Saturday, April 30, 2016

Six In The Morning Saturday April 30


Germany AdF meeting: Clashes before far-right conference


Hundreds of left-wing demonstrators have tried to block people entering a far-right party conference in the German city of Stuttgart.
The Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party is expected to re-brand itself as openly anti-Islamic during the meeting.
Police, who surrounded several hundred protesters, fired pepper spray at crowds. Close to 1,000 officers were deployed.
The AfD wants to ban the burqa and outlaw minarets in Germany.
Despite the protest, the conference began as planned on Saturday morning.




Dozens of Syrians forced into sexual slavery in derelict Lebanese house

Victims were tortured and only left house for abortions and treatment for venereal diseases in case that has shocked country

Tucked in a leafy suburb of the Lebanese town of Jounieh, a short drive from the sparkling Mediterranean, stands a monument to human cruelty.
In this derelict two-story house, 75 Syrian women were forced into sexual slavery, the largest human trafficking network ever uncovered in Lebanon.
Here, the women were imprisoned after arriving from their war-torn country, sold for less than $2,000, and forced to have sex more than 10 times a day. Here they were beaten and tortured and electrocuted, and sometimes flogged if they didn’t get enough tips.
The windows and balconies are barred – giant cages where windows are painted black, depriving the women even of sunlight.

Supply shortages force Venezuela's largest brewer to halt production

Venezuela's largest brewer has closed its last factory due to supply shortages, in the latest in a string of bad news for Latin America's main oil producing economy. There is also food rationing and spiraling inflation.
Electricity blackouts, food rations, the world's highest inflation, and now no beer - Venezuela's downward economic spiral knows no limits.
The country's largest brewer on Friday closed down the last of its four factories because of a shortage of imported barley. Cerveceria Polar, a unit of the country's largest food enterprise, Empresas Polar, produces nearly 80 percent of Venezuela's beer.
As a result of falling oil prices, external debt and government exchange policies, importing even the most basic of goods has become a challenge for the cash-crunched socialist government.

Putting names and faces to the victims of Burundi’s crisis



Hippolyte Burundi

It was almost exactly one year ago, on April 26, 2015, that Burundi saw the first casualty in its deadly demonstrations against the country's ruling party, when a protester was killed by a stray bullet. Since then, at least 700 people have died and 800 have disappeared, according to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). One group of activists have tried to move beyond the statistics by creating a website that tells the stories of victims of the conflict.

On April 25, 2015, Burundi’s ruling party announced that incumbent president Pierre Nkurunziza would run for a third term in office. The announcement, which flew in the face of the two-term limit in the constitution, sparked massive protests. 

The government cracked down on protesters immediately, referring to them as terrorists and often firing at crowds. On May 13, military officers attempted a coup d’état. When that failed, repression of protesters intensified. 


Another film banned

THE NEWSPAPER'S STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI: After slapping a ban on the feature film Maalik a day ago, the federal government has now banned a documentary film Among the Believers directed by Mohammad Ali Naqvi.
Ironically, the documentary has been screened in 20 countries and has already bagged 12 awards.
The documentary focuses on the Lal Masjid situation and apart from following Maulana Abdul Aziz and his network for five years it also contains those never-shared-before stories of people who stood up against extremist ideology.


Malawi's albinos at risk of 'total extinction,' U.N. warns

Updated 0728 GMT (1428 HKT) April 30, 2016



Malawi's albinos are at risk of "total extinction" amid escalating attacks against them for their body parts, the United Nations warned.
Albinism is a genetic condition that leads to little or no pigment in the eyes, skin and hair. The southern African nation has about 10,000 albinos, according to the U.N.
In some African countries, albinos' body parts are believed to bring wealth and good luck. As a result, attackers chop off their limbs and pluck out organs, and sell them to witchdoctors.
Even after albinos are killed, some attackers go a step further and steal their remains from graveyards, said Ikponwosa Ero, the United Nations' expert on albinism.











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