Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Six In The Morning


Guantanamo Bay sends in 40 medical reinforcements as two thirds of prisoners join hunger strike


100 of 166 inmates now taking part in protest against indefinite detention



Medical reinforcements have arrived at Guantanamo Bay to deal with a growing hunger strike by prisoners at the US detention centre in Cuba.

Roughly 40 US Navy nurses and other specialists arrived over the weekend to deal with the growing number of strikers, which stands at 100 out of the 166 total inmates, according to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House.
Twenty one prisoners are being force-fed through a tube to prevent dangerous weight loss and five are being observed in the base hospital.

New Italian PM tells country ‘we all win or lose together’

Letta calls for seriousness and stability in face of financial crisis

The new PD-PDL coalition government headed by prime minister Enrico Letta last night won its first confidence vote in the lower house by an overwhelming majority.
Earlier, in a wideranging speech, Mr Letta had appealed to sceptics on both sides of the house, arguing that his government merited respect because it would be one of “service”, based on the principles of “national cohesion” and adding: “[With this government], we all win or we all lose together.”
Mr Letta, whose administration was formed after seven weeks of deadlock in the wake of an inconclusive general election in February, acknowledged that one of his first priorities would be to establish the “seriousness and credibility” of his executive. 

Europe's Moral Quandary: The High Human Price of Cheap T-Shirts

By Hasnain Kazim, Nils Klawitter and Wieland Wagner

More than 3,000 people worked producing cheap t-shirts for European clothing chains in the highrise sweatshop that collapsed in Bangladesh last week. Hundreds died because the facility was lacking even the most basic safety standards.

Jamil can't stop thinking about the voices that came from the building: a mixture of pleading, praying, screaming and whimpering that rose from the mountain of ruins. "We heard people calling for help. We heard them begging for water and reciting prayers," the fireman recalls. "But we couldn't do anything for them. So many of were simply beyond our reach." They helped those they could, bringing food and water to people trapped in accessible cavities within the giant mound of rubble that days before was still a functioning factory building.

Hamas 'modesty' crackdown stokes fears of Islamic militancy

April 30, 2013 - 11:29AM

Phoebe Greenwood


Gaza residents are being beaten by police for wearing the wrong clothes, or sporting the wrong hairstyle.

GAZA CITY: It is three weeks since his arrest, but Ismail Halou still has streaks of purple bruising on the soles of his feet. The 22-year-old was filling cars at his family's petrol station in Gaza City at 5pm on April 4 when a black jeep pulled into the forecourt and police stepped out to order him into the car. He was blindfolded and driven to the nearest police station.
"I could hear the screams of people being beaten in the rooms next to me," he recalled. "Two men held my legs down and tied them together on a wooden board then they beat the soles of my feet with a plastic rod. They beat me for at least five minutes. I was crying and screaming with agony. It was the worst pain I've ever felt."
Young people should be concerned with their education and what Israel is doing to us, rather than concentrating on the outside world and pop star haircuts. 
Ihab al-Ghusain, Hamas spokesman
After the beating, officers set to work shaving off the one-inch fin of gelled hair that was the cause of his arrest.

Africa's future leaders benefit from Beijing's aid programme

China's African aid programme aims to offer 18 000 government scholarships and train 30 000 Africans by 2015.

China has been courting Robert Ocholla with the awkward intensity of a high-school romance. First it granted the 36-year-old Kenyan agricultural official a full scholarship for a three-year master's degree in Beijing. Then came the comfortable dorm room, the snazzy banquets and the complimentary Peking opera tickets. "Sometimes it's a bit too much," Ocholla said, smiling and slowly shaking his head.
Last summer, the then Chinese president Hu Jintao announced an expansive aid programme that will offer 18 000 government scholarships and train 30 000 Africans "in various sectors" by 2015. Ocholla is one of 63 government officials from Kenya to benefit directly from these promises. Chinese training programmes vary in type and duration, from three-week political tours for ministerial officials to advanced degree programmes for university administrators.

30 April 2013 Last updated at 03:05 GMT

Egypt's challenge: Free to speak


Under the Mubarak regime, the state closely monitored all forms of political and religious expression in Egypt. Now all that has changed and millions are watching a proliferation of satellite TV channels. Shaimaa Khalil reports on the new voices in the second part of her series Egypt's Challenge.
Talat Harb street is in the heart of central Cairo. It is just three minutes away from Tahrir Square where the Egyptian revolution erupted two years ago and it is where you will find one of Cairo's historic landmarks, the Cinema Radio building.
Abandoned for years, the classic building has been refurbished and is the venue for the TV show of Egypt's most famous political satirist, Bassem Youssef.

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