6 May 2014 Last updated at 08:44
Pu Zhiqiang is held by Beijing police in apparent attempt to deter activists from marking 25 years since crackdown
Leading academics from 12 countries including UK call for next round of OECD Pisa tests on 15-year-olds to be scrapped
Thailand PM Yingluck Shinawatra in court over abuse of power
Thailand's prime minister has appeared before the Constitutional Court in Bangkok to defend herself against allegations of abuse of power.
The complaint was filed by senators who said Yingluck Shinawatra's party benefited from improperly transferring her national security chief in 2011.
Ms Yingluck could be removed from office and banned from politics for five years if found guilty.
The decision is expected on Wednesday, the court said after the hearing.
The prime minister's supporters believe the top courts are biased against her and the case is an attempt by the elite to force her from office.
Chinese human rights lawyer detained before Tiananmen anniversary
Pu Zhiqiang is held by Beijing police in apparent attempt to deter activists from marking 25 years since crackdown
Chinese authorities have detained a well-known human rights lawyer in an apparent attempt to deter activists from marking the 25th anniversary of the brutal military suppression of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Pu Zhiqiang was detained by Beijing police in the early hours of Tuesday, according to Qu Zhenhong, an associate at Pu's firm in Beijing who has been in contact with his family.
Pu enjoys a mainstream prominence that is unusual for dissidents and news of his detention was circulating widely on Chinese microblogs. Despite his outspoken criticism of the government, Pu has been featured in magazines and interviewed about labour camps, against which he led high-profile campaigns.
Digital arms makers building NSA arsenal
May 6, 2014 - 9:59AMJordan Robertson, Michael Riley
On Florida's Atlantic coast, cyber arms makers working for US spy agencies are bombarding billions of lines of computer code with random data that can expose software flaws the US might exploit.
In Pittsburgh, researchers with a Pentagon contract are teaching computers to scan software for bugs and turn them automatically into weapons. In a converted textile mill in New Hampshire, programmers are testing the combat potential of coding errors on a digital bombing range.
Nationwide, a new league of defence contractors is mining the foundation of the Internet for glitches that can be turned to the country's strategic advantage. They're part of a cyber military industrial complex that's grown up in more than a dozen states and employs thousands of civilians, according to 15 people who work for contractors and the government. The projects are so sensitive their funding is classified, and so extensive a bid to curb their scope will be resisted not only by intelligence agencies but also the world's largest military supply chain.
Egypt's Sisi: Brotherhood will not return |
Leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says Muslim Brotherhood is "finished" in Egypt if he is elected.
Last updated: 06 May 2014 03:44
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Egypt's former-army chief and leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said that the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed leader Mohamed Morsi was "finished" in Egypt and would not return if he was elected.
Sisi spoke in the first TV interview of his campaign, aired on Monday, vowing that restoring stability and bringing development were his priorities.
The comments were a seemingly unequivocal rejection of any political reconciliation with the Brotherhood, which was Egypt's most powerful political force until Sisi removed Morsi last summer.
Since ousting Morsi, Sisi has been riding an overwhelming media frenzy lauding him as Egypt's saviour, and his status as the country's strongest figure all but guarantees him a victory in the May 26-27 election.
Sisi's only opponent in the race is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, the third-place finisher in the 2012 election won by Morsi.
Global school tests under attack as OECD accused of killing 'joy of learning'
Leading academics from 12 countries including UK call for next round of OECD Pisa tests on 15-year-olds to be scrapped
Leading academics have accused the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of acting as an unaccountable super-ministry of education which kills the "joy of learning" and turns schooling into "drudgery".
A letter signed by 120 leading academics and teachers from 12 countries– including Britain, the US and Germany – argues the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests on 15-year-olds distort the curriculum, reduce teachers' autonomy and increase children's stress levels.
The results of the Pisa tests, which the signatories say are "widely known to be imperfect" because they focus narrowly on the economic goals of education, are anxiously awaited in the 66 countries that take part.
Polio’s Return After Near Eradication Prompts a Global Health Warning
Alarmed by the spread of polio to several fragile countries, the World Health Organizationdeclared a global health emergency on Monday for only the second time since regulations permitting it to do so were adopted in 2007.
Just two years ago — after a 25-year campaign that vaccinated billions of children — the paralyzing virus was near eradication; now health officials say that goal could evaporate if swift action is not taken.
Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon have recently allowed the virus to spread — to Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea, respectively — and should take extraordinary measures to stop it, the health organization said.
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