Turkey's AKP faces challenge to form government
- 8 June 2015
- Europe
Turkey's AK party faces a challenge to form a government after losing its majority at a general election for the first time in 13 years.
It secured 41%, a sharp drop from 2011, and must form a coalition or face entering a minority government.
The pro-Kurdish HDP crossed the 10% threshold, securing seats in parliament for the first time.
The Turkish lira and shares dropped sharply on Monday morning as markets reacted to the news.
The Turkish currency fell to near-record lows against the dollar, and shares dropped by more than 8% soon after the Istanbul stock exchange opened.
The central bank acted quickly to prop up the lira by cutting the interest rate on foreign currency deposits.
Women raped by Isis are being denied aid because of America's antiquated laws on abortion
Fixing macho FIFA starts with fair treatment of women
June 8, 2015 - 5:04PM
Kavitha A Davidson
With new revelations by the day, it becomes increasingly clear how deep the trouble in FIFA runs and, accordingly, the magnitude of reform required to salvage it.
Amid the myriad options, let's not let one important goal get overlooked: changing the unequal treatment of women's soccer.
The sexism in FIFA has been just as rampant and much more overt than the alleged bribery, long pre-dating the recent indictments and last week's announcement of his resignation by president Sepp Blatter. In October, a group of 84 women soccer players from 13 countries sued FIFA for forcing them to play on turf in the Women's World Cup, which has kicked off in Edmonton, Canada.
On China's campuses, scholars battle ideology and red tape
More academics say their work is coming under a cloud that has Mao-era features as President Xi Jinping tightens the screws on independent thought.
HONG KONG — In the two years since China’s Communist Party put forth a sweeping new ideological edict, a deep chill has settled among many intellectuals and scholars.
New restrictions on freedom of thought at Chinese colleges – havens of relatively open expression – are taking hold. Scholars are experiencing an increasingly stifling academic environment.
Professors, especially in law and the humanities, describe a loss of academic freedom. They speak of new prohibitions against teaching the concepts behind human rights law, or debates arising out of democratic "color revolutions" and the Arab Spring, to name a few, topics that would be found at most colleges around the world.
Italy's north refuses to take more migrants
President of northern Lombardy region instructs mayors to reject what he calls 'illegal immigrants' or have funding cut.
The regional president of the northern Italian region of Lombardy has refused to accept any more migrants in to the province in comments backed by other regional leaders.
Roberto Maroni of the right-wing Lega Nord, or Northern League, said he had instructed mayors and other officials in his region on Monday to refuse to accept any more migrants allocated to them by the central government.
Municipalities that refuse to comply with the order will have their funding cut, Maroni, who presides over Italy's most populated region, said.
Lion Elevator Restored at Rome's Gladiator Colosseum
by
ROME, Italy - An ancient elevator that carried lions and other animals into Rome's Colosseum for fights with gladiators has been restored by experts.
The manually-operated hoist was used to raise wild animals into the amphitheater in the 1st and 3rd centuries A.D.
Restoration of the device — one of 24 that existed in the famous arena — took 15 months.
"This must have been an amazing spectacle, made even more amazing by the fact that it took eight men to operate each of the 24 lifts, plus two or three others to keep the ropes in check," said Rossella Rea, archaeological director at the Colosseum. "We are talking about more than 200 people needed to lift animals in the arena."
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