10 women who shaped 2013
By Frida Ghitis
The women of the year helped bring the economy back from the brink, worked against tyranny, and championed equality, education and justice. Most of all, they helped open our eyes to how much remains to be done.
Malala Yousafzai
If 2012 was the year most of us first heard about the 14-year-old Pakistani girl, it was 2013 when we learned nobody could silence her, especially not the cowardly Taliban men who tried to kill her.
Malala had become a vocal advocate of the right of all girls to an education, a frightening prospect for the Taliban. In October 2012, machine-gun toting extremists walked onto a school van, asked for Malala, then shot her in the face.
Instead of intimidating her, the Taliban turned her into their own worst nightmare -- a powerful girl more admired and articulate than ever.
Changes in China: One-child policy is reformed and re-education through labour camps abolished
Renaissance exhibition at Musée du Luxembourg in Paris the stuff of dreams
Renaissance artists found dreams a rich source of inspiration and self-expression
Dreaming is an experience known to every human. But our concept of what it’s about has changed dramatically over the centuries, as shown by the exhibition The Renaissance and Dreams; Bosch, Véronèse, El Greco at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris until January 26th.
Medieval man believed dreams put him in contact with the supernatural. That belief persisted into the Renaissance, when the dream occupied a central place in visual arts.
“The Renaissance attributed great power to the imagination,” explains Yves Hersant, professor of Renaissance history at Paris’s École des hautes études, and one of three curators for the exhibition. “That is what gave the Renaissance its vigour. Until then, people were suspicious of imagination; they thought it was misleading, that it came from the devil.”
Anti-government protesters clash with Turkish riot police
Turkish police have clashed with protesters demanding that the government step down. This followed a judicial blow to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is facing a growing corruption scandal.
Riot police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets in an effort to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters who had gathered in both Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, on Friday.
Some of the protesters threw rocks or firecrackers at the police and chanted “stop the thief,” in reference to the corruption scandal that has seen several members of Prime Minister Erdogan's government resign over the past couple of days.
Friday's clashes followed a ruling handed down by the Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court, earlier in the day, which blocked a government decree that had sought to require that police officers inform their superiors before launching any investigations.
The Ankara-based court found that the decree "contradicts the principle of the separation of powers."
Zimbabwe ambassador to Australia seeks asylum: media
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Australia has asked for political asylum just days before her term ends saying she fears for her safety if she goes home, media reported on Saturday.
Jacqueline Zwambila, who is a member of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was appointed to Australia to renew ties between the countries after a unity government was formed in Zimbabwe in 2009.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai shared power with veteran leader Robert Mugabe in the unity government until a July 31 election which Mugabe won. The opposition rejected the vote as fraudulent but it was largely endorsed by African observers as free and credible.
“I am not going to be returning to Zimbabwe,” Zwambila told Australia’s Fairfax media.
Zwambila said the election had been “stolen” by an “illegitimate” government and she would not feel safe going home.
Five questions you want answered about Thailand's political tumult
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has called elections for early February, but opponents on the streets of Bangkok want to derail the process.
Besieged by massive street protests, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called early elections for February that polls suggest she would easily win. But her decision to seek another mandate has not ended the political unrest in Thailand, a US military ally with the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia.
Protesters have tried to prevent the registration of candidates for the election; two people died and dozens were injured on Dec. 26 in clashes between police and protesters. The country's election commission later called for a delay in holding the poll.
The chief of Thailand’s powerful army, which staged a coup in 2006, has called for calm but as of Dec. 27 had not ruled out a military intervention in the current crisis. The protest movement has vowed to keep up its campaign into the new year.
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