Saturday, February 28, 2015

Late Night Music From Japan: Peter Gabriel Schock den Affen; Peter Schilling - Major Tom

Six In The Morning Saturday February 28

Russian opposition leader Nemtsov shot dead in Moscow

Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy PM and Putin critic, shot several times from a passing car near the Kremlin.

28 Feb 2015 07:47 GMT

Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down near the Kremlin, just a day before a planned protest against the government.

Nemtsov's death late on Friday ignited a fury among opposition figures who assailed the Kremlin for creating an atmosphere of intolerance of any dissent and called the killing an assassination.

Putin quickly offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation.

Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, was working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the separatist rebellion that has raged in eastern Ukraine since last April.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and sophisticated weapons. Moscow denies the accusations.

20th-century terrorists: The bizarre story of two jihadis in the Australian outback

Although the British took the threat seriously – this was "the parched grasses that awaits the spark" in John Buchan's celebrated phrase in his novel Greenmantle – the call to jihad was for the most part neglected. In the Caucasus, some Russian military came over to the other side. In Mesopotamia, a British officer had his throat slit. And in Singapore on 15 February, 1915, following rumours they might be sent to Turkey to fight fellow Muslims, there was a mutiny involving 850 Sepoys from the 5th Native Light Infantry Regiment of the Indian Army. The uprising was put down a week later, after 47 soldiers and civilians had been killed.

From elite English school to Ukraine’s frontline

Adam Osmayev, once arrested for alleged Putin murder plot, now leads pro-Kiev sabotage unit

Daniel McLaughlin

Wycliffe College, a €12,000-a-term boarding school in England’s bucolic Cotswolds, runs something called the “combined cadet force”.

Through “military-orientated activity and adventurous training” the programme offers pupils a chance to “exercise responsibility and leadership”, develop “self-reliance, resourcefulness, endurance, perseverance” and acquire “team-building and instructional skills”.

In his own Wycliffe days, Adam Osmayev was like the lads pictured on the school website, enjoying mucking around in camouflage, going for long hikes and camping in the woods and hills, and learning to navigate and fire a rifle.

Indian doctors shed light on massive medical procedure scandal

February 28, 2015 - 2:33PM

Amrit Dhillon

New Delhi: For years, Indians have suspected that doctors operate unnecessarily, order unwarranted tests and procedures, take kickbacks for referring patients and behave like rapacious robber barons rather than carers.

Now the horror stories that used to form the subject of dinner-table banter - such as cardiac surgery prescribed for a shoulder pain that got better with exercise - are coming straight from the horse's mouth.

In a report released this week, 78 doctors - half of whom have identified themselves - provided testimony of the greed and corruption that seem to have become endemic in the Indian medical profession.

'Marshall plan' needed to rescue Ebola-ravaged countries

27 FEB 2015 00:00 CLAR NI CHONGHAILE

Oxfam has called for a multimillion-dollar plan to rebuild the economies of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, ahead of a recovery summit in Brussels.

Leaders of the three West African countries worst affected by Ebola will meet donors and partners in March to discuss how to regenerate their economies.

The outbreak of the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, combined with a fall in commodity prices, has interrupted a period of growth in the three countries’ economies, worn down by decades of war and corroded by corruption.

The countries will present recovery plans at a summit in Brussels, which will bring together representatives from the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and nongovernmental organisations.

Jailed journalists in Egypt: Did Al Jazeera help them or use them?

Current and former Al Jazeera employees accuse the network of a cavalier attitude toward their safety amid political tensions between Egypt and Qatar, whose royal family bankrolls the network.

By Louisa Loveluck, Correspondent

CAIRO — Not long after three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested here in  December 2013, their Qatari television network mounted one of the largest  international press freedom campaigns the world has ever seen.

Given Egypt’s record of jailing journalists, the network’s campaign seemed well founded. Last June, a court sentenced the three men – Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed – to between seven and 10 years in prison on terror charges. Secretary of State John Kerry called the ruling “chilling [and] draconian.”

The verdict became a diplomatic  flashpoint for Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and a symbol of the country’s authoritarian tilt. But now, Al  Jazeera is in the spotlight over what current and former employees say was a cavalier attitude about their safety amid political tensions between Egypt and Qatar, whose royal family bankrolls the network. While positioning itself as a defender of press freedom, Al Jazeera appeared to put greater stock in smearing Egypt’s reputation, they say.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Random Japan

Convenience store in Japan welcomes new range of donuts, Evangelion-style
HougiHayashi 'Fang' Hougi
Fans of the popular anime franchise Evangelion would probably get a pleasant surprise if they walked into this particular convenience store in Japan. Instead of putting up pictures of the actual products to advertise their new line of donuts, the creative store employees of this branch decided to take a cue from the popular anime and dress their window a little differently.

Twitter user misoka09 uploaded a few pictures of the Evangelion-style advertisements and soon garnered more than 10,000 retweets as amused netizens gushed over this clever trick.

SPANNING THE GLOBE
The government’s fiscal 2015 budget allocates funds for establishing new embassies in Barbados, the Maldives, Moldova, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

And, for the first time since 2008, the budget authorizes money for new consulates, which this time will be set up in the central Mexican city of Leon and Hamburg in northern Germany.

Crown Prince Naruhito traveled to Saudi Arabia to greet King Salmanoffer, who assumed the throne after King Abdullah’s death last month.

The weak yen is being credited with a dramatic rise in the number of foreign visitors to the Niseko ski resort in Hokkaido.

Talk About

Biting Ones Tongue

Men Who Don't

Stare At Goats

That's Not

The Ticket

Tokyo 2020 Olympics to save $1 billion with venue changes

AFP-JIJI
RIO DE JANEIRO – Three venue changes are planned for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, organizers said Friday as part of International Olympic Committee-led efforts to streamline future tournaments and rein in budgets.

“It is a year since we established the organizing committee, and we are putting together our vision — we have a basic plan,” Tokyo organizing committee director Toshiro Muto told reporters on the sidelines of the IOC’s latest assessment of preparations for next year’s games, South America’s first, in Rio de Janeiro.

'I sat in that place for three days, man': Chicagoans detail abusive confinement inside police 'black site'

Four black men recall prolonged shackling and off-the-books interrogation
Lawyers: ‘majority of abuse’ at Homan Square focuses on minority Americans
Black Lives Matter movement backs protests amid pressure for federal inquiry

Four black Chicagoans have now come forward to the Guardian detailing off-the-books ordeals at the facility, including another who describes being detained in “a big cage” with his wrists cuffed to a bench so he couldn’t move.

Brock Terry, 31, says police took him to Homan Square in 2011, after finding him with five and a half pounds of marijuana, and describes being held for three entire days without public notice, booking or a lawyer.
“I sat in that place for three days, man – with no talking, no calls to nobody,” Terry told the Guardian on Friday. His friends and family could not find him: “They call police stations, I’m not there, I’m not there.”
“I was kept there. I didn’t speak to a lawyer or anything,” he continued. “I didn’t interact with nobody for three days. And then when I do see the light of day, I go straight to another police station, go straight there to county and be processed.”
Terry detailed being handcuffed in one room at Homan Square by one wrist to a “little circular thing behind the bench”, echoing the accounts of the two Nato protesters interviewed by the Guardian, though Terry said he did not have his ankles cuffed together.

The current mayor and former Chief of Staff to President Obama Rahm Emanuel whose currently running for a second term had this to say;

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, currently facing a heated runoff for re-election, said on Thursday night it was “not true” that the police maintain a facility lawyers have compared to a CIA “black site”.

"It's not true." All those people interviewed separately are lying about what happened to them while incarcerated at Homan square.

Late Night Music From Japan: The Specials - Ghost Town; Massive Attack - Angel

Battle over US military base in Japan intensifies

In 1996 the Japanese and American governments concluded an agreement that would move the U.S. Marine Corp Futenma Air Station which sits in the middle of Ginowan city to a location on the northeast coast of Okinawa. 20 years have passed since and Futenma remains where its always been while the people of Okinawa and the prefectural government have fought not for the air stations relocation to another part of the island, but to any place but Okinawa.

Last December the outgoing governor in a completely surprising move issued the necessary environmental impact statement giving the green light for Futenma to be relocated after having been opposed to the bases relocation for his entire term as governor.

With Shinzo Abe's return to the Prime Minister's office pressure has been building on the new elected governor to give the final approval something he his loath to provide.

Okinawa construction has led to activists being dumped offshore

A diminutive, silver-haired warrior, Fumiko Shimabukuro (85), has one goal: to stop a US military base from being built near her home. For nearly two decades, she has been an iconic local figure in the struggle against the Marine facility in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture. Now the battle that has defined her sunset years appears to be nearing a climax.

Shimabukuro was recently knocked unconscious in scuffles with the police. She is one of over a dozen elderly protesters injured since Japan’s government began last year its long-delayed survey to build the base. This week, US security detained two demonstrators, intensifying a standoff that has becoming increasingly treacherous.

The two protesters were released after angry Okinawans converged on a local police station. Coast guard officers have recently taken to grabbing anti-base activists from kayaks and dumping them 4km offshore. Many fear it is only a matter of time before someone is badly hurt or killed.

For their efforts retribution was necessary and so it has come.

Budget policy

The budget cut Tokyo’s annual subsidy to Okinawa by 5 per cent, a sign, say locals, they are being punished for the result of November’s election. Just in case the message is not clear, they say, Abe has twice snubbed Onaga – Okinawa’s main political representative – on recent visits to Tokyo.
Onaga this month ordered a review of his predecessor’s controversial decision to green light the base. But the review is not due to release its findings until the summer, by which time it may be too late to stop construction. Workers have begun laying giant concrete blocks around the bay, destroying its coral, say the protesters.

Six In The Morning Friday February 27

'Jihadi John': Haines widow wants militant caught alive

The widow of a man killed by a masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" says she wants him caught alive.

Dragana Haines says the "last thing" she wants for the man who killed her husband, British aid worker David Haines, is an "honourable death".

The militant, pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton from west London.

Mr Haines' daughter said she wanted to see "a bullet between his eyes".

Emwazi, who is in his mid-20s and was previously known to British security services, first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.

China 'aggressively' expanding into South China Sea says US

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper tells US senators there is a worrying trend of conflict between China’s neighbours over expansion

Associated Press

China is expanding its outposts in the South China Sea to include stationing for ships and potential airfields as part of its “aggressive” effort to exert sovereignty, the US intelligence chief said Thursday.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on worldwide threats. His comments underscore US concern over land reclamation activities that could fuel tensions between China and its neighbours over disputed islands and reefs.

“Although China is looking for stable ties with the United States it’s more willing to accept bilateral and regional tensions in pursuit of its interests, particularly on maritime sovereignty issues,” Clapper said.

Kiev withdraws heavy weapons after lull in fighting

US intelligence chief expects Russian-backed militants to attack key port in spring

Daniel McLaughlin

Ukraine has started withdrawing artillery from the frontline of its battle with Russian-backed militants, after a lull in fighting that Washington’s intelligence chief expects to flare up again in spring.

After two consecutive days without fatalities, Kiev’s military said yesterday it had started pulling back heavy guns that should have begun on February 15th, under a ceasefire deal that was initially ignored by both sides as they fought for the strategic town of Debaltseve.

The separatists now control that major transport hub, and insist they have already started withdrawing howitzers and other artillery pieces from the frontline of a conflict that has killed some 6,000 people and displaced about 1.5 million.

Amal Clooney slams Egyptian, Canadian governments defending client Mohamed Fahmy

Human rights attorney Amal Clooney condemned the inaction of the Canadian government to secure the release of her client. There is no reason Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy should not be sent home, she argued.

Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney slammed the Canadian government on Thursday, calling Ottawa's efforts to secure the repatriation of Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy from Egypt "woefully inadequate."

In a statement published by Doughty Street Chambers, an organization for lawyers in Britain, she accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government of making "sheepish whimpers" to Cairo as opposed to real efforts to ensure her client's return to Canada.

A court freed Fahmy, pending retrial, along with fellow defendant Baher Mohammed earlier this month. Both are charged with promoting the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement in their news coverage, a charge Fahmy dismissed as absurd.

On the front line in Syrian Kurdistan, militias fight to free kidnapped families

February 27, 2015 - 6:12PM

Ruth Pollard

Middle East Correspondent

Ruth Pollard reports from the war zone as Kurdish, Assyrian and Arab militias hold the line against the jihadists of Islamic State.

Tel Tamer, Syria: "They want to divide us, to drive us from our lands, to separate us from our families, our tribes and our homes," Atur Aisak tells me.

She is standing at her post dug into a hill in Tel Tamer, an assault rifle slung over her shoulder, and looking out to the nearby village of Tel Shamiran, where at least 90 Assyrians - most of them her extended family - were abducted by militants of the so-called Islamic State in a terrifying predawn raid on Tuesday.

We have no choice but to stay and defend our area . . . they kill whoever they please.

Lying just a kilometre away, the village is a no-go zone for all but frontline fighters from the YPG, or People's Protection Units - the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) - who are engaged in a fierce battle with IS to free Tel Shamiran and other Christian villages and prevent further abductions.

Judge in Argentina throws out case involving prosecutor's death

Judge Daniel Rafecas has dismissed allegations of a cover-up in a case that has grabbed the national attention of Argentina.

By Hugh Bronstein and Sarah Marsh, Reuters

BUENOS AIRES — An Argentine judge on Thursday dismissed allegations that President Cristina Fernandez tried to cover up Iran's purported involvement in the deadly bombing of a Jewish center in 1994.

The judge "discontinued" the case brought by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances in January the day before he was to appear in Congress to discuss his criminal complaint.

The scandal shocked the country and hurt the government's credibility ahead of October's presidential election.

The decision by judge Daniel Rafecas sparked divided opinions on whether the government had a hand in the ruling. About 400,000 Argentines marched last week to demand a more independent judiciary.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Bansky Paints Graffiti In Gaza

Bansky has visited Gaza spraying his paint creating art in the war ravaged city of Beit Hanoun. The anonymous but eminent British street artist known as Banksy has posted a mini-documentary on his banksy.co.uk site showing squalid conditions in Gaza, six months after the end of the war between the enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers and Israel.

Israel was criticised over the large number of Palestinian civilian deaths during the conflict. Over 2,100 Palestinians were killed during the fighting, most of them civilians and many of them children, while 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians were killed.

The two-minute documentary was posted on Thursday and like many of Banksy's murals and other art is politically charged and whimsical at the same time. It starts off with a view of clouds from an airplane window while text on the screen says "Make this the year you discover a new destination".

'Gestapo' tactics at US police 'black site' ring alarm from Chicago to Washington

Shocked politicians and rights groups call for inquiries into Homan Square
Rahm Emanuel faces questions as top supporters examine ‘outrageous’ abuse

The US Department of Justice and embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel are under mounting pressure to investigate allegations of what one politician called “CIA or Gestapo tactics” at a secretive Chicago police facility exposed by the Guardian.

Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week.

As three more people came forward detailing their stories of being “held hostage” and “strapped” inside Homan Square without access to an attorney or an official public record of their detention by Chicago police, officials and activists said the allegations merited further inquiry and risked aggravating wounds over community policing and race that have reached as high as the White House.

Late Night Music From Japan: School of Fish - Three Strange Days; 4 Non Blondes - What's Up

ISIS Executioner 'Jihadi John' Is Named as Mohammed Emwazi

LONDON — The identity of the masked executioner clutching a knife in ISIS beheading propaganda videos was revealed on Thursday.

A U.S. intelligence official confirmed to NBC News that a Londoner named Mohammed Emwazi is the person known as "Jihadi John" in the ISIS videos. The militant's identity was first reported by The Washington Post, which cited "friends and others with familiar with his case." The BBC also named the individual without citing sources.

Emwazi is a Briton born in Kuwait who is known to intelligence services, according to the BBC and the Washington Post.

The Washington Post reported that Emwazi grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming before traveling to Syria in 2012 and joining ISIS.

The Metropolitan Police said it would not confirm the reports and British government officials declined to comment.

Gaza Fixer: A Chronicle of Survival

Can news fixer and six-time war survivor Raed Athamneh recover once more after Israel's 2014 war on Gaza?

Raed Athamneh is a six-time war survivor, patriarch and trusted news fixer to foreign reporters covering Gaza.

As he gives aid workers and journalists tours, he is the one who actually talks to the people, and translates the story of their fate to the foreigners eagerly recoding, writing, filming, the tragedy that Gaza has become.

His colleague, photojournalist George Azar, has witnessed Gaza's trauma in extreme close-up and through his observational filming of Raed himself, as well as over nine years of friendship.

He captures the defining moments of Raed's life - destruction, endurance, humour and unimaginable loss - with remarkable intimacy.

In an ongoing chronicle of Raed's life, Israel's 2014 war on the Gaza Strip leaves the family reeling, and Raed struggling to imagine the future.

SIx In The Morning

Netanyahu 'not correct' on Iran nuclear talks - Kerry

51 minutes ago
From the sectionUS & Canada

US Secretary of State John Kerry has questioned the judgement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on Iran's nuclear programme.

Mr Netanyahu has criticised the US and others for "giving up" on trying to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Israeli PM "may not be correct", Mr Kerry said after attending the latest Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.

Mr Netanyahu will address Congress next week, after an invitation by Republican leaders criticised by the White House.

Mr Kerry was reacting to a speech in which Mr Netanyahu had said the US and others were "accepting that Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons".

Paradise jihadis: Maldives sees surge in young Muslims leaving for Syria

In a country better known for tourism than militancy, radical preaching and social problems are prompting a rise in Islamism

Jason Burke in Malé

They left in small groups, through the narrow lanes of the city, on to the ferry across the glassy blue sea and then, past the tourists waiting for connections to luxury resorts, to the airport. Their ultimate destination:Syria, and the “caliphate” of Islamic State.

The Maldives is better known for luxury tourism than Islamic militancy. But in recent weeks there has been a surge in departures of young men for Syria, raising fears of a growing threat both to the million-plus tourists who visit its 1,200 atolls each year and to countries such as the UK that do not require visas from citizens of the island.

“There are serious concerns,” said one western diplomat in the region. “The risk is either of an attack locally or someone coming to Europe or even going on to the US.”

Czech hub of gun industry stunned by killing of eight

Uhersky Brod’s biggest employer, CZUB, is one of world’s leading firearms firms

In shallow, ragged breaths, Petr Gabriel relates how a chance phone call saved his life. Exactly 24 hours previously the 33 year-old arrived for lunch as usual at the popular “Druzba” canteen in the eastern Czech town of Uhersky Brod.

He headed up the stairs to the first-floor dining hall, where the cheap and hearty lunch specials are popular with locals. He made a split-second decision to turn left to the toilet, while a man brushed past him and turned right into the restaurant.

As Petr took a call from a friend in the toilets, he heard the first shots. “I first thought it was a party or something, then I heard the glass smashing and people crying,” said Mr Gabriel, a local charity worker and church volunteer.

The Warming World: Is Capitalism Destroying Our Planet?

By Alexander Jung, Horand Knaup, Samiha Shafy and Bernhard Zand

World leaders decided in Copenhagen that global warming should be limited to 2 degrees Celsius. Achieving that target, though, would take nothing less than a miracle. With another round of climate negotiations approaching, it is becoming increasingly clear that mankind has failed to address its most daunting problem.

Humans are full of contradictions, including the urge to destroy things they love. Like our planet. Take Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Like everyone living Down Under, he's extremely proud of his country's wonder of the world, the Great Barrier Reef. At the same time, though, Abbott believes that burning coal is "good for humanity," even though it produces greenhouse gases that ultimately make our world's oceans warmer, stormier and more acidic. In recent years, Australia has exported more coal than any other country in the world. And the reef, the largest living organism on the planet, is dying. Half of the corals that make up the reef are, in fact, already dead.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also wants the best for his country and is loathe to see it damaged by droughts, cyclones and storm surges.

Could US, Cuba fully restore ties by April Summit of the Americas?

If the United States and Cuba moved fast enough they could reopen embassies in time for the April 10-11 Summit of the Americas. Cuban officials say the US must remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

By Daniel Trotta and Warren Strobel, Reuters

HAVANA/WASHINGTON — Cuba would agree to restore diplomatic relations with the United States in time for the April Summit of the Americas if Washington quickly and convincingly removes the Caribbean country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a senior Cuban official said on Wednesday.

Diplomatic ties were severed in 1961, and negotiators for the two longtime adversaries will meet in Washington on Friday, following up on the first round of talks held in Havana last month.

If the sides move fast enough, they could reopen embassies in each other's capitals in time for the April 10-11 summit in Panama, where U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro could meet for the first time since agreeing on Dec. 17 to restore ties and exchange prisoners.

Southeast Asia

Feb 26, '15

Civilians 'massacred' in Myanmar
By Qiao Long and Kyaw Kyaw Aung

Aid workers in Myanmar's Kokang region near the northeastern border with China cremated large numbers of bodies of civilians in recent days, according to photographs shown to RFA from the scene.

The photos show voluntary workers in rubber gloves disposing of large numbers of dead bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, and others with missing limbs.

The photos, many too graphic to publish, emerged amid

accusations by Kokang rebel forces that the government is "massacring" unarmed civilians.

"In Kokang, these people were killed by the government," the ethnic Kokang man who showed the photos to RFA said on Wednesday. "They were civilians."

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Late Night Music From Japan; Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train, Mama, I'm Coming Home

Six In The Morning February 25

Amnesty calls on UN powers to lose veto on genocide votes

1 hour ago

Amnesty International has urged the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to give up their power of veto in cases where atrocities are being committed.

In its annual report, the rights group said the global response to an array of catastrophes in 2014 had been shameful.

Richer countries were guilty of taking an "abhorrent" stance by not sheltering more refugees, Amnesty said.

The outlook for 2015 was bleak, the group added.

Saying that 2014 had been a catastrophic year for victims of conflict and violence, Amnesty said world leaders needed to act immediately to confront the changing nature of armed conflict.

France awaits landmark ruling on 'racial profiling' ID checks

In the wake of last month’s terror attacks, French people of ‘Muslim appearance’ complain of being arbitrarily stopped by police

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

The strained relationship between French police and the country’s non-white population is under fresh scrutiny in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks as a Paris appeals court considers a landmark case brought by black and Arab men who say they were openly stopped by officers for no other reason than their SKIN

colour.

Racial profiling – in which French people of black and north African origin are routinely pulled over on the street and asked to show their identity papers with no explanation – has long been a fraught issue in France, contributing to tension and urban rioting on housing estates.

But the current political context, in which France is soul-searching over race relations, discrimination, antisemitism and hate speech in the wake of January’s terrorist attacks, has thrown the spotlight on equality issues more than ever before. Campaign groups say that since the attacks, which began with a deadly assault on the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and ended in a bloody siege at a kosher supermarket, French people of “Muslim appearance” – black and Arab – are complaining of an increase in incidences of arbitrarily being pulled over by police.

China to Spain cargo train: Successful first 16,156-mile round trip on world's longest railway brings promise of increased trade

‘Charlie Hebdo’ back six weeks after seven-million selling edition

Satirical weekly richest publication in France since nine staff were murdered

Lara Marlowe

Charlie Hebdo, the satirical weekly where 12 people were murdered, including a building worker and two policemen, in an attack by jihadists on January 7th, will return to French newsstands today after a six-week absence.

Seven million copies of a “survivors’ issue” were published one week after the attack. Two and a half million copies today’s “renaissance” issue will be printed. Before the attack, the newspaper’s circulation was fewer than 40,000 copies.

The cover of the “renaissance issue” shows a panicked dog running for dear life, with a copy of Charlie Hebdo clenched in its jaw. A pack of dogs follows in hot pursuit, bearing the faces of Front National leader Marine Le Pen, former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy, Pope Francis and a jihadist carrying a Kalashnikov in its teeth.

"Shameful" global response to human rights violations: Amnesty International report

Amnesty International's annual report has condemned the international response to the world's humanitarian disasters. 2014 also saw the highest number of displaced people for 70 years.

Amnesty International released its annual report on Wednesday, highlighting the state of human rights around the world in 2014. Besides detailing the human toll of conflicts from Nigeria to Syria, the rights group denounced the global community for the "shameful and ineffective" responses to world crises.

Cluster bombs in Ukraine

The report was highly critical of both Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels fighting in the east of the country. Both sides are responsible for the high number of civilian casualties, according to the report, because of the indiscriminate firing of unguided mortars and rockets in populated areas.

The organization's senior director for research, Anna Neistat, added that though it has been difficult to determine, "taking into account everything we understand for now" cluster bombs, large explosives which release many other smaller explosives over a wide area, were used by both government troops and separatists.

Taps run dry in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city

February 25, 2015 - 5:09PM

Simon Romero

Sao Paulo: Endowed with the Amazon and other mighty rivers, an array of huge dams and one-eighth of the world's fresh water, Brazil is sometimes called the "Saudi Arabia of water", so rich in the coveted resource that some liken it to living above a sea of oil.

But in Brazil's largest and wealthiest city, a more dystopian situation is unfolding: The taps are starting to run dry.

As south-east Brazil grapples with its worst drought in nearly a century, a problem worsened by polluted rivers, deforestation and population growth, the largest reservoir system serving Sao Paulo is near depletion. Many residents are already enduring sporadic water cut-offs, some going days without it. Officials say that drastic rationing may be needed, with water service provided only two days a week.