Racial Divide: The Tragedy of America's First Black President
By Markus Feldenkirchen and Holger StarkPolice killings of black youth in Ferguson and Cleveland have outraged many in the US. The tragic events show how deep the societal divide remains between blacks and whites. Many have given up hope that President Obama can change anything.
On the evening after the city burned, a man in a black leather jacket and white clerical collar is standing on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. He shakes his head and looks as though he is fighting back tears. Once again, young black men and women are standing across from older, slightly pudgy white policemen in front of the local station. They look like armies, like they are at war.
Publishing house on fire in Grozny rebel clash
A building in Chechnya has been set alight hours after rebels killed three police officers. The North Caucasus republic still faces a Muslim insurgency more than two decades after a war between Moscow and separatists.
More than six hours after fighting broke out in the Chechen capital of Grozny in the early hours of Thursday, leader Ramzan Kadyrov said a multi-story publishing house building had been destroyed by fire and six gunmen killed.
The Moscow-based National Anti-Terrorist Committee said the fighters had occupied the building after killing three police officers at a checkpoint shortly after midnight, local time.
According to the state news agency RIA-Novosti, five police officers and others were injured in the clash.
Kadyrov has been widely denounced for human rights abuses, including the killing of political opponents. He has also imposed Islamic restrictions, such as the mandatory wearing of headscarves for women in public.
Kim Jong-un gives Hollywood a taste of cyber war
December 4, 2014 - 3:56PM
Con Coughlin
North Korea's new cyber warfare wing has attacked Sony in retaliation for a satire the regime has called the work of "gangster moviemakers".
London: In a country where the slightest hint of criticism can result in immediate confinement to a hellish prison camp, it is hardly surprising that North Korea's authoritarian regime should take a dim view of a Hollywood comedy based on the assassination of its self-styled "dear leader", Kim Jong-un.
The North Korean dictator is not renowned for his sense of humour at the best of times, a disposition that cannot have been improved by his frequent bouts of ill-health. Kim Jong-un's attempts to assert his authority in Pyongyang have been undermined by his continuing battle against various demons, including diabetes, alcoholism, depression and, earlier this year, cancer - the treatment for which prompted speculation that he had died.
From Egyptian judges: conspiracy theories, mass death sentences, and freedom for Mubarak
Space for dissent in Egypt is shrinking fast, as impunity for the powerful appears to be, once again, on the rise.
A few days ago, an Egyptian judge tossed out a conviction against former dictator Hosni Mubarak that had found him responsible for the deaths of 11 protesters as he clung to power in early 2011, on rather odd procedural reasoning.
Yesterday, another Egyptian judge sentenced 188 people to death for participating in an Aug. 14, 2013 riot that saw a police station near Cairosacked and 14 people die, most of them Egyptian police. That riot was sparked by a crackdown on protesters the same day that left at least 817 people dead and, in the words of Human Rights Watch, "probably amounts to crimes against humanity" and was "one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history."
Abe’s Plan For The Land Of The Rising Gun
Victory in Japan’s snap election will encourage a more assertive military stance. Defense contractors set to gain.
By
December 4, 2014
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has hit the campaign trail this week for Dec. 14 elections. Abe is billing the polls as a referendum on his fizzling economic policy trifecta – Abenomics. But the real winners may be Japan’s defense contractors.
Abe called the snap elections last month, two years earlier than he had to. Elections weren’t due until 2016. At the same time, he told voters he would delay a second increase in Japan’s consumption tax a year before it was scheduled to hit. Economists have been quick to blame the last tax hike, in April, on sluggish economic growth in the third quarter despite evidence that consumption was already recovering.
4 December 2014 Last updated at 04:56
Nasa's Orion 'Mars ship' set for test flight
A US space capsule that could help get humans to Mars is due to make its maiden flight later.
Orion will be launched on a Delta rocket out of Cape Canaveral in Florida on a short journey above the Earth to test key technologies.
The conical vessel is reminiscent of the Apollo command ships that took men to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, but bigger and with cutting-edge systems.
Given that this is a first outing, there will be no people aboard.
Nonetheless, the US space agency describes the demonstration as a major event.
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