In Hail of Bullets and Fire, North Korea Killed Official Who Wanted Reform
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SEOUL, South Korea — In late 2013, Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was taken to the Gang Gun Military Academy in a Pyongyang suburb.
Hundreds of officials were gathered there to witness the execution of Mr. Jang’s two trusted deputies in the administrative department of the ruling Workers’ Party.
The two men, Ri Ryong-ha and Jang Su-gil, were torn apart by antiaircraft machine guns, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. The executioners then incinerated their bodies with flamethrowers.
Angela Merkel: enigmatic leader of a divided land
Only recently, the most powerful woman in Europe seemed unassailable. Now, with crucial elections today, the German chancellor faces a growing reaction to her policies as the refugee crisis fuels an angry radicalisation
It is often said that Angela Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world. She is probably also the most powerful figure in the history of the European Union. She has been German chancellor for a decade. And yet, despite having so much power for so long, she remains a mystery.
We have little idea what Merkel really thinks. It is not only that she is herself remarkably uncommunicative for a modern politician but also that most of what is said about her is either spin or speculation.
She has a handful of ultra-loyal confidants, who can be guaranteed, when they speak about her, to tell the story she wants people to hear. Meanwhile, those who are outside this inner circle don’t really know what she is thinking or what motivates her, though many often claim to. As a result, Merkel is more opaque than perhaps any other head of government in the west.
Burma's latest ethnic conflict intensifies as violence spreads in Shan State
The dispute between the militias of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Shan State Army began last year
When Aye Khaung saw 500 soldiers arrive in her village in Burma’s northern Shan State, she was fearful. Sitting in the grounds of the monastery she now calls home, she picks at nail varnish on her thumbnail as she recounts the moment when the country’s latest ethnic conflict arrived in the remote village of Ban-nin.
“When I saw their guns and knives I was afraid, because I knew they could kill me,” she says.
The violence between the militias of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Shan State Army – South (SSA-S) began last year and has intensified. The Burmese army, or Tatmadaw, is also operating in the area – taking control, it says, of the latest of many long-running ethnic armed conflicts to flare up in the country.
Islamic State uses birth control to maintain supply of sex slaves
March 13, 2016 - 5:34PMRukmini Callimachi
Dohuk, Iraq: Locked inside a room where the only furniture was a bed, the 16-year-old learned to fear the sunset, because nightfall started the countdown to her next rape.
During the year she was held by the Islamic State, she spent her days dreading the smell of the ISIS fighter's breath, the disgusting sounds he made and the pain he inflicted on her body. More than anything, she was tormented by the thought she might become pregnant with her rapist's child.
It was the one thing she need not have worried about.
Soon after buying her, the fighter brought the teenage girl a round box containing four strips of pills, one of them coloured red.
"Every day, I had to swallow one in front of him. He gave me one box per month. When I ran out, he replaced it. When I was sold from one man to another, the box of pills came with me," explained the girl, who learned only months later that she was being given birth control.
Why India's Minister for Women won't condemn rape in marriage
The Indian Minister cited several factors including, social norms, education levels, illiteracy and religious beliefs.
Rape is considered a crime in India under section 375 of India’s Penal Code – except when it involves a spouse.
Under Indian law – The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 – “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape."
Maneka Gandhi, India’s Minister for Women and Child Development, said Thursday, that India isn’t ready to pass a legislation that would criminalize marital rape. Citing several factors including, social norms, education levels, illiteracy and religious beliefs Ms. Gandhi stated that the concept of spousal rape as understood in the international context, isn’t applicable in the Indian context.
Refugees: Turkish town nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Kilis, a town bordering Syria, has been nominated for accepting and integrating 120,000 refugees.
Kilis, Turkey - A Turkish town bordering Syria has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize after accepting more Syrian refugees than there are local residents living there.
During the five-year civil war, Kilis - a town of 90,000 people - has welcomed 120,000 Syrians fleeing their war-torn country.
Syrians refugees have set up businesses and continue to work with their Turkish hosts in Kilis, which lies a few kilometres north of the Syrian border. While there is much resentment towards refugees throughout Turkey, that's not the case here.
The mayor of Kilis, Hasan Kara, spoke to Al Jazeera about why his town should be regarded as an international model for human rights protection.
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