Lions hooker Dan Sheehan suspended for four matches after reckless ruck clearout
Sheehan was cited for charging into a ruck and hitting Lynagh's head on Saturday in the third test won by the Wallabies 22-12 in Sydney.
At his disciplinary hearing, Sheehan disagreed that foul play occurred. But the panel found it was reckless with a high degree of danger.
The panel suspended him from four Leinster club matches in September and October, but allowed him to be available for the fourth match if he completed World Rugby's tackle school.
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Los Angeles Times
3 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
A father's grief and a nation's hope: Lebanon awaits justice 5 years after Beirut blast
BSALIM, Lebanon — George Bezdjian remembers searching for his daughter, Jessica, after a massive explosion at Beirut's port five years ago. He found her at the St. Georges Hospital where she worked as a nurse. The hospital was in the path of the blast and was heavily damaged. He found his daughter lying on the floor as her colleagues tried to revive her. They weren't able to save her. She was one of four medical staff killed there. 'I started telling God that living for 60 years is more than enough. If you're going to take someone from the family, take me and leave her alive,' he told The Associated Press from his home in Bsalim, some 6 miles away from the port. He sat in a corner where he put up portraits of Jessica next to burning incense to honor her. 'I begged him, but he didn't reply to me.' The Aug. 4, 2020 blast in Beirut's port tore through the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse. The gigantic explosion killed at least 218 people, according to an AP count, wounded more than 6,000 others and devastated large swathes of Beirut, causing billions of dollars in damages. It further angered the nation, already in economic free-fall after decades of corruption and financial crimes. Many family members of the victims pinned their hopes on Judge Tarek Bitar, who was tasked with investigating the explosion. The maverick judge shook the country's ruling elite, pursuing top officials, who for years obstructed his investigation. Hundreds gathered near the port on Monday to commemorate the blast, as they have every year since the explosion, carrying placards of lost loved ones and demanding justice. The protests have become smaller and more subdued over the years, compared to mass demonstrations that spiraled into clashes with security forces in the immediate aftermath. Still, the gatherings stand as a testament that the people of Beirut have not forgotten. But five years on, no official has been convicted. And the widespread rage over the explosion and years of apparent negligence from a web of political, security and judicial officials has faded as Lebanon's economy further crumbled and conflict rocked the country. Judge Bitar had aimed to release the indictment last year but it was stalled by months of war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group that decimated large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon, killing some 4,000 people. In early 2025, Lebanon elected President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and a Cabinet that came to power on reformist platforms. They vowed to complete the port probe and hold the perpetrators to account. 'There will be no settlement in the port case before there is accountability,' Salam said Sunday. Bitar, apparently galvanized by these developments, summoned a handful of senior political and security officials in July, as well as three judges in a new push for the case, but was unable to release an indictment over the summer. However, the judge has been working on an additional phase of his investigation — now some 1,200 pages in length — aiming for the indictment to be out by the end of the year, according to four judicial officials and two security officials. They all spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Before completing his own report, Bitar is waiting to receive a fourth and final report from France, which has conducted its own investigation, as several of those killed were French citizens. Bitar is also looking to hear the testimonies of some 15 witnesses, and is reaching out to European and Arab countries for legal cooperation, the officials said. He hopes that some European suspects can be questioned about the shipment of ammonium nitrate and the vessel carrying it that ended up in the Beirut Port. Despite the malaise across much of Lebanon, Kayan Tlais, brother of port supervisor Mohammad Tlais who was killed in the blast, is hopeful that the indictment will see the light of day. 'We do have judges with integrity,' he said. 'The president, prime minister, and all those who came and were voted in do give us hope … they are all the right people in the right place.' The port and the surrounding Beirut neighborhoods appear functional again, but there are still scars. The mammoth grain silos withstood the force of the blast but later partly collapsed in 2022 after a series of fires. Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh Sunday classified them as historical monuments. There was no centralized effort by the cash-strapped Lebanese government to rebuild the surrounding neighborhoods. An initiative by the World Bank, Europe and the United Nations to fund recovery projects was slow to kick off, while larger projects were contingent on reforms that never came. Many family and business owners fixed their damaged property out of pocket or reached out to charities and grassroots initiatives. A 2022 survey by the Beirut Urban Lab, a research center at the American University of Beirut, found that 60% to 80% of apartments and businesses damaged in the blast had been repaired. 'This was a reconstruction primarily driven by nonprofits and funded by diaspora streams,' said Mona Harb, a professor of urban studies and politics at AUB and co-founder of the research center. But regardless of how much of the city is rebuilt and through what means, Aug. 4 will always be a 'dark day of sadness,' says Bezdjian. All that matters to him is the indictment and to find who the perpetrators are. He tries to stay calm, but struggles to control how he feels. 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Yahoo
5 minutes ago
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8 including an Irish missionary are missing after gunmen storm a Haiti orphanage
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Eight people including an Irish missionary and a 3-year-old child remained missing Monday after gunmen stormed an orphanage in Haiti, the latest attack in an area controlled by a powerful collection of armed gangs. Authorities scrambled to relocate dozens of children and staff from the Saint-Hélène orphanage run by Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs, an international charity with offices in Mexico and France. The orphanage cares for more than 240 children, according to its website. Among those kidnapped early Sunday was Gena Heraty, an Irish missionary who has worked in Haiti for 30 years and oversaw the orphanage. She was assaulted in 2013 when suspects broke into the orphanage and killed her colleague, according to Irish media. Sunday marked the latest high-profile kidnapping involving a foreign missionary. In 2021, the 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped 17 missionaries, including five children, from a U.S. -based organization in Ganthier, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The majority were held captive for 61 days. Sunday's kidnapping occurred in Kenscoff, a once peaceful community in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. The doors to the orphanage remained closed on Monday as Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare and Research worked with UNICEF to identify sites where children and employees could be relocated. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in an area controlled by a gang federation known as ' Viv Ansanm.' The U.S. this year designated it as a foreign terrorist organization. Simon Harris, Ireland's deputy prime minister, said in a statement that the kidnappings of Heraty and the others were 'deeply worrying," and called for their immediate release. In a past interview with the Irish Independent newspaper, Heraty recalled being threatened to death when suspects broke into the orphanage in 2013. 'They were quite aggressive. One had a hammer, one had a gun,' she said. Heraty said her colleague was killed with a hammer after he rushed to help her and others. 'The last place you would expect a violent death to happen in Haiti would be in a house with special-needs people," she said. "Life is just not fair. We know that. We just have to accept it.' At least 175 people in Haiti were reported kidnapped from April to the end of June of this year, with 37% of those cases occurring in Port-au-Prince. The United Nations said a majority of those kidnappings were blamed on the Grand Ravine and Village de Dieu gangs, which form part of the Viv Ansanm federation. Pierre-richard Luxama And Dánica Coto, The Associated Press
