Into the South

What will it take to end fighting between the government and insurgents in Thailand’s deep south?

It is said that the dead tell no tale. But in death, the widows of two of south Thailand’s most wanted militants reveal the deepest thoughts behind men involved in the region’s most violent conflict. Hasem Bueraheng and Maroso Chantrawadee were among some 60 armed insurgents who mounted a daring raid on a marine base in Thailand’s Narathiwat province. The mission failed. Both were among 16 militants killed while the rest fled. Their widows - Prachaya Binjehmoodor and Rusnee Maeloh - see them as martyrs. They tell us about the turning point that caused them to fight for an independent Pattani state, and what life was like in the years that followed. Ahmad Somboon Bualang of the Thailand Center for Muslim & Democratic Development takes us into the history of the region. The southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were part of the Malay-Muslim sultanate of Pattani. In 1909, it was annexed by Thailand, then known as Siam. Over the decades, resistance against Buddhist-centric Thai rule has been simmering with the ebb and flow of separatist movements fighting for a Malay-Muslim state.

Snowden, Greenwald and the media saga

We discuss media treatment of the whistleblower and the journalist who brought his revelations to light.

Where in the world is Edward Snowden? It is the question every news outlet has been asking since the former NSA contractor left Hong Kong, apparently for Russia, possibly on his way to Ecuador via Cuba. Reporters in Moscow even boarded a Havana-bound flight, only to find an empty seat where Snowden should have been sitting. We can only imagine how their faces dropped when the cabin doors closed. But while some reporters rack up air miles spinning Snowden’s story as a real life spy thriller, others have turned their attention to the journalist who brought his revelations to light. Former lawyer turned Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald has led the challenge to power that the leaks about suspicionless surveillance represent, and now he, following Snowden, has been the subject of a hostile media reception.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Thousands gather for rival rallies in Egypt
Pro- and anti-government protesters converge in Cairo on first anniversary of inauguration of Mohamed Morsi.

Gregg Carlstrom Last Modified: 30 Jun 2013 07:13
Egypt braced for mass protests on Sunday as pro- and anti-government protesters gathered in the capital on the first anniversary of the inauguration of country's first democratically elected president. Thousands of people opposed to President Mohamed Morsi have already gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square calling for him to resign, while the president's supporters have vowed to defend his legitimacy to the end, leading to fears of confrontation. Morsi supporters held their own rally outside a Cairo mosque on Friday, an effort to preempt Sunday’s demonstrations, and thousands of them are holding an open-ended sit-in. The anti-Morsi protests are being organised by a grassroots campaign calling itself Tamarod, meaning "rebellion" or "insubordination", which claims to have collected signatures from 22 million Egyptians demanding the president’s ouster.

The water is running out in Gaza: Humanitarian catastrophe looms as territory's only aquifer fails


REUTERS SUNDAY 30 JUNE 2013
The Gaza Strip, a tiny wedge of land jammed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea, is heading inexorably into a water crisis that the United Nations says could make the Palestinian enclave uninhabitable in just a few years. With 90 to 95 per cent of the territory's only aquifer contaminated by sewage, chemicals and seawater, neighbourhood desalination facilities and their public taps are a lifesaver for some of Gaza's 1.6 million residents. But these small-scale projects provide water for only about 20 per cent of the population, forcing many more residents in the impoverished territory to buy bottled water at a premium. The UN estimates that more than 80 per cent of Gazans buy their drinking water. "Families are paying as much as a third of their household income for water," said June Kunugi, a special representative of the UN children's fund Unicef.

Attacks from America: NSA Spied on European Union Offices
America's NSA intelligence service allegedly targeted the European Union with its spying activities. According to SPIEGEL information, the US placed bugs in the EU representation in Washington and infiltrated its computer network. Cyber attacks were also perpetrated against Brussels in New York and Washington.

By Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Fidelius Schmid and Holger Stark
Information obtained by SPIEGEL shows that America's National Security Agency (NSA) not only conducted online surveillance of European citizens, but also appears to have specifically targeted buildings housing European Union institutions. The information appears in secret documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden that SPIEGEL has in part seen. A "top secret" 2010 document describes how the secret service attacked the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington. The document suggests that in addition to installing bugs in the building in downtown Washington, DC, the EU representation's computer network was also infiltrated. In this way, the Americans were able to access discussions in EU rooms as well as emails and internal documents on computers.

Credible reports that Nigerian troops killed civilians: commission
Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission said Sunday it has credible reports security forces are killing, torturing, illegally detaining and raping civilians in a fight to halt an Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria that has killed nearly 2,000 people since 2010.

Sapa-AP | 30 June, 2013 08:24
A report by the commission said troops retaliating against civilians have torched homes and tried to hide evidence of gross violations by disposing of bodies. In the most egregious case, where troops went on a rampage in several villages after a soldier was killed in mid-April in the fishing village of Baga, it quoted police as saying soldiers "started shooting indiscriminately at anybody in sight including domestic animals. This reaction resulted to loss of lives and massive destruction of properties."

Serbia gets green light to negotiate entry to European Union
Serbia: After decades of transformation, the former Yugoslav republic will begin negotiating to join the EU in January 2014. Once considered a pariah because of its role in the collapse of Yugoslavia, Serbia has made democratic reforms and captured fugitives wanted for war crimes.

By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak, Reuters
Serbia won the green light on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the European Union, capping a remarkable transformation in the prospects of the biggest former Yugoslav republic since the 1990s wars. The decision, taken at an EU summit, rewards Belgrade for an April deal to improve relations with its former province of Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in a 1998-99 guerrilla war. EU leaders also agreed Brussels should launch negotiations with Kosovo on a so-called association agreement, which covers trade, economic and political relations and is a step on the path to eventual EU membership.

Mummies reveal ancient nicotine habit


Joseph Castro LiveScience
The hair of mummies from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile reveals the people in the region had a nicotine habit spanning from at least 100 B.C. to A.D. 1450. Additionally, nicotine consumption occurred on a society-wide basis, irrespective of social status and wealth, researchers say. The finding refutes the popular view that the group living in this region smoked tobacco for just a short stint before moving on to snuffing hallucinogens.

When in doubt give disaster relief funds to nuclear power companies

With thousands of people still living in temporary housing in northeast Japan and still more unemployed   the Japanese government decided that the best use for disaster relief funds meant to help those effected by the triple disaster  was to give the money to nuclear power companies.

Funds set aside to help earthquake, tsunami and nuclear victims have been allocated to power companies, officials in Japan said Friday, a move that could fuel fury among people who lost their homes.

About 10 billion yen of the 25 trillion yen pledged for disaster recovery over several years has been reserved to offset costs for utility companies that were ordered to shut nuclear power plants in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.

The news comes after it was revealed public cash had been used in areas seemingly unaffected by the natural catastrophe, including on beefing up security for Japan’s controversial whale hunt and on paying people to count turtles.

Officials said Friday that around 2 billion yen had already been given to Chubu Electric Power to help it make interest payments on bank loans taken out to fund the spiraling cost of fossil fuels.

Six In The Morning

Taliban talks 'were needed a decade ago' says senior British commander

EMMA CLARK

 

 

SATURDAY 29 JUNE 2013

The West should have attempted talks with the Taliban a decade ago, a senior British commander in Afghanistan has said, after efforts to negotiate with the insurgents have faltered.

General Nick Carter, deputy commander of the Nato-led coalition told The Guardian that it would have been more successful to approach the Taliban in 2002 after they were knocked from power.

The United States and Afghanistan are still waiting to hear from the Taliban about opening peace talks, but remain willing to go ahead with negotiations despite a stir the militant group caused in opening a new office in Qatar.

UK Muslim leaders warn of sex grooming

Sermon in mosques follows series of convictions for abuse of underage girls

Mark Hennessy

Muslims in dozens of mosques across Britain who gathered for Friday prayers yesterday were told that a series of convictions for Muslim men who had groomed white teenagers for sex posed “a major challenge”.

On Thursday, five members of a paedophile gang – all from Pakistani or north African backgrounds – were jailed for life in Oxford following eight years of vicious abuse of girls as young as 12.

The convictions followed a number of others involving Muslim men who plied girls, often from broken homes, with alcohol and drugs before passing them around for sex.

Chaos and Crime: The Trials of Running a Syrian Refugee Camp

By Takis Würger

Local mafia controls a Jordanian camp housing over 100,000 war refugees from Syria. A German aid worker competing with these criminals is determined to preserve the camp residents' dignity.

Kilian Kleinschmidt walks into the camp armed with a 6-inch stainless steel hook. "I hate refugee camps," he says. He is holding the hook in his hand like a dagger.

It is getting dark, and a military policeman tells Kleinschmidt that under no circumstances should he go into the camp at night. Kleinschmidt walks through the gate in silence.

The Zaatari Camp houses 116,000 refugees who fled to Jordan from the war in Syria. They live in trailers and tents with the letters UNHCR imprinted on them in blue.

Graphic: US military's presence in Africa

From Mali, Nigeria to Ethiopia, here's a graphic of the countries where the US has bases or has conducted exercises or operations in 2013.

Read: Obama's scramble for Africa: US ‘stability’ has ripped Africa apart

Mexico City to host NBA this season

On Dec. 4, the San Antonio Spurs will face the Minnesota Timberwolves in what will be second regular-season game to ever be played in Mexico City.

By Lauren Villagran, Correspondent / June 28, 2013

The NBA announced this week that two games during the 2013-2014 season will be played internationally – one in London and another in Mexico City, where the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves are likely to receive a warm welcome.

Basketball is the country’s second most-practiced sport – after much-adored soccer – according to Mexico’s National Professional Basketball League, or LNBP. People play in the thousands of courts that anchor schoolyards, gyms, and public parks.

When indigenous Zapatista communities in Chiapas gather for a celebration, the festivities often open on a basketball court. Women play fierce games, sometimes in skirts, frequently preferring bare feet to sandals.

Middle-class rage sparks protest movements in Turkey, Brazil, Bulgaria and beyond

By Anthony Faiola and Paula Moura, Saturday, June 29, 5:51 AM E-mail the writer

As protests raged in Turkey and were set to explode in distant Brazil, Asen Genov sat in his office in Bulgaria’s capital on the cloudy morning of June 14, about to strike the computer key that would spark a Bulgarian Spring.

Only months earlier, public outrage over high electricity bills in the country had brought down a previous government, but Genov saw more reason for anger when the new administration tapped a shadowy media mogul to head the national security service. Furious, Genov posted a Facebook event calling for a protest in Sofia, the nation’s capital, though he was dubious about turnout for a demonstration focused not on pocketbooks but on corruption and cronyism in government.

Watch: The Story Of An Incredible Escape From North Korea-TED Talk

A total stranger helped Hyeonseo Lee pay her mother and brother's way out of jail as they fled from North Korea. Now, four years later, Lee has been reunited with that stranger, getting the chance to thank him in person. In Lee's heart-wrenching TED2013 talk, "My escape from North Korea," she describes defecting from North Korea in the late '90s. But as she describes in the second half of her talk, after years of hiding she returned to China to help her family make their own escape. When her mother and brother were captured in Vientiane, Laos, and jailed for illegal border crossing, Lee describes how, out of money and desperate for a solution, she was approached by a foreigner. After hearing Lee's story, this stranger withdrew a large sum of cash -- £645 to be exact -- from an ATM. With the money to use as a bribe, Lee's family was able to escape.

Late Night Ignoring Asia

Japan's racing to the past party offers up its Manifesto

The Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party) on Thursday unveiled its manifesto for the July 21 upper house election.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who co-heads the party with former Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara, said the party’s pledges aim to achieve what no previous government has been able to, Sankei Shimbun reported.
Key policy pledges include achieving economic growth of more than 3%, enabling the public to directly elect the prime minister, scrapping the upper house, halving the number of seats in the lower house from 480 to 240, changing the consumption tax into a regional tax, reorganizing prefectures into larger regional blocs, joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) framework and ending the nation’s reliance on nuclear power.
Referring to the controversy over Hashimoto’s remarks on Japan’s wartime military brothels, the manifesto says the party will clarify historical facts and protect Japan’s dignity, Sankei reported. 

By clarifying history they mean making sure everyone is in complete denial



Happy days are here again
 

North Korea was ranked 23rd in “Failed States Index”. According to an American media specializing in foreign policy FP and a non-partisan research institute The Fund For Peace, the Failed States Index evaluated North Korea 95.1 points and ranked the country 23rd among 178 countries. Since 2005, the two agencies have been annually presenting countries’ level by vulnerability by evaluating them under 12 different categories, including government control, human rights, civil order, economic condition, intervention of other states and more.

 

North Korea knows fail


We're from the government

BEIJING - There were 7.089 million civil servants in China by the end of 2012, the State Administration of Civil Service revealed Thursday.

The number was up from 7.021 million by the end of 2011, according to a statement posted on the administration's official website.

China had 6.597 million civil servants in 2008, 6.789 million in 2009 and 6.894 million in 2010, according to the administration, which is affiliated to the country's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

And no we're not here to help

Six In The Morning

In India, ethnic Chinese still waiting for apology

Thousands were rounded up as suspected spies and sent to an internment camp after India lost a 1962 border war with China. India never filed any charges.

By Mark Magnier

June 28, 2013, 1:01 a.m.

KOLKATA, India — India-born Monica Liu was 9 in 1962 when her family was loaded into box cars for an eight-day rail trip to an internment camp in the western Indian desert.

The Lius were among about 3,000 people of Chinese descent, most of them Indian citizens, rounded up without trial as suspected spies or sympathizers and placed in Rajasthan state's Deoli camp after India's one-month border war with China. Her family remained in detention until 1967.

Over the decades, the Chinese-Indian community has paid a high price for India's humiliating defeat and the subsequent distrust between the two Asian giants. In May, recently named Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited India in a bid to improve relations. But few expect close ties anytime soon, in light of a disputed 2,100-mile border and India's hosting of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

Long consumed by fear, anger and denial, many former detainees have only recently begun speaking out, urging New Delhi to admit mistakes, as Washington finally did in 1988 for the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Brazilian protesters clash with police near Confederations Cup stadium

Around 5,000 protesters in clashes with police near Castelao stadium in Fortaleza where Spain beat Italy in semi-final tie

• Associated Press in Fortaleza
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 June 2013 09.18 BST

Around 5,000 anti-government protesters clashed with police on Thursday near a football stadium that hosted one of the Confederations Cup semi-finals.

The protesters marched peacefully, but clashes broke out as they neared the outer limits of a security zone about a mile from the stadium in Fortaleza, where Spain beat Italy on penalties. In Rio de Janeiro around 2,000 protesters marched without incident.

The marches were the latest in a series of nationwide protests in Brazilthat began on 17 June. Sparked by a small rise in bus fares, the protests have spiralled amid anger about corruption and poor public services despite Brazilians' heavy tax burden.

A lost generation: Europe's unemployed youths face years trapped in a downward spiral of poverty and exclusion

EU heads of state have put the issue at the top of their agenda

CHARLOTTE MCDONALD-GIBSON BRUSSELS THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2013

Each of Europe’s 5.6 million unemployed youths has a different story to tell. Some are university educated and vastly over-qualified for the jobs they are seeking. Others left school early to cash in on the boom times, only to lose everything when the crash came.

Heads of state from the EU holding talks in Brussels today and tomorrow have put youth unemployment at the top of the agenda, as figures hit an all-time high. In April, nearly a quarter of people under 25 looking for work in the EU were unemployed. In Greece, it is more than 60 per cent; in Spain, 56 per cent.

Unless the bleak figures are reversed soon, experts warn of a “lost generation” trapped in a spiral of poverty and exclusion. 

EGYPT

Tension rises in Egypt as Morsi supporters and opponents plan rallies

Egypt's liberal and secular opposition has rejected President Mohammed Morsi's call for dialogue, calling instead for early elections. Meanwhile his Islamist supporters are planning rallies in Cairo on Friday.

The opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) lashed out at President Morsi on Thursday, saying that he had failed to take responsibility for the country's deep political polarization and failed economy.

Morsi had given a two-and-a-half hour televised speech the day prior, in which he acknowledged making mistakes during his year in office. The Egyptian president also called for national reconciliation, saying that he was open to cooperating with the opposition on constitutional reform.

28 June 2013 Last updated at 03:49 GMT

Prayer vigil for Nelson Mandela after condition improves

South Africans have been holding an all-night prayer vigil for former President Nelson Mandela, outside his former home in Soweto.

The crowd have been singing and saying prayers for Mr Mandela's health, on what is now his 20th night in hospital.

South Africa's first black president - an icon of the anti-apartheid struggle - is suffering from a lung infection.

President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday that the 94-year-old's condition had improved, but still remained critical.

Pakistan's tourism industry reels after shootings

Rebecca SantanaThe Associated Pres

Pakistan's already embattled tourism industry is struggling to deal with worried customers and cancellations after Islamic militants attacked foreign climbers preparing to summit one of the world's tallest mountains, killing 11 people.

For years, intrepid climbers and mountaineers, lured by a collection of awe-inspiring peaks, were some of the only international tourists willing to come to Pakistan.

Now hotel owners, tour operators and tourism officials worry that may be in danger after the vicious attack by militants Saturday on the climbing group at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest in the world.

Late Night Ignoring Asia

Because profits are more important

Japan Tobacco sues Thailand over cigarette packaging

Japan Tobacco is suing the Thai government over plans to introduce bigger and more prominent anti-smoking warnings on cigarette packets, the company said Wednesday, as rival Philip Morris vows similar action.
The Tokyo-based firm, one of the world’s biggest cigarette companies, with brands including Winston and Benson & Hedges, said the planned changes from Thailand’s public health ministry would interfere with its operations in the kingdom.
Thailand has decided to extend health warnings from 50 to 85% on both sides of every cigarette packet sold in the country. The new rule is to come into effect in October, but Japan Tobacco said the change would have a “disproportionate impact on legitimate competition, intellectual property rights and freedom of expression”.

Than peoples health or their lives




Religion is the opiate of the masses


It is quite ironic that back in the 1980s, the Lu family owned the only Bible in their area China’s Anhui Province. But now, China has become one of the largest exporters of Christian Bibles.

Amity Printing was founded in the 1980s and is in ties with United Bible Societies (UBS), an organization aimed at providing access to Christian literature across the world.

In its first year, Amity published about 500,000 Bibles, and in 2012, it produced a total of 12 million Bibles, and New Testaments. With 600 workers today, they aim to print 18 million copies a year, in different languages and versions.

Nothing like exporting Bibles to those heathen Westerners. Maybe they can export Communism next?


Entertainers Gone Wild

The Defense Ministry has embarked on an audit of the entertainment corps after a series of misbehaviors by the coddled stars in its ranks made headlines. The ministry is reportedly considering an end to assigning celebrities to exclusive entertainment duties.
Some soldiers in the corps reportedly drank alcohol until midnight after a performance in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province on June 21. They included Lee Sang-cheol, known as Sangchu, and Choi Dong-wook, a pop star more commonly known as Se7en, who left their motel at 2:30 a.m. and were caught visiting an adult massage parlor. 

Or
Bad boy's Bad boy's what you gonna do when they come for you

Six In The Morning

Mandela's condition 'deteriorates'

Anti-apartheid icon's health is reported to have worsened in last 36 hours, as President Zuma cancels foreign trip. Last Modified: 27 Jun 2013 09:15

Former South African president Nelson Mandela's health has "deteriorated" in the last 36 hours, Al Jazeera has learned.

The South African President Jacob Zuma had earlier visited Mandela on Wednesday night and reported that the hospitalised anti-apartheid icon was still in "critical condition."

Zuma said he was cancelling a planned daytrip on Thursday to Mozambique, where he was to attend a regional summit.

The president "was briefed by the doctors who are still doing everything they can to ensure his well-being," a government spokesman said.

Mac Maharaj, the presidential spokesman, declined to comment on media reports that Mandela was on life support systems in the Pretoria hospital where he was taken on June 8.

EUROPEAN UNION

EU summit focuses on crisis' social effects

Differing views on coping with youth unemployment are set to divide EU leaders at a two-day summit in Brussels. Finance ministers, however, agreed on who will have to pay first when it comes to future bank bailouts.

The financial crisis in the EU has subsided and talks about a country leaving the eurozone have stopped. But the recession still has a hold on the union and influences the employment numbers: 26 million Europeans are unemployed and a record 6 million of them are young people.

That's led EU member states' heads of state and government will convene in Brussels on Thursday (27.06.2013). Before the summit, the President of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso called on the national leaders to address the social crisis created by struggling economies.

Moscow Phantom: Where In the World Is Edward Snowden?

By Benjamin Bidder in Moscow

Edward Snowden has reportedly been inside the transit terminal of a Moscow airport for days now, but there is no evidence to prove it. As his absence sparks new conspiracy theories, the Kremlin is capitalizing on the case.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has goaded reporters once again. Yes, Edward Snowden is in Moscow, he told them on Tuesday night during a state visit to Finland. And yes, the fugitive whistleblower from the United States remains in the transit area of the Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

Snowden is a "free man," said Putin, sparking yet another frenzy among journalists in Moscow, who have been scrambling to find Snowden since Sunday. The reporters combed over the bars and fast-food restaurants in the transit zone again, not to mention the benches that stranded passengers stretch out on to rest. They also searched the terminal's "capsule hotel," called V-Express, where Snowden had allegedly checked in.

China eases curbs on Dalai Lama images

June 27, 2013 - 5:27PM

The Chinese government loosened restrictions that kept Tibetan monks in two provinces from openly revering the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader, Radio Free Asia reported.

Authorities in Sichuan province announced people can display pictures of the Dalai Lama and ordered officials not to criticise him, the U.S.-funded RFA reported, citing a resident in Sichuan's Ganzi prefecture it didn't identify. In the past, monks had to keep pictures of the Dalai Lama hidden.

China took control of Tibet in 1951 and has vilified the Dalai Lama, 77, as a separatist since he fled to India in 1959, where he leads a government in exile. Chinese officials regularly levy diplomatic sanctions on countries that host him for visits, including the UK.

How to oust a president (again), Egyptian-style

26 JUN 2013 11:35YASMINE SALEH, ALASTAIR MACDONALD

After 18 days of mass protests in 2011, Egyptians succeeded in ousting a president they were unhappy with. Can they do it again this weekend?

Hearing their bright-eyed talk around a café table of a peaceful new Egyptian revolution, you might dismiss Mahmoud Badr and the other young instigators of a petition asking for a new president as hopeless dreamers.

Except they managed it once before – Cairo twentysomethings just like these, in their deck shoes and Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts, checking iPads and puffing on low-tar Marlboros over Turkish coffee, a few blocks from Tahrir Square.

In 2011 this generation, armed with Facebook, brought out Egyptians of all ages and backgrounds in protest and, to the world's amazement, toppled the "Pharaoh" Hosni Mubarak.

Brazil protesters: Is common ground really necessary?

The bus fare hikes that sparked widespread Brazilian protests have been reversed, but protests continue. Can they last?

By Taylor Barnes, Correspondent / June 26, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO

When Gilmar Lopes marched from the favela Rocinha to the Rio de Janeiro governor’s house last night with a thousand of his neighbors, his demand was a very local one: Basic sanitation in the low-income community where he lives.

Mr. Lopes’s call was one in a sea of diverse demands: clean up the polluted Rio beaches, improve public daycare facilities, raise teacher salaries, and stop police brutality.

In the past two weeks Brazil has seen its biggest demonstrations in two decades, which were sparked by a rise in bus fares. Local governments quickly reversed the increases as protests gained momentum. But transportation costs were just the final straw for many Brazilians, and the protesters’ voices have since grown louder, but also more fractured.

Man Sues Japan's NHK for using "English" words in Katakana

Hoji Takahashi, who says he represents a pressure group that protects the Japanese language, is seeking 1.41 million yen (£9,300) in damages from NHK, reports said.

In his suit filed with the Nagoya district court, Takahashi said the deluge of English words used in NHK's news and entertainment programmes had caused him emotional distress, and accused the broadcaster of ignoring its responsibility to use Japanese alternatives.

Among the words he cited as particularly troublesome were kea (care),toraburu (trouble), risuku (risk) and shisutemu (system). He also noted the frequent use of loan words in programme titles, such as BS Kosheruju (BS Concierge) and Sutajio Paaku Kara Konnichiwa (Hello from Studio Park).

The 71-year-old claims he and other elderly viewers had been left baffled by some of NHK's content. "I contacted NHK to inquire about this, but there was no response so I decided to take the matter to court," Kyodo News quoted him as saying. "I want the broadcaster to take into account elderly viewers like me when it is creating shows."

Now go back to your テルビ

Snowden's Great Escape-video

As the US tries to detain the whistleblower, we look at the diplomatic repercussions of tracking down Edward Snowden.

The whereabouts of whistleblower Edward Snowden remain unknown. The United States believe that he is in Russia and White House officials are demanding that the former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee be handed over. The 30-year-old intelligence analyst first sought refuge in Hong Kong and when his departure from there was not blocked, the White House warned of an "unquestionably" negative impact on US-Chinese relations. The White House believes that the countries said to be on Snowden's shortlist of destinations undermine his claim to be a champion of transparency, freedom of the press and civil rights. Snowden has been charged by the US of espionage and spying after revealing to Western newspapers how the US National Security Agency (NSA) spies on the internet and phone activities of millions of people. The programme, named PRISM, was authorised by a secret court.

Six In The Morning

Why U.S. is being humiliated by the hunt for Snowden

By Simon Tisdall, special for CNN

The increasingly slapstick global steeplechase in pursuit of Edward Snowden, the former American contractor who leaked top-secret details of surveillance programs, looks like a cross between "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

Nobody, except perhaps Snowden himself, is coming out of this well.

While the CIA's Public Enemy Number One plays Captain Marko Ramius, keeping stumm beneath the (radio) waves in the Moscow transit zone, Very Important People are making themselves ridiculous in vintage Tom Wolfe style.

High on the list is John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State. Huffing and puffing, Kerry warned China and Russia of "consequences" if, as seems probable, they have conspired to deliberately thwart U.S. justice by twisting the long arm of the law.

Mushrooming legal highs leave drug control system floundering, UN warns

Annual world drug report says number of new legal highs available on world market now outstrips number of illicit drugs under international control

• Alan Travis, home affairs editor
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 June 2013 09.46 BST

The international drug control system is "floundering" for the first time in the face of the rapid rise of potentially harmful legal highs or new psychoactive drugs, the United Nations has warned.

The UN's annual world drug report says the number of new legal highs available on the world market – more than 300 – has now outstripped the total number of illicit drugs under international control.

The 2013 report published on Wednesday says the newly developed legal high industry has gone global in the past year, with 70 out of the 80 countries surveyed reporting the emergence of new psychoactive substances with significant market share.

Knife-wielding attackers kill 27 during violent riots in China's troubled Xinjiang-Xinhua province

Remote village in China becomes scene of bloodiest unrest
since 2009

HEATHER SAUL

WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE 2013

Knife-wielding assailants launched a frenzied attack in a
remote town in China's restive far western region, leaving 27 dead in one of
the bloodiest incidents since 2009.

The early-morning violence on Wednesday, which state media were referring to as riots, also left at least three people injured in the Turkic-speaking Xinjiang (shihn-jahng) region, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Police stations, a government building and a construction site were reportedly targeted in the attacks.

The riot is deemed to be the most severe unrest in the regional capital since nearly 200 were killed four years ago.

'Buddhist Terror' article banned in Myanmar

June 26, 2013 - 10:32AM

Myanmar has banned a controversial Time magazine cover story on Buddhist-Muslim religious violence "to prevent further conflict", according to a government spokesman, after days of angry reaction to the article.

The ban on the article, which carried a front page photograph of a prominent radical Buddhist monk accused of fuelling anti-Muslim violence with the headline 'The Face of Buddhist Terror', comes despite the apparent easing of censorship rules in a reforming nation whose former military regime closely controlled the media.

Nigeria hangs four criminals, fifth alive after gallows glitch

25 JUN 2013 10:02 MICHELLE FAUL

Nigeria has hanged four criminals in its first known executions since 2006, and a rights group is trying to keep a fifth, Thankgod Ebhos, alive.

Traumatised inmates heard screams and thuds from the gallows as Nigerian authorities hanged four convicted criminals on Monday in the West African nation's first known executions since 2006, said a human rights lawyer on Tuesday.

A fifth man is yet to be hanged at Benin City Prison after the executioner had technical problems with the gallows, Chino Obiagwu of the national lawyers' rights group Lepad told Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Amnesty International said the man, identified as Thankgod Ebhos by Obiagwu, was at "imminent risk of execution".

The London-based organisation's deputy Africa director, Lucy Freeman, said the hangings would mark a "truly dark day for human rights" in the nation.

26 June 2013 Last updated at 07:19 GMT

Brazil Congress rejects controversial amendment

Brazil's Congress has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that was a key grievance of protesters who took to streets across the country.

Demonstrators had argued PEC 37, which would have limited the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes, might open the way for more corruption.

On Tuesday, the measure was defeated by 430 votes to nine.

Congress also voted to use all the royalties from newly discovered oil fields for education and health.

Earlier, the government modified its plan for political reform in order to speed up the process, officials said.