The plight of Syria's Christians: 'We left Homs because they were trying to kill us'
In the civil war, they have tried to stay neutral. But despite this, many are now facing persecution and death
The red Mitsubishi Lancer GT with "go faster" stripes was a source of great pride to Hamlig Bedrosian. It was the only one of its kind in the city, pointed out on the streets as he roared along, an object of admiration and envy among his friends in Aleppo.
The car may have been the reason why the 23-year-old student was ambushed and taken hostage, along with a female friend, as they were travelling to a shopping complex. The revolutionary fighters with Kalashnikovs who led them away subjected Mr Bedrosian – blindfolded and tied up – to savage beatings and threats of execution before the pair was finally freed in exchange for a ransom.
ISRAEL
Israel admits to PLO deputy assassination
Israel has admitted to assassinating a Palestinian Liberation Organization leader 25 years ago. The country was long suspected in the killing, but military censors only recently cleared publication of the information.
Top-selling Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published a report Thursday in which the government admitted to the killing of Khalil al-Wazir, saying the operation was planned by the Mossad spy agency.
Al-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was shot dead April 16, 1988 during a commando raid on the PLO headquarters.
"Israel killed the number two man in the PLO, Abu Jihad, in Tunis in 1988, it can now be reported," the paper said. "The intelligence part of the assassination was overseen by the Mossad, and the operation side was carried out by [the commando unit] Sayeret Matkal."
'Marked for death'
Al-Wazir served as deputy to long-time PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and played a lead role in organizing the 1987-1994 intifada uprising against Israeli occupation.
World divided on Sri Lanka's human rights
November 2, 2012 - 11:11AM
Ben Doherty
Pilloried and praised, congratulated and condemned, Sri Lanka has received a forthright, but divided, assessment of its postwar human rights record.
Sri Lanka, whose 26-year-civil war ended in 2009 with the defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers, was excoriated by a swath of countries, including the US, Britain, France and Canada, at the UN Human Rights Commissioner's universal periodic review hearing in Geneva. Those countries detailed allegations of continuing human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances, torture and state-sanctioned murders.
Opposition figures have been harassed, detained and prosecuted.
But the island nation stoutly defended itself, and was backed by Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan and a host of others, which said it had made solid progress since war's end.
Heirs to a private business empire called Angola
Jose dos Santos's supporters brush off the allegations of nepotism and say his kids are well educated and simply want to be involved in their country.
Oil, diamonds, cars, banking, real estate, cement, retail, television, music, advertising and now sovereign wealth funds - there are few sectors of Angolan life into which the children of long-serving President José Eduardo dos Santos have not spread their tentacles.
The 70-year-old's first-born, Isabel dos Santos, has a vast portfolio of investments in Angola, Portugal, Mozambique and Cape Verde and is often cited as Africa's richest woman.
She owns banks, telecoms companies, a cement factory, a supermarket chain, restaurants, casinos and stakes in utility firms and is linked to countless other joint ventures at home and abroad.
Last month one of her brothers, José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos (Zenú), was appointed head of the country's new $5-billion sovereign wealth fund, the Fundo Soberano de Angola, and there is talk that the 34-year-old may be being groomed as a potential successor to his father.
Day of the Dead: Mexicans mourn loved ones
Families in Oaxaca remembered their lost loved ones last night in the traditional way.
By Lauren Villagran, Correspondent / November 1, 2012
As soon as darkness fell, festive crowds streamed into the candle-lit cemeteries of this southern Mexican city and nearby towns by the thousands.
Day of the Dead falls on Nov. 2 but the celebrations inOaxaca (pronounced Wah-ha-ca) begin days before with the creation of elaborate altars to the dead in homes. The offerings of flowers, fruit, bread, candles, and prayers rarely fail to include testaments to the more mundane aspects of the departed one’s earthly existence: playing cards and other relics of their old life such as yarn for the grandmother who loved to knit or a favorite sombrero for a father who never took off his hat.
For many across the country, the pain of a loved one’s death is fresh. More than 50,000 people have died in the six years since President Felipe Calderón deployed the military to fight the country’s brutal drug cartels and criminal organizations.
Hurricane Sandy provides 'wake-up call' for cities at risk of flooding
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Thu Nov 1, 2012 11:03 PM EDT
The killer storm that pummeled the East Monday and left the nation's largest city with a crippled transit system, widespread power outages and severe flooding has resurfaced the debate about how best to protect a city like New York against rising storm surges.
"Hurricane Sandy is a wake-up call to all of us in this city and on Long Island," Malcolm Bowman, professor of physical oceanography at State University of New York at Stony Brook, told NBC's Richard Engel, who surveyed the damage from a police helicopter Thursday. "That means designing and building storm surge barriers like many cities in Europe already have."
Bowman points to storm surge barrier projects in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in the Netherlands as models. In the Netherlands, a country where a considerable part of the population lives below sea level, such barriers help control flooding in some of the most densely populated areas.
"If we had such barriers in place during Hurricane Sandy there would have been no damage at all," Bowman said.
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