What's the most commonly smuggled item into Korea? Well it isn't fake high end luxury items that's for sure. Fake erectile dysfunction pills.
The erectile dysfunction drug Viagra tops the list of goods being smuggled into Korea. They included some 19.22 million fake Viagra pills. The same amount of the genuine article would cost W207.6 billion. The next most-commonly smuggled product was another erectile dysfunction drug, Cialis, followed by 3M products and yet another erectile dysfunction drug, Levitra.
Where one's priorities lie(pun intended)
Politicians clean up the streets.
Municipal Corporation sanitation workers’ strike enters day five.
Delhi Ministers and Aam Aadmi Party MLAs along with party men armed with brooms cleaned the streets on Sunday even as the Municipal Corporation sanitation workers’ strike entered day five. A sanitation drive was launched in all the AAP constituencies and garbage was removed.
The sanitation workers on their part continued with their strike and the vociferous protestors has warned the AAP government that if their demands, which includes clearing their dues and regularisation, aren’t looked into, the garbage situation in the city is likely to ‘deteriorate’ in the coming days.
Finally a useful activity for an elected official. They're actually cleaning something up.
I took no money from the people who gave me money
Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari resigned abruptly on Thursday to take responsibility for a political funding scandal that has rocked the government, but denied having taken bribes. The resignation of Amari, who has spear-headed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies, could pose a setback to the administration’s Abenomics growth plan aimed at driving Japan out of deflation, analysts said. But the government moved swiftly to contain the fallout by appointing Nobuteru Ishihara, a former environment minister and secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as his replacement.
He will investigate his own wrong doing and find himself innocent. And feel good about it.
Built to look like the Pentagon meant to be a shopping mall
Chinese ghost towns are a well documented phenomenon - completely built up cities with very few people living in them. But the Pentagonal Mart has now gained the dubious title of Shanghai's largest empty building. This shopping mall in Shanghai was built in 2009 - inspired by the Pentagon in the United States. But despite its massive size - 500,000 sq m - there are very few shoppers in sight.
But now, like the Pentagon it's nothing more than wasted space
We look at the Taliban threat and the future of Afghan journalism; plus, Davos - global news event or PR exercise?
On January 20, journalism in Afghanistan was dealt a killer blow. Seven employees of the country's first ever 24-hour news network, Tolo TV, were killed when the Taliban targeted their bus in a suicide bombing.
Last year, the armed group issued a statement in which it declared Tolo TV and Afghan network 1TV 'military targets'. The threat came in response to the channels' coverage of Taliban's invasion of Kunduz last September.
The stations alleged that fighters had been involved in gang rapes - claims the Taliban denied and cited an "example of propaganda by these satanic networks".
The attack on Tolo TV leaves Afghan journalists between a rock and a hard place with the threat posed by the Taliban exacerbated by pressure from government officials to report on Afghanistan in a way that suits their version of the political and social story - that progress is being made.
On Saturday, at least 39 migrants, among them children, drowned in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos.
German Interior Minister on Refugee Crisis:'We Want Clarity on the Refugee Crisis by Spring'
Interview Conducted by Ralf Neukirch and René Pfister
In an interview, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, 62, warns that the government in Berlin only has a few weeks left to solve the refugee problem. He fears that Europe's open-border policies may soon end if a solution isn't found.
SPIEGEL:Interior Minister de Maizière, the state of Bavaria has written to Chancellor Merkel demanding that she change her refugee policies, there is protest among German conservatives and now the deputy chair of her own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has come up with her own plan to stymie the flow of refugees to Germany. Is it time to concede that the chancellor's Plan A has failed?
De Maizière: No. Coping with the refugee crisis is complex -- it has an international aspect, a European and a national one. We are addressing all three fields methodically and step by step. It is an illusion to believe that there is a Plan A, B, or C to solve the refugee crisis.
SPIEGEL: Isn't the real illusion the idea that Europe is going to help bail Germany out of the refugee crisis? Austria has announced a cap on the number of refugees it is willing to take, Denmark has tightened its asylum laws and Sweden is no longer allowing refugees without papers into the country.
De Maizière: On Monday, I sat together with my European counterparts in Amsterdam and the degree of responsibility they felt was indeed very divergent. However, it is a mistake if some partners believe they can avoid the problem. Should the Schengen system of open borders face additional pressure or its long-term viability continue to be questioned, they will realize that the refugee crisis than just a German issue, because all in Europe would be hurt.
Zika cases in pregnant women double in Colombia
Health officials say the number of pregnant women with the Zika virus has doubled in a week. The virus has been linked to babies being born with smaller than normal brains and is spreading through the Americas.
Health officials in Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women have now been infected with the mosquito-born Zika virus, making Colombia the second hardest-hit country after Brazil, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The virus has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect which prevents fetus' brains from developing properly. The disease has no known cure and is said to be untreatable, and can cause permanent damage to a child's motor and cognitive development. The virus is said to be carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
India is a cauldron of conflicting content. While womanhood is revered and celebrated, a woman is often tortured, maimed and murdered.
Female foetuses are aborted and baby girls smothered out of existence soon after they are born, even as a woman carries the cross of her family’s honor. Which can mean that she has little or no right to marry a man of her choice — a man who may belong to another race, community or caste. And if she dares this, she is killed by members of her own family — often the mother, the father or an uncle. The boy is not allowed to go as well. His life has to end too.
A 2011 film by Avantika Hari, Land, Gold Women, takes a hard look at a small British Asian family in modern Birmingham, where the daughter commits the unpardonable crime of falling in love with a white boy. Her uncle, who arrives from India, pressures the parents of the girl to view this affair as a blot on the family’s honor and to get rid of her!
Homeless Gazans struggle during harsh winter
By Adel Zaanoun2 hours ago
Azza al-Najjar struggles in vain to keep her two-year-old warm by wrapping him in blankets in her prefabricated metal home as a winter storm lashes the Gaza Strip.
"The cold increases the suffering of people here," the 24-year-old mother says.
"My son has breathing problems and with the weather his condition has worsened."
The family have been staying in the temporary home in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza since theirs was destroyed in the 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave.
But recent rains battering the besieged Strip have seen schools and roads closed, while families like Najjar's have watched water and mud seep through the doorway into their homes.
'Visit my mosque' day in UK bids to tackle Islamophobia
Next Sunday, some 80 mosques will invite the public in to counter negative stereotypes about Britain's Muslim minority.
Mosques across Britain are planning to open their doors to the public in a bid to counter negative stereotypes about Muslims next week, against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia.
Organised by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), more than 80 mosques will participate in the "Visit my Mosque" day on February 7 in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
"It's an opportunity for Muslims in the UK to put themselves out there and reach out to their local neighbours," an MCB spokesman told Al Jazeera.
"The day will allow for people to meet face-to-face, get to know each other and tackle misconceptions."
After UN probe into the country's civil war, Maithripala Sirisena downplays allegations as "human rights violations".
In a Talk to Al Jazeera interview, the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena appears to contradict key findings from a UN investigation into the country's civil war, released in September last year.
The report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) investigated atrocities committed by both the Tamil separatists and the Sri Lankan Army during the 26-year-long conflict.
In the final stages of the war, attacks carried out by the Sri Lankan Army were so bloody and aggressive that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed.
In detailing its principal findings, the OHCHR report stated: "If established before a court of law, many of these allegations would amount, depending on the circumstances, to war crimes and/or crimes against humanity."
We speak to the former UN chief weapons inspector, and ask Noam Chomsky about the US presidential election.
Hans Blix on nuclear threats, ISIL and climate change
North Korea raised alarm bells in January with claims that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
On Tuesday, scientists behind the world's "Doomsday Clock" announced it would remain at three minutes to midnight, saying the decision "is not good news". The clock is a metaphor for how close the world is to catastrophe owing to climate change and nuclear weapons.
So, how worried should the world be about the prospect of nuclear war? In the Headliner, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Hans Blix, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Authority.
Blix also discusses the Iran deal and the impact the US-led invasion of Iraq had on the creation of ISIL.
Some of the money, the office of Michael Lauber said, had been transferred to Swiss accounts held by Malaysian former public officials and current and former public officials from the United Arab Emirates.
"To date, however, the Malaysian companies concerned have made no comment on the losses they are believed to have incurred," the attorney general's statement said (in German).
Red Horse: Native American drawings shed new light on Battle of Little Bighorn
The myth of Custer’s glorious last stand is debunked by a new exhibition of drawings by the Native American artist and warrior made five years later
“Now ending well in death the splendid fever of thy deeds, (I bring no dirge for it or thee, I bring a glad triumphal sonnet,) Desperate and glorious, aye in defeat most desperate, most glorious,” continues Whitman in his 1876 poem, From Far Dakota’s Canyons, written in faraway Brooklyn. The reality at Little Bighorn was somewhat different.
Custer planned to ride into the village and hold women and children hostage as a negotiating tactic. “Human shields might not be the best analogy,” explains Stanford professor Scott Sagan. “They were human shields in the sense of potentially protecting the soldiers, but were also a magnet that would force the warriors to stay put and defend the village.”
Video: How armed inmates sow terror in Venezuela's prisons
A group of armed inmates shoot into the air from the roof of a prison while their guards are nowhere to be seen. The scene might sound improbable, but it recently took place in Venezuela, a country where prisons are almost entirely under the control of gangs.
On Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela, inmates at San Antonio prison have it good. In this detention facility, guns, swimming pools, and even nightclubs are available for those doing time.
Several videos showing their improvised shooting session have been published on Venezuelan social media networks. For the prisoners, it was their way of paying homage to their boss, El Conejo, a former inmate who died on Sunday, January 24.
Our Observer Nemesis (not his real name) lives on the island.
"It's pure madness!"
Satellite images of Burundi show mass graves, rights group says
Josh Kron
Nairobi:Satellite imagery of the outskirts of Burundi's capital supports emerging accounts of graves holding at least 50 people who died during political violence last month, Amnesty International said on Friday.
The human rights organisation's report added to the growing evidence of organised atrocities in the country. Observers say they believe the violence was largely carried out by the Burundian government and by pro-government forces, amid immense turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April last year his intention to seek a third term in office.
Separately on Friday, France protested the detention of two journalists working for the newspaper Le Monde – a French correspondent, Jean-Philippe Remy, and a British photographer, Philip Moore – on Thursday in the capital, Bujumbura. The newspaper reported later on Friday that the two men had been released, but had not got back their seized cellphones, notebooks, cameras or audio recorders.
Black German woman learns a shocking family secret: Her grandfather was a Nazi
Jennifer Teege thought she knew the hard truths of her life: that her German mother left her in the care of nuns when she was 4 weeks old, and that her biological father was Nigerian, making her the only black child in her Munich neighborhood.
But the hardest truth came to her years later on a warm August day in Hamburg when she walked into the central library and picked up a red book with a black-and-white picture of a woman on the cover. It was titled "I Have to Love My Father, Don't I?"
As Teege, then 38, flipped through the pages, she felt she'd been caught in a furious storm that had suddenly come from nowhere.
She had unearthed the ghastly family secret.
She looked at the names of people and places in the book and realized that the woman on the cover was her biological mother.
With temperatures in Tokyo dropping below freezing, you’d be forgiven for thinking that everyone’s wrapping up snuggly warm and eating nothing but hotpot. In truth, however, it’s mostly business as usual, with schoolgirls continuing to risk chillblains by pairing short skirts with tiny socks, and we’ve also caught sight of plenty of people continuing to enjoy conbini ice creams or other frozen snacks despite the fact that there’s snow on the ground.
In fact, there’s been no lull in the ice cream industry in Japan, since it’s continuing to bring out new and exciting snack creations during the cold winter months. One such snack is the frozen cheesecake ice cream bar released in collaboration with cream cheese brand Kiri, featuring, as its name implies, plenty of cream cheese. We roped in our lovely Japanese writer Meg to try out the new treat and let us know her thoughts—since the very thought of eating ice cream while we’re already shivering gave us brain freeze!
Thunderbox, from designer Tsuyoshi Morita, is a surprisingly well-kept secret on the Tokyo fashion scene. Word of it spreads purely via its fans’ backs across the city as fellow streetwear aficionados clock the geek-chic references and gravitate to the Thunderbox mothership. Accordingly, the recently opened flagship is named Nazo no Mise—literally, “the mystery shop”—and, in keeping with the designer’s subcultural leanings, is located in Nakano over in West Tokyo, a stone’s throw from the subculture mecca of Nakano Broadway.
The streetwear style Thunderbox subscribes to is in line with a lot of the hype-fuelled brands of the Harajuku backstreets. But once in the store, it’s an altogether welcoming experience—even if the store staff are known to wear the Thunderbox masks that accompany each season.
5 reasons why Japanese expats say sayonara to their homeland for good
Japan may be an awesome country, but for some Japanese people who’ve experienced life abroad, it’s just not for them anymore.
But what does it take to make your average Japanese person decide to take the drastic step of packing up and leaving the Land of the Rising Sun for good? Popular Japanese blogger Madame Riri has compiled a list of the top five reasons why Japanese people who’ve experienced life abroad decide to throw in the towel and call it quits on their own country. Here are five reasons why.
Reason 1: The discrimination can be too much to bear
Madame Riri’s contributors list several aspects of discrimination that they feel are more commonly encountered in Japan, namely childhood and workplace bullying and sex discrimination in the workplace.
“As a child in Japan, I was bullied based on my appearance, then I was bullied for the same reason when I entered the workforce. When I quit my job and went abroad, the discrimination based on my looks stopped, so I decided to study abroad there for a year. – Keiko”
“I experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in Japan, it feels like it’s an environment for men. – Ebi”
Japan adopts negative interest rate in surprise move
In a surprise move, the Bank of Japan has introduced a negative interest rate.
The benchmark rate of -0.1% means that commercial banks will be charged by the central bank for some deposits.
It hopes this will be a disincentive to banks to save and prompt them to lend in another attempt to counter the continuing economic slump in the world's third-largest economy.
The eurozone also has negative interest rates, but this is a first for Japan.
It is a move that has been on the cards for Japan's stagnating economy for well over 10 years.
The decision to go negative came after a narrow 5-4 vote at the Bank of Japan's first meeting of the year on Friday.
"The BOJ will cut interest rates further into negative territory if judged as necessary," the Bank of Japan said, adding it would continue as long as needed to achieve an inflation target of 2%.
Some analysts have cast doubt over how effective the rate cut will be.
Sri Lanka's missing thousands: one woman's six-year fight to find her husband
When journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing, police told wife Sandhya ‘getting abducted was fashionable’ and he would soon return. More than 90 court appearances and a change in government later, she is still searching
Sandhya Eknaligoda has had a date at court in Homogoma, Sri Lanka, every month for the past six years.
The 52-year-old counts the number of appearances at more than 90 and they are aimed at securing one thing – finding her husband.
Journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared without a trace on 24 January 2010 after a mysterious telephone call led him to an equally mysterious meeting.
Since then not a word has been heard from Prageeth, who was 50 when he disappeared, not even from third parties. He worked for website Lankae News.
The Eknaligoda case is one among tens of thousands of missing persons cases that the new government of Maithripala Sirisena has pledged to resolve. A presidential commission has already recorded more than 20,000 such cases, including more than 5,000 security services members.
China charges Canadian with espionage, activists with overthrow plot
Beijing's crackdown on human rights activists has continued with the indictment of a Canadian pastor. Three pro-democracy advocates were sent to prison.
Canadian pastor Kevin Garratt was charged with espionage and stealing state secrets by the Chinese government late on Thursday. The move to indict Garratt comes after he was held for 18 months without charge.
According to the Xinhua state news agency, a probe into the Canadian's activities in China "found evidence that implicates Garratt in accepting tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China." If found guilty of stealing state secrets, the sentence can be anywhere from 10 years in jail to execution.
The Pentecostal pastor and his family first arrived in China in 1984. Since 2008, they have lived in Dandong, near the border with North Korea, where they held church services and organized charity drivers for North Korean orphanages and elderly care facilities. Garratt's wife, Julia, was also arrested in August 2014 but was later released on bail.
Alleged rape in Berlin: Russian TV uses fake video to accuse migrants
One of Russia’s leading television channels has used a fake video to prop up its allegations that migrants had kidnapped and raped a German girl in Berlin earlier this month, a story German police have said is unfounded.
A Russian news site, which targets an audience it describes as “The Soviets of Germany”, first reported on this alleged crime. According to the article, a young German-Russian woman was kidnapped for over 30 hours by three men “of Arab origin” on January 11, in Berlin’s Marzahn neighbourhood.
However, while police have confirmed the woman did indeed disappear for several hours that day, they say she gave “conflicting statements” and that following an investigation, they had ruled out kidnapping and rape.
This announcement has angered many on the far-right in Germany, especially as the news came amid ongoing investigations into the sexual attack cases in Cologne and other German cities, some of which police say were perpetrated by migrants.
It's a pretty normal bus -- windows slightly cracked, dust, the occasional button missing on the dashboard. But when its passengers say they take it knowing they could be on a one-way ticket to death, they aren't exaggerating.
From the dark and dank underpass that is Charles Helou bus station in central Beirut, leaves the bus to Raqqa. It has done so for years, but now that Raqqa is the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate, the bus crosses the most dangerous border in the world. And people do pay to get on it.
In a 24-hour journey, it travels from Beirut, across the border to regime-held Damascus. Then it heads to Palmyra, held by ISIS, before moving north toward Raqqa.
UN health chief: Zika virus is 'spreading explosively'
The World Heath Organization estimates that there could up to 4 million cases of the mosquito-borne virus over the next year in the Americas.
ByJamey Keaten & Mike Stobbe, Associated Press
GENEVA — The Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas, which could see up to 4 million cases over the next year, international health officials said Thursday, announcing a special meeting next week to decide if they should declare an international health emergency.
The warning from the World Health Organization came amid a call to arms by officials on both sides of the Atlantic over the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to a spike in a rare birth defect in Brazil.
Brazil's president – noting there is no medical defense against the infection – called for a crusade against the mosquitoes spreading it.
"As long as we don't have a vaccine against Zika virus, the war must be focused on exterminating the mosquito's breeding areas," said President Dilma Rousseff.
This is the complete video footage of a joint FBI and Oregon State Police traffic stop and OSP officer-involved shooting of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. This footage, which has only been edited to blur out aircraft information, was taken by the FBI on 01/26/2016 and released by the FBI on 01/28/2016. Note regarding date/time stamp in the left corner of video: Pilots use Zulu Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), when they fly. Zulu time is eight hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (PST). Therefore, although this footage was taken on January 26, 2016 in Oregon, the date/time stamp on the video shows just after midnight January 27, 2016.
People and Power investigates the growing global phenomenon of organised begging. Begging has been a feature of life for as long as there have been poor people with nothing, and more affluent people with money to give to them.
It is certainly a common sight on the streets of towns and cities around the world today.
Its practitioners - often ignored, sometimes despised and abused, occasionally helped - are frequently the target of official disapproval or legal restriction of some kind, and are moved on, out of view, out of mind.
Yet they will always return, hoping and trusting in the charity of strangers. So what lies behind this phenomenon in the globalised 21st century, supposedly richer than all the centuries that preceded it but apparently no better at dividing wealth equitably between the haves and the have-nots?
For most who do it, begging must surely be a matter of dire necessity rather than an occupation that a person would readily turn to - though, yes, for a few, it may also be a matter of choice.
The decline of Akincilar seen through the eyes of three Turkish Cypriot residents of different generations.
Akincilar is a small village on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
It has lived through the turbulent, modern history of Cyprus, including the island's civil war in the 1960s and its division in the 1970s when Turkish Cypriots moved north, and Greek Cypriots moved south.
The politics of Cyprus remains complex and contentious.
Akincilar, like many rural communities the world over, has experienced the outflow of young people seeking opportunities in big cities.
But Akincilar's decline from a bustling town of 5,000 to a village of 350, almost frozen in time, has more to do with its geographical location, the division of Cyprus, and the island's complex history.
Sweden to expel up to 80,000 rejected asylum seekers
Interior minister Anders Ygeman tells Swedish media of plan to use charter flights to repatriate thousands amid toughening of immigration rules
Agencies in Stockholm
Sweden is preparing to expel up to 80,000 asylum seekers who arrived in 2015 and whose applications had been rejected, interior minister Anders Ygeman has said.
“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000,” the minister was quoted as saying by Swedish media, adding that the government had asked the police and authorities in charge of migrants to organise their expulsion.
Ygeman told newspaper Dagens Industri that since about 45% of asylum applications are currently rejected, the country must get ready to send back tens of thousands of the 163,000 who sought shelter in Sweden last year.
Police abuse video sparks fury amid Haiti’s election crisis
A video showing two people being abused by police officers in Haiti has sparked fury in the country, which is already caught up in an ever-worsening electoral crisis. In the video, officers force one of the victims to pull down his trousers and count the number of times they whip him. The Caribbean island nation of Haiti is currently embroiled in an election crisis. The second round of the presidential elections, initially planned for Sunday, January 24, were cancelled due to security concerns after violent protests swept the country. Demonstrators took to the streets to denounce alleged irregularities in the first round. They accuse the current president, Michel Martelly, of having manipulated the numbers and staging “an electoral coup”.
The footage of several Haitian police officers abusing two young men inflamed an already angry nation. The video showed the police officers stomping on the two victims, who are lying on the ground. While one of them is forced to pull down his trousers an officers say that they are going to give him 50 lashes and that he has to count, without making a mistake. If the man makes a mistake, the lashes wil start all over again.
Everyone knows about the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. But only a handful of folk are aware of a unique war between the two countries which took place in 1975.
Alas, fresh evidence is emerging confirming that indeed, this war did take place, but was kept a secret by the governments of both the countries.
Famous Indian scientist, Professor Narayan G. Harikishan, has claimed that the 1975 war was neither won by India nor Pakistan, but by Cambodia.
And, this is why it was kept secret.
He made this startling claim at last month’s All India Science Convention in New Delhi.
Speaking to leading scientists from all over India, the professor made a presentation in which he exhibited photographs of saucer-shaped objects over Lahore and Delhi during the peak of the war.
Children urge Australia to free them from Nauru island 'prison
Boarding a smuggler's boat bound for Australia, she never imagined that instead of finding a better life, she'd end up spending 18 months in detention on the isolated Pacific island of Nauru.
"Nauru is the worst place I've ever seen for children," the 12-year old said.
Mizba Ahmed
Dozens of children like Mizba have been held for months, or even years, at an Australian-backed refugee processing center on Nauru, a tiny island measuring just 21 square kilometers or eight square miles.
The Zika Virus Could Take a Huge Toll in the Americas
Laurie GarrettSenior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations
An African virus that historically rarely infected people is spreading in the Americas, apparently causing the babies of infected mothers to be born with deformed heads. The Zika virus is carried by mosquitoes and spreads when the insects bite. And though it appeared in the Americas just nine months ago in the Easter Islands off Chile, the World Health Organization said it will soon spread to almost all countries in the Americas, including to the United States.
In 2014, Brazilian health officials reported 147 cases of babies born with shrunken skulls: it was microcephaly, a congenital deformation of the skull that compresses the infants' brains. In 2015, the number jumped to nearly 4,000 microcephaly cases reported in the country.
The world of Nigeria's sex-trafficking 'Air Lords'
Last year, the BBC's Sam Piranty was given access by the Catalan police, Mossos D'Esquadra, to an investigation into a Nigerian sex-trafficking gang. He spoke to traffickers and women rescued from sexual slavery before filming an early morning raid in November, which led to 23 arrests. He also discovered that the gang is now using London as a gateway into Europe.
It's 08:00 in the Catalan Police Headquarters on the outskirts of Barcelona and Xavi Cortes, head of the anti-trafficking unit, waits patiently for his 22 teams to confirm they are in position. Finally, he gives the order.
Two-hundred-and-fifty officers quietly climb out of their police vans. Single file, each team approaches a residential building watched by a few surprised neighbours.
On reaching the door, one of the masked police officers uses his fingers to count down. Three, two, one. The door is knocked down, the silence shattered, the officers rush inside.
