Mikhail Gorbachev, Who Ended The Cold War, Has Died

Mikhail Gorbachev, whose drive to transform the Soviet Union ended the Cold War but inadvertently helped bring about his own country’s collapse, has died, according to Russian news agencies. He was 91. The Tass, RIA Novosti, and Interfax agencies cited the Central Clinical Hospital, according to the Associated Press.

Gorbachev’s reign as the last Soviet premiere from 1985 until 1991 was marked indelibly by two bywords: perestroika — literally “restructuring,” but implying reform — and glasnost, or “openness,” symbols of his intent to shake off the torpor caused by seven decades of authoritarian rule and steady central planning. Hoping to return the Communist Party to its roots in Vladimir Lenin’s October Revolution of 1917, Gorbachev opened up the Soviet political system to broader political participation, public scrutiny, and a re-examination of Josef Stalin’s legacy of mass imprisonment and murder, prompting years of national soul-searching.

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Fernando Alonso: Alpine driver questions Formula 1 direction after US GP penalty

Fernando Alonso
Alpine driver Fernando Alonso, right, fought back from a 180mph crash to finish seventh at the United States GP in Austin, Texas

Fernando Alonso says a penalty he received in the United States Grand Prix raises questions about the direction of the sport under governing body the FIA.

A protest by Alonso’s Alpine team against the decision to demote him out of the points after he finished seventh in a damaged car will be heard on Thursday.

Alonso wrote on Instagram: “It is an important day for the sport as this decision will dictate if we are going in the right direction.”

Alonso said his post was in response to messages of support since the penalty.

He thanked those who had contacted him on social media, adding: “It’s one of those rare times in sport that I feel we are all on the same page and share the same opinion towards rules and regulations.”

Alonso said after the race that he considered his drive one of the best of his career, after he crashed at 180mph, his car did a wheelie, hit a wall, he pitted for a new front wing, resumed at the back and climbed to seventh despite damaged aerodynamic parts.

The two-time champion has questioned the decision-making of officials on a number of occasions this year, and his frustrations about the inconsistency of policing of action on track are shared by the majority of his fellow drivers.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, he accused the FIA ​​of

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Haitian Children Search For Their UN Peacekeeper Fathers

Soon, Appoliner found herself sitting across from Mario Joseph in his office, in an unmarked building along one of the capital city’s narrow, winding streets. By then, Joseph, along with the US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, had grown accustomed to fighting the UN: They had filed a class action lawsuit in a US federal court on behalf of victims of the cholera epidemic, a case they lost when the court upheld the UN’s immunity from damages.

Joseph, 58, has worked some of the country’s most emblematic human rights cases, representing victims of the Raboteau massacre and of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. He grew up in a house with no electricity or running water and believes many of the injustices committed in Haiti are a result of racism and imperialism, endemic not just among the outsiders who interfere in the country, but within the Haitian government as well.

He took Appoliner’s case and began putting together a file for Cortez. In August 2016, Joseph’s law firm sent legal notifications to MINUSTAH informing them that they planned to file child support suits and requesting information on the alleged fathers, including about any investigations related to paternity cases by the UN’s Conduct and Discipline Unit and the results of DNA tests, some of which had been submitted to the organization as early as 2014. The response, said Joseph, was opaque and incomplete. They did not provide details on internal investigations into the claimants’ cases or certification that the peacekeepers’ immunity

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