North Korea blames US for internet shutdown
Pyongyang accuses US of responsibility for recent outages amid row over cyber attack on film studio Sony Pictures
North Korea accused the US on Saturday of being responsible for internet outages it has experienced in recent days amid a confrontation between them over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.
North Korea’s main internet sites experienced intermittent disruptions early in the week for reasons that US tech companies said could range from technological glitches to a hacking attack.
“The United States, with its large physical size and oblivious to the shame of playing hide and seek as children with runny noses would, has begun disrupting the internet operations of the main media outlets of our republic,” North Korea’s national defence commission said in a statement.
Two decades of corruption at the highest level in Central America
Of 32 presidents between 1990-2010, 13 are behind bars, in exile or under investigation
Michael McCaughan
If it’s true that the people get the government they deserve then, judging by the past 20 years, Central American voters need to examine their consciences.
Of 32 presidents serving the region’s six countries between 1990-2010, 13 are behind bars, in exile or under investigation for crimes ranging from human trafficking to money laundering. The list would be longer were it not for the fact that sitting presidents and legislators are immune from prosecution.
Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega (1979-1990 and 2007-present) escaped charges of sex abuse and corruption by cutting a deal with old enemies and changing the constitution to enable perpetual re-election and with it, perpetual immunity.
How a 14-year-old Syrian boy escaped Islamic State
December 27, 2014 - 12:30PM
Tim Arango
Baghdad: Before war convulsed his hometown in Syria, Usaid Barho played football, loved Jackie Chan movies and adored the Lebanese pop singer Nancy Ajram. He dreamed of attending college and becoming a doctor.
His life, to say the least, took a detour.
On a recent evening in Baghdad, Usaid, who is 14, approached the gate of a Shiite mosque, unzipped his jacket to show a vest of explosives, and surrendered himself to the guards.
"They seduced us to join the caliphate," he said several days later at a secret Iraqi intelligence site where he is being held.
Usaid described how he had been recruited by the Sunni extremists of Islamic State from a mosque in his hometown, Manbij, near Aleppo. He said he joined the group willingly because "I believed in Islam".
Turkish teen release: His crime? Insulting the president.
Wednesday's arrest of a 16-year-old boy over a public speech caused uproar in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is protected under Turkish law, with a maximum sentence of four years in jail for anyone convicted of defamation.
ANKARA, TURKEY — A high school student who was jailed for allegedly insulting Turkey's president was released from custody on Friday after his arrest caused uproar in the country.
The 16-year-old boy was arrested on Wednesday, a day after he took part in a small left-wing student rally commemorating the death of a pro-secular army officer slain by Islamists 84 years ago.
The boy, who can only be identified by his initials M.E.A. because of Turkish laws that protect the identity of minors, made a speech during the rally in which he said the students didn't regard Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the president, but as the "thieving owner of the illegal palace," according to court papers seen by The Associated Press.
Russia imposes rationing in token gesture
Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Just when Russians thought it could not get any worse with the ruble tumbling as fast as the oil prices on which their economy depends, the people of St Petersburg are waking up to rationing.
But in President Vladimir Putin's hometown, the martyr city that survived a nearly 900-day siege in which thousands starved to death in World War II, it is not food and drink that is being rationed, but metro tokens.
In one of the most bizarre episodes of panic buying in a nation notorious for its hoarding instincts in times of trouble, people have been buying up to 85,000 extra metro tokens a day so they can save three rubles (five cents) when the price goes up on January 1.
Bangladesh organ trade continues unabated, targeting children, the poor
Residents of poor rural village of Tebaria say 15 children were kidnapped and killed by organ traffickers in past year
TEBARIA, Bangladesh — Five days after his kidnapping, the body of 6-year-old Harun-ur-Rashid was discovered dumped in wetlands near Sirajganj, north of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The child’s kidneys were cut out — a victim of the country’s black market organ trade.
After Harun disappeared from the village of Tebaria on April 22, the boy’s father, Abdul Hannan, feared the worst and contacted authorities.
One arrested suspect told police Harun was drugged before being taken under a bridge where three waiting men had arrived from Dhaka. The suspect said a surgeon performed the operation on the spot, according to local media reports.
“Five days later [police] called to say they had found his body near another village,” Abdul Hannan recounted. “I went to collect him and could see where they had cut into his back.”
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