Madaya: UN aid convoy to leave for besieged Syrian town
- 11 January 2016
- Middle East
A UN aid convoy is expected to leave for Madaya, a Syrian town under government siege, where people are reported to have starved to death.
Emergency food supplies had been due to be sent to the rebel-held town on Sunday but the operation was delayed.
There are about 40,000 people in Madaya, near Lebanon's border, with residents said to be eating pets and grass to survive.
A similar aid operation is expected for two northern towns besieged by rebels.
Meanwhile, Brice de la Vigne from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical charity described the situation in Medaya as "quite horrific".
Mr de la Vigne, whose organisation has been in contact with doctors inside Madaya, told the BBC that more than 250 people there had "acute malnutrition".
North Korea's Kim Jong-un tells scientists to build better nuclear weapons
Leader reported to have implored his military to develop more bombs as a means of ‘self defence’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un looked to milk his country’s recent nuclear test as a propaganda victory on Monday, praising his scientists and vowing more nuclear bombs a day after the US flew a powerful nuclear-capable warplane close to the North in a show of force.
A standoff between the rival Koreas has deepened since last week’s test, the North’s fourth. Seoul on Monday continued anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border and announced that it would further limit the entry of South Koreans to a jointly run factory park in North Korea.
Outside North Korea, Kim faces widespread condemnation and threats of heavy sanctions over the North’s disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test. Internally, however, Kim’s massive propaganda apparatus has looked to link the test to Kim’s leadership so as to glorify him and portray the test as necessary to combat a US-led attempt to topple the North’s authoritarian system.
‘Regrettable’ is as far as our criticism of Saudi Arabia is allowed to go
We have condemned them in the lightest terms. The implication is that the good old Saudis have simply let us down – fallen from their previously high moral principles
Only six of our British military chaps, it seems, are helping the Sunni Saudis kill Shia Yemenis. And they’re not actually in Yemen, merely helping to choose the targets – which have so far included hospitals, markets, a wedding party and a site opposite the Iranian embassy. Not that our boys and girls selected those particular “terrorist” nests for destruction, you understand. They’re just helping their Saudi mates – in the words of our Ministry of Defence – “comply to the rules of war”.
Saudi “rules”, of course, are not necessarily the same as “our” rules – although our drone-executions of UK citizens leave a lot of elbow-room for our British warriors in Riyadh. But I couldn’t help chuckling when I read the condemnation of David Mephan, the Human Rights Watch director. Yes, he told us that the Saudis “are committing multiple violations of the laws of war in Yemen”, and that the British “are working hand in glove with the Saudis, helping them, enhancing their capacity to prosecute this war that has led to the death of so many civilians”. Spot on. But then he added that he thought all this “deeply regrettable and unacceptable”.
Fears of terrorist merger from 'poison' in south-east Asia
Jewel Topsfield, Lindsay Murdoch, Daniel Flitton
A merger of terrorist groups pledging allegiance to Islamic State in the Philippines could signal a new threat to the region should radicals from Indonesia also join forces, according to an expert on violent extremism.
A new video from the strife-torn southern Philippines island of Mindanao suggests four Islamic terrorist groups in the long-running insurgency have joined to declare allegiance to IS.
The video purports to show militants carrying IS flags and the heavily armed commanders of the groups that had declared their allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Sami al-Hajj: Remembering Guantanamo
Al Jazeera's Sami al-Hajj reflects on how the years he spent as a prisoner in the US detention camp changed his life.
Doha, Qatar - As a young boy growing up in Sennar, an agricultural Sudanese town on the Blue Nile, I developed a keen interest in journalism. Enthused by the rich culture and history of my surroundings – Sennar had once been the capital of an historic kingdom - I began writing for school and then college publications.
When it was time to go to university, I left home and headed for India, where I spent five years studying political science and sociology. But I always maintained my passion for the media.
Upon returning to Sudan, I worked for my father for several months, and then made my way to the United Arab Emirates. It was while I was there that I heard about a new channel that was being set up in Qatar – Al Jazeera. I felt compelled to join.
Women documentary filmmakers provide rare insight into Indian society
Recently I was reading Shoma A. Chatterji’s book Filming Reality: The Independent Documentary Movement in India (Published by Sage) when I realized how little is known about the documentary movement in India which started three decades back and has proved to be a very strong alternative voice on celluloid.
However, if most Indians are asked to mention one documentary focusing on women’s issues that they watched in recent times, the unanimous answer would be India’s Daughter made by Leslee Udwin.
Thanks to the controversial content of the film, the ban on it by Indian Government in 2014 and the publicity it garnered, the film has found a space in the mind of the masses.
But as is well known, and as Chatterji also ratifies in her book, when it comes to indigenous documentaries on women made by women, there are plenty in India that are a must watch but are often plagued by a lack of awareness and publicity.
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