John Kerry fined $50 for failing to remove snow outside his home
WASHINGTON: US secretary of state John Kerry has been fined a penalty of $50 by the Boston City officials for not removing snow dumped on the side street in front of his house which was formed due to the massive snowstorm this week.
The city officials on Thursday slapped Kerry with a $50 fine for failing to clear the snow-clogged sidewalk on the Pinckney Street side of his Beacon Hill mansion, The Boston Globe reported.
Kerry’s spokesperson Glen Johnson said the secretary of state would promptly pay the fine.
“Diplomats – they’re just like us. Secretary Kerry was working overseas while the blizzard packed a wallop back home,” Johnson was quoted as saying.
The US secretary of state was not at the Boston home when the massive snowstorm hit the city. He was in Saudi Arabia along with US President Barack Obama to express condolences over the death of King Abdullah and meeting the new king.
“It was a very public rebuke of one of the city’s most famous dwellers,” the daily reported. (AFP)
Man wielding pistol arrested at Dutch national broadcaster
AMSTERDAM: A man wielding a pistol forced his way into the studios of the Dutch national broadcaster NOS on Thursday demanding to be allowed to go on air, but was quickly arrested, television footage showed. The man, wearing a black suit and tie, entered the studio after threatening a guard with a pistol, witnesses said.
Footage aired on Dutch TV showed the man pacing in the studio with the black pistol behind his back shortly before the police stormed into the room.
“Drop it! Drop it! And get on your knees!” the police shouted, before putting handcuffs on the man and taking him away.
An NOS radio reporter told Reuters no one had been hurt. NOS television stopped broadcasting because the studios had been evacuated.
The man’s motive was unclear; the NOS footage showed him saying: “The things that are going to be said (pause) those are very large world affairs. We were hired by the security service.”
A police spokeswoman confirmed a man had entered the studios at around 1900 GMT, but could provide no details.
NOS broadcast displayed a message on its main news channel that read: “In connection with circumstances, no broadcast is available at this time.” (Reuters)
Hamas gives 17,000 Gaza youth paramilitary training
Gaza: Around 17,000 youth from Gaza finished a one-week training course in paramilitary activities on Thursday, which was organised and supervised by the Islamic Hamas movement’s armed wing.
The youths, aged between 16 and 21 years, were trained on how to get involved in gun battles and how to defend themselves by members of Hamas’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades, Xinhua news agency reported.
A large graduation ceremony for the young people was held at Gaza’s main sports stadium.
“The training course focused on preparing the teenagers and the young men on how to defend themselves and their people and to be the future soldiers who will fight for Jerusalem, the refugees, the prisoners and the West Bank,” Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas movement leader said.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, addressed the graduation ceremony saying that the Palestinian armed resistance was founded to defend Palestine as well as the Arabs and Muslims all over the world.”Logically, no one can say that training our children on how to fight for their rights can be called terrorism because these trainings aim at defeating the occupiers and the enemies,” said al-Zahar.
The Hamas movement had earlier denied reports which said that the movement was planning to build a popular army in the Gaza Strip.
Every year, Hamas organises this kind of training for teenagers and schoolchildren, especially during the summer.
Israel has complained that such training courses were “a clear incitement to violence and terrorism”. (IANS)
Woman dies while celebrating marriage proposal
London: A woman fell off a cliff and died after jumping up in excitement as her boyfriend proposed to her on top of a cliff in the Spanish island of Ibiza, media reported Friday.
Police said she lost her balance as she jumped up and down in excitement after her partner asked for her hand.
Dimitrina Dimitrova, 29, of Bulgaria, was visiting her boyfriend in the resort of Cala Tarida, the Daily Mail reported. She suffered a heart attack after she lost balance and fell 65 feet down from the cliff. She died few minutes later after paramedics arrived at the scene. The incident happened took place Tuesday.
“Everything is pointing towards the death being the result of a tragic freak accident,” a local Civil Guard spokesman was quoted as saying. (IANS)