EGYPT
Morsi backers, opponents clash over Egypt constitution
Egypt's army has reportedly deployed tanks outside the presidential palace in Cairo. This follows clashes between opponents and supporters of President Mohammed Morsi over his plans for a constitutional referendum.
Protests in Egypt between Morsi supporters and opponents continued into the early hours of Thursday morning.
In Cairo, protesters threw petrol bombs and rocks at each other near the presidential palace in the neighborhood of Heliopolis.
Clashes broke out between the two sides after Islamists answered a call from the Muslim Brotherhood to march on the palace, where hundreds of anti-Morsi protesters were camped out. The tents outside the palace were torn down in the violence before riot police moved into the area. Health ministry officials report that at least four people were killed and 350 people were injured in the clashes.
Indian officers named in report on Kashmir abuses
Report identifies 500 'alleged perpetrators' of human rights abuses from low-ranking policemen to Indian army generals
Hundreds of serving Indian soldiers, including senior officers, are accused of involvement in widespread human rights abuses in Kashmir in a new report to be published on Thursday.
Many have been decorated and promoted despite serious allegations against them, the authors say. In a move likely to provoke anger, the report, by a team of veteran legal activists in the Himalayan state, names 500 "alleged perpetrators" ranging from low-ranking policemen to Indian army generals.
The charges relate to incidents occurring throughout more than 20 years of violence pitting armed religious and separatist groups against New Delhi's rule in Kashmir, and include shootings, abductions, torture and rapes.
The Irish Times - Thursday, December 6, 2012
Kosovo and Serbia agree to joint controls at border
DANIEL McLAUGHLIN
Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to control crossing points on their disputed border jointly and to send liaison officers to each other’s capitals, signalling a potential breakthrough in co-operation between the two states as they try to accelerate their bids for EU membership.
The deal came following several hours of EU-brokered talks between Serb prime minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, and less than a week after Belgrade was outraged by a UN court’s acquittal of a former Kosovo rebel leader of war crimes against Serbs.
China to ditch the pomp and circumstance
December 6, 2012 - 1:51PM
Keith Richburg
In one of Xi Jinping's first moves as China's leader, he has called for less jargon-filled communication from the government.
Beijing: Just three weeks after taking over as his country's leader, Xi Jinping is trying to give Chinese communism a more common touch.
Out are the tedious discourses laden with Marxist-Leninist cliches and clunky references to "Deng Xiaoping thought" and "the Three Represents". In are short, punchy statements marked by plain language and an informal style.
Xi personally signalled the change at a news conference on November 15, his first as the Communist Party's general secretary. His brief prepared remarks stood in sharp contrast to the lengthy, theory-heavy statement delivered by his predecessor, Hu Jintao, when he took the job in 2002.
Ghana’s newfound oil focus of poll campaign
By AFP
Ghana’s presidential election on Friday will be the country’s first since a much heralded start of oil production in 2010 and the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that came with it.
But in this quiet city along the Atlantic coast which has become Ghana’s de facto oil hub, located several hours by road from the capital Accra, dreams of streets paved of gold and jobs for everyone have fallen far short of reality.
“The excitement that greeted the announcement of the discovery soon vanished,” said Mohammed Adam, the former head of Ghana’s Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas and now a private analyst working with both the government and independent groups.
Colombia's narco-sub 'museum' gives a peek into drug trafficking tactics
For years, smugglers have been using semi-submersibles to traffic drugs. As the US wages the war on drugs, Colombia’s Pacific coast is the Silicon Valley of narco-innovation.
Stacked along one edge of the Bahía Málaga naval base is what authorities call “the museum” – a long row of impounded vehicles that chart the evolution of the drug trafficking industry. There are the lumbering fishing boats that used to run marijuana in the 1970s and 1980s, Miami Vice-era “go-fast” boats, and an entire fleet of manned and unmanned semisubmersibles.
But the crown jewel of the display, and the stuff of drug enforcement nightmares, is a fully functional narco-sub. Built in the jungle, the hulking blue submarine can carry eight tons of cocaine and is similar to the nation’s own tactical sub, with one addition: This one has indoor plumbing. Discovered last year in the dense mangroves that make this region a smugglers’ paradise, the submarine — technically a “snorkel sub” — can hit speeds of 12-15 knots and travel 8,000 miles. That’s more than enough to make it to the coast of Californiaand back, said Capt. Nelson Hernandez. Designed to travel 32 feet below water with only a small intake valve protruding, it would have been virtually undetectable if it were launched, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment