Six In The Morning Monday July 27

Turkey conflict with Kurds: Was approving air strikes against the PKK America's worst error in the Middle East since the Iraq War?

Turkish air attacks on the PKK have provoked bloody Kurdish retaliation. With claims that America approved the strikes that restarted the conflict, Patrick Cockburn argues that the US may have made its worst mistake since invading Iraq

PATRICK COCKBURN

Kurdish guerrillas have killed two Turkish soldiers in an ambushin south-east Turkey as fighting resumes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants, ending a two-year-old ceasefire. The attack came after Turkish aircraft heavily bombed bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.

In a sign that the PKK has resumed military operations against the government, a Turkish army vehicle on a road near Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city, was hit by bomb blasts followed by rifle fire, according to the army. A further four soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The attack came in response to a heavy air raid by Turkish aircraft on PKK bases in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq on Saturday – ostensibly part of a new Turkish offensive against terrorist groups, said also to be aimed at Isis.

Sydney Letter: March continues for anti-Islam protesters

One government MP defended role in rally by misquoting the Irish orator Edmund Burke

Padraig Collins in Sydney

After the anti-Islam rally in Melbourne on July 18th turned violent, with clashes between rival groups and arrests, the police in Sydney were taking no chances the following day.

The anti-racism groups gathered in the lower end of Martin Place in the city centre. I came to their side first because I was approaching the street from that side of the city. There was a Socialist Alternative banner that said “Stand with Muslims against racism”, another which said “No racism, no Islamophobia,” and an elderly lady held a handmade sign saying “Don’t let anyone manipulate you into hating people you don’t even know”.

Metres away from these protesters were about a hundred police officers, many on horseback, preventing anyone going two blocks up Martin Place to the vicinity of the Lindt Cafe, the scene of the infamous Sydney siege last December in which two hostages were killed.

Barack Obama's Ethiopia visit promises little for rights activists

July 27, 2015 - 5:15PM

JACEY FORTIN

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

US President Barack Obama's two-day trip to Ethiopia this week highlights a complex relationship with Africa's fastest growing economy.

The second stop on Mr Obama's African tour, Ethiopia presents challenges for his administration. On one hand it has a strong defence partnership with the United States, on the other, it has been heavily criticised for its human rights record by organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

There are also doubts its May national election was "free, fair, credible and open and inclusive", as hoped by Wendy R. Sherman, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs.

Threatened, assaulted, trapped: Asia's treatment of domestic workers laid bare

By Bex Wright, CNN

Updated 0702 GMT (1402 HKT) July 27, 2015

"The first time she hit me was pay day; she told me to sign my name on a piece of paper, but I asked, 'why should I sign when you didn't give me the money?' Then, she hit me."

A 30-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, who now calls herself Susi, describes the start of the abuse cycle which shaped her life for nearly a year.

She was threatened, assaulted and trapped in the house of her employer in Hong Kong, Law Wan-tung, after being placed in the job by an employment agent.

"She only allowed me to sleep from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.; every day was only four hours of sleep," Susi said. "I was only allowed to use the bathroom three times a day. She didn't allow me to have a day off. Nothing was allowed."

How traffickers in Malaysia and Thailand used Facebook to lure victims

Authorities tracked down and arrested a Malaysian man and two Thai women who lured women to Malaysia from overseas using Facebook to promise them a new line of work.

By Sarah Caspari, Staff writer

A Malaysian man and two Thai women were arrested Friday for using Facebook to trap women from abroad into a prostitution syndicate, the Associated Press reported.

The traffickers would lure women to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by promising them work in restaurants, spas, and karaoke bars, Thai police Lt. Col. Komvich Padhanarath told the AP. Once the women arrived, they were forced into sex work.

The Malaysian man, Kheng Hsiang Low, and the two Thai women face charges of human trafficking, forced prostitution, and participating in a transnational crime network, the AP reported. Mr. Komvich said in the last five years, they have trafficked six women.

The Little Führer

Adayinthelifeofthenewestleaderofwhitenationalists

By Vegas Tenold in Knoxville, Tenn.

Photos by Mike Belleme for Al Jazeera America

Published on Sunday, July 26, 2015

L ate at night on June 17, after he and his wife had gone to bed, Matthew Heimbach’s phone rang on his nightstand. On the other end of the line was a man from the South Carolina field office of the FBI. The man asked Heimbach if he knew a man called Dylann Roof and, if so, if he knew where Roof was. Heimbach told the officer that he had never heard of Roof and wondered what the call was about. Without explaining further, the officer thanked him and hung up.

“That’s when things got weird,” Heimbach says. Soon calls were coming in from associates who had all gotten similar calls from the FBI, and they were all now wondering the same thing: Who was Dylann Roof, and why hadn’t any of them heard of him until tonight?