U.S. weather officials said the tornado that hit at dinnertime on Sunday may have been the single deadliest in the country since 1953.
Rescue crews from throughout the region worked all night and battled a driving rain and thunder storm on Monday morning in the town of about 50,000 people, searching for anyone still alive in the rubble.
More than 500 people were confirmed injured, many with massive internal injuries, officials said. The number of dead and injured was expected to climb as rescue workers dig through collapsed homes and businesses.
A number of bodies were found along the city's "restaurant row," on the main commercial street and a local nursing home took a direct hit, Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said.
At St. Johns Hospital in Joplin, 180 patients cowered as the fierce winds blew out windows and pulled off the roof. Others took refuge in restaurant coolers, huddled in closets, or just ran for their lives.
Roaring along a path nearly six miles long and about 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile wide, it flattened whole neighborhoods, splintered trees, flipped cars and trucks upside down and into each other. Some 2,000 homes and many other businesses, schools and other buildings were destroyed.
An estimated 20,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning.
"It is a significant tragedy," said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. "We're working on all cylinders. We've got to get an active and complete search ... to make sure if there is anyone still alive in the rubble that we get them out."
The city's residents were given about 20 minutes notice when 25 warning sirens sounded throughout the southwest Missouri town around 6 p.m. CDT, said Jasper County Emergency Management ... (reuters)
Monday, May 23, 2011
Tornado devastates Joplin, Missouri, leaves 89 dead
Eminem, Justin Bieber scoop Billboard Music Awards
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - Eminem and teen idol Justin
honor for artist of the year.
With Eminem absent, Bieber helped lead the way om stage
was once an annual event following a four-year hiatus.
Sporting his now short, spiky hair and a sparkling gold
get to make so many people smile."
The Canadian pop star, who has gained a huge following of
helped me get out of my home town and live my dream."
Detroit native Eminem, who released the critical and
rap song and rap album.
Rihanna, 23, kicked off the show with a performance of
including top female and top radio artist of the year.
She thanked her biggest fan devotees, who call themselves
did not attend the awards.
Katy Perry won awards for top hot 100 artist and top
the top hot 100 song of the year for his hit, "Dynamite."
"Need You Now," by Lady Antebellum won country song of the
Billboard.
Taylor Swift, 21, who has swept music award shows in the
new album in five years.
Accepting the top duo or group award for the The Black Eyed
technology we wouldn't be here as an industry."
Beyonce was honored with the Millennium Award for her
musical influence and hailed as a role model for women.
Neil Diamond, 70, won the icon award before performing his
Urban, Nicki Minaj and singer Cee Lo Green.
U2 won the top touring award for its current "U2 360
become the highest-grossing tour of all time.
"You can make classic albums in your bedroom and you can
we just don't do that," U2 frontman Bono told the audience.
The awards, with eligibility from Feb 28, 2010 to March 1,
streaming and popularity on social media sites.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
... (reuters)
Afghan Taliban say leader Mullah Omar 'safe and sound'
Security officials in Pakistan and diplomats, U.S. military commanders and government officials in Afghanistan all cast doubt on reports that Omar, one of the most-wanted men in the world, had been killed while traveling between Quetta and North Waziristan in Pakistan.
"He is in Afghanistan safe and sound," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. "We strongly reject these baseless allegations that Mullah Mohammad Omar has been killed."
"This is the propaganda by the enemy to weaken the morale of fighters."
A spokesman for the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said its sources knew that Mullah Omar had been living in the Pakistani town of Quetta in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan but had recently gone missing.
"We can confirm that he has been disappeared from his hideout in Quetta in Baluchistan for the last four or five days," NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told a news conference.
"We can't confirm if he is dead or alive."
The heavily bearded, one-eyed Omar is rarely seen in public.
With a million U.S. bounty on his head, he fled with the rest of the Afghan Taliban leadership to Quetta after their government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. They formed the "Quetta shura," or leadership council.
The Taliban were overthrown for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden was killed by a U.S. Navy SEAL team in a garrison town not far from the Pakistan capital, Islamabad, on May 2, ending a search that had dragged on for more than 10 years.
Bin Laden's killing came as a blow to an already splintered al Qaeda, but its ef ... (reuters)
Journalists and conspiracy theories abound in Karachi
Attacks against Pakistan security forces are all too common, but the scale of Monday's operation marked it out as the most audacious since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces early this month.
Blasts rang out and helicopters hovered above the PNS Mehran base in the commercial hub of Karachi, for hours after more than 20 Pakistani Taliban militants stormed the building with guns and grenades on Sunday night, blowing up at least one aircraft.
The Pakistan Taliban, which is allied with al Qaeda, said the attack was to avenge bin Laden's killing. At least 12 military personnel were killed and 14 wounded.
It was not clear how many of the militants were killed.
"If these people can just enter a military base like this, then how can any Pakistani feel safe?" asked Mazhar Iqbal, 28, engineering company administrator taking a lunch break in the shade outside the complex where a crowd had gathered on a patch of grass to watch journalists set up camp as much as anything.
He said he was from an insecure area of the southern city already infamous as a source of funding for militant groups.
"The government and the army are just corrupt. We need new leaders with a vision for Pakistan."
Karachi has a population of about 18 million people, a volatile mix of rival ethnic groups and political factions, who all to readily resort to violence to settle scores.
Sprawling along the sun-baked coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is also home to Pakistan's main port, financial markets and the central bank.
It is also a transit point for military and other supplies to Afghanistan for the U.S.- and NATO-led anti-insurgency effort there.
QUESTIONS
The navy base is ringed with a concrete wall with about five feet of barbed wire on top. An aircraft, armed with rockets, ... (reuters)
Pakistan retakes naval base after attack
The assault casts fresh doubt on the military's ability to protect its bases after a raid on the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in 2009 and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by U.S. special forces on the al Qaeda leader's hideout north of Islamabad on May 2.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday, destroying two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in the unstable, nuclear-armed country.
"When they fired the first rockets, they were intercepted," said Pakistan's navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir. "Then they could not launch another attack on other aircraft and they tried to hide." He said it took three to four hours to sketch out a plan to contain the militants.
At least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 wounded in the assault that started at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday (1730 GMT), a navy spokesman said.
Malik said three militants were killed in the gunbattle while the body of a fourth was believed to be buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. Two suspects were believed to have fled the scene, he added.
One of two attackers hiding in the building blew himself up while two others were gunned down elsewhere, Bashir said.
The Pakistan Taliban, who are allied with al Qaeda, said they had staged the attack to avenge bin Laden's death.
"It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
LADDERS, GUNS, GRENADES
Malik said the militants, aged between 20 and 25, used two ladders to scale the walls of the base and jumped in by cutting b ... (reuters)
Obama visits family roots in Ireland
Beginning a four-nation European tour with a celebration of his Irish roots, Obama came to Ireland as what one man called a "long-lost cousin."
Crowds packed the streets for both a stirring speech in Dublin and a visit to the tiny village of Moneygall, where an ancestor of Obama's lived before moving to the United States.
Introduced by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as "the American Dream come home," Obama told the throng in central Dublin: "My name is Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas."
For Ireland, Obama's arrival, and the visit of Britain's Queen Elizabeth last week, are a welcome distraction from the global attention paid to its financial woes and the ensuing international bailout.
Obama was also due to visit Britain, France and Poland on a week-long trip whose agenda includes talks on issues as Afghanistan and Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the world economy and the "Arab spring" uprisings.
AUSTERITY
Ireland's economic slump has led to a debt crisis and drastic government spending cuts. Apart from lifting the spirits of the Irish, the visit looked set to provide some powerful images back home for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
He brought back the signature phrase from his 2008 presidential campaign, "Yes we can," but said it in Gaelic.
"This little country that inspires the biggest things -- your best days are still ahead," Obama said.
"And Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise ... remember that, whatever hardships winter can bring, springtime is always just around the corner and, if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed, 'Is feidir linn', Yes we can."
At O'Neill's pub in Dublin, revelers cheered and some chanted "USA! USA!" as the president emerged on stage for h ... (reuters)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Judge weighs Strauss-Kahn bid for bail
Strauss-Kahn, held in custody since police pulled him off an Air France plane on Saturday, looked tired as he entered the courtroom room wearing a blue shirt and gray jacket.
He smiled at his wife, former French television journalist Anne Sinclair, and daughter Camille, and stared ahead resolutely during the proceedings.
The hearing on whether to release Strauss-Kahn came as the jockeying to replace him at the top of the IMF intensified. European and the United States sought a speedy succession to prevent a bid by emerging economies to put a potential rival candidate in place.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, stepped down as IMF chief late on Wednesday, tendering his resignation from prison as pressure mounted from the United States and other countries to hand over leadership of the global lender.
He has vowed to fight charges, which he said he denied "with the greatest possible firmness," according to his letter, which was posted on the IMF website.
His Saturday arrest dashed his prospects of running for the French presidency in 2012 and sparked international debate over the 65-year-old tradition that a European heads the IMF.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for an "open process" to find a successor but sources in Washington said the United States, the largest financial contributor to the IMF, would back a European for the post.
The U.S. push to find a replacement quickly is likely to favor a European replacement because it would be difficult for developing nations to unify around a rival candidate in time to challenge Europe's long hold on the job.
A Reuters poll of economists showed 32 out of 56 think French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is most likely to succeed him, and diplomats in Europe and Washington said she had backing from France, Germany a ... (reuters)
LinkedIn share price more than doubles in NYSE debut
Shares of the online professional social networking company closed at .25, 109 percent above their initial public offering price. They rose as high as .97, in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Just two weeks ago, LinkedIn proposed a price range for the IPO that valued it at just over billion. Less than a decade ago, the company was nothing more than an ambitious idea and a computer in one man's living room.
Now, its .9 billion market value makes it larger than Harley Davidson Inc, Moodys Corp and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
"It seems to bring back memories of the tech bubble," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "Based on what I know it seems like investors are a little overly enthusiastic."
One hedge fund manager who flipped his holdings in the low-80's described how difficult it was to get shares. "I got 500 shares and was told to consider myself lucky," he said.
"There are billion-dollar institutions that are not getting any stock," he said, recounting something he learned from salesperson at one of the lead banks.
LinkedIn is the first prominent U.S. social networking company to publicly test how hungry investors are for social media companies such as Facebook, Groupon, Twitter and Zynga.
Such exuberant debut trading in recent years has been the prerogative of Chinese Internet stocks. LinkedIn shares marked the biggest first-day price jump since shares of Qihoo 360 Technology Co, China's third most-popular Internet company, rose 134 percent in their NYSE debut.
Like Facebook, Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn allows users to create profile pages displaying a picture and details about themselves.
While Facebook often has more informal profiles that may include a ... (reuters)
Al Qaeda releases posthumous bin Laden audio recording
Islamists have conspicuously been absent in the uprisings in the Middle East that have largely been led by ordinary citizens angered by autocratic rule, corruption and mismanaged economies.
Al Qaeda and other militant groups have waged bloody, but unsuccessful, campaigns to topple these same rulers and by praising the revolts, bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. Raid on May 2 in Pakistan, appeared to be trying to make the Islamists relevant again.
Al Qaeda had said bin Laden, who masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, recorded a message a week before his death. The audio was included in an Internet video more than 12 minutes-long and posted on Islamist websites.
"The sun of the revolution has risen from the Maghreb. The light of the revolution came from Tunisia. It has given the nation tranquility and made the faces of the people happy," the speaker, whose sounds like bin Laden, said.
"To the Muslim nation -- we are watching with you this great historic event and share with you the joy and happiness. Congratulations for your victories and may God grant your martyrs mercy, your injured recovery and your prisoners freedom."
Tunisia's president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown by mass protests in January, followed by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.
Bin Laden praised the Egyptian revolution and urged Arab protesters to maintain their momentum, adding: "I believe that the winds of change will envelope the entire Muslim world."
"This revolution was not for food and clothing. Rather, it was a revolution of glory and pride, a revolution of sacrifice and giving. It has lit the Nile's cities and its villages from its lower reaches to the top," he said.
"To those free rebels in all the countries -- retain the initiative and be careful of dialog ... (reuters)
Strauss-Kahn may face civil suit for alleged assault
Jeffrey Shapiro, the maid's lawyer, told Reuters "there has been no discussion" of a civil lawsuit.
"It's not contemplated and it's not been discussed," he said. "I'm helping her get through each day."
Strauss-Kahn, known for his lavish lifestyle and the multiple million-dollar homes he shares with his wife, is seen as an ideal target in any potential suit.
"If it's found that the attack occurred, the case is worth well over a million dollars," said Jonathan Damashek, a personal injury attorney who has represented rape victims.
Predictor of May 21 Judgment Day to monitor news broadcasts
Harold Camping, 89, is the head of Christian radio network Family Stations Inc, heard on 66 U.S. stations and affiliates from Taiwan to Russia.
He previously made a failed prediction that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994. But this time, despite having numerous skeptics even among mainstream churches, the broadcaster trained as a civil engineer says he is sure about his May 21 pronouncement.
Like his last prediction, Camping said this one is based on his reading of the Bible and a timeline that dates back to ancient events, such as the Biblical flood survived by Noah.
His organization and allies have posted about 2,200 billboards around the United States warning of a May 21 judgment day, said spokesman Tom Evans.
Dozens of followers crossed the United States in caravans of recreational vehicles to spread the news.
As for Camping, his precise plans are uncertain, but the broadcaster from Alameda, in northern California, intends to be with his wife that day.
"I'll probably try to be very near a TV or a radio or something," Camping told Reuters. "Because I'll be interested in what's happening on the other side of the world as this begins."
Camping said an earthquake will shake the Earth, and that true believers will be swept to heaven, while others will remain behind for the world's destruction in coming months.
"We know without any shadow of a doubt it is going to happen," he said.
T-SHIRTS AND MUGS
If May 21 is occasion for prayers among Camping and his followers, it's cause for humor and money-making for others.
At online retailer Zazzle.com, hip entrepreneurs are selling everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs and mouse pads emblazoned with the May 21 date and such slogans as "I survived Judgment Day" and "I survived the rapture."
Camping's prediction of a ... (reuters)
REFILE-Predictor of May 21 doomsday to watch it on TV
SAN FRANCISCO May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. evangelical
unfolding apocalypse.
Harold Camping, 89, previously made a failed prediction
that Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.
But the head of the Christian radio network Family Stations
to be engulfed in the world's destruction over a few months.
"We know without any shadow of a doubt it is going to
than 30 languages and on U.S. and international stations.
His supporters have posted about 2,200 billboards around
followers are driving across the country to spread the news.
Volunteers also handed out pamphlets warning about May 21
clear signs the world was coming to an end. [ID:nL3E7GC0Q0]
Camping, a civil engineer who ran his own construction
to spend May 21 with his wife and watch the doomsday unfold.
"I'll probably try to be very near a TV or a radio or
the other side of the world as this begins."
Like his last prediction, Camping's doomsday date is based
ancient events including the Biblical flood survived by Noah.
Camping's pronouncement of a specific date for the
apocalypse puts him outside the Christian mainstream.
But his contention that the souls of believers will leave
within many Christian churches.
Stephen O'Leary, an expert in religious communication at
first appeared in Christian teaching in the 19th century.
"It is very appealing to people," said Barbara Rossing,
and more.
Tom Evans, a spokesman for Camping, said at least several
tens of thousands of people listen to Family Radio's message.
One of those is Allison Warden, 29, of Raleigh, North
Ohio company and now runs the end-times website Wecanknow.com.
"My boss does not agree with this but has been very
... (reuters)
Strauss-Kahn arrives at court for bail hearing
A bail hearing is due to be held later on Thursday.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have denied the charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He was denied bail on Monday. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
(Reporting by Basil Katz and Michelle Nichols; editing by Sandra Maler)
... (reuters)
Cannes expels 'shocked' Von Trier for Hitler remarks
The expulsion, the first in 64 years, followed a hastily convened meeting of its board of directors.
"Using the Cannes film festival to say such intolerable things in front of the media is to tarnish its image," said festival president Gilles Jacob.
"The festival had no choice but to react very strongly," he told a small group of reporters. He described the meeting as "tense" and said the decision to withdraw Von Trier's accreditation was not unanimous.
Von Trier told Reuters in a telephone interview that he was shocked by the decision, which he believed stemmed from the fact that his meaning had been misunderstood.
"I'm beyond the point of being disappointed, I am just very tired of the whole thing," the 55-year-old said. "It has come as quite a shock for me, I must say." He said politics and culture should be kept apart and found apologizing "a little distasteful" because it was easy and achieved nothing.
Asked if he would return to Cannes, Von Trier replied: "I don't know if I will be allowed in the Palais (festival center) again. Maybe Cannes has pushed me out to be more of a rebel."
Von Trier's comments on Wednesday angered Jewish groups and caused U.S. actress Kirsten Dunst to squirm with embarrassment beside him at a press conference, as he launched into a bizarre monologue about his Jewish and German heritage.
The famously provocative film maker, formerly a darling in Cannes who won the top Palme d'Or award in 2000, quickly apologized in a statement but it proved too little too late.
Jewish groups welcomed Cannes' decision to ban him.
"The only award that Lars Von Trier should receive is the Cannes Film Festival 'Bigot of the Year'," said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"Please spare us all a ... (reuters)