Monday, July 31, 2017
Bangladesh's Biggest Brothel
We go inside Bangladesh's biggest brothel, a town where 1,500 women work as prostitutes, some as young as 10 years old.
It's the biggest brothel in Bangladesh - and possibly the world.
The town of Daulatdia is home to 1,500 prostitutes, some as young as 10 years old.
In a ramshackle maze of dirty alleyways, women and girls work day and night in tiny cubicles, meeting the men who pour in from the nearby highway.
Many of the prostitutes have always lived there; some were sold into prostitution by their families, and others were abducted from their villages.
Six In The Morning Monday July 31
Kabul attack: Gunfire after explosions hit Afghan capital
Afghan police say a suicide attack has taken place outside the Iraqi embassy in the capital, Kabul.
Gunfire was heard following several explosions in the central Shar-e-Naw neighbourhood.
A gun battle is said to be under way and civilians are being evacuated from the area.
So-called Islamic State said it carried out the latest attack. Kabul has seen a number of deadly assaults this year blamed on either IS or the Taliban.
One security official is quoted as saying a suicide bomber targeted the area housing a police headquarters and the Iraqi embassy compound.
Pictures on social media show black plumes of smoke rising into the sky.
Trump vows 'all necessary measures' to protect allies from North Korea, says Abe
The US president has assured Japan of total support as tensions increase in east Asia, the prime minister says
Donald Trump has vowed to take “all necessary measures” to protect United States allies from North Korea’s evolving military threat, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has said following a phone conversation with the US president.
The talks between Trump and Abe came after North Korea conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on Friday – a move analysts said put most of the US within range of Pyongyang’s missiles.
On Sunday the US mounted a show of force aimed at Kim Jong-un’s regime, flying two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula. The commander of the Pacific air forces, General Terrence J O’Shaughnessy, warned his units were ready to hit North Korea with “rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force”.
Venezuela‘s President Nicolas Maduro claims huge victory in vote to grant socialist party virtually unlimited powers
Ten deaths reported on Sunday in clashes between protesters and police across the country
Venezuela's National Electoral Council has said more than eight million people voted to grant President Nicolas Maduro's ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers with a constitutional assembly - a turnout more than double the estimates of both the government's political opponents and independent experts.
Council president Tibisay Lucena announced just before midnight local time (4am GMT) that turnout in Sunday's vote was 41.53 per cent, or 8,089,320 people.
But the count was met with mockery and anger from members of the opposition, who said they believed just 2-3 million people voted.
The dance programme helping Congolese survivors of sexual violence
For the past twenty years, an ongoing conflict has torn apart the lives of civilians living in the provinces of North and South Kivu, located in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this conflict, as in many others across the world, women are especially vulnerable to violence, as rape is commonly used as a weapon of war. Kivu is full of female survivors of these attacks. Recently, a French-Congolese dancer has started organizing dance workshops for these survivors, which he says is a way to help them to reconnect with their bodies and the healing process.
There are numerous armed groups involved in the conflict that has ravaged the eastern part of the DRC. However, in South Kivu, the most frequent clashes are between the Congolese army and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a rebel group. These opposing forces are waging bloody war for control of the region’s coltan mines. Coltan is an extremely valuable mineral used as a component in cell phones.
The armed groups in Kivu want full, uninterrupted control of these mines — which means clearing out civilians. They’ve embarked on a chilling campaign of terror to force local people to flee, including large-scale rape of civilian women.
'They killed him because he was an Arab'
The family of a Palestinian citizen of Israel killed by Israeli police in Jaffa are demanding justice.
by
Zena Tahhan
The family of a young Palestinian man fatally shot by Israeli police in Jaffa are demanding justice for what they believe was a "cold-blooded killing".
Mahdi al-Saadi, a 22-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, was shot in the chest and killed in the early hours of Saturday morning. Israeli police also shot another young man at the same scene, Sleiman Abu Taleb, who was taken to hospital in critical condition.
"I was travelling, and I got a phone call from my wife telling me that they killed our boy. The police did not get in touch with us or tell us what happened. He was killed for no reason - in cold blood. They killed him because he was an Arab," Jamal, Mahdi's father, told Al Jazeera.
HACKED EMAILS SHOW UAE BUILDING CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH D.C. THINK TANKS THAT PUSH ITS AGENDA
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES has one of the most repressive governments in the world. The Gulf dictatorship brutally cracks down on internal dissent and enables abusive conditions for its massive migrant labor force. It also plays a key role in the bloody war in Yemen, running a network of torture prisons in the “liberated” parts of the country.
That makes it all the more shocking that the UAE is so rarely criticized by leading U.S. think tanks, who not only ignore the Gulf dictatorship’s repression, but give a privileged platform to its ambassador, Yousef Al-Otaiba. Otaiba is a deeply influential voice in U.S. foreign policy circles, and is known in Washington for using his pocketbook to recruit allies.
Sunday, July 30, 2017
India and Pakistan: Forever rivals?
In this UpFront special, two former foreign ministers debate what it will take to fix India-Pakistan relations.
Seventy years since partition, and the independence of India and Pakistan, relations between the two nations remain turbulent.
There have been four major conflicts and numerous skirmishes since 1947 and yet the territorial disputes between India and Pakistan remain unresolved, and bilateral relations are marked by mutual mistrust.
So, can the two neighbours and nuclear powers ever become friends? What will it take to resolve the seemingly intractable Kashmir conflict? And how much of today’s hostility can be traced back to partition?
Six In The Morning Sunday July 30
Australia police 'foil terror plot to bring down plane'
Counter-terrorism police in Australia have stopped a suspected plot to bring down an aeroplane, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.
He was speaking after four people were arrested in raids across Sydney.
Investigators said they had seized materials in the raids that could have been used to make an improvised explosive device.
Mr Turnbull said the raids had been a "major joint counter-terrorism operation".
He said extra security was in place at domestic and international airports.
The raids took place in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl, Australian broadcaster ABC reported.
Australia's national terror threat level remains at "probable".
Xi Jinping orders army to ‘unswervingly follow Communist party leadership’
China’s president dons camouflage fatigues for hour-long parade marking 90th anniversary of People’s Liberation Army
Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has presided over a spectacular display of military and political might, ordering members of his 2.3 million-strong armed forces to “unswervingly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist party of China”.
Xi donned camouflage fatigues for the hour-long Sunday morning parade, which marked the 90th anniversary of the creation of China’s People’s Liberation Army, on 1 August 1927.
The procession took place at a sand-swept, 1,000 sq kilometre camp that state media described as China’s answer to the United States’ Fort Irwin national training centre in the Mojave desert.
The UK must step up to its responsibilities in helping to tackle the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean
The Independent makes no apology for continuing to report the terrible drownings on Europe's southern coasts and our demand for more effective action to avoid themWe report today the damning words of Axel Grafmanns of the German charity Sea-Watch: “The EU is wilfully letting people drown in the Mediterranean by refusing to create a legal means of safe passage and failing to even provide adequate resources for maritime rescue.”
So far this year, 2,400 men, women and children have lost their lives in the central Mediterranean, including 13 people found deadat the bottom of an overcrowded dinghy this week.
This ought to be intolerable, and yet the governments of Europe tolerate it, because they appear to lack the political will to deal with it. Mr Grafmanns was speaking about a disagreement over new rules to be presented by the Italian government on Monday that charities say will restrict their capacity to rescue refugees during the peak crossing season.
'Little Russia'Pro-Russian Separatists Harden Split from Ukraine
After nationalizing businesses, pro-Russian separatists have proclaimed their own state in eastern Ukraine, calling it "Little Russia." Tens of thousands of residents in the region are now jobless.
By Christian Neef
The city of Yenakiieve, northeast of Donetsk, was founded more than a century ago around a steel mill. Some 10,000 people work at the steel mill, and the company that owns it operates the most modern rolling mill in Ukraine. But as of March, the mill became a thing of the past.
On the morning of March 1, armed men arrived at the plant, demanding that management submit to the regime of the "Donetsk People's Republic." If they refused, the men said, "legal and physical measures" would be taken against management and employees. What seemed like a farce at first would prove to be a major political move. In doing so, the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have divided the country even further.
Police kill Reynaldo Parojinog and wife in drug raid
Ozamiz city mayor was among list of officials publicly shamed last year by President Duterte of being linked to drugs.
Philippine police have killed a city mayor, his wife and 10 others during a series of pre-dawn anti-drug raids in the south, officials said.
Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz city, is the latest official to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a drug war.
Officers were to serve warrants for the arrest of Parojinog, his daughter, and four other officials of Ozamiz city when they allegedly opened fire on Sunday.
The officers were "met with volleys of fire from [the mayor's] security, prompting the Philippine National Police personnel to retaliate," Chief Superintendent Timoteo Pacleb said in a statement.TRUMP INTEL CHIEF: NORTH KOREA LEARNED FROM LIBYA WAR TO “NEVER” GIVE UP NUKES
Jon Schwarz
THE MEDIA IS NOW filled with headlines about North Korea’s missile teston Friday, which demonstrated that its ICBMs may be able to reach the continental U.S. What isn’t mentioned in any of these stories is how we got to this point — in particular, what Dan Coats, President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, explained last week at the Aspen Security Forum.
North Korea’s 33-year-old dictator Kim Jong-un is not crazy, said Coats. In fact, he has “some rationale backing his actions” regarding the country’s nuclear weapons. That rationale is the way the U.S. has demonstrated that North Korea must keep them to ensure “survival for his regime, survival for his country.”
Kim, according to Coats, “has watched, I think, what has happened around the world relative to nations that possess nuclear capabilities and the leverage they have and seen that having the nuclear card in your pocket results in a lot of deterrence capability.” In particular, “The lessons that we learned out of Libya giving up its nukes … is, unfortunately: If you had nukes, never give them up. If you don’t have them, get them.”
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Six In The Morning Saturday July 29
North Korea says missile test shows all US within range
North Korea has hailed as a success its latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), describing it as a "stern warning" for the US.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the test proved that the entire US was within striking range, state media reported.
However, experts say many of North Korea's missiles cannot accurately hit targets.
The launch came three weeks after North Korea's first ICBM test.
The Pentagon said the latest missile was launched at 23:41 (15:41 GMT) from an arms plant in Jagang province in the north of the country.
North Korea said the ICBM flew for just over 47 minutes and reached an altitude of 3,724km (2,300 miles).
It is unusual for North Korea to launch a missile at night - the significance is as yet unclear. This is the first missile fired from Jagang province, indicating a previously-unknown launch site is operational.
China and Russia have 'responsibility' for North Korea nuclear threat, says US
As Kim Jong-un hails latest test-launch, Rex Tillerson says two powers are ‘enablers’ of Pyongyang’s program
The United States has accused China and Russia of bearing “unique and special responsibility” for North Korea’s “belligerent” pursuit of nuclear weapons, after Pyongyang tested its latest ballistic missile.
North Korea conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test late on Friday in what it called a warning to the “beast-like US imperialists”. It came less than a month after its first such experiment, on 4 July.
The test-launch sent “a grave warning to the US” that it “would not go scot-free if it dares provoke” the North, Pyongyang’s official news agency, KCNA, said in a statement.EU accused of 'wilfully letting refugees drown' as NGOs face having rescues suspended in the Mediterranean
Italy could ban groups that refuse to sign up to controversial 'code of conduct' from carrying out rescues
Aid workers have accused the EU of “wilfully letting people drown in the Mediterranean” as they face being forced to suspend rescue missions for refugees attempting the world’s deadliest sea crossing.
Italy is attempting to impose a code of conduct on NGOs operating ships in the search and rescue zone off the coast of Libya, which is now the main launching point for migrants trying to reach Europe on smugglers’ boats.
Humanitarian groups have argued the code will impede their workby banning the transfer of refugees to larger ships, which allows vessels to continue rescues, and forcing them to allow police officers on board.
Brazil sends troops to Rio de Janeiro to fight organized crime
Thousands of Brazilian soldiers have been deployed in Rio de Janeiro to tackle the rise in street crime. Nearly a hundred members of the security forces have been killed in Rio this year.
Some 8,500 soldiers and hundreds of police and highway patrol officers have been deployed on to the streets of Brazil's second city to fight organized crime.
The official government gazette reported that President Michel Temer had signed a decree allowing the use of armed forces in Rio. In all, 10,000 troops are to be mobilized.
While they have previously carried out patrols, controlled checkpoints and recovered weapons seized during police raids, the troops are to begin participating in operations against drug traffickers, Defense Minister Raul Jungmann announced at a news conference on Thursday.
Court rules Korean school entitled to gov't tuition-free program
A Japanese court said Friday the government should retract its decision to deny high school tuition subsidies to a Korean school in Osaka, the first ruling approving eligibility of such schools in similar lawsuits.
The Osaka District Court said it is "illegal" that the government excluded Osaka Korean High School from the tuition-free high school education program from the viewpoint of political issues, such as North Korea's past abductions of Japanese citizens.
The decision contrasts with a July 19 ruling by the Hiroshima District Court which rejected a petition by the operator of a Korean school in Hiroshima calling for the reversal of the government decision to exclude the school from the tuition-free program.
MS-13, the Gang Trump Said He Would Decimate, Is One of Texas’s Most Powerful
Just a few days before President Trump on Friday promised to decimate MS-13, the state of Texas released a threat assessment that said MS-13 is among a handful of the most dangerous of 20 criminal gangs, with as many as 100,000 members that operate across the state.
MS-13 and three other Hispanic gangs were categorized as the biggest threat to public safety based on their relationships with Mexican cartels and their high levels of violence and transnational crime, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety assessment, which was released Tuesday. There are about 500 members of MS-13 in Texas, the DPS estimates, operating in a regional cell model. That means the gang is composed of several cells in the state that are all part of MS-13 but generally act independently, with little control or command between cells.
“MS-13 is now arguably the most recognized transnational street gang in the world, with ongoing command, control, and coordination between gang leaders and cliques in several different countries,” the assessment reads, adding that the gang first formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a way for immigrants from El Salvador to protect themselves from other street gangs. “While the increase in the presence of the MS-13 grows, it appears that Texas is continually used as a transitional zone, as gang members are traveling onward to the U.S. East Coast.”
Friday, July 28, 2017
Donald "The Petulant Child" Trump Has Sacked His Chief Of Staff
President Donald Trump named the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, the President announced Friday afternoon:
How long will it before he fires everyone else and hunker down like Howard Hughes?
I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....
...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration
I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!
Kelly will replace White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. Before being confirmed Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, Kelly was a general in the U.S. Marine Corps. Starting in 2012, Kelly led the U.S. Southern Command.
The Washington Post’s David Nakamura spotted Priebus on the tarmac in Suffolk, New York, earlier in the day. Trump gave an aggressive anti-gang speech at Suffolk Community College Friday, congratulating Kelly right after praising acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, who Trump said someone on television had said “looks very nasty, he looks very mean.”
How long will it before he fires everyone else and hunker down like Howard Hughes?
Libya peace talks - Can they deliver?
France launches latest attempt to broker peace amid long-standing conflict between two main rival groups.
French President Emmanuel Macron has brought the two main Libyan rival groups together for face-to-face talks. The meeting in Paris is seen as a step towards reconciliation.
The latest attempt follows six years of conflict and chaos since longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by rebels supported by a French-led NATO air campaign.
Now, Libya has two power centres; the UN-backed government of National Accord headed by Fayez al-Sarraj and the so-called Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar's forces, which control a large part of eastern Libya and its oil fields.
Six In The Morning Friday July 28
US healthcare: Senate 'skinny repeal' bill fails
The latest attempt to repeal the Obama-era healthcare act has failed after a dramatic night in the US Senate.
At least three Republicans - John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski - voted against the bill, which needed a simple majority to pass.
President Donald Trump said the three had "let the American people down".
The so-called "skinny" repeal, which would have scaled back some of the more controversial provisions, is the third failed attempt to repeal Obamacare.
It would have resulted in 16 million people losing their health insurance by 2026, with insurance premiums increasing by 20%, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Pakistani court disqualifies PM Nawaz Sharif from office
Investigative panel alleges prime minister’s family cannot account for its vast wealth
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has removed prime minister Nawaz Sharif from office in a unanimous verdict over corruption allegations that will further upset the country’s unstable political landscape.
The verdict, delivered by a five-member supreme court caps year of political controversy, unleashed by the the Panama Papers leak, which documented the involvement of Sharif’s children in the purchase of high-end London property through offshore companies.
The governing party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) must now choose an interim prime minister to rule until the 2018 general election. The party is expected to deliver a statement later today.
Five-year-old girl 'forced into marriage with 22-year-old man in Pakistan'
Police reportedly arrived too late to halt the ceremony
A girl aged just five has reportedly been forced into marriage with a 22-year-old man in Pakistan.
Police were called to the ceremony in the village of Raman Shar near Dakhan Town but arrived too late to halt the marriage, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
The groom was reportedly arrested along with his father and the registrar. The little girl is believed to have also been taken into custody along with her mother.
Uproar as a conservative Iranian journalist is snapped unveiled and drinking a beer
A famous Iranian television presenter, known in Iran for holding strong conservative positions on things like women wearing the full veil, was snapped not only not wearing the veil, but also drinking a beer. People on Iranian social media criticised her virulently for her hypocrisy.
Azadeh Namdari is one of the most well-known presenters in the country. She's worked as a presenter for a number of different channels, and now presents a show on Aparat, the Iranian version of YouTube, called "Aban" (a month in the year between October and November on the Iranian calendar).
She's above all known for her staunch ideas regarding religion and conservative dress. She rigorously defended the wearing of the black chador, the long full-body veil, in the ultra-conservative newspaper Vatan-e-Emruz, saying that she was "proud" to wear it herself.
'The House Is Burning'Ronaldo's Tax Tricks Hit the Entire Football Industry
Following DER SPIEGEL's Football Leaks revelations, Cristiano Ronaldo could now face trial on tax-related charges. His fans are outraged, while others inlcuding the president of UEFA are furious -- at players' agents, who have dragged the professional sport into the mud.
Japan's defense minister and one-time rising political star resigns
Updated 0541 GMT (1341 HKT) July 28, 2017
Japan's Defense Minister has resigned following allegations she helped to suppress the release of sensitive defense documents, the latest blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet as his popularity continues to dive.
In a news conference in Tokyo, Tomomi Inada said she submitted her resignation letter to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday morning, who accepted it. She stepped down the same day the Defense Department released its findings from an investigation into the alleged cover-up, which Inada denies she was a part of.
"I am strongly aware of my responsibility as defense minister to supervise Ministry of Defense and Self Defence Force. I would like to return my one-month salary and decided to resign from defense minister," she said at a news conference Friday morning.
Corporate manslaughter charge possible in Grenfell fire
Grenfell campaigners decry punishment for corporate manslaughter charge, raised by UK police, which only carries fine.
Campaigners rejected a British police statement that there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect that local authorities may have committed corporate manslaughter in a deadly high-rise fire in London, saying the punishment for the charge - a fine - is too light.
The Metropolitan Police force wrote to residents of the Grenfell Tower on Thursday and said officers might interview senior members of the local council and the housing association that ran the public housing block.
The officer leading the case informed the Kensington and Chelsea council and the Chelsea Tenant Management Association that they "may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter", the letter said.
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