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68417355 | Aleix Heredia | 2021-08-06 18:51:23+00:00 | Aleix Heredia Vives (born 5 January 1992) is a Spanish modern pentathlete. He competed in the men's event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. |
28500620 | Kim Dae-beom | 2010-08-23 19:05:12+00:00 | Kim Dae-Beom (February 10, 1992 – April 15, 2019) was a South Korean modern pentathlete.
He won the surprising gold medal in the individual modern pentathlon at the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics. Kim claimed victory with a total of 4,588 points. Ilya Shugarov of Russia came second with 4,568 points and Jorge Camacho of Mexico was third at 4,548 points. |
29289089 | Cycling at the 2010 Asian Games | 2010-10-21 12:34:18+00:00 | Cycling at the 2010 Asian Games was held in Guangzhou, China. Road bicycle racing was held at the Triathlon Venue from November 20 to 23, while track cycling was contested at Guangzhou Velodrome from November 13 to 17, and mountain biking was contested at Dafushan Mountain Bike Course on November 18, and BMX racing was contested at Guangzhou Velodrome on November 19.
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A total of 217 athletes from 27 nations competed in cycling at the 2010 Asian Games: |
28111181 | Cycling at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games | 2010-07-21 22:41:33+00:00 | The cycling competition at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games was held in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
The tournament was held from 21 to 29 July at the Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla.
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27395460 | Cycling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games | 2010-05-18 13:46:08+00:00 | The cycling competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games comprised two disciplines: road cycling and track cycling. The track events were held at the Indira Gandhi Arena, while the road events were held at Noida–Greater Noida Expressway. Track events were held from 5–9 October 2010.
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26596642 | Cycling at the 2010 South American Games | 2010-03-18 00:31:27+00:00 | There were four cycling events at the 2010 South American Games: road cycling, track cycling, mountain bike and BMX racing, adding up to 28 events. The events were held over March 17–23.
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30387213 | 9th Parliament of Solomon Islands | 2011-01-09 16:03:57+00:00 | The 9th Parliament of Solomon Islands, determined by the 2010 general election, was the National Parliament of Solomon Islands from 2010 until 2014. It was preceded by the eighth and followed by the tenth.
The 9th Parliament consisted in 50 representatives, elected from 50 single-seat constituencies.
The various parties had the following number of seats. The Speaker is chosen from outside Parliament.
The following were the 50 members of the 9th Parliament.
Of these, only seven had been in Parliament prior to 2006. Job Tausinga is Parliament's veteran, having been continuously elected since 1984. Danny Philip was first elected in 1984, but lost his seat in 2001, before regaining it in 2010. Walter Folotalu was first elected in 1994, lost his seat in 1997, and returned to Parliament in a by-election in 2008. Manasseh Sogavare and Snyder Rini have both continuously been elected since 1997. Gordon Darcy Lilo is serving his third consecutive term, having first been elected in 2001. And James Tora first entered Parliament in a by-election in 2004. Twenty other MPs (including the now deceased Toswel Kaua) are serving their second term, while the other twenty-three (including the now deceased Steve Laore, and disgraced Jimmy Lusibaea) are first time MPs.
From among these MPs, Prime Minister Danny Philip appointed his Cabinet on 27 August, while Opposition Leader Steve Abana appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 31 August. Additionally, Clay Forau was elected Leader of the Independent Members of Parliament.
Steve Laore (Independent), MP for Shortlands, died on 25 August 2010, three weeks after the election. There was a by-election in Shortlands to determine his successor, on 30 March 2011. His brother Christopher Laore (Independent) succeeded him.
Toswel Kaua (Independent), MP for Baegu-Asifola, died on 16 November 2010. There was a by-election in Baegu-Asifola to determine his successor, on 30 March 2011. David Tome (Independent) succeeded him.
Jimmy Lusibaea (Independent), MP for North Malaita and Minister for Fisheries, lost his seat on 30 November 2010 upon being sentenced to two years and nine months in gaol for assault and grievous bodily harm. On 20 January 2011, the Minister for Police, James Tora, remitted Lusibaea's sentence to one month, using his discretion as Minister under section 38 of the Correctional Service Act. Consequently, Lusibaea was no longer barred from occupying his seat, and resumed his functions in Parliament. On 17 October, the High Court ruled that the remit did not amount to a court-sanctioned reduction in sentence, and Lusibaea lost his seat once more. There was a by-election in North Malaita on 1 August 2012 to determine his successor. His wife Vika Lusibaea (Independent) succeeded him, becoming only the second woman ever to be elected to Parliament (following Hilda Kari in the 1990s).
Andrew Hanaria (People's Congress Party), MP for East ꞌAreꞌare and Minister for Civil Aviation, had his election voided by the High Court on 7 December 2011. He was found to have bribed voters in his constituency with cash and material goods before the election. There was a by-election in East ꞌAreꞌare on 1 August 2012 to determine his successor. Andrew Manepora'a (party not specified) succeeded him.
Mark Kemakeza (Independent), MP for Nggella, lost his seat in March 2012 upon being convicted of misuse of public funds and sentenced to fourteen months in gaol. A by-election was held on 27 February 2013 to determine his successor; trade unionist and teacher Johnley Hatimoana was elected to replace him.
Johnley Hatimoana, MP for Ngella, died suddenly of pneumonia on 18 April 2014. There was no by-election, as the next general election was only a few months away.
Martin Magga (People's Alliance), MP for Temotu Pele, died after a long illness on 25 August 2014. As with Johnley Hatimoana, his death did not necessitate a by-election.
The following Acts were enacted under the Ninth Parliament.
2010 Supplementary Appropriation Act 2011
2011 Appropriation Act 2011 |
54921150 | Henderson Eels F.C. | 2017-08-16 13:11:27+00:00 | Henderson Eels FC is a Solomon Islands football club, which plays in the Telekom S-League. The club is owned by the managing director of Advance Technology Limited Hudson Wakio and his wife Hellen Wakio. Until 2017 they played in the Honiara Football League, but since the 2017 season they play in the highest level in Solomon Islands. Besides soccer, the club also has a futsal team.
Telekom S-League champions 2020-21: 1st
Squad for 2020 OFC Champions League
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Head coach:
Eddie Marahare
Assistant coach:
Michael Oritaimae
Team Manager:
Peter Nanaoa
Owner:
Hellen Wakio
Hudson Wakio
Director of Sport:
Gregory Fakaia
Media Officer:
Romulus Huta
Medical:
Physio:
George Lui
The Futsal side plays the SIPA Futsal Challenge and placed last in 2018 in Group B. |
25843824 | Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party | 2010-01-17 22:45:15+00:00 | The Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party (or OUR Party) is a political party in the Solomon Islands. It is headed by Jeremiah Manele and has competed in the 2010 and 2024 elections.
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The party was established on 17 December 2012 (and officially launched a month later) by the leader of the Opposition (and former Prime Minister) Manasseh Sogavare, and eight opposition MPs.
The party stated its intention to "invest $780 million over a period of four years in the rural economy from our own sources to improve the participation of our people in economic development". Provincial governments would be required to take an active part in rural development. It has also promised to consider whether it may be possible to restore customary ownership of land alienated for public purposes during the colonial era, notably in Honiara. In this respect, the party said it would be guided by the customary land ownership policy implemented in Vanuatu.
During the party's official launch mid-February, in Gizo, Sogavare added that, despite "millions of dollars worth of logs" exported from Western Province, landowners had received little in the way of revenue or improved government services. He later promised to address citizens' concerns about "the spill-over effects of the Bougainville crisis" on the maritime border with Papua New Guinea, and emphasised, that national unity was "one of the core pillars" of OUR Party.
Later, in the context of the campaign for the 2010 general election, Sogavare stated:
OUR Party is founded on Christian principles. OUR Party is committed to restore the ownership of this country to the people of Solomon Islands, both indigenous and naturalised. We are also committed to the course of national unity. We believe that we can only progress in developing our country if we are united and see each other as brothers and sisters. We are also committed to encouraging responsible leadership at all levels, including personal leadership. We are also committed to empowering our people through a development strategy that is people-centred, rural-focussed and growth-oriented.
Speaking in the party's name, he has also criticised the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, describing it as costly, excessively academic and guided by "foreign concepts", as opposed to more effective indigenous means of resolving conflicts and their aftermath. Party secretary general Patterson Oti stated in May 2010 that the party would decentralise development programmes, to empower the provinces. In June, Sogavare "pledged to commit 6.2 million US$ to help relocate victims of climate change" if the party won the election.
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Shortly after the 2019 general election, Sogavare relaunched the Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party, Sogavare himself contest as an independent candidate, which after the 2019 elections decides to join the DCGA coalition. However, OUR Party was never registered to contest the 2019 elections.
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In the lead up to the 2024 general election, OUR Party launched its manifesto on 8 February 2024. Prime Minister Sogavare announced the OUR Party's five most prioritised policies going into the election. The first was preserving social cohesion and the national unity to prevent ethnic tensions from rising, as in 2000. Enhancing the nation's legal and governing systems to guarantee public safety was another key priority, as was socio-economic growth; the party pledged to utilise the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, the Solomon Islands Infrastructure Program and China's Belt and Road Initiative. The OUR Party's fourth priority was national defence, security and trade; the party sought to preserve relations with Australia and other traditional allies while expanding ties with China as part of a "look north" policy. The fifth key priority was development and land and resources empowerment. During a campaign rally in the Malaitan provincial capital of Auki, Sogavare delivered a speech where he praised the Chinese political system and declared his government's decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China to have "put Solomon Islands on the map". Sogavare also claimed that democracy leads to moral decline and same-sex marriage. After declining to contest the election for prime minister for an additional term, Sogavare announced that he would stand down as the OUR Party leader. He was succeeded by Jeremiah Manele. |
28088521 | People's Congress Party | 2010-07-19 21:54:33+00:00 | The People's Congress Party was a political party in Solomon Islands. It was founded by outgoing deputy Prime Minister Fred Fono during the campaign for the 2010 general election.
Upon first announcing the priorities of the party, Fono stated its focus would be on "anti-corruption measures, such as reforming the controversial rural constituency development funds, and on creating jobs for Solomon Islanders". During the campaign, he said that it would "treat infrastructure as its priority", such as the development of roads in the country. He pointed to his own Central Kwara'ae constituency, arguing that he had achieved an improvement in water supplies and health care services. The party would also "create incentives to stimulate economic activities in the rural areas", with an aim to "double the export of cocoa, copra, fish and sawn timber". On the debate over the possibility of creating reserved seats for women in Parliament, he stated that they were unnecessary, and that parties should, instead, field women candidates so as to bring them into the political mainstream; he pointed out that his party would be fielding six women candidates in the election. However, he said he would support a maximum of four reserved seats, if women standing against men were unsuccessful in the 2010 election.
The party would go on to win one seat in 2010 with 0.7% of the total vote. |
26189545 | People's Power Action Party | 2010-02-13 22:03:07+00:00 | The Peoples Power Action Party was a political party in the Solomon Islands. The party was launched on February 10, 2010 to support the "underprivileged majority" and advocated the foundation of a micro-finance bank to finance development in the Solomon Islands. Its founding president was Wale Feratelia. |
31870532 | 2nd Tarang Cine Awards | 2011-05-24 16:11:57+00:00 | The results of the 2010 2nd Tarang Cine Awards, the awards presented annually by the Tarang entertainment television channel to honor artistic and technical excellence in the Oriya language film industry of India ("Ollywood"), are as follow:
Best Film: Sanju Aau Sanjana
Best Director: Sudhansu Sahu
Best Actor: Babusan
Best Actress: Barsha Priyadarshini
Best Actor in a Negative Role: Siddhanta Mahapatra
Best Co-Actor: Mihir Das
Best Co-actress: Ushasi Mishra
Best Actor in a comic role: Pappu
Best Newcomer: Bablu
Best Screenplay: Dilip choudhury
Cinematographer: Sanjeev Mohapatra
Best Male Playback singer: Krishna Beura
Best female Play back singer: Ira Mohanty
Choreography: Sudhakar Basanta
Lyrics: Devdas Chhotray
Music direction: Prasanta Padhi
Child Artiste: Sriya |
32441443 | 5th Vijay Awards | 2011-07-17 09:15:18+00:00 | The 5th Vijay Awards ceremony honoring the winners and nominees of the best of Tamil film industry in 2010 was held on 25 June 2011 in Chennai.
Winners from 32 various categories like Best Film, Best Actor Male/Female, Best Supporting Actor Male/Female, Best Comedian, Best Villain, Best Playback Singer Male/Female, Best Debut Actor Male/Female, Best Choreographer, Best Film Editor, Best Lyricist, Best Art Director, Best Dress Designer, Best Dialogue Writer are few of the awards that would be selected by the Jury members.
The Jury members for the Fifth Annual Vijay Awards are the Popular Writer/Director/Producer Yugi Sethu, Actress Radhika Sarathkumar, Karthik, Director A. R. Murugadoss and Cinematographer Ravi. K. Chandran.
Winners are highlighted and nominees are listed in the list below.
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27691739 | 11th IIFA Awards | 2010-06-12 18:12:49+00:00 | The 2010 IIFA Awards, officially the 11th International Indian Film Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the International Indian Film Academy honoured the best films of 2009 and took place between 3 – 5 June 2010. The official ceremony took place on 5 June 2010, at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. During the ceremony, IIFA Awards were awarded in 23 competitive categories. The ceremony was televised in India and internationally on Star Plus. The ceremony was hosted by Boman Irani, Ritesh Deshmukh and Lara Dutta.
In related events, the IIFA Music and Fashion Extravaganza took place on 4 June 2010 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall. During the event, all technical awards were presented to the winners.
3 Idiots led the ceremony with 22 nominations, followed by Love Aaj Kal with 12 nominations, and Kaminey and Paa with 9 nominations each.
3 Idiots won 16 awards, including Best Film, Best Director (for Rajkumar Hirani), Best Actress (for Kareena Kapoor), Best Supporting Actor (for Sharman Joshi) and Best Villain (for Boman Irani), thus becoming the most–awarded film at the ceremony.
Other winners were Aladin, Love Aaj Kal and Paa with 3 awards, and All the Best: Fun Begins, Delhi–6, Dev.D, Kal Kissne Dekha, Kaminey and Wake Up Sid with 1 award.
The awards began in 2000 and the first ceremony was held in London at The Millennium Dome. From then on the awards were held at locations around the world signifying the international success of Bollywood. The next award ceremony was announced to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2011. The award ceremonies are held in various places around the world.
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
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Green Globe Award
Vivek Oberoi
Habitat Humanity Ambassadorship Award
Salman Khan
Outstanding Achievement in Cinema
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Indian Cinema – Male)
Zeenat Aman (Indian Cinema – Female)
Anil Kapoor (International Cinema) |
34828863 | 40th Kerala State Film Awards | 2012-02-21 16:19:13+00:00 | The 40th Kerala State Film Awards were announced and presented on 6 April 2010. |
25926120 | 56th National Film Awards | 2010-01-24 08:06:29+00:00 | The 56th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India to celebrate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2008.
Three committees were instituted in order to judge the various entries for feature film, non-feature film and best writing on cinema sections, headed by the National award-winning director, Shaji N. Karun, for feature films and Aruna Raje Patil for non-feature films and Sunil Gangopadhyay for best writing on cinema.
Each chairperson announced the award on 23 January 2010 for their respective sections and award ceremony took place at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi with President of India, Pratibha Patil giving away the awards on 20 March 2010.
Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema.
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Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 56th National Film Awards, a Bengali film, Antaheen won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film; whereas a Marathi film, Jogwa won the maximum number of awards (5). The following awards were given in each category:
Juries
A committee headed by Shaji N. Karun was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. The jury members were:
Shaji N. Karun (Chairperson) • Roshan Taneja • H. M. Ramachandra • Nagma • Satyabrata Kalita • Neelakanta • Dilip Ghosh • Swapan Mullick • Sudesh Syal • S. K. Srivastava • Archana • B. Shashi Kumar • Subhash Sehgal • Santosh Desai • Sreelekha Mukherji
All India Award
The following awards were given:
= Golden Lotus Award =
Official name: Swarna Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.
= Silver Lotus Award =
Official name: Rajat Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.
Regional Awards
The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.
Best Feature Film in Each of the Languages Other Than Those Specified In the Schedule VIII of the Constitution
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Short films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.
Juries
A committee headed by Aruna Raje Patil was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. The jury members were:
Aruna Raje Patil (Chairperson) • Krishnendu Bose • Anirban Dutta • Sandeep Marwah • Reena Mohan • R. V. Ramani • Sarfaraz Siddiqui
Golden Lotus Award
Official name: Swarna Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.
Silver Lotus Award
Official name: Rajat Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)' and cash prize.
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The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.
Juries
A committee headed by Sunil Gangopadhyay was appointed to evaluate the writing on Indian cinema. The jury members were:
Sunil Gangopadhyay (Chairperson) • Sudhish Pachauri • Zia-us Salam
Golden Lotus Award
Official name: Swarna Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)' and cash prize.
Special mention
All the award winners are awarded with Certificate of Merit.
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The following awards were not given as no film was found to be suitable: |
31005096 | Plaza Hotel, College Station | 2011-02-25 16:15:43+00:00 | The Plaza Hotel (formerly University Tower) was a hotel building in College Station, Texas. The building contained 300 rooms and was 17 stories high. It was located at 410 South Texas Avenue, College Station, Texas 77840.
Operated as a Ramada Inn, the initial two-story hotel was opened by Joe Ferreri in 1960 at the suggestion of Texas A&M University's president at the time, James Earl Rudder. High occupancy rates lead Ramada officials to request an expansion, which came in the form of the 17-story tower built in 1980. Ferreri subsequently lost the hotel to bankruptcy in 1987. In the 1990s the property was a private dormitory, The University Towers. The building was acquired and turned into The Plaza Hotel in 2004.
The building contained a swimming pool in the atrium (in which a 12-year-old boy drowned on July 23, 2007), a lounge which overlooked the atrium and pool, a ballroom, a restaurant (Maxwell's, then Remington's), and a penthouse containing a fully equipped kitchen and bar area, dining room, exterior patio, three bedrooms and a master suite with bath and Jacuzzi.
The property is owned by Rossco Holdings, Inc. who filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas on August 2, 2010. Problems for the hotel began as early as 2008, when Brazos County health inspectors shut down the hotel's kitchen and when guests made complaints about mysterious activities. During the final months of the hotel being open, guests complained of a lack of hot water and air conditioning as well as purported hauntings (including that of Civil War General Jack T. Anderson).
The Plaza Hotel was demolished around 6:30 A.M. on Thursday, May 24, 2012. The hotel is being replaced by a $45 million mixed use development that will have apartments, retail, and restaurants, known now as Northpoint Crossing. |
51127530 | 2010 Wimbledon Championships – Day-by-day summaries | 2016-07-21 09:31:45+00:00 | The 2010 Wimbledon Championships are described below in detail, in the form of day-by-day summaries.
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Marin Čilić [11], Ivan Ljubičić [17], Stan Wawrinka [20], Tommy Robredo [30]
Ladies' Singles: Francesca Schiavone [5], Kateryna Bondarenko [34]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Fernando Verdasco [8], Juan Carlos Ferrero [14], Nicolás Almagro [19], Marcos Baghdatis [24]
Ladies' Singles: Samantha Stosur [6], Lucie Šafářová [25]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Nikolay Davydenko [7]
Ladies' Singles: Shahar Pe'er [13], Yaroslava Shvedova [30], Melanie Oudin [33]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Łukasz Kubot / Oliver Marach [5]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Ladies' Singles: Aravane Rezaï [18], Svetlana Kuznetsova [19], Zheng Jie [23], Daniela Hantuchová [24]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Mardy Fish / Mark Knowles [13]
Ladies' Doubles: Chan Yung-jan / Zheng Jie [9]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Mikhail Youzhny [13], Gaël Monfils [21], Feliciano López [22], John Isner [23], Albert Montañés [28], Philipp Kohlschreiber [29], Victor Hănescu [31]
Ladies' Singles: Nadia Petrova [12], Yanina Wickmayer [15], Alisa Kleybanova [26], Maria Kirilenko [27], Alona Bondarenko [28]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Lukáš Dlouhý / Leander Paes [3], František Čermák / Michal Mertiňák [9]
Ladies' Doubles: Maria Kirilenko / Agnieszka Radwańska [10], Alicja Rosolska / Yan Zi [15]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Thomaz Bellucci [25], Gilles Simon [26], Philipp Petzschner [33]
Ladies' Singles: Flavia Pennetta [10], Victoria Azarenka [14], Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova [29], Alexandra Dulgheru [31], Sara Errani [32]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Daniel Nestor / Nenad Zimonjić [1], Mariusz Fyrstenberg / Marcin Matkowski [6], Marcelo Melo / Bruno Soares [15]
Ladies' Doubles: Vera Dushevina / Ekaterina Makarova [13], Monica Niculescu / Shahar Pe'er [14], Chuang Chia-jung / Olga Govortsova [17]
Mixed Doubles: Mahesh Bhupathi / Liezel Huber [3], Oliver Marach / Nuria Llagostera Vives [4], Robert Lindstedt / Ekaterina Makarova [13]
Schedule of play
Middle Sunday in Wimbledon is traditionally a rest day, without any play, and this was the case in 2010.
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Andy Roddick [5], David Ferrer [9], Lleyton Hewitt [15], Jürgen Melzer [16], Sam Querrey [18], Julien Benneteau [32]
Ladies' Singles: Caroline Wozniacki [3], Jelena Janković [4], Agnieszka Radwańska [7], Marion Bartoli [11], Maria Sharapova [16], Justine Henin [17],
Gentlemen's Doubles: Mahesh Bhupathi / Max Mirnyi [4], Julian Knowle / Andy Ram [8], Simon Aspelin / Paul Hanley [10]
Ladies' Doubles: Nadia Petrova / Samantha Stosur [3], Cara Black / Daniela Hantuchová [11], Hsieh Su-wei / Alla Kudryavtseva [16]
Mixed Doubles: Andy Ram / Elena Vesnina [15], Marcin Matkowski / Tathiana Garbin [16]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Ladies' Singles: Venus Williams [2], Kim Clijsters [8], Li Na [9]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Marcel Granollers / Tommy Robredo [11], Julien Benneteau / Michaël Llodra [14]
Ladies' Doubles: Iveta Benešová / Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová [12]
Mixed Doubles: Daniel Nestor / Bethanie Mattek-Sands [6], Max Mirnyi / Alisa Kleybanova [8]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Roger Federer [1], Robin Söderling [6], Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [10]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan [2]
Ladies' Doubles: Serena Williams / Venus Williams [1], Květa Peschke / Katarina Srebotnik [6], Lisa Raymond / Rennae Stubbs [7]
Mixed Doubles: Nenad Zimonjić / Samantha Stosur [1], Mark Knowles / Katarina Srebotnik [5], Mariusz Fyrstenberg / Yan Zi [8]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Doubles: Wesley Moodie / Dick Norman [7]
Mixed Doubles: Paul Hanley / Chan Yung-jan [12]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Novak Djokovic [3], Andy Murray [4]
Ladies' Doubles: Gisela Dulko / Flavia Pennetta [4], Liezel Huber / Bethanie Mattek-Sands [5]
Mixed Doubles: Lukáš Dlouhý / Iveta Benešová [9], Marcelo Melo / Rennae Stubbs [10]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Ladies' Singles: Vera Zvonareva [21]
Gentlemen's Doubles: Robert Lindstedt / Horia Tecău [16]
Schedule of play
Seeds out:
Gentlemen's Singles: Tomáš Berdych [12]
Mixed Doubles: Wesley Moodie / Lisa Raymond [11]
Schedule of play |
27861699 | 2010 Wimbledon Championships – Boys' doubles | 2010-06-26 23:31:11+00:00 | Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Kevin Krawietz were the defending champions. However, Herbert was no longer eligible to compete as a Junior. Krawietz competed with Peter Heller and lost in the semifinals to Lewis Burton and George Morgan.
Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson defeated Lewis Burton and George Morgan in the final, 7–6(7–4), 6–4 to win the boys' doubles tennis title at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. It was the first all-British final in the title's history and the first British champions since Martin Lee and James Trotman in 1995.
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27818517 | 2010 Wimbledon Championships – Boys' singles | 2010-06-23 19:04:14+00:00 | Andrey Kuznetsov was the defending champion, but was no longer eligible to participate in the juniors.
Márton Fucsovics defeated Benjamin Mitchell in the final, 6–4, 6–4 to win the boys' singles tennis title at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.
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27862295 | 2010 Wimbledon Championships – Girls' doubles | 2010-06-27 01:07:06+00:00 | Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Sally Peers were the defending champions, but both were ineligible to participate in the juniors.
Tímea Babos and Sloane Stephens defeated Irina Khromacheva and Elina Svitolina in the final, 6–7(7–9), 6–2, 6–2 to win the girls' doubles tennis title at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.
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36169153 | Anibar International Animation Festival | 2012-06-17 16:55:31+00:00 | Anibar is an annual festival devoted to animated movies, held in Peja, Kosovo. Its intent is to familiarize people from Kosovo with the latest global trends in animation. Its purpose is to help and encourage Kosovo youngsters to express themselves and their ideas through animation by discussing topics that they are passionate about. This way, they tend to bring out more topics and break civic apathy through cultural activism.
Anibar organization was founded in 2010 by a group of young art activists.
Anibar is working towards its overall goal with capacity-building activities, such as training seminars and workshops, film screenings, debates and other activities that provide more visibility for emerging artists.
A large group of youngsters is heavily involved in the planning, preparations, and operations of the festival.
Anibar has a camping area for its guests next to Rugova Gorge, while Peja Lumbardhi river passes to the right of the site. Besides the tents that are offered, other supplies are available at the site such as showers, sanitation, places to relax, food, drinks, and a swimming pool.
Thanks to Anibar festival many more animations are produced in Kosovo.
This festival occupies an irreplaceable niche in the Kosovo cultural scene.
The Anibar Festival started in August 2010 on a budget of 500 euros and 80 films obtained from friends and acquaintances. In 2011, the Anibar Festival was officially represented at the annual Dok Leipzig festival in Germany.
The city cinema "Jusuf Gërvalla" was brought back into life in February 2011 and two years later the new mayor gave it to Anibar to administer.
In 2012, Anibar created its first Quick Response book to promote animators worldwide. The Anibar Film Book is an innovative, one-of-a-kind book created in a collaboration between the festival and Mad Artists Publishing in Canada. Along with information about the festival and past films, the book is encoded with QR codes that immediately link to the films. The festival accepted approximately 150 films for official competition.
In 2013, approximately 140 films were accepted.
Nn the 5th edition held in 2014, the festival took over the city's old cinema. Peja has not had a working movie theatre since the equipment broke in the 1960s. The nearest cinema is in Pristina. an hour's drive away.
In 2018, 220 animated films were screened.
Films are divided into three categories: competitive program, special program and 'Kids for Kids Animations'. Admission to the competitions is open every year from January 30 to April 30.
Cinema-City "Jusuf Gërvalla" has a capacity of 300 seats, and features special programs and programs for children. Competitive films are screened daily.
Cinema "Cubes"
Istref Begolli theatre
Cinema “lake” is an outdoor cinema by the lake, with 100 seats and inflatable boats.
Anibar gives awards in different categories, such as:
International Competition
Student Competition
Balkan Competition
Feature Film Competition
Music Video Competition
Kids program
Teens Programs
Panorama Out of Competition
Environmental Competition
Animated Music Video Competition
Audience Award Competition
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The event's 7th year took place from 15 to 21 August 2016 and was focused on the environment climate change.
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This year Reclaim the City, was an official theme. Reclaim the City fought for democratic values in public space. Reclamation of public spaces will bring back the vibrancy of places filled with people and activities that represent a depoliticized culture and openness to new media.
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The theme of 9th festival edition was Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
During the festival, panel discussions addressed and promoted awareness. Anibar wanted to make a difference by inspiring women and men in animation to address gender inequality.
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The theme of this year's festival was Hopes and Fears.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Anibar was organised in the virtual format for the first time this year. This year's theme was Humans, through films, presentations, and panels that were broadcast throughout the weeks of the festival, the main focus was on the collective humanitarian effort, which has been highlighted even more because of the situation caused by COVID-19.
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After COVID, the Festival's theme was "Isolation". The theme reflected challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting solitude and claustrophobia. It included hybrid online and runs in-person events during July 23–30.
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The theme of this year's festival was Superstitions. |
41027989 | KB RTV21 | 2013-11-08 23:59:32+00:00 | KB RTV21 was a Kosovan basketball team that played in the Siguria Superleague owned by media operator RTV21. RTV21 was founded in 2010 and played until 2014 when it was dissolved.
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Leonard Mekaj
Besnik Podvorica
Samir Zekiqi
Urim Zenelaj
Ryan White |
29220695 | New Spirit Party | 2010-10-16 23:10:04+00:00 | Partia Fryma e Re (FeR; English: New Spirit Party) was a political party in Kosovo. It was founded and registered with the Central Elections Committee in October 2010 by Harvard University graduate Shpend Ahmeti, Ilir Deda, Director of the Kosovo Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED) and others, and supports Kosovo in becoming a new generation political state. "We do not distinguish citizens based on where they come from... they are individuals and everyone will be represented without distinction," stated Deda. FER participated in the 2010 general elections in Kosovo on 12 December.
Although the party got some hype on various social media platforms, it fared badly in the 2010 election, receiving 2% of the vote and not passing the 5% threshold which would allow them into parliament.
It merged into Vetëvendosje! on 31 March 2011. |
72911934 | 2010 ARFU Women's Rugby Championship | 2023-02-01 15:15:44+00:00 | The 2010 ARFU Women's Rugby Championship was the fourth edition of the tournament. It was played between Japan and Hong Kong on 22 April at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo. However, some sources suggest that the match was the ARFU Division 1 XV Championship.
The ARFU also put together a development competition. These were not test matches and lasted 40 minutes. There were only three countries competing: Laos, Thailand, and the Philippines. |
75986917 | 2010 Asia Pacific Women's Sevens Championship | 2024-02-02 23:29:51+00:00 | The 2010 Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens Championship was held at Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia from 29 to 31 October 2010. Kazakhstan won the tournament after beating Papua New Guinea in the Cup final.
Seven teams competed at the tournament:
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75876442 | 2010 ARFU Women's Sevens Championship | 2024-01-21 22:56:35+00:00 | The 2010 ARFU Women's Sevens Championship is the eleventh edition of the tournament and was held from 24 to 25 July 2010 at Guangzhou, China. Thirteen teams competed in the competition. China won their third title after defeating Kazakhstan in the Cup final.
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74840033 | 2010 Hong Kong Women's Sevens | 2023-09-17 01:48:29+00:00 | The 2010 Hong Kong Women's Sevens was the 13th edition of the tournament and was held on the 26th and 27 March. The women's competition was held at the Hong Kong Football Club on 26 March, with the Cup final played at the Hong Kong Stadium on the 27th.
The Aussie Amazons claimed the Cup title after defeating China in the final.
Twelve teams competed in the tournament with Malaysia making their Women's Sevens debut.
China
Malaysia
Papua New Guinea
Aussie Amazons
Arabian Gulf
Singapore
Thailand
Hong Kong
Japan U-23
Aotearoa Maori
Kazakhstan
South African Tuks
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26910011 | List of casualties of the Smolensk air disaster | 2010-04-10 23:28:12+00:00 | The Smolensk air disaster, included Polish Air Force Flight 101 in 2010 killing all 96 people on board. The Polish delegation was heading to Katyn to attend a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which the Soviet NKVD killed about 22,000 Polish military officers.
Among those killed in the crash of Flight 101 were Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria Kaczyńska, former President-in-exile Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland's highest-ranking military officers, lawmakers, heads of the Polish National Bank and other central institutions, presidential aides, bishops and priests of various denominations, relatives of those killed in the Katyn massacre, as well as officers of the presidential security detail and crew members.
Some early reports were wrong about the number or composition as the official list of victims was corrected in stages; most notably because the flight manifest of passengers only, without names of the crew, lacked the name of the only female member of the nine Biuro Ochrony Rządu (Government Protection Bureau bodyguards), Agnieszka Pogródka-Węcławek. She was listed incorrectly among the stewardesses. Also, a female presidential aide, Zofia Kruszyńska-Gust, was supposed to fly but did not do so due to illness. Additionally, Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, was invited but did not board the flight due to its conflict with the Jewish Sabbath, which prohibits flight on Saturday. |
26911175 | Joanna Agacka-Indecka | 2010-04-11 01:55:32+00:00 | Joanna Agacka-Indecka (18 December 1964 in Łódź – 10 April 2010) was a Polish attorney, President of the Polish Bar Council from 2007 until 2010.
Joanna Agacka-Indecka graduated from the University of Łódź and then was assistant professor at the Chair of Penal Procedure of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the same university (1988–2001). Between 1992 and 1993, she worked in law firms in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She received training for attorneys of the International Criminal Court at the Academy of European Law in Trier.
In 1994, she was elected member of the Human Rights Commission at the Polish Bar Council, then served as member of the District Bar Council in Łódź. She was elected vice president of the Polish Bar Council in 2004 and served as its president from 2007 until 2010.
Joanna Agacka-Indecka was a legislation expert at the Sejm and was involved in lawmaking as representative of the Polish Bar.
On 27 June 2009, she received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. On 15 February 2010, she was called to the Codification Commission on Penal Law at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland.
She was killed in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near Smolensk, Russia and was posthumously awarded the Officer's Cross of the Polonia Restituta. |
52440542 | Ewa Bąkowska | 2016-12-01 05:25:05+00:00 | Ewa Bąkowska (2 August 1962 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish librarian, activist and representative of the Katyn Families.
She died in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near Smolensk on 10 April 2010. She is buried in the Salwator Cemetery. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Bronze Cross of Merit (2001)
Medal for Long Service (2008)
Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2010) |
26906540 | Andrzej Błasik | 2010-04-10 18:00:12+00:00 | Andrzej Eugeniusz Błasik (11 October 1962 – 10 April 2010) was a Lieutenant General in the Polish Armed Forces and a Commander of the Polish Air Force. Błasik was born in Poddębice, People's Republic of Poland. He died in the Tu-154 crash near Smolensk, Russia.
During 1977–1981 Błasik was educated at Aviation High School at the University Officers' School of Aviation in Dęblin. Afterwards he joined the 'School of Eaglets', gaining in 1985 the military rank of second lieutenant in the group of pilots of the passenger aviation corps.
In the period from 1993 to 1995 he studied at the National Defence University in Warsaw, after completing the diploma and he became a certified officer. He was also a graduate of the Netherlands Defence Academy in The Hague in 1998 and the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, United States (2005).
At the first grade – a pilot – he was sent to 8 Regiment Fighter-Bomber in Mirosławiec. In 1987 he was transferred to 40 Regiment Fighter-Bomber in Świdwin, where he was a senior pilot, commander of a key officer of the squadron navigator, squadron commander and deputy commander of the squadron. Since 1995, he served in the Air Force Command, Air Force and Air Defense in Warsaw. He was successively chief inspector duties Navigation Division, Senior Inspector Department of Training and Operations Branch chief specialist.
In 2001 he became Head of Training 2 Tactical Air Brigade in Poznań, and in 2002 became commander of the 31st Air Base in Poznań. He commanded a military unit in 2003 received the "Mark of Honour of the Polish Armed Forces" for the protection of international maneuvers in "NATO Air Meet 2003". Since 2004, he was head of the Combat Applications Division at Headquarters Air Force, while in 2005–2007 he commanded the 2nd Tactical Air Brigade. On 15 August 2005 he was promoted to brigadier general. After a short time, he served as commander-rector of the School Officers of the Air Force. On 19 April 2007 he was appointed commander of the Air Force and was promoted to major general.
On 15 August 2007 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.
As a pilot he had 1,300 hours total flying time. As an instructor he had the power to train in all weather conditions on airplanes Su-22 and PZL TS-11 Iskra. He also piloted the Lim-6.
Błasik died in a plane crash near Smolensk, in which the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński also died.
Błasik was married. He had two children.
Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – 2010, posthumously
Silver Cross of Merit (2006)
Bronze Cross of Merit (1998)
Silver Medal Armed Forces in Service for the Country
Bronze Medal Armed Forces in Service for the Country
Gold Medal of Merit for National Defence
Legion of Merit Commander – 2009, "for his outstanding accomplishments as the leader of the Polish Air Force".
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit (2008, Portugal) |
39287920 | Killing of Scott Guy | 2013-05-03 06:47:06+00:00 | In July 2010, Scott Guy, a New Zealand farmer, was shot dead at the gate of his family farm in Feilding, Manawatū-Whanganui, at age 31. Six months later, his brother-in-law, Ewen Macdonald, was charged with murder. Macdonald was married to Guy's sister, Anna, and Guy had been best man at their wedding. Both men managed the Guys' family farm and surrounding properties on Aorangi Road, just outside of Feilding. At the trial, it was disclosed that Guy and Macdonald had different priorities and a competitive relationship. In 2008, two years before he was killed, Guy announced at a family meeting that he expected to inherit the farm. The defence claimed that by the time of the murder, difficulties between the two had settled down and they were getting on well.
The case captured the attention of the New Zealand media and public for two years prior to the trial, at which Macdonald was acquitted. He was defended by lawyer Greg King, who committed suicide four months after the end of the trial. Guy's killer has never been brought to justice. However, the police are treating it as a closed case and are not looking for anyone else.
Scott Guy was a farmer who grew up on Byreburn, his family's farm, near Feilding, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand. Ewen Macdonald had worked at the farm since leaving school at 16. Macdonald ran the dairy operation, was married to Guy's sister Anna, and had four children together with her. Guy was responsible for raising the calves and growing crops for the cows. Guy and Macdonald both earned around $100,000 a year working as farm managers for Guy's parents, who owned the property. The court was told that at a family meeting in 2008, Guy said he expected to inherit the family farm, and that this led to tension between him and his brother in law. In May 2008, Scott Guy's parents, Bryan and Jo, transferred 400 shares, representing 20 per cent of the business, to Scott, Macdonald and each of their wives.
Bryan Guy testified at the trial that he explained to his son, Scott, that he was not going to inherit the farm and that to own it, he would have to buy everyone else out. The tension appeared to have subsided and Bryan reported that in the previous 12 months "everyone seemed to be getting along really well". Two weeks before Scott Guy died, he and MacDonald travelled to Invercargill together for a dairying conference. Nikki Guy, Scott's other sister, said the pair had a "fantastic time".
One of the Guys' former farm workers, Callum Boe, told police that he and Macdonald had gone on night time trips that they called 'missions' in which they trespassed, poached deer, and took revenge on farmers who had caught them by secretly returning to destroy valuable livestock and property. He told police that on one "mission" in October 2008, they torched an old home on Guy's section. In January 2009, about 18 months before the shooting, they vandalised a home being built by Guy and his wife Kylee, causing $14,000 worth of damage. At the time, no one but Boe and Macdonald knew who was responsible.
Scott Guy was shot dead at the end of his driveway after he stopped to open a farm gate somewhere between 4:43 am and 5:00 am on 8 July 2010. He died from shotgun wounds to his neck, face and arm. His body was discovered by David Berry, a truck driver, at about 7:00 am. Berry called the police at 7:08 am and then called his landlord, Bruce Johnstone. When Johnstone arrived, he took a quick look at the body and phoned Macdonald at 7:16 am. Two police cars soon arrived and Macdonald arrived on his quadbike shortly after. Macdonald immediately rang Guy's father at 7:21 am sounding distressed and incoherent.
Adding to the mystery, three chocolate coloured Labrador puppies also disappeared from the farm at the time of Guy's death. The police claimed, Macdonald stole the puppies to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.
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At the trial, the Crown alleged Guy still wanted to take control of the farm and two years earlier had gone to a family meeting explaining that he expected to inherit the farm. There had been tension between Guy and Macdonald and the prosecutor claimed "this (demand) might as well have been his death warrant". Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk alleged Macdonald closed the farm gates which forced Guy to stop and get out of his vehicle. Vanderkolk said when Guy got out, Macdonald shot him in the throat and then in the face. Police believe the killing occurred at about 4:43 am.
Vanderkolk alleged Macdonald used the farm shotgun and was wearing size 9 Proline dive boots while committing the crime. The boot prints found at the scene were the only forensic evidence police had potentially linking Macdonald to the scene. Macdonald allegedly then rode his bicycle back to the farm which was 1.46 km away, arriving just after 5 am where he was milking the cows. Vanderkolk claimed Macdonald tried to make it look like a robbery by killing the Labrador puppies which were missing. Police excavated some of the property where Macdonald lived looking for the dive boots, dead puppies and the shotgun cartridges - but found nothing.
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Defence lawyer Greg King said there were four fatal flaws in the Crown case. The prosecution claimed Guy was killed by two blasts from the farm shotgun which occurred at 4:43 am. Four nearby residents testified they heard three shots in quick succession at about 5:00 am. King called witnesses who said that Macdonald was seen on the farm at about 5:00 am so he could not have been the killer. King also called an American shooting champion as an expert witness. The witness said the farm shotgun had to be reloaded after two shots so it was not possible for three shots to be fired that quickly. In his summing up at the end of the trial, King added that if there were three shots, the murder weapon could not be the farm's double-barrel shotgun. The expert witness suggested that a semi-automatic weapon had been used.
King also challenged the forensic expert David Neale about the size of the footprints found at the scene. Neale told the Court there were more than 50 footprints next to Guy's body, and they were all made by size 9 Proline boots. King said the 33 wavy rows on the plaster impressions of the boots presented by the police were not compatible with size 9. He said the prints came from a size 11 or 12 boot. Macdonald's wife, Anna, confirmed that Macdonald's size 9 boots had been thrown out two years earlier.
King also said the police ignored other possible suspects and failed to investigate car tyre marks at the scene of the crime and the sighting of a mystery sedan on Aorangi Rd. He said Police also failed to investigate an offender who had a history of shotgun crimes and had committed a string of local burglaries. A cigarette packet found outside the house matched one stolen by the burglar with a history of shotgun crimes. Concerns were also raised about another man who came looking for Guy at his home a few days before his death.
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In July 2012, after 11 hours deliberation, the jury found Macdonald not guilty. After a short break, Justice Simon France remanded Macdonald for a sentencing date on other charges. A year later, Guy's father Bryan insisted that justice had prevailed. He said that he did not want the case to drag on for years without being solved and made a plea to his son's killer to give himself up.
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Scott's wife, Kylee Guy subsequently tried to track down her husband's killer and enlisted a private investigator, Mike Crawford, to conduct the investigation. After 18 months, the investigation was called off due to financial issues. Although it was called off, Crawford said Scott Guy received a number of phone calls the day before he died, and another on the day of his murder. However, there was no information about these calls, such as cell-site data and subscriber details, in the police file on Guy's murder. Crawford thought these calls might have shed some light on who the killer was.
At the start of the investigation, police said there were nearly 60 people they looked at as possible suspects. One of them was a man who committed an aggravated robbery four days before Scott was killed. He stole a carton of Winfield Gold cigarettes and police found a cigarette of that brand on Scott's driveway near the murder site. Police stopped investigating him after his girlfriend, who was a methamphetamine addict, told police he came home "maybe around 4am" but admitted she was "pretty wrecked" on meth herself. A number of people told police this man, who has name suppression, was involved in the murder.
Farmworker Matthew Ireland testified that he saw a car coming from the direction of Scott Guy's house, as he arrived at the farm – almost exactly at the time the police believe Scott was murdered. Ireland also said there was a second car coming from the same direction, just after 5am, as they rode towards the milking shed. The police have never identified either of these cars. Peter Coles, one of Macdonald's lawyers, said "The only way you'd be on that road is if you knew of its existence and had some reason to be there – it's not State Highway 1. The failure to find either of those cars, despite it being publicised throughout New Zealand, just defies belief, unless that car is connected with the murder." Coles is convinced the police disregarded suspects who were more likely to have been involved.
Another suspect was suggested by Dave Berry, who was the first to come across Guy's body. Two weeks before Guy was shot he recalled a "tall, unshaven man with dark hair" smelling of alcohol and cigarettes. The man banged on his door looking for Scott.
Another focus of inquiry was assistant farm manager, Simon Asplin, who'd had a grudge against Scott since they were at school together. He subsequently disclosed that "Scott's pissed a lot of people off." When Mr Guy returned to the farm in 2008, Asplin lost his favourite job driving the tractors on the farm. At the trial, he acknowledged that he gained from Guy's death because "he was back on the tractor where he belonged".
The high-profile case took the attention of the public for nearly two years. The trial lasted four weeks and was scrutinised in detail by the media. During the trial, the public gallery was usually full with up to 100 people sometimes lined up outside hoping to get a glimpse of the proceedings. Law professor Chris Gallavin from Massey University says the case interested the public because it involved "beautiful, affluent white people" from a small, conservative rural town...(and) "showed the rest of the country their family dynamics are as messed up as anyone else.
There were a number of other outstanding charges. In June 2007, Macdonald and Callum Boe had killed 19 calves belonging to a farmer who had caught them poaching his deer. Macdonald was also convicted for burning down an old whare (house) and emptying thousands of dollars' worth of milk from a vat on another neighbour's farm. These acts were committed "for retribution" after Macdonald and Boe were informed on for trespassing and made to apologise. Anna Macdonald testified at the murder trial that her husband's relationship with Boe was "immature", and she was unaware of what they were doing on their regular night "missions". When police found out about these missions, they visited Boe, who by this time had moved to Queenstown. Boe admitted to his involvement and, in the process, provided police with an insight into Macdonald's behaviour. They arrested Macdonald and charged him with murder soon afterward.
In September 2012, Macdonald was jailed for five years on the lesser charges. He was eligible to attend his first parole hearing in December 2012. On 3 November 2012, Macdonald's well-known lawyer, Greg King, was found dead in Wellington. The finding of the coroner, released in October 2013, was that the death had been a suicide.
In November 2014, it was reported that Macdonald had been denied parole for a third time and his term of imprisonment might run until completion of his sentence on 6 April 2016. He was granted parole at his fourth appearance before a parole board on 13 October 2015 and was freed from prison on 2 November 2015, subject to strict terms of parole.
Who Killed Scott Guy? by Mike White. It outlines why the author believes the jury was right and Macdonald was not the killer. |
26138924 | 2010 East Texas church burnings | 2010-02-09 21:36:04+00:00 | In January and February 2010, 10 churches were burned in East Texas.
Two local men, Jason Bourque and Daniel McAllister, were arrested and pleaded guilty. Bourque was sentenced to life and 20 years in prison, and McAllister received a life sentence.
January 1 – Little Hope Baptist Church, Canton – ruled accident until investigation, later ruled arson
January 1 – Faith Church, Athens – ruled arson
January 12 – Lake Athens Baptist Church – burned
January 12 – Grace Community Church, Athens – burned
January 16 – Tyland Baptist Church in Tyler – torched
January 17 – First Church of Christ, Scientist in Tyler – burned to the ground
January 20 – Prairie Creek Fellowship of Lindale on Highway 69 – arson
February 4 – Russell Memorial United Methodist Church in Wills Point (Van Zandt County) – destroyed the sanctuary (ATF soon confirmed the fire was the result of arson)
8:30 PM on February 8 – Dover Baptist Church on Highway 110 outside Lindale – mostly destroyed
9:30 on February 8 – Clear Spring Missionary Baptist Church, on CR 426 near the Smith-Van Zandt county line – found burning
A sketch was released of three persons of interest.
On February 21, 2010, Jason Robert Bourque, 19, of Lindale, and Daniel George McAllister, 21, of Ben Wheeler were charged in connection with the Dover Baptist Church burning that occurred on February 8. Their bond was set at $10 million. As they targeted places of worship, the crime is a first-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of 99 years to life.
Bourque was raised by his devout Christian maternal grandparents, while McAllister was homeschooled for religious reasons. Per The New York Times both men started to question their faith. Bourque's is attributed to his dropping-out from the University of Texas, and McAllister's after the death of his mother and trouble finding work.
Faced with large amounts of evidence, both men pleaded guilty. On January 14, 2011, Judge Christi Kennedy sentenced Bourque to life and 20 years in prison, and McAllister to a life sentence.
On February 11, 2011, Bourque was interviewed by KLTV 7 from Smith County Jail. He blamed the drug Chantix, which he used to aid his quitting smoking, for psychotic episodes. He also claimed that McAllister had led the wave, targeting churches as he found them corrupt. Bourque stated that God had forgiven him.
Theo Love's documentary, Little Hope Was Arson, interviews community members in East Texas reacting to the burning of the 10 churches. |
37488400 | Act of Murder (novel) | 2012-10-29 21:28:54+00:00 | Act of Murder is a 2010 novel by the English writer Alan Wright. It won the Dundee International Book Prize, the largest monetary British Prize for first novels, in 2010, and was published by Polygon Books. It is a historical murder mystery set in 1894.
The Courier described the novel as a "skillfully-executed tale" that was "particularly touching and full of pathos." |
39079281 | Anna and the French Kiss | 2013-04-11 08:07:54+00:00 | Anna and the French Kiss is the 2010 debut novel of Stephanie Perkins. The book was published on December 2, 2010, through Dutton Juvenile and was written during National Novel Writing Month. The book was followed with the sequels Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After.
Of the book and her writing in general, Perkins has stated that she wears a different scent for each book that she writes and that she wore lychee rose while writing Anna and the French Kiss.
Anna Oliphant is a senior in high school who is forced by her father to attend the fictional boarding school 'School of America in Paris' – nicknamed SOAP by students. She is heavily against having to leave Atlanta for Paris, specifically due to leaving her best friend, Bridgette, and Toph, her almost boyfriend, who worked with her in a multiplex and the two shared a kiss before her leaving for Paris. Anna wants to become a film critic, being a major movie fan. On her first night at SOAP, she meets her neighbor Meredith (Mer), who consoles her after finding Anna crying in her room. After Anna leaves Meredith's room, she bumps into a handsome boy who introduces himself as Étienne St. Clair, and has an English accent. The next morning at breakfast, Mer invites Anna to sit with her and her friends; Rashmi and boyfriend Josh, as well as Étienne from the night before – he is known by everyone as St. Clair. St. Clair has a girlfriend, Ellie, who used to be in the group before she graduated SOAP.
Anna can neither read nor speak French, and feels inferior among her classmates, leading to St. Clair's assistance in ordering breakfast. She notices St. Clair's popularity amongst the students, mainly as a result of his natural charm. St. Clair and Anna are appointed as lab partners for the remainder of the year. Anna discovers she is the only senior in Beginning French, except for a junior named Dave. Anna learns that Mer has a crush on St. Clair on which she can't act, because of his girlfriend. After a week in SOAP Josh, Rashmi, St. Clair and Mer is surprised to learn that Anna hasn't yet gone out of campus to explore Paris. She is more than happy when St. Clair takes her out to explore Paris. They talk, laugh, visit point zero of France and bond more. St. Clair learns about Toph, and Anna meets his girlfriend "Ellie" for the first time. She reminds herself despite her attraction towards St. Clair that he's taken and nothing can happen between them.
Over the next few weeks Anna and St. Clair become best friends, he doodles on her homework, sits next to her at every meal, teases her about her sneakers, asks about her favorite films, and conjugates her French homework. But Anna knows she wants more... and St. Clair doesn't seem to be denying that something more than friendship is growing between them.
One day, when the group was hanging out in a cemetery, St. Clair learns that his mother is dying due to cervical cancer, and his father doesn't want him to meet her. St. Clair gets drunk later that night, and confesses his liking for Anna.
Anna worries about St. Clair and seeing a cheerful and kind boy go quiet makes her heart sink. The group tries to cheer him up, and Anna lies to St. Clair when he asked if he said something to her when he was drunk. All the students and their friends leave for Thanksgiving, leaving Anna and St. Clair alone, because their Fathers refused to have them home. Anna tries her best to cheer a bed stricken St. Clair to celebrate Thanksgiving and stop sulking by convincing him that her mother wouldn't want to see him like that. Her efforts worked out, and St. Clair relaxed a bit with her company. At night, he requested Anna to let him sleep with her, not wanting to be alone. The duo never grew intimate, fearing it will ruin their friendship. Anna goes back to Atlanta, and St. Clair meets her mother. She discovers that her best friend Bridge and Toph had been secretly dating each other and neither cared to tell her that. Anna rants about her father, her family, Bridge's betrayal to St. Clair over phone calls and Emails every day. When she meets him for the first time after coming back, she realise she has fallen in love with her best friend, and calls him Etienne for the first time, much to his delight.
Soon, St. Clair's mother announced that she is Cancer free, much to his delight. The group went out to celebrate, where Anna and St. Clair kissed in the Park. But things didn't go well when Mer saw them kissing each other, St. Clair running back to Ellie and Anna's fight with Amanda when she abused Mer. She yelled at St. Clair before he could explain, and stopped talking to the group, assuming that everyone hates her. Coincidentally, when Anna and St. Clair were put together for detention he explains Anna that he went back to Ellie to break up with her. Anna determined to set things right, sends a letter to her best friend Bridge, reconciles with her friends, apologizes to Mer, who says she and St. Clair is perfect for each other and she was just in denial to admit this to herself.
Later, Anna goes to Notre dame where Étienne follows her all the way up, despite his fear for heights, to confess that he's in love with her. He confronted Anna asking her why did she lie when he asked her about that night he drunkenly confessed his feelings. He said Josh told him what he said and things would've been different long ago, if she had just told her how she felt. They both realise how stupid they'd been and confessed their love, while kissing each other.
Anna Oliphant - Main and title character of the novel. Anna gets transferred from Atlanta, Georgia, to Paris, France, for her senior year of high school (School of America in Paris). She has dark brown hair with a bleached blond stripe through it, and she has a gap between her front teeth that she describes as being "as large as a raisin". She has a love for movies and being a movie critic is her dream job.
Étienne St. Clair - Commonly called by his last name, Étienne is Anna's main love interest, yet he dates Ellie for the majority of the duration of the book. He was born in the United States, raised in England, and goes to school in Paris. He is described as being short. He has a wicked charm and, some girls have crushes on him throughout the book because of that and because he is very beautiful. He is afraid of being alone.
Bridgette Sanderwick - Anna's best friend back home in Georgia. She is the drummer for Toph's band.
Meredith Chevalier - Anna's friend in Paris. She loves soccer and has a crush on St. Clair. Because of this Anna keeps her crush on him a secret.
Rashmi Devi - One of Anna's friends at The School of America in Paris. Rashmi is dating Josh.
Joshua Wasserstein "Josh" - Rashmi's boyfriend and another of Anna's clique at SOAP. He is an artist. He is a junior instead of a senior unlike everyone in Anna's clique.
Ellen "Ellie" - Étienne St. Clair's steady girlfriend. She is a year older than Anna.
Amanda Spitterton-Watts - The main antagonist of the story, Amanda is constantly making fun of Anna, because of her good relationship with St. Clair.
Christopher - Nicknamed Toph, he is Anna's crush before she leaves for SOAP. He had kissed Anna before she left, making her think they had a chance of getting together when she returns. He begins dating Bridgette, and they don't tell Anna, angering her.
Sean "Seany" Oliphant - Anna's little brother.
James Oliphant - Anna's father. It was his idea to send her to Paris for her senior year. He is a famous author. His pen name is James Ashley.
Critical reception for the book was generally positive, with NPR naming it one of the "Year's Best Teen Reads" for 2010. Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly both gave positive reviews for the book, with Publishers Weekly praising the audiobook's narration. The School Library Journal gave a lengthy positive review for the novel, with the reviewer citing it as one of their favorite books of 2010. Booklist commented that while the book was "an absorbing and enjoyable read," it also had "predictable crossed-signal plot twists". |
33692586 | Anthill: A Novel | 2011-11-09 20:05:34+00:00 | Anthill: A Novel is a 2010 novel by the biologist Edward O. Wilson. His first extended work of fiction, it won the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize for fiction.
Anthill, set in the US state of Alabama, follows protagonist Raff Semmes, who sets out to save the Nokobee wilderness from developers. The novel explores a concurrent civil war between rival ant colonies struggling to dominate the riverine wilderness. |
37739277 | Because of Mr. Terupt | 2012-11-25 11:44:22+00:00 | Because of Mr. Terupt is the 2010 debut children's novel by Rob Buyea. Told through the eyes of seven students, it is about one year in the life of a fifth-grade class and their new teacher at the fictitious Snow Hill School.
As the school year opens, the fifth-grade class of Snow Hill School in Connecticut meets the new teacher, Mr. Terupt. Their reactions to him can vary. Peter, the class cut-up, tries to see what he can get away with and is impressed when Mr. Terupt is cool about correcting his behavior. Having moved from California because her parents have just divorced, Jessica appreciates the way he relates to her since he is also new, and Anna, who tries to stay in the background because her mother is a social outcast, likes the way he subtly draws her into class discussions. Luke is the most studious and always has great grades, so he appreciates the creative class projects Mr. Terupt devises, while the more morose Jeffrey just hopes to be ignored. Alexia is too concerned with manipulating the other girls to pay much attention to the new teacher and Danielle is too worried about being manipulated by Alexia.
After a while, all of the students warm up to Mr. Terupt, who has a way of engaging everyone and making them want to do better. He even gives them a party day as a reward to reaching certain goals and gets Mrs. Williams, the principal, to agree to let the class go outside to play in the snow on their reward day. When a game of roughhousing goes too far, Mr. Terupt is hit with an icy snowball and goes into a coma, having previously sustained a number of concussions as a high school and college wrestler.
The accident has a dramatic impact on all the students, who worry about the role they played; however, it soon becomes obvious that the teacher's influence on them continues even when he is unable to interact with them. Jeffrey, who has long felt guilty because his stem cell and bone marrow donations were unable to save his brother's life, finally reaches out to his grieving parents and tries to put his family together again. Alexia comes to terms with the events that have caused her to lie in order to manipulate and control others and learns to be a true friend, and Peter learns that students with learning disabilities are sometimes wiser than those in the school's "regular" classrooms.
As the school year draws to a close, the students reflect on how they have benefited from Mr. Terupt's influence and are thrilled when he arrives at school on the last day and the principal announces that he will be their teacher again in sixth grade.
Kirkus Reviews gave a positive review, saying "No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers." Publishers Weekly also had a positive review, calling the book "skillfully constructed."
The novel was a 2011 Middle Reader Honor Awards book of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. It received the 2013 Young Hoosier Book Award (Intermediate).
Mr. Terupt Falls Again, 2012
Saving Mr. Terupt, 2015
Goodbye, Mr. Terupt, 2020 |
33807935 | Before I Fall | 2011-11-20 04:12:01+00:00 | Before I Fall is a 2010 young adult novel written by the American author Lauren Oliver. The novel is written in the first-person perspective of a teenage girl, Samantha Kingston, who is forced to relive the day of her death every day for a week. In an effort to understand why that happens to her, Samantha undertakes new actions each day, some of which are out of character and surprise her family and friends.
The book is the basis for the film of the same name that was released on March 3, 2017.
The story begins on a seemingly normal day for the popular 17-year-old Samantha "Sam" Kingston. On February 12, known as "Cupid's Day," Sam goes about her day as normal with her three best childhood friends: Elody, Lindsay, and Ally. That night, Sam attends the party of Kent McFuller, an unpopular boy at their high school who used to be her best friend, but Sam now treats him badly despite them both knowing he has romantic feelings for her. Sam was supposed to have sex that night with her boyfriend, Rob, but he is too drunk. Juliet Sykes, a girl bullied by Sam and her best friends since elementary school, attends the party and calls Sam and her friends "Bitches." Sam's friends react to the accusation by pouring alcoholic beverages on Juliet, calling her names, and shoving her. Juliet runs out of the house.
Later that night, Sam and her best friends drive home. At 12:39 AM is a sudden "flash of white." The vehicle veers off the road and crashes into a tree. Sam is killed instantaneously.
The "next morning," Sam wakes up, and later, her sister comes to tell her to get ready for school, because she is going to be late. Sam tells her sister it's Saturday, but then is confused to find that it is still February 12 on her clock - and that the day has magically restarted. She goes through the day in a confused fog and watches as the same events repeat themselves. However, that night, upon driving home, Sam warns Lindsay, who is driving, to be careful. Lindsay shrugs her off, and Sam watches nervously as the car's clock turns to 12:39. They crash, and she dies just like the previous day.
Again, Sam wakes up on February 12. But, this time, she feigns an illness and shows up to school late. Now that Sam realizes that she is reliving the same day, she does a lot of things differently and can find out things about various acquaintances and peers. That night, Sam convinces her friends to ditch Kent's party and to have a sleepover instead. The girls wake up in the middle of the night to the news that Juliet has killed herself. Upon showing up at the party and realizing Sam and her best friends were not there, Juliet returned home and died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Elody and Ally worry aloud that it was partially their fault. Lindsay, who has led the bullying efforts toward Juliet for years, shuts them down by being indifferent towards what happened. Elody and Ally, disgusted with Lindsay, leave the basement to sleep upstairs. Sam goes through Lindsay's things and finds that she and Juliet were best friends when they were little, but the girlhood friendship abruptly ended in fifth grade, right before Lindsay started bullying and harassing Juliet.
The next day, the fourth February 12 that she experiences, Sam is extremely angry about what happened the previous day. She dresses in a skimpy outfit with the word "slut" written on it, gets into a fight with her parents before school, and insults all of her friends, which effectively ends their friendship and enrages Lindsay to the point that she forces Sam out of the car and leaves her to walk to school. In calculus class, Sam brazenly flirts with her perverted math teacher, Mr. Daimler. After he dismisses the class, they make out, which does not feel how Sam expected it to feel. Instead, she feels uncomfortable and disgusted. As she has dumped her friends and has no one to eat lunch with, Sam flees to an abandoned bathroom and finds Anna Cartullo, another one of Lindsay's (and therefore Sam's) victims. The girls have a surprisingly transparent discussion about why Sam and her friends have bullied Anna. In a gesture of solidarity, they end up trading footwear, Sam's extremely high heels, and Anna's comfortable combat boots, for the remainder of the day. As Anna leaves the bathroom to hang out with a boy, Alex, who is cheating on his girlfriend with Anna, Sam tells Anna that she is too good for Alex.
When Juliet enters the party that night, Sam is desperate for a distraction and so leads a drunk Rob over to an empty bedroom with the intention of having sex. However, when they are both half-naked, Rob falls asleep because he is too intoxicated. Sam quickly puts her clothes back on, stumbles into a barred-off section of Kent's house, and sobs. It turns out that Kent was standing there the whole time, and he comforts Sam and puts her to bed. Sam now realizes that she is romantically attracted to Kent, but she drifts to sleep and the day resets.
Sam wakes up in her own room on the fifth morning of February 12 and makes a list of all the things in her life she wants but will probably be unable to do. She ditches school to spend the day at home with her 8-year-old sister, Izzy, and bonds with her. That night, she goes out to dinner with her family and meets Juliet's younger sister, Marian. Sam has a short conversation with Marian and begs her to tell Juliet "not to do it." Marian says that she will tell Juliet tomorrow. Defeated by the word "tomorrow" and understanding there will never be a tomorrow, Sam goes back to her table.
Later that night, she sneaks out of the house to go to Kent's party but stops at Juliet's house on the way. She meets her mother and realizes that her father is indeed an alcoholic and that the family struggles with some deep issues. Desperate to get out of the house, Sam leaves to go to Kent's party. Juliet has already shown up and been pushed around by Sam's friends. Juliet runs into the woods, where Sam chases after her and finds her standing by the highway. She tries to talk to Juliet, but Juliet feels past the point of saving and runs out into the road.
Juliet is struck and killed by the car that Lindsay is driving. Elody and Ally are passengers in the vehicle. The car veers off the road and into a tree. Ally and Lindsay are unhurt, but Elody, who is sitting in the front passenger seat, where Sam would have otherwise occupied, is killed. Sam finally realizes that the "flash of white" she saw that night was actually Juliet running out in front of Lindsay's car to end the mental pain that Lindsay had caused her many years ago.
Kent speaks with the police, takes care of the situation, escorts Sam back to the house, helps her warm up, puts her into dry clothes, and then puts her to bed. Before Sam falls asleep, she asks him why he is being so nice to her. He replies that when they were little, Sam defended him from a bully when he was crying because his grandfather had died. She feels his lips on hers, but she drops off to sleep, and the day is lost.
The next day, Sam is happier than the previous days. However, in an effort to be a better person, she ends up accidentally wronging some rights. As it is still "Cupid's Day," Sam sends dozens of flowers to Juliet from "her secret admirer," who interprets it as a taunt, rather than a compliment. Sam then enacts revenge on certain people in vindictive ways, such as embarrassing Rob at Kent's party and revealing to Alex's girlfriend that he's cheating on her, which enrages both of them. She has a long talk with Juliet in the bathroom before Juliet confronts Lindsay, Ally, and Elody. However, Sam fails to get through to Juliet, who escapes into the woods. Sam chases after her and manages to save her from an oncoming truck. Sam tries to talk Juliet out of committing suicide, but Juliet again runs into oncoming traffic for a second time and kills herself.
Sam drives Lindsay home after Juliet's death, and after she drops Lindsay off, she talks with her about Juliet. Lindsay seems defeated, and Sam realizes that she is far less fearless than she portrays herself to be.
Kent gives Sam a ride home, and they kiss before they arrive at her home. It feels right to Sam, much more right than it felt with Rob, who Sam now finds gross. Sam goes inside and falls asleep. The day resets again.
On the seventh and last day, Sam wakes up and does everything right. She tells her family that she loves them and gives her grandmother's necklace to her sister Izzy. Sam compliments her friends, sends a single rose to both Juliet and Kent, and walks in on Alex and Anna's date to give Anna an art book that she knows Anna will like. Sam arrives early to the class that Mr. Daimler teaches and calls him out for being a pervert before her classmates arrive.
Sam breaks up with Rob, who gets extremely angry because he had always shrugged her off as not being cool enough for him although there was never an actual attraction on either side. She now knows that she is disgusted by him and does not like him. When it is time for the party, Sam makes sure that Lindsay does not drive herself since she is aware that Lindsay is a bad driver who often drives under the influence of alcohol. Sam gets picked up by Kent, and they make out in the car when they get to his house, but she accidentally lets slip that she "doesn't have much time." Aware that something is going on, he tries to stop her, but she leaves for the party.
She tries to stop Juliet from killing herself again but is unable to convince Juliet in the limited time she has. When Juliet runs onto the highway, Sam pushes her out of the way and is struck by a van instead.
Sam lies on the ground and is barely conscious and dying. Above her is Juliet, who cradles her head, saying, "You saved me. Why did you save me?" A fatally hurt and weakened Sam thinks, "No. You saved me."
Fox 2000 optioned the rights for Before I Fall in mid-2010, with Maria Maggenti named as the writer, and Jon Shestack named as a producer soon after. Ry Russo-Young was hired to direct. In 2015, Awesomness TV came on board to the produce the film. In September 2015, it was announced that Zoey Deutch had been cast as the lead. In October, Halston Sage was cast, along with actor Logan Miller and YouTube star Kian Lawley. Later that same month, Scream Queens star Diego Boneta and actress Elena Kampouris were also announced as part of the cast.
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2017, and was theatrically released on March 3, 2017, by Open Road Films.
Reviews for Before I Fall have been positive, with RT Book Reviews giving the book 4 1/2 stars and nominating it for their 2010 "Best Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy Novel". Kirkus Reviews described the novel as "unexpectedly rich". The School Library Journal wrote that although the book was "somewhat predictable, the plot drives forward and teens will want to see where Sam's choices lead". |
28632812 | 2010 Bratislava shooting | 2010-08-30 10:30:22+00:00 | The 2010 Bratislava shooting, or the Devínska Nová Ves shooting, occurred on 30 August 2010, when eight people were killed and 17 others injured by a lone gunman who opened fire in Devínska Nová Ves district in a suburb of the Slovak capital, Bratislava. The gunman then committed suicide. The shooting spree took place both inside a local panel building and later in the street outside.
It was the second-deadliest attack in the modern history of Slovakia. This was also the first time in Slovak history that a mass murderer went on a shooting spree. According to Police President Jaroslav Spišiak, Slovak police has to consult with other countries and find the best procedures for these cases, something that has not yet been done, as of February 2011. The shooting remains controversial not only because the killer's motive remains unknown, but also because of purposefully withholding information from the public by the authorities and what is generally perceived as a failed police action.
Devínska Nová Ves is a rather isolated district on the outskirts of Bratislava, with around 17,000 inhabitants (as of December 2021) and another 10,000 people commuting to work there (mainly because of the Volkswagen factory, usually bypassing the district proper). At the time of the attack, there were mostly elderly people at home in the apartment building. On the streets, it wasn't as busy as during the morning rush, but there were still quite a few people waiting for the bus, and parents with small children out for a walk. The attack started in a panel building that houses a kindergarten on the ground floor, but since it was the summer holiday, it was empty. There are over 20 policemen serving in the district.
There have been efforts to explain the attack by the tension created after the mass construction of apartment houses and a huge inflow of inhabitants during communism. While it is true that social cohesion is lower in similar environments (see for example Petržalka), no proof has ever been produced in this case.
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On 9:40 a.m., Ľubomír Harman started shooting on the third floor at Pavla Horova Street No. 1 inside apartment No.8 in Devínska Nová Ves, Bratislava, wearing a pair of blue earmuffs and equipped with a vz. 58 semi-automatic rifle, a CZ 85 Combat pistol, and a CZ 75 Compact pistol. He also had a leather bag hung over his shoulder, which contained many rounds of ammunition. Harman first entered a flat on the same floor as his, although it technically belonged to his neighbors.
After killing all five members of the family owning the flat, Harman then headed towards the exit from the building where he shot and wounded 49-year-old Jozef Pútik, a man from the same family. He then went outside of the building and encountered 79-year-old Vincent Fratrič, who was waiting by the entrance for window-changing workers. The two talked for a while, as Pútik buzzed into his family's flat, only to see that his relatives were already dead. Five to seven minutes later, Pútik ran outside of the apartment, collapsing and grabbing Fratrič's waist, begging for help. Harman suddenly leaned his rifle against Fratrič's shoulder and shot Pútik once in the head at point-blank range, killing him.
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Harman then ignored Fratrič, instead reloading his rifle and opening fire on other pedestrians on the street. He also hit several cars driving nearby. The first emergency phone call was made at 9:45 a.m. Harman then began walking, firing into windows and in the direction of the kindergarten school and local shopping center. He seemed to be shooting randomly as he continued injuring several people from a considerable distance. Throughout the entire attack, Harman was described as being seen repeatedly touching the barrel of his rifle, checking if it is not overheated; this is verifiable from amateur footage made by eyewitnesses.
Coincidentally, many former policemen, soldiers, and border-guards lived in the Devínska Nová Ves District. During the shooting, Harman noticed a man in a window and shot in his direction, hitting his hand. The wounded man, a former professional sniper, subsequently aimed at the perpetrator, but later decided not to intervene and was only watching the police action with binoculars. During the attack, 52-year-old Gabriela Košťálová was shot on a balcony and died in a matter of minutes.
At one time, Harman was shooting from the vicinity of a newsstand, with several people being unaware of what was actually going on. According to eyewitness, 19-year-old Dominik Kapišinský, a woman inside the stand even came out at one point to throw out the garbage while the shooting was in progress and returned to sit inside again. According to an unnamed female eyewitness cited by magazine Plus 7 Dní, "one man stepped outside of his car and walked towards the shooter asking him why he was shooting".
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At 9:47 a.m., the first police car arrived two minutes after receiving information about the shooting, with a second police car arriving after another two minutes. One of the responding policemen, 35-year-old captain Karol Vrchovský, approached Harman at a distance of 60 meters, then took cover behind a panel space at the base of a panel building, where he was hit by what is presumed to be a deflected bullet that entered though his upper lip and exited near his right ear; the gunshot wasn't fatal. The policemen then decided to encircle the shooter and wait for a tactical unit to arrive.
With the arrival of the police, Harman shifted his focus on mainly targeting police officers. Czech media routinely reported that at this time, some local inhabitants were handing out their own bulletproof vests to the engaging police officers. At 10:10 a.m., a highly awaited specialized unit (colloquially called "kukláči" in Slovak) arrived at the site from Malacky twenty-five minutes since the incident was reported. In six minutes, they successfully cornered Harman and critically wounded him with numerous gunshots, and Harman then committed suicide by a single gunshot wound to the head.
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Fifteen people were taken to five different hospitals in Bratislava, and two persons were being treated on the spot. Soon after the attack, the police sealed shut the whole district of Devínska Nová Ves, not letting anyone inside and checking every car leaving the district. According to eyewitnesses, after arriving at the exits, the police were just talking for a few minutes, letting people out of the district before starting the searches. Public transport was redirected around the district for an unspecified amount of time.
The shooter was identified as 48-year-old Ľubomír Harman, who lived on the same floor of the same building as the targeted victims. For over 20 years he was living in this one-room flat, seldom or never visited by anyone. He legally owned six guns including the vz. 58. He owned the rifle legally for sporting purposes.
The Slovak police corps president said that Harman was not personally acquainted with any of his victims.
Together, 16 bullets were fired at Harman by the police, with the sixteenth bullet wounding him fatally. The final shot came from a special ops member, while three other policemen tried to shoot Harman unsuccessfully before. According to autopsy results, Ľubomír Harman was fatally hit into the left side of the chest and afterwards he shot himself.
Initial reports informed that the shooter was an intoxicated boy, approximately fifteen years old. Later that day, a single picture taken from one of the balconies above the street by a witness named Matej became available to the media. In this iconic picture, Harman is seen standing on the street, holding his rifle and looking up at the balconies.
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Harman attended a forestry high school in Liptovský Hrádok. According to his former schoolmate Pavol Časnocha who took karate lessons with him at the time, Harman was "a little quiet, I don't want to say withdrawn, maybe a loner". Another former classmate, Peter Žihľavník, remembered him as being an average student without any notable abilities. According to him "(Harman) was not withdrawn and didn't have any kind of phobia, he was a normal boy". They also sometimes played football together.
Harman went through the compulsory military service in the early 1980s, but he was never a professional soldier and he had no criminal record.
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Ľubomír Harman spent a lot of his time in nature. After finishing high school and military service, he was employed in Wood Industry Bratislava as an "energetician in the technical division". He stayed there for four years. According to an unnamed long-time friend, people liked him there at the time as he would sometimes go beer drinking with his colleagues.
Harman used to be a hunter, which according to some is how his relationship with firearms began. On 10 January 1998 Harman became the member of "Club of Reserve Soldiers 008 Fox" in Bratislava, where he often practiced shooting and participated in shooting competitions. He was often seen practicing at a shooting range in Stupava near Bratislava.
During the 1990s Harman worked for four different companies in which he was remembered as always fulfilling his duties the way it was expected. In a company, where he was employed as a boilerman, a female colleague remembers that people used to call him "silent face". "He worked and worked and worked, he listened, but did not talk", she recalls. He is remembered as always frowning but never slacking, helping everyone anytime, described even as an "ideal employee". He worked mainly in maintenance in different heater rooms around Bratislava. He quit his last job suddenly two years ago, being unemployed since 1 August 2008, despite being persuaded by his employer to stay. Since 2008 he was unemployed, he was receiving €118 welfare a month. This would later affect his presence at competitions and in practice because of lack of money. In 2010 before the murders he entered only one shooting competition.
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Harman never got married and lived a solitary life. According to an unnamed long-time friend, Harman was lately more withdrawn than ever in his life before. He was keen on his parents, brother and sister and he had a good relationships with them. All of them were still alive at the time of the murders.
According to his friend from the shooting club, Daniel Líška, Harman neither showed any aggressive nor hostile behaviour. He has never mentioned any conflicts with his neighbours. He did not communicate with any of his neighbours and they could not recall having any conflicts with him either. According to his neighbours he was hard to notice and he never greeted anyone.
According to Harman's ex-colleague who appeared anonymously on camera in TV Markíza on 2 September 2010, Harman was a "good soul" and he got exploited easily.
The police found five bodies inside the flat, all of them members of the Putík family. Although initial reports claimed that the family was of Roma ethnicity, it was later confirmed to be false; some of the partners of the female victims were Roma (with one of them being among those slain), while the family itself was Slavic. The last victim, Ms. Košťálová, was later found by her relatives on the balcony of a different apartment; she was revealed to not be related to the other victims and was shot when she looked down from her balcony.
Five years prior to the shooting, Slovak television station Markíza made a report about the family of the victims. The report was instigated by the neighbors of the family. According to the report, all other inhabitants of the block of flats signed a letter inviting the reporters. At the time the report was made, only two of the victims were living in the flat, while the others moved in later. In the report, the reporter starts by saying that "in a block of flats, where tens of families live near each other, one bad neighbour may be a real catastrophe". He continues by claiming that the inhabitants had even faced death threats from said family, and therefore nobody was willing to talk directly to the camera. Later, it was revealed that the family had not paid rent and therefore is facing eviction; however, due to the laws in Slovakia, which favour tenants, the process may take very long. The family denied all allegations. Also according to the report, the police were called a number of times to solve the situation, but no progress was made.
Of the fifteen people taken to the hospitals, eight required longer hospitalization, with three people in a serious condition. According to the spokeswoman for Bratislava's University Hospital, Rút Geržová, "two, including a 33-year-old Czech man, [are] in a very serious condition." The aforementioned 33-year-old Czech had to be put into a coma; also in critical condition was 19-year-old Andrej, who was shot into the chest and collar bone. He had to be resuscitated twice and the doctors had to take part of his lung. 35-year-old police officer Karol Vrchovský suffered a minor face injury. 70-year-old Nadežda was shot into her leg on the street when returning home from buying groceries; she had been waiting for paramedics in the local pharmacy. A woman named Veronika was shot into her right shoulder and forearm. A three-year-old child suffered a minor ear injury when hit inside a car passing by the crime scene (after the attack the child's father was unsure if it was a hit or just a cut from broken glass). 79-year-old Vincent Fratrič had to be hospitalized because of temporarily going deaf from having a rifle fired by his ear. Among the injured is also the son of a known Slovak scientist, Igor Kapišinský; 19-year-old Dominik Kapišinský was hit by four bullets in the stomach while standing on his balcony on 11th floor of a nearby building.
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No information about the attack was made public by the authorities until a press briefing by Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic at 14:39 p.m., despite numerous demands by journalists. This, coupled with the fact that the shooting occurred in a densely populated area with dozens of eyewitnesses with mobile phones, digital cameras and internet connections, created a situation where news media based their reports on accounts from Facebook and word-of-mouth. Many of this information later turned out to be false, yet nevertheless added to the panic.
When, in the hours immediately following Harman's death, minister Lipšic addressed the public (the first official to do so), he addressed the need to arm the Slovak police with better weapons before even informing the public of what had actually transpired and addressing the question of whether it was safe for the public to venture out of their homes. In fact, before telling the public what happened, he attacked his predecessor, the previous Interior Minister, talked about the unsuitability of current crime statistics without knowing that the attack was random and managed to praise the police action without any analysis of the police response. Besides a brief message instructing people to stay inside their flats played over a few small loudspeakers on the streets (which are common in Slovakia), citizens were given no information about the shooting until over four hours after the attack ended.
Actually, after the shooting, no one ever gave the public the information that it is safe again to resume their lives. While Slovak police chief Jaroslav Spišiak and minister Lipšic maintain that the response was well executed and that two minutes after receiving first call the police were already engaging Harman, most of the witnesses agree that the police actions were slow, chaotic and poorly organised.
According to an article published on 2 September 2010, in major Slovak weekly Plus 7 Dní, there was chaos and uncertainty among the citizens at the crime scene. According to journalists Lenka Ďurajková and Lukáš Milan, even in the afternoon, the policemen were outwardly lying to people asking about the safety situation. "Didn't you hear the message over the public radio?!" one policeman is quoted as answering to a question if it safe to go outside. Another policemen is quoted as saying "Do you want to risk it?" when asked by a woman if it is safe to go out with her dog, even when the attacker was several hours dead and the attack long ended.
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Contrary to official version of the events, according to witness Vincent Fratrič, it took approximately ten minutes after Jozef Pútik's death for the first police car to show up.
According to an interview with victim Dominik Kapišinský, the police action against Harman was poorly executed and the police did not have the situation under control. At the time he was shot there were already two policemen at the scene, but instead of shooting at the attacker and distracting him, they merely shouted at him.
Investigation of the shootings concluded on 13 July 2011. Six months after the incident, Slovak police were still not able to determine the number of bullets fired by Ľubomír Harman and the number of those fired by the police. Because of widespread speculation that some of the victims of the massacre could have been shot by police officers during the chaos of the poorly organised encounter, partial results of the investigation by the expert forensic office of the Slovak police force (Slovak: Kriminalistický a expertízny ústav Policajného zboru Slovenskej republiky) were made public in February 2011, claiming that the only person ever to be hit by the police was the shooter.
The final results of the investigation were initially released to the TV station Markíza. Its reporters claimed that Ľubomír Harman fired 140 bullets (24 inside the apartment and 116 in the street). The police fired altogether fifteen bullets, one of them hitting the attacker. They also claim that the investigator heard dozens of testimonies and the prosecution was stopped because the accused is dead.
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Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic and the national police chief Jaroslav Spišiak arrived at the site. President Ivan Gašparovič, Mayor of Bratislava Andrej Ďurkovský, and Prime Minister Iveta Radičová all expressed their condolences. The Slovak government, at a special session on 31 August, declared a national day of mourning on 2 September 2010, to commemorate the victims of the shooting rampage.
Relatives of the perpetrator faced death threats from relatives of the victims after the act. After consulting police, the perpetrator's mother, father, brother, and sister, together with their families, presumably fled to Hungary to seek refuge with relatives living there. Slovak police officials were unwilling to comment on the issue. According to police spokeswoman Petra Hrášková, "information that Harman's family is hiding abroad at the advice of the police cannot be confirmed or denied".
On 2 September 2010, the authorities had the apartment disinfected and all of the belongings inside hauled to be burned. This caused strong disagreement on the part of the relatives of some of the victims, who claimed that the apartment contained some valuables. According to footage made by TV Markíza, more police had to be summoned to the crime scene to handle the situation. Authorities claimed that one of the attacker's bullets punctured a water pipe in the apartment. This caused flooding and destroyed much of the stuff inside. They went on to claim that the situation had to be dealt with because the crime scene posed a public health hazard.
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The following day, Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic announced that the Slovak police are ready to implement changes which should prevent similar attacks in the future, mainly the arming of police officers with Škorpion vz. 61 submachine guns. The plan was immediately criticized by police and military experts and journalists alike, due to the fact that this gun has only limited effectiveness at larger distances and wouldn't have changed anything in the case of this massacre. Later, without much publicity, the Slovak police was issued vz. 58 assault rifles, the fully automatic version of the shooter's sporting rifle. Following instances of losing their new rifles by policemen, the measure came under criticism in February 2011, when a policeman in Bratislava forgot his assault rifle on the roof of his vehicle and drove off (it later slipped off at a public transport stop) and a policewoman in Žilina forgot her vz. 58 at a gas station after a Sunday coffee. Moreover, the parliamentary opposition attacked the arming of police, saying that arming even the traffic police with submachine guns invokes "feeling of civil war" and "scares the tourists".
The ownership of automatic weapons by civilians is prohibited under any circumstances, including competitive shooting. The ownership of firearms should be possible only with adequate psychological examinations and that these will have to be retaken every five years. This was actually proposed also in the past but it was never passed into law because of the powerful hunting lobby in Slovakia.
On 12 October 2010, a memorial medal was awarded to Peter Novosedlík by the Ministry of Interior. Novosedlík, an ex-police officer, risked his own life when he helped get the wounded policeman into an ambulance. He happened to be working about 100 meters away from the location of the massacre.
On 17 February 2011, the movie "Devínsky masaker" (Devínska Nová Ves massacre), which was about the 2010 Bratislava shootings, premiered in Slovakia. The 60-minute movie is a combination of documentary and drama, merging documentary-style opinions of witnesses and surviving family members with quick-paced action. Notably, the family of the shooter refused any cooperation with the filmmakers. "Devínsky masaker" received generally negative reviews; for example, a week after the premiere, the Czech and Slovak Film Database reported an aggregate score of 28%. Major Slovak weekly Plus 7 Dní concluded its review by writing, "Trailers for this movie, where producers let Harman's friend strongly attack the dead victims and about the murdered half-Roma boy Jožko, they manage only to inform us that at the age of 12 he did not yet smoke, do not necessarily attract people into cinemas. But they are guaranteed to stir the passions." The movie's title is technically incorrect, since the massacre took place in the district of Devínska Nová Ves not the district of Devín. Correctly, it would be "Devínskonovoveský masaker".
Interview with Dominik Kapišinský (19), published 10 September 2010 in Slovak daily Hospodárske noviny. Interview conducted by Andrea Szöcsová.
Review of the movie "Devínsky masaker", published 24 February 2011 in Slovak weekly Plus 7 Dní, author Lenka Ďurajková. |
27576608 | Cumbria shootings | 2010-06-02 11:08:29+00:00 | The Cumbria shootings were a shooting spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people (including his twin brother) and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, it is one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history. The shootings ended when Bird killed himself in a wooded area after abandoning his car in the village of Boot.
The shootings began in mid-morning in Lamplugh and moved to Frizington, Whitehaven, Egremont, Gosforth, and Seascale, sparking a major manhunt by the Cumbria Constabulary, with assistance from Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers. Thirty crime scenes across Copeland were investigated.
Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to the victims, and the Prince of Wales later visited Whitehaven in the wake of the tragedy. Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May also visited West Cumbria. A memorial fund was set up to aid victims and affected communities.
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In the early hours of Wednesday, 2 June 2010, Derrick Bird left his home in Rowrah, Cumbria, drove his Citroën Xsara Picasso to his twin brother David's home in Lamplugh, and shot him eleven times in the head and body with a .22 calibre rifle, killing him.
Bird then drove to Frizington, arriving at the home of his family's solicitor, Kevin Commons. Bird prevented Commons from driving away by firing twice with a double-barrelled shotgun – which he had earlier sawn off (the barrel and a saw being later found at his home) – hitting him once in the shoulder. Commons staggered out of his car and onto the entrance to his farmyard, where Bird killed him with two rifle shots to the head. Bird then moved on towards Whitehaven. A witness called the Cumbria Constabulary to report the Commons shooting, although her call was delayed by several minutes after she asked neighbours what she should do. She also erroneously described Bird as being armed with an air rifle despite being able to hear the gunshots.
After killing Commons, Bird went to a friend's residence to retrieve a shotgun he had loaned, although he was answered by the friend's wife, who didn't have access to it. Afterwards, at 10:33, Bird drove to a taxi rank on Duke Street, Whitehaven. There, he called over Darren Rewcastle, another taxi driver who was previously known to Bird; Bird had conflicts with Rewcastle over his behaviour, his practice of poaching fares, and an incident wherein Rewcastle damaged the tyres on Bird's taxi and openly boasted about it. When Rewcastle approached Bird's taxi, he was shot twice at point-blank range with the rifle, hitting him in the lower face, chest, and abdomen. Rewcastle died of his injuries, becoming the only person to die in Whitehaven during the attacks. After shooting Rewcastle, a fellow taxi driver Richard Webster shouted at Bird who then sped off.
Soon after killing Rewcastle, Bird drove alongside another taxi driver, Donald Reid, and shot him in the back, wounding him. Bird then made a loop back to the taxi rank and fired twice at Reid as he waited for emergency personnel, missing him. Next, Bird drove away from the taxi rank and stopped alongside another taxi driver named Paul Wilson as he walked down Scotch Street, and called him over to his vehicle as he did with Rewcastle; when Wilson answered his call, Bird shot him in the right side of his face with the sawn-off shotgun, severely wounding him. As a result of the shootings, unarmed officers at the local police station were informed and began following Bird's taxi as it drove onto Coach Road. There, Bird fired his shotgun at a passing taxi, injuring the male driver, Terry Kennedy, and the female passenger, Emma Percival. Bird was then able to flee the officers after he aimed his shotgun at two of them, forcing them to take cover. However, he did not fire; he instead took advantage of the officers' distraction to escape.
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In the wake of the Whitehaven shootings, residents there and in the neighbouring towns of Egremont and Seascale were urged to stay indoors. A massive manhunt for Bird was launched by the Cumbria Constabulary, which was assisted by armed Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers. Bird proceeded to drive through several local towns, firing apparently at random, and calling a majority of the victims over to his taxi before shooting them. Because of the first call which was mistakenly reported to be an "air-rifle", the response from Cumbria Constabulary was severely delayed. After following Bird, police vehicles and a member of the public's van (who an officer had gotten into with the driver) gave chase to Bird but unfortunately they met a forked road and took the wrong direction therefore losing him.
Near Egremont, Bird tried to shoot Jacqueline Williamson as she walked her dog, but she managed to escape without injury. Upon arriving in Egremont, he stopped alongside Susan Hughes as she walked home from shopping, and shot her in the chest and abdomen with the shotgun. He then got out of his taxi and got into a struggle with Hughes before fatally shooting her in the back of the head with his rifle. Then, after driving a short distance to Bridge End, Bird fired the shotgun at Kenneth Fishburn as he walked in the opposite direction; Fishburn suffered fatal wounds to the head and chest. This was followed by the shooting of Leslie Hunter, who was called over to Bird's taxi before being shot in the face at close range with the shotgun, then a second time in the back after he turned away to protect himself. Hunter survived his injuries.
Bird then went south towards Thornhill, where he fired his shotgun at Ashley Glaister, a teenage girl; however, he missed her and she ran off back towards her sister's home. He then passed Carleton and travelled on to the village of Wilton. There, he tried to visit Jason Carey, a member of a diving club Bird also belonged to, but Bird left when Carey's wife came to the door. Soon afterward, Bird then saw Jennifer Jackson walking down the road with her son, he then shot Jackson once in the chest with his shotgun and twice in the head with his rifle, killing her. Bird then drove past Town Head Farm, but turned back towards it and fired his shotgun, fatally hitting Jackson's husband James in the head and wounding a woman named Christine Hunter-Hall in the back. While Hunter-Hall survived the attack, she still has 100 pellets still lodged in her lung. He then drove back to Carleton and killed Isaac Dixon, a mole-catcher, who was fatally shot twice at close range as he was talking to a farmer in a field. A former semi-professional rugby player, Garry Purdham, was soon shot and killed while working in a field outside the Red Admiral Hotel at Boonwood, near Gosforth.
Bird then drove towards Seascale. Along the way, he began driving slowly and waved other motorists to pass him. He shot a motorist named James "Jamie" Clark, who suffered a fatal wound to the head, although it was not clear at first whether he died from the gunshot or the subsequent car crash. Bird then encountered another motorist named Harry Berger at a narrow, one-way passage underneath a railway bridge. When Berger allowed Bird to enter first, Bird fired at him as he passed by, shooting him twice and causing severe injury to his right arm. Three armed response vehicles attempting to pursue Bird were later blocked out of the tunnel by Berger's vehicle; it had to be pushed away to let them pass.
Meanwhile, Bird had driven on to Drigg Road, where he fired twice at Michael Pike, a retired man who was cycling in front of him; the first shot missed, but the second hit Pike in the head and killed him. Seconds later, while on the same street, Bird fatally shot Jane Robinson in the neck and head at point-blank range after apparently calling her over.
After the killing of Robinson, who was the final fatality in the shootings, witnesses described Bird as driving increasingly erratically down the street. At 11:33, Police Constables Phillip Lewis and Andrew Laverack spotted Bird as his car passed by their vehicle. They attempted to pursue him, but were delayed in roadworks and lost sight of him a minute later. Soon afterward Bird drove into Eskdale valley, where he wounded Jackie Lewis in the neck with his rifle as she was out walking. At this point, his route had become clearer to police during their search for him. Next, Bird stopped alongside Fiona Moretta, who leaned into his passenger window, believing he was going to ask her for directions. Instead, he injured her in the chest with the rifle, then continued onward towards the village of Boot.
Arriving in Boot, Bird briefly stopped at a business premises called Sim's Travel and fired his rifle at nearby people, but missed. Continuing further into the village, he continued firing at random people and missing. Bird eventually fired his rifle at two men, hitting and severely wounding Nathan Jones in the face. This was shortly followed by a couple who had stopped their car to take a photo; Samantha Chrystie suffered severe wounds to the face from a rifle bullet. Chrystie's partner, Craig Ross, fled upon Bird's instruction and was then fired at, but escaped uninjured. Before shooting Chrystie, Bird asked her if she was "Having a nice day?"
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Shortly after firing at two cyclists, Bird crashed his taxi into several vehicles and a stone wall, damaging a tyre. A nearby family of four offered assistance to Bird, but were quickly turned down and advised to leave. Bird removed the rifle from his taxi and walked over a bridge leading into Oak How Woods. He was last seen alive at 12:30; shortly afterward, police confirmed that there had been fatalities and that they were searching for a suspect. Police later announced they were searching for the driver of a dark-grey Citroën Xsara Picasso driven by the suspect, who was identified as Bird. At around 12:36, armed police officers and dog handlers arrived at the scene of Bird's abandoned taxi and began a search in and around the wooded area.
At 14:00, Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde announced that Bird's body had been found in a wooded area, along with a rifle. Police confirmed shortly afterwards that members of the public who had taken shelter during the incident could now resume their normal activities.
During the manhunt, the gates of the nearby Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant were closed as a precaution, and the afternoon shift was told not to come to work.
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At 15:00, during his first session of Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron confirmed that "at least five" people had died, including the gunman. Over the next few hours, Bird's shooting of his brother and solicitor was announced. Later that evening, a police press conference in Whitehaven announced that 12 people had been killed, that a further 11 people were injured, three of them critically, and that the suspect had killed himself. They also confirmed that two weapons (a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun and a .22-calibre rifle with a scope and silencer) had been used by the suspect in the attacks, and that 30 crime scenes were being investigated. The shootings were considered the worst mass-casualty shooting incident to occur in the United Kingdom since the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, which left 18 people dead. A report later determined that Bird fired at least 47 rounds during the shootings (29 from his shotgun, 18 from his .22 rifle). Six live .22 rounds were also found on Bird's person, with an additional eight loaded in the rifle. A search in Bird's home later recovered over 750 rounds of live .22 ammunition, 240 live shotgun cartridges and a large amount of financial paperwork.
The police stated that the shootings took place along a 24 kilometres (15 mi) stretch of the Cumbrian coastline. Helicopters from neighbouring police forces were used in the manhunt, while those from the RAF Search and Rescue Force and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance responded to casualties. A major incident was declared by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust at West Cumberland Hospital, with the accident and emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, on full incident stand-by.
Bird had been a licensed firearms holder, and the incident sparked debate about further gun control in the United Kingdom; the previous 1996 Dunblane and 1987 Hungerford shootings had led to increased firearms controls.
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Targeted shootings
David Bird, 52, killed at Lamplugh, gunman's twin brother.
Kevin Commons, 60, killed at Frizington, gunman's family solicitor.
Darren Rewcastle, 43, killed at Whitehaven, fellow taxi driver known to the gunman.
Random shootings
Susan Hughes, 57, killed at Egremont.
Kenneth Fishburn, 71, killed at Egremont.
Jennifer Jackson, 68, killed at Wilton, wife of James Jackson.
James Jackson, 67, killed at Wilton, husband of Jennifer Jackson.
Isaac Dixon, 65, killed at Carleton.
Garry Purdham, 31, killed at Gosforth, professional rugby league player.
James "Jamie" Clark, 23, killed at Seascale.
Michael Pike, 64, killed at Seascale.
Jane Robinson, 66, killed at Seascale.
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Derrick Bird (27 November 1957 – 2 June 2010) was born to Mary (née Sims) and Joseph Bird. He had a twin brother, David, and an older brother, Brian, who was six years older than Derrick and David. He lived alone in Rowrah, Cumbria, and had two sons with a woman from whom he had separated in the mid-1990s. He became a grandfather in May 2010, and was described as a quiet, popular man who worked as a self-employed taxi driver in Whitehaven.
In 2007, Bird was beaten unconscious by four men who tried to run instead of paying him for taxi services. Friends said he changed after the attack. It was reported that Bird had previously sought help from a local hospital due to his fragile mental state, although these reports were unconfirmed. He had held a shotgun certificate since 1974 and had renewed it several times, most recently in 2005, and had held a firearms certificate for a rifle from 2007 onward. Bird was being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs at the time of the shooting. His body was formally identified at Furness General Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness, and he was cremated at a private service on 18 June 2010.
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There has been speculation that Bird may have had a grudge against people associated with the Sellafield nuclear power plant where he had worked as a joiner, resigning in 1990 following an allegation of theft of wood from the plant. He was subsequently convicted and given a twelve-month suspended sentence. Three of the dead were former plant employees, although there is no evidence that any were involved with his resignation.
Terry Kennedy, a fellow taxi driver who described himself as one of Bird's best friends, and was wounded by Bird, has claimed that he had a relationship with a Thai girl or woman he met on holiday in Pattaya, Thailand. It has been further claimed by another friend of Bird that he had sent £1,000 to the "girlfriend", who subsequently ended their relationship via a text message; he added that Bird had been "made a fool out of".
It has also been speculated that Bird had been involved with a family dispute over his father's will, after his death in 1998. The speculation was heightened when it was revealed that he had targeted and killed both his twin, David, and the family's solicitor, Kevin Commons, in his attacks.
Police investigating the killings have also found that Bird was the subject of an ongoing tax investigation by HM Revenue and Customs for tax evasion and the threat of possible future prosecution and punishment might have contributed to his actions. According to Mark Cooper, a fellow taxi driver who had known him for fifteen years, Bird had accumulated £60,000 in a secret bank account and was worried he would be sent to prison for hiding the cash from the government. He reportedly believed his brother and the solicitor were conspiring to send him to prison for tax evasion; in the three days before the killings, Bird called his brother forty-four times.
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Prime Minister David Cameron was joined by several other MPs in expressing the House of Commons members' shock and horror at the events during Prime Minister's Questions. Home Secretary Theresa May expressed her regret at the deaths and paid tribute to the response of the emergency services. The Cabinet met to discuss the shootings and May later made a statement on the Cumbria incident to the House of Commons on 3 June 2010. Cameron and May visited the affected region on 4 June 2010 to meet victims, officials and local people. Jamie Reed, the MP for Copeland, called the incident the "blackest day in our community's history".
On the evening of 2 June, Queen Elizabeth II said she was "deeply shocked" by the shootings and shared the nation's "grief and horror". Prince Charles visited Whitehaven on 11 June 2010 to meet members of the community affected by the tragedy.
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BBC One altered their programming to broadcast two BBC News specials about the shootings, at 14:15 and 19:30 on the same day. Transmissions of ITV soap Coronation Street were cancelled on 2, 3, and 4 June as the scheduled broadcast was a week-long special involving a violent storyline featuring a gun siege in a factory. The episodes were aired the following week. An edition of the Channel 4 panel game You Have Been Watching, which was due to be broadcast on 3 June 2010, was postponed because it was a crime special.
American pop singer Lady Gaga came under criticism after performing a murder scene at her concert in Manchester, as part of her Monster Ball Tour, just hours after the shooting spree.
On 9 June 2010, a week after the incident, memorial services were held in the West Cumbria towns affected by the shootings followed by a minute's silence at midday. Soon after the minute's silence taxi drivers on Duke Street sounded their horns for one minute to show their respect. The minute's silence for the Cumbria victims was also marked prior to David Cameron's second Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament. The funerals of the majority of Bird's victims were held at various churches in West Cumbria.
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A memorial fund was established by the Cumbria Community Foundation to aid victims and communities affected by the West Cumbria shootings. |
28935458 | 2010 Copa Petrobras Montevideo | 2010-09-24 10:47:58+00:00 | The 2010 Copa Petrobras Montevideo was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor red clay courts. It was the sixth edition of the tournament which is part of the 2010 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Montevideo, Uruguay between 27 September and 3 October 2010.
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Rankings are as of September 20, 2010.
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The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:
Ariel Behar
Guilherme Clézar
Martín Cuevas
Agustín Velotti
The following players received entry from the qualifying draw:
Rafael Camilo
Guillermo Durán
Jonathan Gonzalia
Agustín Picco
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Máximo González def. Pablo Cuevas, 1–6, 6–3, 6–4
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Carlos Berlocq / Brian Dabul def. Máximo González / Sebastián Prieto, 7–5, 6–3 |
28949104 | 2010 Copa Petrobras Montevideo – Doubles | 2010-09-25 17:22:51+00:00 | Juan Pablo Brzezicki and David Marrero were the defending champions, but only Argentinian player tried to defend his title.He partnered with Santiago Ventura, but they lost to Carlos Berlocq and Brian Dabul in the semifinals.Berlocq and Dabul went on to win the tournament after defeating Máximo González and Sebastián Prieto 7–5, 6–3 in the final.
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28956146 | 2010 Copa Petrobras Montevideo – Singles | 2010-09-26 09:24:01+00:00 | Pablo Cuevas was the defending champion. He reached the final, but he lost to Máximo González 6–1, 3–6, 4–6.
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28128512 | Australian Grand Prix Gliding 2010 | 2010-07-23 13:56:02+00:00 | The 2010 Australian Qualifying Grand Prix was the fourth qualifying Gliding Grand Prix for the FAI World Grand Prix 2010-2011. |
26159144 | FAI World Grand Prix 2010–2011 | 2010-02-11 11:54:13+00:00 | The FAI World Grand Prix 2010–2011 was the fourth gliding Grand Prix. The 9 qualifying races took place during 2010–2011 worldwide flying season. The qualifying rounds were held all over the world. The Finals were held in Wasserkuppe, Germany from the 23rd to the 30th of July.
Due to scheduling conflicts with the European Gliding Championships held in Nitra, Slovakia, from 17 to 30 July 2011, some pilots were unable to attend the Grand Prix Final. Among others, triple and defending Grand Prix World champion Sebastian Kawa did not attend The Finals, instead he went on to win the European Gliding Championships in the Standard class.
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* – competition number
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27126201 | Poland Grand Prix Gliding 2010 | 2010-04-27 08:52:39+00:00 | The Qualifying Grand Prix of Poland was the first qualifying Gliding Grand Prix for the FAI World Grand Prix 2010-2011. Because the usage of handicaps is not allowed in the Grand Prix style of competitions, only the planes with handicap index 101 from Club class are allowed. This gliders are: ASW19, B; Cirrus CS 11-75 L; Cirrus G(w); Cirrus; Cirrus B(w);
DG 100; Hornet (w); Jantar std 2 i 3; Brawo; Ls 1f, 45; Std Libelle 17m; SZD 59.
Because very difficult weather conditions did allow only 2 races to be completed, the Qualifying Grand Prix of Poland 2010 has been canceled. |
28046728 | Pribina Sailplane Grand Prix 2010 | 2010-07-15 16:57:17+00:00 | The Pribina Sailplane Grand Prix was the third qualifying Gliding Grand Prix for the FAI World Grand Prix 2010–2011. The competition was flow in with 18 meter class gliders. |
26358264 | 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship | 2010-02-27 10:05:43+00:00 | The 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship was the eighth official Red Bull Air Race World Championship series. Paul Bonhomme became champion for the second successive year, finishing each of the six rounds of the championship in the top three placings, two of which were victories. Hannes Arch was the only other round winner, taking four victories but finished four points behind Bonhomme, after an eleventh-place finish in the season-opener in the United Arab Emirates. Nigel Lamb finished third with three runner-up placings, and three fourth places.
At the end of the season, Red Bull Air Race GmbH announced that the series would take a one-year break in 2011, to reorganize and strengthen development and commercial aspects of the series.
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Two new pilots joined the Red Bull Air Race Series for 2010 season as Mike Mangold and Glen Dell left the series. They were Martin Šonka from the Czech Republic and Adilson Kindlemann from Brazil.
(*) indicates the pilot received an extra point for the fastest time in Qualifying
At about 11:50AM local time, (3:50 UTC) on 15 April, Brazilian pilot Adilson Kindlemann crashed his MXS-R aircraft into the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia during practice. Rescuers were on the scene within one minute. Kindlemann was taken to Royal Perth Hospital where it was found that he had no serious injuries. It was only the previous day (14 April) that the pilots completed their underwater emergency training. Kindlemann was the first South American to contest the Air Race and was three-times Brazilian aerobatics champion (Unlimited category) when he joined the competition with 18 years aerobatics experience; over 11,000 hours flight time; and about 1,200 hours of aerobatics, as detailed on the official Red Bull Air Race website.
During qualifying for the race in Windsor, Matt Hall nearly crashed his aircraft into the Detroit River. The aircraft lost lift after a series of high-G turns and dipped both wings and a wheel into the water before Hall powered up and out of what could have been a bad wreck. His aircraft was too damaged to continue and he was disqualified from competing both that weekend and the following race in New York.
Spanish pilot Alejandro Maclean was killed on 17 August, when his aircraft crashed into the ground while performing a manoeuvre during a training exercise at Casarrubios del Monte in Spain. |
29129352 | 2010 Massachusetts Question 2 | 2010-10-09 11:26:33+00:00 | The Massachusetts Comprehensive Permits and Regional Planning Initiative, also known as Question 2, appeared on the November 2, 2010 ballot in the state of Massachusetts as an initiative. Question 2 was rejected by the Massachusetts voters by 1,254,759 "No" votes to 900,405 "Yes" votes. The measure had been sponsored by Better Not Bigger, a local advocacy group in the state.
The proposed measure would have repealed a state law, the Comprehensive Permit Act (MGL ch. 40B), that allows an organization that is proposing to build government-subsidized housing that includes "low- or moderate-income units to apply for a single comprehensive permit from a city or town's zoning board of appeals." According to the official summary of the measure, the repeal would take effect on January 1, 2011. According to Chemaly, "It's not based on helping poor people. It's all about how can we sell as many units as possible and for them to still be federally and legally (dubbed) affordable"
Details of Chapter 40B include:
It became a law in 1969.
Allows developers to avoid local zoning limits if they agree to reserve some of their projects for moderate-income residents.
About 25 percent of the units must be set aside for moderate-income residents to meet this requirement.
Local areas can reject projects if 10 percent or more of their housing stock is deemed affordable.
If local towns or cities are making progress toward said 10 percent mark, they can still reject projects.
The initiative was reviewed by the Massachusetts Legislature. The Massachusetts Legislature did not approve of the initiative by the May 4, 2010 deadline, according to the Massachusetts Elections Division, leaving petition organizers to obtain additional signatures from about 1/2 of 1% of voters who voted in the last governor election and submit them before or on July 7, 2010. According to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, that number amounted to 11,099 signatures. The measure submitted enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
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The summary of the measure reads:
This proposed law would repeal an existing state law that allows a qualified organization wishing to build government-subsidized housing that includes low- or moderate-income units to apply for a single comprehensive permit from a city or town's zoning board of appeals (ZBA), instead of separate permits from each local agency or official having jurisdiction over any aspect of the proposed housing. The repeal would take effect on January 1, 2011, but would not stop or otherwise affect any proposed housing that had already received both a comprehensive permit and a building permit for at least one unit ...
A YES VOTE would repeal the state law allowing the issuance of a single comprehensive permit to build housing that includes low- or moderate-income units.
A NO VOTE would make no change in the state law allowing issuance of such a comprehensive permit.
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Affordable Housing Now-Yes on 2 is the main campaign for the measure.
Bigger Not Better
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Massachusetts has become the 3rd most expensive state in the country!
Chapter 40B, has been in place for more than 40 years and is directly responsible for our lack of affordability.
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The Campaign to Protect the Affordable Housing Law.
Worcester Mayor Joseph C. O'Brien.
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The following contributions have been made in opposition to the measure:
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repealing the affordable housing law would immediately halt the creation of housing that is affordable to seniors and working families in many communities across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. |
29129276 | 2010 Massachusetts Question 1 | 2010-10-09 11:06:57+00:00 | The No Sales Tax for Alcohol Question, also known as Question 1, was on the November 2, 2010 ballot in Massachusetts. The measure asked voters whether to repeal a sales tax on alcohol sales. The ballot measure for the 2010 ballot was added after the Massachusetts State Legislature increased the sales tax in the state from 5% to 6.25% and eliminated an exemption for alcohol sold in liquor stores.
The Measure passed with 52% of the vote thereby eliminating the sales tax on alcohol beginning January 1, 2011.
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The summary of the measure reads:
This proposed law would remove the Massachusetts sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol, where the sale of such beverages and alcohol or their importation into the state is already subject to a separate excise tax under state law. The proposed law would take effect on January 1, 2011.
A YES VOTE would remove the state sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol where their sale or importation into the state is subject to an excise tax under state law.
A NO VOTE would make no change in the state sales tax on alcoholic beverages and alcohol.
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Liquor retailers in the state had argued that the 6.25 percent sales tax on alcohol is making sales decline, that more people are heading to New Hampshire to buy their alcohol, since that state is tax-free. According to retailers, liquor sales in Massachusetts have declined from 10 to 40 percent in the past year.
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Senator Steven Tolman
The Committee Against the Repeal of the Alcohol Tax
Massachusetts Hospital Association
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Alcohol is not a necessity and does not deserve a special tax exemption. The only goods in Massachusetts exempt from the sales tax are necessities like food, clothing, and prescriptions. If anything should be taxed, products like cigarettes and alcohol should be.
The tax has brought in $93 million in the current fiscal year that has helped fund the operations of recovery high schools
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The following are major contributors in opposition to the measure:
The initiative's supporters believed their efforts cleared the signature gathering hurdle on November 18, 2009, gathering and submitting approximately 115,000 voter signatures Signatures were submitted to all local city and town clerks in the state. The initiative was reviewed by the Massachusetts Legislature. Since the Massachusetts Legislature did not approve of the initiative by the May 4, 2010 deadline, petition organizers had to obtain signatures from about 1/2 of 1% of voters who voted in the last governor election and submit them before or on July 7, 2010. According to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, that number amounted to 11,099 signatures. Sponsors turned in enough signatures for the ballot, therefore allowing voters to decide on the measure. |
29129504 | Massachusetts Sales Tax Relief Act | 2010-10-09 11:53:42+00:00 | Massachusetts Question 3, filed under the name, the 3 percent Sales Tax Relief Act, appears on the November 2, 2010 ballot in the state of Massachusetts as an initiative. The measure, if enacted by voters, would reduce the state sales tax rate from 6.25 to 3 percent. The measure was sponsored by the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes headed by Carla Howell. The measure would be enacted into a law 30 days after the election if approved by voters.
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The ballot title of the measure reads:
Do you approve of a law summarized below, on which no vote was taken by the Senate or the House of Representatives before May 4, 2010?
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The summary of the measure reads:
This proposed law would reduce the state sales and use tax rates (which were 6.25 percent as of September 2009) to 3 percent as of Jan. 1, 2011. It would make the same reduction in the rate used to determine the amount to be deposited with the state Commissioner of Revenue by non-resident building contractors as security for the payment of sales and use tax on tangible personal property used in carrying out their contracts.
The proposed law provides that if the 3 percent rates would not produce enough revenues to satisfy any lawful pledge of sales and use tax revenues in connection with any bond, note, or other contractual obligation, then the rates would instead be reduced to the lowest level allowed by law.
The proposed law would not affect the collection of moneys due the Commonwealth for sales, storage, use or other consumption of tangible personal property or services occurring before Jan. 1, 2011.
The proposed law states that if any of its parts were declared invalid, the other parts would stay in effect.
A YES VOTE would reduce the state sales and use tax rates to 3 percent.
A NO VOTE would make no change in the state sales and use tax rates.
Proponents of the measure say rolling back the sales tax to 3% will stimulate $132 million in private sector investment; put an average of $688 back in the pockets of 3,400,000 taxpayers and create 33,000 new, private sector jobs.
Political leaders in the state have claimed that there is no current backup plan if the measure is approved by voters.
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The Alliance to Roll Back Taxes is the sponsor of the measure, which they also refer to as the Initiative to Roll Back the Sales Tax, and is headed by Carla Howell and Michael Cloud.
Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Christy Mihos
Massachusetts Package Store Association
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The passage of the amendment would create as many as 32,929 jobs in the private sector.
liquor stores have been negatively impacted by new alcohol and sales tax.
vendors at the border between the state and New Hampshire are affected even more because New Hampshire does not have a sales tax
Reducing the sales tax is a big step in ending the recession by giving families more income to spend.
Voters made the decision last election not to support cutting the income tax and in return the sales tax was raised by 1.25% to 6.25%.
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"No Special Tax Breaks for Alcohol" is the main opponent of the measure.
Current Governor Deval Patrick.
Representative Steven D'Amico.
Senator Marc Pacheco
Representative Fred Barrows
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
The Massachusetts Coalition for Our Communities, which was formed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association
Newton Mayor Setti Warren
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Arguments that have been made against the measure include:
we will be looking at major cuts to the budget.
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State reports showing key campaign financers:
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The Boston Herald, A major Boston news paper stated support for the initiative in an editorial published on October 7, 2010, writing "Sometimes a proposition is known by the enemies it makes - and lining up against the tax rollback are all the usual suspects. Unions - mostly public employee unions - have thus far built a $1.3 million kitty to pay for the coming onslaught of radio and TV ads." and "Taxpayers and voters are just fed up with lawmakers who listen more to special interests, more to public employee unions, more to advocates than to those paying the bills. Sometimes voters have to shout to be heard. This is one of those times"
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The Republican, a western Massachusetts publication, stated opposition to the sales tax rollback in an editorial published on April 29, 2010, writing, "Someday these taxes should be lowered or eliminated, because they can hurt businesses and consumers. But someday is not today. The Legislature is dealing with a proposed $27.8 billion for fiscal 2011 that is at least $2 billion out of whack in an economy that is still sputtering."
This is one of the fastest that tax drops Massachusetts has ever had from before 1900 the tax percentile has been 3 percent then over the course of 100 years it has raised to 6 percent then dropped back down. Activists stated during the week of November 19, 2009 that they had collected enough signatures to place the measure on the 2010 ballot. Carla Howell, chairwoman of the committee organizing the effort, Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, declined to provide the number of signatures collected, but did state: "We do feel confident we've submitted more than the requirement." The initiative was reviewed by the Massachusetts Legislature. Since the Massachusetts Legislature did not approve of the initiative by the May 4, 2010 deadline, petition organizers must have obtained signatures from about 1/2 of 1% of voters who voted in the last governor election and submit them before or on July 7, 2010. According to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, that number amounted to 11,099 signatures.
On June 23, 2010, initiative supporters turned in approximately 19,000 signatures, giving them a good chance of making the ballot in November. Carla Howell, the leader of the initiative campaign, stated that the measure will be placed on the ballot since that number of signatures was well over the 11,099 required.
On July 13, 2010, the Secretary of the Commonwealth affirmed that the sales tax roll back to 3% measure will be on the ballot as Question 3. |
27868402 | 2010 Ma'anshan riot | 2010-06-27 16:49:43+00:00 | The 2010 Ma'anshan riot (马鞍山局长打人事件) or the June 11 incident (6.11 事件) occurred in Anhui Province, Ma'anshan, Huashan District in the People's Republic of China on June 11, 2010. It started out when a Chinese Communist Party official hit a boy with his car followed by a number of angry responses. The city then rioted over the official's action.
At 6:40 pm on June 11, Communist Party Ma'anshan tourism official Wang Guo-qing (汪国庆) was driving in a car with another female passenger down Hubei East Road (湖北东路) Darunfa Market (大润发卖场). A young boy was hit lightly. Instead of apologizing, Wang got out of the car and attacked the boy. The female passenger also agreed and complimented the attack saying it was a "good hit". Wang was talking to the boy, "Do you know who I am? I am the government leader." This stirred anger amongst the crowd. The woman in the passenger side followed by saying she knew where the boy attended school judging by the uniform and that she had the authority to "mess him up".
Pedestrians started attacking them with bricks on the street. This quickly led to 3,000 to 4,000 people following in the riot. At around 11:30 pm the city's CPC secretary Zheng Wei-wen (郑为文) arrived on scene to handle the case and gave some visibility. He said if the case was not handled well, the citizens can find Zheng himself.
About 10 minutes later the armed riot-police-unit arrived on the scene. The crowd started throwing all types of objects in complete chaos. The police responded by firing tear gas. Afterward there were some reports that questioned whether Wang Guo-qing was drunk at the time. |
57570216 | 2010 Northern Ireland riots | 2018-06-02 00:57:45+00:00 | The 2010 Northern Ireland riots were riots and civil disturbance in Northern Ireland in July 2010, orchestrated by Irish republicans.
The violence began during the Protestant Eleventh Night celebrations when three Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers were shot by a masked man with a shotgun on North Queen Street in north Belfast.
In the early hours of the Orange Order parade, rioters pelted police in two nationalist areas, New Lodge in the north and Broadway in west Belfast. The Continuity IRA was blamed for orchestrating both riots. By the night, violence had spread to other areas in Belfast. In Ardoyne, police were attacked by petrol bombs whilst 70 baton rounds were fired back, injuring two people. One policewoman was seriously injured in Crumlin Road by a lump of concrete thrown at her from a roof. In Ormeau Road, a car was set alight and police were attacked. Disturbances also happened around Short Strand and at Botanic railway station. In west Belfast, a bus driver was forced to drive to Woodbourne police station by two masked men claiming a bomb was on the upper deck - this late turned out to be a hoax.
In County Armagh, a train heading for Dublin was stopped near Lurgan when youth attempted to fire gasoline bombs and hijack the train. The passengers were safely escorted and unhurt. Police were attacked by petrol bombs in the town, whilst a car was set alight in Armagh. In Derry, in the Bogside, a police vehicle was set alight and another was shot five times by a masked gunmen, although nobody was injured. 40 to 60 petrol bombs were thrown in some of the "worst" violence in a decade in the city.
On 14 July petrol bombs were thrown at police and a car set alight in north Belfast, although the riot was not as big as the previous nights.
Sinn Féin blamed dissidents from the Continuity IRA for the violence. British Prime Minister David Cameron called the rioters' actions "totally unacceptable" and praised the "brave" police. The PSNI said the riots will cost the force "millions of pounds". The assistant chief constable said children as young as 10 were involved in the violence. |
30406724 | 2010–2012 Algerian protests | 2011-01-10 17:27:08+00:00 | The 2010–2012 Algerian protests were a series of protests taking place throughout Algeria, lasting from 28 December 2010 to 10 January 2012. The protests had been inspired by similar protests across the Middle East and North Africa. Causes cited by the protesters included unemployment, the lack of housing, food-price inflation, corruption, restrictions on freedom of speech and poor living conditions. While localized protests were already commonplace over previous years, extending into December 2010, an unprecedented wave of simultaneous protests and riots, sparked by sudden rises in staple food prices, erupted all over the country starting in January 2011. These were quelled by government measures to lower food prices, but were followed by a wave of self-immolations, most of them in front of government buildings. Opposition parties, unions, and human rights organisations then began to hold weekly demonstrations, despite these being illegal without government permission under the ongoing state of emergency; the government suppressed these demonstrations as far as possible, but in late February yielded to pressure and lifted the state of emergency. Meanwhile, protests by unemployed youth, typically citing unemployment, hogra (oppression), and infrastructure problems, resumed, occurring almost daily in towns scattered all over the country.
After the riots of 1988, the Algerian government had moved towards democracy, holding free elections. However, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the
first free parliamentary election in 1991, the military staged a coup d'état, voided the election results, declared a state of emergency which remained in force until 2011, and arrested the FIS leadership. This led to the founding of the Armed Islamic Groups (GIA) and the ten-year Algerian Civil War, in which an estimated 250,000 people were killed.
With the unchallenged election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president in 1999, civilian government was nominally restored. Violence died down as both guerrillas and soldiers were given immunity for their previous acts under the controversial Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. Towards the end of his second term, Bouteflika amended the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term in 2009; to no one's surprise, he won the ensuing election, with, according to the opposition and the US Embassy, a very low turnout.
Seventy percent of Algeria's population is less than 30 years old. Consequent high levels of youth unemployment, coupled with corruption and widespread poverty, are seen as reasons for dissatisfaction.
The leader of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, Saïd Sadi, claimed that during 2010, there were "9,700 riots and unrests" in Algeria. Some protests were about issues such as education and health care, as well as rampant corruption.
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On 29 December 2010, clashes with police were reported in Algiers during protests about the lack of housing. At least 53 people were reported to have been injured and another 29 were arrested.
In 2011, prices of basic foodstuffs rose significantly in Algeria, in line with global trends but also reflecting newly imposed regulations. Unprecedented protests in neighbouring Tunisia over unemployment were already being reported, contributing to the mood.
Between 3 and 10 January, riots and protests broke out across most Algerian towns, triggered by large increases in the prices of basic foods including oil, sugar, and flour. While localised riots have been a frequent occurrence in Algeria since 2005, this set of riots was the first to spread across most regions of the country simultaneously rather than being confined to a particular area. By 10 January they were limited to a few towns, but continued in those towns. More organised efforts to demonstrate on 11 January in Algiers were suppressed vigorously by the police.
Protests against the price increases started on 3 January, with protest in the Ras El Ain quarter of Oran, and in Fouka and Staoueli near Algiers. On 4 January they were repeated in Staoueli and spread to other areas near the capital, with impromptu roadblocks at Douaouda in Tipasa. and Kolea
On 5 January, major riots broke out in several areas at once: in the Bab El Oued neighbourhood of the capital, Algiers, and nearby suburbs, as well as Algeria's second city, Oran, and other towns including Djelfa, Boumerdes, Annaba, and Tipaza. The young men rioting blocked roads, burned tires, and sacked government buildings, protesting the sudden increase in the cost of living, the demolition of shantytowns, and broader issues such as unemployment. They were met by anti-riot forces, who attempted to disperse the crowds. In Bab El Oued, shops and car showrooms were also targeted.
Former Islamic Salvation Front number two Ali Belhadj went to Bab El Oued to see the events and encourage the youths; he was arrested later that day, as were many other protesters and rioters.
Within days the riots spread to twenty-odd wilayahs, covering almost the whole of the north including the Kabylie region, as well as some towns in the Sahara, such as Ouargla and Bechar. Government buildings, particularly town halls, were widely targeted, and shops in some areas were looted or burned; some of the looters carried swords. Football matches scheduled for 7 and 8 January were cancelled.
On 8 January, the government agreed to a temporary cut in taxes and duties on sugar and cooking oil. Facebook and Twitter access were also restricted in some areas. The rioting continued, at least up to 10 January in some places, such as the Bachdjarrah neighbourood in Algiers. By 11 January, the situation had calmed. An attempt to demonstrate on 11 January in Algiers, organised in advance by the intercommunal committee of Ain Benian and Staoueli, was repressed vigorously by the police. In total, three demonstrators died, more than 800 people had been wounded, and at least 1,100 were arrested, many of them minors.
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While riots on this scale are unprecedented since the 1991 election, their wider political implications are not yet clear. The rioters had no collective ties to any Algerian political party, organisation, or trade union, and some sources commented that they seemed to have no political slogans. Some opposition groups emphasised the riots' political dimension; ex-diplomat and opposition spokesperson Mohamed Larbi Zitout described them as "a revolt, and probably a revolution, of an oppressed people", while the Socialist Forces Front responded to the government's lowering of food prices on 8 January with the slogan "The government cannot buy Algerians' silence". Agence France-Presse (AFP) has linked the January protests with events in Tunisia, stating, "In Tunisia, similar unrest sparked the overthrow of the government of Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, whose 23 years in power ended with his flight to Saudi Arabia last Friday. Algerian commentators have said that more Tunisia-style protests could break out in Algeria." Despite their scale, the riots were dealt with by the government in much the same way as the localised riots that had already become a routine way of communicating grievances: it sought to avoid creating martyrs and made a specific concession (in this case, a return to the status quo ante of allowing un-declared food sales by Cevital) not seen as threatening the overall system.
As the widely reported protests sparked off by Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia began to have a clear impact on the Tunisian government, a wave of self-immolations swept Algeria. These individual acts of protest mostly took place in front of a government building following an unsuccessful approach to the authorities. Four self-immolators have died of their burns so far.
It began on 12 January, when 26-year-old Mohamed Aouichia set himself on fire in Bordj Menaiel in the compound of the daira building. He had been sharing a room of 30 square metres with seven other people, including his sister, since 2003; he had repeatedly approached local authorities to get on the social housing list and been rebuffed. He has so far survived.
On 13 January, Mohsen Bouterfif, a 37-year-old father of two, set himself on fire. He had gone with about twenty other youths to protest in front of the town hall of Boukhadra in Tebessa demanding jobs and houses, after the mayor refused to receive them. According to one testimony, the mayor shouted to them: "If you have courage, do like Bouazizi did, set yourself on fire!" His death was reported on 16 January, and about 100 youths protested his death causing the provincial governor to sack the mayor. However, hospital staff the following day claimed he was still alive, though in critical condition. Al Jazeera described the suicide as "echoing the self-immolation that triggered the protests that toppled the leader of neighbouring Tunisia." He finally died on 24 January at a hospital in Annaba.
These suicides were followed by dozens more attempted or successful self-immolations across the country, so far without triggering nationwide demonstrations, most of them after the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country on 14 January.
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A number of left-wing opposition parties, including the FFS, RCD, PLJ, and the Communist MDS, as well as the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) and officially unrecognised unions, such as SATEF and SNAPAP, met on 20 January to discuss responses to the situation. On 21 January, several of them (excluding the FFS) formed the Coordination Nationale pour le Changement et la Démocratie (National Coordination for Change and Democracy), seeking systemic change within the country and calling (along with Rachad) for nationwide marches, starting 9 February. The Interior Minister, Ould Kablia, responded that "No march would be authorised by the authorities in Algiers... Marches are forbidden in Algiers."
Meanwhile, the mainly Kabyle-based secularist RCD party had announced plans for a march for democracy to be held on Saturday 22 January, despite being refused permission by the government under the state of emergency. Prior to the March, RCD leader Saïd Sadi linked the planned march to the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests, stating, "If the opposition does not mobilise the crowds, we believe that we will have more devastating events than what happened in Tunisia. The anger here is bigger than (it was) in Tunisia." He also called for the 1992 state of emergency to be lifted and for the army to withdraw from politics, stating, "The army should no longer be a decision maker, it has to become a state institution." The march attracted about 300 people, and was broken up by the police; 42 people (according to the RCD) or 19 (according to the Interior Ministry) were injured, and 9, including the head of the party's parliamentary group Othman Amazouz, were arrested, to be released later the same day. Some demonstrators waved the Tunisian flag, alluding to the protests which had brought down Ben Ali. Would-be demonstrators coming from Tizi Ouzou were prevented from reaching the scene by the police. On 22 January, 20,000 police officers stopped all protests. In the ensuing clash five people were killed and more than 800 others hurt.
On 23 January, the FFS and LADDH jointly issued a demand for the release of the demonstrators arrested in early January, in Tizi-Ouzou and elsewhere; students of Tizi-Ouzou announced plans for a march on 1 February demanding their release and economic development for Kabylie.
On 29 January, the RCD organised a march of over ten thousand people (according to the organisers) in the city of Bejaia, to demand more freedom and democracy.
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Protests continued on 3 February. On the same day President Abdelaziz Bouteflika signaled at a meeting with government ministers his intention to lift the 19-year-old state of emergency in the "very near future", in what was seen as an attempt to quell opposition demands. Reportedly, he also urged the cabinet to adopt measures to promote job creation and said Algeria's TV and radio should give airtime to all political parties. On 4 February, Al Jazeera reported that demonstrations were planned for 12 February.
While Bouteflika was said to be working to counter the planned demonstration, on 8 February university students commenced an "indefinite strike" in protest against the "poor quality of teaching." On the same day, an indefinite strike was also launched by professional paramedics after a call by the trade union SAP. However, it was reported to have been observed in only 22 of the country's 48 provinces.
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The day after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, the protest gained new currency. The protests were organised by the nascent National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy, an umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society groups and unofficial unions. The police blocked all entry points into Algiers and put in a security cordon around May First Square in central Algiers. All opposition rallies were banned by the government, though at least 2,000 protesters forced their way through the security cordon around the Square to join other demonstrators. Though minor protests occurred earlier in the day, most protesters came out after noon; several thousand protestors clashed with about 30,000 police at May First Square in central Algiers. Protesters chanted "Djazair Horra Dimocratia," ("A free and democratic Algeria") "système dégage" ("government out") and "Yesterday Egypt, today Algeria."
Police fired tear gas on the protesters and arrested hundreds to possibly more than a 10,000 people, including human rights activists and trade union members. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights said that up to 28,000 police officers were deployed in Algiers. Many people, including a member of the People's National Assembly, Boubkeur Derguini of the RCD, were injured.
Protesters had hoped to stay the night at the main square. At almost 19:30, Thomson Reuters reported hundreds of people were leaving the demonstrations after about three hours and that the police opened their cordon to let them pass. It also said that about 200 young men from a poor neighbourhood stayed on and that some of them threw objects at the police.
Protests were also reported in Constantine, Annaba, and Oran. There were reports of internet services like Twitter, Facebook and the wider internet to have been disrupted or shut down, however, Renesys denied this had taken place.
Saïd Sadi of the RCD interpreted the large number of police as government weakness, stating, "When you mobilize 30,000 police in the capital, that's a sign of weakness, not strength." He also said that police charged at protesters and arrested 10 people outside the party offices as they celebrated Mubarak's resignation. He added that 90-year-old human rights activist Ali Yahia Abdelnour was "manhandled by the police" and that the protesters were not "an organised demonstration. It was spontaneous. It was an explosion of joy."
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On 13 February, following a suggestion by Ali Yahia Abdennour of the LADDH, the CNCD called for protests to continue every Saturday in the same square in Algiers, a call confirmed by RCD spokesman Mohsen Belabbes; Ali Yahia Abdennour said that "we will gather momentum as we progress we want our dignity back, yesterday the police has brutally beaten many protesters amongst them a pregnant women, old ladies, a journalist, young men and women, we should carry on protesting until we get our rights." The next day the activist blogger Hchicha called for alternative marches on Friday as well, meant to attract people wanting a change of system but distrusting the political parties involved in the CNCD. Elias Filali reported that police had used tear gas to disperse protesters and to evict families who had occupied newly constructed homes overnight in Algiers.
On 14 February, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said the state of emergency would be lifted "within days." Two days later, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia announced the state of emergency would be lifted by the end of February.
Former FLN leader Abdelhamid Mehri called for true democracy, saying the current regime was incapable of solving the country's problems.
On 18 February, a date for which a Facebook group had called for protests, police with water cannons were deployed in the main crossroads of Algiers.
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Thousands turned out in Algiers for protests but were unable to take control of the main square.
The government officially announces the end of the emergency rule. The country's council of ministers adopted a law revoking the 1993 decree that prolonged a state of emergency originally instituted the previous year, stating that the "law will come into effect as soon as its imminent publication in the official journal".
The state of emergency in the country was officially lifted after being published in the country's official journal, responding to one of the main demands of the protesters. The move legalizes protests outside the capital of Algiers, as long as the government is notified of planned demonstrations at least three days in advance. According to the country's interior minister, Dahou Ould Kabila, protests are still banned within Algiers because of security concerns; he said that "Algiers is targeted by leaders of terrorist groups [because] it gives them media impact.
The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, a leader of the protests, said it was a "ruse aimed at fooling international opinion at a time when Arab regimes are under pressure."
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Protests continue throughout Algiers, although it is reported that the government has been keeping the country stable, although this momentary peace is expected to end soon.
On 5 March, protests organised by the National Co-ordination for Democracy and Change in Algiers were violently suppressed while in al-Madania neighbourhood of Algiers, a group of youths, wearing banners supporting Abdelaziz Bouteflika, tried to lynch opposition leader Said Sadi, the president of the Rally for Culture and Democracy. Meanwhile, Algeria's oldest opposition party, Socialist Forces Front, has urged Algerians to engage in a "peaceful struggle" for change in the nation.
On 7 March, thousands of community police rallied in the capital Algiers despite a protest ban in the city, accusing the government of ingratitude, and insisting thousands of their colleagues have been killed or injured fighting Islamist violence. Demanding better pay and pensions, they got all the way to the Parliament building.
In Algiers, small group of around 150 or so threw Molotov cocktails at much larger crowd of police.
On 23 March, police in the Algiers suburb of Oued Koriche used tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a crowd of young men who threw stones and Molotov cocktails trying to stop bulldozers from demolishing dozens of illegally built homes. Five police officers were injured in the rioting, during which rioters threw bricks down on police from nearby rooftop and set fire to a car.
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On 15 April, in a long-awaited televised address, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he would seek constitutional amendments that would "reinforce representative democracy" and be submitted to parliament or to a referendum. He also proposed changes to laws on elections, the media or political parties.
On 11 May, 1,500 Doctors attempted to march towards government buildings but were prevented by anti-riot police.
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In late February 2012, Algeria's major Islamist parties announced a coalition ahead of parliamentary elections. A leader of the Movement of Society for Peace called for more opposition parties to join the alliance "to give the best possible chance for the Arab Spring to happen in Algeria as well".
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The opposition group Rachad uploaded film of a non-violent demonstration of "more than 1000 people" demanding housing in the Said Hamdine neighbourhood of Algiers on 20 January, not widely reported.
On 24 January, more than 500 people demonstrated in front of the daira building of Khemis El Khechna, demanding water and gas connection and better housing for their nearby hometowns, Chebacheb and El Kerma. In Tizi Ouzou the same day, parents of youths detained in the protests of early January staged a sit-in in front of the wilaya seat building, demanding the release of their children, who were provisionally released the next day.
On 25 January, the inhabitants of El Djezzar in Batna occupied their town hall, demanding a better road to their village. On the same day, about a hundred inhabitants of Boutaleb near Chekfa blocked the main road, demanding gas and sewage connection for their town and better side roads.
On 27 January, hundreds of inhabitants of Choukrane near Bouira closed the nearby national road (RN 29), demanding gas, water, a sewage system, and public lighting, as well as speed bumps to reduce traffic fatalities. On the same day, dozens of unemployed youths blocked RN 12 in Naciria near Boumerdes using burning tyres and other objects, demanding jobs.
On 30 January, unemployed youths closed the APC seat of Belaas in Ain Defla, demanding jobs (according to the mayor), as well as better water and road management. On the same day, 600 factory workers demonstrated in front of the wilaya seat in Bouira, demanding to be re-hired by ENAD. Also on the same day, unemployed youths in the wilaya of Ouargla demonstrated in Touggourt against the head of the local employment bureau, accused of favouritism.
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On 1 February, the people of Raffour in M'chedallah near Bouira blocked national route 26 with burning tyres, demanding public lighting, a sewage system, and town planning.
On the same day, the population of Tazgait in Mostaghanem closed their town hall, demanding that the mayor leave office for failing to do enough about the region's underdevelopment.
On 7 February, youths at Toumiate in El Harrouch near Skikda blocked the national highway RN 3, and were attacked by riot police using tear gas. On 8 February, youths in Sidi Amar near Annaba demonstrated to demand jobs, blocking the road and burning tyres.
From 6 to 9 February, protesters closed the national highway RN 26 at El Kseur near Bejaia, demanding their jobs back or better compensation after the EPBTP milk factory where they were employed made them redundant.
On 8 and 9 February, youths in Naciria and Bordj-Menaiel attacked ANEM offices, confronted police, and closed the national highway RN 12, protesting unemployment and unfulfilled government promises of jobs.
On 13 February, a crowd of youths gathered in front of the Annaba wilaya office demanding the 7000 jobs they had previously been promised, and greeted the governor with stone-throwing when he came out. One attempted to commit suicide, but was dissuaded by his brother.
On 14 February, hundreds of youths protested over unemployment in Akbou; about 30 were hurt in clashes with the police.
On 16 February, youths in Tadmait (Tizi-Ouzou) went out on the streets demanding jobs, blocking the roads (including RN 12) with burning tires and damaging the APC office. Five of them were arrested after confrontations with anti-riot police.
Also on 16 February, about 80 unemployed youths occupied the daira offices in Hassi-Messaoud in protest against poverty and "hogra" (oppression) in the region that provides most of the country's oil income, and were dislodged by promises of jobs next week after hundreds of police and gendarmes gathered. On 17 February, about 500 youths demonstrated in front of the same daira office. Another 100 unemployed youths demonstrated in nearby Touggourt, in front of the local office of the National Employment Agency.
On 17 February, the Annaba wilaya offices were again targeted by demonstrators demanding jobs.
On 21 February, hundreds of students protesting in front of the Ministry of Higher Education against the new LMD system were dispersed forcibly by police. In Ammal (Boumerdes), demonstrators closed the local APC offices, demanding better housing.
On 23 February, villagers from nearby Imaghzarene closed the daira offices of Draa El Mizan, demanding paving, public lighting, gas, more housing, and a clinic for their town. At Ammi Moussa (Relizane) dozens of youths gathered to blockade the town hall, demanding that the president and secretary-general of the APC resign.
On the same day, doctors in the Sidi Bel Abbes maternity ward staged a sit-in in protest against the lack of pharmaceutical supplies, which they said was preventing them from carrying out operations. Bouzareah university students announced a strike demanding greater security at the university after a woman student was attacked by unknown assailants, who slashed her face, on campus grounds.
On 24 February, unemployed youths gathered in front of the mayoralty of Sidi Lakhdar near Mostaganem, after blocking the road (RN11) the previous day; they left when the mayor promised to review the housing lists. In Djelida (Ain Defla), the same day, about 500 people closed the APC offices, demanding jobs and protesting at the allocation of 117 new jobs to people from outside the region.
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On 10 January, Algerians protested in Laghouat over housing, infrastructure, and treatment of the elderly by police. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
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After security forces question three youths who were eating lunch in the Kabylie region during Ramadan, about 300 others joined a protest lunch against the mandatory nature of fasting during the month. The head of the Kabylie Autonomy Movement Bouaziz Ait Chebib said: "We called this gathering to denounce the inquisition and persecution of citizens who, because of their beliefs, refuse to observe the fast."
Domestic
In reaction to the protests of early January, starting 8 January the government decreased the prices of essential foods. Over following weeks it increased wheat supplies.
On 3 February Bouteflika announced plans to lift the emergency law, which prohibits protests without a permit, and substitute for it new anti-terrorism laws, but said that protests would remain illegal in Algiers in any case "for well-known reasons of public order". He also announced new measures to create jobs and that state-run television and radio should be open to all political parties. On 14 February, his foreign minister Mourad Medelci repeated the promise to end the state of emergency law, saying it would happen by the end of the month. on 22 February the cabinet voted to lift the emergency law. It also voted on a measure to alleviate unemployment.
In efforts to discourage the protests organised by the CNCD, the authorities played up the role of the RCD, a mainly Kabyle party unpopular elsewhere in the country, within them; while this tactic had some success, it did not stop demonstrators from turning out in some non-Kabyle cities.
International
European Union – President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said that he "call[ed] upon the Algerian authorities to refrain from violence and respect their citizens' right to peaceful demonstration. Any and all demonstrators arrested should be released immediately. The continuing state of emergency is unjustifiable and clearly hampers Algeria's prospects for the fair, peaceful and sustainable development of the country. It is but a first step in responding to the legitimate democratic aspirations of the Algerian people, but even this step has yet to materialise. Opposition groups, civil society, and especially young people should have the right to freely express their criticism of the government. No government can ignore the call of its people."
France – Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said regarding the demonstrations that "What is important in our eyes us is that freedom of expression is respected and that the demonstrations are able to take place freely and without violence", and welcomed the planned end to the State of Emergency.
Germany – Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany was "on the side of democrats. The German government calls on the Algerian government to renounce all recourse to violence. These are demonstrators who want freedom, who are doing nothing more than exercising a human right, to know the right to defend with dignity their point of view. As democrats we are on the side of democrats. I have already said that about Tunisia and Egypt. I say it again now in allusion to other countries."
United States – Department of State spokesman PJ Crowley said that "We note the ongoing protests in Algeria, and call for restraint on the part of the security services. In addition, we reaffirm our support for the universal rights of the Algerian people, including assembly and expression. These rights apply on the internet. Moreover, these rights must be respected. We will continue to follow the situation closely in the days ahead."
Other
Regional financial stock market indices fell on 20 February on concern of spreading instability.
NGOs
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb voiced support for the demonstrators against both the Tunisian and Algerian governments in a video released on 13 January 2011. AQIM leader Abu Musab Abdul Wadud offered military aid and training to the demonstrators.
Amnesty International issued a statement that read: "Algerians must be allowed to express themselves freely and hold peaceful protests in Algiers and elsewhere. We urge the Algerian authorities not to respond to these demands by using excessive force."
On 21 January, the international group Anonymous declared a cyber-war on the Algerian state on the grounds of censorship, following previous efforts in Tunisia. The next day they brought down the pro-government RND party website, having previously brought down the sites of the Ministry of the Interior and the national TV station. |
27868562 | 2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline | 2010-06-27 17:12:36+00:00 | From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis in some European states developed, with the situation becoming particularly tense in early 2010. Greece was most acutely affected, but fellow Eurozone members Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were also significantly affected. In the EU, especially in countries where sovereign debt has increased sharply due to bank bailouts, a crisis of confidence has emerged with the widening of bond yield spreads and risk insurance on credit default swaps between these countries and other EU members, most importantly Germany.
This was the first Eurozone crisis since its creation in 1999. As Samuel Brittan pointed out, Jason Manolopoulos "shows conclusively that the Eurozone is far from an optimum currency area". Niall Ferguson also wrote in 2010 that "the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding... is a fiscal crisis of the western world". Axel Merk argued in a May 2011 Financial Times article that the dollar was in graver danger than the euro.
Concern about rising government deficits and debt levels across the globe together with a wave of downgrading of European government debt created alarm in financial markets. The debt crisis is mostly centred on events in Greece, where the cost of financing government debt has risen. On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund agreed to a €110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures. On 9 May 2010, Europe's Finance Ministers approved a comprehensive rescue package worth €750 billion (then almost a trillion dollars) aimed at ensuring financial stability across Europe by creating the European Financial Stability Facility. The Greek bail-out was followed by an €85 billion rescue package for Ireland in November, and a €78 billion bail-out for Portugal in May 2011.
While the sovereign debt increases have been most pronounced in only a few Eurozone countries they have become a perceived problem for the area as a whole. In May 2011, the crisis resurfaced, concerning mostly the refinancing of Greek public debt. The Greek people generally rejected the austerity measures and have expressed their dissatisfaction with protests. In late June 2011, the crisis situation was again brought under control with the Greek government managing to pass a package of new austerity measures and EU leaders pledging funds to support the country. In May 2012 the crisis escalated to new levels following the national Greek legislative election, May 2012. Greek parties failed to form a coalition Government following the election and there was widespread speculation of Greece exiting the Eurozone, termed a "Grexit".
Below is a brief summary of some of the main events since the Greek government debt crisis.
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October – A new Greek government led by Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) was formed after the party received 43.92% of the popular vote and 160 of 300 parliamentary seats in the Greek legislative election, 2009.
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14 January – Greece unveiled its Stability and Growth Programme which aimed to cut deficit from 12.7% in 2009 to 2.8% in 2012.
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2 February – The Greek Government extended public sector wage freeze to those earning less than €2,000 a month.
3 February – The EU Commission backed Greece's Stability and Growth Programme and urged it to cut its overall wage bill.
10 February – Thousands of Greek civil servants staged a 24-hour strike shutting schools and grounding flights as the government planned to freeze pay and pensions.
24 February – One-day general strike against the austerity measures halted public services and transport system.
25 February – EU mission in Athens with International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts delivered a grim assessment of the country's finances.
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5 March – New Greek public sector wage cuts and tax increases were passed to generate an estimated saving of €4.8 billion. Measures include increasing value-added tax by 2% to 21%, cutting public sector salary bonuses by 30%, increases in fuel, tobacco and alcohol consumption taxes and freezing state-funded pensions in 2010.
11 March – Greek public and private sector workers strike.
15 March – European Monetary Union (EMU) finance ministers agree on a mechanism to help Greece but reveal no details.
18 March – Papandreou warns Greece will not be able to cut deficit if borrowing costs remain as high as they are and may have to go to the IMF.
19 March – European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso urges EU member states to agree a standby aid package for Greece. Barroso says the EMU countries should be on stand by to make bilateral loans.
25 March – European Central Bank (ECB) President, Jean-Claude Trichet says his bank will extend softer rules on collateral (accepting BBB? instead of the standard A−) for longer (up to 2011) in order to avoid a situation where one ratings agency (Moody's) basically decides if an EMU country's bonds are eligible for use as ECB collateral.
March – €5 billion in 10-year Greek bonds sold – orders for three times that amount are received.
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9 April – Government of Greece announces that the deficit for the first trimester was reduced by 39,2%.
11 April – EMU leaders agree bailout plan for Greece. Terms are announced for €30 billion of bilateral loans (roughly 5% for a three-year loan). EMU |countries will participate in the amount based on their ECB country keys. Rates for variable rate loans will be 3m-Euribor plus 300 basis points (bp) + 100 bp for over three-year loans plus a one-off 50 bp charge for operating expenses. For fixed rate loans rates will be swap rate for the loan's maturity, plus the 300 bp (as in variable) plus the 100 bp for loans over three years plus the 50 bp charge.
13 April – ECB voices its support for the rescue plan.
15 April – Olli Rehn says there is no possibility of a Greek default and no doubt that Germany will participate in the bailout plan. In the meantime there had been serious objections from parts of German society to the country's participation in the Greek bailout.
23 April – Greece officially asks for the disbursement of money from the aid package effectively activating it.
27 April:
Standard and Poor's downgrades Greece's debt ratings below investment grade to junk bond status.
S&P downgrades Portuguese debt two notches and issues negative outlook, warning that further downgrades to junk status are likely. Stock indices around the world drop two to six per cent on the news.
28 April – S&P downgrades Spanish bonds from AA to AA−.
April – Sale of more than €1.5 billion Greek Treasury bills met with "stronger-than-expected" demand, albeit at a high interest rate.
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1 May – Protests, yearly taking place for the day, this year add "the proposed austerity measures", in Athens.
2 May – Greece announces the latest, fourth, raft of austerity measures.
3 May – The ECB announces that it will accept Greek Government bonds as collateral no matter what their rating is. This effectively means scrapping the BBB-floor in the case of Greece and increasing the likelihood of similar announcements in case other countries run the risk of being downgraded to junk status.
4 May – First day of strikes against the austerity measures. Global stock markets react negatively to fears of contagion.
5 May – General nationwide strike and demonstrations in two major cities in Greece turned violent. Three people were killed when a group of masked people threw petrol bombs in a Marfin Egnatia Bank branch on Stadiou street.
6 May – Concerns about the ability of the Eurozone to deal with a spreading crisis effectively caused a severe market sell off, particularly in the United States where electronic trading glitches combined with a high volume sell off produced a nearly 1,000-point intra-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, before it recovered somewhat to close down 347.
7 May – Volatility continued to accelerate with an increasing CBOE VIX index and a major widening in currency spreads, particularly dollar-yen and dollar-euro.
8 May – Leaders of the Eurozone countries resolved in Brussels to take drastic action to protect the euro from further market turmoil after approving a $100 billion bailout plan for Greece.
10 May: In the context of the Securities Markets Programme (SMP), ECB as well as the central banks of the Eurosystem started purchasing securities.
20 May – Fourth strike in Greece against wage cuts.
24 May – Greek government is announcing deficit reduction by 41.5% for the first four months.
27 May – Debate rages in UK House of Commons about the prospect of Great Britain entering a similar financial crisis. These exchanges become known as The Greek Defence.
29 May – Fitch downgrades Government of Spain bonds one notch from AAA to AA+.
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4 June – The Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán's spokesman said it was not an exaggeration that the prospect of a national default is very real, although Moody's still affirmed that Hungary had a good record of paying its obligations. The Euro fell to a four-year low and major American markets fell more than 3%.
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5 July – The central Bank of Greece announced a reduction of central government cash deficit by 41.8%, for the first half-year 2010.
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5 September – Spreads on longer-term Greek government debt have surged back to crisis levels of about 800 basis points, implying a high risk of default.
7 September – Finance Ministers of the EU countries approve the second of the bailout installments for Greece (€6.5 billion).
11 September – The IMF also approves the second installment of their bailout package for Greece (€2.57 billion).
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31 October – Angela Merkel's coalition, trailing in the German polls and with lander elections due in 2011, backs proposals to make bondholders pay for any future euro-area crises.
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13 November – The potential for loss in value of government bonds or an interest holiday triggers selling of Irish debt. The 10-year Irish government bond premium surged to a record 652 basis points premium against the German bond.
16 November – Ireland started talks with the EU over a bailout. The move prompted further worry that Greece and Portugal were also in poor fiscal shape. The move follows previous denials that Ireland would need external help to alleviate its debt burden.
21 November – Ireland controversially accept an EU-IMF multibillion-euro package to help alleviate its debt burden.
22 November – Following the withdrawal of the Irish Green Party from the governing coalition, a new election is called.
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January 2011 – Fitch becomes the third rating agency to cut Greek debt to "junk" status after S&P and Moody's.
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2 May – Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou again rules out a debt restructuring, adding that he has just "expressed the hope" that the EU and IMF will agree to extend bailout loan repayments.
21 May – Mr Papandreou and senior ECB officials say Greece must avoid debt restructuring and push on with budget cuts and privatisations to overcome its debt crisis.
23 May – Greece unveils a series of privatisations, part of a goal to raise €50 billion by 2015 to pay down its debt mountain.
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1 June – The Greek government criticised Moody's decision to cut its credit rating to Caa1, which brought it seven notches into junk territory, saying the move did not take into account the country's effort to tidy up the country's finances.
4 June – Greece hit by further protests in central Athens, as PM Papandreou agreed to make "significant" cuts in public sector employment.
9 June – In an open letter to European and international authorities, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that "Any additional financial support for Greece has to involve a fair burden sharing between taxpayers and private investors."
11 June – Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurozone finance ministers, backed Germany's proposal for a "soft restructuring" of Greek debt, but said any contribution from private sector creditors should be "voluntary".
15 June – Waiting from both markets and the Greek population turned violent. The failure of European leaders to resolve their disagreements over the Greek debt crisis combined to rattle credit markets.
17 June – The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel agreed to a voluntary Greece bondholder role, backing down from earlier demands that bondholders be forced to shoulder a "substantial" share of a Greek rescue.
18 June – Angela Merkel changes her position and confirms she will work with the European Central Bank to resolve the Mediterranean nation's sovereign debt crisis.
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21 July – The Council of the European Union reached an agreement on measures aimed at solving the Greek debt crisis.
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?? – significant purchases of Eurozone sovereign bonds restart under ECB's SMP programme. Spanish and Italian yields breach 6%.
18 August – The European stock markets suffered further heavy falls due to persistent fears about the world economic outlook.
24 August – The French government unveiled a €12 billion deficit cutting package that raised taxes on the rich and closed some tax loopholes.
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13 September – An international alarm over a Eurozone crisis grows.
21 September – S&P have downgraded seven Italian banks after they've dropped Italy's sovereign rating two days ago.
22 September – Greeks reacted with anger and disbelief at a new wave of austerity cuts enacted to keep the country in the Eurozone.
24 September – The IMF urged EU leaders to act decisively on Greece to stem the debt crisis.
26 September – The US president, Barack Obama, says the debt crisis in Europe is "scaring the world" and that leaders in the Eurozone are not dealing with the issue quickly enough.
29 September – The Bundestag approved expanded EU bailout fund, reducing market concerns.
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4 October – European shares declined for a second day on fears that Franco-Belgian bank Dexia may need to be rescued due to its exposure to Greek debt. Concern increased that the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis is spreading to the banking sector.
7 October – Credit ratings agency Fitch cut Italy's credit rating by one notch to A+ from AA− and cut Spain's rating to AA− from AA+.
9 October – British PM David Cameron exhorted EU leaders to act more quickly as French and German leaders promised new crisis plan as pressure builds.
10 October – Belgium nationalised Dexia Bank Belgium, stricken with Greek debt.
13 October – S&P cut Spain's long-term credit rating by one notch from AA to AA− with a negative outlook.
28 October:
The German government found itself €55 billion richer after a discovery of an accounting error at Hypo Real Estate, the troubled bank it nationalised in 2009.
The head of the Eurozone's bailout fund has begun attempts to persuade the People's Republic of China to invest in a scheme to help rescue member countries facing debt crises.
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1 November – The Greek PM Papandreou has announced a referendum on the new Eurozone debt deal which shocked European markets and had thrown the future of the euro back into disarray.
3 November – Prime Minister Papandreouthe withdraws from promised Greek referendum on the bailout package amid heavy pressure from Germany and France.
8 November – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that he will resign of his office after budget reforms were passed, while Italy's cost of borrowing had hit record levels on bond markets.
11 November – Italian 10-year borrowing costs fall sharply from 7.5 to 6.7% after Italian legislature approves further austerity measures and the formation of an emergency government to replace that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
13 November – Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy as a result of the country's debt crisis.
15 November – The Lisbon Council publishes the Euro Plus Monitor 2011, which attests the most critical eurozone member countries Greece, Ireland and Spain to be in the process of rapid reforms.
21 November – The European Commission suggests "stability bonds" (eurobonds) issued jointly by the 17 euro nations would be an effective way to tackle the financial crisis.
25 November – Standard and Poor's downgrades Belgium's long-term sovereign credit rating from AA+ to AA, and 10-year bond yields reach 5.66%.
30 November – The European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve Federal Reserve, the central banks of Canada, Japan, Britain and the Swiss National Bank provide global financial markets with additional liquidity to ward off the debt crisis and to support the real economy. The central banks agree to provide each other with abundant liquidity to make sure that commercial banks stay liquid in other currencies.
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2 December – Belgian negotiating parties reach an agreement to form a new government. The deal includes spending cuts and tax rises worth about €11 billion, which should bring the budget deficit down to 2.8% of GDP by 2012, and to balance the books in 2015. Following the announcement Belgium 10-year bond yields fell sharply to 4.6%.
5 December – The central banks agree to lower the cost of dollar currency swaps by 50 basis points.
7 December – The new interim national union government led by Lucas Papademos submits its plans for the 2012 budget, promising to cut its deficit from 9% of GDP 2011 to 5.4% in 2012, mostly due to the write-off of debt held by banks.
8 December – Fitch cuts Greece's rating to BBB+ from A−, with a negative outlook.
9 December – All 17 members of the eurozone and six countries that aspire to join agree at the European Council meeting on a new intergovernmental treaty to put strict caps on government spending and borrowing, with penalties for those countries who violate the limits. All other non-eurozone countries except Great Britain are also prepared to join in, subject to parliamentary vote.
14 December – Greek PM Papandreou outlines the first round of policies to cut deficit and regain investor trust.
22 December – Portugal reports its estimated budget deficit of 4.5% in 2011 will be substantially lower than expected and it will meet its 2012 target already a year earlier due to a one-off transfer of pension funds. Moody's cuts Greece's rating to A2 from A1. The ECB starts the biggest infusion of credit into the European banking system in the euro's 13-year history, loaning €489 billion to 523 banks for an exceptionally long period of three years at a rate of just one per cent.
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13 January – Standard & Poor's downgrades France and Austria from AAA rating, lowers Spain, Italy and five other euro members further, and maintains the top credit rating for Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
16 January – S&P downgrades the EFSF from AAA to AA+.
30 January – German consulting company Roland Berger says it has started collecting funds from financial institutions and business intelligence agencies to set up an independent non-profit ratings agency by Mid-2012, which could provide its first country ratings by the end of the year.
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21 February – The Eurogroup finalises the Second bailout package with the private holders of Greek governmental bonds accepting a slightly bigger haircut of 53.5%. EU Member States agree to an additional retroactive lowering of the bailout interest rates and pass on all central bank profits related to Greece until 2020. Altogether this should bring down Greece's debt to 120.5% by 2020.
29 February 2012 – The ECB holds a second auction, providing 800 Eurozone banks with further €529.5 billion in cheap loans.
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6 May – In Greek legislative election, May 2012 no party gains an overall majority, this worsens market falls.
13 May – Greece's President tries to form a coalition government.
18 May – German Chancellor Angela Merkel allegedly tells the Greek president to hold a referendum on euro memberships. The Bundestag denies this.
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8 May – European Central Bank cuts its bank rate to 0.50% to aid recovery. Marginal lending rate (including Emergency Liquidity Assistance rate) to 1.00%
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7 November – European Central Bank cuts its bank rate to 0.25% to aid recovery. Deposit rate stays at 0.00%.
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First foray into a negative interest rate territory. Deposit rate cut to −0.10%, main refi rate to +0.15%, marginal lending rate to 0.40%
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Deposit rate cut to −0.20%, main refi rate to +0.05%, marginal lending rate to 0.30%
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Discussions over insufficiency of ECB ABSPP and CBPP3, potential for Sov Purchases.
ECB in ECJ over legality of OMT could prevent further sovereign purchases. Greece yields hit by 75bp intraday, and largest rates move in G3 markets since 2011.
Greek government coalition weakens in opinion polls, left Syriza strengthens with knock-on effect to debt restructuring and own currency plans. |
32477075 | 2010–2012 world food price crisis | 2011-07-20 17:16:19+00:00 | Following the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and a short lull in high prices during 2009, food prices around the world again started to rise in 2010.
To reduce the volatility of food markets and increase market transparency, several measures were considered at the G20 summit in 2010. One of the outcomes was the establishment of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) in 2011.
In April 2011, the World Bank warned that the global economy was "one shock away" from an impending full-scale food price crisis. The high food prices have contributed to worldwide protests particularly in Africa. High food prices were also a major factor contributing to the Arab Spring unrest.
The deflated FAO food price index reached an all time high in 2012. As a result of a very dry summer in the United States and Europe, corn and soybean prices reached all-time highs in July 2012 and prices remained high throughout 2012
One reason for the increase in food prices may be the increase in oil prices at the same time, leading to increased demand for and production of biofuels. For example, the use of maize (corn) for ethanol fuel production rose from 15% of total U.S. maize production in 2006 to 40% in 2012.
Over the next years, prices fell, reaching a low in March 2016 with the deflated FAO food price index close to pre-crisis level of 2006. |
37361170 | 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis | 2012-10-17 22:25:00+00:00 | The 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis was part of the wider downturn of the Portuguese economy that started in 2001 and possibly ended between 2016 and 2017. The period from 2010 to 2014 was probably the hardest and more challenging part of the entire economic crisis; this period includes the 2011–14 international bailout to Portugal and was marked by intense austerity policies, more intense than the wider 2001-2017 crisis. Economic growth stalled in Portugal between 2001 and 2002, and following years of internal economic crisis, the worldwide Great Recession started to hit Portugal in 2008 and eventually led to the country being unable to repay or refinance its government debt without the assistance of third parties. To prevent an insolvency situation in the debt crisis, Portugal applied in April 2011 for bail-out programs and drew a cumulated €78 billion from the IMF, the EFSM, and the EFSF. Portugal exited the bailout in May 2014, the same year that positive economic growth re-appeared following three years of recession. The government achieved a 2.1% budget deficit in 2016 (the lowest since the restoration of democracy in 1974) and in 2017 the economy grew 2.7% (the highest growth rate since 2000).
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Unlike other European countries that were also severely hit by the Great Recession in the late 2000s and received bailouts in the early 2010s (such as Greece and Ireland), in Portugal the 2000s were not marked by economic growth, but instead were already a period of economic crisis, marked by stagnation, two recessions (in 2002–03 and 2008–09) and government-sponsored fiscal austerity in order to reduce the budget deficit to the limits allowed by the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact.
From the early 1960s to the early 2000s, Portugal endured three periods of robust economic growth and socio-economic development (approximately from 1960 to 1973, from 1985 to 1992 and from 1995 to 2001) which made the country's GDP per capita to rise from 39% of the Northern-Central European average in 1960 to 70% in 2000. Although, by 2000, Portugal was still the poorest country in Western Europe, it nevertheless had achieved a level of convergence with the developed economies in Central and Northern Europe which had no precedents in the previous centuries, a catching-up process which was expected to continue. Portugal still entered well in the 2000s, registering an almost 4% GDP growth rate in 2000, but growth slowed along 2001; that year's growth rate was 2.0% and the unexpected slowdown was one of the causes that made the government's (still led by socialist António Guterres) budget deficit to slip to 4.1%; Portugal thus became the first Eurozone country to clearly break the SGP's 3% limit for the budget deficit, and thus, it was opened an excessive deficit procedure. The 2002 snap election brought to power the Social Democrats led by José Manuel Durão Barroso; his government was marked by the introduction of harsh fiscal austerity policies and structural reforms, mainly justified by the need to reduce the budget deficit, a set of policies designed by his Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite. Portuguese economy grew a combined 0.8% in 2002, was in recession in 2003 (-0.9%) and grew 1.6% in 2004. Ferreira Leite managed to keep deficit on 2.9% both in 2003 and in 2004, but through one-off and extraordinary measures. Otherwise, the deficit would have hit the 5% mark. Meanwhile, the first half of the 2000s also saw the end of the downward trend in the government debt to GDP ratio that marked the 1990s: the ratio rose from 53% in 2000 to 62% in 2004 (the ratio overtook the SGP's arbitrary limit of 60% in 2003).
Socialist José Sócrates became Prime Minister in 2005; like his conservative predecessor, Sócrates tried to reduce the government's budget deficit through austerity and tax hikes. By then, the Portuguese economy was clearly lagging behind European partners and the 2005 budget deficit was expected to be above 6% if no extraordinary measures were used. In the Stability and Growth Programme for 2005–2009, the Sócrates' government proposed to let the budget deficit to be higher than 6% in 2005, but to structurally reduce it to below 3% until 2008, a plan which was accepted by the European authorities. A notable milepost in the crisis happened in 2005, when the Portuguese unemployment rate overtook the European average for the first time since 1986. In 2007, the government achieved a 2.6% budget deficit (one year before target), below the 3.0% limit allowed by the Stability and Growth Pact. That year, the economy grew 2.4%, the highest rate in the decade (excluding 2000). Nevertheless, also in 2007, the comparatively low growth rate made The Economist to describe Portugal as "a new sick man of Europe". From 2005 to 2007, public debt was stable at a ratio of approximately 68% of the GDP.
The Great Recession started to hit Portugal in 2008; that year the Portuguese economy did not grow (0.0%) and fell almost 3% in 2009. Meanwhile, the government reported a 2.6% budget deficit in 2008 which rose to almost 10% in 2009. Austerity was somewhat waned in 2008–2010, as part of the European economy recovery plan and the resurgence of Keynesianism (which called for anti-cyclic policies), but was resumed in May 2010. In 2010 there was economic growth (1.9%) but the financial status remained very difficult (8.6% budget deficit); the country eventually became unable to repay or refinance its government debt and requested a bailout in April 2011; in 2011 the economy fell 1.3% and the government reported a 4.2% budget deficit. Meanwhile, government debt-to-GDP ratio sharply rose from 68% in 2007 to 111% in 2011.
In the end, Portuguese economy grew less on a per capita basis in the 2000s and early 2010s than the American economy during the Great Depression or the Japanese economy during the Lost Decade. Despite government policies openly aimed to consolidate the Portuguese public finances, Portugal was almost always under excessive deficit procedure and government debt-to-GDP ratio rose from 50% in 2000 to 68% in 2007 and 126% in 2012. The causes of the stagnation are complex, as many potential causes also affect other Southern European countries and did not prevent them from growing in the 2000s, nor did prevent Portugal from growing before the early 2000s. Economist Ferreira do Amaral points to the accession to Euro in 1999–2002, which was too strong as a currency for Portugal's economy and industry and took away from the country the ability to direct its own monetary (rise or reduce interest rates) and cambial policy (currency devaluation). Vítor Bento also thinks that the belonging to a currency union created numerous challenges to which the Portuguese economy was not able to adapt. Bento also points out that Euro was the root cause for many of the internal macroeconomic disequilibria inside Eurozone – such as excessive external deficits in periphery countries (such as Portugal) and excessive external surplus in core countries – and that such disequilibria were the main cause of the 2010s European debt crisis (and were, to a great extent, more to important to explain the crisis than states' public finances). A set of economists (including former Prime Minister and eventual President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, an economically liberal scholar and politician) points to the excessive size of the Portuguese government, whose total expenditures overtook 45% of the GDP in 2005. Such hypothesis was eventually the basis for the austerity requested as conditionality for the 2011–2014 European Union/IMF bailout. For Ricardo Reis, the accession to Euro was a root cause for the 2000s crisis, but for different reasons than the ones put forward by Ferreira do Amaral: the low interest rates allowed an influx of foreign capital, which the country's weak financial system misallocated to the low-productive non-tradable sector, reducing the economy's overall productivity. Meanwhile, the Social Security system was demanding increasing public spending, and the constant tax hikes in the 2000s limited the potential for growth of the Portuguese economy. It is noteworthy that from 2000 to 2007, taxes as share of GDP increased 1.7% in Portugal but declined 0.9% in Eurozone. Another factor at the root of the stagnation may be that Portuguese economy faced increasing competition by Eastern European countries and China, which were economies also specialized in low wages and low-value-added goods. Other more structural problems identified were excessive corruption, and regulation, which makes difficult for business to get bigger and achieve economies-of-scale, as also the low educational attainment of Portuguese adults, low total factor productivity, rigid labour market laws and an inefficient and slow judicial system.
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After the financial crisis of 2007–2008, it was known in 2008–2009 that two Portuguese banks (Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) and Banco Privado Português (BPP)) had been accumulating losses for years due to bad investments, embezzlement and accounting fraud. The case of BPN was particularly serious because of its size, market share, and the political implications - Portugal's then current President, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and some of his political allies, maintained personal and business relationships with the bank and its CEO, who was eventually charged and arrested for fraud and other crimes. In the grounds of avoiding a potentially serious financial crisis in the Portuguese economy, the Portuguese government decided to give them a bailout, eventually at a future loss to taxpayers.
In the opening weeks of 2010, renewed anxiety about the excessive levels of debt in some EU countries and, more generally, about the health of the Euro spread from Ireland and Greece to Portugal, Spain, and Italy. In 2010, PIIGS and PIGS acronyms were widely used by international bond analysts, academics, and the international economic press when referring to these under performing economies.
Some senior German policy makers went as far as to say that emergency bailouts to Greece and future EU aid recipients should bring with it harsh penalties.
Robert Fishman, in the New York Times article "Portugal's Unnecessary Bailout", points out that Portugal fell victim to successive waves of speculation by pressure from bond traders, rating agencies and speculators. In the first quarter of 2010, before pressure from the markets, Portugal had one of the best rates of economic recovery in the EU. From the perspective of Portugal's industrial orders, exports, entrepreneurial innovation and high-school achievement, the country matched or even surpassed its neighbors in Western Europe. However, the Portuguese economy had been creating its own problems over a lengthy period of time, which came to a head with the financial crisis. Persistent and lasting recruitment policies boosted the number of redundant public servants. Risky credit, public debt creation, and European structural and cohesion funds were mismanaged across almost four decades. Portugal would be persistently criticized for years to come by institutions and organizations like the OECD, the IMF and the European Union for its anti-market, labor movement-inspired labor laws and rules which promoted overstaffing and the misallocation of factors of production in general.
In the summer of 2010, Moody's Investors Service cut Portugal's sovereign bond rating down two notches from an Aa2 to an A1 Due to spending on economic stimuli, Portugal's debt had increased sharply compared to the gross domestic product. Moody noted that the rising debt would weigh heavily on the government's short-term finances.
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In September 2010, the XVIII Constitutional Government of Portugal announced a fresh austerity package following other Eurozone partners, through a series of tax hikes and salary cuts for public servants. In 2009, the deficit had been 9.4 percent, one of the highest in the Eurozone and well above the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact three percent limit. In November risk premiums on Portuguese bonds hit euro lifetime highs as investors and creditors worried that the country would fail to rein in its budget deficit and debt. The yield on the country's 10-year government bonds reached 7 percent – a level the Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos had previously said would require the country to seek financial help from international institutions. Also in 2010, the country reached a record high unemployment rate of nearly 11%, a figure not seen for over two decades, while the number of public servants remained very high.
On 23 March 2011, José Sócrates resigned following passage of a no confidence motion sponsored by all five opposition parties in parliament over spending cuts and tax increases. On 6 April 2011, José Sócrates, still in charge of the country, announced the requesting of an international financial rescue package to the Portuguese Republic. In May 2011, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund sealed a three-year €78 billion financial rescue plan for Portugal in a bid to stabilise its public finances. After the bailout was announced, the newly-elected Portuguese government headed by Pedro Passos Coelho managed to implement measures to improve the State's financial situation and the country started to be seen as moving on the right track. Despite the unemployment rate has reached new highs above 15 per cent in the second quarter 2012, the country would be able to overcome the crisis and emerge stronger because the economic adjustment was producing the desirable effects on the Portuguese economy and public debt situation. Elections were held on 4 October 2015, with the Portugal à Frente (PaF) coalition between PSD and CDS-PP parties led by PSD's Pedro Passos Coelho, being the most voted political force with 38.5% of the votes – but it lost the absolute majority that the two parties had in parliament, leaving it with 107 deputies (89 from PSD and 18 from CDS-PP), out of a total of 230. Without that majority, socialist and communist parties banded together to form a coalition in the parliament and after avail of the President Aníbal Cavaco Silva and according to the law, the XXI Constitutional Government, headed by António Costa of the Socialist Party, took office on 26 November 2015, 53 days after the legislative elections won by PaF.
On 6 April 2011, the resigning Prime Minister José Sócrates of the Socialist Party (PS) announced on television that the country, facing a status of bankruptcy, would request financial assistance to the IMF and the European Financial Stability Facility, like Greece and the Republic of Ireland had done before. On 16 May 2011, the eurozone leaders officially approved a €78 billion bailout package for Portugal.
A positive turning point in Portugal's strive to regain access to financial markets, was achieved on 3 October 2012, when the state managed to convert €3.76 billion of bonds with maturity in September 2013 (carrying a 3.10% yield) to new bonds with maturity in October 2015 (carrying a 5.12% yield). Before the bond exchange, the state had a total of €9.6 billion outstanding notes due in 2013, which according to the bailout plan should be renewed by the sale of new bonds on the market. As Portugal was already able to renew one-third of the outstanding bonds at a reasonable yield level, the market now expect the upcoming renewals in 2013 also to be conducted at reasonable yield levels. The bailout funding programme will run until June 2014, but at the same time require Portugal to regain a complete bond market access in September 2013. The recent sale of bonds with a 3-year maturity, was the first bond sale of the Portuguese state since requesting the bailout in April 2011, and the first step slowly to open up its governmental bond market again. Recently the ECB announced they will be ready also, to begin additional support to Portugal, with some yield-lowering bond purchases (OMTs), when the country regained complete market access. All together this bodes well for a further decline of the governmental interest rates in Portugal, which on 30 January 2012 had a peak for the 10-year rate at 17.3% (after the rating agencies had cut the governments credit rating to "non-investment grade" -also referred to as "junk"), and as of 24 November 2012 has been more than halved to only 7.9%.
In the parliamentary elections of October 2015, the ruling right wing party failed to achieve an operating majority despite having won the elections by a solid margin. An anti-austerity post-electoral left wing coalition was formed achieving 51% of the vote and 53% of elected MPs, however, the President of Portugal at first refused to allow the left wing coalition to govern, inviting the minority right wing coalition to form a government. This was formed in November 2015 and lasted 11 days when it lost motion of confidence. The President eventually invited and asked the Socialist Party to form a government supported by 123 of 230 MPs in parliament from all parties except the former right wing coalition which broke into two parties. The new government (of the Socialist Party and independents) took office in November 2015 with a parliamentary majority thanks to the support of the Left Bloc, the Green Party and the Communist Party and the abstention of the Animal Welfare Party (PAN). In 2017, the IMF saw a 2.5 percent growth rate and an unemployment rate below 10 percent, but the European Commission expected Portugal's Government debt to reach 128.5 percent of GDP.
Budget deficit in 2016 was 2.1% of GDP, 0.4% the arbitrary limit set for it by the EC, the lowest since 1974, and less than half of the previous government's last year in power 2015. It is also 0.9% below the limits agreed at Maastricht.
In 2016, Portuguese GDP was $259 billion, up by about 3% from 2015, and 21% from its record low in 2012.
In 2016, Portugal registered a 14-year sequence of continuous increases in debt-to-GDP ratios, i.e., since the adoption of the Euro as currency.
In 2016, combined sovereign and personal debt in Portugal was the 5th largest in the Eurozone, reaching a combined 390% of GDP
In April 2017, the unemployment rate was 9.5%, over 8% below the all-time high reached in 2013 though still slightly above the 43-year average since the country became a democracy. |