Yemen appeals for ground forces as crisis deepens
Ambassador to the UN urges international community to quickly intervene with ground forces "to save Yemen".
| War & Conflict, Middle East, Yemen, UN
Yemen's mission to the United Nations has called for a ground intervention to push back a Houthi rebel offensive in the south of a country where conditions are deteriorating after weeks of fighting.
"We urge the international community to quickly intervene by land forces to save Yemen, especially Aden and Taiz," Khaled Alyemany, Yemen's Ambassador to the UN, said in a letter to the Security Council on Wednesday.
The letter obtained by Al Jazeera also called on the international human rights organisations to document "barbaric violations against a defenceless population".
Why have North Korean defections dropped?
Sophisticated propaganda campaign by Kim Jong-un’s regime combined with an improved economy has dampened the allure of the South, writes Andrei LankovThursday 7 May 2015 05.00 BST
The number of North Koreans seeking refuge in South Korea has dropped significantly, with recent figures showing that just 1,396 defected in 2014. Between 2008 and 2013, the number of refugees leaving annually was between 2,400 and 2,900.
So why has the situation changed so abruptly? There are a number of reasons for the decline.
Economics
The vast majority of refugees in previous years were driven out by both economic hardship at home and the allure of wealth apparently to be found in the South.
But North Korea is now significantly less poor than it used to be. Although malnutrition is still common, death from starvation is no longer a daily threat even for the poorest citizens.
Entrepreneurial North Koreans now have ways to earn a living – sometimes through unlikely means, such as tech start-ups – and so are less likely to undertake the dangerous task of fleeing south.
These changes reflect North Korea’s gradual move towards a market economy – a shift that has also had an effect on the size of the bribes required to pay border guards to ensure a safe trip.
'Conservationists are not playing God'
Species extinctions are imminent globally. But where to take action first? Global Ideas asked Benjamin Skolnik, who works for the American Bird Conservancy and coordinates the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE).
First of all, when is a species considered to be endangered?
Conservation organizations usually apply a global criteria established by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN), that catalogues threatened species in what is called the Red List of Threatened Species. They have a classification that goes from critically endangered, being the most threatened species, to endangered, followed by vulnerable and near-threatened. Below that is least concern.
The term threatened species refers to the IUCN categories vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered. At the American Bird Conservancy, we prioritize our international work on species that are endangered and critically endangered.
Ferry service between US and Cuba to resume
A ferry service has received a license to operate between the United States and Cuba. Before the Cuban revolution ferries ran daily between Florida and Cuba, bringing American tourists to Havana's hotels and beaches.
HAVANA — The Obama administration approved the first ferry service in decades between the United States and Cuba on Tuesday, potentially opening a new path for the hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars in goods that travel between Florida and Havana each year.
Baja Ferries, which operates passenger service in Mexico, said it received a license from the U.S. Treasury Department. Robert Muse, a lawyer for Baja Ferries, said he believed other ferry service petitions had also been approved. The Treasury Department said it could not immediately confirm that, but the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Florida said approvals also were received by Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, United Caribbean Lines Florida in the Orlando area and Airline Brokers Co. of Miami.
Asia's Next Worry: An 'Assertive' Japan?
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s Congressional address made history: never before has a sitting Japanese PM addressed a joint session of Congress. It must also have been a deeply personal moment for Abe; his grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, addressed the House of Representatives in 1957 as the Japanese prime minister.
However, the truly historical shift came with last Monday’s revision of the U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines, the first since 1997. This revision outlines how the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF) will interact with U.S. forces in a range of cases, including collective self-defense. And there is room for expansion. While the phrasing of “countries in a close relationship with Japan” applies now to the United States, in the future, such phrasing could justify the defense of countries like Vietnam or the Philippines.
Suddenly, Tehran’s Mayor Becomes a Patron of the Arts
TEHRAN — The mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, is well known in Iran as a former Revolutionary Guards commander, retired pilot and the loser of two presidential elections. This week he added one more title — patron of the arts — as he directed all of the city’s 1,500 billboards fitted out with copies of famous works of art, including many by prominent Western artists.
Almost overnight nearly all of Tehran’s billboards, which are owned by the city and are a prime source of income, stopped showcasing South Korean dishwashers and the latest bank interest rates (now 22 percent) and sported still lifes by Rembrandt and images by the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
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