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Time of India
23-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
When a massive 443 ft cargo ship crashed into Norwegian man's garden, missing his bedroom by just few meters
AP The container ship NCL Salten is seen next to Johan Helberg's house Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A man in Norway had an unexpected wake-up call when a massive cargo ship ran aground and plowed into his front garden, missing his house by just a few metres, according to a report by the 135 metre (443 ft) ship crashed ashore around 5:00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) on Thursday in Byneset, near the city of Trondheim. Johan Helberg , the homeowner, was unaware of the incident until a panicked neighbour alerted to a TV channel, Helberg later recalled, "The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don't usually like to answer. I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship. I had to crane my neck to see the top of it—it was so unreal.""If it had veered just five metres further south, it would have crashed into my bedroom. I didn't hear a thing," he to the report, his neighbour Jostein Jorgensen was awakened by the sound of the ship barreling toward the shoreline. "I ran to Johan's house thinking he'd already come outside—but there was no sign of life," Jorgensen told TV2. "I rang the doorbell many times and got no response. It was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to reach him."The ship, a Cypriot-flagged cargo vessel named NCL Salten, had 16 crew members on board and was en route through the Trondheim Fjord to Orkanger when it veered off course. Fortunately, no injuries were police are investigating the cause of the crash. The ship had previously run aground in 2023 but managed to refloat on its own, according to reports."It's a very bulky new neighbour—but it'll soon be gone," Helberg said with a touch of dry managing director Bente Hetland called it a "serious incident" and expressed relief that no one was hurt. 'At present, we do not know what caused the incident and are awaiting the results of the ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities,' she said.
BBC News
03-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
How Canada's Conservatives threw away a 27-point lead to lose again
Conservatives in Canada are trading blame for Monday night's election loss, showing that Pierre Poilievre will need to heal divisions within the movement as he fights to stay on as a clear Liberal win was emerging on election night, Conservative candidates and their supporters had one question: What the heck just happened?The party had lost a remarkable 27-point lead in opinion polls and failed to win an election for the fourth time in a row. And while it gained seats and earned almost 42% of the popular vote - its highest share since the party was founded in 2003 - its leader Poilievre was voted out of the seat he had held for the past 20 years."Nobody's happy about that," Shakir Chambers, a Conservative strategist and vice-president of Ontario-based consultancy firm the Oyster Group, told the party is now trying to work out how it will move forward. At the top of the agenda will be finding a way for the Conservatives to perform their duties as the Official Opposition - the second-place party in Canada's parliament whose job is to hold the sitting government to account - without their leader in the of a caucus meeting next Tuesday to discuss this, Poilievre announced on Friday his plan to run in an Alberta constituency special election to win back a special election will be triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP-elect Damien Kurek, who said he will voluntarily step down to let Poilievre back in after what he called "a remarkable national campaign"."An unstoppable movement has grown under his leadership, and I know we need Pierre fighting in the House of Commons," Kurek said in a the US, federal politicians in Canada do not have to live in the city or province they run in. Poilievre grew up in Alberta, however, and will likely win handily as the constituency he is running in is a Conservative stronghold.A big question is whether Poilievre still has the backing of his own party to stay on as leader. Mr Chambers said the answer, so far, is a resounding yes."Pierre has a lot of support in the caucus," he said. "I don't think there's anybody that wants him removed, or that has super high ambitions that wants to replace him as leader."A number of high-profile Conservatives have already rallied behind him. One of them is Andrew Scheer, a current MP and former leader of the party, who said Poilievre should stay on to "ensure we finish the job next time". Others are casting blame on where they went Jivani, who won his own constituency in a suburb of Toronto handily, felt that Ontario leader Doug Ford had betrayed the conservative movement and cost the party the federal and provincial Conservative parties are legally different entities, though they belong to the same ideological tent, and Ford is leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative frequently made headlines during the election campaign for his get-tough attitude with Donald Trump and the US president's trade war. "He couldn't stay out of our business," Jivani told a CBC who in a past life attended Yale University with US Vice-President JD Vance, where the two became good friends, accused Ford of distracting from the federal Conservatives' campaign and of "positioning himself as some political genius that we need to be taking cues from".But Mr Chambers, the Conservative strategist, said that Poilievre will also need to confront where the party fell short. Poilievre, who is known for his combative political style, has struggled with being unlikeable among the general Canadian has also failed to shore up the support of popular Conservative leaders in some provinces, like Ontario's Ford, who did not campaign for Poilievre despite his recent landslide victory in a provincial election earlier this year. Ford did, however, post a photo of him and Liberal leader Mark Carney having a coffee."Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election," Ford told reporters earlier this week. "Matter of fact, he or one of his lieutenants told every one of his members, 'don't you dare go out and help'"."Isn't that ironic?"Another Conservative premier, Tim Houston of Nova Scotia - who also did not campaign for Poilievre - said the federal party needs to do some "soul-searching" after its loss."I think the Conservative Party of Canada was very good at pushing people away, not so good at pulling people in," Houston every premier stood on the sidelines. Poilievre was endorsed by Alberta's Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan's Scott Moe, both western Teneycke, Ford's campaign manager, who publicly criticised Poilievre's campaign during the election, angering federal Conservatives, rejected the notion that Ford's failure to endorse Poilievre had cost him the told the BBC that, to him, the bigger problem was Poilievre's failure to unite Conservative voters in Canada."What constitutes a Conservative in different parts of the country can look quite different," he said, adding that Poilievre's populist rhetoric and aggressive style appealed to Conservatives in the west, but alienated those in the east."There was a lot of Trump mimicry in terms of how they presented the campaign," Mr Teneycke said. "Donald Trump is public enemy number one to most in Canada, and I don't think it was coming across very well."He added he believes some of the "soul-searching" by Poilievre's Conservatives will need to include a plan of how to build a coalition of the right in a country "as big and diverse as Canada".Asked by reporters what it would take to heal the rift, Ford answered: "All they have to do is make a phone call."
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Anna Politkovskaya's persona was much greater'. Slain Russian journalist's sister on 'Words of War'
The thriller about slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Words of War, opens in US cinemas today. The filmmakers took into account some of the inaccuracy concerns about the script raised by her family, Politkovskaya's sister Elena Kudimova told the film is coming out just in time for the World Press Freedom Day. Words of War was produced by Sean Penn. Anna Politkovskaya is played by Maxine Peake, and one of the leading male roles is performed by Jason of War tells the story of legendary Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya. In Russia, her name is synonymous with courage and an indomitable spirit. She rose to prominence for her investigations into human rights abuses in Chechnya - a region in southern Russia that fought two wars for independence in the 1990s and early 2000s. Her older sister, Elena Kudimova, describes her as "someone who, despite all the threats and the danger to her life, kept doing her work until the very end."Politkovskaya openly criticised the Russian authorities and President Putin himself. Despite receiving numerous threats over the years, she refused to back down. Her sister recalls that while Politkovskaya considered emigration, she always changed her mind at the last moment. She would say: "I can't leave because nobody else will help the people here." Reporting the war in Chechnya From 1999, Politkovskaya traveled to Chechnya almost every month for several years. Kudimova recalls that for many wronged and desperate people, Politkovskaya became "the last resort" - the one who could make things right. She took part in the negotiations for Nord-Ost, the 2002 hostage crisis at a Moscow theatre, after the Chechen rebels specifically requested her. In 2004, she hoped to help resolve the crisis in Beslan, where heavily armed militants held hostages in a school for three days. However, she never made it there - she was poisoned on the plane while en route to 2006, Politkovskaya was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Six men were convicted over the murder, but the person who ordered it has never been identified. Her sister Elena doubts that the mastermind will ever be brought to justice. "If they had wanted to find him, they probably would have done so by now," Kudimova adds. Avoiding clichés Before the film's release, Politkovskaya's family raised concerns about the Words of War script, believing the film took too many liberties with the truth. While the filmmakers insist that the drama is based on real events, they emphasise that it is not a biography. However, Politkovskaya's sister notes that the filmmakers did take the family's feedback into account, and certain scenes that raised the most questions were removed from the final cut."[Anna's son] Ilya was portrayed in the original script as a sort of womanizer, [and in the film] Anna doesn't have a romance with [Dmitry] Muratov," she said. Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel Prize-winning journalist, was Anna Politkovskaya's former colleague at the Russian newspaper Novaya to Kudimova, Maxine Peake portrays her sister accurately, though she believes Anna's personality was "much greater and more complex" than what is depicted on screen. "Her real life had far more dramatic episodes than those shown in the film," she criticised the film's setting for leaning too heavily into cold-weather clichés. "I was struck by the fact that it's constantly snowing, as if Russia has only one season. In reality, we have all four." However, Kudimova is grateful that the film helps preserve the memory of her sister. Anna's legacy Kudimova said that Anna never thought about her own legacy. She recalled how, at some point, someone had suggested Anna write an autobiography - she was in her 40s at the time. Anna had laughed at the idea, saying it felt more like something you do when you're a hundred. But then she came up with the idea of writing six short stories. At the end of each, she said, she was supposed to die - but didn't, for different reasons. And they were going to be funny stories. When asked about how Anna would want to be remembered, Elena says that her sister did dot think about her legacy: "She simply wanted to live."Words of War will be released in the UK on 30 June
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Tidjane Thiam: 'I was born Ivorian' says bank boss barred from running for president
Tidjane Thiam, a former international banker and the leader of Ivory Coast's main opposition party, has told the BBC that he will not give up his place on the presidential ballot without a month, an Ivorian court ruled that the former Credit Suisse boss was not eligible to contest the poll, or even vote, because he had forfeited his Ivorian nationality when he acquired French citizenship in this was strongly rejected by Thiam. "The bottom line is, I was born Ivorian," he told the government said that at the time he registered on the electoral roll he was not legally a citizen of Ivory Coast. In the BBC interview, Thiam suggested that the ruling had been politically motivated."It's not for the regime to choose who runs opposition parties. It's not for the regime to eliminate opposition leaders," he said."I don't think anybody in the Ivory Coast believes that this is not a weaponisation of the legal system by the government."This was rejected by Ivory Coast's Information Minister Amadou Coulibaly."The court rules that at the time he was registered on that [electoral] list, he was not Ivorian," he told the BBC's Newsday programme on Friday."This is clear proof that this gentleman does not know Ivory Coast... We have a problem with morality with Mr Thiam - he knew he was wrong," he told the BBC: "What's happened is that they dug out a 1961 law that has never been applied to anybody. But in theory, it says that if you take another nationality, you lose your Ivorian citizenship.""Most of the Ivorian football team is in the same case," he Thiam relinquished his French nationality in March to run in the election, the court found that his candidacy was invalid, given that he was not Ivorian when he first registered on the electoral 1961 nationality code states that: "An Ivorian national of full age who voluntarily acquires or states that he possesses a foreign nationality shall lose Ivorian nationality."Thiam is now mounting a legal disqualification came just a week after the centre-right Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI) confirmed him as its presidential members of the party say they are suspending all parliamentary activity in protest at his supporters are still hopeful he could be readmitted as a final electoral list for October's election is to be published on 20 was expected to challenge the ruling RHDP party currently led by Alassane Ouattara, who has been in power for 15 was previously barred from running for president in the early 2000s on the grounds of nationality because of claims his parents were from Burkina Faso. Information Minister Coulibaly told the BBC that the nationality law had previously excluded a candidate who had French nationality, in 2011."[Thiam] blames the government for a decision taken by the court," he added."It's an insult to think that when you're in the West, you can comply with the rules, the laws of those countries, and then you arrive in your own country because you think you have power and connections, you can trample on all the texts, flout all the laws," said Thiam said his candidacy had rattled the government."This government has been in power for 15 years. Do they deserve five more? For me, that's what should be the focus of the presidential campaign, not my passport," he also told the BBC that "political incidents" like this could lower investor confidence in the recounted that a business associate once told him: "I only invest in countries where I can sue the president's son and win." This, Thiam told the BBC, had stuck with him. Who is Tidjane Thiam? Thiam comes from a long line of great-uncle - Félix Houphouët-Boigny - was Ivory Coast's founding of his five brothers, including Thiam himself, have served as ministers under five different becoming the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam to France's prestigious Polytechnique engineering school, he returned to Ivory Coast and took up 1998, aged 36, he became planning minister before the PDCI was ousted from power in a coup the following then moved abroad and pursued a largely successful business has held senior positions in leading international businesses like Aviva, Prudential and Credit Suisse. He quit the latter in 2020 following a spying scandal although he has been cleared of any 2020, he was appointed as a special envoy for Covid-19 by the African Thiam has faced criticism from political opponents for having been absent from Ivory Coast for 20 years, which they say means he has poor recognition among believes, however, that his years outside his country have, in fact, helped build his profile at home."A lot of Ivorians watched my international career. The same way they watched the famous football players, they watched me, they knew me," he said. Thiam described himself to the BBC as "a numbers guy"."Ivory Coast in 1999 was 125th in the world [In the UNDP Human Development Index]. We are now 166, so we're down 41 spots. We're among the bottom 30 countries in the world," said believes that this is as a direct result of years of political violence."The first sentence of my platform is an Ivory Coast at peace inside its borders and at peace with its neighbours," explained Thiam."Ivory Coast is a mosaic. You go to any part of the country, there are people on both sides of the border who are absolutely similar, speak the same language. So the only viable model for Ivory Coast is to get along well with its neighbours."Ivory Coast faces an increasing security threat from Islamist insurgents operating from bordering Mali and Burkina February, France returned its last remaining military base to the Ivorian authorities, partly in response to anger in Ivory Coast over the perceived weakness of the French army in dealing with these Thiam denied there was any "anti-French sentiment" in Ivory Coast."I think what Africans are fed up with is governments that are corrupt and incompetent. When France aligns itself with corruption and incompetence, people will be anti-French and they're absolutely right to do so.""Primarily, it's a problem for Africans. It's something we need to solve, and then the rest of the world will also be able to help us solve it. But it has to start with us," added reporting by Nicolas Négoce, Thomas Mackintosh and Natasha Booty More BBC stories about Ivory Coast: No wigs please - the new rules shaking up beauty pageantsA love letter to attiéké, Ivory Coast's timeless culinary treasureWest African bloc pins hopes on superhighway from Ivory Coast to Nigeria Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
How power outage in Spain and Portugal unfolded - minute-by-minute
The first sign of trouble Peter Hughes noticed was when his train to Madrid starting to slow the TV monitor and lights went off. Emergency lights switched on, but did not last, and the locomotive ground to a halt. Four hours later, Mr Hughes was still stuck on the train 200 kilometres (124 miles) outside of Spain's capital. He had food and water, but the toilets were not working. "It will be getting dark soon and we could be stuck here for hours," he told the massive power cut that stranded Mr Hughes triggered chaos across Spain and Portugal, and also impacted Andorra and parts of France, from about midday local time (10:00 GMT).Traffic lights shut off. Metros closed. Businesses shuttered and people joined queues to get cash as card payments did not Emery was on a different train halfway between Seville and Madrid when the cuts hit. For an hour, he sat on the train, the doors closed, until people could pry them open to let in ventilation. Half an hour later, passengers left, only to find themselves was when people from local villages started coming and dropping off supplies – water, bread, fruit. "Nobody is charging for anything, and word must be getting around in the local town because people just keep coming," he said. In Madrid, Hannah Lowney was half way through scanning her grocery shopping at Aldi when the power went out. People were coming out of their offices and walking home because they could not tell when the buses were coming, Ms Lowney said in a voice message sent to BBC Radio 5 Live."It's a bit disconcerting that it's the whole country, I've never experienced this before," she England was eating lunch in the restaurant of the hotel where is staying on holiday in Benidorm when "everything went off and the fire alarm started going off and the fire doors started closing".In an international school in Lisbon, the electricity flickered on and off for a while, then gave up, teacher Emily Thorowgood kept teaching in the dark, the children in good spirits, but lots of parents were taking their children out of school, she David, a Briton living in Lisbon, was having a haircut and beard trim in the basement of a barber when the power went down. The barber found him a spot by the window upstairs to finish the cut with scissors."The walk home felt very strange, both with the lack of traffic lights meaning a complete free-for-all for vehicles and pedestrians on the roads - as well as so many people milling around outside their places of work with nothing to do," he mobile phone networks also went down for some, leaving many scrambling for Gladden, who is in La Vall D'Uixo, about 30 miles from Valencia, said it was "scary" as he struggled to get updates about what was happening. Eloise Edgington, who could not do any work as a copywriter in Barcelona, said she was only receiving occasional messages, could not load web pages on her phone and was trying to conserve her battery. An hour and a half after the power went out, one resident of Fortuna, in south-east Spain, said her husband was driving around, trying to find a petrol station that could supply fuel to run a generator and keep their fridge powered."We are worried about food, water, cash and petrol in case this goes on for a couple of days," said Lesley, a Brit who has been living in Spain for 11 "have more to worry about" than the Madrid Open tennis tournament being suspended, she said, adding there is "very little news about what's happened". Mr England said walking down the street in Benidorm, a "majority of shops are in darkness and shuttered or have people on the entrances saying you can't come in. There's no cash machines, no traffic lights so it's strange." After Mr Gladden's phone signal returned after about two hours, he and others ventured out to cafes, but found "nothing is working – we came to get some food and a drink but they can't cook without electricity".Within two hours, Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said it was beginning to recover power in the north and south of the two-and-a-half hours after the cuts, Madrid's mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida still urged all residents to "keep their movements to an absolute minimum and, if at all possible, to remain where they are", in a video recorded from the city's integrated emergency security 15:00 local time, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pulled together an "extraordinary" meeting of Spain's national security council. Red Electrica CEO Eduardo Prieto said at a news conference shortly afterwards that it could take "between six and ten hours" to restore power. Just before 16:00, electricity flicked back on in Malaga. By 17:00, the grid operator said power was being restored "in several areas of the north, south and west of the [Iberian] peninsula".Portugal's power firm REN gave a more dire prediction, saying that it could "take up to a week" before the network was back to normal. 'No plan for where to stay' Knock on effects continue: Back-up generators at airports kicked on, allowing most flights to leave on time, but some have been unable to McGilloway, on holiday in Lisbon, was due to return to London on Monday night, but as of early evening did not know what would said for the time being people were getting drinks and food - but vendors told him they would only be able to keep working until the batteries ran out on their payment terminals."If I need to book a hotel if the plane is cancelled, I don't know how I can do it if payments are down," he added."My partner's parents are trying to get petrol so they can pick us up to take us back to Alentejo but many petrol stations are closed or not taking payment. We might be stuck with no plan for where to stay tonight." Have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@ Additional reporting and research by Andree Massiah, Kris Bramwell, James Kelly, Bernadette McCague, Josh Parry and Naga Munchetty
