Pakistan hangs four over Peshawar school attack
Pakistan has hanged four men linked to last December's massacre at an army school which killed more than 150 people, mostly children.
The men were sentenced to death by a military court and are the first to be hanged in relation to the attack.
Taliban militants stormed the Army Public School in the north-western city of Peshawar on 16 December 2014.
The hangings come just two weeks ahead of the anniversary of the attack, which shocked the nation.
The massacre prompted a crackdown on Islamist militants, the establishment of military courts to try terror suspects and the resumption of capital punishment after a six-year moratorium.
Coca-Cola under fire over ad showing Coke handout to indigenous people
Campaign groups call for ban on promotional video, saying it attacks the dignity of native communities that have serious health and obesity problemsConsumer rights and health groups are calling on the Mexican government to ban a new Coca-Cola ad depicting young white people handing out Coke as a service project at an indigenous community in southern Oaxaca state.
The ad has been criticised for its depiction of light-skinned, model-like young people joyously constructing a Coca-Cola tree in town and hauling in coolers of Coke.
Mexico has skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes, especially among indigenous people.
The Alliance for Food Health is calling on the National Council to Prevent Discrimination to pull the ad campaign immediately.
Britain is on the verge of entering into a long war in Syria based on wishful thinking and poor information
British air strikes in Syria will be too few to make much difference to IsisBritain is on the verge of entering a conflict in Syria in which its political and military strategy is based on wishful thinking and poor information. British air strikes in Syria will be too few to make much difference to Isis, but are important because they signal Britain’s entry into what may be a long war.
In one crucial respect, David Cameron’s approach is similar to that which saw Britain fight two small but unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003, in both cases without an effective local partner on the ground. Similarly in Syria, Britain will be at the mercy of events which are being shaped by the numerous other players in the conflict, all of whom have their own highly contradictory agendas.
Much of the debate around the feasibility of the British strategy has focused on Mr Cameron’s statement that we do indeed have a partner, of whose existence few were previously aware. He said that there are 70,000 “Syrian opposition fighters on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups”. The impression given is that there is a “third force” in Syria which will provide a powerful ally for the US, France and Britain.
Students recount how a terrorism drill turned deadly in Kenya
At around noon, four men, armed and dressed like Al Shabab terrorists, entered the private university’s campus. They were actually actors, tasked with simulating an attack resembling the one on Garissa University last April. But there was a major problem: none of the students had been told about this drill. Neither had the university’s staff, save for a few campus security officers who had organised the operation with local police, according to Betty Ngara, the university’s spokeswoman.
“We stayed on the roof for an hour, panicked”
Robert (not his real name) is a student at Strathmore University.
I was in the Student Centre, which is the first building that the ‘terrorists’ entered. There were many students inside, studying for exams. I heard gunshots, and saw three men, dressed all in white, with their heads covered in red and white keffiehs. They were holding automatic rifles. From videos I have seen, that’s what Al Shabab gunmen look like.
Like everyone else, I tried to flee, but the exit was blocked by too many people trying to get out all at once. With about 20 other students, we ran up the stairs and hid on the roof. We lay down on our stomachs. We were panicked; girls were crying and screaming. We tried to calm them down and think – since the stairwells are quite small, we thought maybe we could push back the terrorists. We were trying to figure out how to build makeshift weapons when a university employee came up and told us that it was all just a drill. We had been on the roof for nearly an hour… We followed him back downstairs and looked around the student centre. There was no trace of blood, just a few broken objects.
Beijing smog fails to obscure 'apocalypse' humour
December 2, 2015 - 2:41PM
Beijing: Several days of brown haze in Beijing so thick it has closed highways, suspended construction and brought official warnings to stay indoors have also prompted jokes about the end of the world.
Some of the Chinese capital's 22.5 million residents have turned to gallows humour to cope with persistent toxic air that again soared above hazardous levels on Tuesday, even as Paris climate talks continued half a world away.
A joke circulating among Chinese journalists told of a reporter approaching an old woman on the street to ask about the impact of the smog. "The impact is huge," the interviewee replies. "First of all, I'm your uncle."
Some users of China's popular Weibo microblog traced the shapes of famous Beijing landmarks on to photographs in which the buildings were nearly completely obscured by the smog and posted them online.
One said living in Beijing was like working as crew on a zombie apocalypse movie.
Iraq's Generation Uneducated
With two million children out of education due to war and displacement, many are forced to work to survive.
| War & Conflict, Middle East, Iraq, Education, Child rightsABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imran Khan
Erbil, Iraq - It's almost like you can't see them, but you know they are there. You see them but you ignore them.
They run up to your car and clean your windscreen. They offer to polish your shoes.
If you spend long enough in Erbil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq you become accustomed to these little children offering services you didn't want but now just accept as something you need.
I mean, who doesn't like a freshly polished pair of shoes? A clean windscreen?
For many, these children aren't useful. They're a nuisance as they flit around your car and office looking for for a few dinar - small change to many but a meal to them.
As one friend put it to me, "Why aren't they in school?" Then he dismissed them away with cold disdain.
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