace. "With the people, we
have realised the most important reform in our history."
He called on everyone to respect the outcome of the vote.
The president also said the country could hold a referendum on bringing back the death penalty.
He usually gives triumphant balcony speeches, the BBC's Mark Lowen notes, but this was a muted indoors address.
Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak admitted the "Yes" vote had been lower than expected.
What's in the new constitution?
The draft states that the next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on 3 November 2019.
The president will have a five-year tenure, for a maximum of two terms.
The president will be able to directly appoint top public officials, including ministers
He will also be able to assign one or several vice-presidents
The job of prime minister, currently held by Binali Yildirim, will be scrapped
The president will have power to
intervene in the judiciary, which Mr Erdogan has accused of being
influenced by Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based preacher he blames
for the failed coup in July
The president will decide whether or not impose a state of emergency
'French-style system'
Mr
Erdogan says the changes are needed to address Turkey's security
challenges nine months after an attempted coup, and to avoid the fragile
coalition governments of the past.
The new system, he argues,
will resemble those in France and the US and will bring calm in a time
of turmoil marked by a Kurdish insurgency, Islamist militancy and
conflict in neighbouring Syria, which has led to a huge refugee influx.
Critics
of the changes fear the move will make the president's position too
powerful, arguing that it amounts to one-man rule, without the checks
and balances of other presidential systems such as those in France and
the US.
They say his ability to retain ties to a political party -
Mr Erdogan could resume leadership of the AKP he co-founded - will end
any chance of impartiality.
CHP deputy leader Erdal Aksunger said he believed there had been
irregularities in the count: "Many illegal acts are being carried out in
favour of the 'Yes' campaign right now.
"There is the state on one side and people on the other. 'No' will win in the end. Everybody will see that."
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) also challenged the vote.
Critics abroad fear Erdogan's reach
The day a Turkish writer's life changed
Emergency rule
Many
Turks already fear growing authoritarianism in their country, where
tens of thousands of people have been arrested, and at least 100,000
sacked or suspended from their jobs, since a coup attempt last July.
The campaign unfolded under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the failed coup.
Mr Erdogan assumed the presidency, meant to be a largely ceremonial
position, in 2014 after more than a decade as prime minister.
Under
his rule, the middle class has ballooned and infrastructure has been
modernised, while religious Turks have been empowered.
Relations
with the EU, meanwhile, have deteriorated. Mr Erdogan sparred bitterly
with European governments who banned rallies by his ministers in their
countries during the referendum campaign. He called the bans "Nazi
acts".
Turkey's dominant president
The ultranationalists who could sway Erdogan
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran appears to have some competition on his hands, by none other than his alter egg-o "Egg Sheeran".
The chart-topper has become a favourite in both school and workplace Easter-egg decorating competitions.
And people are sharing their creative takes on social media, some of whom were lucky enough to win first prize.
It doesn't stop there. Last year, a UK egg supplier revealed that its farmers played Ed Sheeran songs to their hens to help them lay more eggs.
A London-based company said "Egg Sheeran" was "certainly a strong contender" in their in-house competition.
Another featured him sporting longer hair among other competitors, including "Eggward Scissorhands" and "Eggy Trump".
"Egg Sheeran" also made an appearance at Easter egg hunts. One man found him hiding behind a statue and won himself tickets to a real-life Ed Sheeran concert.
Uzbekistan says it warned the West
that the man accused of carrying out last week's lorry attack in
Stockholm was recruited by so-called Islamic State (IS) after leaving
Uzbekistan in 2014.
The Uzbek Foreign Minister, Abdulaziz
Kamilov, said information about Rakhmat Akilov had been "passed to one
of our Western partners, so that the Swedish side could be informed".
It is rare for the Uzbek authorities to disclose such intelligence details.
Mr Akilov has confessed to the crime.
The Swedish security service says it can neither confirm nor deny receiving such information from Uzbekistan.
Mr
Akilov, 39, left Uzbekistan for Sweden in 2014. He sought residency
there, but in December 2016 he was told that he had four weeks to leave
the country, police said.
He disappeared and, in February, was officially put on a wanted list.
Just hours after the attack last Friday he was arrested. At a court hearing he confessed to a "terrorist crime".
Four people were killed when a lorry was driven into a department store on one of Stockholm's busiest streets, Drottninggatan.
Rakhmat Akilov: Who is the truck attack suspect?
Eyewitnesses: Lorry was 'trying to hit people'
Mr
Kamilov told a news conference that the suspect had "actively urged his
compatriots to travel to Syria in order to fight for IS". Mr Akilov had
used online messaging services, he said.
Earlier, an Uzbek security source quoted by the Reuters news agency
said Mr Akilov himself had tried to travel to Syria in 2015 to fight for
IS. However, he was stopped on the Turkey-Syria border and was sent
back to Sweden.
No group has claimed to be behind the Stockholm attack.
Mr
Akilov reportedly ran from the scene of the attack, still covered in
blood and glass, and was arrested later in a northern suburb of
Stockholm.
According to reports, he had left a wife and four children behind in Uzbekistan in order to earn money to send home.
The US military has just dropped its
largest conventional (that is non-nuclear) bomb for the first time in
combat, on Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) - or, in military speak, Mother of All Bombs - was launched on Thursday.
The target was said to be a network of tunnels operated by the so-called Islamic State in Achin district.
As a non-nuclear weapon, use of the MOAB does not necessarily require approval by the US president
It is a huge weapon - a 30ft (9m), 21,600lb (9,800kg), GPS-guided
munition that is dropped from the cargo doors of an MC-130 transport
plane and detonates shortly before it hits the ground.
The MOAB
falls from the aircraft on a pallet, which is then tugged aside by a
parachute allowing the weapon to glide down, stabilised and directed by
four grid-like fins.
Its principal effect is a massive blast wave - said to stretch for a mile in every direction - created by 18,000lb of TNT.
The bomb's thin aluminium casing was designed specifically to maximise the blast radius.
The "bunker-busting" bomb is designed to damage underground facilities and tunnels.
The
weapon was developed for use in the Iraq war - at a reported cost of
$16m (£13m) each - and was first tested in 2003, but never used in
action - until now.
And yet, the MOAB is not the US military's heaviest non-nuclear bomb.
That
distinction belongs to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, an even
bigger bunker-buster which weighs a colossal 30,000lb.
Russia has developed its own massive conventional bomb, nicknamed the
Father Of All Bombs. The FOAB is a kind of fuel-air bomb, technically
known as a thermobaric weapon.
Thermobaric bombs generally
detonate in two stages: a small blast creates a cloud of explosive
material which is then ignited, generating a devastating pressure wave.
A
significant part of the effect of weapons like the MOAB is said to be
psychological - to instil terror by the massive force of the blast.
Its
development followed the use of similar weapons including the BLU-82
Daisy Cutter, a 15,000lb bomb designed in part to flatten a section of
forest to carve out a helicopter landing pad.
The MOAB was developed by the Alabama-based aeronautics company Dynetics.
There
are some bands that will never get back together. Abba. The Jam. The
Smiths. Then there are those that "will never get back together". Like The Stone Roses. And Busted.
The
group that had eight top 10 hits in the 2000s, and sent many a teenage
girl all aflutter, split in 2005 when frontman Charlie Simpson left.
Simpson told BBC Newsbeat
"not in a million years" would they reform. But some 999,990 years
before that date, Simpson announced they were getting back together
after all.
Speaking at the time of their reunion in November 2015,
Simpson said: "I reckon I said it 20 more times than that, privately
and publicly, and I meant it every single time.
"But as I say, I
have changed my mind, and that has been down to the circumstances
changing. I never thought we would get to a point where we were in a
studio writing music we all got behind creatively and that was a huge
shock to me."
The band played UK arenas in 2016 with the aptly named Pigs Can Fly Tour.
Ricky Gervais - Golden Globes
When
Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globe awards in 2010, offending half of
Hollywood in the process, he told the relieved A-list audience: "It's
OK folks, I won't be doing this again."
But he returned the following year, and again in 2012, before announcing very publicly he would not be back.
On
his blog after the 2012 ceremony, the acerbic comic wrote: "I've told
my agent to never let me be persuaded to do it again though. It's like a
parachute jump. You can only really enjoy it in retrospect when you
realise you didn't die and it was quite an amazing thing to do."
Four
years later, he headed back. Employing a good old British turn of
phrase, Gervais tweeted: "It's a good job I'm drunk. Otherwise the
thought of hosting The Golden Globes again would seem like a real pain
in the arse."
Election promises
What do Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus, Amy Schumer, Chloe Sevigny and Ne-Yo have in common?
They
all should be living in Canada or Europe after vowing to leave the US
if Donald Trump was elected President. But they're not.
Some hastily tweeted U-turns when Trump was elected, others went quiet and hoped nobody would remember.
Goldberg
said "I'm not leaving the country I was born and raised in," while
Schumer used social media to declare her pledge to move to Spain was
merely a "joke".
Cyrus released an emotional video the morning after Trump's win saying she "accepted" the new president.
Samuel
L Jackson, who had been succinct in his intentions, also backed out.
"If that mother... becomes president, I'm moving my black ass to South
Africa," he said.
He didn't.
Charlie Chaplin
In the early
1950s, Charlie Chaplin reportedly said he had "no further use for
America" and "wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President".
After
a series of political controversies, personal scandals and falling
audiences, he decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London,
where the film was set, rather than the US, where he had settled.
Boarding
the RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York in 1952, he received word that his
re-entry permit had been revoked and he would have to be interviewed
about his political views and moral behaviour if he wanted to return.
He
said: "I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful
reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America's
yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which
liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted."
By
1972, feelings had softened on both sides and the Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an honorary Oscar.
Chaplin
was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's
history, as he accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has
had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
James Bond
Daniel Craig famously said he would "rather slash my wrists" than reprise his role as 007 fifth time.
But The Sun reported last week he was "ready to do a final Bond".
It
isn't confirmed, but the newspaper said film producer Barbara Broccoli
had almost persuaded him to get back on board one last time.
Craig is regarded as one of the best Bonds of all time - and it seems the best Bonds are also the most fickle.
In
1983, Sean Connery returned to the role for the seventh and last time
in Never Say Never Again, with the title being more than a subtle nod to
Connery's reported remarks that he would "never again" play Bond.
A Japanese woman who murdered three
lovers in a so-called "black widow" case faces execution after the
Supreme Court rejected her final appeal.
Kanae Kijima, now 42, met the three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, online in the Tokyo area in 2009.
Motivated by financial gain, she poisoned them with carbon monoxide after giving them sleeping pills.
It could take years for the hanging of Kijima, who has married twice since being caught, to be carried out.
The death penalty is supported by the majority of the Japanese public.
'See you again'
Kijima
burned charcoal briquettes to generate the carbon monoxide when
poisoning the men. She killed all three within an eight-month period in
2009.
Her defence team had argued it was probable the men had taken their own lives.
The
prosecution case was largely based on circumstantial evidence.
Prosecutors said she killed the men so she would not have to pay back
the money they had given her.
A court found her guilty in 2012 and the judge said there could be no room for leniency.
The
sentence won overwhelming public support in a case that has generated
massive interest. More than 1,000 people queued for fewer than 50 seats
to hear the original verdict.
The Supreme Court has now backed
the ruling that she killed Takao Terada, 53, Kenzo Ando, 80, and
Yoshiyuki Oide, 41. An earlier appeal was thrown out by the High Court
in 2014.
Kijima, who writes a blog from her detention centre, said in a post on Thursday: "I hope to see you again somewhere someday."
She has changed her surname to Doi while on death row.
In a similar case, 70-year-old Chisako Kakehi is awaiting trial for the alleged killing of several men.
The term "black widow" derives from the female spider that eats its partner after mating.
Media captionRichard Bell describes the moment a scorpion fell on his head
A Canadian man says he was stung by a scorpion while travelling in business class on a United Airlines flight.
Richard
Bell said the scorpion fell from the overhead bin and onto his head
during lunch on a trip from Houston, Texas to Calgary in Canada.
After putting it on his plate, he was stung. United has offered compensation.
It
happened on Sunday, the same day a United passenger was violently
dragged from a plane after refusing to give his seat to a staff member.
Video of the incident has been watched by millions of people online.
Dr
David Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese-American, lost two front teeth and
suffered a broken nose and a "significant" concussion in the incident.
Media captionAn eyewitness describes how Dr David Dao was dragged off the planeMr Bell, who was travelling with his wife, Linda, told CBC: "While I was eating, something fell in my hair from the overhead above me.
"I picked it up, and it was a scorpion. And I was holding it out by the tail, so it couldn't really sting me then."
United passenger ordeal 'worse than fall of Saigon'
United Airline's public relations disaster
Why do airlines overbook?
A fellow passenger, he said, warned him that the creature was a scorpion and could be dangerous.
"So I dropped it on my plate and then I went to pick it up again, and that's when it stung me. It got my nail, mostly," he said
Mr
Bell flicked the scorpion on to the floor and a flight attendant
covered it with a cup before throwing it away in the bathroom.
A nurse who happened to be on board gave him a painkiller as a precaution, he said.
When the plane landed in Calgary he was taken to a hospital, and later released after being cleared of any medical issue.
Mr
Bell said he had no plans to launch a lawsuit. United Airlines has
offered the couple flying credit as compensation, CBC reports.
Media captionCrystal Dao Pepper: 'Horrified, shocked and sickened'In the incident with Dr Dao, law enforcement officials were
called after he refused to leave the overbooked plane travelling from
Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, saying he needed to get home to see his
patients.
Dr Dao's lawyers have filed an emergency court request for the airline to preserve evidence ahead of a hearing on Monday.
He
was released on Wednesday night from a Chicago hospital, his lawyer
said, adding that he planned to have reconstructive surgery.
China has warned that "conflict could break out at any moment" as tension over North Korea increases.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said if war occurred there could be no winner.
Mr
Wang's comments come as the US voices increasing concern at North
Korea's development of nuclear weapons and deploys a Navy carrier group
off the Korean peninsula.
China, North Korea's only backer, fears conflict could cause the regime to collapse and problems on its border.
Mr
Wang said: "Lately, tensions have risen between on the one hand the
United States and the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and on the other,
the DPRK [North Korea] and one has the feeling that a conflict could
break out at any moment.
"I think that all relevant parties should be highly vigilant with regards to this situation."
The
foreign minister added: "We call on all parties to refrain from
provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and
not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage." Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
The US carrier group deploying off the Korean peninsula is led by the USS Carl Vinson
Adding to Chinese unease, President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday that the US was not afraid of acting alone on North Korea.
"If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A."
The US president has recently demonstrated his willingness to resort to military methods. He ordered a cruise missile attack on Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack, and the US military just used a huge bomb against so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan.
Washington is concerned North Korea might develop the ability to launch a nuclear weapon at the US.
Mr Trump and China's President Xi Jinping have been in contact by phone
since their summit last week in Florida, and Reuters quotes US
officials as saying tougher economic sanctions against North Korea are
also being considered.
Media captionJohn Sudworth asks people on the Pyongyang subway how they feel about the country's nuclear tests.China is concerned any conflict could lead to a huge refugee
problem on its border with North Korea. But, in a sign of growing
frustration with its neighbour, it recently blocked coal imports from
the North.
There is also intense speculation that North Korea
could carry out a sixth nuclear bomb test or another missile launch -
possibly a long-range missile - on Saturday.
Saturday marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of its first leader, Kim Il-sung.
Read more about North Korea's missile programme
Trump's steep learning curve
In an interview with the Associated Press,
North Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol accused the Trump
administration of "becoming more vicious and more aggressive" in its
policy towards the North.
An institute linked to the North Korean foreign ministry also warned that "thermo-nuclear war may break out any moment".
A US military strike with a weapon
known as the "mother of all bombs" (MOAB) killed 36 IS militants and
destroyed their base, the Afghan defence ministry says.
The most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used by the US in combat was dropped on IS tunnels in Nangarhar province.
No civilians were affected by the explosion, the ministry said.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "an inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country".
Read more:
How powerful is 'mother of all bombs'?
What will Trump do about Afghanistan?
How successful has IS been in Afghanistan?
Chief
Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah confirmed that the attack
had been carried out in co-ordination with the government and that
"great care had been taken to avoid civilian harm".
In a press
briefing on Friday, Gen John Nicholson, commander of US forces in
Afghanistan, said: "We have US forces at the site and we see no evidence
of civilian casualties nor have there been reports."
The Afghan
defence ministry said the bomb struck a village area in the Momand
valley where IS fighters were using a 300m-long network of caves.
It said the 21,600lb (9,800kg) bomb also destroyed a large stash of weapons.
Presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi told the BBC that IS
commander Siddiq Yar was among those killed. Mr Murtazawi said the IS
fighters in the tunnels had "come from Pakistan and were persecuting
people in the local area".
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast
Bomb was dropped by plane in Achin district on Thursday evening local
time, the Pentagon said.
More than 9m (30 ft) in length, it was first tested in 2003 but had not been deployed in combat before.
. Image copyrightEPAImage caption
An Afghan soldier points to the area where the US dropped the bomb
Gen Nicholson said it was "the right weapon against the right target" and "it was the right time to use the GBU-43 tactically".
He
added: "Let me be clear - we will not relent in our mission to destroy
[IS in Afghanistan]... There will be no sanctuary for terrorists in
Afghanistan." Image copyrightTwitter/KarzaiH
Achin district governor
Ismail Shinwary told the BBC that Afghan special forces, with the help
of American air support, had begun anti-IS operations in the area 13
days ago.
He said IS targets had been bombed regularly but "last night's bombarding was very powerful... the biggest I have ever seen".
Nangarhar Provincial Governor Gulab Mangal said IS fighters had used the complex to "kill people and hold important meetings". Massive blast area - Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent
The
clue is in the ungainly name - the MOAB or GBU-43/B massive ordnance
air blast is the US military's most destructive conventional (that is
non-nuclear) bomb.
It is a huge weapon and is GPS-guided. It was
dropped from a MC-130 aircraft - the US Special Forces variant of the
Hercules transport. The weapon is carried on a special cradle inside the
aircraft from which it is extracted by a parachute.
Its principal effect is a massive blast over a huge area. It is a larger version of weapons used during the Vietnam War.
The
Trump administration's policy towards Afghanistan remains under
consideration but the use of this weapon sends a powerful signal that IS
is top of the administration's target list wherever its offshoots may
be found.
A member of an anti-IS
group in the area who gave his name only as Mohammad told the BBC he was
at a checkpoint 1km from the bomb strike.
He said: "We were
eating dinner when we heard a big explosion, [I] came out of my room and
saw a mountain of fire... the area was full of light with the fire of
the bomb."
He said all civilians had left the area since the start of the anti-IS operation.
The US has yet to confirm the results of the strike but President Donald Trump called it "another successful job". The BBC's Jill McGivering says it remains unclear
what President Trump's Afghan strategy will be - he has talked in the
past about the need for the US to get out of nation-building and may be
keen to extricate himself from this long-running and expensive conflict.
But, she says, he has also expressed determination to stop the spread of IS.
Hamid
Karzai vehemently condemned the attack, saying on Twitter it was "not
the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country
as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons".
Syria error
IS
announced the establishment of its Khorasan branch - an old name for
Afghanistan and surrounding areas - in January 2015. It was the first
time that IS had officially spread outside the Arab world.
It was the first major militant group to directly challenge the Afghan Taliban's dominance over the local insurgency. Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Afghan forces have been targeting IS in Nangarhar for two weeks
However, experts say it has struggled to build a
wide political base and the indigenous support it expected. It has
steadily lost territory and fighters to US air strikes and an assault by
Afghan forces on the ground.
Estimates about IS's numerical
strength inside Afghanistan vary, ranging from several hundred to a few
thousand fighters. US forces say their number has been cut in half since
early 2016 due to military operations.
The MOAB strike followed last week's death of a US special forces soldier fighting IS in Nangarhar.
The news also came hours after the Pentagon admitted an air strike in Syria mistakenly killed 18 rebels.
It
said a partnered force had mistakenly identified the target location as
an IS position, but the strike on 11 April had killed rebels from the
Syrian Democratic Forces, which are backed by Washington.
A British woman thought to be in her 20s has been stabbed to death in Jerusalem, police have said.
The
tourist was attacked while she travelled on a tram in Tzahal Square,
which was packed with people celebrating Good Friday and Passover.
She was taken to hospital but died from her injuries soon afterwards.
Israel's
Shin Bet domestic security service have identified 57-year-old
Palestinian Gamil Tamimi as her attacker. He was arrested at the scene.
Police say Mr Tamimi, a resident of Ras al-Amud in east Jerusalem, was recently released from a psychiatric hospital.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are in touch with local authorities following an incident in Jerusalem on April 14."
Israel's
President Reuven Rivlin said he was "filled with sadness about the
attack" and his thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim.
Neither is she getting sympathy after complaining on ABC News’ “Nightline.”
“When your outlet is taken away from you and you don’t understand why
and you’re so disappointed and you’re so blindsided, it hurts,” she
said.
Her online show, “Tomi,” was ended, she says, after she publicly announced being in favor of abortion rights. The Blaze —
Beck’s multiplatform media outlet — told ABC: “It is puzzling that an
employee who remains under contract (and is still being paid) has sued
us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the
terms of our agreement with her.”
On March 17, Lahren appeared on ABC’s “The View,” and said: “I’m
pro-choice, and here’s why: I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say
I’m for limited government but I think that the government should decide
what women do with their bodies… stay out of my guns and you can stay
out of my body as well.” She also tells ABC:
“I’m not the kind of girl that sits in the corner and cries about
things. And that’s another message I really want to get across. I don’t
consider myself a feminist, but boy I will not lay down and play dead
ever.”
From August 2014 to August 2015, Lahren hosted a show on San Diego-based One America News Network (OAN), leaving after a reported dispute.
Robert Herring, CEO of OAN parent Herring Networks, said Lahren being pro-choice was not a good reason to pull her off the air.
“Tomi is a very strong minded young lady and that is one of her
biggest assets, but that also upsets a lot of people.” Herring told
Times of San Diego on Thursday.
“We let our talk show host say whatever they feel as long as it is
not something that will get me in legal trouble. We don’t let our
anchors express any opinion.”
Would Herring — who originally hired her out of school in Las Vegas — like to have Lahren back on OAN?
He says he reached out to her long ago, but can’t do anything because she has a contract till September.
Why did Lahren leave OAN?
“We didn’t have a contract,” said her former boss, “and she was
appearing on Fox and other shows, and I didn’t think that was right. I
gave her a choice and she left.”
The relationship Seahawks general manager
John Schneider has from previously working with Raiders GM Reggie
McKenzie may indeed pay off for Marshawn Lynch. And for Seattle.
Ian Rapoport of the league-owned NFL Network reported Thursday that
Seattle and Oakland are expected to eventually agree on a trade of the
retired running back to his hometown Raiders so he can un-retire and
play for Oakland in 2017. The trade is contingent upon the Raiders
reaching an agreement with Lynch on a new contract. That would free the
Seahawks of his $9 million salary-cap charge for this year should he
play for Seattle.
This NBA-style sign-and-trade deal would save the Seahawks having to
release their former Super Bowl-winning cornerstone, with him still
technically owing his team from 2010 through ’15 signing-bonus cash of
$2.5 million. A trade would keep Seattle from having to decide whether
to press Lynch, on principle, to actually repay the money.
McKenzie and Schneider worked together with the Green Bay Packers,
even sharing an office ‘for probably eight years,’” Schneider noted
recently in a radio interview with Seattle’s 710-AM.
It’s a coup for the Seahawks that Schneider could get anything more
than a bag of kicking tees from the Raiders in a trade for Lynch.
Oakland could ignore Seattle’s trade ideas and simply wait for the
league to act on a request for reinstatement from Lynch, if he truly
wanted to play again in 2017. That would put Lynch’s $9 million charge
for this year, from his existing contract he signed two years ago, onto
the Seahawks’ cap.
Seattle has zero interest or ability to carry Lynch on its cap for
this year. As the team’s signing last month of free-agent running back
Eddie Lacy underlined, the Seahawks have moved on from “Beast Mode” to
“Past-Tense Mode.”
A trade of Lynch would most likely to net the Seahawks a conditional,
late-round draft pick from Oakland. That would depend on how the
about-to-be-31-year old performs for the Raiders this fall. He hasn’t
played a full season since 2014. Any contract he and his agent Doug
Hendrickson work out with the Raiders is likely to be full of incentive
bonuses.
The sign part of this sign-and-trade would benefit Oakland because it
could get Lynch at a low-risk, short-term deal much more to the
Raiders’ liking than his current contract with the Seahawks.
Seattle has retained Lynch’s contract rights while he’s been on its
reserve/retired list through 2017 under the contract extension he signed
before the 2015 season. That deal included a $7.5 signing bonus. Lynch
would be, according to letter of the league’s collective bargaining
agreement, subject to paying back to the Seahawks the 2016 proration on
that signing bonus. That is a sum of $2.5 million, for the season he was
retired.
Orlando Bloom says he remains friends with ex-girlfriend Katy Perry,
and says he and Perry are setting an example by showing that break-ups
“don’t have to be about hate.”
The British actor’s conciliatory tone in an interview with Elle UK
matches Perry’s take on the relationship. The singer tweeted last month
that “no one’s a victim or a villain” and “u can still b friends &
love ur former partners! [sic]”
Bloom also opened up about
infamous paparazzi photos taken last year of him paddle boarding in the
nude with a clothed Perry. He says he and Perry had been completely
alone and he “had a moment of feeling free”. He says he wouldn’t have
put himself in that position if he had known photographers were around.
Orlando Bloom recently opened up about remaining friendly with not one, but two of his exes.
The British actor told Elle he
and ex-girlfriend Katy Perry are trying to show that breakups "don't
have to be about hate." He also keeps things civil with ex-wife Miranda
Kerr. The two are parents to son Flynn, 6.
Bloom is not the only one who stays close to his
exes. Here's a list of several Hollywood stars who are friendly with
their former loves.
New England in the mid-19th century was a literary hothouse, overgrown with wild and exotic talents. That Emily Dickinson
was among the most dazzling of these is not disputable, but to say that
she was obscure in her own time would exaggerate her celebrity. A
handful of her poems appeared in print while she was alive (she died in
1886, at 55), but she preferred private rituals of publication,
carefully writing out her verses and sewing them into booklets.
Though
she had no interest in fame, Dickinson was anything but an amateur
scribbler, approaching her craft with unstinting discipline and tackling
mighty themes of death, time and eternity. She remains a paradoxical
writer: vividly present on the page but at the same time persistently
elusive. The more familiar you are with her work, the stranger she
becomes.
An
admirer can be forgiven for approaching “A Quiet Passion,” Terence
Davies’s new movie about Dickinson’s life, with trepidation. The
literalness of film and the creaky conventions of the biopic threaten to
dissolve that strangeness, to domesticate genius into likable
quirkiness. But Mr. Davies,
whose work often blends public history and private memory, possesses a
poetic sensibility perfectly suited to his subject and a deep,
idiosyncratic intuition about what might have made her tick.
Video
Trailer: ‘A Quiet Passion’
A preview of the film.
By MUSIC BOX FILMS on Publish Date April 11, 2017.
Image courtesy of Internet Video Archive.
Watch in Times Video »
To Dickinson — played in the long afternoon of her adult life by Cynthia Nixon
— the enemy of poetry is obviousness. (It is a vice she finds
particularly obnoxious in the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the
reigning poet of the age.) “A Quiet Passion” refuses the obvious at
every turn. The romantically disappointed recluse of “The Belle of Amherst,”
William Luce’s sturdy, sentimental play, has been replaced by a
prickly, funny, freethinking intellectual, whose life is less a
chronicle of withdrawal from the world than a series of explosive
engagements with the universe. The passion is not so quiet, really.
Dickinson muses and ponders, yes, but she also seethes, scolds, teases
and bursts out laughing.
Continue reading the main story
Solitude
is part of Dickinson’s birthright — the taste for it links her to Henry
David Thoreau, another odd duck plying the waters of Massachusetts —
but so are social and familial ties. The first time we see young Emily
(played by Emma Bell) she is about to be kicked out of Mount Holyoke
College, branded a “no-hoper” for her heterodox religious views. The
description is wrong, of course. (“Hope is the thing with feathers,” she
would write.) Her skepticism about God was more personal than
metaphysical. She didn’t doubt his existence so much as question his
intentions.
In
tracing the flowering of her vocation, Mr. Davies pays scrupulous
attention to the milieu that fed it. Her formal education complete,
Dickinson returns to Amherst to live with her parents (Keith Carradine
and Joanna Bacon); her brother, Austin (Duncan Duff); and her sister,
Vinnie (Jennifer Ehle). On the way, there is a trip to a concert with an
uptight aunt who is disgusted by the spectacle of a woman singing and
disdainful of music in general. What about hymns?, her niece asks.
“Hymns are not music.”
But
the Protestant hymnal was the metrical trellis on which Dickinson
wreathed blossoms and thorns of musical invention. “A Quiet Passion”
suggests that the mixture of austerity and extravagance in her verse was
shaped partly by an environment in which religious severity coexisted
with aesthetic and intellectual experimentation. (That aunt may have
disapproved of the performance, but she still went.)
Photo
Ms. Nixon, left, and Jennifer Ehle as Vinnie Dickinson, the poet’s sister.Credit
Johan Voets/Music Box Films
This
is a visually gorgeous film — full of sunlight and flowers, symmetry
and ornament — that also feels refreshingly plain. The smooth, almost
lyrical movement of the camera conveys lightness and gravity, much in
the way that some of Dickinson’s poems do. Like her voice, it seems to
have been set loose in time, to rush forward or to linger as the meaning
and the meter require, to turn time itself into a series of riddles.
The movie lasts for two hours, or 37 years, or the difference between
now and forever, or the span of an idea.
It
is dominated by a single voice: Ms. Nixon’s, reciting stanzas instead
of voice-over narration and cracking impish, sometimes impious jokes
with the marvelous Ms. Ehle. A novel of family life writes itself
between the lines, full of memorable characters and dramatic scenes.
Parents grow old and die. Austin marries and then has an affair, a
transgression that enrages Emily. She and Vinnie seem to exist in
precise, kinetic counterpoint, like the left and right hands of a piano
étude.
Not
everything is harmony. If one of the film’s threads is the existential
conundrum that most directly informs Dickinson’s poetry — what it is
like to live from moment to moment with the knowledge of eternity —
another is the dialectic of freedom and authority that defined her life.
Ms. Nixon’s Dickinson is a natural feminist, but she also naturally
submits, as her siblings do, to their father’s will. When she wants to
write late at night, she asks his permission, noting later that no
husband would have granted it. She is submissive and rebellious in ways
that defy easy summary. Like the other great American poet of her century, Walt Whitman, she contradicts herself.
And
though “A Quiet Passion” is small — modest in scope, inward rather than
expansive, precise in word and gesture — it contains multitudes. It
opens a window into an era whose political and moral legacies are still
with us, and illuminates, with a practiced portraitist’s sureness of
touch, the mind of someone who lived completely in her time, knowing all
the while that she would eventually escape it.
Many people are drawn to Emily Dickinson because of her mysterious
life — the brilliant poet rarely left her family home in Amherst, Mass.,
and her work wasn't recognized until after her death.
But
British film director Terence Davies says it was her poetry, more than
her personal life, that drew him in. Davies discovered Dickinson on
television. An actress was reading one of her poems and afterwards
Davies immediately ran out to buy one of her collections.
Movie Reviews
'A Quiet Passion' Dazzles Gradually
"What moves me about all the poems I've read is everything is
distilled down to the bare essential," Davies explains. "But it's the
very reticence of that that makes it desperately, desperately moving."
His new film, A Quiet Passion, stars Cynthia Nixon as Dickinson. The movie creates an image of a complicated woman whose poetry is steeped in pain.
In
the film Davies uses Dickinson's poetry as a kind of commentary on her
life. In the opening scene, Dickinson is severely chastised by the
headmistress of her school because she refuses to say she wants to be
Christian. Dickinson is dismissed as a "no hoper." As the scene ends she
stands alone by a window as Nixon reads one of her poems:
For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy.
For each beloved hour Sharp pittances of years, Bitter contested farthings And coffers heaped with tears.
Much of A Quiet Passion
focuses on Dickinson's spiritual struggles. Davies says he identified
with her because he also went through a spiritual crisis in his youth.
Poetry
Never Mind The White Dress, Turns Out Emily Dickinson Had A Green Thumb
"From 15 to 22 there was seven years of doubt and I really, really
prayed for God to reveal himself, and of course he didn't," he recalls.
"So I know what that is like. Faced with mortality, what do we do with
this thing we call the soul?"
In the film, Dickinson's refusal
to compromise her beliefs often puts her at odds with the conservative
religious beliefs of her family and friends. In one scene, she refuses
to kneel when a visiting minister leads her family in prayer. Her
disobedience infuriates her father.
"My soul is my own," she tells him.
"Your soul is God's!" he replies.
The Salt
A Coconut Cake From Emily Dickinson: Reclusive Poet, Passionate Baker
Dickinson has a few close relationships but is heartbroken when
friends leave her. The only man she is attracted to is already married.
He appreciates her poetry but few others do. She withdraws into her
family home, sheltering herself from a world she doesn't really
understand.
"To interpret the world you have to be an observer
of it," Davies says. "What being an observer does, it puts you on the
outside of life. You're never really part of it and life seems almost
incomprehensible. How do other people manage their way through the
world?"
Books
Billy Collins: A Poet's Affection For Emily Dickinson
Dickinson's reclusive life has been always been a source of fascination for artists.
"There's a kind of mystery around Dickinson and where mystery is, stories bloom," says Brenda Wineapple, author of White Heat, about Dickinson's friendship with a well-known abolitionist. Wineapple sees Dickinson as a strong, witty woman who did have lasting friendships. She says Davies has created a Dickinson whose radical life choices cost her a great deal.
"Over
time she becomes caustic and angry and disappointed, which is not
necessarily how people, particularly in the recent past, have imagined
Emily Dickinson," Wineapple says.
The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books
Biography Speculates Emily Dickinson Had Epilepsy
But Davies says of course Dickinson was angry — she wanted to be
loved and she wanted her work recognized even though she chose to live
as a recluse.
"In the end that haven becomes a prison," he
says. "It's sort of an emotional prison she can't get away from. That's
very sad and very hard to bear, I think." A Quiet Passion ends with Dickinson's death, before the hundreds of poems that would make her famous, were discovered.
