2.5 billion people, nukes and missiles. What could go wrong?
Updated 0351 GMT (1151 HKT) January 5, 2017
It's a frightening prospect, India and China going to war.
The countries are home to 2.5 billion people, a long and sometimes disputed border -- which they've fought wars over -- and each have nuclear weapons.
And India announced last month it successfully tested the Agni-V missile, which could theoretically deliver a nuke to Beijing.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted the accomplishment "makes every Indian proud."
200 children found working in India brick kiln
Girls as young as seven found carrying bricks on their head in southern state of Telangana, say police
Indian police have rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under 14, who were found working in a brick kiln, officials said on Wednesday.
The children were rescued in the Yadadiri district in Telangana, 40km from state capital Hyderabad, as part of Operation Smile, a national campaign to tackle child labour and missing children.
The rescued children had moved from the eastern state of Odisha and were living and working with adults presumed to be their parents in the brick kiln, police said. “We are not sure if the parents are genuine and there is a possibility that some of the children were trafficked,” police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said.The Isis attack on an Istanbul nightclub is the end of freedom of speech in Turkey
Criticism of Erdogan, whether tongue in cheek or otherwise, is increasingly portrayed as an attack on the Turkish state – and even on national security
Nationalism and authoritarianism don’t seem to mix very well with satire. Donald Trump, preparing vigorously to make America great again, gets very prickly about Alec Baldwin’s all too accurate impressions, while Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem like a guy who appreciates having the Mikhail taken out of him. Kukly, a Russian TV comedy series, was cancelled in 2002 after likening Putin to ETA Hoffmann’s fictional dwarf, Little Zaches. If it turns out that Nigel Farage’s entire political career has been a work of satirical art then kudos to him; but the jury’s still out on that one.
In Turkey, the authoritarian rule of Recep Erdogan has long regarded satire as a form of political rebellion. Even by last spring, months before the failed military coup, more than 1,800 prosecutions had been brought against individuals alleged to have insulted the President, including by lampooning him. In April, Erdogan demanded that legal action be taken by the German state against a comedian who had supposedly defamed Turkey’s leader in a satirical poem. Criticism of Erdogan – whether tongue in cheek or otherwise – is increasingly portrayed as an attack on the Turkish state, and even on national security.
Kenyan girls hide at school over holidays to escape FGM
OBSERVERS
Diana Kendi
In Kenya, hundreds of schoolgirls don’t want to leave boarding school and go home over the holidays. Instead, some of them spend their school holidays in hiding, afraid that if they go home, they might be forced to take part in a coming-of-age ceremony. These rites, which often take place at this time of year, usually include female genital mutilation. Our Observer went to meet a schoolteacher who is trying to keep schools open during the holidays to act as refuges for these girls.In West Pokot County, which is located on the far western side of Kenya on the border with Uganda, an estimated 85%of women have undergone female genital mutilation, or FGM. Commonly referred to as “excision”, this practice ranges from the total to the partial removal of a woman or girl’s external sexual organs, usually the clitoral hood, for non-medical reasons.
Once they have undergone FGM, most girls are forced to marry and do not return to school. In order to protect these girls during the school holidays, some teachers have started transforming school buildings into temporary refuges for girls escaping mutilation.
Why it took 14 months for Haiti to get a president-elect
The initial election was held in October 2015, but various delays and investigations delayed Jovenel Moïse's confirmation as the winner of the election until this Tuesday.
After nearly a year without a president, a Haitian tribunal officially named Jovenel Moïse the next leader of the Caribbean nation.
On Tuesday, officials declared Mr. Moïse the victor in a contentious presidential election that had been drawn out for 14 months after voters first cast their ballots.
The businessman's campaign had been set to conclude as early as October of 2015, when the initial presidential vote took place. But the absence of a solid majority vote, ongoing political difficulties in the country, and a devastating hurricane complicated the process and led to an additional election this past November. That election was called into question by political rivals, prompting the formation of a special electoral tribunal to investigate allegations of voter fraud.
Myanmar commission's report on Rohingya 'flawed': HRW
The rights group called the report investigating alleged abuses towards Rohingya Muslims "methodologically flawed".
A commission investigating violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State has denied security forces had abused Rohingya Muslims, a claim slammed by the Human Rights Watch, the US-based rights group.
The commission's report and the HRW's reaction to it came on Wednesday, days after a video emerged showing police beating civilians from the Muslim minority.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya, a group loathed by many among Myanmar's Buddhist majority, have fled a military operation in the northwestern state, launched after deadly attacks on police posts in October.
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