May 22, 2012
ITALY - Earthquake: Seven dead, 50 injured, authorities say
People look at the damaged town hall building in St' Agostino, Italy, Sunday, May 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
SANT’AGOSTINO DI FERRARA | One of the worst quakes to hit northeast Italy in hundreds of years rattled the region around Bologna early Sunday, killing at least seven people, collapsing factories and sending residents running into the streets, emergency services said.
The magnitude-6.0 temblor struck at 4:04 a.m., with its epicenter about 22 miles north of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 3.2 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Civil defense agency official Adriano Gumina said the quake was the worst in the region since the 1300s. It left bell towers cracked, chunks of church facades lying in the streets, and roofs caved in.
Agency chief Franco Gabrielli put the death toll from quake damage at four – all overnight-shift factory workers who died as buildings collapsed in three separate locations. In addition, he said, two women died – apparently of heart attacks possibly sparked by fear, shortly after the quake rocked the area.
Sky TG24 TV reported one of them was about 100 years old.
Mr. Gabrielli said “dozens” were injured, although it was too soon for a definitive count.
IRAN – Ahmadinejad Wants to Attend London Olympics
TEHRAN | President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but that Britain doesn’t want to host him.
Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying he would like to be “beside Iranian athletes” during the games but that the British are reluctant to have him.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Iranian atheletes to be inspired by a mythical Persian hero (AFP/File, Aamir Qureshi)
“I would like to be next to our young athletes at the 2012 Olympics but the host has a problem with this,” said Ahmadinejad during a meeting with Iranian athletes who have qualified for the Olympics.
Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he has officially requested to attend the games or say if Britain has refused him entry.
There was no immediate comment from the International Olympic Committee. …
So far some 50 Iranian athletes have qualified to participate in the Olympics in several sports, including weightlifting, wrestling, shooting, track and field, and table tennis.
ISRAEL – Israelis mark 45 years since E. Jerusalem’s seizure
JERUSALEM | Israeli ministers held a special Cabinet meeting at Ammunition Hill on Sunday to celebrate Jerusalem Day, when the Jewish state captured the Arab eastern sector 45 years ago during the Six-Day War.
Israelis march and dance in the old city of Jerusalem during celebrations marking the Jewish state's capture of the Arab eastern sector 45 years ago during the Six-Day War. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)
Celebrations were lined up throughout the day with formal ceremonies, parties and the annual flag march through East Jerusalem to mark the “reunification” of the city that took place after the 1967 Middle East war.
For Israel, which annexed the eastern sector in a move not recognized by the international community, Jerusalem is its “eternal and undivided capital.”
Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The Cabinet meeting was held at Ammunition Hill in East Jerusalem, a former Jordanian military post that saw some of the bloodiest fighting and now houses preserved trenches, battle fortifications and a museum.
During the meeting, the Cabinet decided to allocate $91 million to create public spaces in Jerusalem over the next six years in a bid to develop tourism and infrastructure, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at WashingtonTimes.com Briefly on May 20, Chicago’s SunTimes.com on May 17, and WashingtonTimes.com World Briefs on May 20.)
May 15, 2012
Sunday's march included a demonstrator dressed as Joan of Arc.
FRANCE – Catholics Protest Hollande Social Plans
PARIS | Socialist President-elect François Hollande has yet to take office, but a Catholic group marched through Paris on Sunday to protest his liberal social agenda.
Mr. Hollande, who is to be sworn in on Tuesday, has said he would introduce same-sex marriage, cut government funding to religious schools and legalize euthanasia under certain conditions.
In an early warning that these proposals may face stiff opposition, a group of about 1,500 traditionalist Catholics gathered in central Paris, saying Mr. Hollande’s proposals would be an attack on France’s society.
“We must act to stop the destruction of French civilization and of the French homeland,” said Alain Escada, head of the Civitas religious group and the march’s organizer. “We can’t passively await the change Mr. Hollande and his allies want to impose on us.”
Sunday’s protest could presage nationwide confrontation on social issues, because large political forces, not just religious movements, have rejected Mr. Hollande’s proposals.
The center-right party of departing President Nicolas Sarkozy has said it was opposed to same-sex marriage. And far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is trying to establish herself as the lead opponent to Mr. Hollande in the run-up to legislative elections next month, has said she would resolutely fight it.
Mr. Hollande is unlikely to procrastinate on gay marriage and other social initiatives, his aides say. That is because he has very little room to maneuver on the economic front and so must deliver on other parts of his electoral platform. …
Same-sex marriage has been a longstanding issue in France. The country was among the first to grant same-sex couples legal rights with the creation of the Civil Solidarity Pact, a form of civil union, in 1999. Since then, other European countries, including Belgium, Spain and Portugal, have introduced gay marriage. …
Resistance to Mr. Hollande’s proposals could serve as a catalyst for an alliance between some traditionalist religious groups and Ms. Le Pen’s National Front, political analysts say. …
SPAIN – Thousands protest austerity
Protesters pack the Puerta del Sol plaza in central Madrid, Saturday May 12, 2012.
MADRID | Spaniards angered by increasingly grim economic prospects and unemployment hitting 1 out of every 4 citizens protested in droves Saturday in the nation’s largest cities, marking the one-year anniversary of a spontaneous movement that inspired similar anti-authority demonstrations across the planet.
The country’s Interior Ministry said 72,000 people marched against the government’s tough austerity measures [raising taxes and reducing government spending] in Madrid, Barcelona and six other large cities – but protesters claimed the turnout was much higher.
The epicenter of the protest was in the capital of Madrid, where at least 30,000 people flooded into the central Puerta del Sol plaza, vowing to stay put for three days. Authorities warned they wouldn’t allow anyone to camp out overnight as protesters did last year, but the demonstrators stayed put after a midnight deadline to leave and more than 2,000 riot police on duty made no immediate effort to force them out. …
At least 22,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city. Marches were also held in Bilbao, Malaga and Seville, and sympathizers from other countries held protests across Europe.
The protests began May 15 last year and drew hundreds of thousands of people calling themselves the Indignant Movement. The demonstrations spread across Spain and Europe as anti-austerity sentiment grew.
Spain is in dire economic straits, prompting fears it may need a bailout similar to those requested by Greece, Ireland and Portugal. It is in recession, and unemployment stands at almost 25 percent – the highest among the 17 countries using the euro.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government has enacted deep spending cuts to reduce the national debt, but many people blame those measures for deepening families’ financial plight.
PAKISTAN – Billboard ads featuring bare-shouldered women covered up
ISLAMABAD | Dozens of billboard advertisements featuring bare-shouldered women have been covered over in the dead of night in the Pakistani city of Karachi with black posters and the slogan: “Sell clothes, not your honor.”
No one knows who is responsible. Claims made by previously unknown women’s groups have been dismissed and many believe they are being used as a front for hard-line religious groups.
“These are not paid advertisements. People are putting up banners over the billboards late at night,” Akhter Sheikh, the head of the Karachi Municipal Corporation’s advertising department told The Express Tribune. “There is nothing we can do about it.”
Spring is the time of year when Pakistan’s fashion houses unveil their new collections – colorful, airy linens that make 104F temperatures more bearable. Advertising billboards go up with images of glamorous women, many with their heads uncovered, draped in [what hard-line Islamists say is inappropriate clothing]. … A soap ad featuring Meera, a Pakistani actress, and a billboard featuring Katrina Kaif, a Bollywood star, have been covered up.
Many believe the Jamaat-e-Islami party is behind the censoring. [The Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist political party, advocating for a Theocratic based government system in Pakistan.] … However, party officials have denied running a [secret] campaign against billboards.
Bina Shah, a writer who lives in the city, said the campaigners could not stop fashion shows being beamed into homes by satellite and so had picked an easy target in a city that did not protecting. “Karachi people are much more liberal in terms of women’s dress code,” she said.
The blacked-out advertisements have now been taken down.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at WSJ.com on May 14, TheNewsTribune.com on May 13 and London’s Daily Telegraph on May 10.)
May 8, 2012
RUSSIA – Putin sworn in again as Russia’s president
Dmitry Medvedev (left) and Vladimir Putin (right)
MOSCOW | Vladimir Putin took the oath of office in a brief but regal Kremlin* ceremony on Monday, while on the streets outside thousands of helmeted riot police prevented hundreds of demonstrators from protesting his return to the presidency.
Mr. Putin, 59, has ruled Russia since 2000, first as president and then during the past four years as prime minister. The new, now six-year term will keep him in power until 2018, with the option of running for a fourth term.
“I consider service to the fatherland and our nation to be the meaning of my life,” Mr. Putin said in addressing 3,000 guests in a glittering Kremlin hall.
Despite unprecedented security measures in the center of Moscow, where streets were closed to traffic and passengers prevented from exiting subway stations, at least 1,000 opposition activists tried to protest along the route Mr. Putin’s motorcade took to the Kremlin. Many wore the white ribbons that are the symbol of the anti-Putin protest movement.
The demonstrators, separated into several groups, were met by helmeted riot police. A total of 120 were detained, including opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
Mr. Putin’s inauguration came a day after an opposition protest drew more than 20,000 people, fewer than the mass demonstrations in the months that preceded his March election but still a sign that the anger over Mr. Putin’s heavy-handed return to the Kremlin has not faded.
Sunday’s protest turned violent when some demonstrators tried to march toward the Kremlin and riot police beat back the crowds with batons and detained more than 400 people. The use of force after the winter’s peaceful rallies indicates that Mr. Putin may take a harder line toward the protesters now that he is once again president.
After taking the oath of office with his right hand on a red copy of the Russian Constitution…Mr. Putin stated his commitment to democracy. “We want to live, and we will live, in a democratic country where everyone has the freedom and opportunity to apply their talent and labor, their energy. We want to live, and we will live, in a successful Russia, which is respected in the world as a reliable, open, honest and predictable partner.”
During his time in office, Mr. Putin has overseen dramatic economic growth and restored a sense of national pride after the instability and humiliations that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. He also has retreated from the democratic achievements of the 1990s and imposed a political system that has stifled dissent. …
Mr. Putin has dismissed the Moscow protesters as ungrateful, pampered urbanites and agents of the West. …
Mr. Putin, as promised, began his new presidential term by formally nominating Dmitry Medvedev, [who served as Russia's president for the past four years as Mr. Putin's junior partner], as his prime minister. The parliament, where the Kremlin party holds a majority, voted on Medvedev’s nomination Tuesday.
[*The Kremlin is the building that houses the Russian government; the Kremlin refers to the government of Russia in the same way that the White House refers to the Executive Office of the President of the United States and Number 10 Downing Street refers to the Offices of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the British Government.]
FRANCE and GREECE - Sarkozy out in France; ruling parties lose in Greece in backlash over austerity
Newly elected French president, socialist Francois Hollande
PARIS and ATHENS | French and Greek voters delivered a sharp rebuke to their governments in national elections Sunday, raising questions about the viability of the European Union’s austerity program intended to preserve the euro as Europe’s dominant currency.
By a 52 to 48 percent, France elected Francois Hollande as its first Socialist president in 17 years, replacing the right-of-center Nicolas Sarkozy.
In Greece, voters delivered a stinging judgment against the two ruling parties that had supported austerity agreements with the EU, cutting their support by nearly half and raising questions about whether they would be able to assemble a new government. The biggest winners in Greece were the Radical Left coalition, which finished second, and the Golden Dawn party, a neo-fascist group that won parliamentary seats for the first time, with nearly 7 percent of the vote.
How the results will affect Europe’s economic planning remained to be seen. Sarkozy is a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government has been the primary proponent of the tough austerity measures that Europe has undertaken over the past two years in an effort to head off a crisis triggered by huge sovereign debt in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
Hollande has said he will press Germany to renegotiate the European agreement to enforce budget discipline and add a clause to stimulate stagnant economies and add jobs. He has also promised to raise the minimum wage and lower the retirement age to 60 from 62 for some workers, and to add 60,000 teaching jobs, all policies Sarkozy had opposed. …
Sarkozy, the first top French leader to be denied a second term since 1981, took “full responsibility for the defeat” and told associates that he would quit the leadership of his Union for a Popular Movement political party, which faces elections next month for the National Assembly. It is now the majority party. Those elections will determine whether Hollande will be able to win approval for his program.
In Greece, party workers watched in stunned silence at the headquarters of the right-of-center New Democracy party as the results showed a fall in popular support to 20.5 percent, from 33.5 percent in the 2009 parliamentary elections. A senior party official said it was “like an earthquake.”
Even harder hit was the socialist PASOK party, which has largely dominated Greek politics since 1981 and won only 14 percent of the vote — down almost two-thirds from 44 percent in 2009. …
Under Greek election law, which awards an extra 50 seats to the party with the biggest plurality, New Democracy may be able to form a government with PASOK, to which it was junior partner in an uneasy alliance since November. But it is likely to be a weak coalition and to produce spectacular battles in Parliament — assuming it adheres to its commitments to the EU to raise taxes, fire public workers and reduce wages in exchange for $240 billion in bailouts.
Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy, and Evangelos Venizelos, head of PASOK, called Sunday night for a government of national unity, bringing in all parties that want to preserve the euro as Greece’s currency.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at WashingtonTimes and BostonHerald.com on May 7th. )
May 1, 2012
GREAT BRITAIN: Olympics: British Residents May Get Missiles on Rooftops
General view of a gated residential flats in Bow, east London, where the Ministry of Defence have warned residents that surface-to-air missiles could be stationed on their rooftops during the London Olympics
LONDON — Some London residents are getting troops and surface-to-air missiles on their rooftops for the Summer Olympics.
British security officials identified potential sites for the missiles on Monday and announced plans for security tests during the week. …
News of one of the sites leaked out over the weekend when a journalist who lives in one of the buildings found a flyer notifying residents of the plan.
“From the few people I’ve spoken to, and the security we have here, they’re not happy about it,” said Brian Whelan. “I don’t think it needs to be here at all.”
Around 700 people living at Whelan’s building in Bow – about 2 miles from London’s Olympic Stadium – have been contacted and warned that the weapons and about 10 troops are likely to be based at the site for around two months. London is hosting the Summer Olympics from July 27-Aug.12.
In the leaflet, the defense ministry said the venue offered an uncluttered “view of the surrounding areas and the entire sky above the Olympic Park.”
Troops plan to conduct tests this week at the building to determine if the high velocity surface-to-air missiles will be stationed on a water tower attached to the site’s roof. …
Britain has previously confirmed that up to 13,500 troops are being deployed on land, at sea and in the air to help protect the Olympics alongside police and security guards. Typhoon fighter jets, helicopters, two warships and bomb disposal experts will be a part of the security operation.
YEMEN: U.N. envoy asks ex-president to stop meddling in state affairs
Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, January 22, 2012.
SANAA — The U.N. envoy to Yemen met Monday with the country’s former president to press him to stop meddling in the country’s affairs, diplomats said, a sign of continuing political instability that has emboldened al Qaeda.
The meeting between U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar and the former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, came after his son appointed a relative to head a new security unit, defying orders from the current president.
In February, Mr. Saleh handed power to his deputy, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, in an internationally backed agreement.
Since then, Mr. Saleh has been accused of obstructing Mr. Hadi’s attempts to purge Mr. Saleh’s loyalists from security agencies.
The internal conflict, marked by huge demonstrations against Mr. Saleh and violent government repression, has been going on for more than a year. During the political turmoil, al Qaeda-linked militants have taken over parts of the south.
ISRAEL – Israel marks 64 years of indepencence
Israeli Independence Day
JERUSALEM—Israelis celebrated their country’s 64th anniversary Wednesday with fireworks and military processions at a national ceremony in Jerusalem.
The festivities came immediately after Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks, an annual ritual of twinning grief with elation and pointing out the link between the two.
Preparations for Independence Day were marred last week when a lighting rig collapsed during a rehearsal, crushing a young soldier to death.
Speaking at the official ceremony, Parliament Speaker Reuven Rivlin cautioned against extremism of all stripes, naming ultra-Orthodox Jewish zealots, ideologues who burn mosques and activists who delegitimize the state as “those who threaten the future of Israeli society.”
Government statistics showed that Israel’s population grew by 137,500 since last year to 7,881,000. The Central Bureau of Statistics said 75 percent of the population is Jewish and 21 percent is Arab. The remaining 4 percent represents tiny minorities or immigrants who are not Jewish.
Traditional Independence Day celebrations include dancing in city streets and family cookouts in national parks. Some military bases open Thursday for visits, and Israeli cities host open-air concerts in honor of the holiday.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at Chicago SunTimes.com on April 30th, Boston Herald on April 25th and The Washington Times on April 30th.)
April 24, 2012
POLAND – Thousands of youth remember Holocaust at Auschwitz
Several thousands of people are taking part in the annual Holocaust-commemorating 'March of the Living' on the site of the wartime Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. 'Marches of the Living' have been organized since 1988 by the Israeli Ministry of Education in cooperation with the 'March of the Living' organization on Holocaust Remembrance Day
WARSAW | Thousands of youth from Israel, the United States and other countries marched Thursday between Auschwitz and Birkenau, the two parts of Nazi Germany’s most notorious death complex, to honor the millions killed in the Holocaust.
Also Thursday, Polish officials and members of the Jewish community gathered in Warsaw to mark the 69th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the doomed revolt that a group of Jews waged against the Nazis in 1943.
An estimated 10,000 young people, some carrying Israeli flags or wearing them draped around their shoulders, took part in the March of the Living in Oswiecim, a town in southern Poland where the Germans operated Auschwitz during World War II.
The event, which takes place every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, involves a walk of two miles from Auschwitz to Birkenau, where Hitler’s men executed Jews, Roma and others in huge numbers in gas chambers.
The participants were joined by a handful of Holocaust survivors and American military veterans who helped liberate several other death camps at the end of World War II.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945, in the closing months of the war as Germany faced defeat.
JAPAN – Japan’s newest tower uses anti-quake technology
Journalists walk around the observation deck of the Tokyo Sky Tree. (AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)
TOKYO | A Tokyo developer took visitors up the world’s tallest freestanding broadcast structure on Tuesday, April 17, a 634-meter (2,080-foot) tower with special technology meant to withstand earthquakes that often strike Japan.
The Tokyo Skytree is the world’s second-tallest structure behind the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to owner Tobu Tower Skytree Co. [Compare these to the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. Both were 110 stories, although 1 WTC was 1,368 feet (417.0 meters) tall and 2 WTC was 1,362 feet (415.1 m) tall. 1 WTC also supported a 360 foot tall antenna.]
The needle-like radio and television tower opens to the public on May 22.
Journalists given a tour Tuesday saw sweeping if hazy views of the Tokyo skyline.
It took about 50 seconds in a high-speed elevator Tuesday to zip up to the lower observation deck at 1,148 feet, and another 30 seconds to reach the higher deck at 1,476 feet.
The Skytree has a restaurant and two cafes on the observation decks, a vertigo-inducing glass floor that allows visitors to look straight down, and an emergency staircase with 2,523 steps.
The tower was constructed with extremely strong steel tubes surrounding a central concrete column that are structurally separate from each other in the tower’s mid-section. In the event of an earthquake, the concrete core and steel frame are designed to offset each other to reduce the building’s overall motion.
The Skytree has been built to stand firm even if a magnitude 7 quake were to strike beneath the building, said Sho Toyoshima, a spokesman for Tobu Tower. He said the tower sustained no structural damage from the magnitude 9.0 quake that struck off Japan’s northeastern coast last March, even as it was being built.
The Skytree is expected to bolster television and radio transmissions in the capital region. Owners hope it will also become a new tourist destination in Tokyo.
SPAIN – Women visit town to ease bride shortage
On Sat., April 21, a group of women arrive in a bus before a meeting between men and women at the village of Candeleda, central Spain.
CANDELEDA | Inspired by a Hollywood western, a Spanish dating association is trying to slow a population drain from the country’s beleaguered central villages, introducing bachelors to women bussed in from the big city of Madrid with hopes of ending a bride shortage.
Candeleda, a town of 6,000 on the banks of the picturesque Lobera River, hosted a weekend fiesta to welcome 68 women for a meet-and-greet with the village’s single men. Ancient cave paintings show Candeleda has been inhabited for some 5,000 years, and resident Jose Miguel, 67, said he would hate to see its population dwindle after such a long history.
“I’ve checked out the few widows and single women here,” said Miguel. “I signed up for this to meet new ladies and to hopefully show them the beauty of my town.”
The group, Asocamu, was set up in 1995 to promote rural re-population by organizing parties for single men and woman, but Spain’s painful financial crisis and the lure of city jobs has made the need more pressing than ever, Manuel Gozalo, one of the organizers, said Sunday.
Many villages are falling into ruin, with national statistics showing that of Spain’s 5,000 villages up to 100 are under imminent threat of abandonment.
Large swathes of central and northern Spain are at risk of depopulation. In the small agricultural communities of Spain’s central plain single, male residents were finding the loneliness too tough to endure, Gozalo said.
Asocamu credits as its inspiration the 1951 film “Westward the Women,” starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel, which tells the story of how the American west was populated by organizing wagon trains of women to provide company, and brides, for lonely pioneers.
Blanca Fernandez, 52, works in sales in Madrid and was attracted by the idea of a nice day out and a chance for romance. “I know it’s difficult to find the love of one’s life, but some of these meetings have led to marriages,” she said.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at YahooNews.com on April 19th, BostonHerald.com on April 17th and ChicagoTribune.com on April 22nd.)
April 17, 2012
Prototype of robo prison guard (from Nov. 2011)
SOUTH KOREA – Robo guard on patrol in South Korean Prison
The prison system in South Korea has begun using the world’s first robot prison guard, and, according to the Asian Forum of Corrections’, it’s the future of prison security.
Lee Baik-Chul, Chairman of the Asian Forum for Correction said of the department’s decision to use robots: “The purpose to develop this kind of robot is to secure prisoner’s life and safety, and to decrease the workload of correctional officers in a poor working environment.”
The robot was developed in South Korea and is currently undergoing its first field trial. Equipped with 3D cameras and software designed to study human behavior, the robot is able to detect abnormal prisoner activity and report back to its controllers.
Mr. Lee says: “By using the 3D depth camera, it will detect every detail of actions happening inside through a window. So, when there is an unusual behavior, it’s going to analyze it and report the problem to the control system. Therefore, correctional officers will run and arrive at the scene in time.”
An officer can also use the robot’s two way wireless system to communicate with a prisoner without having to leave the control room. The robot has been designed to patrol a prison autonomously, but an IPad will allow manual control as well.
The next step, say designers, is a robot that conducts body searches although they admit, neither the technology nor the prison system is quite ready for a step that far into the future.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attends the unveiling ceremony of statues of former leaders Kim Il-Sung (his grandfather) and Kim Jong-Il (his father) in Pyongyang. (AFP Photo/Pedro Ugarte)
NORTH KOREA – North Korean rocket launch fails, draws condemnation
North Korea’s heralded long-range rocket test ended in failure Friday, disintegrating in mid-air soon after blast-off and plunging into the sea in a major embarrassment for the reclusive state.
The defiant launch drew condemnation from world leaders who described it as a “provocative” act that threatened regional security, despite Pyongyang insisting it was intended to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.
Some four hours after the rocket exploded over the Yellow Sea, the North admitted the satellite had failed to enter orbit, and that “scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure”.
The United States and its allies slammed the exercise as a disguised ballistic missile test that contravened United Nations resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests.
“North Korea is only further isolating itself by engaging in provocative acts, and is wasting its money on weapons and propaganda displays while the North Korean people go hungry,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
He said the launch “violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments,” under which Pyongyang had agreed to suspend its nuclear and missile tests in return for US food aid.
The South said it was keeping a close eye on the North “for further provocative acts such as missile tests and a nuclear test” as analysts said the humiliation could spur Pyongyang to hold a third atomic test.
The European Union joined governments in Japan and South Korea in condemning Friday’s move as a provocation that undermined peace and security in the volatile Korean peninsula and the wider region.
The North’s sole major ally, China, was more muted in its reaction, calling for restraint from all sides and saying it had not been given advance warning of the launch.
The test was supposed to have been the centerpiece of weekend commemorations to mark the centenary of the birth of North Korean founding leader Kim Il-Sung as Pyongyang cements the rule of Kim Jong-Un, who took over in December. …
North Korea had insisted the launch would not be a banned missile test and that it had every right to send the satellite up, to mark Sunday’s centenary.
Analysts said the failure would be seen as a humiliation for the untested Kim Jong-Un, who is in his late 20s, and increase the likelihood of a nuclear test in an attempt to restore national pride. …
The North, which is believed to have enough plutonium for six to eight bombs, tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009. Both were held one to three months after missile tests.
DENMARK – Danish container shipping tycoon die
COPENHAGEN – Arnold Maersk Mc-Kinney Moeller, the Dane who created the global shipping and oil conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, died Monday at the age of 98, his company said.
The shy Mc-Kinney Moeller, who was listed on Forbes magazine’s annual billionaire’s list, turned two small shipping companies that his father had created into a global corporate giant with 108,000 workers across 130 countries.
The Moeller-Maersk group owns the world’s biggest publicly-held container shipping group, Maersk Sealand.
Chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen said the company had “lost a businessman of international scope and a man who…can take credit for the group being among the world’s leading (businesses) and Denmark’s undisputed largest business.” …
Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller died yesterday in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
Mc-Kinney Moeller stepped down as board chairman in 2003, at the age of 90. Five months earlier, he steered the two companies that formed the nucleus of the A.P. Moeller group through a merger, creating the current A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S.
Although he withdrew from day-to-day management in 1993, when he appointed his deputy, Jess Soederberg, as chief executive officer, Mc-Kinney Moeller was continuously involved in the company’s management. …
In high spirits but visibly frail, Mc-Kinney Moeller made his last public appearance Thursday at the group’s general assembly in Copenhagen.
“We sisters have lost a father who never betrayed either his family or his work,” Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla said on behalf of the three daughters.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at Reuters.com, YahooNews.com and Boston.com.)
April 10, 2012
SAUDI ARABIA – Saudis may not send women to Olympics
Members of the first female Saudi basketball team 'Jeddah United' pose for a team picture in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on March 25, 2102. Saudi Arabia, where sports events for women are banned, will not send female athletes to the Olympics this year. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia | Plans for Saudi Arabia to send women to the Olympics for the first time appear to be in jeopardy.
Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Watan reported Thursday that Saudi Olympic Committee President Prince Nawaf bin Faisal does “not approve” of sending female athletes to the London Games. …
[Prince Nawaf said, however, that Saudi women taking part on their own are free to do so and the kingdom's Olympic authority would "only help in ensuring that their participation does not violate the Islamic sharia law. We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships," he told a press conference in Jeddah on Wednesday. "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of (Saudi) women who practice sports, but in private," he said, adding that the sports body has nothing to do with their activities.]
A similar arrangement was made at the Youth Olympics in 2010 for Saudi equestrian competitor Dalma Rushdi Malhas. She won a bronze medal in show jumping.
“I do not approve of Saudi female participation in the Olympics at the moment,” Nawaf was quoted as saying by the newspaper. Officials at the Saudi Olympic Committee could not be reached for comment.
The IOC [International Olympic Committee] has been in talks with the Saudis about sending women to London. “We are still in discussion and working to ensure the participation of Saudi women at the games in London,” the IOC told the Associated Press in an email on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia is one of three countries that have never included women on their Olympic teams, along with Qatar and Brunei. The IOC has been hopeful that all three would send female representatives to London, marking the first time for every competing nation.
A formal proposal for the participation of Saudi women had been scheduled to be submitted to the IOC executive board at its meeting in Quebec City from May 23-25.
NORTH KOREA – ‘Building tunnel for third nuclear test’
Satellite handout showing a three-dimensional image of North Korea's suspected nuclear test site in P'unggye-yok Kilu county (AFP)
North Korea is digging an underground tunnel in apparent preparation for a new nuclear test, intelligence reports have claimed.
Satellite images depict mounds of earth piled at the entrance of a tunnel at a site in northeast Punggye-ri, where two controversial nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009.
Observers fear that the creation of a new tunnel could indicate North Korea’s intentions to conduct a third underground nuclear test, a move which would ignite widespread international criticism.
“North Korea is covertly preparing for a third nuclear test, which would be another grave provocation,” said a report compiled by South Korean intelligence officers and obtained by The Associated Press. “North Korea is digging up a new underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in addition to its existing two underground tunnels, and it has been confirmed that the excavation works are in the final stages.”
Suspicions surrounding the possibility of a new nuclear test coincided with peaking regional tensions as North Korea counts down to this week’s launch of an observation satellite using a three-stage rocket.
The reclusive state claims the rocket launch will peacefully mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, although the move is widely regarded in the international community as cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.
Japan, where the Prime Minister David Cameron is heading for a two-day visit this week, has stationed missile interceptors in southern Okinawa and the capital Tokyo, with top orders to shoot down any part of the rocket that enters its territory.
Meanwhile, North Korea took the unusual step of inviting foreign journalists into the secretive region in order to view its rocket launch site in a bid to convince the world of its argument that its intentions are peaceful. …
North Korean officials reportedly told media that the function of the satellite is to collect data on forests and natural resources across the region, with officials able to destroy it if it veers off route.
The world’s eyes are fixed on North Korea this week less than four months after the still untested Kim Jong-un took over from his father and long-term ruler Kim Jong-il following his death in December. …
PAKISTAN – Government to punish parents who do not have children vaccinated for polio
The Pakistani government is planning to punish parents who fail to have their children vaccinated as part of an increasingly desperate effort to halt the spread of polio.
The country is one of three – along with Afghanistan and Nigeria – that have failed to eradicate the virus.
Now the government is promising to take a more muscular approach to the problem by making immunization compulsory, fining parents of children who are not protected and prosecuting religious groups who spread misinformation about vaccines.
Draft legislation, unveiled to coincide with a March vaccination drive, promises fines of more than $1,100 for parents who fail to comply. Children could also be barred from school if they do not have an immunization card.
Last year there were 198 cases of polio in Pakistan’s tribal areas where limited health care, insecurity and large populations of refugees make it difficult to administer the vaccine.
Immunization efforts have also been hampered by fears that programs may be use by foreign intelligence agencies. Last year it emerged that the CIA used a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as spies closed in on Osama bin Laden’s hideaway.
As many as 200,000 children have missed their polio vaccinations in the past two years.
Health officials fear Pakistan could become a global incubator of the crippling disease.
Earlier this month the World Health Organization warned that Pakistan could face international travel sanctions if it was unable to eradicate the disease.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at washingtontimes.com on April 5 and telegraph.co.uk on April 9 and March 28.)
April 3, 2012
INDIA – Leaked letter reveals Indian army’s weaknesses
India's General V.K. Singh, March 5.
NEW DELHI —India’s army chief says the country’s security is at risk, with army tanks running out of ammunition and its air defense system obsolete, in another embarrassment for India’s beleaguered government.
The private letter from Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was discussed in Parliament on Wednesday after it had been leaked to a national newspaper and television stations.
Defense Minister A.K. Antony said the government was addressing the concerns raised.
In the letter, the army chief claimed nearly all of India’s air defense equipment was out-of-date and that the state of the artillery, air defense and infantry was “alarming.”
Gen. Singh said the army was “devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks” and that the country’s air defense system was “97 percent obsolete.”
The letter caused an uproar in Parliament with angry opposition lawmakers attacking the government for neglecting the country’s defense.
TUNISIA – U.S. to provide $100 million to Tunisia
The United States said Thursday it would [give] $100 million to Tunisia to pay its debts, hoping to let the government focus on the economy and show a success in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. [The move, which will require congressional approval, was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton said the U.S. money would go to pay Tunisia's debt to the World Bank and African Development Bank.]
Hamadi Jebali, 62, is general secretary of Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda Party. He has served as the country's prime minister since December 2011.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. also is negotiating a separate package in which Washington would offer loan guarantees to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Tunisia.
Mrs. Clinton, who spoke by telephone Wednesday with Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, said the aid would let Tunisia pare down debts to the World Bank and African Development Bank left over from dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year regime.
The $100 million [payment from the U.S.] will allow Tunisia “to instead use [its] money for its priority programs, accelerating economic growth and job creation,” Mrs. Clinton said.
NIGERIA – Police raid bomb factory run by Islamist terrorists
Bomb-making factory discovered in Suleja, Nigeria.
ABUJA — Security forces raided a bomb factory in Nigeria run by a radical Islamist sect as gunmen from the group launched new attacks against police stations in the nation’s northeast, officials said Sunday.
The latest violence blamed on the sect known as Boko Haram killed two security officials in Kogi state and a local politician in Maiduguri, the group’s spiritual home in Nigeria’s northeast.
Authorities raided the bomb factory Saturday in Okene, a town in Kogi state, which sits just south of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sin” in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north, has carried out attacks in Kogi state previously, the furthest south its struck in its campaign of terror.
This still picture from YouTube is said to show Abubakar Shekau, leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants. (AFP Photo)
[The sect has rejected efforts to begin indirect peace talks with Nigeria’s government. The group’s demands include the introduction of strict Sharia law across the country, even in Christian areas, and the release of all their imprisoned followers.
Meanwhile Sunday, Borno state police spokesman Samuel Tizhe said local politician Wanangu Kachuwa was shot to death after returning home from a church service. Tizhe blamed the attack on Boko Haram and said no arrests have been made.
In an earlier attack Saturday night in neighboring Yobe state, authorities said sect members burned down two police stations in separate cities. Local police spokesman Toyin Gbadegesin said two officers were injured in those attacks and that the force had ordered the closure of all police outpost in the state.]
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at washingtontimes.com on March 28, March 29 and April 1.)
March 27, 2012
BRAZIL – Locator chips keep track of students
A tracking microchip similar to the ones embedded in Brazilian school uniforms. (RT.com)
SAO PAULO | Grade-school students in a northeastern Brazilian city are using uniforms embedded with locator chips that help alert parents if they’re cutting classes, the city’s education secretary said Thursday.
Twenty thousand students in 25 of Vitoria da Conquista’s 213 public schools started using T-shirts with chips earlier this week, secretary Coriolano Moraes said by telephone.
By 2013, all of the city’s 43,000 public school students, aged 4 to 14, will be using the chip-embedded T-shirts, he added.
Radio frequency chips in “intelligent uniforms” let a computer know when children enter school and it sends a text message to their cell phones. Parents are also alerted if kids don’t show up 20 minutes after classes begin with the following message: “Your child has still not arrived at school.”
“We noticed that many parents would bring their children to school but would not see if they actually entered the building because they always left in a hurry to get to work on time,” Moraes said in a telephone interview. “They would always be surprised when told of the number times their children skipped class.
After a student skips classes three times parents will be asked to explain the absences. If they fail to do so, the school may notify authorities, Moares said. …
Moraes said that Vitoria da Conquista is the first city in Brazil “and maybe in the world” to use this system.
“I believe we may be setting a trend because we have received many requests from all over Brazil for information on how our system works,” he said.
GREAT BRITAIN – Brits to See How Taxes Are Spent
LONDON | Every British taxpayer is to receive a personal statement detailing exactly how their taxes are being spent as part of the government’s drive to make the tax system easier to understand and more transparent.
British Treasury chief George Osborne was expected to announce in [last week's] budget that Britain’s 20 million taxpayers will receive the annual statements [starting in] 2014.
“It is quite right that people know how much tax they pay and what it is spent on,” a person familiar with the matter said.
The statements will set out how much income tax and National Insurance – workers’ contribution toward the state-funded health system – each taxpayer contributes. It will also break down the main areas of spending on public [government] services and how much of the taxpayer’s contribution goes on each.
An example statement released by the Treasury shows that a person earning £25,000 (around $40,000) a year will have taken home almost $31,000 and paid $9,051 in tax. A pie chart showing how the government spent the taxes shows the largest chunk – $3,017 – went to welfare, while $1,576 went toward health. The taxpayer would also have contributed $576 toward paying interest on the government’s debt.
COLOMBIA – Military forces kill 33 FARC rebels in Arauca
Juan Manuel Santos says there will be no let up in operations against the FARC.
BOGOTA – Colombia says its armed forces, using air strikes and ground attacks, killed 33 Marxist guerrillas [members of FARC, in a] 24 hour [period last week] in the remote, oil-rich region of Arauca, the same place the rebels attacked and killed 11 soldiers days earlier.
The military action represents one of the fiercest offensives against Colombia’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since President Juan Manuel Santos took office in 2010. …
“A major strike against the FARC in Arauca where they killed our soldiers,” President Santos said in a Twitter message upon hearing of the military offensive’s outcome. “Congrats to our forces.”
President Santos said the number of rebels killed was 24, but Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told reporters later that the toll was 33 rebels. He said six other FARC fighters were also killed in different parts of the country, bringing to 39 the number of rebels killed in 24 hours.
The counteroffensive by Colombia’s armed forces follows an attack Saturday by FARC rebels on an army encampment that killed 10 soldiers and an officer. It was the deadliest guerrilla attack against government forces in years. …
Representatives from Ecopetrol and Occidental weren’t immediately available for comment Wednesday.
The FARC, as well as the National Liberation Army, or ELN, each have a strong presence in the Arauca region. While both rebel groups are seen as weaker than they were a decade ago due to a military offensive by the government of former President Alvaro Uribe, there has been a resurgence in rebel activity since shortly after President Santos took office.
Last month, the FARC announced it was abandoning its decades-old practice of kidnapping civilians for ransom, a move analysts said could eventually lead to peace in the country beset by war.
President Santos, however, says he is willing to talk peace with the rebels only if they end all violence and release their remaining civilian and military hostages.
March 20, 2012
SWEDEN – Sweden moving towards cashless economy
The krona (plural: kronor) has been the currency of Sweden since 1873.
STOCKHOLM – … In most Swedish cities, public buses don’t accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices – which make money on electronic transactions – have stopped handling cash altogether.
“There are towns where it isn’t at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash,” complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden’s National Pensioners’ Organization.
He says that’s a problem for elderly people in rural areas who don’t have credit cards or don’t know how to use them to withdraw cash.
The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshippers to make offerings.
“People came up to me several times and said they didn’t have cash but would still like to donate money,” Tyrberg says.
Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden’s economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world’s central banks.
…..
Internet startups in Sweden and elsewhere are now hard at work developing payment and banking services for smartphones.
Swedish company iZettel has developed a device for small traders, similar to Square in the U.S., that plugs into the back of an iPhone to make it work like a credit card terminal. Sweden’s biggest banks are expected to launch a joint service later this year that allows customers to transfer money between each other’s accounts in real-time with their cell phones.
Most experts don’t expect cash to disappear anytime soon, but that its proportion of the economy will continue to decline as such payment options become available. Before retiring as deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, Lars Nyberg said last year that cash will survive “like the crocodile, even though it may be forced to see its habitat gradually cut back.”
Andrea Wramfelt, whose bowling alley in the southern city of Landskrona stopped accepting cash in 2010, makes a bolder prediction: She believes coins and notes will cease to exist in Sweden within 20 years.
“Personally I think this is what people should expect in the future,” she says.
But there are pockets of resistance. Hanna Celik, whose family owns a newspaper kiosk in a Stockholm shopping mall, says the digital economy is all about banks seeking bigger earnings.
Celik says he gets charged about 5 Swedish kronor ($0.80) for every credit card transaction, and a law passed by the Swedish Parliament prevents him from passing on that charge to consumers.
“That stinks,” he says. “For them (the banks), this is a very good way to earn a lot of money, that’s what it’s all about. They make huge profits.”
INDIA – 15,000 die each year crossing rail tracks in India
About 15,000 people die every year trying to cross the tracks of India’s mammoth rail network, a “massacre’’ that a government committee said was being ignored by railway authorities.
The safety panel said new bridges and overpasses were urgently needed, but it noted previous recommendations to make the world’s fourth largest railway system safer had been ignored. Its report noted that railway authorities were unwilling to view the deaths of people hit by trains while crossing the tracks as train accidents.
Most of the deaths occur at unmanned railroad crossings, said the report released [at the end of February]. About 6,000 people die on Mumbai’s crowded suburban rail network alone.
Another 1,000 people die when they fall from crowded [train cars], when trains collide or coaches derail, it said.
India’s 40,000 miles of railway track cut through some of the most densely populated cities, flanked by shanty towns, in the nation of 1.2 billion people.
Railway experts say stopping pedestrians from crossing the tracks in congested areas would be virtually impossible.
“The situation is exceptionally dangerous in Mumbai where four or five tracks, or more, lie parallel and people living in slums on either side have no choice but to walk across the tracks,’’ said I.M.S. Rana, a railway expert.
The High Level Safety Review Committee was set up by the government in September after a spate of train accidents. Around 20 million people in India travel by train each day.
The report called on the government to urgently replace all railroad crossings with bridges or overpasses at an estimated cost of 500 billion rupees ($10 billion) over the next five years.
“No civilized society can accept such a massacre on their railway system,’’ the report said, referring to the crossing deaths.
“Reluctance of the Indian railways to own up to the casualties, which do not fall under the purview of accidents, but are nevertheless accidents on account of trains, can by no means be ignored,’’ the report said.
The panel was especially scathing about the large number of deaths in Mumbai and recommended that the “grim situation on Mumbai’s suburban system has to be tackled on a war-footing.’’
“Trespassing occurs because of lack of barricading, fencing, lack of adequate number of pedestrian overbridges and lack of facilities such as sufficient number of platforms, escalators, elevators for the disabled apart from insufficient train services. These are the main reasons for the heavy human death toll,’’ the report said.
NETHERLANDS – ICC finds Congo warlord guilty of using child soldiers in first verdict
[NOTE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent international organization. It is not part of the United Nations system. Its seat is at The Hague in the Netherlands. The Court’s expenses are funded primarily by States Parties.]
[On March 14], the International Criminal Court [ICC] gave its first verdict since opening its doors a decade ago, finding a Congolese warlord guilty of using child soldiers in a five-year conflict that killed tens of thousands of people.
Congolese warlard Thomas Lubanga (REUTERS)
Thomas Lubanga, 51, became the first person to be found guilty by the world’s war crimes and crimes against humanity court, six years after he was arrested.
Judges said he was guilty of abducting children from the street and turning them into killers during intertribal wars in the Ituri district of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that raged between 1998 and 2003.
“The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Thomas Lubanga is guilty of the crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities,” said Sir Adrian Fulford, the British presiding judge.
The legal precedents established in the case may help lawyers further build their prosecutions against Joseph Kony, the Ugandan leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who is wanted by the ICC on 33 charges including using child soldiers.
“The verdict against Lubanga is a victory for the thousands of children forced to fight in Congo’s brutal wars,” said Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
“Military commanders in Congo and elsewhere should take notice of the ICC’s powerful message: using children as a weapon of war is a serious crime that can lead them to the dock.”
Children are still in the ranks of armed groups and the Congolese army, and in some areas of Congo children are being actively recruited, including by force, Human Rights Watch said.
The Court, and especially its flamboyant chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has faced criticism over the length of time each case is taking, and its focus on African tyrants and rebel commanders.
With 700 employees, the ICC’s budget for its first decade has been [almost $1.2 billion], mostly paid for by its 120 member states. It took seven years from its inception in 2002 to the start of Lubanga’s trial, its first, in 2009.
In addition to Congo, Mr Moreno-Ocampo has opened investigations in six other situations, in northern Uganda, the Darfur region of Sudan, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Libya, and Côte d’Ivoire.
The chief prosecutor is also conducting preliminary examinations in a number of other situations, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Nigeria, and Honduras.
Lubanga was head of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a rebel group implicated in serious human rights abuses, including ethnic massacres, torture … and the massive recruitment of children, some as young as seven.
The fighting took place in Ituri, in northeastern Congo, close to where Joseph Kony’s few remaining forces are believed to have escaped through recently.
It is one of the areas worst affected by Congo’s devastating wars, which were driven by competition to control the region’s gold mines.
Lubanga has the option to appeal Wednesday’s verdict, and he is likely to do so. If that appeal fails, he faces life imprisonment.
(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at CBSNews.com on March 18, Boston.com on Feb. 21 and London’s Daily Telegraph on March 14.)