Google's Eric Schmidt ends mysterious North Korea trip
@CNNMoney January 10, 2013: 1:30 AM ET
Arriving in China's capital city, Richardson told reporters that the trip had been productive, and said the delegation had advocated for more open access to information in North Korea, and a stop to missile launches and nuclear tests.
"We enjoyed our trip to the DPRK, especially with the North Korean people, and we had a good opportunity to talk about expanding the Internet and cell phones in the DPRK," Richardson told the Associated Press before boarding the flight from Pyongyang to Beijing.
Richardson had described the trip as a "private humanitarian mission." And it was thought that the delegation would try and negotiate the release of an American, Kenneth Bae, who had been detained in North Korea. By Thursday, it was clear that effort had failed.
Pakistan dismisses claims Indian soldier was beheaded
India and Pakistan traded accusations yesterday after Delhi claimed two of its soldiers had been killed and their bodies mutilated by Pakistani troops in the disputed region of Kashmir. It said one of the soldiers had been decapitated. Pakistan rejected the claims.
In what has been described as the most serious incident along the so-called Line of Control (LoC) for ten years, Indian army officials claimed a raiding party of Pakistani troops entered Indian territory and attacked a patrol. The incident on the de facto border followed the shooting of a Pakistani soldier by an Indian soldier, two days earlier
DIPLOMACY
Palestinian rival factions in reconciliation deal
The leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions have agreed to implement a long-delayed reconciliation deal during talks in Cairo. It was the rival parties' first meeting in almost a year.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the secular Fatah movement and Khaled Meshaal who leads the Islamist group Hamas met in Cairo on Wednesday in a renewed effort to end years of infighting. Fatah currently controls the West Bank, while Hamas is based in the Gaza strip.
The two reportedly agreed to implement the reconciliation unity agreement, signed in Cairo in May 2011. The 2011 deal called on both sides to form a unity government that would oversee an election and reform Abbas' Palestine Liberation Organization to include Hamas. Its main provisions have yet to be put into practice.
The Waiting Room by the SeaTimes Are A-Changin' in Havana
By Walter Mayr in Havana
The first building on Havana's seaside promenade, Malecón 13, lies between the old city and the ocean.
It's still inhabited. Behind a crumbling façade, there is an open passageway, with rusty iron bars under a starry sky, the sounds of salsa music and the clattering of plates. The back of the building faces Calle San Lázaro, with its opulent but decaying colonial buildings. Residents hoping to avoid the threat of being crushed to death by crumbling caryatids on the open street can duck into Los Borrachos, a local rum bar.
It's still inhabited. Behind a crumbling façade, there is an open passageway, with rusty iron bars under a starry sky, the sounds of salsa music and the clattering of plates. The back of the building faces Calle San Lázaro, with its opulent but decaying colonial buildings. Residents hoping to avoid the threat of being crushed to death by crumbling caryatids on the open street can duck into Los Borrachos, a local rum bar.
Europe's recession puts Italian women's workplace gains on ice
Although chronically low, the employment rate for women in Italy had been on a gradual upswing in recent decades. But with the recession, that trend stopped.
By Giulia Lasagni, Contributor / January 9, 2013
When Greta Lauri was in college, she thought that by playing by the rules she could achieve what she considered a normal life: a family and a fulfilling job using her degree in foreign languages.
Then she got married and went through a frustrating job search. She eventually landed a temporary job, but when she had her first child, her contract wasn’t renewed. Later, she was hired as a teacher of Italian as a second language, but the recession hit, and her hours were cut back. When she had her second child, her position wasn’t extended, again leaving her without maternity benefits. Now, in her early 30s, she’s out of work.
Ms. Lauri's story is a familiar one among Italy's working women. Although all Italians have been feeling the effects of Europe's economic crisis, the recession has amplified the structural problems plaguing Italy’s female workers, according to Istat, Italy’s statistics bureau. As a result, not only have recent trends narrowing the traditional gap between female and male employment stopped, but women are increasingly forced into temporary positions and they feel greater, cultural burdens in the home, where they are primary caregivers in the absence of effective government policies to support the family.
Mexico enacts law to help drug war victims
January 9, 2013, 2:16 p.m.
MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican government on Wednesday enacted a controversial law aimed at giving recognition and recourse to tens of thousands of victims of the drug-related violence that has raged across the nation for the last six years.
In a ceremony where survivors held photographs of missing or slain children, parents and spouses, President Enrique Peña Nieto said the law would require authorities to assist victims and establish a fund for possible reparations.
“There is today a Mexico that has been hurt by crime,” the president said. “With this law, the Mexican state hopes to restore hope and consolation to the victims.... This law is the beginning of an entire network of protection.”
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