Caged in Cairo: where journalism is a crime

Al Jazeera staff sentenced to jail in Egypt #FreeAJStaff.

After 177 days of incarceration in Egypt, the three Al Jazeera English journalists went to court to hear the verdict in their case. Just the week before Al Jazeera Arab journalist, Abdullah al-Shami had been released so hopes were high for an acquittal. Instead the journalists, Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed were all sentenced to seven years in prison for, according to the court, ‘spreading false news’ and ‘aiding or joining the banned Muslim Brotherhood’. Baher Mohamed received an extra three years for having a used bullet casing in his possession at the time of his arrest.

The sentences provoked condemnation from Al Jazeera and news organisations around the world however the sentiment was not reflected in Egyptian media. Some mainstream news outlets in the country applauded the verdict, echoing a wider view of Al Jazeera - a network that had a central role in covering the Arab Spring and Tahrir Square – as having fallen from grace over a perceived bias in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Six In The Morning Monday June 30

30 June 2014 Last updated at 06:51

Isis rebels declare 'Islamic state' in Iraq and Syria

Islamist militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria.

It also proclaimed the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and "leader for Muslims everywhere".

Setting up a caliphate ruled by the strict Islamic law has long been a goal of many jihadists.

Meanwhile, Iraq's army continued an offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit from the Isis-led rebels.

The city was seized by the insurgents on 11 June as they swept across large parts of northern-western Iraq.

Ukraine leader urges Putin to tighten borders after violence

Call comes after Ukrainian, Russian, German and French leaders have four-way discussion

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko yesterday urged President Vladimir Putin to strengthen Russian control over its borders to prevent militants and arms entering Ukraine after violence broke a truce there.

The ceasefire, declared by Mr Poroshenko on June 20th to allow for peace talks with the pro-Russian rebels, is due to expire today, a deadline also set by EU leaders considering new sanctions against Russia.

The statement came after a four-way telephone conversation among the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, French president François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel, said a statement from Poroshenko’s office.

Waves of news sweep the Indian countryside

Women from India’s poorest regions tell their stories every week on Khabar Lahariya, a local news website. This year, it won the DW Best of blogs (The Bobs) Global Media Forum Award in Hindi.

Kavita was barely 16 when she got married. She was still in school at the time. Her married life was not a happy one. Her husband's family was not very supportive and there was a lot of pressure on her to have children. Kavita was very young and, as a result, most of her pregnancies miscarried.

She decided to end her marriage and get back to her studies. She joined a literacy campaign organized by an NGO in New Delhi called Nirantar. Once the camp was over, Kavita and several other participants said they wanted to continue reading and writing. This is how Khabar Lahariya - which means "waves of news" - was born.

World's worst illegal logging in Indonesia

Michael Bachelard

Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Indonesia is destroying its tropical rainforests faster than Brazil, and the rate is soaring despite a five-year moratorium on new clearing.

Exhaustive new figures show Indonesia is probably the single largest deforester in the world, and that most destruction is happening in lowland and peat forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the only habitat in the world where tigers, orangutan, elephants and rhinoceroses live together.

The University of Maryland study, derived from satellite data and published in Nature, gives the lie to official Indonesian figures that claim the rate of deforestation has slowed under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s national forest moratorium, imposed in 2009.

World cup 2014: Algeria coach angry at Ramadan questions

30 June 2014Last updated at 00:04 GMT

By David OrnsteinBBC Sport in Porto Alegre

Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic refused to divulge which of his Muslim players are observing Ramadan ahead of Monday's World Cup last-16 meeting with Germany.

The 30-day dawn-to-dusk fast began on Sunday and Halilhodzic, 61, bristled at a routine question about the subject in his pre-match news conference.

"This is a private matter and when you ask this you lack respect and ethics," said the Bosnian.

"The players will do as they wish and I would like to stop this controversy."

Ramadan is mandatory for Muslims and one of the five pillars of Islam, although there are exemptions for the sick, pregnant, infirm or elderly.

N. Korea Preparing to Indict 2 American Tourists

North Korea said Monday it is preparing to indict two American detainees for carrying out what it says were hostile acts against the country.

Investigations into American tourists Miller Matthew Todd and Jeffrey Edward Fowle concluded that suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report.

KCNA said North Korea is making preparations to bring them before a court.

Both Americans were arrested earlier this year after entering the country as tourists.

Blackwater's Top Manager Threatened To Kill State Department Investigator

From Crooks and Liars

According to newly released documents by The New York Times, Blackwater knocked down a probe by the State Department looking into their operations in Iraq by threatening to kill the investigator.

From The New York Times: Before Shooting in Iraq, a Warning on Blackwater:

WASHINGTON — Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports.

American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted the embassy’s relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country, according to the reports.

After returning to Washington, the chief investigator wrote a scathing report to State Department officials documenting misconduct by Blackwater employees and warning that lax oversight of the company, which had a contract worth more than $1 billion to protect American diplomats, had created “an environment full of liability and negligence.”

“The management structures in place to manage and monitor our contracts in Iraq have become subservient to the contractors themselves,” the investigator, Jean C. Richter, wrote in an Aug. 31, 2007, memo to State Department officials. “Blackwater contractors saw themselves as above the law,” he said, adding that the “hands off” management resulted in a situation in which “the contractors, instead of Department officials, are in command and in control.” Read on...

Late Night Music From Japan

The End Game: Why Iraq Is Sliding Into Chaos Or How To Blame Someone Else

In 1914  what became known as  the Great War began following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo.  All the Europeans believed they understood each other without bothering to ask to relevant question.  What were the national interests of their allies and enemies.  Thus, began a war over an Archduke disliked not only by his own subjects, but by his own family.

Germany had an allie, the Ottoman empire which saw an opportunity to expand to its political and military influence.  As history shows the leaders of the Ottoman chose unwisely.   As victors Great Britain and France seized the opportunity to increase their spheres of political control over the former regions of the Ottoman empire in the Middle East.

Two gentlemen Sykes and Picot working together created what we know as the modern Middle East.
Without any consideration for ethnic or religious rivalries they simply drew lines on a map. Creating modern day Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon all former provinces of the now broken up Ottoman empire.

David Gergen  a former advisor to Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton published an opinion piece for CNN on the current crisis in Iraq.  While Mr. Gergen blames George W. Bush for creating the situation with America's invasion of Iraq in March of 2003 he lays most of the blame at the feet of President Obama because he wouldn't force Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to allow America to keep a ground force of 16,000 personnel in country.

He even manages to give credit to Nouri Al Maliki for being corrupt, dictatorial, sideling the Kurds and Sunnis  and completely  partisan but still believes that the fault lies with President Obama.

David Gergen conveniently leaves out the historical context for the current conflict or the fact that it isn't just a partisan war but a religious one with 1,400 years of history behind it.  


                   

Six In The Morning Sunday June 29

29 June 2014 Last updated at 07:13

Iraq receives Russian fighter jets to fight rebels

Iraq says it has received the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help it as it fights an offensive by Sunni rebels.

The defence ministry said five Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft would enter service in "three to four days".

The insurgents control large swathes of the north and west after a string of attacks over the past three weeks.

On Saturday, the government said it had retaken the northern city of Tikrit, but rebels dispute this.

State television said 60 militants had been killed and that preparations were now being made to move north towards rebel-held Mosul.

The rebels confirmed there had been heavy fighting in the city they took on 11 June, but implied the attack had failed, saying they were pursuing what was left of the army offensive.

EDITORIAL Sunday 29 June 2014

The Nigerian girls are still missing

It is to be hoped that President Jonathan is still being advised by British and other experts on how to deal with Boko Haram

How quickly the outrage passes on from the front pages. A month or so ago much of the world seemed united in its condemnation of the kidnapping of more than 200 girls by Boko Haram, the Islamist sect, in Nigeria. But despite Hollywood stars and Michelle Obama taking pictures of themselves holding up placards saying "Bring Back Our Girls", it has proved impossible to return them to their families.

As the complexities of the security situation in northern Nigeria became apparent, the campaign's intensity has weakened. At an early stage, it was reported that 300 people were killed in a Boko Haram attack near Chibok, the town from where the students were taken, because the Nigerian security force protecting the mostly Christian population had been deployed to join the search.

Syria charity blames red tape for closure of Aleppo hospital

Staff at much-needed hospital given a month's notice because charity needs established funding partner to keep facility open

• Tracy McVeigh
• The Observer, Sunday 29 June 2014

All staff at a hospital serving the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo have been given a month's notice after a British medical charity blamed red tape for its closure.

Half a million people in the war-torn country will lose access to desperately needed healthcare when Atareb hospital, operated by the British-based aid agency Hand in Hand for Syria (HIHS), closes within the next few days.

It would be a disaster for local people as well as for the medical staff, who included some of the last remaining doctors in Syria, and their families, said the charity's head of logistics, Fadi al-Dairi, speaking from the Syrian-Turkish border.

India's uranium mines expose villages to radiation

India plans to source a quarter of its energy from nuclear power by 2050. But this ambitious goal could come at a cost. Radioactive waste from uranium mines in the country's east is contaminating nearby communities.

It's a hot summer afternoon in Jadugoda, a small town in eastern India. Four women wearing saris sit in a circle in front of a mud house, with smooth white walls and pink borders decorated with small shards of mirror.

Nearby, a woman pumps up water from a tube well. She then beats a miner's uniform that belongs to her brother. He works nearby, in the uranium mines.

Suddenly a gust of wind blows black dust from the mines into the courtyard. The women cover their faces and rush to cover the pots of water so they don't get contaminated.

America's Marijuana Revolution: Ganjapreneurs Hit the Jackpot

By Anne Seith in Denver, Colorado

Since the legalization of marijuana in two US states in January, entrepreneurs and investors have been seeing green. Observers believe the industry will grow rapidly and may even rival the Dot.Com boom of the 1990s.

There are many ways to get high: John and Jane knew that even before traveling to Denver, Colorado. Yet neither was prepared for the vast diversity of offerings they were confronted with when they arrived.

At the 3D Cannabis Center, they found flavored pot catering to every taste -- mints, gummy bears, sour fruits and even truffles and pralines. "We got Swiss style yesterday," a salesman says, pitching a dark chocolate. The selection also includes varieties like Cookies & Cream or tangerine-chocolate. All, of course, are enhanced with cannabis.

Unofficial Hong Kong reform poll in last day

Democracy 'referendum' to end a day before huge numbers of people expected to turn out for pro-democracy demonstration. Last updated: 29 Jun 2014 06:54

Hong Kong citizens have voted in the final day of an unofficial referendum on democratic reform, days before a record number of people are expected at an annual pro-democracy protest.

The 10-day poll has seen voters choose how the city's leader should be elected, but it has enraged Beijing with state-run media describing the ballot as "an illegal farce".

More than 760,000 people have voted since the poll opened online earlier this month, the AFP news agency reported, as fears grow that Beijing will backtrack on its promise to allow Hong Kong universal suffrage.

Tensions are running high in the former British colony with upwards of 500,000 people expected to participate in a pro-democracy rally on Tuesday, the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China.

Late Night Music From Japan

Six In The Morning Saturday June 28

28 June 2014 Last updated at 08:10

Sarajevo marks 100 years since killing of Archduke Ferdinand

Bosnia is commemorating 100 years since the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the act that triggered World War One.

Cultural and sporting events, including a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, are marking the occasion in the city.

Gavrilo Princip, who shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, continues to be a divisive figure in Bosnia.

The shots fired by the Bosnian Serb on 28 June 1914 sucked Europe's great powers into four years of warfare.

Bosnia's Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks are still divided over the role Princip played in bringing tensions to a head in Europe in 1914, with counter-commemorations planned by Bosnian Serbs.







Jamaica's murder rate tumbles but decrepit morgues stymie convictions

Caribbean island has improved forensic investigations but failed to build modern public morgue for victims of violent deaths

• AP in Spanish Town
• theguardian.com, Saturday 28 June 2014 09.00 BST

The suspected victims of violent deaths are wrapped in plastic bags or covered loosely in stained sheets. There is no air conditioning and the room quickly becomes sweltering as the tropical sun beats down on the metal roof. A fly buzzes around amid the overwhelming stench of decaying corpses.

A forensic pathologist and his sweating assistants can merely shrug at such challenging conditions in the hospital in gritty Spanish Town on the edge of Kingston, the Jamaican capital. "What can I say? The lack of resources is definitely a challenge," says Dr SN Prasad Kadiyala as he waits for the arrival of the police so he can begin the autopsies.

The island has had one of the highest homicide rates in the world for years, but its capacity to deal with the problem has not kept pace. While the Caribbean country has made some gains in the gathering and processing of evidence, one of its biggest challenges is simply finding a place to store and study the dead.

WWI centennial event without Serbs

Serbian leaders plan to stay away from Saturday's EU-funded commemorations in Sarajevo to mark the assassination that unleashed World War One. Instead, Serbs have unveiled a monument to the assassin.

Vienna's Philharmonic Orchestra performs in Bosnia's capital on Saturday as the world recalls the 1914 killing of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand that triggered World War One, resulting in 10 million battlefield deaths.

Leaders of Bosnian Serbs and Serbia were not expected to visit Sarajevo's newly-rebuilt city hall for the concert, seen as the highlight of 1914 commemorations funded by EU nations.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer was due to be alongside French and German dignitaries attending, but absent will be Serbian premier Aleksander Vucic and his Bosnian Serb counterpart Milorad Dodik.

Nigerian's rejection of religion deemed clinical insanity

27 JUN 2014 00:00 DAVID SMITH

A Nigerian man has been detained in a mental health institution by his family after saying he had lost his belief in God.

Mubarak Bala (29) is said to have been forcibly medicated for “insanity” for nearly two weeks, despite a doctor’s opinion that he has no psychological problems.

Campaigners are calling for his release and say the case highlights the fact that atheists are a persecuted minority in many African countries.

Bala’s Twitter account uses the handle “@ExMuslim”, and his profile says: “Chemical Process Engineer. I stand for Truth&Justice. Religion insults human conscience &reason, duped me that I hav another lifetime. AgnosticAtheist.”

Drab West Bank home could be first to fall as Israel revives demolition policy

The Israeli army gave notice it plans to destroy a building that houses an extended family in which one brother is accused of murder. The policy had fallen into disuse because it was not seen as an effective deterrent.

By Ben Lynfield, Correspondent

IDNA, WEST BANK — A drab two-story house in this town could become the first casualty of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to revive the controversial practice of demolishing the homes of Palestinian militants, a form of collective punishment. 

The house was formerly occupied by Ziyad Awad, a Hamas operative whomIsrael has arrested over the Apr. 14 killing of an Israeli police officer. On Tuesday, the Israeli army gave notice to relatives of Mr. Awad that it planned to ''confiscate and destroy'' the building where the murder suspect lived with his wife and five children. The targeted structure also houses, in a separate apartment, Awad's brother, Mohammed, and his wife and their six children as well as the brothers' mother.

Hong Kong lawyers protest China 'meddling'

An estiminated 1,700 lawyers join march calling on China to preserve the former colony's judicial independence. Last updated: 28 Jun 2014 07:20

Hundreds of Hong Kong lawyers dressed in black have marched in silence to protest a recent Beijing policy statement they said undermines the Asian financial hub's rule of law.

The demonstration late on Friday came ahead of the end of an unofficial referendum by activists calling for democratic reform in the former British colony. Voting in the poll ends on Sunday.

The protesters ended the march in front of the special Chinese administrative government's top court, where the lawyers stood in silence for three minutes.

An estiminated 1,700 lawyers showed up, according to Dennis Kwok, a lawmaker representing the legal sector who led the protest. Police said 850 people were at the rally.

Random Japan

 Japanese Twitter users square off in Adios Guy Photoshop Championship

With the Japanese national team’s hopes of winning the World Cup championship dashed far too early this year. Japan’s soccer fans were left with mere scraps of enjoyment they once had in the tournament. Luckily though, every World Cup has its ancillary breakout star.

Last time, we saw the mystical talents of Paul the Octopus, and now the world finds itself staring in wonder at the phenomenon Japan has dubbed Adios Ojisan (Adios Guy). For those not familiar, Adios Ojisan was a guy in the audience of the Chile/Spain match (among others) holding up an iPad which read “Adios Spana.”

And so, with Team Japan out of the running, let us enjoy some highlights from the Adios Spana Photoshop Championship currently being held on Twitter!

stats

• 111 years, 4 monthsAge of Sakari Momoi of Saitama, who became the world’s oldest man earlier this month
• $86,500Price paid at an auction in New York for the flight log kept by the pilot of the Enola Gay on August 6, 1945, when the U.S. B-29 dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
• ¥675.6 billionSales of toys in Japan in fiscal 2013, a 0.6 percent increase from 2012 and the first rise in two years, according to the Japan Toy Association
• 
  

BIG IN JAPAN

• An apparently serious newspaper report claimed that traditional fundoshi loincloths are enjoying a comeback thanks to their “superior airflow” and “reputation for energizing [the] wearer when the strings are tightened.”
 
• The education ministry has commissioned a panel of nutrition experts to develop school textbooks that stress “the importance of food and table manners.”
• For the first time ever, ANA has topped JAL in a metric called “monthly international passenger transportation capacities,” whatever the heck that is.
• The owner of a frame store in Shimane has found what experts believe to be the oldest existing photograph of the Takeshima islets.

Not The Kiss Of Death
The Kiss Of Handcuffs

When The Criminals
Are Those Tasked With Enforcement


A Little Massage
A Little Something Extra: Busted

Once a toy stall, figurine maker Kaiyodo celebrates half-century anniversary

June 28, 2014

By YOSHIKATSU NAKAJIMA/ Staff Writer

KADOMA, Osaka Prefecture--An internationally renowned manufacturer of collectible plastic figurines has come a long way since starting out as a tiny stall selling plastic models to children.

In fact, Kaiyodo Co., which celebrated its 50th anniversary in April, was very nearly a noodle shop.

Since its humble beginnings in 1964 as a 5-square-meter stall in nearby Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, Kaiyodo has adopted a daring business philosophy, selected unique objects and shown a dedication to precision to claim Japan’s top spot in the world of figurines.

Osamu Miyawaki, the 86-year-old company founder, has never settled for second best.

Late Night Music From Japan

Six In The Morning Friday June 27

ISIS gains in Iraq put Saudi forces on highest alert

From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN

June 27, 2014 -- Updated 0323 GMT (1123 HKT)

King Abdullah has ordered that "all necessary measures" be taken to protect Saudi Arabia against terror threats, the state-run SPA news agency reported Thursday.

"Anticipating (that) the terrorist organizations or others might carry out actions that might disturb the security of the homeland, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has ordered taking all necessary measures to protect the gains of the homeland and its territories in addition to the security and stability of the Saudi people," SPA said.

The news agency referenced the crisis in Iraq, where militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are seeking to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses portions of Iraq and Syria.

North Korea tests new precision guided missiles

South Korean defence officials said the projectiles fired from an eastern port city flew about 120 miles before harmlessly landing off its east coast

AGENCY

 

 

Friday 27 June 2014

North Korea said today that leader Kim Jong Un has guided the test launches of its newly developed precision guided missiles.

It was a possible reference to three short-range projectiles South Korean officials say the North fired toward its waters a day earlier.

South Korean defence officials said the projectiles fired from an eastern port city flew about 120 miles before harmlessly landing into the waters off its east coast.

The exact type of those projectiles and the North's intentions were not immediately known.

Ukraine rebels free four abducted OSCE observers

Four abducted observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been freed by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Another team of four observers is still being held hostage.

Pro-Russian separatists in south-eastern Ukraine early on Friday released four out of eight international observers, captured over a month ago, according to the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) team in Kyiv.

The four observers were brought by heavily armed rebels to a hotel in downtown Donetsk, where they were handed over to their colleagues. The city, along with several others in the regions, declared independence from Kyiv after a disputed referendum.

Speaking to reporters, the self-styled "prime minister" of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk, Alexander Borodai, said the observers were freed without conditions and identified them as nationals of Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland and Estonia.

Days of Terror: Iraqi Christians Live in Fear of ISIS

By Katrin Kuntz in Qaraqosh, Iraq

Some 40,000 Christians live in Qaraqosh, a town near Mosul, Iraq. Residents have been gathering daily in 12 local churches as ISIS jihadists advance towards the community. Their existence is a precarious one.

It was the evening of Tuesday, June 10 when Salam Kihkhwa walked into a mobile phone shop in the Qaraqosh city center to purchase more minutes for his phone. Kihkhwa surfs the Internet for several hours each day and was carrying an iPhone 5s in his hand as he navigated his way past brackish puddles on the edge of the road. He set a few wrinkled dinar notes down on the counter to pay for a pack of Winchesters. Just at that moment, he recalls, he heard the scream: "The jihadists are in the city!"

Salam no longer remembers where the scream came from or whether it was a man or a woman. But he knows he left his cigarettes and money on the counter, grabbed his phone and made a run for it. Hundreds of others joined him, and the crowd kept swelling as it dashed through the streets of Qaraqosh.

Rise of the robots increases concerns about industrial safety

June 27, 2014 - 2:46PM

John Markoff and Claire Cain Miller

New York: From driverless cars to delivery drones, a new generation of robots is about to revolutionise the way people work, drive and shop. But this new breed of robots will need to have increased autonomy to achieve optimum productivity. With these robots working outside cages there are growing concerns this could lead to an increase in industrial accidents.

Robots have long toiled alongside workers in factories and warehouses, where they load boxes, drill and weld car parts, or move food from one conveyor belt to the next.

Now experts worry about the dangers that robots pose to the humans who work alongside them.

NASA's deep-space craft readying for launch

By Carter Maguire, Special to CNN June 26, 2014 -- Updated 1733 GMT (0133 HKT) |

The U.S. space shuttle program retired in 2011, leaving American astronauts to hitchhike into orbit. But after three long years, NASA's successor is almost ready to make an entrance.

Orion, the agency's newest manned spaceship, is being prepared for its first mission in December. In future missions, it will journey into deep space -- to Mars and beyond -- farther than humans have ever gone before.

Orion comes loaded with superlatives. It boasts the largest heat shield ever built and a computer 400 times faster than the ones on the space shuttles. It will be launched into space on the most powerful rocket NASA has ever made.