16 July 2014 Last updated at 07:25
Zhang Shaojie's family members leave China with help of Christian rights group after claims of harassment by authorities
Georgia recently signed an association agreement with the EU and it also wants to become a member of NATO. Russia's shadow, though, continues to loom over the Caucasus, so what does the future hold for the country trapped between the East and the West?
They came as conquering tourists, but also as occupiers. Georgia was subjected to intensive Russification over the years -- smothered by the affections of the czars and, later, Russia's communist rulers -- before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and its southern tip became independent.
Israel warns Gazans to leave homes as air strikes continue
Israel has urged thousands of Palestinians in eastern and northern Gaza to leave their homes as it continues air strikes.
An Egyptian truce initiative on Tuesday failed to halt rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants and other groups.
Israel, which had its first fatality on Tuesday, said senior Hamas militants had died in strikes on Gaza overnight.
Palestinian officials say Israeli raids have killed 204 people so far, including ten overnight into Wednesday.
Among those reported killed was a five-month-old baby.
Israel launched its Operation Protective Edge on 8 July. Its stated objective is to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, but the United Nations says the majority of those killed in Gaza have been civilians.
Jailed Chinese pastor's family flees to US
Zhang Shaojie's family members leave China with help of Christian rights group after claims of harassment by authorities
Three members of an imprisoned pastor's family have snuck out of Chinato the US with the help of activists after complaining about an extended campaign of harassment by Chinese authorities, according to a Christian rights group.
Zhang Shaojie's daughter, son-in-law and one-year-old grandchild landed in Dallas, Texas, and have now gone to Midland, US-based China Aid said on Tuesday. The group said an underground network of activists helped the three leave China via south-east Asia.
Zhang, who led the Nanle County Christian church in the central province of Henan, was sentenced this month to 12 years in prison on charges of fraud and gathering crowds to disturb public order.
BRICS sign deal on new development bank and monetary reserve
The leaders of the BRICS group of emerging nations have signed a deal to create a new development bank and contingency fund. Both are meant to act as counterweights to Western-dominated institutions.
Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa inked a deal Tuesday to launch a development bank with an initial $50 billion (36 billion euros) and a $100 billion monetary reserve, according to a joint declaration.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said setting up the currency reserve was a priority for the countries to protect themselves from crisis scenarios.
"It will be a kind of security net to increase protection for BRICS countries as well as other countries. It's a question of our security," she said at the summit in the Brazilian coastal city of Fortaleza.
In Russia's Shadow: Searching for the Roots of the Georgia Problem
Georgia recently signed an association agreement with the EU and it also wants to become a member of NATO. Russia's shadow, though, continues to loom over the Caucasus, so what does the future hold for the country trapped between the East and the West?
If there's something all Russians can agree on it's their love for the southern Caucasus and Georgia -- they see it as their Arcadia, their paradise. Pushkin and Lermontov waxed lyrical about the region's extraordinary landscapes and relaxed way of life. During the Soviet era, hundreds of thousands of workers were permitted to escape the harsh working world of the north each year to lie under palm trees on Black Sea beaches or stroll through the region's vineyards.
Three reasons Hamas keeps fighting a losing battle
July 16, 2014 - 12:05PMIshaan Tharoor
Israeli air strikes on suspected militant positions in Gaza have resumed following the unravelling of a short-lived unilateral cease-fire.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a plan "brokered" by the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which has a deep antipathy for the Hamas, the group that dominates Gaza and is in the crosshairs of Israel's military. It was unclear whether Hamas officials were even consulted on the cease-fire's terms.
Unsurprisingly, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing said the cease-fire was "not worth the ink used in writing it." The group continued to fire a barrage of rockets at Israel in the hours the cease-fire was supposedly in effect.
Ecuador's Diario HOY moves online: A sign of more to come in Latin America?
The relationship between media and the government in Ecuador has been referred to as a 'war.' But all sides agree the media landscape there and across Latin America is moving toward online as the population of internet users rapidly grows.
QUITO, ECUADOR — A printing press sits idle in Diario HOY, one ofEcuador's most respectable dailies, with a roll of blank paper still fed into the machine.
For 32 years Diario HOY was published on this press, but on June 29 the final edition came out with this headline: “HOY closes one chapter, and starts another.”
This new chapter appears to be part of an overall evolution in Latin American media where digital is proving to be a natural step, given a rapid rise in internet users, and part of a decline of advertising and readers for daily papers as in the US and Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment