In China, smog woes eroding new year fireworks tradition
Chinese authorities and activists are encouraging revelers to start the new year without a bang to reduce the pollutants released by pyrotechnics.
By Julie Makinen
Flowers to mark the new year? How about electronic gizmos that flash and go bang?
Fireworks are as integral to Chinese New Year as evergreens are to Christmas. Tradition holds that noisy pops and colorful flares ward off evil spirits and bring good luck for the coming year.
But the pyrotechnics also release particulates that include sulfur dioxide and other toxins.
With smog blanketing many Chinese cities as the Year of the Horse approaches, environmental activists, meteorologists and government officials are urging people to start the new year without a bang Friday. And people appear to be listening.
Even without New Year's fireworks, winter is a particularly bad time for air quality in China, especially in northern areas where coal-fired heating is common. In December, China's Environmental Protection Ministry reported that 62 of 74 cities it monitors failed to meet air quality standards for more than half the month.
Mob attacks remote Indian village in land dispute
At least 10 killed after gunmen from neighbouring state open fire in Chauldhua in northern Assam state
A mob armed with shotguns has attacked a remote village in north-eastIndia, killing at least 10 people in a long-simmering land dispute, police say.
The attackers fired indiscriminately on Wednesday evening in Chauldhua in northern Assam state, said a resident, Indrashwar Das.
"A large mob attacked us with guns. Everyone was surprised," said Das, who was shot in the leg. "I saw people falling and I ran."
The gunmen came from neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh state, police said. It took officers several hours to access the densely forested area.
Ukraine parliament votes to offer amnesty to protesters
Opposition denounces offer which insists demonstrators leave occupied buildings
Daniel McLaughlin
Ukraine’s crisis has deepened after a stormy vote in parliament and a decision byRussia to suspend a bailout to Kiev due to uncertainty over its future path.
After a late-night pep talk from president Viktor Yanukovich, his ruling Regions Party voted to offer an amnesty to detained protesters only if they first leave administrative buildings that they have occupied across the country.
Opposition leaders denounced the law, having insisted that no conditions be attached to the amnesty.
The government has resigned and sweeping anti-protest legislation has been revoked as rallies that began in Kiev and pro-opposition western Ukraine spread to areas traditionally loyal to Mr Yanukovich.
General's murder highlights fragile Egypt security
The brazen daylight assassination of a police general in Cairo underscores the growing insecurity in Egypt, as it awaits an announcement from its army chief to run for the presidency.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al Qaeda-inspired group from the restive Sinai Peninsula, said it shot dead General Mohamed Saeed outside his home in western Cairo Tuesday, and threatened more such attacks.
The killing came a day after Egypt's top brass backed Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for the presidency, which he is expected to win easily if he does.
Sisi, 59, has said he would stand for the election to be held by mid-April if there was "popular demand".
"Vengeance is coming," Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said, addressing Sisi and interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim.
Why is Mexico's Knights Templar reaching out to rival cartels?
Authorities in Mexico found evidence of a budding alliance between the Knights Templar and Beltran Leyva drug cartels. Some say it's a sign that vigilante groups in Michoacán are 'working.'
Authorities in Mexico have uncovered evidence of an alliance between the Knights Templar and the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), marking a change in direction for both gangs.
As reported by El Universal, agents of the two groups met in Mexico City in January, and were arrested by Mexican Marines. The meetings were aimed at consolidating an agreement in which the BLO would help the Knights remain in control of Michoacán.
The meetings come at a particularly dangerous moment for the Knights. Their ongoing conflict with local self-defense groups, in which the Knights have resorted to insurgent-style attacks, has turned the group into the principal public security focus in the country. The federal government has flooded the area with troops, both in an effort to reverse the state decay that led to the self-defense groups and to crack down on the Knights' operations.
Southeast Asia
Jan 30, '14
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Democratic aversion impacts Thai South
By Jason Johnson
PATTANI - Since former Democrat Party parliamentarian Suthep Thaugsuban and his current People's Democratic Reform Committee's (PDRC) anti-government protest movement took to the streets of Bangkok in November in an effort to replace the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra with an appointed "people's council", many political pundits have asserted that the PDRC movement is an obstacle to representative democracy.
This week, PDRC supporters, who largely back the Democrat Party and hail from Bangkok and the country's upper south region, have attempted to block voters from casting votes in a snap election that was called by Yingluck, the younger sister of 2006 coup-ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Since 2001, parties aligned with Thaksin, who has lived in self-exile since fleeing abuse-of-power charges in 2008, have
demolished the Democrats at the polls in Thailand's vote-rich north and northeastern regions.
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