Thai officials among more than 100 charged with human trafficking
Army general, politicians and police among those charged after dozens of bodies, believed to be of migrants, exhumed from abandoned camps
Thailand’s state prosecutors are pressing charges against more than 100 people, including an army general, in a multinational human trafficking scandal that came to light after dozens of bodies were discovered in the south of the country earlier this year.
The sweeping investigation, in which 15 Thai state officials were implicated, began after 36 bodies, believed to be those of migrants from Burma and Bangladesh, were exhumed from abandoned jungle camps near the Thai-Malay border in May.
Ninety-one Thais, nine Burmese nationals and four Bangladeshis face 16 charges, including human trafficking, partaking in a transnational crime network, and assisting or bringing aliens into the kingdom illegally.
What ever happened with Europe's fracking boom?
The Netherlands has banned fracking until 2020. Over the past several years, a number of other European countries declared a ban on exploiting new natural gas deposits. So, is the apparent European shale gas boom over?
One more country has decided to put a halt on exploiting shale gas reservoirs.
The Dutch government last week placed a five-year ban on commercial fracking. A final decision on the future of fracking in Holland is expected at the end of this year.
Hydraulic fracturing - commonly known as "fracking" - is used to get natural gas out of mineral deposits like coal beds or shale.
Fracking uses water pressure to crack underground rocks. The technology of fracking isn't new - it's been around for decades. New are the sources that companies want to exploit.
Fracking is going through a boom in the United States, where mining companies say high energy prices are forcing them to look for more unconventional deposits of gas.
Paychecks aplenty as ghosts haunt Cambodia's lax bureaucracy
July 24, 2015 - 2:28PMPrak Chan Thul
Phnom Penh: Borith has been on the payroll of Cambodia's parliament for 15 years but he rarely shows up for work. He is busy with his other job at a non-governmental organisation, and no one notices his absence.
It's a cushy deal that's common in Cambodia. Ghost workers are haunting its civil service, sapping taxpayers' money with jobs they don't actually do, or by pocketing salaries paid to people who don't even exist.
"There are just names of people who work at the National Assembly, but there's no work to do," said Borith, who declined to be identified by his full name to avoid jeopardising his $US300 ($410) a month parliament salary.
"When anyone tries to address the problem, people show up for a week or two, then just stop going."
The World's Most Optimistic People Live in Africa
Emerging nations are home to more upbeat consumers, while advanced economies see dark clouds
Michelle Jamrisko
Sure, France has Paris, Provence and the Palace of Versailles. But when it comes to optimism about the domestic economy, the French have nothing on Ethiopians.
The three countries with the brightest prospects in the next year are all emerging or developing economies in Africa, while three with the bleakest outlooks are advanced economies, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 25 through May 27.
Nigeria tops the charts, with 92 percent of respondents seeing their economy improving in the next 12 months, compared with a net 5 percent who said it would stay the same or worsen. Residents in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia were similarly upbeat, with more than 80 percent of people in each country projecting economic progress.
Defiant Palestinian Bedouins dread eviction from Susiya
Israeli authorities have warned Bedouin community in occupied West Bank of imminent demolition of their makeshift homes.
24 Jul 2015 09:08 GMT
It is barely 7am and Wadha Nawaja has already put the mattresses away, prepared breakfast and fed the animals. She is doing the dishes, as her 10-month-old grandchild gazes at the water tap.
Like a magician, she opens and closes it quickly, so as not to lose a single drop of water.
Time has taken its toll on Wadha. The lines that wind through the 49-year-old's face tell the story of a village.
She has lived in Susiya, in the occupied West Bank, for most of her life - this is where she got married, raised her children, and is helping them raise theirs.
She has lived in Susiya, in the occupied West Bank, for most of her life - this is where she got married, raised her children, and is helping them raise theirs.
But times have changed. It's not the tough Bedouin lifestyle or the lack of services denied to Palestinians by the Israeli occupation; it's the constant fear of expulsion that is becoming too heavy to shoulder, Wadha says.
A reality show thought it was a good idea to send contestants to a Syrian war zone
ISLAMIC STATE
on
Reality television is all about winning over viewers with risk-taking, but one Australian show went a little too far.
The show, called "Go Back to Where You Came From," nearly killed several of its participants when it reportedly dragged them through an active Syrian war zone.
In a trailer for the upcoming season, Kurdish militants escort three of the show’s personalities across the Iraqi-Syrian border. Roughly half a mile from Islamic State (IS) positions, guns start firing at them. A voice calls out, “They’re coming for us!”
The Kurdish fighters and camera crew then rush the group out of a damaged village and have them crouch behind a wall, wearing little more protection than flak jackets. One participant later remarked that it was “a lot more than we bargained for.”
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