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الثلاثاء، 8 نوفمبر 2011

Lincoln Tribune

Boxing Icon ‘Smokin’ Joe’ Frazier Dead at 67
Strong earthquake strikes off Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, no tsunami
Nicaraguan President Ortega wins third term amid claims of election fraud
Five Liberians killed, dozens injured in pre-election violence
Sri Lankan army to delist more than 60,000 deserters

Boxing Icon ‘Smokin’ Joe’ Frazier Dead at 67

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 11:36 PM PST

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier, who was known for his personal and professional battles with Muhammad Ali, has died after a brief fight with cancer at the age of 67.

The youngest of 12 children, Frazier was born in 1944 into a working-class family on a farm in the racially-segregated southeastern U.S. town of Beaufort, ((pron: BYOO'- fert) South Carolina. Frazier dreamed of becoming a prize fighter from an early age, watching boxing matches on his family's black-and-white television.

After fighting as an amateur for several years, Frazier won a gold medal for the United States at the 1964 Olympic Games. But "Smokin' Joe" Frazier really made his name in the 1970s during his epic rivalry with boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

Frazier became the first man to beat Ali, winning the heavyweight title in 1971 in a dramatic, 15-round unanimous decision at New York's Madison Square Garden. Dubbed the "fight of the century," an estimated 300 million people worldwide viewed the match, which left both men hospitalized.

After Ali responded with a 12-round victory in 1974, the two men met in the Philippines for the famed "Thrilla in Manila," considered to be one of the most famous sporting events in history. After battering each other for 14 rounds, Frazier was forcibly held back by his trainer after nearly being blinded by Ali's punches. Ali later said the match was the "closest thing to dying" that he had ever experienced.

The no-nonsense Frazier was often overshadowed by Ali's more aggressive and charismatic personality. Frazier resented being verbally attacked by Ali, who referred to him as a "gorilla" and accused Frazier of being too accommodating to the white-dominated society.

The two men remained bitter enemies for decades. But in later years, Frazier came to forgive Ali, saying he felt no bitterness against him for his attacks outside the ring. Ali also later apologized, saying the insults were only meant to promote the fights.

Ali said in a statement late Monday that "the world has lost a great champion," and that he will always remember Joe with "respect and admiration."

Frazier's aggressiveness, close-range style and devastating left hook compensated for his relative small size. He weighed just 93 kilograms - considered small for a heavyweight boxer.

Frazier retired in 1976 with a record of 32 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw.

The boxing icon's family said late Monday that he died in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia - one month after being diagnosed with an advanced form of liver cancer.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Strong earthquake strikes off Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, no tsunami

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 07:39 PM PST

NAHA (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck the East China Sea northwest of the Japanese Ryukyu Islands on late Tuesday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami alert was issued.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake at 11.59 a.m. local time (0259 GMT) was centered about 218 kilometers (136 miles) northwest of Naha, a coastal city on Okinawa Island which is part of the Ryukyu Islands. It struck about 220 kilometers (136 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Moderate shaking could be felt across the Ryukyu Islands, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measured the strength of the earthquake at 6.9 on the regional moment magnitude (Mw) scale, estimated more than 1.3 million people in the region may have felt the quake.

Because of the depth of the earthquake, neither JMA nor the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch or warning. "A destructive tsunami was not generated based on earthquake and historical tsunami data," the center said in a b ulletin.

Japan sits on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin which is prone to frequent and large earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions also occur frequently in the region.

On March 11, an enormous 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan, generating a devastating tsunami. The earthquake and resulting tsunami left at least 15,833 people killed while 3,671 others remain missing and are feared dead.

Nicaraguan President Ortega wins third term amid claims of election fraud

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 06:59 PM PST

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA (BNO NEWS) -- Nicaraguan election officials on Monday afternoon declared incumbent president Daniel Ortega as the winner of Sunday's general election amid widespread claims of fraud.

With more than 86 percent of the 2.2 million votes counted, Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) said the 65-year-old Ortega, who is the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), received 62.65 percent of the vote.

Ortega was followed by Independent Liberal Party (PLI) candidate Fabio Gadea Mantilla, who received 30.96 percent of the vote, according to CSE President Roberto Rivas, who said the turnout was between 75 and 80 percent. The Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) received about six percent of the votes.

However, Gadea Mantilla refused to concede defeat amid increasing allegations of widespread election fraud, and the official CSE website showed earlier results which totaled up to 100.01 percent. He said the results as presented by the CSE do not reflect the people's will but rather the power of the government.

"Unfortunately, the Nicaraguan people have not had a credible opportunity for their democratic right," Gadea Mantilla stated. "As the electoral process developed, the number of irregularities was increasing until it culminated in elections, which has been a carefully planned exercise by the 'Ortegaism' in order to alter the people's will, which produces a justified suspicion that we have witnessed a staged fraud."

He added: "At this moment, we cannot accept the results as presented by the Supreme Electoral Council because they do not reflect the people's will, but rather the will of the electoral council."

A group of protesters gathered outside the CSE's central headquarters in Managua, claiming that the election results are false and calling for a nationwide movement against the results. A large police front stood guard around the CSE's offices but no incidents were reported.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, condemned the elections. "Sunday's so-called election in Nicaragua was a complete sham," she said. "Daniel Ortega made sure of it."

Ros-Lehtinen said Ortega was, according to the Nicaraguan constitution, not eligible to run for a third term as president. "But he forced his way onto the ballot through a corrupt scheme that trampled over Nicaraguan constitutional mandates," she said, referring to a 2009 Supreme Court decision which declared the country's two-term limit invalid.

"And once he forced his way onto the ballot, Ortega pulled out more tricks to make sure that he would win," Ros-Lehtinen added. "He denied countless Nicaraguans the right to vote in order to stack the deck in his favor. He has clearly learned from his dictatorial buddies in the region, like Chavez, who is an expert at trampling democracy."

The U.S. State Department also expressed concern regarding Nicaragua's presidential elections, but said it would wait with a formal comment until the election has been certified.

"We are concerned by press reporting that during the elections there were procedural irregularities and there was also intimidation of voters," said Victoria Nuland, the State Department's spokeswoman.

Nuland noted that the Nicaraguan government denied access to international election monitors. "Frankly, if the Nicaraguan Government had nothing to hide, it should have allowed a broad complement of international monitors," she said.

Ortega first assumed office in January 1985 until April 1990. He then ran for a second term in 2006, leading to his inauguration in January 2007.

In 1998, Ortega's adopted stepdaughter Zoilamerica Narvaez alleged that she had been systematically sexually abused by Ortega since 1979 when she was 11 years old. Despite releasing a 48-page report to describe her allegations, Ortega had immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament and the five-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse and rape charges was judged to have been exceeded. Both Ortega and his wife have denied Narvaez' allegations.

Five Liberians killed, dozens injured in pre-election violence

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:54 PM PST

MONROVIA (BNO NEWS) -- At least five people were killed on Monday and dozens more were injured when violence broke out during an opposition rally in the Liberian capital of Monrovia ahead of the country's presidential run-off, local media reported.

The violence broke out at the headquarters of the main opposition party, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), which had called for a peaceful vigil to urge their supporters to boycott Tuesday's polls. At least five people were killed and more than 25 injured after shots were reportedly fired, the Liberia Journal reported.

The identities of the victims were not immediately revealed. But according to initial reports, Liberian security forces began firing in the air after they barricaded the main entries to the opposition facility.

However, an official of the ruling Unity Party, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed the CDC for creating the conditions which sparked the violence. Samuel D. Tweah, a CDC official, said his group was attacked in violation of its constitutional right to peacefully assemble.

"Because they thought CDC partisans have no rights to peacefully assemble, they decided to attack us," Tweah told The Liberian Journal in an interview from CDC's headquarters in Monrovia. "There is no need to deploy security forces when people are gathering peacefully."

Incumbent President Johnson Sirleaf won the initial October election, but failed to pass the 50 percent threshold to avoid a run-off. Nearly 1.8 million people had registered to vote in the elections, which came just days after 72-year-old Sirleaf, who is Africa's first democratically elected female president, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to improve women's rights.

The previous elections in 2005 were managed by the United Nations, but this year's polls have been organized by the country's National Elections Commission. Tuesday's polls mark Liberia's second democratic elections since the end of the decade-long conflict that killed nearly 150,000 people, mostly civilians, and sent 850,000 others fleeing to neighboring countries.

Sri Lankan army to delist more than 60,000 deserters

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 05:47 PM PST

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) -- The Sri Lankan military is to delist more than 60,000 soldiers who deserted their ranks during and after the civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, the army said on Monday.

Since the decades-long war ended in 2009, the army had offered several amnesty periods for the tens of thousands of deserters to return to their ranks and not face punishment. Army spokesman Nihal Hapuarachchi told The Sunday Leader newspaper that the army will now delist the soldiers who have not reported back to service.

"These are soldiers who had deserted their ranks since 1982. Soldiers who had not reported back to service are considered deserters and they will now be delisted from the army," he said.

Hapuarachchi added that around 5,000 deserters must still report back to their respective military bases to go through some other formalities before being delisted. Meanwhile, the military and the police are hunting for more than 500 soldiers who have reportedly been involved in criminal activities.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was militarily wiped out in May 2009, ending the 26-year-old civil war. The bloody war between the government and the Tamil Tigers left as many as 100,000 people dead. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and other human rights violations.

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الثلاثاء، 8 نوفمبر 2011

Lincoln Tribune

Lincoln Tribune

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