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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

N.B.A. Players, Coaches and Executives React on Social Media to Sterling’s Ban

On Facebook and Twitter, N.B.A. players, coaches and executives heaped praise on Adam Silver, the league’s new commissioner, for his decision to ban the Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, for making racist remarks that became public in an audio recording.


On Twitter, LeBron James of the Miami Heat praised the decision.

Dwyane Wade, who also plays for the Heat, posted on Twitter:

On Facebook, Harrison Barnes, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, said: “Proud of Commissioner Silver and what he did today! Respect him taking a strong stance on such an important issue.”

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said he supported Mr. Silver’s decision.

Jodie Meeks plays for the Los Angeles Lakers and posted on Twitter that Mr. Silver did a #greatjob.

J. R. Smith, who plays for the New York Knicks, used the hashtag #NoPlaceInOurGameForThis



Before Watchdog Mission, a Trail of Videos Warned of Chlorine Gas Attacks in Syria

Video by a Syrian media activist from Kafr Zita on April 18, showing people suffering from a choking ailment that medical experts said was caused by chlorine gas attacks.

Syrian activists have been posting multiple videos in the past few weeks showing civilians at medical facilities in the village of Kafr Zita coughing and struggling to breathe, with the narrators during the footage identifying the cause of their condition as coming from the use of chlorine gas bombs.

The United States and France have said they are taking seriously accusations that Syrian government forces dropped such bombs in the village, and on Tuesday, as my colleague Nick Cumming Bruce reported, the group that monitors compliance with the treaty banning chemical weapons said that it was sending a mission to Syria to “establish the facts.”

The group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, made the announcement in Geneva.

The Syrian government, which has denied responsibility and has accused the Nusra Front, a jihadi insurgent group, of carrying out the attack, is said by the monitoring organization to have “agreed to accept this mission” and would provide security in areas under government control.

My colleagues Anne Barnard and Ben Hubbard have reported that the attack on Kfar Zita took place on April 11 in the evening, and how in subsequent days videos began to emerge showing people struggling to breathe as they sought medical help.

Kafr Zita, a Syrian media group, posted footage on its YouTube account showing patients at a sparsely equipped medical facility. A doctor goes from one to the other, using just one inhaler device on each of those he attended to, saying they were affected by the gas.

Then an element intruded of the difficulties against which civilians are being medically treated in Syria after years of war: the electrical power suddenly went out.

Footage posted to the YouTube account of Kafr Zita on April 18, showing a doctor speaking in English and describing multiple cases attributed to chlorine gas attack.

Another media activist posted a video in which a Syrian doctor described in English how more than 100 people at a time would come to his clinic after aerial bomb attacks released a yellow gas.

Aous Hassan, an activist, interviewed a Syrian doctor who described the symptoms.

In another video, the same doctor said there are more cases in other hospitals.

Aous Hassan posted a video April 16 showing medical personnel helping a chlorine gas victim.

Kafr Zita activists had posted on their Facebook pages photographs of canister fragments with CL2 stamped into them, the chemical formula for chlorine gas.

The narrator in this video from April 13 said the canister stamped with CL2 had been deployed in an attack the previous night.

A video of a canister stamped with CL2 posted on April 13 in Kafr Zita.

The blogger Eliot Higgins compiled and updated videos and statements related to the reports of the chlorine gas attacks released this month, stating that the footage of used canisters suggested they had been dropped out of aircraft in barrel bombs.

“This seems an incredibly badly designed way of deploying chlorine, but may be the only option available after the OPCW’s work in Syria, and like the chlorine bombs used in Iraq appear to be better at spreading terror than chlorine,” he wrote.

Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christineNYT.



Live Coverage on Weather Channel of Severe Weather Threat

Live coverage from the Weather Channel on the severe weather threat via YouTube.

At least 11 people died Monday in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee after a powerful storm system spawned multiple tornadoes and ripped across several states in the South, bringing the total death toll from the severe weather to more than two dozen people since Sunday, as our colleagues report.

In Alabama and Mississippi, where people were sifting through debris from flattened homes and businesses, weather officials warned there was a risk for more tornadoes in the same parts of both states today, as severe weather is expected from Michigan to Florida.

Since Sunday, at least 30 people have died in the South and Midwest, 15 in Arkansas alone on Sunday, and the National Weather Service has issued 191 tornado warnings. There have been 114 reports of tornadoes.

On Monday, Mississippi and Alabama were hardest hit with tornadoes flattening entire neighborhoods. The devastation was captured on the front pages of two newspapers in Mississippi.

A view of the damage in Tupelo from a resident, Jay Ward.

Scott Peake, a storm chaser, captured on video his encounter with the violent storm in Louisville, Miss.

In Alabama, emergency officials said the storms from Monday had caused widespread damage in Limestone County and they were urging people to stay off the roads.



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