16 August 2013 Last updated at 08:46 GMT
A year after police shot 34 miners, seen as a turning point in the country's modern history, the view is that nothing has changed
By Kanupriya Kapoor
Athlete criticises shows of support of gay rights at World Championships
Egypt crisis: Defiant Muslim Brotherhood plans marches
The Egyptian capital Cairo is poised for renewed protests by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
They come two days after authorities broke up Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo with the loss of at least 638 lives.
Mr Morsi's supporters plan to converge on central Ramses square from city mosques after Friday prayers.
A state of emergency is in force and police have been authorised to use live ammunition in self-defence.
Meanwhile, Egypt's interim leaders have criticised remarks by President Obama.
On Thursday, Mr Obama condemned the government's actions in ordering security forces to break up the protest camps, and cancelled joint military exercises.
South Africa: simmering frustration at justice denied a year after Marikana
A year after police shot 34 miners, seen as a turning point in the country's modern history, the view is that nothing has changed
Leaning on a plastic chair against his shack, Eric Nontshakaza thanks God as he remembers the meal that may have saved his life. He was among hundreds of striking miners gathered on a rocky outcrop in Marikana on 16 August 2012. His split second decision to dash home to eat meant he escaped the bloodiest massacre by South African security forces since the end of racial apartheid.
"It always comes into my mind that maybe if I didn't come to get food, I would have been one of the victims," he recalled ahead of Friday's first anniversary of the shootings that horrified the world. "Maybe God moved me there. My friends tell me it happened straight after I came to get food."
A year on, democratic South Africa is confronting its darkest day,rewatching television pictures that show workers hurtling forward like a rolling ball of humanity while flak-jacketed police retreat and unleash a furious, crackling rain of bullets.
ENVIRONMENT
Amazon rainforest faces future oil drilling in Ecuador
Parts of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador have been cleared for oil exploration after the failure of a conservation plan. Donations did not come close to the amount needed to save the rainforest.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa announced on Thursday that plans to explore oil drilling in an Amazon preserve could continue, effectively declaring that initiative to generate money to save the Yasuni National Park had failed.
"With deep sadness but also with absolute responsibility to our people and history, I have had to take one of the hardest decisions of my government," Correa said in an address to the nation.
Indonesian president worried by growing religious intolerance
By Kanupriya Kapoor
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was concerned by growing religious intolerance in the country with world's largest Muslim population, which many analysts say his administration has failed to contain.
Indonesia has recently seen a series of increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities like Christians, Shia Muslims and members of Ahmadiyah, a small Islamic sect which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims.
"I am very concerned about the continuing incidents of intolerance and communal conflict we see, which are often violent," Yudhoyono said in an annual address to parliament.
‘We are normal Russians’: Pole vaulter, Yelena Isinbayeva, defends anti-gay laws
Athlete criticises shows of support of gay rights at World Championships
Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has defended her country’s anti-gay law and criticised athletes for showing solidarity for gays and lesbians.
Russia’s anti-gay law has been a contentious global issue since parliament passed the ruling in June, which leads to heavy fines for anyone deemed to promote homosexuality to people under the age of 18. Earlier this month, Russia’s Sports Minister warned that gay competitors in next year’s Winter Olympics risk arrest if they engage in homosexual “propaganda”.
Now, Isinbayeva, the face of this year’s World Athletics Championships who on Tuesday won the third world title of her career and is idolised by the Russian public, has further stoked the row by insisting she supports the law.
On anniversary of Japan’s surrender, issue of war history remains touchy
By ,
SEOUL — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an aide to a tree-lined shrine in downtown Tokyo on Thursday with instructions to deliver a tree branch as a ritual offering on his behalf. The aide, Koichi Hagiuda, told reporters later that the prime minister was sorry he could not go in person but had made a “general judgment” to stay away.
For Abe, the decision to avoid Yasukuni Shrine — a religious site that honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 war criminals — marked his latest attempt to balance competing goals: playing to his conservative base while also repairing ties with Japan’s neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment