Monday, June 9, 2014

Six In The Morning Monday June 9

Karachi airport: Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for attack


Pakistani Taliban claims attack after gunmen armed with grenades and rocket-launchers battle security forces at at Jinnah international airport

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack on Karachi airport in revenge for their late leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in November.
The initial assault at Jinnah international airport in Pakistan's southern port city began late on Sunday and raged until dawn, when the military said that at least 24 people – including all 10 attackers – had been killed.
Equipped with suicide vests, grenades and rocket-launchers, they had battled security forces in one of the most brazen attacks in years in Pakistan's biggest city.

Battle to establish Islamic state across Iraq and Syria


The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant now controls vast stretch of land

 
AMMAN
 
Islamic fundamentalists have opened new fronts in their battle to establish an Islamic state across Iraq and Syria as they launch attacks in cities which were previously under the control of the Baghdad government.

A multi-pronged assault across central and northern Iraq in the past four days shows that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has taken over from the al-Qa’ida organisation founded by Osama bin Laden as the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world.

Isis now controls or can operate with impunity in a great stretch of territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria, making it militarily the most successful jihadi movement ever.

Crackdown on more than 1,000 'naked officials' in Guangdong

By Zoe Li, CNN
June 9, 2014 -- Updated 0647 GMT (1447 HKT)
In the latest move in China's anti-corruption campaign, more than 1,000 people in Guangdong Province have been marked as "naked officials" -- those suspected of storing graft gains with overseas family members.
According to Chinese state media, Xinhua news agency, an unnamed official source says 866 of the implicated officials have been removed from their posts, including nine at a mayoral level. Another 200 have asked their families to return to China, in exchange for keeping their posts.
Many officials have family overseas, including President Xi Jinping, whose daughter is currently enrolled at Harvard University. "Naked officials" refers to civil servants who have sent their families overseas allegedly with their ill-gotten assets. Moving money and family abroad is often seen as a precursor to officials' own flight.

Taking 'manic Mondays' to a new level: A day in the life of a Rio public school teacher

Public school teachers in Brazil often work at more than one school in order to cobble together a full-time pay check.

By Staff writer
Bruno Moreira is a geography teacher at two public schools in separate Rio de Janeiro state municipalities. He teaches about 44 hours a week, with an additional 12 hours of classroom preparation.
“My hope for the future of Brazilian schools is that education and teachers will be valorized. That students’ families will accompany them and encourage them in their studies ... and for better resources on a broad level, [including] teaching materials and social services, like a psychologist in schools,” Mr. Moreira says.

The mystery of North Korea's virtuoso waitresses


North Korea does not have the greatest reputation abroad - death camps, dictators and nuclear-missile-testing don't make for good PR. But in some Asian cities the Pyongyang restaurant chain is seeking to change minds with good food and great service.
I've travelled the world quite a bit but I can honestly say I've never encountered restaurant staff quite as talented as this.
After depositing their plates of food, waitress after waitress stepped up on to the stage to deliver a series of virtuoso numbers - Yong with her operatic arias, Ji-u on the violin, or Lin-a with her remarkable whirling dervish routine, balancing a pot on her head.
All of these performances were served up to a thumping electronic beat, while rose-tinted images of the Dear Homeland flashed up on a screen behind them.

'Locks of love' bridge in Paris evacuated

June 9, 2014 - 1:10PM

Paris: Sometimes too much love can be a bad thing - as Paris discovered when thousands of "locks of love" attached to a footbridge caused part of a railing to collapse.
Thousands of lovers from across the world visit the Pont des Arts every year and seal their love by attaching a padlock carrying their names to its railing and throwing the key in the Seine.
But police were forced to hurriedly usher visitors off the footbridge in central Paris early on Sunday evening after 2.4 metres of railing collapsed under the weight of the collected love tokens.
"The bridge was immediately evacuated and closed," local police said.




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