A young reporter dares to cover press freedom in one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists - Sri Lanka.
Despite the dangers involved in working for the Tamil newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna, young journalists like Thadsa still join their ranks.
Apart from the chief editor, Uthayan does not have a single news journalist over the age of 40. As they grow older, young journalists come under family pressure to find a safer job.
Thadsa is passionate about reporting and wants to cover a story on a journalist who disappeared in 2007, and look into the ongoing restrictions to press freedoms in Sri Lanka today.
Hong Kong protests: Leader CY Leung urges crowds to leave
Hong Kong leader CY Leung has urged pro-democracy protesters to stop their campaign "immediately", as huge crowds continue to bring parts of the territory to a standstill.
Tens of thousands of people have been blocking streets in several areas.
The protesters want Beijing to give Hong Kong a free vote for its next leader, something Beijing has rejected.
Streets are now relatively quiet but crowds are set to swell later ahead of Chinese National Day on 1 October.
People were sleeping and clearing up on Tuesday before larger gatherings expected during the evening.
Wednesday is a national holiday marking the founding of Communist China.
German minister compares far-right party to neo-Nazis
Schäuble brands Alternative für Deutschland "demagogical"
Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has called the anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party demagogical and populist, and compared it to German neo-Nazis.
His attack on the AfD is the first time a senior member of chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has engaged with the party, little more than a year after it was founded.
Until now the CDU largely ignored the AfD, hoping it would vanish as quickly as it appeared. However, a run of AfD electoral success appears to have prompted a rethink inside Dr Merkel’s inner circle.
The Caliphate Next Door:Turkey Faces Up to its Islamic State Problem
By Katrin Elger, Hasnain Kazim, Christoph Reuter and Holger Stark
For years, Ankara has been tolerating the rise of the extremist Islamic State. But now that the jihadists are conquering regions just across the border in northern Syria, concern is growing that Islamist terror could threaten Turkey too.
Islim Ali is dragging a torn trash bag behind her, clothes spilling out of the growing holes. Twenty-two years old and in her sixth month of pregnancy, she heaves the sack into her arms and crosses the border, followed by her husband, himself overloaded with possessions, and their two daughters, Esma, 6, and Rodin, 2. A Turkish disaster management agent notes down the Kurdish family's personal details and they then sit down on the ground behind the metal barricade. A gust of wind kicks up a cloud of dust, covering everything with a fine layer. But the Alis don't seem to care. They are in Turkey -- in safety.
The family had spent five days on the Syrian side of the border before crossing into Turkey, having left their hometown of Kobani, called Ain al-Arab in Arabic, once the Islamist fighters from Islamic State went on the attack.
Global wildlife numbers 'halved in four decades'
A WWF study has found that the world's wildlife population has dropped by more than a half in the past four decades - a far greater drop than identified in a previous report. Human numbers, meanwhile, have doubled.
The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) found in its latest survey that there was a 52-percent decrease in the global head count for more than 10,000 different animal populations across Earth.
The 2014 Living Planet Report, released on Tuesday, looked at the change in population numbers for 3,038 of what it considers to be the most representative animal species.
It revealed a 39 percent fall in numbers across a representative sample of land-dwelling species from 1970 to 2010, with the same depletion in marine species. In freshwater populations, the drop was more marked - at 76 percent.
U.S. judge holds Argentina in contempt of court (+video)
US District Judge Thomas P. Griesa said Argentina's repeated efforts to avoid paying US bondholders was illegal conduct that could no longer be ignored.
ByLarry Neumeister, Associated Pre
NEW YORK — A judge, calling civil contempt a rarity, ruled that Argentina was in contempt of court on Monday for its open defiance of his orders requiring that US hedge funds holding Argentine bonds be paid the roughly $1.5 billion they are owed if the majority of the South American nation's bondholders are paid interest on their bonds.
US District Judge Thomas P. Griesa made the announcement after a lawyer for US hedge funds led by billionaire hedge fund investor Paul Singer's NML Capital Ltd. argued that Argentina has openly defied Griesa's court orders for more than a year. The judge reserved decision on sanctions pending further proceedings.
"What we are talking about is proposals and changes and actions that come from the executive branch of the Republic of Argentina," the judge said.
History’s largest trade agreements are being negotiated in secret
Unelected representatives iron out logistics of massive TPP and TTIP deals between US and Europe, Asia-Pacific regions
In August 2007, then–presidential candidate Barack Obama vowed that, if elected, he would “immediately” amend the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the U.S. signed with Mexico 13 years earlier.
“Our trade agreements should not just be good for Wall Street. It should also be good for Main Street,” he said, objecting to the influence of corporate lobbyists over labor unions and other groups in negotiating trade agreements.
Six years later, with NAFTA still untouched, Obama faced the decision to appoint the chief U.S. negotiators for the two largest trade agreements in history.
Censorship of communications between people living under authoritarian rule has always been a problem. With the advent of the internet and its various forms of communication these governments have worked twice as hard to control the message. Yet, with tools like Instagram, twitter and proxy servers people have found ways to inform the world in real time.
China's Communist government is the most notorious of these regimes with its Great Firewall and a whole "literally" army of internet censors people still find workarounds.
Protesters in Hong Kong have discovered a new yet older method to avoid China's censorship army direct communications with there various mobile devices using an application FireChat which works on the same principle as old radio sets.
But one app in particular is getting more attention than usual: FireChat.
The messaging app created by Open Garden can send and receive messages without an internet connection. It uses peer-to-peer Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct connections
to link to other nearby FireChat-enabled devices. If you get enough of
those devices in the same area, the result is a massive mesh network in
which every handset can message every other handset in daisy-chain
fashion – without ever sending a packet over an internet router.
On Sunday afternoon in Hong Kong (around 11 PM PT on Saturday), Open
Garden started seeing a lot more FireChat activity in region. More than
100,000 new users downloaded the iOS or Androidapp and signed up for an account, and FireChat jumped to the most-downloaded slot in the iTunes App Store.
As for how much off-grid messaging FireChat is generating in Hong Kong,
Open Garden simply doesn’t know. Since those sessions take place
directly between devices in a crowdsourced mesh network, the messages
never hit Open Garden’s servers. Open Garden is just as blind as the
Chinese government to those communications, Daligault said.
A Listening Post special on the 'Snowden effect' and challenges to the media in the age of state supervision.
Combine government bad behaviour and an employee with a conscience and you get a whistleblower. Add a journalist into the mix and you have a recipe for government accountability.
In the technological age, the link between journalist and insider source is very often digital communication. Knowing this, governments all over the world are working hard to track the communications of leakers and the journalists who can make those leaks public.
According to the NSA files leaked by Edward Snowden in June 2013, encrypted email is still a major thorn in the side of government security agencies.
Thousands of Hong Kong citizens protested across the city on Monday, blocking roads and prompting the closure of banks and schools, as they stepped up their calls for democracy.
Police attempts to use teargas to clear huge protests from Admiralty and Central in downtown Hong Kong late on Sunday backfired by spurring more people to take to the streets, with numbers peaking in the tens of thousands. Fresh protests sprang up in Causeway Bay and Mongkok, in Kowloon.
Parts of the financial hub, generally known for its orderliness, were paralysed by the demonstrators. The government announced on Monday morning that riot police had been taken off the streets as citizens “have mostly calmed down” and urged people to unblock roads and disperse.
Jennifer Clement: 'Girls hide from drug cartel in self-dug holes'
American-Mexican author Jennifer Clement's newest book portraits the life of young girls in rural Mexico. For her novel, she spent a decade investigating the Mexican drug trafficking cartel. DW met Clement in Germany.
DW: Miss Clement, your newest book, "Prayers for the Stolen," is about the brutal kidnapping of young girls by the Mexican drug trafficking cartel. Large parts of the book are based on in-depth research you conducted over the last decade. How exactly did you get access to your interview partners, which include the women of major Mexican drug lords?
Jennifer Clement: The research took about ten, eleven years and had different stages. At first I didn't know I was going to write this book. I was just interested in Mexican drug culture, so I was interviewing women in hiding that were the women of drug traffickers. Then I sort of got immersed in what the world of drug trafficking was like, which contributed to the idea to write a book about it. But then it became way too dangerous to continue with that work because the violence escalated in Mexico, and so I had to stop doing that.
Vladimir Putin May Threaten World War 3, But Thousands Of Russians Are Marching For Ukraine
When Vladimir Putin discusses the possibility of World War 3 he appears to be speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Putin extends an olive branch by declaring Russia has no plans for “large-scale conflicts” over the Ukraine war, yet at the same time makes threatening statements about Russia’s nuclear weapons and the Russian military’s ability to invade eastern European nations. Tens of thousands of Russian apparently feel enough is enough and have been marching in protest in Moscow.
Chief medical officer Bernice Dahn opted to put herself and team in isolation after aide died of fatal Ebola virus.
Liberia's chief medical officer has put herself and her staff in isolation after her aide died of Ebola, officials have said.
Dr Bernice Dahn, who is also a deputy health minister, opted to put herself in quarantine on Sunday following her assistant's death on Thursday.
Dahn and her assistant's staff, whom she also quarantined, will remain under observation for 21 days, the full incubation period of the virus.
Four West African nations had confirmed cases of Ebola.
Liberia has been hardest hit. According to a World Health Organisation count released on Saturday, 1,830 or 3,458 people infected in the country had died.
Greater China
Sep 29, '14
Beijing reaps bitter fruit in Hong Kong By Peter Lee
It's becoming easier to understand why the People's Republic of China landed on Ilham Tohti, the Uyghur "public intellectual", like a ton of bricks.
Judging from the admittedly selective excerpts used at the kangaroo court to damn him to "indefinite detention", reported perhaps not inaccurately in the West as a "life sentence", Ilham had hoped to use his bully pulpit at a Xinjiang university to nurture a cadre of students with a strong sense of Uyghur identity, alienated from the PRC regime and convinced of the right and
need to agitate for greater Xinjiang autonomy in the face of an alien occupying power.
Then, perhaps, Xinjiang politics would have evolved into the politics of perpetual, continually aggravated, and burgeoning grievance and ever-more-entrenched spirit of resistance that one sees in Palestine - or on the streets of Hong Kong today.
29 September 2014Last updated at 01:39
Sumo shines in the US
By Alina SimonePRI's The World
In Long Beach recently, 70 men and 15 women from more than a dozen countries participated in a sport that isn't commonly associated with Southern California: sumo wrestling.
The US Sumo Openhas grown to become the largest amateur sumo competition outside of Japan. And while it's probably a bit premature to claim that sumo is the next soccer, the sport has a lot to offer American watchers. Like instant gratification.
Sumo matches are incredibly short-in some cases, five seconds short. There are no commercial breaks and no stops to review the plays.
Even the rules are simple: Push your opponent out of the ring or to the ground. No points necessary.
"With sumo, it's relatively straightforward, even for a beginner, to understand what happens," says Andrew Freund, the founder of the US Sumo Open and a lightweight sumo champion.
Police clash with pro-democracy demonstators as city's leader says government to hold consultations on electoral reform.
When Hong Kong was returned to China one of the conditions of the agreement was that the citizens of the city would have a say in who would govern them. Voting rights were allowed but the government in Beijing would pick the cities administrator. Under the agreement with the British that was to change in 2017 when those eligible to vote would have a voice in the selection of the next administrator. The Chinese government reneged on that deal earlier this summer announcing, that while voting would be allowed the people of Hong Kong would have no say as to who the next administrator would be.
Hong Kong police have used tear gas to disperse protesters, just after the city's leader announced that his government will launch a new round of consultations on electoral reform shortly.
Tens of thousands of protesters had massed on major city centre highways in their tens of thousands on Sunday, following a weekend of violent clashes between police and pro-democracy activists calling for greater freedoms.
The use of tear gas - extremely rare in Hong Kong - came after repeated pepper spray charges by helmeted police had failed to clear Harcourt Road in the Admiralty district, sparking warnings that greater force would be used.
Addressing a news conference, Leung said his administration was "resolute in opposing the unlawful occupation actions by Occupy Central", branding its activities illegal as they were designed to paralyse the city's financial district, known as Central.
I always in enjoy the authoritarian government play book. When the populace disagrees with your tactics and policies just brand the whole illegal. That will stop the hooligans right in their tracks.
Islamic State crisis: Al-Nusra issues threat over air strikes
Syrian militant group al-Nusra Front has denounced US-led air strikes as "a war against Islam".
In an online statement, the al-Qaeda-linked group called on jihadists around the world to target Western and Arab countries involved.
It comes as the US and other nations widened air strikes against Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq and Syria.
The Pentagon said jets hit the Syrian city of Raqqa on Saturday as well as IS positions near the Turkish border.
Kurdish fighters have been defending the Kurdish town of Kobane on the Syrian side of the border since an IS advance sent about 140,000 civilians fleeing to Turkey.
Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters in fresh stand-off with police
Tens of thousands join mass civil disobedience over voting rights as authorities promise crackdown on sit-in
Hundreds of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters were locked in a standoff with police on Sunday who warned they would crack down on a mass sit-in outside government headquarters.
Students and activists have been camped outside the government complex all weekend. Students started the rally but by early Sunday leaders of the broader Occupy Central civil movement said they were joining them to kickstart a long-threatened mass sit-in.
Demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the protest zone using metal crowd control barriers originally brought in by authorities. They donned protective gear in case police use pepper spray, wrapping their faces and arms with plastic wrap and wearing cheap plastic raincoats, goggles and surgical masks.
War against Isis: It's started, but do we know what we're doing?
The first RAF Tornado combat jets, carrying laser-guided bombs, may have started their mission in Iraq, but military experts, politicians and Brits on the ground in Baghdad, haunted by what followed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, are struggling to convince themselves that the current strategy will produce the desired outcome – and, in some cases, what that outcome is.
Concerns over the House of Commons's overwhelming vote on Friday to join the United States in carrying out air strikes on the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq reflect the complications of fighting an oil-rich terrorist group that operates either side of the border with Syria. The vagaries of international law and yet another war in Iraq only compound a situation that even supporters of the strikes acknowledge is both tense and fluid.
CERN at 60: while our research collides we form lasting international friendships
CERN is more than a unique research institute. It's about building bridges between nations and friendship between scientists from around the world, says its director Rolf-Dieter Heuer.
DW: CERN is celebrating its 60th birthday. What does it mean to you - not just from a scientific but also from a political point of view?
Rolf-Dieter Heuer:A lot has changed in world politics over the past 60 years. During CERN's youngest years, some states closed themselves off to other countries. We had the Iron Curtain. Relations between Beijing and Taipei were difficult, and those between China and the USA, or the USA and Russia. At CERN, we could ignore all these difficulties. People from all over the world have cooperated here, throughout our 60 years.
This is what CERN stands for: friendship and cooperation between people. When you working at CERN, you may not even know where another person comes from. Everyone's focused on a common goal. And it's important to note that those who work at CERN overcome their prejudices. They learn that their colleagues are just people like themselves. For example, we had a student summer party, organized jointly by Israeli and Palestinian students, and they noticed how much they had in common culturally. It was a real eye-opener.
Asylum seeker beaten and robbed after confronting people smugglers
Jakarta: People smugglers have cheated many asylum seekers of their money in these tough times for refugees, but Haneef Hussein is one of the few who has tried to get his money back.
His attempt ended with him being beaten unconscious by a gang that apparently included two or more Indonesian policemen. The drama was captured on a secret video camera.
Mr Hussein, 22, arrived in Indonesia from his troubled home on the day last year that Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister. Like 10,000 others, Operation Sovereign Borders has marooned him in Indonesia, waiting for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to give him passage somewhere.
Rescuers have found 30 hikers in critical
condition, feared dead, near the peak of Mount Ontake, after Saturday's
sudden volcanic eruption.
The hikers were not breathing and their hearts had stopped,
reports said. Final confirmation of death in Japan always comes via a
medical examination.
Rescuers had been searching for the hikers despite ongoing eruptions.
The volcano, about 200km (125 miles) west of Tokyo, erupted at about noon on Saturday, spewing ash and rocks.
As a birth attendant advocating for family planning, Remy is on the frontline of Tondo's battle with overcrowding.
Note: This film contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
Tondo in northern Manila is home to the city's largest collection of slums. It is also one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.
Paradise Heights, home to former squatters, is in the heart of Tondo. There, self-taught midwife Remy Permites is delivering new life in the slums.
Remy does her work with only the most basic equipment: a stethoscope, a pair of gloves and little else. Though she has little formal training, she plays a crucial role in an area where few can afford to pay for medical care.
The slums of Manila are undergoing a population explosion. But Remy has managed to escape the shacks and lives in a small government-built apartment, with 14 members of her family. Her home also doubles as a makeshift clinic.
Islamic State fighters near Syrian town Kobane, on Turkey border, said to be hit by air strikes, BBC understands
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Hong Kong police move in to arrest pro-democracy demonstrators
Thirteen arrested as 150 protesters continue week-long civil disobedience campaign
Riot police in Hong Kong are moving in to arrest the remaining 50 students who occupied the premises of government headquarters to protest China’s refusal to allow genuine democratic reforms in the semi-autonomous region.
About 100 others are continuing to shout slogans outside the complex.
Riot police using pepper spray cleared out more than 100 demonstrators early on Saturday, dragging many away and arresting 13, in the tensest scenes yet in a recent series of protests.
Student groups have been spearheading a civil disobedience campaign this week in response to Beijing’s announcement last month that it would choose who can stand for Hong Kong’s top post of chief executive in elections in 2017.
Are China-Japan relations thawing?
For the first time in years, Japan and China held high-level talks on maritime issues aimed at easing tensions over disputes in the East China Sea, a move which analyst James Brown views as a significant positive step.
Yi Xianliang, deputy director-general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs met with his Japanese counterpart Makita Shimokawa, in the eastern Chinesecoastalcity of Qingdao on September 24-25, according to China's state-run news agency Xinhua. The meeting marked the first high-level bilateral talks on maritime affairs since May 2012.
Both sides "agreed, on principle, to resume maritime liaisons between defense agencies of the two countries," said Xinhua. Another round of consultations is set to be held later this year or early next year.
A day later, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe renewed his call to hold a summit with China, urging both Beijing and Tokyo to make "quiet efforts" to ease strains between the two Asian giants.
Parliamentary Sketch Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald
A 15-year-old asylum seeker girl believed to have attempted self-harm has been evacuated to Australia from the Nauru detention centre, the government confirmed on Saturday, as it drew strong criticism for its freshly signed Cambodian refugee deal, designed to offer sanctuary to asylum seekers currently on Nauru.
Amnesty International said the Cambodian agreement was "a new low" in Australia's already "deplorable and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers", adding its voice to the criticisms of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who said the deal was a "worrying departure from international norms".
The condemnation came as Immigration Minister Scott Morrison weathered criticism for sipping champagne with Cambodian government officials to formalise the four-year Memorandum of Understanding, a gesture Mr Morrison said was simply in keeping with local protocol and simple courtesy.
Mexico touts decreasing murder rate - but high-profile hit muddles message
A brazen hit on a federal lawmaker underscores that in some parts of the country, organized crime still does what it wants in public, in daylight, and with no fear of retribution.
ByTim Johnson, McClatchy
MEXICO CITY — Consider it a case of dismal coincidence.
As President Enrique Peña Nieto touted to bankers in New York City earlier this week that criminal violence had fallen sharply in Mexico, armed commandos in the city of Guadalajara carried out a brazen daylight abduction.
Their target: a federal legislator.
Moving in three vehicles Monday about 5:30 p.m., the commandos cornered the blue Chevrolet Suburban of Deputy Gabriel Gomez Michel on a ring road near the airport. The next morning, the vehicle turned up in the neighboring state of Zacatecas with two charred bodies inside. On Wednesday, authorities said DNA tests confirmed that Mr. Gomez and his aide, Heriberto Nunez Ramos, were the two victims.
Middle East
Gaza and the end of 'Arab gallantry' By Ramzy Baroud
On its own the Arabic word al-Nakhwa, means "gallantry". Combined with the word al-Arabiya - "Arab gallantry" - the term becomes loaded with meanings, cultural and even political implications and subtext. But what is one to make of "Arab gallantry" during and after Israel's most brutal war on Gaza between July 8 and August 26, which killed 2,163 Palestinians and wounded more than 11,000 more?
Is this the end of Arab Nakhwa? Did it even ever exist?
As a Palestinian Gaza refugee from a simple peasantry background, I was raised to believe that al-Nakhwa was an
essential component of one's Arab identity. Together with al-Rojoula - "manhood/fortitude/heroism" - al-Karm - "generosity" -al-Karama - "dignity" - and al-Sharaf - "honor" - were all indispensable tenants in the character of any upright person. The alternative is unthinkably shameful.
According to a disgraced former Japanese Air Defense Chief 9 Japanese citizens have raced off to Syria and joined ISIS while this may or may not true but, believing anything this fool says must be done at your peril.
Toshio Tamogami the former Air Chief in question was forced to resign over blog posts which defended the actions of the Japanese Imperial Army and dying its war crimes. Among them the Nanjing massacre.
Nine Japanese nationals have joined Islamic State, Japan’s former Air
Self-Defense Force chief Toshio Tamogami quoted a senior Israeli
government official as saying, but the government’s top spokesman said
on Friday it had not confirmed the information.
Asked about the possible participation of Japanese citizens in the
militant group, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular
news conference, “The government has not confirmed such information.”
No one was immediately available for comment at the Israeli embassy
in Tokyo, at the Israeli foreign ministry or at the Japanese foreign
ministry.
Tamogami told Reuters that no details besides the number of Japanese
participants were given to him in his meeting with Nissim Ben Shitrit, a
former ambassador to Japan.
“I don’t know anything further,” Tamogami said. “He was tight-lipped.”
While he seems to enjoy fear mongering just remember who said it and realize he's further to the right than Attila the Hun
, 