Thursday, December 27, 2012
Six In The Morning
THE iECONOMY
Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China
By KEITH BRADSHER and CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: December 26, 2012
CHENGDU, China — One day last summer, Pu Xiaolan was halfway through a shift inspecting iPad cases when she received a beige wooden chair with white stripes and a high, sturdy back.
At first, Ms. Pu wondered if someone had made a mistake. But when her bosses walked by, they just nodded curtly. So Ms. Pu gently sat down and leaned back. Her body relaxed.
The rumors were true.
When Ms. Pu was hired at thisFoxconn plant a year earlier, she received a short, green plastic stool that left her unsupported back so sore that she could barely sleep at night. Eventually, she was promoted to a wooden chair, but the backrest was much too small to lean against. The managers of this 164,000-employee factory, she surmised, believed that comfort encouraged sloth.
Italians, backed by the Catholic Church, aim to stop Sunday shopping
A law that deregulates store hours in Italy, allowing businesses to operate on Sundays in order to stimulate economic growth, has fueled opposition since its inception a year ago.
By Giulia Lasagni, Contributor
Italians are fighting a government lift of regulations on business operation hours, insisting that the move will eventually hurt the small shops and values that have long been the foundation of the Italian business community.
The deregulation, put into effect January 2012, removes restrictions on business operating hours, including Sundays and holidays. It is intended to stimulate competition in what has traditionally been a highly regulated market. However, it has been vehemently criticized by many shop owners, and the campaign against it has received a boost from the powerful Catholic Church.
Campaign organizers argue that working on Sunday has forced employees to sacrifice "important values" and benefited big companies at the expense of small businesses.
Mental illness, poverty haunted Afghan policewoman who killed American
December 27, 2012 - 7:18AM
The Afghan policewoman suspected of killing a US contractor at police headquarters in Kabul suffered from mental illness and was driven to suicidal despair by poverty, her children told Reuters on Wednesday.
The woman was identified by authorities as Narges Rezaeimomenabad, a 40-year-old grandmother and mother of three who moved here from Iran 10 years ago and married an Afghan man.
On Monday morning, she loaded a pistol in a bathroom at the police compound, hid it in her long scarf and shot an American police trainer, apparently becoming the first Afghan woman to carry out such an attack.
EGYPT
Egypt turns to ailing economy, Morsi defends vote
President Mohammed Morsi has signed into law Egypt's controversial new constitution and told the nation that its next task is to fix the economy. Egypt's pound has neared an all-time low, prompting a rush at the banks.
In his latest televised address Wednesday, Morsi said Egypt's economy faced "huge challenges" but had "great opportunities to grow." He said he was considering a cabinet reshuffle to as part of his plan to attract investors.
His office had earlier announced that Morsi had formally signed into law the constitution, which the opposition has condemned as being too Islamist. The text got 64 percent approval in a two-stage referendum that drew only a third of all eligible voters.
Kenya: Fears of another violent election
Alliances forged by Kenya's presidential contenders are lining up a repeat of a ethnic-based contest that exploded in the 2007 vote.
Alliances forged by Kenya's main presidential contenders for elections in March are lining up a repeat of a largely ethnic-based contest for political power that exploded into bloodshed in the 2007 vote.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya's founder president, lead the two main opposing camps for the March 4 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The head-on rivalry between Kenyatta, from the predominant Kikuyu tribe, and Odinga, a Luo, raises the spectre of the tribal clashes that followed the 2007 election and killed more than 1 200 people, uprooting thousands more from their homes.
Best slapdowns of 2012
Wickedly withering words from famous names including Madonna, Barack Obama and Karl Lagerfeld
The Guardian,
January
"Welcome to Twitter... @RupertMurdoch. I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!"
John Prescott reacts to the media mogul's nascent social media presence
John Prescott reacts to the media mogul's nascent social media presence
"If I'm just like a virgin, Ricky, why don't you come over here and do something about it?"
Madonna bites back at Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, after the comedian claimed the singer had not yet lost her virginity
Madonna bites back at Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, after the comedian claimed the singer had not yet lost her virginity
"I don't think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there."
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul responds to his rival Newt Gingrich's suggestion that the US install a permanent lunar base
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul responds to his rival Newt Gingrich's suggestion that the US install a permanent lunar base
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Six In The Morning
'Big Stars, Big Giving': Making the world a better place in 2012 and beyond
December 26, 2012 -- Updated 0442 GMT (1242 HKT)
(CNN) -- The holidays are a time of reflection and often a time of charity, even for some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
CNN's Alina Cho is taking a special look at how three celebrities are doing their part for causes near to their hearts in this year's "Big Stars, Big Giving," which is scheduled to air 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET December 26-28 on CNN.
Matt Damon
Academy Award winner Matt Damon is using his star power to lead the way for change and bring clean water to those who do not have access to such a basic staple.
"Every 20 seconds, a kid under the age of 5 is dying, losing their life because they do not have access to clean water. And it just doesn't have to be that way," Damon tells CNN.
The beast in Delhi's belly
Esmerelda Jelbart Wallbridge
NOT far from where I live, in a hospital in the south of Delhi, a 23-year-old woman clings to life, after a trip home from the cinema became a living nightmare. Brutally raped and beaten on a bus by a gang of six men, her naked body was then thrown from the moving vehicle. Doctors have described her intestinal and perineal injuries as life threatening. In a critical condition, she remains on a ventilator, unable to breathe unaided. Her future is uncertain.
The incident has captured the attention of the nation. There has been a collective outpouring of shock, outrage, grief and anger. "Delhi's SHAME!" screams one headline. "Save women, save India!" shouts a protester and poster at India Gate. Bollywood stars and cricket icons have weighed in on Twitter. Distressed MPs have wept openly in Parliament. There have been marches and demonstrations across the country. There have been strident calls for the death penalty for the perpetrators and a groundswell of support for the introduction of capital punishment for convicted rapists. India is in crisis.
POLITICS
Shinzo Abe elected prime minister of Japan
Shinzo Abe has been elected prime minister by Japan’s lower house parliament for the second time. Despite resigning after one year of his first term, Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have surged back to power.
Shinzo Abe was voted in as prime minister by the lower parliament in Tokyo on Wednesday and is expected to choose his administration later in the day.
The upper house is set to vote later Wednesday, but Abe's appointment is all but guaranteed.
Abe was first elected premier in 2006 but after a one-year term troubled by scandal in his cabinet, he abruptly resigned. Abe, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), have made a stunning comeback with a two-pronged policy of aggressive monetary easing and big fiscal spending to slay deflation.
Six killed in Christmas church attack in Nigeria
Gunmen have killed six people at a church in Nigeria, making 2012 the third year that Christmas services have come under deadly attack in the country.
The military said the strike took place after a midnight Christmas Eve service early on Tuesday outside the town of Potiskum in north-eastern Yobe state, where radical sect Boko Haram has carried out several attacks this year.
"Unknown gunmen attempted to attack Potiskum but were repelled by the troops. While they were fleeing, they attacked a church in a village known as Jiri," said military spokesperson Eli Lazarus, who confirmed that six people were killed.
Members of Boko Haram, who want to impose Sharia law in north Nigeria, have killed hundreds.
The group killed dozens in a series of bombings across north Nigeria on churches on Christmas Day last year, mirroring similar attacks in 2010 which killed more than 40.
Russia’s Desire for Cars Grows, and Foreign Makers Take Notice
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia — Sleek and glistening, the General Motors sedans creep off the assembly line here. They are as new as cars can get. And so is the assembly line, where the first test cars emerged this month.
Even as G.M. is scaling back elsewhere in Europe, the company is ramping up production in Russia, a country that is becoming a bright spot for G.M. and much of the rest of the automotive industry.
Trickle-down oil wealth and the spread of easily accessible auto financing are lifting sales, which rose by 40 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period a year ago. G.M., Ford,Volkswagen, Nissan and Renault are all opening new plants, or intend to do so soon.
As fighting rages in Aleppo, Syrians face hunger, disease and little hope of aid
By ,
In Aleppo, Syria — Darkness comes early to the streets of this ancient city, once a symbol of Syria’s richly storied past and now at the heart of the deepening nightmare that the country’s revolution has become.
By 5 p.m., people are scurrying home, down streets potholed by artillery, past piles of rubble and mountains of garbage that hasn’t been collected in months, to spend the evenings huddled in the cold without heat, light or, increasingly, food.
“We just lie under blankets because it is so cold. We have no work, no money and no life,” said Omar Abu Mohammed, 55, one of the few remaining residents of his badly bombed neighborhood, as he prepared to head indoors for the night.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Chinese government to build music city: You bet!
The Chinese government has announced plans to build a valley of music it hopes will foster the growth of its nascent music industry. Given the Communist Parties penchant for control how do they propose to create the bastion of music making?
In America music developed independently in various parts of the country giving each genre its distinct sound and flavor.
Memphis Tennessee is the birth place of Rockabilly:
Mississippi Delta Blues:
From the top of a hillside in Pinggu village, an hour's drive from central Beijing, the future of China's music industry doesn't look like much – just a vista of Mao-era farmhouses and parched cabbage fields.
In America music developed independently in various parts of the country giving each genre its distinct sound and flavor.
Memphis Tennessee is the birth place of Rockabilly:
Rockabilly was born as one of the earlier styles of rock and roll music. Its place in Memphis music history was created from a combination of country, blues, jazz, and rock and roll. It crossed cultures, generations, and nationalities to form its own unique genre in the early to middle 1950’s.In 1956, rockabilly reached its peak with Memphis songs by Elvis Presley and hits from Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins that landed on the charts. However, by the end of the decade the style declined in popularity, likely due to Presley joining the army and other artist returning to their country roots. The deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens are also cited as reasons for the decline. Rockabilly inspired a youth culture following with the emerging teenage demographic. The rebellious nature of the music and of the artists set into motion the rock and roll mindset and attraction that resounds currently in subcultures of the genre.
Mississippi Delta Blues:
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The Mississippi Delta area is famous both for its fertile soil and its poverty. Guitar,harmonica and cigar box guitar are the dominant instruments used, with slide guitar (usually on the steel guitar) being a hallmark of the style. The vocal styles range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery. Delta blues is also regarded as a regional variation of country blues.Chicago Blues
OriginAlthough Delta blues certainly existed in some form or another at the turn of the 20th century, it was first recorded in the late 1920s, when record companies realized the potential African American market in Race records. The ‘major’ labels produced the earliest recordings and consisted mostly of one person singing and playing an instrument; however, the use of a band was more common during live performances. Current belief is that Freddie Spruell is the first Delta blues artist recorded, as he waxed "Milk Cow Blues" in Chicago in June 1926.[1] Record company talent scouts made some of these early recordings on 'field trips' to the South; however, the labels invited some Delta blues performers to travel to northern cities to record. According to Dixon & Godrich [1981], Tommy Johnson and Ishman Bracey were recorded by Victor on that company's second field trip to Memphis, in 1928. Robert Wilkins was first recorded by Victor in Memphis in 1928, and Big Joe Williams and Garfield Akers also in Memphis (1929) by Brunswick/Vocalion.
is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, piano and sometimes saxophone and trumpet. The music developed in the first half of the twentieth century as a result of the Great Migration, when Black workers moved from the South into the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago.
Originally, the Chicago blues was street corner-based music. But after the music quickly gained popularity, it became a giant commercial enterprise. Soon the new style of music reached out and touched Europe, which led many famous English rock n' roll bands to get their inspiration from the Chicago blues.
At first, the blues clubs in Chicago were filled with black performers, and the music itself was aimed for black audiences. Most of the blues clubs were on the far south side of Chicago, so white people did not visit them. Later, however, more and more white audiences visited the clubs and listened to the music. This caused clubs to open up on the north side. In addition, more white men started playing the blues after it became popular.
Chicago blues has a more extended palette of notes than the standard six-note blues scale; often, notes from the major scale and dominant 9th chords are added, which gives the music a more of a "jazz feel" while remaining in the confines of the blues genre. Chicago blues is also known for its heavy rolling bass.
From the top of a hillside in Pinggu village, an hour's drive from central Beijing, the future of China's music industry doesn't look like much – just a vista of Mao-era farmhouses and parched cabbage fields.
Yet Beijing officials have announced plans to spend more than 10 years and £1.4bn turning the area into the "China Music Valley", a sprawling compound that will be home to recording studios, instrument makers, music schools, five-star hotels and an arena in the shape of a peach.
Analysts say the music industry's problems are primarily economic. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has said that the country has a piracy rate of "virtually 100%".
Yet many issues can be traced back to the heavy hand of the state. Television and radio stations are tightly regulated, giving artists little room to experiment with edgy content like the offbeat satire that propelled Gangnam Style's singer Psy to international fame.
Six In The Morning
No Easy Route if Assad Opts to Go, or to Stay, in Syria
By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD
Published: December 24, 2012
Explosions bloom over the Damascus suburbs. His country is plunging deeper into chaos. The United Nations’ top envoy for the Syrian crisis,Lakhdar Brahimi, met with Mr. Assad in the palace on Monday in an urgent effort to resolve the nearly two-year-old conflict.
How Mr. Assad might respond to Mr. Brahimi’s entreaty depends on his psychology, shaped by a strong sense of mission inherited from his iron-fisted father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad; his closest advisers, whom supporters describe as a hard-line politburo of his father’s gray-haired security men; and Mr. Assad’s assessment, known only to himself, about what awaits him if he stays — victory, or death at the hands of his people.
India gang rape protests: Manmohan Singh appeals for calm
A day after police quell rising anger with teargas and water cannons, PM calls for calm and promises justice for victim
The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, called for calm on Monday in a televised public address a day after police used baton charges, water cannons and teargas to disperse crowds of demonstrators calling for stronger measures to combat the wave of sexual violence towards women in the country.
The brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old in the capital, Delhi, has provoked widespread anger, focused largely on the police, politicians and senior officials, and has dominated news bulletins since the attack eight days ago.
The victim, a physiotherapy student who was returning home with a friend from a film in the south of the capital, is still in a critical condition. Six men have been arrested and face life imprisonment if convicted of any role in the assault, which took place over an hour on a bus travelling on main roads in the capital.
ISRAEL
Palestinian Christmas in Israel festive, yet restive
Christian Palestinians in Israel are a minority among a minority. In the Arab city of Maghar, Muslims, Druze and Christians co-exist in fragile peace as the Christian community prepares for its biggest day of the year.
Only a few kilometers off Lake Genezareth and the cities Tiberias and Kapernaum, Christmas preparations are in full swing. The streets of the Christian area in the town of Maghar are decorated with lights, the shop windows are offering Christmas decorations, young girls are wearing Christmas dresses to school.
The community has put particular effort into decorating the town's single church. "If I look at the illuminated church, I'm overwhelmed by a festive feeling," says Naim Artoul. The 24-year-old studies medicine in Germany, and has come back home just for Christmas.
Who Is François Hollande?Crisis Will Reveal French President's True Contours
By Mathieu von Rohr in Paris
Is French President François Hollande a reformer or a traditional leftist? He's a man who enjoys his role as France's leader, but many voters are asking themselves who it is they elected. He's a staunch opponent of Angela Merkel's austerity measures and has made combatting them a priority. His true political agenda may only become apparent as the euro crisis continues.
François Hollande has been speaking for two hours and 37 minutes, from his place at the podium in the grand ballroom of the Elysée Palace. It is mid-November, and this is the French president's first press conference since taking office. He hasn't yet even broken a sweat.
Egypt's president summons Parliament chamber
Mohammed Morsi has ordered Parliament's upper chamber to convene after the release of results of a referendum that gives it temporary powers.
Egypt's president ordered Parliament's upper chamber to convene after the release of official results of a referendum on an Islamist-backed Constitution that gives temporary legislative powers to the traditionally toothless chamber.
The results had been expected on Monday but were not released and the electoral commission has not yet set a date to announce them. The Muslim Brotherhood, the main group that backed the charter, said it passed with 64% of the vote – a result likely to be confirmed by the official result.
Parliament's upper house, the Shura Council, cannot convene before the official word that the Constitution has passed.
Could the US learn from Australia's gun-control laws?
As the US debates its gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting, some Australians are urging the US to consider modeling its laws after Australia's.
By Helen Clark, Contributor
Almost two weeks after a shooting spree stunned Australia in 1996, leaving 35 people dead at thePort Arthur tourist spot in Tasmania, the government issued sweeping reforms of the country’s gun laws.
There hasn’t been a mass shooting since.
Now, after the recent shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Australia’s National Firearm Agreement (NFA), which saw hundreds of thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons bought back then destroyed, is being examined as a possible example for the US, to mixed reaction in Australia.
There hasn’t been a mass shooting since.
Now, after the recent shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Australia’s National Firearm Agreement (NFA), which saw hundreds of thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons bought back then destroyed, is being examined as a possible example for the US, to mixed reaction in Australia.
Australians have been following the Connecticut tragedy closely, and many say the US solution lies in following Australia’s path, or at least reforming current laws. But a small but vocal number of Australia’s gun supporters are urging caution.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Six In The Morning
India's PM responds to gang rape protests
Manmohan Singh appeals for "peace and security" and promises to protect women against sex crimes.
Last Modified: 24 Dec 2012 07:18
Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India, has vowed to protect women in the wake of violent demonstrations against the "national epidemic" of sex crimes.
He spoke after police clashed with hundreds of protesters for the second straight day in the Indian capital New Delhi, after earlier imposing a ban on mass demonstrations against the gang rape of a medical student in the capital last weekend.
"There is genuine and justified anger and anguish at this ghastly incident," Singh said in a televised statement, appealing for "peace and calm" after the clashes in the heart of the capital.
"I assure you that we will make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety to all women in this country."
Police had shot tear gas and water cannon, and used batons to disperse demonstrators, as the crowd at Delhi's landmark India Gate monument defied orders banning the protests and swelled into the thousands.
Scuffles occurred between protesters and police near government buildings, with demonstrators shouting slogans against the authorities and throwing stones and bottles at their barricades. Angry protesters later overturned a vehicle and seized police vans.
ROBERT FISK
A word of advice about the Middle East – we’ve reached the ‘tipping point’ with cliches
You've got to be careful when Syria's rebels are perpetually "closing in"
AFGHANISTAN
Kabul blames tax evasion on "foreign" firms.
The Afghan finance ministry has accused some NATO-linked foreign companies of "running away" from paying taxes. This follows a claim by President Hamid Karzai that corruption is his country is "imposed" from outside.
The tax evasion claim - first leveled in an Afghan 1TV television network report on Saturday - was reasserted on Sunday by senior ministry official Waheedullah Tawhidi.
In Kabul, he told the German news agency dpa that foreign companies involved in security, logistics, communications and media were "evading tax."
The Afghan television report put the taxes lost at some 53 million euros ($70 million). Some 15 foreign companies, including 11 that provide logistics to the NATO-led coalition, were "violating Afghanistan's rules by not paying taxes," it said.
Islamists smash more Timbuktu mausoleums
Armed groups occupying Timbuktu in northern Mali used pickaxes to smash up any remaining mausoleums in the ancient city, an Islamist leader said.
The rebels' ruthless implementation of their version of Islamic law comes just days after the United Nations approved a military force to wrest back control of the conflict-ridden area.
"Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn't like it," Ansar Dine leader Abou Dardar told AFP. "We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area."
Witnesses confirmed the claims and one resident, who said he belongs to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), another militant group occupying the city since a March coup plunged the west African state into chaos.
Uruguay postpones vote on 'state as dealer' approach to drug regulation - but not for long?
President Mujica always said he wouldn't push the proposal if a majority of Uruguayans didn't accept it. But few think this postponement means the project is forever shelved.
By Sara Miller Llana, Staff Writer
Uruguay has been on the vanguard of drug policy reform in the Americas, proposing a state regulatory market for the cultivation and consumption of marijuana. (See our cover on “Latin America reinventing the War on Drugs” here).
But last week the project’s No. 1 proponent – and perhaps the globe’s most trailblazing reformer – Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, told Parliament to postpone the vote.
President Mujica always said he would not go forward with the proposal if a majority of Uruguayans did not accept it. And a new poll by the firm Cifra shows 64 percent of those surveyed remain opposed.
“Don’t pass a law because it has a majority in Parliament,” the president was quoted as saying in the local press. “The majority has to be in the streets.”
Citing Broken System, Critics Fight Russia’s Adoption Ban
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: December 23, 2012
MOSCOW — The orphans’ faces can be called up on screen, their photos the size of postage stamps, along with a few data points and a note about their personalities, often just a word or two.
Kirill P., age 6, from Rostov in the south — hazel eyes, brown hair — wears a sweatshirt with dragons on it and is described simply as “sociable.” Angelina F., 16 months, from Khabarovsk in the Far East — gray eyes, brown hair — is actively developing an interest in her surroundings and “responds to any caring and affection.”
Maksim N., who just turned 11, is “mobile, restless, outgoing, likes to play games.” This isRussia’s “federal database of orphans and children without parental care,” a publicly available electronic repository of the forlorn and forgotten — more than 118,000 of them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)