The desperate hunt for Li Heping, China's missing human rights warrior
Two lawyers have embarked on a Kafkaesque quest to find one of China’s best-known human rights attorneys, missing after a Communist party crackdown
It was close to midnight on 16 July when Cai Ying’s Airbus 330 left the runway at Changsha’s Huanghua international airport and set a course for Beijing.
More than 1,500km ahead lay one of the most daunting missions of this 52-year-old attorney’s career: to track down Li Heping, one of China’s best-known human rights lawyers.
Li, 45, had disappeared six days earlier after men believed to be police appeared on his doorstep on day two of a sweeping Communist party crackdown on his trade which has so far seen more than 230 people detained or questioned.
Activist for Mexico’s missing people found dead
Miguel Angel Jimenez led efforts to find 43 students feared dead after disappearing in 2014
At least fifteen people were killed during the weekend in Mexico’s southwestern Guerrero state, including an activist who led efforts to find 43 students who disappeared and were presumed murdered last year.
Ten of the murders took place in the resort city of Acapulco, which is packed with tourists due to summer vacations, local police said.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, a leader of a community police organisation, was found fatally wounded inside the taxi he drove on Saturday night in the rural outskirts of Acapulco, according to local police.
Stranded in hell: No help for refugees in IS-controlled Yarmouk camp
August 10, 2015 - 5:04PM
Ruth Pollard
Middle East Correspondent
Beirut: At just six months old and desperately ill, Fatima did not stand a chance.
She was born in the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, and this week died in need of basic medication to treat a skin condition.
The Islamic State and the Nusra Front are constantly assassinating civilian activists inside Yarmouk.Abdullah al-Khateeb
"The regime considers any pill a bullet," said Ammar al-Issa, an orthopaedic surgeon who has had to fashion his equipment out of whatever materials he could find.
Anaesthesia, antibiotics, blood, saline, replacement joints, frames: none of these basics have been available in Yarmouk or the surrounding towns for almost a year. "We are back to the Stone Age, where we are using wooden stakes to adjust the bones of patients," Dr Issa, 31, told Fairfax Media via Skype.
Anaesthesia, antibiotics, blood, saline, replacement joints, frames: none of these basics have been available in Yarmouk or the surrounding towns for almost a year. "We are back to the Stone Age, where we are using wooden stakes to adjust the bones of patients," Dr Issa, 31, told Fairfax Media via Skype.
How does Russia view the West?
The threat from jihadists is clear. But why Russia?
Western governments argue that by annexing Crimea and fomenting war in eastern Ukraine, Mr Putin not only violated Ukraine's sovereignty, he challenged Europe's borders and showed himself to be a dangerous and unpredictable leader.
They worry what he might do next.
So far a full-blown conflagration has not materialised.
Since the Minsk peace deal in February, it feels as though the Ukraine crisis has settled into an uneasy standoff.
Police killings since Ferguson, in one map
Samuel DuBose, Freddie Gray, and Jessica Hernandez are just three of at least 1,091 people killed by police since August 9, 2014, the day of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
Fatal Encounters, a nonprofit, has tracked these killings by collecting reports from the media, public, and law enforcement and verifying them through news reports. Some of the data is incomplete, with details about a victim’s race, age, and other factors sometimes missing. It also includes killings that were potentially legally justified, and is likely missing some killings entirely.
Vox’s Soo Oh created an interactive map with data from Fatal Encounters. It shows some of the killings by law enforcement since the Brown shooting:
Pakistan child sex abuse: Seven arrested in Punjab
- 30 minutes ago
- Asia
Seven people have been arrested in eastern Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in a child sexual abuse and extortion scandal.
The chief minister of Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, ordered a judicial inquiry into reports that hundreds of children had been abused.
Local media say a gang made videos showing the abuse of children, whose parents were then subject to blackmail.
The scandal centres on a village near the city of Kasur.
Correspondents say many victims are afraid to report abuse, in a society which allows abusers to brag about their exploits but stigmatises their victims.
Police say more arrests are expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment