Operation Fox Hunt - How China is Hunting Humans Abroad

Operation Fox Hunt is China's operation for catching "criminals" abroad, but the crimes are not only financial in nature... not liking the government is enough to get you hunted. Certain countries are even helping the Chinese government catch these people, but some countries are waking up to this sinister operation.

Sri Lanka: ‘One Country, One Law’

 

Minorities criticise proposed legal reforms that Sri Lanka’s president says aim to heal divisions.

How exactly will a new plan to rule all Sri Lankan communities under one law effectively represent everyone, while also trying to help heal divisions within society?

The decision to appoint a Buddhist monk to oversee these sweeping reforms is stoking controversy.

The 5 Most Illegal Things I Did in China

 

I broke the the law in China many times, what were the top 5 illegal things I did in China? Come find out!

Is France legalising Islamophobia?

 

As Ramadan begins this week, many Muslims in France are bracing themselves for the passage of a controversial new law.

Recently approved by the Senate, the “anti-separatism” bill aims to stop radicalisation. It doesn’t name any specific religion, but includes provisions that critics say single out France’s six million Muslims. If passed, the government would have new powers to close places of worship that get foreign funding and/or preach certain ideologies.

Why Poland is having huge protests

 

In October and November of 2020, Poland saw its biggest protests since the fall of its communist regime 30 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of women marched in defiance of a new court ruling that would outlaw abortions under almost any circumstance.

Thailand's Cannabis Revolution

 

In the first country in Asia to legalise medical marijuana, some promise it will alleviate poverty and even cure cancer.

For decades, Thailand was at the forefront of the war on drugs.

Known for flooding the world with drugs from the Golden Triangle, Thailand's laws became so tough, the country now tops the list in Asia for the rate of incarceration.

But recently, the military-led government shocked the world by announcing plans to legalise medical marijuana, or cannabis.

Without a legal trace: Eradicating statelessness in Kyrgyzstan

Meet some of the thousands left stateless after the Soviet Union's dissolution, and those who are working to help them.

When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, newly independent states emerged.

These new borders meant that all of a sudden people found themselves on the wrong side - foreigners in a country they called their home, but were unable to prove or formally claim as such.

The United Nations refugee agency estimates that at least 280 million people lost their citizenship during the formation of post-Soviet republics, including in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Malaysia: On Death Row

101 East investigates why plans to abolish the death penalty in Malaysia are causing controversy.

In Malaysian jails, more than 1,200 prisoners are on death row.

For them, news that the government was planning to abolish the death penaltyprovided a much-needed glimmer of hope.

"Let him come back," says Siti Zebedah, whose son has been on death row for 16 years. He was found guilty of trafficking 858 grams of cannabis in 2007 and sentenced to death.

"Let him take me to the mosque. I want to hold him," his mother says.

India's Forbidden Love: An Honour Killing on Trial

The survivor of a brutal honour killing testifies against her parents in the murder trial of her lower-caste husband.

In March 2016, Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India.

Shankar, who came from a lower Dalit caste, died of his injuries. Kausalya survived and accused her parents of orchestrating an honour killing.

Witness follows Kausalya as she fights for justice through the courts, testifying against her parents in a trial where they face the death penalty.

Who Killed Robert Kennedy?

Fifty years on, questions about witness testimony, hidden evidence and the true identity of Kennedy's killer remain.

Fifty years ago, United States Senator Robert F Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just moments after he'd won California's Democratic presidential primary.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, was arrested at the scene of the shooting in what the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) thought was an open-and-shut case.

Sirhan was tried and jailed for Robert Kennedy's murder. But since the 1970s, there have been calls for a new investigation into the assassination, based on differing witness accounts, the number of shots fired and distance of Sirhan from Kennedy when he fired.

A Tale of Singers and Murderers

Meet the prisoners competing to participate in Russia's prison song contest and the woman inspiring them to sing.

Every year, prisoners across Russia dream of taking part in the annual Kalina Krasnaya Prison Song Contest.

It is open to all of Russia's approximately 700,000 prisoners and thousands of applications are submitted each year.

They all end up with the contest's director, Natalia Abashkina, a woman for whom Kalina Krasnaya has become an all-consuming passion.

"It's my life, my destiny, my love," she explains.

Japan's Tattoo Outlaws

A landmark legal battle over the future of tattooing erupts in Japan after police crack down on tattoo artists in Osaka.

In April 2015, five police detectives raided Taiki Masuda's tattoo studio in the Japanese prefecture of Osaka. He was accused of breaking the law by operating without a doctor's licence.

According to the country's Medical Practitioner's Act: "No person except a medical practitioner shall engage in medical practice."

But the Act, which dates from 1948, doesn't specify what constitutes "medical practice".

However, in 2001, in an attempt to regulate the country's growing permanent makeup industry, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare issued a statement in which it described "putting pigment on a needle tip and inserting it into the skin" as a medical practice that requires a medical practitioner's licence.

American Sheriff

Fault Lines investigates the power of US sheriffs and allegations of prisoner neglect and abuse.

In large parts of the United States, sheriffs are the only form of law enforcement and do everything from running the jails to patrolling the streets.

Sheriffs and their deputies account for one-quarter of all sworn law enforcement officers in the US.

But unlike police or the FBI, who have clear oversight and a chain of command holding them accountable, sheriffs are elected in often highly partisan elections.

Many sheriffs don't have term limits, and once they are elected, there are very few checks on their power. They can only be removed when the public votes against them.

India's Forbidden Love: An Honour Killing on Trial

The survivor of a brutal honour killing testifies against her parents in the murder trial of her lower-caste husband.

In March 2016, Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked on a crowded street in southern India.

Shankar, who came from a lower Dalit caste, died of his injuries. Kausalya survived and accused her parents of orchestrating an honour killing.

Witness follows Kausalya as she fights for justice through the courts, testifying against her parents in a trial where they face the death penalty.

Kausalya's now-estranged grandparents and brother, Gautham, also await the verdict, desperately hoping Kausalya's mother and father will be released.

Japan: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

A look at Japan's justice system as forced confessions and wrong convictions threaten to taint law enforcement agencies.

Japan is famous for having one of the safest societies in the world, with exceptionally low levels of crime.

But does this clean image hide a darker side?

The country's criminal courts have almost a 100 percent conviction rate.

But justice in Japan relies on confessions, and police and prosecutors have been accused of abusing their authority.  

With advances in forensic and DNA technology, an increasing number of wrongful convictions are coming to light, proving that innocent people have been imprisoned, sometimes for life.

The Anacortes Refinery Disaster

A report on the aftermath of the Anacortes oil refinery explosion and ongoing efforts to hold the company accountable.

Just after midnight on April 2, 2010, a massive fireball lit up the sky over Anacortes, Washington.

A heat exchanger at a local oil refinery had ruptured, causing highly flammable gases to ignite.

Seven workers were inside the refinery's unit when it exploded. Three of them died instantly; the other four died later from their injuries.

What happened that night and the months and years since has largely been out of the public eye.

Bringing Them Home: Parental Abduction in Australia

101 East explores why over 300 Australian children are abducted by a parent and taken overseas every year.

Five years ago, Kennedy Kembo arrived home to find his daughter missing. His wife had secretly taken her to Indonesia.

But Indonesia has not signed The Hague Convention, meaning there is little Australian authorities can do to bring abducted children home.

Australia has the highest rate per capita of international parental child abductions in the world, averaging two a week.

But for Kennedy and many other parents, there is hope. He has hired private investigators that specialise in retrieving kidnapped children. After months of surveillance, they could be close to making a recovery.

Japan: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

A look at Japan's justice system as forced confessions and wrong convictions threaten to taint law enforcement agencies.

Japan is famous for having one of the safest societies in the world, with exceptionally low levels of crime.

But does this clean image hide a darker side?

The country's criminal courts have almost a 100 percent conviction rate.

But justice in Japan relies on confessions, and police and prosecutors have been accused of abusing their authority.  

With advances in forensic and DNA technology, an increasing number of wrongful convictions are coming to light, proving that innocent people have been imprisoned, sometimes for life.

Panama Papers: Have the media censored the story?

Can the corporate-owned media really hold the corporate world to account? Plus, Julian Assange on the Panama Papers.

In this special edition of The Listening Post, we look at the Panama Papers, the world's largest ever data leak that has been exposing how the RICH and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

The papers - 11.5MILLION documents in all - have revealed how Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, allegedly helped current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars, evade or avoid tax via anonymously owned shell companies and offshore accounts.

In terms of the size of the leak and the scale of the journalistic collaboration, the story has garnered wall-to-wall coverage and dominated the front pages of newspapers across the world.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, a non-profit group in the US, coordinated the reporting with 376 journalists from 109 news organisations and 76 countries poring over the files.

Inside Indonesia's Drug War

Indonesia's drug laws are some of the strictest in the world, but are long jail terms and capital punishment working?



Once only a transit point for drugs, Indonesia has become one of the key narcotics markets in the region.

The country has some of the strictest narcotics laws in the world, including capital punishment for drug traffickers.

The government argues that tough laws are needed because it claims that four million Indonesians are drug users and more than 30 addicts die from an overdose every day. But critics say the country is failing to address the issue.

Users and dealers are subject to the same harsh penalties - filling an overcrowded, corrupt prison system that is also awash with drugs.

Now, the country wants to rehabilitate 100,000 addicts a year using forced therapy, but can it work?