Obama lifts U.S. arms ban on Vietnam
Updated 0848 GMT (1648 HKT) May 23, 2016
President Obama has announced that the United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam, which has been in place for decades.
In a joint news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said that the removal of the ban on lethal weapons was part of a deeper defense co-operation with the country and dismissed suggestions it was aimed at countering China's growing strength in the region.
Instead, it was the desire to continue normalizing relations between the U.S. and Vietnam and to do away with a ban "based on ideological division between our two countries," he said.'No Muslims allowed': how nationalism is rising in Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar
Concerns grow that Buddhist extremism may flourish unless country’s new democratic leaders counter discrimination against minorities
At the entrance to Thaungtan village there’s a brand new sign, bright yellow, and bearing a message: “No Muslims allowed to stay overnight. No Muslims allowed to rent houses. No marriage with Muslims.”
The post was erected in late March by Buddhist residents of the village in Myanmar’s lush Irrawaddy Delta region who signed, or were strong-armed into signing, a document asserting that they wanted to live separately.
Since then a couple of other villages across the country have followed suit. Small but viciously insular, these “Buddhist-only” outposts serve as microcosms of the festering religious tensions that threaten Myanmar’s nascent experiment with democracy.
Refugee children stranded in Greece are so unschooled they 'cannot even hold a pencil'
More than 20 per cent of refugee children in Greece have never been to schoolMay Bulman
More than one in five school-aged refugee children in Greece have never been to school, a study has revealed.
Child refugees stranded in Greece have been out of school for on average 1.5 years, and many of them “cannot even hold a pencil”, according to new research by aid agency Save the Children.
Syrian child refugees have been away from the classroom for the longest - with an average of over two years (25.8 months) out of the classroom.
Afghan child refugees have been out of school for an average of 10.7 months.
In Acapulco, a pistol bag has become a vital beach accessory
May 23, 2016 - 2:39PMMark Stevenson
Acapulco, Mexico: Along with beach towels or sandals, there's a new popular beach accessory that says a lot about the violence gripping this once-glamorous resort: a small black leather tote hanging from the neck or shoulders of some men. It's not a man-bag, exactly; it holds a small pistol.
"When I saw you guys standing outside my office, I almost went for my bag," said one businessman who lives in terror after getting death threats and extortion demands by criminal gangs at his office four blocks from the water. "I'm in fear for my life."
Death can strike anywhere in Acapulco these days: A sarong vendor was slain on the beach in January by a gunman who escaped on a jet ski. Another man was gunned down while enjoying a beer at a seaside restaurant.
The humanitarian revolution: What happens when emergencies don't end?
PATHS TO PROGRESS
The UN will hold its first ever-humanitarian summit Monday. New challenges in global aid are forcing groups to rethink how to meet changing needs. This is Part 3 of a four-part series.
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. — When Gordon Brown unveiled a new fund for educating children displaced by conflict and disaster, the former British prime minister was admittedly trying to shake the world of global aid by the lapels.
He described the initiative this week as “the first to bridge the gap between humanitarian aid and development aid.”
The Education Cannot Wait fund is perhaps the boldest statement to date of a growing conviction within the global aid community – that the separation between life-saving humanitarian intervention and life-enhancing development assistance makes less and less sense.
US veteran seeks asylum for Iraqi man who saved his life
JOHN ROGERS,Associated Press
After three military combat tours in warn-torn Iraq, Chase Millsap returned home to get on with a civilian life, but there was one thing he couldn't do: leave a comrade behind, certainly not one who had saved his life.
Especially not the former Iraqi military officer who, because he had worked with the Americans, was now living a precarious existence as a refugee dodging Islamic State militants seeking to kill him.
So for the past two years Millsap has been fighting a different kind of battle, one to gain asylum for the brother in arms he simply calls The Captain.
"The Captain is the epitome of my personal commitment to take care of people," said Millsap, 33, who served in the Marine Corps and upon reenlistment joined the Army and became a Green Beret.
No comments:
Post a Comment