Six In The Morning Tuesday April 14

Report: At least 2,000 women abducted by Boko Haram

Amnesty International says many of those captured in Nigeria since start of 2014 are forced into sexual slavery.

14 Apr 2015 05:30 GMT

Boko Haram have abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the start of 2014, according to rights group Amnesty International.

A report published by the organisation on Wednesday says many of those captured have been forced into sexual slavery and trained to fight for the group.

The group based its findings on nearly 200 witness accounts, including with 28 people who escaped from the armed group, which recently had a pledge of allegiance accepted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"The evidence presented in this shocking report, one year after the horrific abduction of the Chibok girls, underlines the scale and depravity of Boko Haram's methods,"  said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general. 

Chibok kidnapping: one year on, hope and stoicism as girls remembered

Relatives rally to mark anniversary of abduction by Boko Haram and demand security from new Nigerian president

Monica Mark in Yola

Tuesday 14 April 2015 06.39 BST

Reverend Enoch Mark waited for his daughter as long as he could. 

For half a year after Boko Haram gunmen snatched 17-year-old Monica from her dormitory in Chibok, he stayed on in the town even as militants repeatedly attacked it, hoping each day she might return.

“I wanted to run somewhere safe, but I had be there when she came back,” said the father of eight, whose family is among 276 others who suffered the same fate last April.

But the days trickled on with no news of Monica, and a year later Mark – no relation to this reporter – speaks quietly about his new reality.

“After six months I realised I had to move the rest my family somewhere safe, so we left Chibok.” He took a deep breath before continuing: “Also, I’ve accepted it isn’t possible that all our girls are still alive. But I’m a reverend. I’ve buried other people’s children, I carry out condolence visits. I have no choice but to be positive because if not, how can I encourage my own community?

Google Malaysia hacked: cyber-attack re-directs page to hacker website

Visitors to Google’s Malaysian domain were instead sent to a page claiming the site was “Hacked by Tiger-Mate #Bangladeshi Hacker”

ANDREW GRIFFIN

 

 

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Google’s page in Malaysia has been hit by problems, after the site appears to have been re-directed to a page made by hackers claiming credit for the cyber-attack.

Visitors to the Malaysian site see a message telling them that “Google Malaysia Hacked by Tiger-Mate #Bangladeshi Hacker”.

No data has been compromised, according to Google, and the services themselves are still running.

The problem appears to have arisen from the organisation that manages the technology that allows URLs to point towards websites, according to a Google statement given to Reuters. The search giant is working with that organisation, MYNIC, to resolve the problem.

US concern for Egyptian-American activist rings hollow, say critics

The sentencing of Egyptian-American activist Mohammed Soltan to life in prison has drawn condemnation. Critics have accused Washington of putting a strategic alliance with Egypt before human rights.

He was once a brawny, American college student who campaigned for President Barack Obama. Today, he's a frail and emaciated prisoner condemned to life in an Egyptian jail.

The sentencing of Egyptian-American activist Mohammed Soltan on Saturday to life in prison on a raft of terror-related charges has been condemned by human rights activists and critics of US policy in Egypt, who say the government has failed to hold Egypt accountable for increasingly repressive policies. The ruling came just days after the Obama administration announced the reinstatement of military aid to Egypt, suspended after the deadly crackdown on dissent following the country's 2013 military coup.

In ruined Yarmouk, 50 metres from normal life, 'no one knows who will die next'

April 14, 2015 - 5:55PM

Ruth Pollard

Middle East Correspondent

Beirut: Ayham al-Ahmad sits cross-legged atop a building damaged by mortar fire, a small electric keyboard across his knees, as the camera pans across the devastated buildings of Yarmouk and his latest song rings out over the rooftops.

Since the so-called Islamic State laid siege to the devastated Palestinian refugee camp just outside Damascus, 27-year-old Ahmad, the renowned piano player of Yarmouk, can no longer roll his treasured piano on his uncle's vegetable cart and play music in the grim laneways.

Under threat from the extremist group that for now controls much of the camp, he is less mobile but far from silent, as his friend, co-composer and Yarmouk exile Abo Gabi, told Fairfax Media.

TEPCO abandons robot stranded inside Fukushima plant

By Naomi Ng and Yoko Wakatsuki, CNN

Updated 0946 GMT (1646 HKT) April 14, 2015

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has given up trying to recover a robotic probe after it stopped moving inside one of the reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) deployed the remote-controlled robot on Friday inside one of the damaged reactors that had suffered a meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

It was the first time the probe had been used.

The robot, set out to collect data on radiation levels and investigate the spread of debris, stalled after moving about 10 meters, according to a statement released by TEPCO.