Kenyan massacre: Horrified student rescued after 2 days in closet
Updated 1008 GMT (1708 HKT) April 5, 2015
First came the gunshots. Then the footsteps, as Al-Shabaab militants followed her into her dorm ROOM
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Cynthia Cheroitich went into a closet, covering herself with clothes. Her two roommates hid under their beds, until the gunmen called them out.
"(The gunmen) told them if you don't know to read to them in the Muslim word, whatever, and then you lie down," Cheroitich told CNN. "And then, if you know, you go to the other side."
The 19-year-old student at Kenya's Garissa University College didn't see what happened next, but she heard more than enough.
"They were shooting everywhere," she said. "I didn't want to open my eyes."
For the next two days, Cheroitich didn't budge. Unable to get to water, she hydrated by drinking body lotion. When police went into her ROOM -- well after the carnage was done, with 147 dead at the school -- she didn't believe them. Only a visit by the head of the university convinced her that, finally, it was safe to come out.
.A new exodus? The reality of being Jewish in Europe today
After a wave of antisemitic attacks across Europe, many Jews are wondering what the future holds. We hear seven contrasting voices, from France to Turkey
Introduction by leading foreign-affairs commentator Natalie Nougayrède
These are gruelling times for those in Europe who identify themselves as Jewish or have a Jewish background. For many, it is a time of fear and distress. Antisemitism is on the rise, fed by trends that threaten the fabric of European consciousness and values. Extreme right-wing movements are thriving – and they often carry elements of age-old European antisemitism. Europe has also been hit by the sectarianism and fanaticism that seeps out of the Middle East. Violent jihadism has struck in Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels and Toulouse. Violent radicalised youths only represent a tiny minority of Muslims, but they are dangerous and their numbers are growing in Europe. Their ideology of hatred finds fertile ground in pauperised suburbs and the racism that populist parties promote when they stigmatise immigrants.
Was Judas - Christianity's great traitor - wrongfully condemned?
Challenging tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan
A number of female journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan are shaking up a male-dominated domain with a magazine that aims to highlight the problems and abuse many women still face. Melissa Tabeek reports from Sulaymaniyah.
In a sparsely decorated but chic space in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, a group of Iraqi Kurdish women are finishing up final drafts of articles, creating publishing schedules and reviewing photos. Editors Koral Noori and Alaa Lattif debate content, while Tafan Najat works on fashion and beauty stories. With the editor-in-chief set to return to the city later that evening, they are preparing for their third issue of ZHIN magazine, a special on marriage, to go to the printers. The three are excited, as the layout has been improving with each issue, they say.
"It is very important to show readers and society what is happening with women here in Kurdistan. They are facing violence, different kinds of abuse, stress, but no one is worried about showing this kind of situation. For us, for ZHIN magazine, every one of the different parts of women's lives are very important," Lattif told DW.
Chinese taxi drivers drink pesticide in Beijing protest
Dan Levin
Beijing: More than 30 taxi drivers drank from bottles of pesticide in central Beijing to protest what they said was poor treatment by their taxi companies, state and social media outlets reported.
Dozens of men, some of them frothing from the mouth, fell to the ground on a busy sidewalk at the Wangfujing shopping centre on Saturday after drinking the pesticide, according to the Beijing police force's official microblog account. The men were rushed to nearby hospitals and they all survived, the police said. Taxi drivers are poorly-paid in China, and many struggle to earn a living.
Videos of the protest quickly spread on Chinese social media sites, showing the men splayed on the ground and large crowds staring at them from behind police cordons.
According to Hong Kong newspaper The South China Morning Post, the men were all from Suifenhe city in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, which borders Russia, and they tried to kill themselves to protest the way taxi companies renewed their vehicle leases.
American warrior extends clandestine aid to Myanmar's ethnic minorities
Founded by a former Green Beret, the Free Burma Rangers train ethnic minorities to run their own humanitarian missions in war-torn regions. Myanmar has reached a tentative peace deal with ethnic insurgent groups.
BANGKOK, THAILAND — Thi Naing stands in a doorway and holds up his hand revealing a tattoo that runs the length of his ring finger. “Never Surrender,” it reads in blurry English. In the ROOM behind him, more young men gather around a computer to learn how to edit videos. Others take turns swinging at a nearby punch bag.
behind him, more young men gather around a computer to learn how to edit videos. Others take turns swinging at a nearby punch bag.
The men have come from all over Myanmar, also known as Burma, travelling jungle paths and border crossing without passports or permission. Not that the Burmese government would grant them permission in the first place. As members of Myanmar’s ethnic insurgent groups, these men have been locked into the world’s longest running civil war since they were old enough to lift a gun, carry medicine, or keep lookout.
The shared goal of the guerrilla soldiers at the training is greater autonomy for their ethnic minorities that make up 30 percent of Myanmar’s population. And their trainers are the Free Burma Rangers, a covert humanitarian group that has organized aid missions in Myanmar for nearly two decades.
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