Desperation grips Philippine storm survivors |
Attention shifts to deteriorating security situation as eight people are crushed to death during raid on rice warehouse.
Last updated: 13 Nov 2013 07:38
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The expected death toll from Typhoon Haiyan's rampage through the Philippines is much lower than the 10,000 previously estimated, President Benigno Aquino has said, as attention shifts to a quickly deteriorating security situation.
Aquino said an initial UN estimate of 10,000 people killed in in the city of Tacloban was "too much", five days after one of the strongest tropical storms on record destroyed tens of thousands of houses.
"The figure I have right now is 2,000 ... so far about 2,000, 2,500 is the figure we're working on," he said, adding that the death toll still could rise.
The latest official government death toll stands at 2,275, although authorities say they have not come close to accurately assessing the number of bodies lying amid the rubble or swept out to sea.
International aid groups say they fear what is known now is just the tip of the iceberg.
Afghanistan's poppy farmers plant record opium crop, UN report says
Despite 10 years of western efforts to curb production, a combination of economics and political instability means farmers in the world's largest heroin-producing country are as enthusiastic as ever for the poppy
Afghanistan's farmers planted a record opium crop this year, despite a decade of western-backed narcotics programmes aimed at weaning farmers off the drug and cracking down on producers and traffickers.
For the first time over 200,000 hectares of Afghan fields were growing poppies, according to the UN's Afghanistan Opium Survey for 2013, covering an area equivalent to the island nation of Mauritius.
Violence and political instability means there is unlikely to be any significant drop in poppy farming in the world's top opium producer before foreign combat troops head home next year, a senior UN official warned.
Special report: The new model armies - why are Western forces being deployed across Africa?
The new mantra of 'muscular soft power' is designed to fight insurgencies and prepare states to defend themselves while building up infrastructure and civic institutions
The road to Bamako lay wide open. It was only a matter of days, hours even, before fighters linked to al-Qa’ida, who had already taken over most of Mali, took the capital, a triumph for jihad. But the arrival of French forces halted the advance, and a fast and incisive counter-attack saw the rest of the country freed from the insurgents. Timbuktu, where they had begun to destroy historic manuscripts and mausoleums, was saved. While France’s Mali mission was a success, it does not provide a template for Western involvement in Africa. The mantra now is “muscular soft power”, the process of preparing states to defend themselves while building up infrastructure and civic institutions. It is hoped such steps will make large expeditionary operations a thing of the past.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the public weary of foreign adventures. Even a relatively risk-free enterprise like Nato’s bombing of Libya in 2011 now holds little appeal as the Arab Spring turns into winter and uncertainty abounds about who exactly are the “good guys”. Defence cuts in Europe and the US have reinforced the view that days of prolonged combat and nation-building are, for the time being, over.
Black Market in Lebanon: Syrian Refugees Selling Organs to Survive
In the shadow of the Syrian civil war, a growing number of refugees are surviving in Lebanon by illegally selling their own organs. But the exchange comes at a huge cost.
The young man, who called himself Raïd, wasn't doing well. He climbed into the backseat of the car, in pain, careful not to touch any corners. He was exhausted and dizzy. A large bandage looped around his stomach, caked with blood. Despite that, the 19-year-old Syrian wanted to tell his story.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's billions
November 13, 2013Steve Stecklow
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a business empire worth about $US95 billion ($102 billion) a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation's current annual petroleum exports - a six-month Reuters investigation shows.
The little-known organisation, called Setad, is one of the keys to the Iranian leader's enduring power and now holds stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming.
Setad has built its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians - members of religious minorities, Shi'ite Muslims, business people and Iranians living abroad.
Is Nicaragua's Constitution facing an extreme Sandinista makeover?
The proposed reforms would target presidential reelection and the role of the military in politics – affecting nearly one-fifth of the constitution.
Nicaragua’s Constitution is about to get an extreme Sandinista makeover.
After years of tweaking and sidestepping articles that were inconvenient to Sandinista rule, such as the ban on presidential reelection, the ruling party is now embarking on an aggressive campaign to overhaul the legal document in what critics say is a bid to accommodate the party's needs. Proposed changes to 39 articles would pave the way forPresident Daniel Ortega’s indefinite reelection and replace Nicaragua’s representative democracy with a version of “direct democracy,” as envisaged by Mr. Ortega's politically active wife, Rosario Murillo.
Sandinista lawmakers, whose super majority status in the National Assembly means little need for in-depth consultation or compromise, presented the reforms last week. If all goes according to plan, the Central American nation will have an entirely new political system by the New Year.
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