Hundreds arrested at Occupy Oakland; protesters break into City Hall
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services Sgt. Christopher Bolton of the Oakland Police Department told msnbc.com that the number arrested was likely between 200 and 300. "We are still processing the arrests," he said. He was speaking after the release of a statement on the Oakland City website that put the number of arrests at 200. "That figure is probably on the low side and we don't have a confirmed total yet," said. Sgt Bolton. In the statement, released in a PDF file format, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said: "Once again, a violent splinter group of the Occupy Movement is engaging in violent actions against Oakland. The Bay Area Occupy Movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground." The statement also said there were reports of damage to exhibits inside City Hall during the protest.
Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China US writers attack conditions at Foxconn plant and call for consumers to act
Paul Harris in New York The Observer, Sunday 29 January 2012 Apple, the computer giant whose sleek products have become a mainstay of modern life, is dealing with a public relations disaster and the threat of calls for a boycott of its iPhones and iPads.
The company's public image took a dive after revelations about working conditions in the factories of some of its network of Chinese suppliers. The allegations, reported at length in the New York Times, build on previous concerns about abuses at firms that Apple uses to make its bestselling computers and phones. Now the dreaded word "boycott" has started to appear in media coverage of its activities.
Is Sarkozy about to throw in the towel?
France's leader addresses nation as speculation grows he may not run again
By John Lichfield Sunday 29 January 2012
President Nicolas Sarkozy will be fighting for his political life when he makes a live appearance on French TV tonight. Some senior figures within his own party fear that he has already lost all chance of winning the two-round presidential election in April and May. There is speculation – possibly rooted in wishful thinking – that Mr Sarkozy may soon be tempted to throw in the towel and allow another senior centre-right politician to run in his place.
Sources within his centre-right party insist that the President will make no dramatic statements tonight. He will not say that he is pulling out of the race.
A Papua New Guinea wedding: Face paint, grass aprons and pigs It's not every day you get a chance to visit Papua New Guinea, and even rarer to be invited to a highland wedding, where grass aprons are de rigeur and the bride's value is measured in pigs.
By Pauline Davies Papua New Guinea It was a wedding I could not pass up - a traditional tribal ceremony in the remote southern highlands of Papua New Guinea and I was invited as family.
Komya village was once home for Moses, the bridegroom. After being abandoned as a child and on the verge of starvation, he was taken in by an Australian couple and ended up in Melbourne.
There he met Danielle - my niece. They were only 13 years old, but romance slowly blossomed and a decade later they decided to marry.
Nigeria pressured to end Boko Haram violence Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has killed hundreds in an onslaught of attacks that authorities have been unable to stop, prompting growing calls for talks to bring an end to the bloodshed.
MJ SMITH AND AMINU ABUBAKAR KANO, NIGERIA The group has long had unclear aims and a structure that is difficult to define, but a number of patterns have emerged in violence attributed to Boko Haram, offering more pieces to a complex puzzle.
Attacks blamed on the group took on a new dimension on January 20, when a siege of Nigeria's second-largest city of Kano saw coordinated bombings and shootings which killed at least 185 people.
Active 200-km fault found off Honshu's Kii Peninsula Previous shifts caused magnitude 8.6 quake, huge tsunami: scientists
Kyodo Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 An active fault around 200 km long that is believed to have been a source of huge quakes in the past has been found off Honshu's Kii Peninsula, according to researchers at the University of Tokyo.
If the fault on the Nankai Trough moves, it could trigger a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, the researchers said, adding they have found a seabed cliff several hundred meters high that was created by the fault's past movements.
No other company but Bain so closely intertwined with candidate's public, private lives
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, PETER LATTMAN and KEVIN ROOSE When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering.
When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million.
And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for the presidency, Goldman is coming through again: Its employees have contributed at least $367,000 to his campaign, making the firm Mr. Romney’s largest single source of campaign money through the end of September.
Israel warns time is running out before it launches strike on Iran Growing body of opinion suggests that Iranian response to an attack would be muted
Saturday 28 January 2012
Economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States can only be allowed a limited time period to prevent Iran from attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal before a military strike must be contemplated, Israeli leaders have declared.
The tough public stance from Tel Aviv comes amid conflicting reports on the readiness of the Israeli military establishment to carry out an attack on Iran.
Syria: claims of 'racial cleansing' as 14 family members are killed Even by the numbing standards of Syria's uprising, the most brutal of the Arab Spring, the images are harrowing.
By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent Their faces battered and bloodied, the four children are laid out on a bed. The camera hovers first over the corpse of a male toddler in a turquoise sleep suit and blue and pink socks. He is not yet of walking age; his legs are still bowed.
A bib around his neck is splattered in blood and he is lying on the upstretched hand of his older sister, whose face is stained crimson. Beneath them on the sheet are the bodies of two more young children, a boy and a girl, both bearing horrific injuries.
Libya prisoners make new torture allegations New evidence has emerged that supporters of the former Libyan leader, Col Gaddafi, have been tortured while in detention.
The BBC 28 January 2012 The BBC has been told by inmates at a jail in Misrata that they were beaten, whipped and given electric shocks.
The head of the city's military council has dismissed the allegations.
United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has called on Libya's transitional government to take full control of all prisons.
The allegations come exactly 100 days after Col Gaddafi's violent death at the hands of former rebels.
Army up his sleeve: Mugabe’s military strongmen likely to stay
RAY NDLOVU HARARE, ZIMBABWE The two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parties led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube have now threatened to fight Mugabe "legally and politically" in a bid to block the reappointments, which observers believe will strengthen Mugabe's position ahead of elections expected this year.
The terms of office of Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri expire at the end of this month. Coming to an end in February are the terms of office for the prisons services commissioner, retired Major General Paradzai Zimondi, air force commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri and Zimbabwe National Army commander Lieutenant General Philip Sibanda.
How Haiti is fighting poverty by killing cash With many of Haiti's physical banks destroyed, Haitians are beginning to rely on their cell phones as 'mobile wallets.'
By Margo Conner, Global Envision / In Haiti, cash is escaping from wallets and savings accounts are breaking free from brick-and-mortar banks.
Two years after 2010’s devastating earthquake, mobile money has taken off in the island nation. While the country has seen setbacks in many areas and continues to struggle, one bright spot is the transformation of the country’s traditional banking sector.
Physical banks were wiped away by the quake and subsequent hurricane, and a mobile banking network that uses cell phones has grown up in their place.
South Korean pop music known as 'K-Pop', is flourishing around the world, finding new fans across Asia, Europe and the US.
With attractive artists, catchy tunes and polished dance moves, K-Pop is the number one draw-card for tourists to South Korea and generates tens of millions of export dollars.
But punishing schedules and contracts, plus links to prostitution and corruption have revealed a dark side to the industry.
Meanwhile critics claim K-Pop is too manufactured to create mega-international stars or to sustain its future.
101 East explores South Korea's K-Pop phenomenon and asks if it is a music revolution that is set to last.
Korea's music and entertainment are not the exception when it comes to the abusive treatment of those involved. These people are treated at best like chattel and at worse as slaves. Lives so controlled that one might use a metaphor; seemingly free yet kept in solitary confinement. Conditions which exist in Japan and Taiwan as well.
Nigerian president says government will engage in "dialogue" if the group identifies itself and lays down clear demands.
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2012 The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, has challenged Boko Haram to identify itself and state clearly its demands as a basis for talks.
The radical Islamist group killed more than 500 people last year and another 250 in the first weeks of 2012 in gun and bomb attacks in the West African country, according to Human Rights Watch.
"If they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason why we are resisting, this is the reason why we are confronting government or this is the reason why we destroy some innocent people and their properties ... then there will be a basis for dialogue," Jonathan said in an interview to Reuters at the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja,on Thursday.
Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt faces genocide trial Judge links Rios Montt to deaths of 1,700 people as soldiers used rape and torture to rid country of leftist insurgents in 1980s
Reuters in Guatemala City
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January 2012 Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt will face trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity as the Central American nation seeks to put a brutal 36-year civil war behind it.
A judge found sufficient evidence that linked Rios Montt, who ruled during a particularly bloody period in 1982-83, to the killing of more than 1,700 indigenous people in a crackdown on insurgents.
"I believe that there is enough evidence in these charges," said Judge Carol Flores, who agreed with prosecutors that Rios Montt should answer for brutality under his rule.
Settlers who went too far - even for Netanyahu Donald Macintyre ventures to the village which has provoked a legal crisis in Israel
Friday 27 January 2012
Itai Harel gazed across at the rocky wilderness of the Judaean Mountains and urged us to "look at all this wonderful, empty land all the way from Jerusalem, waiting for its sons to come to build and live in it". It was one of the few moments that Mr Harel, a 38-year-old social worker, turned lyrical in helping to explain why he, his wife and six children are living with 50 other families in a fenced outpost on a remote hilltop east of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Sudan and South Sudan leaders bid to defuse oil dispute The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan are to meet in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss a dispute over transit fees for South Sudan's oil.
The BBC 27 January 2012 Since independence last July, South Sudan has been using Sudan's infrastructure to export its oil.
However, last week South Sudan said it was suspending oil production, accusing Sudan of "stealing" its oil.
Sudan says the south has not been paying transit fees and that it has taken the oil in lieu of payment.
The summit will bring together South Sudanese president Salva Kiir and his Sudanese counterpart - and old enemy - Omar al-Bashir.
Iran Set to Turn Off Oil Supply to Europe The European Union embargo on Iranian oil will only come into effect in six months, but the leadership in Tehran wants to act first: Exports to Europe are set to be halted immediately. It is a move which could mean added difficulties for struggling economies in southern Europe.
Spiegel It's a move which has tit-for-tat written all over it, but one which could nonetheless have a serious impact: The Iranian government wants to present a bill to parliament this weekend calling for an immediate halt to oil deliveries to Europe. The move, with most reports citing the Iranian news agency Mehr, has come about in response to the EU agreement to impose sanctions against Iran, which were announced earlier this week.
The sanctions banned any new contracts for buying oil from Iran, but allowed existing deals to continue until July in order to give countries time to find other sources. But that process is now at risk after the latest move from Tehran, a step the Iranian government had already threatened.
Court blocks 'Mein Kampf' excerpts from being published
By Christopher Cottrell, CNN
January 26, 2012 A civil courtin Munich has blocked a British publisher's plans to print excerpts of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in Germany later this month.
The court ruled Wednesday that British publisher Peter McGee's plans to disseminate portions of the anti-Semitic manifesto in Germany were not protected by long-standing citation rights.
Initially slated to hit the shelves in the Zeitungszeugen magazine in Germany on January 26, it would have been the first time that any parts of the book had been reprinted in a newspaper or magazine in that country since the end of World War II.
The biggest trees in the world, known as the true ecological kings of
the jungle, are dying off rapidly as roads, farms and settlements
fragment forests and they come under prolonged attack from severe droughts and new pests and diseases.
Long-term
studies in Amazonia, Africa and central America show that while these
botanical behemoths may have adapted successfully to centuries of
storms, pests and short-term climatic extremes, they are
counterintuitively more vulnerable than other trees to today's threats.
Palestinians to walk away from peace talks
President Abbas blames Israeli settlements for failed bid to revive top-level negotiations
Jerusalem
Thursday 26 January 2012
The Palestinians were last night preparing to walk away from talks
with Israel aimed at reviving peace negotiations as international
mediators frantically shuttled between Ramallah and Jerusalem in an
attempt to keep the peace process alive.
Palestinian representatives believe that negotiations have run their
course as a deadline for both sides to present proposals on borders and
security expires today. Israel, which has criticised the deadline as
"artificial," said talks should continue.
Prisoners being tortured in Libya, UN says Human-rights chief Navi Pillay "extremely concerned" about detainees accused by fighters of being Gaddafi loyalists.
Last Modified: 26 Jan 2012 09:12
Detainees from Libya's war held by fighters continue to be subjected
to torture despite efforts by the provisional government to address the
issue, according to the UN human-rights chief.
Navi Pillay told the UN Security Council on Wednesday she was
extremely concerned about thousands of prisoners, most of them accused
of being loyalists of the toppled government of Muammar Gaddafi and many
from sub-Saharan Africa.
"The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment," Pillay said.
"My staff have received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention that they have visited."
PIP breast implant boss arrested in France
The owner of a French breast implant maker at the centre of a safety scare has been arrested in France.
Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) founder Jean-Claude Mas, 72, was held at his home southern France, police sources told reporters.
In 2010, France banned PIP implants made with the low-grade industrial silicone, amid fears they could rupture and leak.
An estimated 300,000 to 400,000 women in 65 countries were given implants.
In France, 30,000 women were advised to remove them. Interpol
Mr Mas, who was arrested in Six-Fours-les-Plages, has been
under investigation since he revealed in a police interview last year
that PIP ordered employees to hide the unauthorised silicone when they
visited its factory.
Kidnapped US aid contractor reportedly held by militants in Pakistan
Some five months after Warren Weinstein was
kidnapped, the US aid contractor is reported to be in the custody of a
Pakistani Al Qaeda affiliate, McClatchy Newspapers reports.
A kidnapped American aid contractor is alive and in good health, being
held by a Pakistani Al Qaeda affiliate that's likely to use him as a
bargaining chip, according to militants, security officials, and
analysts.
Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped in August from his home in Lahore, Pakistan, is in the custody of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants in North Waziristan,
a ranking Pakistani militant told McClatchy. The militant said he'd
seen Mr. Weinstein last month and at that point "his health was fine."
Australia's Gillard dragged away from Aboriginal protest
By msnbc.com staff and news services
CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dragged away
by security guards Thursday after she was trapped in a restaurant by
rowdy protesters demonstrating for indigenous rights following a
ceremony to mark Australia's national day.
Some 200 supporters of
Aboriginal rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged on its
windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside
officiating at an award ceremony.
The protesters were marching at the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy to
mark 40 years since its establishment and rushed the restaurant in
response to comments by Abbott earlier in the day, The Australian newspaper reported.
In 2005 a squad of U.S. Marines angry over the killing of another Marine entered the Iraqi city of Haditha and killed 24 innocent civilians mostly women and children shot at very close range. One has to wonder if the lives of those killed mean anything. Or, were they just seen as objects and not human because they were Iraqi?
The only US marine to face sentencing for the killing of two dozen unarmed Iraqis in one of the Iraq
war's defining moments has been spared jail time after defending his
squad's storming of the homes of Haditha as a necessary act "to keep the
rest of my marines alive".
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich's
sentence ends a six-year prosecution for the 2005 attack. Eight Marines
were initially charged; one was acquitted and six others had their cases
dropped.
Wuterich, who admitted ordering his squad to "shoot
first, ask questions later" after a roadside bomb killed a fellow
Marine, ended his manslaughter trial by pleading guilty on Monday to a single count of negligent dereliction of duty.
The Haditha killings (also called the Haditha incident or the Haditha massacre) refers to the incident in which 24 Iraqi men, women and children were killed by a group of United States Marines on November 19, 2005 in Haditha, a city in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar. At least 19 of those killed were civilians. It has been alleged that the killings were retribution for the attack on a convoy of Marines with an improvised explosive device that killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas.[1]
An initial Marine Corps communique reported that 15 civilians were
killed by the bomb's blast and eight insurgents were subsequently killed
when the Marines returned fire against those attacking the convoy.
However, other evidence uncovered by the media contradicted the Marines'
account.[2] A Time magazine reporter's questions prompted the United States military
to open an investigation into the incident. The investigation claimed
it found evidence that "supports accusations that U.S. Marines
deliberately shot civilians, including unarmed men, women and children",
according to an anonymous Pentagon official.[3] On December 21, 2006, eight Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines were charged in connection with the incident.[4][5] As of June 2008, charges against seven of the eight Marines had been dropped.[6]
Business booming for the dog smugglers of the Mekong
By Peter Shadbolt, CNN
January 25, 2012 Chinese New Year is a dangerous time for pet dogs in Thailand.
Traditionally the time of peak demand for dog meat in Vietnam, the dog smugglers of the Mekong work deep into the night shipping thousands of animals -- sometimes dozens to a cage -- across the river border with Laos to be trucked on to the dinner tables of the nouveau riche in Hanoi.
"I'd say about 98% of them are domesticated -- a lot of them are stolen pets," says John Dalley of the Phuket-based Soi Dog Foundation. Soi is a Thai word meaning backstreet or alley.
"They've been trained and respond to commands, some of them are even still wearing collars," he says.
Fishing rules must cover EU vessels in foreign waters, campaigners say WWF says reform of fishing policy must ensure that European vessels exploit stocks in international waters sustainably
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 January 2012 06.00 GMT New rules are needed to make sure all European fishing vessels fishing outside of EU waters operate in a sustainable way, campaigners urged on Wednesday.
The current reform of the common fisheries policy, which governs the EU fleet, must make sure that vessels exploiting fish stocks as far away as the Indian Ocean and the southern Atlantic conform to the same standards as in Europe's waters.
We've been here before – and it suits Israel that we never forget 'Nuclear Iran' The Ayatollah ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was the work of the devil
Robert Fisk Wednesday 25 January 2012
Turning round a story is one of the most difficult tasks in journalism – and rarely more so than in the case of Iran. Iran, the dark revolutionary Islamist menace. Shia Iran, protector and manipulator of World Terror, of Syria and Lebanon and Hamas and Hezbollah. Ahmadinejad, the Mad Caliph. And, of course, Nuclear Iran, preparing to destroy Israel in a mushroom cloud of anti-Semitic hatred, ready to close the Strait of Hormuz – the moment the West's (or Israel's) forces attack.
Erdogan Slams 'Racist' France Over Genocide Bill The French Senate has passed a bill making the denial of genocide -- including the massacre of Armenians in 1915 -- a crime. The Turkish reaction has been furious. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced what he called a "racist and discriminatory" attitude towards Turkey.
Spiegel Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed a controversial French bill, which makes denying that the 1915 massacre of Armenians was a genocide a crime, for its "racist and discriminatory" attitude towards Turkey. The Turkish prime minister also threatened to implement unspecified sanctions against France if the bill is signed into law, "step by step, with no retreat."
Whilst Turkey recognizes the deaths of Armenians in 1915 during the break up of the Ottoman Empire, it refuses to accept they amounted to genocide -- contrary to the position of most historians. But with the French Senate having approved the bill on Monday, it now only needs the signature of President Nicolas Sarkozy to become law.
Chinese fire on Tibetan protest
Philip Wen, Beijing
January 25, 2012 TENSIONS have escalated in the sensitive Tibetan region of south-west China after security forces opened fire on ethnic Tibetan protesters, killing at least one and injuring more than 30 others on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
The shootings happened in Luhuo, in the western reaches of Sichuan Province, near the Tibetan border. The dead man has been identified as 49-year-old Norpa Yonten, according to Free Tibet, a London-based advocacy group.
Struggling Nigeria weakened by violence The assault bore the hallmarks of long-term planning: Cars loaded down with heavy explosives and driven by those willing to die
JON GAMBRELL KANO, NIGERIA The coordinated attack in Nigeria's second largest city by the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has shown its metamorphosis from a group that sent out lone motorcycle-riding gunmen to one that deployed scores of killers who moved with military precision. Nigeria's ill-equipped police and military have been unable to confront this growing threat to peace in Africa's most populous nation.
"Nigeria has never seen anything like this before," said Elizabeth Donnelly, a London-based think tank Chatham House analyst. "It's something so diffuse, so amorphous. It's very nimble and really hard to understand and pin down."
