Thursday, December 31, 2015
Six In The Morning Thursday December 31
Chibok girls: Nigeria ready for Boko Haram negotiations
President Buhari says government prepared to negotiate, but only if Boko Haram can identify a credible leadership.
| Nigeria, Africa, War & Conflict
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he is ready to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 girls kidnapped in April last year.
In a televised press conference on Wednesday, Buhari said that if the armed group could identify a credible leadership then the Nigerian government was "prepared to negotiate with them without any preconditions".
Boko Haram snatched the girls from dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, sparking international condemnation of former president Goodluck Jonathan's government and military for failing to rescue them.
Taiwan statues donated by Jackie Chan defaced with anti-China graffiti
Qing Dynasty replica dragon and horse heads – given to high-profile museum by pro-Beijing actor – are covered in red paint by unidentified man and woman
Two statues donated by actor Jackie Chan to a newly opened museum in Taiwan were splashed with paint and daubed with anti-China slogans, reflecting growing tensions over Beijing’s influence on the island.
The bronze dragon and horse heads sit in the garden of the new branch of Taipei’s famous National Palace Museum in the southern city of Chiayi and were defaced on Wednesday night, the museum said.
They are replicas of high-profile ancient relics from the Qing Dynasty, seen on the mainland as emblematic of China’s past suffering under foreign invaders.
The animal heads were streaked with red paint and their bases daubed with the words “cultural united front” by two unidentified attackers, the museum said.
Burakumin: Descendants of caste considered 'tainted' face new discrimination in Japan
'Why is this happening to us? Why are we different?'
It was not the kind of letter any mother would want her child to see. “We all hate you,” it read. “No matter how many decades or centuries pass, we will continue to discriminate against you for ever.”
But over recent months, hundreds of residents in a district of Osaka have been opening their mail to discover similar abusive messages – a frightening vestige of a Japanese caste system that was supposed to have been abolished in the 19th century,
“My children asked, ‘Why is this happening to us? Why are we different? Has this been going on for a long time?’” said Masako, a housewife. “I didn’t know what to tell them.”
‘Sinai is safe’: Hiker battles to dispel Egypt security fears
Going for a hike in the Sinai might not sound like the best way to spend a holiday, especially given Egypt’s ongoing terrorism problems on the peninsula. But one hiker has made it his mission to dispel security fears over the region by hiking through the mountains – and thereby showing tourists that it’s safe.
It all seemed so different in the aftermath of Egypt’s 2011 revolution, when the country that gave the world some of its greatest archeological treasures seemed to be at the entrance to a brave new era. Those dreams have been shattered by four years of political turmoil and the return of military rule. Since then, Egypt’s tourism has taken a nosedive, with revenues plunging a staggering 95% according to some estimates.
Sinai - a triangular peninsula that straddles two continents - hasn’t been spared. From southern coastal resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh to its biblical desert interior, the region has long been a major tourist centre. But its tourism industry took a hammering after a Russian airliner packed with holidaymakers crashed in October. Although Egypt insiststhere’s no evidence that the jet was downed by terrorists, Russia firmly believes it was bombed. Reports of increasing terrorist activity on the peninsula, including attacks carried out by the Islamic State group, have frightened away all but the most dedicated tourists.
'Charlie Hebdo' to release special issue on anniversary of attack
One million copies of the special issue will be released, the magazine said. The issue will include select drawings from the cartoonists killed in the January attack.
The French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" on Wednesday said it would be releasing close to a million copies of a special issue marking the one-year anniversary of a deadly attack on its offices in Paris.
The issue will comprise 32 pages, featuring select drawings from the cartoonists who were killed in the attack, along with works by current staff.
On January 7, 2015, two militants entered the magazine's offices and killed 12 people, the first of a series of attacks that left at least 17 people dead in Paris.
The attacks were claimed by the militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
A look at past car accidents involving N. Korean officials
North Korea's announcement that the country's top official in charge of relations with South Korea died in a traffic accident gave few details, triggering questions about the death of a man who was dubbed as a close associate of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.
He's not the only senior North Korean official reported to have died in a car accident. While information in the secretive, authoritarian state is often impossible to confirm, outside observers use the officials' reported feuding with their political opponents to guess who might have been behind their demise. They also speculate the officials might have been driving after overnight drinking parties.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
America's War Workers
From India to Dubai and Afghanistan, we probe the system that brings foreign labourers to US military bases abroad.
Today there are nearly 40,000 foreign contract workers on bases in the US military’s Central Command.
Hailing primarily from India and Nepal, these labourers serve American troops in facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere - doing jobs including cooking, housekeeping and driving.
The US military subcontracts these manual jobs to private companies, which in turn subcontract hiring to Gulf-based contractors and local recruiters.
The promise of high salaries makes these so-called 'third country nationals' believe heading to a war zone is worth the risk.
To get the jobs, many dip into their savings and take out loans to pay thousands of dollars in local agents fees. But in Afghanistan, they find wages far lower than anticipated. Locked into an indentured workforce, they nevertheless remain to earn enough funds to repay their loans.
Six In The Morning Wednesday December 30
The world in 2015 review: a year of living dangerously
We look back at the global spread of jihadi ideology and terror, tensions in international relations and a glimpse of hope in efforts to tackle climate change
Good things did happen. Iran and the western powers reached a landmark agreement on circumscribing Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme. Israel was unhappy, as were Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states – but most of the rest of the world breathed a deep sigh of relief.
The year brought signs of progress – at long last – on the global effort to fight climate change, after negotiators from nearly 200 countries signed up to an ambitious deal to limit temperature rise. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel inspired many across Europe by opening her country’s borders to Middle Eastern refugees, at considerable cost to her personal political position.
14-year-old girl 'raped as revenge for election defeat' kills herself in India
Two men raped a young girl whose mother was winning the local election
A 14-year-old girl who was gang-raped as 'revenge' after her mother won a local election has reportedly killed herself.
The girl’s mother was a candidate of the block development council (BDC), a local government faction in the Mirzapur district of north-east India.
In a horrific twist on what is locally known as “Panchayat poll rivalry”, two men allegedly kidnapped the sleeping girl and raped her in a nearby field last Wednesday, according to the Times of India.
The girl, her mother and family went to report the alleged crime to the police but were sent home only with verbal assurances. The girl, who has not been named, hanged herself in her home the same day.Austria sends hundreds of refugees back to Slovenia
Over 400 refugees trying to cross the border from Slovenia to Austria have been turned back by Austrian police. The migrants had apparently lied about their nationality to be granted entry.
Austrian and Slovenian media reports say police in the Austrian province of Carinthia had stepped up language spot checks over the last weekend to ascertain where the migrants were from.
Local police say migrants were turned back since last Saturday because they falsely claimed to be from Syria or Afghanistan to be able to cross into Austria.
Austrian public broadcaster ORF quotes Carinthia's police spokesman Rainer Dionisio as saying that "most of them say they're from Syria, but a short conversation was all that we needed to know that they were not from the region they claimed to be from."
A World War II aircraft carrier's new mission: promote science education
New York's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum preserves history while inspiring young Americans to become bold, innovative, and daring explorers themselves.
NEW YORK — That the NASA space shuttle Enterprise sits on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is no small point of pride for its president, Susan Marenoff-Zausner.
Indeed the shuttle symbolizes the museum’s mission: to use history as a platform to propel future generations forward. As the first woman and non-military person to helm the nonprofit cultural and educational institution since it opened in 1982, Ms. Marenoff-Zausner wants today's students to be bold, innovative, and daring – just like the Enterprise.
“We are privileged to have all of this 'cool stuff' – our artifacts such as planes, and propellers, and collections such as diaries and other personal items of actual former crew members to excite our children about learning,” Marenoff-Zausner says. “This ‘stuff’ helps to teach them about the past and connect them to the present and the future.”
El Nino weather: Worries grow over humanitarian impact
The strongest El Nino weather cycle on record is likely to increase the threat of hunger and disease for millions of people in 2016, aid agencies say.
The weather phenomenon is set to exacerbate droughts in some areas, while increasing flooding in others.
Some of the worst impacts are likely in Africa with food shortages expected to peak in February.
Regions including the Caribbean, Central and South America will also be hit in the next six months.
This periodic weather event, which tends to drive up global temperatures and disturb weather patterns, has helped push 2015 into the record books as the world's warmest year.
Life as a "comfort woman": Survivors remember a WWII atrocity that was ignored for decades
Updated by Max Fisher
Japan and South Korea announced on Monday that they'd reached an historic agreement over Japan's use of Korean "comfort women" during World War II.
From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese military forced tens of thousands of women and girls, many of them Korean, into sexual slavery as "comfort women." Under Monday's agreement, Japan will formally apologize and offer symbolic compensation payments to the remaining survivors. South Korea will in turn treat the matter as officially resolved.
As I wrote yesterday, this dispute, and the agreement to now resolve it, is about much more than just 70-year-old Japanese war crimes. It's about Japan's evolving national identity and the fascist history it has never quite fully confronted, about liberalizing social norms in Korea that finally allowed survivors to come forward, and about negotiating what kind of place Japan and Korea will have in 21st-century Asia.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
What's behind Turkey's renewed crackdown on Kurds?
Rights groups are warning of rising casualties in Turkey's campaign against fighters.
Just a few months ago, Turkish Kurds had hope for a political solution to their ongoing disagreements with the government.
They had won seats in parliament and later this week, the pro-Kurdish party the HDP was to meet with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. That meeting was then cancelled.
The ongoing operations against Kurdish fighters leaves no sign of a likely return to what many have described as a peace process. The political engagement has turned into a military one.
Why the about-face? And will the Turkish government and the Kurds ever find a way to interact without violence?
Six In The Morning Tuesday December 29
Belgium arrests two over 'New Year plot'
Belgian police have arrested two people suspected of planning attacks in Brussels on New Year's Eve.
Raids took place on Sunday and Monday in Brussels and the provinces of Flemish Brabant and Liege.
Police seized military clothing and propaganda materials in the raids, but no weapons or explosives.
Belgium has been on high alert since the attacks of 13 November in Paris. Several of the perpetrators are thought to have been based in Belgium.
However, the latest arrests are not linked to the Paris attacks, prosecutors say.
One of those arrested is suspected of leading and recruiting for a terrorist cell.
Women in Hollywood: plenty of talk but little change on equal pay
After Patricia Arquette’s Oscars rallying cry, Hollywood felt ripe for revolt. So why is progress so painfully slow?
When Patricia Arquette strode on stage to collect her Oscar for best supporting actress in February it was no surprise. She had been the favourite for her performance in Boyhood.
Clutching the statuette, reading breathlessly from a crumpled sheet of paper, she lauded fellow nominees, thanked other members of the cast and crew members and paid tribute to friends and relatives, as per tradition.
The brief speech ended, however, with a passionate, unexpected call to battle. “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” said Arquette, her voice rising. “It’s time to have wage equality once and for all. And equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
Tamir Rice shooting: 'Until cops start being jailed for killing black children like Tamir, they will continue killing us and hiding behind the legal system'
Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun. It also so happened he was blackTerrell Starr New York
Listening to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J McGinty explain why a Cleveland police officer opened fire on a 12-year-old boy playing in a public park within two seconds upon arriving on the scene, reminded me of Elaine Rothenberg, a 66-year-old white woman who brandished a toy gun at cops in Torrington, Connecticut, just two days ago.
Yelling that she hated the police, Rothenberg then screamed. “What are you doing? Shoot me!” she shouted at them. “What are you, scared?”
Apparently, they weren’t scared enough to be “in fear of their lives”, as was the case for the cop who shot and killed Tamir Rice. Rothenberg was eventually taken into custody. Alive.
More than 100 journalists killed in 2015, most in 'peaceful' countries
A total of 110 journalists have been killed around the world in 2015, with an increasing number being targeted by "non-state groups" such as the "Islamic State." The findings hail from two independent reports.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published a report saying that 67 journalists had died in the line of duty this year, while another 43 died under circumstances that remained unclear. The organization added that another 27 non-professional "citizen-journalists" and seven other media workers were also killed.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the number of confirmed murders was actually 69. CPJ also included the case of reporter Alison Parker and video-journalist Adam Ward from Virginia in its report, who were fatally shot in August by former co-worker Vester Lee Flanagan II during a live broadcast. RSF did not account for them in their own study.
The annual RSF report highlighted the growing role of "non-state groups" - such as the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) - in committing violence against journalists.Mosquito-borne Zika virus threatening newborns, adults in Brazil
December 29, 2015 - 4:13PMMac Margolis
Rio de Janeiro: In 33 years of practice, Rio de Janeiro obstetrician and gynaecologist Isabella Tartari Proenca has helped countless expectant mothers through the anxieties of pregnancy and childbirth. But ever since an exotic virus called Zika hit Brazil a few months ago, she's run out of assurances. "I get calls and text messages all day long," Dr Proenca said. "My patients are terrified."
Who could blame them? Since May, when the national health ministry confirmed the first cases of Zika virus, the mosquito- borne disease has swept the country, infecting at least half a million people. While most victims escape with a low-grade fever, skin rashes and achy joints, some dire complications have ensued. Among them is microcephaly, a condition that leads to exceptionally small infant head size, which causes lasting neurological damage and can lead to death.
Zika has since spread across Latin America. By December 22, Brazilian authorities had confirmed 2782 cases of microcephaly this year, a five-fold increase over the yearly average since 2010 – 80 babies whose mothers tested positive for Zika were stillborn or died shortly after birth.
Early intervention? Why Montreal has an anti-radicalization center
Montreal is the latest city in Canada to try to spot vulnerable people at risk of radicalization before they potentially commit a terror attack. The US government is reportedly mulling a similar program.
MONTREAL — In the wake of last month's terrorist attacks in Paris, Montreal’s mayor asked parents who were worried about their children being radicalized to call someone — but not the police.
“You're watching the news and you see your son, your daughter going through something, and being totally disconnected from the world,” Mayor Denis Coderre said last month. “What are you going to do about it? Now you have a center. You have a phone call.”
At the other end of that call is the Center for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence. The idea is to spot people who could be radicalized and rehabilitate them before they fly to Syria or plot an attack at home, and it's an approach that's already gained currency in Canada and Europe, and may yet have traction in the United States.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Enjo Kosai: Paid dating with Japanese teenage students
'JK' businesses shift from panty peeping too sex at hotels
In recent years, law enforcement has been cracking down on similar operations featuring minors - dubbed "JK" businesses, which originates from the phrase for high school girl (joshi kosei) - under the Child Welfare Law as they are considered breeding grounds for prostitution.
Pursuit, escape - repeat. The case is an example, says Friday (Dec. 18), for how shops in the industry are continuing to exploit legal loopholes in an effort to meet stiff demand fueled by fantasies for underage girls.
The magazine ventures to one parlor in Tokyo's Ikebukuro entertainment district which is turning the tables on law enforcement: Instead of girls being viewed by men seated in private rooms, the writer finds a number of salarymen in a large space and peeking through a mirror at a row of young women relaxing in cubicles.
Fascination with Japanese schoolgirl culture hiding a darker side?
On a cold, rainy night in Tokyo -- Japanese schoolgirls line the streets.
Shivering in short skirts they pass out fliers for "JK" or "joshi-kosei," cafes in which adult males pay for the company of girls as young as 16.
"Most are in their 30s, 40s and 50s," says 18-year-old Honoka.
The girls, all dressed in their actual high school uniforms, earn about $8 dollars an hour to socialize and serve food and drink to men often more than twice their age.
Sometimes however, the men want more than talk.
16-year-old Eli says that customers ask the girls out on dates "all the time."
Afghanistan's Billion Dollar Drug War
Afghan authorities are struggling to control the resurgence in poppy farming that feeds the habits of addicts worldwide.
It is the frontline of the war on drugs - and it is a battle authorities are losing.
Afghanistan's poppy fields, which feed the habits of drug addicts worldwide, are thriving, with cultivation of the crop hitting record highs last year.
With NATO troops pulling out and local law enforcement agencies ill-equipped and underfunded, production looks set to increase even further.
The number of Afghan addicts is soaring, and with the Taliban funded by the drug trade, security fears are paramount.
101 East travels to Afghanistan's poppy fields to investigate how Afghan authorities are struggling to control the resurgence in poppy farming, the implications for the global war on drugs, and what the future holds for this fragile nation.
Six In The Morning Monday December 28
Japan and South Korea agree 'comfort women' deal
Japan and South Korea have reached a historic deal to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two.
Japan offered an apology and will pay 1bn yen ($8.3m, £5.6m) to a South Korean-administered fund for victims.
The issue has long strained ties, with South Korea demanding stronger apologies and compensation for victims.
The agreement represents the first deal on the issue since 1965 and comes after both sides agreed to speed up talks.
The announcement comes after Japan's foreign minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul for discussions with his counterpart Yun Byung-se.
After the meeting Mr Kishida told reporters that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered a heartfelt apology.
Israel warns Brazil faces diplomatic downgrade unless it accepts settler as ambassador
Israel warns ties may suffer if Brasilia does not accept nominee Dani Dayan, a former head of the Jewish settlement movement
Brazil’s reluctance to accept an Israeli ambassador who is a West Bank settler has led to a standoff with Israel now warning it could downgrade diplomatic relations.
The appointment four months ago of Dani Dayan, a former head of the Jewish settlement movement, did not go down well with Brazil’s left-leaning government, which has supported Palestinian statehood in recent years.
Most world powers deem the Jewish settlements illegal.
Israel’s previous ambassador, Reda Mansour, left Brasilia last week and the Israeli government said on Sunday Brazil risked degrading bilateral relations if Dayan were not allowed to succeed him.
Ghana’s textile trade unravels due to cheap Chinese imports
Counterfeit goods are putting jobs at risk. Chris Matthews meets those affected in Tema
Isaac Eshun watches closely as reams of newly printed fabrics flow down from the giant rollers overhead, vast sheets of cloth with intricate orange and blue designs tumbling from the factory’s whirring machines.
The 53-year-old technician has spent almost half his life working at this textile company in Tema, a coastal town around 10 miles from the capital of Accra, yet such a career is increasingly rare in Ghana’s once thriving textile industry.
Counterfeit goods, border inefficiencies and rising costs have hit the industry hard, and last month it emerged the government had replaced a local company as the provider of school uniforms for public schools with a Chinese fabric producer.
“I have worked here for 25 years and our product is very fine and people can see the difference when they buy it, but the counterfeiting is a problem,” Mr Eshun says. “It is killing us and it is killing the industry.”
South China Sea: Filipino protesters land on disputed Spratly island
December 28, 2015 - 6:16AMManuel Mogato
Manila: A group of Filipino protesters has landed on a disputed Philippine-held island in the South China Sea, a local government official said on Sunday, in a risky expedition that may trigger a strong reaction from China.
About 50 protesters, most of them students, reached Pagasa island in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday in a stand against what they say is Beijing's creeping invasion of the Philippine exclusive economic zone, said Eugenio Bito-onon, the island's mayor.
"The 'freedom voyage' arrived at about 8.30am on Saturday from Balabac island on a motor launch," Mr Bito-onon told Reuters, adding the protesters left southern Palawan on Thursday in fine weather to make the long sea crossing.
China claims almost all the South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, through which about $US5 trillion ($6.8 trillion) in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the strategic waters.
Japan, wary of outsiders, keeps doors closed to refugees
Ever wary toward outsiders, Japan keeps doors closed to refugees despite pledges to do more
By Elaine Kurtenbach and Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press
For Mohammed, the perils of staying in Damascus crystalized when a sniper's bullet whizzed past his head while he and his cousins were on his rooftop, watching the Syrian air force bomb rebel forces.
The same roof where Mohammed and his lifelong friend Jamal used to sit in a tent and play video games. Now, instead of studying for a law degree, Mohammed is working as a fitness instructor in Tokyo, trying to squeeze in some language study and hoping that like Jamal, he'll beat the odds and win official status as a refugee in Japan.
The odds aren't good.
Out of the 7,533 people who applied for refugee status in 2014, or appealed earlier refusals, only 11 were approved. That includes Jamal, his mother and sister, whose approvals came after a year-and-a-half wait.
Evidence suggests 2015 will be a record year for gun sales
Updated by Alvin Chang
In 2015, the FBI will likely process a record number of background checks for people looking to buy guns and get permits.
Background checks are a good proxy for measuring how gun sales are changing, even though one background check does not necessarily equal one gun. That said, the purpose of background checks has nothing to do with measuring sales. Rather, it is part of a 1993 gun control law called the Brady Act, which mandates that someone looking to buy a firearm from a dealer, manufacturer, or importer is subject to a criminal background check. As part of this law, the FBI runs what is called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which pings three databases to quickly figure out whether a prospective buyer has a criminal record.
In the first 11 months of this year, the bureau already processed 19.7 million background checks. This is more than every other year on record — by nearly 800,000. This number includes a record-breaking Black Friday, when a whopping 185,000 background checkswere requested.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
North Korea Has Computer Operating System And It's Paranoid
Like everything in North Korea paranoia is king. From control of historical and cultural information to complete censorship of the media and the internet. So naturally it's Red Star OS is completely paranoid just like the government and its leaders.
The operating system is not just the pale copy of western ones that many have assumed, said Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of the German IT security company ERNW, who downloaded the software from a website outside North Korea and explored the code in detail.
“[The late leader] Kim Jong-il said North Korea should develop a system of their own. This is what they’ve done,” Gunrow told the Chaos Communication congress in Hamburg on Sunday.
This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a version of Linux called Fedora and has eschewed the previous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OSX – perhaps a nod to the country’s leader Kim Jong-un who, like his father, has been photographed near Macs.
The Murdoch empire strikes back
We examine Rupert Murdoch's relationship with the UK government; plus, Nigeria's 'brown-envelope' journalists.
Concerns are growing that the UK's Conservative government is trying to reshape and influence Britain's media landscape as it continues to befriend media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire.
Shortly after David Cameron's outright election victory in May, his government announced a review of finances at the BBC, an organisation some Conservatives had denounced for harbouring a liberal agenda, slashing one-fifth of the publicly owned broadcaster's annual budget.
Just weeks before making that announcement, Rupert Murdoch - a long-time critic of the BBC and owner of News Corp, which includes pro-Tory newspapers The Sun and The Times as well as SKY TV - met senior members of the government twice.
Murdoch's UK newspapers have a long history of lending support to the Conservatives, and in recent months have joined ranks in deriding Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
And in the past week, Trevor Kavanagh, a former political editor at The Sun who had deplored the investigation of Sun journalists over the phone-hacking scandal while at the paper, has been appointed to the board of a new press regulator - the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
Six In The Morning Sunday December 27
Evacuation from Syria's Yarmouk camp paused
Evacuation plan for armed groups from a Palestinian camp in Damascus is in limbo amid conflicting reports on pullout.
Patrick Strickland | | Humanitarian crises, War & Conflict, Middle East, Syrian crisis, Syria
A plan to evacuate armed groups and families from the Damascus-area Yarmouk refugee camp and nearby areas has been put in limbo following the assassination of a Syrian rebel leader, according to reports.
The plan was set to evacuate thousands of fighters from armed opposition groups from the embattled Palestinian refugee camp, the al-Qadam suburb and the al-Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood to opposition-controlled areas elsewhere in Syria, including pockets of land controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and the al-Nusra Front.
According to the Lebanese group Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel, eighteen busses arrived in the area on Friday afternoon, but the deal was paused after the killing of Zahran Alloush, the leader of the Army of Islam armed group.
Taiwan’s heavy metal star rallies fans to run for parliament on anti-China platform
Freddy Lim, singer with black metal group Chthonic, is standing for a fast-growing pro-democracy party
For many in the city of Taipei and across Taiwan, it was the most hotly awaited event of the year. Tens of thousands of music fans gathered in Liberty Square on Saturday night for an extraordinary free concert which marked the 20th anniversary of Chthonic, the country’s most famous heavy metal band.
Wearing combat boots, lead singer Freddy Lim held the stage with the brand of music that has seen the Taiwanese “black metal” band dubbed the Black Sabbath of Asia.
But this was not just any gig: it was also a political rally ahead of a crucial year for Taiwan. Described as a “concert to calm the soul and defend the nation”, the event was intended to energise Taiwanese youth and gain political support for Lim’s new role – as a parliamentary candidate for the New Power party (NPP).
Female activists fight against gender inequality in India's Hindu temples
Temple authorities maintain the men-only tradition has stood for centuries and it would be wrong to change it
Trupti Desai is confident that the group of female activists she heads will help bring about a “revolution” against gender inequality in India.
While there are many fronts in the battle for equality, the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade, as the group is known, has sought to tackle the issue of female admission to Hindu temples. A number of members were stopped in a recent attempt to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple, in the village of the same name in Maharashtra, so the group has issued an ultimatum to the temple authorities. They have called for the long-standing policy to be altered by tomorrow or they will return with hundreds of supporters and try again.
Ms Desai says that in the 21st century “different and progressive” thinking is required. Temple authorities maintain that the men-only tradition has stood for centuries and it would be wrong to change it.
The video game raising awareness of Senegal's child beggars
A computer engineer in Dakar has created a video game called “Cross Dakar City” to raise awareness about child beggars in Senegal’s capital. The game, which you can download on mobile phones and tablets, follows a young boy named Mamadou as he navigates Dakar’s dangerous traffic.
The streets of Dakar are filled with children begging for money. Most of these children, called “talibés”, are students at Islamic schools called daaras, where they are supposed to be studying the Muslim holy book, the Quran. In reality, schools force the children to spend hours each day begging, supposedly to teach them humility. The child beggars earn a lot of money for the marabouts, the powerful religious figures who run the Quranic schools – veritable begging networks. According to a 2010 report by Human Rights Watch, there are about 50,000 children in this situation in Senegal – about 30,000 of whom are in Dakar – spread out amongst several thousand Quranic schools.
When the children go out to beg, it puts them right in the midst of Dakar’s busy traffic, at constant risk of being hit. But that isn’t the only problem these children face. Most live in overcrowded housing, often without access to water or electricity. Many are malnourished. In 2013, the Observers travelled to Dakar to report on the mistreatment of these children in the very first episode of the Observers Direct.
Gaza Strip's artists seek to rebuild hope in a society ruined by conflict
December 26, 2015Ruth Pollard
Middle East Correspondent
Gaza City: The small, childlike drawings depicting scenes of everyday life are sketched on torn pieces of brown paper, ripped from the bags of cement given to families whose houses were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in last year's war in Gaza.
There are 400 paintings and the artist, Majdal Nateel, says they are not designed to represent all of the 495 children killed in the 50-day conflict with Israel, nor the thousands more maimed or the 300,000 children in need of psycho-social support after living through at least one, if not three, wars in five years.
Instead, the 28-year-old artist says, they represent the lost hopes and dreams of those children. What could have been if they had lived.
"The idea was to paint the dreams of children who were killed in the last war … to show them playing, painting, drawing, flying kites, doing the everyday things they would be doing if they had not died," Nateel says from the tiny studio inside her home in Gaza City.
Why The Cuba Trade Embargo Still Isn't Going Anywhere
Neither Congress nor the Castros are committed enough to overturn trade sanctions yet.
Roque PlanasNational Reporter, The Huffington Post
On Dec. 17 last year, President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro jointly announced that their two governments would launch the process of normalizing diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961. A flurry of other changes accompanied that watershed moment over the past year. Americans have much more leeway to travel to the island, the U.S. struck Cuba from the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list and direct mail service will soon be re-established.
At the same time, a half-century trade embargo against the island's Communist government remains in effect and GOP presidential hopefuls with personal or political ties to the Cuban-American exile community of South Florida, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have pledged to roll back the opening toward Cuba.
The WorldPost spoke with Bardach about the future of U.S.-Cuba relations, whether the trade embargo will end soon, and why Jeb Bush helped free a Cuban terrorist accused of blowing up a passenger jet carrying 73 people.
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