As more and more girls from the northeastern state end up in brothels, stigma awaits those fortunate to be rescued."But I cannot go back to my native village because my family will not take me," the petite Assamese teenager said, in what would seem to be replay of the 1981 Bollywood blockbuster "Umrao Jaan".
Rising figures
A few NGOs run by woman rights activists have tried to help these hapless women rescued from brothels and forced marriages. Between 1996 and 2006, 3,184 adult women and 3840 female children were taken away from Assam and sold away in other states, according Assam police records. |
Monday, September 30, 2013
Assam: Traffickers' happy hunting ground
Nepal's slave girls
Can the young girls forced to work in middle class homes across the country break the bonds of slavery?
Slavery is banned in Nepal. But hidden behind the walls of city homes, some still keep young girls as slaves called kamlaris. The girls are from the Tharu community, an indigenous group that was stripped of its land and forced into bonded labour after Nepal's first social order was introduced 160 years ago. Tharus farm the land of their landlord and, in return, give back half of what they produce. Often, they trade away their daughters as well. In June 2013, kamlaris from all over the country protested in a bid to bring an end to slavery once and for all. They want to be free from servitude and have their basic rights guaranteed. The demonstrations were triggered by the mysterious death of Srijana, a 12-year-old kamlari girl who burnt to death in her owner's house. The police alleged it was suicide but the kamlaris were not convinced. The police retaliated against the demonstrators with violence. Political organisations and rights groups were conspicuously absent from their demonstrations.
Six In The Morning Monday September 30
Qaeda Plot Leak Has Undermined U.S. Intelligence
By ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTWASHINGTON — As the nation’s spy agencies assess the fallout from disclosures about their surveillance programs, some government analysts and senior officials have made a startling finding: the impact of a leaked terrorist plot by Al Qaeda in August has caused more immediate damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the thousands of classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.
Since news reports in early August revealed that the United States intercepted messages between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, discussing an imminent terrorist attack, analysts have detected a sharp drop in the terrorists’ use of a major communications channel that the authorities were monitoring. Since August, senior American officials have been scrambling to find new ways to surveil the electronic messages and conversations of Al Qaeda’s leaders and operatives.
Golden Dawn leader charged in Greece
Central figures in neo-Nazi party face charges related to at least three murders
Damian Mac Con Uladh
Investigating magistrates specialised in combating corruption will tomorrow begin formally indicting key figures from Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party on charges of directing and belonging to a criminal organisation and of involvement in at least three murders.
This follows a crackdown by the authorities over the weekend on the party that resulted in the arrest of six of its 18 MPs and another 16 functionaries or members, among them two serving police officers.
Picked up in dawn raids early on Saturday were Nikos Michaloliakos, the party’s leader, and Ilias Kasidiaris, its spokesman, who made international headlines last year when, during an election campaign, he assaulted a woman politician on live television.
BILATERAL RELATIONS
Australia PM Abbott to begin Indonesia trip amid asylum seeker tension
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is set to begin a trip to Indonesia for his first trip abroad since taking office. His two-day visit will likely be dominated by immigration issues and the plight of asylum seekers.
Australia's Abbott who is making his first overseas trip as newly elected prime minister is expected to meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Monday.
Those talks are likely to dominated by rising Australian-Indonesian tensions over Abbott's policies aimed at stopping asylum seeker boats from reaching Australian shores.
Abbott will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Trade Minister Andrew Robb and several business people.
Abbott will arrive three days after a boat packed with asylum seekers bound for Australia sunk in Indonesian waters, killing 36 people.
30 September 2013 Last updated at 08:39 GMT
Kenya's Westgate siege: MPs start intelligence probe
Kenyan MPs have started an investigation into alleged intelligence failings over the deadly Westgate shopping centre attack.
The head of the parliament's defence committee says "people need to know the exact lapses in the security system".
There are reports the NIS intelligence agency issued warnings a year ago.
Some 67 people were killed and many injured after al-Shabab militants stormed the Westgate centre in the capital Nairobi on 21 September.
Kenya's Red Cross says the number of people still believed to be missing is 39, down from an earlier figure of 61.
'The Act of Killing' helps Indonesia confront its dark past
September 30, 2013 -- Updated 0817 GMT (1617 HKT)
Denpasar, Bali (CNN) -- On a traffic-choked street in Bali's capital, Denpasar, Edo walks through his family's shop to an empty back room.
Only there does he feel safe enough to explain why he's afraid.
"Well, it's because probably the killers are still out there," he says.
The killers he refers to are those who Edo believes are responsible for the murder of his grandfather, one of between 500,000 and 1 million people estimated by human rights groups to have been killed by military death squads during anti-communist purges across Indonesia in 1965 and 1966.
Uneasy Gulf states weigh US-Iran overtures
BRIAN MURPHY 3 hours ago
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Lost in the blizzard of attention on Iran's cautious openings to the U.S. was another bit of noteworthy outreach by President Hassan Rouhani: Sending greetings to Saudi Arabia's king and appealing for more cooperation between the two regional rivals.
Rouhani's message last week also carried a subtext for Saudi Arabia and the other Western-allied Persian Gulf states. As Iran's diplomatic profile rises with attempts to recalibrate its dealings with Washington, the Gulf rulers will have to make adjustments, too.
That's not such an easy thing for the monarchs and sheiks to swallow.
Leaders such as Saudi King Abdullah are accustomed to having Washington's undivided focus and a prominent voice in shaping policies over Iran, which Gulf officials routinely denounce for allegedly trying to undermine their rule through suspected proxies and spies.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Sx In The Morning Sunday September 29
29 September 2013 Last updated at 08:14 GMT
Pakistan explosion: Dozens killed in Peshawar market
An explosion has ripped through a market in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, leaving at least 33 dead and dozens wounded, officials say.
Police said a bomb had exploded in the Kissa Khwani market, with shops and vehicles set alight.
The blast comes a week after a double suicide bombing that killed at least 80 people at a church in the city.
On Friday, at least 17 people were killed in the bombing of a bus carrying government employees near Peshawar.
Peshawar, the main city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been hit by numerous bomb and gun attacks blamed on Taliban insurgents in recent years.
End of empire: The glory of the Ottomans - and the devastation wreaked since they lost power
There are few things more profoundly dead than an ex-empire, but around the time that the Soviet empire came apart at the seams, I became aware that the ghosts of a much older one – that of the Turkish Ottomans – were still haunting its former domains.
It was in the spring of 1990. All Europe's communist dominoes had already fallen over, the most recent being Romania, whose dictator Ceausescu had just been executed. The only one left standing was tiny, reclusive Albania. Every half-serious newspaper in Fleet Street wanted a bite of it, but foreigners were barred from entering – not only journalists, but even ordinary tourists. The only outsiders admitted were archaeology enthusiasts who were occasionally permitted to undertake study tours.
UNIFICATION
Walesa: Europe 'needs prosperity' to integrate
Europe needs more solidarity and should become a single state, says the Polish Nobel Prize winner Lech Walesa, who turns 70 today. He told DW that rich EU countries needed to lend more support to their neighbors.
Lech Walesa, who turns 70 this Sunday (29.09.2013), is a trained electrician. But, in 1980, Walesa became the leader of the Polish union, Solidarity, the first trade union in the communist Eastern bloc. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. In the first elections after the fall of communism in 1990, Poles elected him president of their country.
Deutsche Welle: You have called for Germany to make more use of its influence in European planning and development. What do you think about Germany's policy toward European integration?
Lech Walesa: Germany is a heavyweight - and is one in every area. But Germans are also taking on responsibility for coping with the crisis, and they're developing ideas for the future, and they should continue doing so. At a time when we are removing borders, it's about being European - not German or Polish. It's only about Europe. We shouldn't think in categories hemmed in by national borders. There are many new, contemporary issues like information, ecology, crises - like the bank crisis.
Mega rally: Modi launches twin attack on Congress rule at the Centre, in Delhi
Shaswati, Neelam Pandey and Darpan Singh, Hindustan Times New Delhi, September 29, 2013
First Published: 11:30 IST(29/9/2013) | Last Updated: 14:24 IST(29/9/2013)
With an estimated five lakh people in attendance, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a twin attack on the Congress rule at the Centre and in Delhi.
Taking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress, he said Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif insulted Singh by calling him a "dehati aurat". "But how will Sharif respect the PM if his own party does not respect him. Rahul Gandhi has disrespected the PM by publicly denouncing ordinance on convicted lawmakers as nonsense," he said.
Modi said India lost a golden opportunity to showcase its soft power during the Commonwealth Games. "From South Korea to China, countries use such opportunities to showcase their sport prowess and improve their standing in the global community. India lost that opportunity due to the Commonwealth Games scams," he said.Sudan police fire teargas as thousands demand Bashir quit
Sudanese police on Saturday fired teargas to break up thousands of protesters who were calling President Omar Hassan al-Bashir a killer, witnesses said, after days of unrest in which dozens of people have died.
Daily demonstrations this week followed the government cutting fuel and cooking gas subsidies on Monday when pump prices doubled overnight.
Four protesters were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Friday, police said, bringing the official death toll to 33.
In Khartoum's Burri district, home to a top government official, more than 1,000 people gathered for the funeral of one of the victims, Salah Mudahir Sanhuri, a doctor from a prominent merchant family with ties to the government.
Within half an hour the crowd grew to over 3,000 people, many of whom were shouting "Bashir, you are a killer" and "Freedom, freedom," witnesses said.
Special Report: Myanmar old guard clings to $8 billion jade empire
Andrew R.C. Marshall and Min Zayar Oo
HPAKANT, Myanmar (Reuters) - Tin Tun picked all night through teetering heaps of rubble to find the palm-sized lump of jade he now holds in his hand. He hopes it will make him a fortune. It's happened before.
"Last year I found a stone worth 50 million kyat," he said, trekking past the craters and slag heaps of this notorious jade-mining region in northwest Myanmar. That's about $50,000 - and it was more than enough money for Tin Tun, 38, to buy land and build a house in his home village.
But rare finds by small-time prospectors like Tin Tun pale next to the staggering wealth extracted on an industrial scale by Myanmar's military, the tycoons it helped enrich, and companies linked to the country where most jade ends up: China.
Mahinda Rajapaksa: 'This is all propaganda'
Sri Lanka's president discusses a recent UN report accusing him of pushing the country into an authoritarian direction.
The report paints a grim picture of the country: The military is dominating Sri Lanka's life in many areas; critics of the government are abused, silenced or killed; and minorities such as Buddhists, Christians and Muslims are attacked, the report stated. All under the watch of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was elected in 2005 and re-elected by his people three years ago - a man who is pushing the country, the UN says, in an authoritarian direction. These accusations have been vehemently dismissed by the government and its supporters in a war of words suggesting the report is coloured by the personal background of its responsible official, Navi Pillay, the chief UN officer for human rights whose own ancestors trace back to Sri Lanka. According to reports, some Sri Lankan officials were even resorting to name calling labelling her the "Tamil Tigress of the UN" - remarks Pillay calls offensive.
The Tamils presently living in the northeast of the country were brought to Sri Lanka by the East India company from southern Indian state of Tambu-Nadal as source of cheap labour. The descendants of those labourers still live in Sri Lanka. In 1956 the government passed and enacted Sinhala Only Act making Sinhala the official language while outlawing English. The act also failed to give official recognition to the Tamils. 1977 riots in Sri Lanka
After the independence and especially after the 'Sinhala only act" of 1956, Tamils parties were asking for more power for North and east of Sri Lanka where Tamils are the majority. Some have gone further asking for a federal system. There were many agreements (at least two) with the Prime ministers, but nothing implemented. Finally, the desperate Tamil leaders decided that there is no point in co-existence and only solution is a separate state. In 1974, all major Tamils parties representing Tamils in the North east tamils came under one forum (named as Tamil United Liberation Frunt - TULF) and in 1976 they adopted a resolution at their party convention in Vaddukoddai, Jaffna calling for a separate state (Tamil Eelam). In the election of 1977 happened on July 21 1977, the Tamil districts voted almost entirely for the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF)[citation needed], a political party in Sri Lanka to openly advocate separatism of the Tamil regions of the country. For some years, there had been sporadic attacks on army and policemen in the Jaffna region, by militant Tamil youth groups which consited a handful of members advocating separation through violent means. The new prime minister, Junius Richard Jayewardene, was convinced there was a link between the TULF and the militants, and wanted to suppress both.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
I Am The River-video
A rare insight into 19th century New Zealand and a Maori tribe's struggle to protect their cultural heritage.
The Maori tribes of Whanganui take their name, their spirit and their strength from the great river which flows from the mountains of the central north island of New Zealand to the sea. For centuries, people have travelled the Whanganui River by canoe, caught eels in it, built villages on its banks, and fought over it. The people say: "Ko au te awa. Ko te awa ko au" - which means "I am the river. The river is me." I Am The River is a film about a unique set of 700 glass plate photos which document Maori life in the 19th century. The discovery of these previously unknown photographs in a garage in the Bay of Islands in 2001 provided a rare visual insight into New Zealand's history and forged a link between the Maori of the present with the Tupuna (ancestors) of the past. However, it provoked a storm of protest over cultural differences of ownership.
SIx In The Morning Saturday September 28
28 September 2013 Last updated at 05:29 GMT
Up to 70 feared dead after boat with asylum seekers on board sinks off Java
‘United’ responseThe approval follows a recent call by Catalan president Artur Mas for a “united and consensual” response from the region’s parties to the refusal of Spain’s central government to countenance a referendum on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
Foreign Islamists coming into Syria have been gathering in the relatively quiet north. But many of them are finding transit towns -- with good food, video games and smoking -- preferable to the front. When they do end up fighting, it's often with each other.
The once-sleepy smugglers' nest on the Turkish border has become a mecca for jihad tourists from around the world. A year ago, SPIEGEL reporters in Atmeh met with one of the first foreign fighters in Syria, a young Iraqi who said that he had come to overthrow the dictatorship. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 jihadists are staying in and around Atmeh, making it the densest accumulation of jihadists in all of Syria. Ironically, while war rages in the rest of the country, the foreign jihadists have made one of Syria's quietest spots into their base. Or perhaps they have chosen Atmeh precisely because it is so quiet. Once they arrive, many are reluctant to leave.
It was inevitable, perhaps, that its discovery last September would be followed by calls for the 15th-century monarch, immortalized by Shakespeare as a miserable, murderous wretch, to finally receive a proper interment, with the tomb, ceremony, and dignity usually afforded a king.
However, what’s happened so far has been short on dignity.
“It has got a bit grubby,” says David Grummitt, a specialist in late medieval and early Tudor history at the University of Kent. “I don't know if anyone has really thought about what Richard III himself would have wanted.”
Syria chemical weapons: UN adopts binding resolution
The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a binding resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons.
At a session in New York, the 15-member body backed the draft document agreed earlier by Russia and the US.
The deal breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria, where fighting between government forces and rebels rages on.
The vote came after the international chemical watchdog agreed on a plan to destroy Syria's stockpile by mid-2014.
'Powerful diplomacy'
Speaking after the vote in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the decision as "historic".
"Tonight the international community has delivered."
Java tragedy survivors claim Australian authorities ignored plight
Up to 70 feared dead after boat with asylum seekers on board sinks off Java
Survivors of a boat that sank off Java claim the Australian embassy ignored a distress call. Twenty-two asylum seekers have been confirmed as drowned but authorities in Indonesia fear that number may rise to more than 70.
"I called the Australian embassy; for 24 hours we were calling them. They told us just send us the position on GPS, where are you," one survivor, Abdullah, a man from Jordan, was reported as saying by Fairfax media. "We did, and they told us, 'OK, we know … where you are'. And they said, 'We'll come for you in two hours'.
"And we wait two hours; we wait 24 hours, and we kept calling them, 'we don't have food, we don't have water for three days, we have children, just rescue us'. And nobody come. Sixty person dead now because of Australian government."
Catalan parliament approves call for vote on independence from Spain
Resolution says date should be fixed by end of this year for ballot
Guy Hedgecoe
The Catalan regional parliament has approved a motion calling for a referendum on independence from Spain, despite staunch resistance to the plan in Madrid.
Yesterday’s resolution said a date should be fixed by the end of this year for the ballot and stated: “There is no norm or disposition within the current legal framework that prevents the celebration of a referendum by the citizens of Catalonia on its political future.”
The CiU coalition, which governs the region, voted in favour, as did the radical nationalists of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), the leftist CUP and the ICV Greens, easily clearing the 68 votes need for a majority.
‘United’ responseThe approval follows a recent call by Catalan president Artur Mas for a “united and consensual” response from the region’s parties to the refusal of Spain’s central government to countenance a referendum on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
Video Games and Cigarettes: Syria's Disneyland for Jihadists
Foreign Islamists coming into Syria have been gathering in the relatively quiet north. But many of them are finding transit towns -- with good food, video games and smoking -- preferable to the front. When they do end up fighting, it's often with each other.
Atmeh looks like the set for a movie about al-Qaida. New arrivals pulling suitcases on wheels search for their emirs, Africans and Asians can be seen on the village streets, and long-haired men dressed in traditional Afghan clothing walk around wielding AK-47s. There are patrons at the local kebab stand whose northern English dialect is peppered with Arabic words and phrases. "Subhan'Allah, bro, I asked for ketchup," says one man. The many languages heard on the street include Russian, Azerbaijani and Arabic spoken with a guttural Saudi Arabian accent.
Guineans on the brink of first credible parliamentary polls
Guineans got to the polls in the first parliamentary elections for more than a decade in the troubled west African nation.
After months of delays and a campaign plagued by deadly unrest Guineans are finally going to the polls.
Voters have a choice of more than 1 700 candidates vying for 114 seats in a national assembly which will replace the transitional parliament that has been running the country since military rule came to an end in 2010.
The vote, originally due to have been held within six months of the swearing-in of President Alpha Conde in 2010, has been delayed numerous times amid disputes over its organisation, stoking deadly ethnic tensions that have dogged Guinean politics since the country's independence from France in 1958.
"These elections will allow us to emerge from a chaotic five-year transition," Conde told reporters on Friday, expressing the hope that the vote would signal a new era of prosperity in which Guinea would be free to profit from its vast mineral wealth.
Richard III: a maligned king's reburial becomes a sordid affair
The discovery of King Richard III's bones in a shallow grave started a tug-of-war over where he should be buried. And some now say the design for his tomb is not fit for a monarch.
The shallow dirt grave into which King Richard III's body was hurriedly tossed, and centuries later covered up by a concrete parking lot, must top the list of ignominious royal burials.
However, what’s happened so far has been short on dignity.
“It has got a bit grubby,” says David Grummitt, a specialist in late medieval and early Tudor history at the University of Kent. “I don't know if anyone has really thought about what Richard III himself would have wanted.”
Friday, September 27, 2013
Random Japan
Akihabara-based magazine blasts past Kickstarter goal, aims to bring otaku culture to the world
Michelle Lynn Dinh
The word “otaku” in the Japanese language is a general term for anyone who is passionate about a hobby. But in English, “otaku” has become a term that refers to people who are obsessed with Japanese culture, particularly anime and manga. But the world of the otaku is sometimes misunderstood. That’s where JH Lab, a group of “otaku of the highest caliber” comes in, hoping to demystify the world of anime and manga fans and bring the culture of Akihabara to people everywhere. To do this, JH Lab has created Akiba Anime Art (AAA), “a brand new pop-culture magazine from Akihabara, featuring cool OTAKUs, advanced technologies, kawaii-cosplays, Dojins and much more!” They’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to make their dream a reality and have quickly surpassed their initial goal, raising over US$42,000. Supporters of the project will receive special edition illustrations from featured Japanese artist, John Hathway, and have a chance to be drawn into his amazing Akihabara picture jockey cityscape. Let’s take a closer look at this rapidly growing magazine’s “ultra otaku power.”
STATS
2,250 Episodes of Sazae-san that have aired since its debut in 1969, making it the longest-running animated TV series ever, according to Guinness World Records.
78.7 Percent of climbers on Mt Fuji who favor charging entrance fees to the mountain, according to a survey by Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures.
146 Number of new AIDS and HIV patients recorded in Japan from April to June—the most ever for a three-month period, according to the health ministry.
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
Two 19-year-olds in Hokkaido were arrested after they tweeted a photo of themselves vandalizing police property, along with the comment, “We are going through puberty so we’ve come to destroy a patrol car.”
Authorities in Iwate say a shady cellphone-rental company routinely accepted fake application documents from customers, including a drivers license that “showed the holder was born in the 17th month of the year.”
It was reported that the TMG spent at least ¥3 million in fiscal 2012 to reimburse members of the municipal assembly for travel expenses—even though the politicians commuted for free using cars provided by the city.
Scientists at Kyoto University and the Kyoto City Zoo have come up with a way of “preserv[ing] animal sperm through freeze-drying.”
Mizuho
Lends To The Yakuza
Snow Falls On
Asahikawa
What Do You Want To Be?
A Housewife
‘Soseki villa’ that inspired Miyazaki now on the map
September 27, 2013
By NAO HIDAKA/ Staff Writer
TAMANA, Kumamoto Prefecture --A quaint Japanese-style home has led to the inevitable collaboration of sorts between one of Japan’s most renowned Meiji Era (1868-1912) novelists and the world’s most acclaimed animation filmmaker. The Maeda family villa, located in Tamana, Kumamoto Prefecture, is said to be the inspiration for a house in Hayao Miyazaki’s latest and final animated feature, “Kaze Tachinu” (The Wind Rises). Since “Kaze Tachinu” hit theaters in July, the number of visitors to the villa has been gradually rising. The movie pulled in more than 10 billion yen ($101 million) at the Japanese box office as of Sept. 11 after Miyazaki announced it would be his last major film. The historical villa is known as the setting for famed Meiji author Natsume Soseki’s (1867-1916) early masterpiece “Kusamakura” (The Three-Cornered World). Miyazaki is known to be a big fan of Soseki’s writings.
Six In The Morning Friday September 27
IPCC report: Scientists are 95% certain humans causing climate change
Most comprehensive report on climate change ever leaves little doubt that greenhouse gases are causing the world to heat up
Scientists are more certain than they have ever been that humans are causing global warming, according to the most comprehensive report ever conducted into climate change, which predicts with 95 per cent certainty that people’s greenhouse gas emissions are heating the world.
This is the main finding of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report, known as AR5, which was published in Stockholm this morning.
The degree of certainty leaves little doubt that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are responsible for climate change and compares to a finding of 90 per cent certainty in the previous - fourth - assessment six years ago. This, in turn, was a significant increase on the 66 per cent certainty reached in 2001's third assessment and just over 50 per cent in 1995.
REFUGEES
Considered, deported and forgotten
German asylum procedures specify that the authorities are only permitted to deport refugees to a so-called "safe" third country. But trying to determine what exactly is safe is not necessarily easy.
The police picked up Anuar Naso and his family in the Lower Saxon town of Giessen in the early morning hours. The 15-year-old and his father were deported to Syria, where the two Yezidic Kurds were jailed in Damascus. Anuar was kept in prison for a month and three days. "I was detained and I was tortured," the young man told Deutsche Welle.
Anuar Naso and his father were deported on February 1, 2011, although Germany's foreign ministry has for years pointed out the problematic human rights situation in Syria. According to reports, beginning in the fall of 2009, refugees deported to Syria were immediately detained there in several cases.
Out of sight, out of mind?
Thousands of refugees are deported from Germany every year. According to the federal interior ministry, 6,632 people have been deported so far in 2013. Like Anuar and his father, they are sometimes picked up in the middle of the night and taken to the airport.
Terror in Kenya: The 'White Widow' and the SA link
Home affairs says Samantha Lewthwaite's passport was "cancelled" in 2011 as fear grows in Jo'burg's "Little Mogadishu".
Evidence that Samantha Lewthwaite – dubbed "the White Widow" by the British press – led or was involved in the Kenya attacks remained thin this week.
But, at the same time, evidence mounted that Lewthwaite used Johannesburg as a base in recent years during a time when, the Kenyan government believes, she was involved in the planning of terror attacks.
Late on Thursday, Interpol issued a warrant for Lewthwaite's arrest. Her alleged accomplice, Briton Jermaine Grant, appeared in a Kenyan court this week to face charges that the two had planned to murder British tourists in terror attacks in Kenya.
Authorities in that country believe the two were working with Somali terror group al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall.Colombia out, Peru in, as coca king. What's that mean?
The UN announced this week that Peru has edged out Colombia as top producer of coca, the plant used to create cocaine, reflecting shifting markets and military realities.
After nearly two decades as the top producer of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, Colombia has passed the baton to neighboring Peru, according to United Nations figures. It’s a shift in the map of Andean coca production, which experts say strongly resembles the landscape from the early 1990s, a time of expanding drug crop cultivation and trafficking.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime announced Tuesday that 60,400 hectares of coca were planted last year in Peru. Although this is a 3.4 percent drop in the area cultivated from the previous year, a 25 percent drop in Colombia means Peru has taken on the dubious distinction of top producer.
"The new map looks an awful lot like the old map" from the 1990s, says Adam Isacson, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America who has been tracking drug policy in the Andes for more than a decade.
Uzbekistan's Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva reveals rift in first family
They are the glamorous daughters of Uzbekistan's authoritarian President Islam Karimov, mixing with international celebrities and enjoying a jet-set lifestyle.
But now, in comments given exclusively to BBC Uzbek, the younger sister, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva has revealed an extraordinary rift at the heart of one of Central Asia's most prominent ruling families.
"My sister and I have not spoken to each other for 12 years," Ms Karimova-Tillyaeva says.
"There are no family or friendly relations between us."
Ms Karimova-Tillayeva's frank comments about the complete breakdown of her relationship with her sister, Gulnara, are a rare crack in the secrecy and media silence that usually surrounds Central Asia's all-powerful political dynasties.
Mao-era style of self-criticism reappears on Chinese TV
On Chinese TV, President Xi Jinping leads a session of self-criticism among Hebei provincial officials. They chastise themselves for wasteful spending.
By Barbara Demick
Chinese people switching on their 7 p.m. television news might have done a double take, suspecting that the state broadcaster had mistakenly plugged in a tape from the 1970s before the death of Mao Tse-tung.
For 24 minutes, the flagship Chinese news — probably the television program with the largest viewership — showed President Xi Jinping presiding over an extraordinary public session in which Communist Party cadres in engaged in self-criticism.
Self-criticism, the Communist Party's equivalent of group psychotherapy, is a venerable tradition that has largely lost steam since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when people denounced themselves and one another, donning dunce caps and delivering beatings. Although party members are still required to practice self-criticism, it has been in recent years largely pro forma. In fact, they can buy self-criticism essays online if they don't know what to say.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Six In The Morning Thursday September 26
Kenya mall attack: Did terrorists rent shop to hide weapons in advance of massacre?
Highly unlikely that the bulky machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and explosive devices could have been carried in
After their initial spree of killings a group of the Islamists who had stormed Westgate dived into the multi-storey Nakumatt supermarket. Security forces pursuing them began to come under steady fire: six of them were shot dead before, outgunned, they pulled out.
The stream of bullets had not come from just Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles the fighters had been carrying, but heavy calibre machine-gun. Later, there were booby-trapped bombs; some police officers also reported the 'whoosh and boom' of grenades being aimed towards them striking walls.
It is highly unlikely that the bulky versions of GPMGs (General Purpose Machine-Guns) IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) launchers could have been carried into the shopping mall by the terrorists who had initially gained entry pretending to be tourists even if some of them were, as the authorities claimed, men enveloped in niqabs.
French rebuked over treatment of Roma
‘Illusory’ to think Roma can be integrated into French life, says minister Manuel Valls
The French government has been rebuked for its treatment of some 20,000 Roma in France by the European Commission and by human rights group Amnesty International.
Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for justice, said the presence of Roma is being exploited by French politicians for political gain.
“If I’m not mistaken, there’s an election around the corner. Every time people don’t want to talk about important things like the budget or debts, they discover the Roma,” said Ms Reding said yesterday, referring to the March 2014 municipal elections and May 2014 European elections.
In a report to be published today Amnesty denounces “the vicious circle of repeated forced evictions of Roma”, more than 10,000 in the first half of this year and the rights organisation calls on the French government to ban all forced evictions.
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
UN goals fight for a better world
The UN set an ambitious plan for itself back in 2000: Cut the number of poor in half and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. In New York, the General Assembly looks at the progress of the Millennium Development Goals.
There's no contest as to what issues top the agenda at the UN General Assembly. They are the war in Syria and Iran's nuclear ambitions. But at the same time, there's another issue the delegates from some 193 countries will be discussing in their meetings: The eight Millennium Development Goals the UN agreed on back in 2000, which setting targets for the developing world to be reached by 2015.
The aim included reducing the number of poor by 50 percent, providing a primary school education for every child, cutting the death rate of children under five by two thirds and to halve the number of people without access clean drinking water. The money for implement the goals was to come from development aid.
Limited success so far
When it comes to what has been reached so far, UN Under-Secretary General David Malone drew a divided conclusion.
Chinese street vendor's execution prompts online backlash
September 26, 2013 - 6:31PM
Philip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
For a country that sentences more people to death than the rest of the world combined, there is something to be said about the spontaneous outpouring of sympathy over the execution of Xia Junfeng, a convicted double-murderer.
But Xia's death, on Wednesday, may well have gone unnoticed, if not for a series of chilling posts from his wife, Zhang Jing, which quickly went viral on Weibo, a popular social networking and messaging platform.
“Early this morning, the court sent people to take me to meet Xia Junfeng for the last time,” she said. “I’m going crazy. Getting ready to go.”
A few hours later, authorities confirmed the execution had been carried out, but not before one last insult.
Advertisement
Officials rejected Xia’s final request to be photographed in his final moments for his son’s memory.
Getting a grip: How some frogs hold on in a torrent of water
Torrent frogs have an amazing ability to climb in wet environments near waterfalls, where ordinary tree frogs would be washed away.
Researchers compared the gripping ability of torrent frogs, a class of frogs that live in fast-flowing mountain or hill streams, to that of tree frogs, and found that torrent frogs were much better at gripping wet, steep and rough surfaces.The frogs' sticky secret, the researchers found, involves hugging wet and rough surfaces with their toes, belly and thighs.
"Torrent frogs adhere to very wet and rough surfaces by attaching not only their specialized toe pads (like many tree frogs do), but also by using their belly and ventral (inner) thigh skin," study researcher Thomas Endlein of the University of Glasgow in Scotland wrote in a statement. [40 Freaky Frog Photos]
26 September 2013 Last updated at 02:20 GMT
Singapore domestic workers' day off
It is Sunday, and a chorus of Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia greets shoppers at the Lucky Plaza mall along Singapore's Orchard Road. Hundreds of foreign domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere come here every Sunday to catch up with friends and send money home via the many remittance shops. They make up the 200,000-plus workers employed in Singapore's households.
Liza Padua is among them. She is here to meet friends and celebrate her 49th birthday. Her friends have brought cake and presents, and she is looking forward to a day of festivities. She has spent 20 years in Singapore as a domestic helper and has always enjoyed her day off.
"It's so good to have Sunday off and be able to reconnect with your friends and keep in touch with the Philippine community," she said.
"Many of us have families we left behind back home, so meeting with friends is a nice way to have a sense of having a family too here in Singapore."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)