Six In The Morning

Timbuktu Endured Terror Under Harsh Shariah Law

By LYDIA POLGREEN

TIMBUKTU, Mali — When the Islamist militants came to town, Dr. Ibrahim Maiga made a reluctant deal. He would do whatever they asked — treat their wounded, heal their fevers, bandage up without complaint the women they thrashed in the street for failing to cover their heads and faces. In return, they would allow him to keep the hospital running as he wished.

Then, one day in October, the militants called him with some unusual instructions. Put together a team, they said, bring an ambulance and come to a sun-baked public square by sand dunes.

There, before a stunned crowd, the Islamist fighters carried out what they claimed was the only just sentence for theft: cutting off the thief’s hand. As one of the fighters hacked away at the wrist of a terrified, screaming young man strapped to a chair, Dr. Maiga, a veteran of grisly emergency room scenes, looked away.

The Irish Times - Friday, February 1, 2013

Spanish PM implicated in slush fund allegations

GUY HEDGECOE in Madrid

Fresh revelations about the finances of the ruling Partido Popular (PP) have heaped pressure on the Spanish government, with several senior politicians facing allegations of having received illegal payments from a slush fund, including prime minister Mariano Rajoy.

El País newspaper yesterday published details of notebooks kept by two of the PP’s former treasurers, which apparently logged unusual payments made to senior party figures between 1993 and 2008.

One of the former treasurers, Luis Bárcenas, is being investigated for his part in a fraud case that has implicated other members of the PP. The revelation earlier this month that he had held a Swiss bank account containing up to €22 million unleashed the PP payments scandal.

Named in notebooks 

According to the newspaper, Mr Rajoy’s name appears in the notebooks from 1997, when he was a minister, until 2008, when he was leader of the PP in opposition. The ledgers state he received payments totalling €25,200 each year.

LATIN AMERICA

Colombia's middle class powered by loans

Colombia's economy has improved over the past two decades, but the new middle class has only profited to a limited extent. Their social and economic situation is insecure.

Colombia's middle class is growing. The World Bank estimates that the percentage of Columbians who count themselves middle class has risen to 28 from 15 percent over the past 10 years.

A study on social mobility in Colombia led by Alejandro Gaviria, former dean of the economics department at the University of the Andes in Bogota, found that around two million Colombian households moved out of poverty and into the middle class over the past decade, doubling the size of the middle class to 30 percent of the population.

Last year Colombia's economy grew by nearly 6 percent, and it's expected to grow by 5 percent in 2013. The statistics show that around 14 million Colombians belong to the middle class, nearly 17 million are poor and 1.4 million rich.

UN demands action on Tahrir Square rapes

Sapa-AP | 01 2月, 2013 09:02

UN officials deplored reports that 25 women were sexually assaulted during recent protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and demanded that Egyptian authorities take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, said her agency "is deeply disturbed by the gravity of recent attacks against women, including the reports of sexual assault, many of which occurred in the same Tahrir Square in which women rallied to contribute to a better future for their country."

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said about 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square in demonstrations in recent days, in some cases with extraordinary violence.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she deplores the attacks and the fact that authorities have failed to prevent them or bring the perpetrators to justice.

1 February 2013 Last updated at 02:03 GMT

Bridging the Gulf: Women architects in the UAE

By Razia IqbalBBC News

Some in the West get the impression that the Middle East offers women little in the way of equal opportunities but, in the United Arab Emirates, female architects are helping design and build their own cities.

In the past decade, the Dubai skyline has been utterly transformed, with steel and glass towers emerging out of the desert at a striking rate.

And the biggest of them all - the Burj Khalifa - puts Dubai on the world map, as the city with the tallest building in the world, its tip piercing the clouds and forcing the eye ever upwards.

It is this huge building boom which partly explains why a surprisingly disproportionate number of women are choosing to study architecture. Pallavi Dean is a startling figure on a building site - eight and a half months pregnant, wearing a shiny, pink, hard hat.

When dictators fall, so do their banknotes

When dictatorships crumble, the currencies commemorating their leaders are often hastily replaced. The following now defunct or possibly soon-to-be defunct banknotes are imbued with the symbols and iconography of their strongman leaders, past and present.

1. Libyan dinar

Pictured: one-dinar note, acquired in Benghaziin 2011

Even as eastern Libyans rose up in droves, they continued using currency bearing the faces of two former leaders – one they loathed and one they loved. A young, svelte Muammar Qadaffismiled out from the ubiquitous one-dinar note, while celebrated anti-colonial resistance leader Omar al-Mukhtar graced the 10-dinar note.

Mr. Mukhtar, a celebrated early 20th century anti-colonial resistance leader who was executed by Italian authorities in 1931, became a symbol of the Libyan rebellion in the eastern Libyan state of Cyrenaica. As of this writing, Libyans continue to use the Qaddafi-era currency, although Libyan authorities report the distribution of a new currency, which won't feature Qaddafi, is imminent.