Heavy fighting erupts between rival Burundi troops
Fighting reported around building of state broadcaster as claims over success of coup are made
Fighting reported around building of state broadcaster as claims over success of coup are made
Fierce fighting between rival Burundian troops has erupted in the capital, Bujumbura, deepening fears that Wednesday’s coup attempt could trigger a bloody and protracted power struggle.
Forces loyal to president Pierre Nkurunziza, who is outside the country and has been blocked from returning, were resisting an assault on the state television and radio complex, military sources and witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Meanwhile, independent broadcasters were hit by rocket and grenade attacks.
Burundi had been a tinderbox since the sudden announcement by general Godefroid Niyombare, a former intelligence chief fired three months ago, that Nkurunziza had been ousted after weeks of deadly civil unrest sparked by the president’s bid to stand for a third term.
Female Indonesian military applicants receive 'two-finger' virginity tests
May 14, 2015 - 2:29PMJewel Topsfield
Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax
Female military applicants in Indonesia are subjected to virginity tests - including the discredited "two finger test" to determine if the hymen is intact - in order to recruit the "best people" to the armed forces.
Human Rights Watch is lobbying countries - including Australia - who are attending an international conference on military medicine in Bali next week, to urge Indonesian president Joko Widodo to abolish the "discriminatory and invasive testing".
Indonesian military spokesman Major-General Fuad Basya told Fairfax Media virginity tests were performed on female candidates as part of health tests required to enter the military.
East Asian schools rank best in the world. What are they doing right?
East Asian countries claimed the top spots in a recent world educational ranking. How are they succeeding?
A new list of global educational rankings published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has several East Asian countries at the head of the pack.
Singapore claimed the No. 1 spot, with Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan filling out the top five. The next four are European countries including the northern nations Finland and Estonia. Canada earned the 10th spot, but the US is ranked 28th – well below many less affluent countries, notably Vietnam, which came in at 12.
The study was based on test scores in math and science from 76 countries around the world. These OECD rankings differ from the think tank's more well-known PISA education rankings in that it includes less affluent nations.
Kin says workers were trapped as Philippine fire kills 58
(AP) — Police recovered 58 bodies and about a dozen more people are still missing Thursday from a Philippine factory fire that an angry relative said had trapped workers on the second floor of the building where iron grills on windows prevented their escape.
The search for bodies resumed after it was suspended late Wednesday because of the heat and worries about the instability of the two-story building, a rubber slipper factory in the outskirts of the Philippine capital, Manila.
Mayor Rex Gatchalian of Valenzuela city, where the Kentex Manufacturing Corp. factory burned for several hours Wednesday, said 13 people are still unaccounted for.
Questions are being raised if the factory followed fire and building safety standards.
China cautions U.S. Navy on patrols in South China Sea
Updated 0719 GMT (1419 HKT) May 14, 2015
The U.S. is considering deploying aircraft and ships to contest Chinese claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Options are on the table to fly surveillance aircraft and sail Navy ships nearby in a move that puts the U.S. directly into a contentious territorial contest in East Asia, in which, until now, the U.S. has avoided overtly taking sides.
The South China Sea is the subject of numerous rival -- often messy -- territorial claims, with China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam disputing sovereignty of several island chains and nearby waters.
Call for $2bn global antibiotic research fund
- 14 May 2015
- Health
The global pharmaceutical industry is being called on to pay for a $2bn (£1.3bn) innovation fund to revitalise research into antibiotics.
In return, there would be guaranteed payments to companies who produced vitally needed new antibiotics.
There are currently very few new antibiotics in development amid a global spread of resistant bacteria.
The proposals are in a report by a UK government-appointed review team headed by economist Jim O'Neill.
Mr O'Neill said: "We need to kick-start drug development to make sure the world has the drugs it needs, to treat infections and to enable modern medicine and surgery to continue as we know it."
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