Saturday, February 28, 2015

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.

Ignoring Asia