NEW DELHI —India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helped set his country on the path to modernity, prosperity and power, but critics say the shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old is in danger of going down in history as a failure.
Read full article >>
Sep 5, 2012
India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes a tragic figure
India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes a tragic figure:
NEW DELHI —India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helped set his country on the path to modernity, prosperity and power, but critics say the shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old is in danger of going down in history as a failure.
Read full article >>
NEW DELHI —India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh helped set his country on the path to modernity, prosperity and power, but critics say the shy, soft-spoken 79-year-old is in danger of going down in history as a failure.
Read full article >>
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos says talks with rebels will start next month
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos says talks with rebels will start next month:
BOGOTA, Colombia — In a Cuban government house in a leafy Havana neighborhood earlier this year, Colombian rebel commanders and their government adversaries secretly debated how to carve out a path to peace and end Latin America’s most intractable guerrilla war.
Read full article >>
BOGOTA, Colombia — In a Cuban government house in a leafy Havana neighborhood earlier this year, Colombian rebel commanders and their government adversaries secretly debated how to carve out a path to peace and end Latin America’s most intractable guerrilla war.
Read full article >>
Democratic Headliners in Good Favor With Most Americans
Democratic Headliners in Good Favor With Most Americans: The majority of Americans view former President Bill Clinton, first lady Michelle Obama, and President Barack Obama favorably; Clinton's 69% rating is his personal best. Vice President Joe Biden receives mixed reviews.
Romney Gets No Bounce From Last Week's GOP Convention
Romney Gets No Bounce From Last Week's GOP Convention: Mitt Romney received no convention bounce, based on Gallup Daily tracking before (47%) and after (46%) last week's Republican National Convention. He joins John Kerry and George McGovern as nominees who did not get a bounce.
In Europe, Signs of a Jobless Generation
In Europe, Signs of a Jobless Generation: Euro-zone unemployment among young people is expected to remain elevated for at least the next half-decade.
Vietnam Arrests Former Shipping-Company Boss
Vietnam Arrests Former Shipping-Company Boss: Vietnamese police have arrested the former chief of a debt-laden state shipping company after he was extradited from a neighboring country, the government said.
Former Police Chief Charged in China
Former Police Chief Charged in China: The former police chief of the Chinese city of Chongqing, who fled to a U.S. consulate in February, triggering the scandal surrounding his boss Bo Xilai, has been charged with defection, power abuse, bribe-taking and "bending the law for selfish ends."
Sep 4, 2012
Indonesia's new tourism campaign: where are the Muslims? - GlobalPost (blog)
Indonesia's new tourism campaign: where are the Muslims? - GlobalPost (blog):
Indonesia's new tourism campaign: where are the Muslims? GlobalPost (blog) Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority nation and, naturally, Islam helps define the landscape. Provided they venture outside the Hindu island of Bali, most travelers to the archipelago will come home with memories of women in hijabs on the ... |
Indonesia's Lessons for the Developing World - The Atlantic
Indonesia's Lessons for the Developing World - The Atlantic:
 The Atlantic | Indonesia's Lessons for the Developing World The Atlantic Over the past decade and a half, Indonesia's democratic transition has been praised (including by me) as one of the most impressive of any developing country in the world. The distance traveled from the chaos, and potential split-up of the country, in ... and more » |
New page for book industry
New page for book industry: (ANN/The Nation)On her overseas trips, Kim Chongsatitwatana reads "chick lit" on her Amazon Kindle. Back in her office, she uploads dozens of manuscript submissions in PDF format onto her Sony ...
Dead terror suspects graduated from Ngruki, director says
Dead terror suspects graduated from Ngruki, director says: Director of the Al Mukmin (Ngruki) Islamic boarding school in Sukoharjo, Central Java, confirmed Monday that two terror suspects shot dead by a counterterrorism unit last Friday, graduated from the ...
Persecution: From Lombok to Sampang
Persecution: From Lombok to Sampang: More than a week after an attack on a Shiite community in which two people were killed in Sampang, Madura Island, in East Java, at least 270 refugees in the area are still waiting for a safety ...
Ministry bans nine Nazaruddin-owned firms
Ministry bans nine Nazaruddin-owned firms: JAKARTA: The Health Ministry has banned nine companies owned by graft convict and former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin from taking part in government projects.“We issue this ban ...
House forms committee on Papua
House forms committee on Papua: The House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense has established a working committee to focus on solutions to the ongoing violence in Papua.Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said on ...
Issues of the day: Minority rights and the Indonesian diaspora
Issues of the day: Minority rights and the Indonesian diaspora: Aug. 29, p. 6Early last month, the Indonesian government held its first ever congress of Indonesian diaspora in Los Angeles. With the rising importance of Indonesia in international relations, ...
Six suspects named in civilian Papua killings
Six suspects named in civilian Papua killings: The National Police announced on Tuesday that they had named six men, including a top official of a separatist group, suspects of torture and beating that led to the deaths of four civilians in Papua ...
Security Group Stokes Abuses
Security Group Stokes Abuses:
A Paris-based rights group has accused the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—a regional grouping of China, Russia, and their neighbors in Central Asia—of fomenting human rights abuses, as Beijing hosted an SCO business forum in China's troubled northwestern Xinjiang region this week.
Since the SCO's founding in June 2001 by the two world powers and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, the group has engaged in a slew of serious rights violations, justifying them as being part of anti-terrorism cooperation, according to a new report from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
"Basic rights such as the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom from torture and the duty of non-refoulment, are increasingly being violated," the FIDH said Monday in a news release published on its website.
"Victims lack adequate access to effective remedies at the national level. In this context of impunity, victims’ access to international and regional human rights mechanisms and remedies takes on additional significance."
The report came as Beijing launched the second annual China-Eurasia Expo, a regional trade fair, in Urumqi, the capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, on Monday with an address by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The SCO held a "Business Day" at the expo attended by ministerial officials and deputies from member states who held talks on topics ranging from the entry of SCO member states into the World Trade Organization to the development of logistics in the region, according to China's Xinhua state news agency.
At the same time as stepping up its security cooperation with SCO states, China is moving to boost resource-rich Xinijang's trade links with the same countries, with plans to turn Urumqi into an important exchange hub for leaders and businesses in China and its Central Asian neighbors.
Organizers said the expo, slated to run from Sept. 2 to 7 this year, has attracted several heads of states and governments and participants from 55 countries. At last year's inaugural expo, China signed over U.S. $5.5 billion in foreign contracts.
The FIDH report also hit out at amendments to the SCO's security agreement signed at a summit in Beijing in June, which agreed that member states would respond collectively to "events that jeopardize regional peace, security, and stability."
"The security doctrines of the SCO will add potency to the already expansive and unchecked state power that is often used and abused to criminalize dissent and human rights defenders," FIDH president Souhayr Belhassen said.
Xinjiang
SCO member countries including China have used murky definitions of terrorism to justify the repression in their countries, the group said.
"The SCO security framework is implemented through national legislation without a common precise definition of terrorism," the group said. "This results in laws and regulations that are overly broad and pliable to abuses by state officials."
China has blamed religious extremists and terrorists "trained in Pakistan" for a string of violent incidents to hit Xinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim Uyghurs who chafe under Beijing's policies in the region.
"In China, Uyghur political and human rights activists from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are ... branded with extremism, separatism, and terrorism as part of the regime’s strategy to control the population and isolate peaceful separatist groups," the report said.
"Under SCO conventions the boundaries between terrorism and separatism are very thin: opposition members and members of minority groups, such as the Uyghurs in China, are readily accused of the 'crime' of separatism."
Forced repatriations
Under security agreements aimed at fighting the “three evils” of terrorism, extremism, and separatism, SCO member states are bound to repatriate nations of fellow member states on request, without requiring evidence of wrongdoing.
The report singled out Kazakhstan for its forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers to China and Uzbekistan, in violation of United Nations human rights covenants.
In June 2011, Kazakhstan deported to China Ershidin Israil, an Uyghur wanted by Beijing for speaking up on torture and death in Chinese jails, after he sought asylum in Kazakhstan after fleeing his home in the Xinjiang.
Ershidin Israil, a former history schoolteacher, was granted refugee status by the United Nations, but a court in Kazakhstan refused to provide him political asylum and Beijing has accused him of "terrorism."
"Israil’s extradition was a result of the SCO agreement not to grant refugee status and to extradite those accused or suspected of 'extremism, separatism, or terrorism,'" the report said.
The SCO framework was also used to prevent Uyghur activists living in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from attending a conference on Uyghur issues in the U.S. in 2011, the group said.
Reported by Luisetta Mudie.
A Paris-based rights group has accused the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—a regional grouping of China, Russia, and their neighbors in Central Asia—of fomenting human rights abuses, as Beijing hosted an SCO business forum in China's troubled northwestern Xinjiang region this week.
Since the SCO's founding in June 2001 by the two world powers and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, the group has engaged in a slew of serious rights violations, justifying them as being part of anti-terrorism cooperation, according to a new report from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
"Basic rights such as the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom from torture and the duty of non-refoulment, are increasingly being violated," the FIDH said Monday in a news release published on its website.
"Victims lack adequate access to effective remedies at the national level. In this context of impunity, victims’ access to international and regional human rights mechanisms and remedies takes on additional significance."
The report came as Beijing launched the second annual China-Eurasia Expo, a regional trade fair, in Urumqi, the capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, on Monday with an address by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The SCO held a "Business Day" at the expo attended by ministerial officials and deputies from member states who held talks on topics ranging from the entry of SCO member states into the World Trade Organization to the development of logistics in the region, according to China's Xinhua state news agency.
At the same time as stepping up its security cooperation with SCO states, China is moving to boost resource-rich Xinijang's trade links with the same countries, with plans to turn Urumqi into an important exchange hub for leaders and businesses in China and its Central Asian neighbors.
Organizers said the expo, slated to run from Sept. 2 to 7 this year, has attracted several heads of states and governments and participants from 55 countries. At last year's inaugural expo, China signed over U.S. $5.5 billion in foreign contracts.
The FIDH report also hit out at amendments to the SCO's security agreement signed at a summit in Beijing in June, which agreed that member states would respond collectively to "events that jeopardize regional peace, security, and stability."
"The security doctrines of the SCO will add potency to the already expansive and unchecked state power that is often used and abused to criminalize dissent and human rights defenders," FIDH president Souhayr Belhassen said.
Xinjiang
SCO member countries including China have used murky definitions of terrorism to justify the repression in their countries, the group said.
"The SCO security framework is implemented through national legislation without a common precise definition of terrorism," the group said. "This results in laws and regulations that are overly broad and pliable to abuses by state officials."
China has blamed religious extremists and terrorists "trained in Pakistan" for a string of violent incidents to hit Xinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim Uyghurs who chafe under Beijing's policies in the region.
"In China, Uyghur political and human rights activists from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are ... branded with extremism, separatism, and terrorism as part of the regime’s strategy to control the population and isolate peaceful separatist groups," the report said.
"Under SCO conventions the boundaries between terrorism and separatism are very thin: opposition members and members of minority groups, such as the Uyghurs in China, are readily accused of the 'crime' of separatism."
Forced repatriations
Under security agreements aimed at fighting the “three evils” of terrorism, extremism, and separatism, SCO member states are bound to repatriate nations of fellow member states on request, without requiring evidence of wrongdoing.
The report singled out Kazakhstan for its forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers to China and Uzbekistan, in violation of United Nations human rights covenants.
In June 2011, Kazakhstan deported to China Ershidin Israil, an Uyghur wanted by Beijing for speaking up on torture and death in Chinese jails, after he sought asylum in Kazakhstan after fleeing his home in the Xinjiang.
Ershidin Israil, a former history schoolteacher, was granted refugee status by the United Nations, but a court in Kazakhstan refused to provide him political asylum and Beijing has accused him of "terrorism."
"Israil’s extradition was a result of the SCO agreement not to grant refugee status and to extradite those accused or suspected of 'extremism, separatism, or terrorism,'" the report said.
The SCO framework was also used to prevent Uyghur activists living in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from attending a conference on Uyghur issues in the U.S. in 2011, the group said.
Reported by Luisetta Mudie.
Tibetan Monks Detained in Raid
Tibetan Monks Detained in Raid:
Hundreds of heavily armed Chinese security forces raided a Tibetan monastery in the northwestern province of Qinghai at the weekend, taking away four monks previously targeted for detention and holding another monk for taking photographs of the raid, Tibetan sources said.
Local Tibetans believe at least three of the monks were picked up during the Saturday raid for providing foreign media outlets with details about two nearby self-immolation protests in June, an India-based Tibetan told RFA, citing sources in the region.
Monks who intervened to stop the detentions were beaten, the sources said.
“On Sept. 1, Chinese police and Public Security Bureau officers in about 60 vehicles suddenly arrived at Zilkar monastery in the Dzatoe township of Tridu county in Qinghai’s Yulshul [in Chinese, Yushu] prefecture,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The monastery, the scene of unauthorized funeral ceremonies following the self-immolations, had been told in a phone call earlier in the day to expect an official “visit,” believed by the monks to be routine, the source said.
“Shortly afterward, the monastery’s electricity and all means of communication were cut off,” he said.
The fully armed security forces in riot gear surrounded the monastery, the source said, adding, that “they came to detain four monks whose names and other information about them were already known.”
Police 'filled the monastery'
Chinese police conducting the raid were so numerous that they “filled the monastery” and appeared to outnumber the monastery’s own 500 monks, the source said.
Detained in the raid were Lobsang Jinpa, 30; Tsultrim Kalsang, 25; Ngawang Monlam, 30; and Sonam Yignyen, 44.
A fifth monk, Sonam Sherab, 45, was taken into custody when he was observed filming the police operation, the source said.
Computers and DVDs were seized from the monks’ rooms by the police, who also beat and pointed guns at other monks who pleaded with them not to take the men away, he said.
“Locals suspect that three of the monks were taken away because they had contacted outside media about the recent self-immolations of two Tibetans in Yulshul,” he said.
“Another is believed to have been detained for possessing photos of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama.”
Monk seized in town
Separately, police in China’s northwestern Gansu province last week took into custody a Tibetan monk believed to have been involved in a March 20 protest against Chinese authorities, according to a local source.
“On Aug. 28, Kalsang Gyatso, 28, a monk at the Bora monastery, was detained and taken away from a bathhouse in Tsoe town,” the source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gyatso, with permission from senior monks who were supervising a retreat, had gone to the nearby town and was bathing with friends when he was detained, the source said.
“The police, who were not in uniform, asked which of the men was Kalsang Gyatso, but his friends refused to identify him,” he said.
“The police then pointed directly at him, overpowered his friends, and took him away in a police vehicle,” he said, adding that no explanation was given for the detention.
When family members later sought word from county and prefecture offices on Kalsang Gyatso’s condition and place of detention, “no information was given to them,” he said.
Kalsang Gyatso comes originally from Yagpa Yarne village in Labrang (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in Gansu’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the source said.
“His father is Kalsang Tsering, and Dronpu Thar is his mother,” he said.
The day after Kalsang Gyatso was detained, a group of 30 county, prefecture, and provincial-level officials, together with a press team, arrived at Bora monastery to conduct a “legal education” session for the monks, the source said.
Growing concern
Human rights groups have expressed concern over the increasing number of Tibetan detentions amid the 51 self-immolations in protest against Chinese rule since February 2009.
Last week, police also detained a monk from the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province, which has been the epicenter of the burning protests, along with another Tibetan, possibly in connection with the deadly self-immolation protests in the area.
The London-based Free Tibet said it "has grave concerns for the well being of the hundreds of Tibetans who we know are in detention following protests, often in locations unknown to their families, without any legal rights and at very serious risk of being tortured."
“Tibetans’ fundamental human rights are being ignored by international leaders who are afraid of risking their relationships with China. The time has come for each one of us to speak up and demand Tibetan freedom,” Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said last week.
Separately, the U.S.-based advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who began a two-day visit to Beijing on Tuesday, to “continue to insist on demonstrable improvements in the human rights situation [in Tibet].”
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee and Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Hundreds of heavily armed Chinese security forces raided a Tibetan monastery in the northwestern province of Qinghai at the weekend, taking away four monks previously targeted for detention and holding another monk for taking photographs of the raid, Tibetan sources said.
Local Tibetans believe at least three of the monks were picked up during the Saturday raid for providing foreign media outlets with details about two nearby self-immolation protests in June, an India-based Tibetan told RFA, citing sources in the region.
Monks who intervened to stop the detentions were beaten, the sources said.
“On Sept. 1, Chinese police and Public Security Bureau officers in about 60 vehicles suddenly arrived at Zilkar monastery in the Dzatoe township of Tridu county in Qinghai’s Yulshul [in Chinese, Yushu] prefecture,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The monastery, the scene of unauthorized funeral ceremonies following the self-immolations, had been told in a phone call earlier in the day to expect an official “visit,” believed by the monks to be routine, the source said.
“Shortly afterward, the monastery’s electricity and all means of communication were cut off,” he said.
The fully armed security forces in riot gear surrounded the monastery, the source said, adding, that “they came to detain four monks whose names and other information about them were already known.”
Police 'filled the monastery'
Chinese police conducting the raid were so numerous that they “filled the monastery” and appeared to outnumber the monastery’s own 500 monks, the source said.
Detained in the raid were Lobsang Jinpa, 30; Tsultrim Kalsang, 25; Ngawang Monlam, 30; and Sonam Yignyen, 44.
A fifth monk, Sonam Sherab, 45, was taken into custody when he was observed filming the police operation, the source said.
Computers and DVDs were seized from the monks’ rooms by the police, who also beat and pointed guns at other monks who pleaded with them not to take the men away, he said.
“Locals suspect that three of the monks were taken away because they had contacted outside media about the recent self-immolations of two Tibetans in Yulshul,” he said.
“Another is believed to have been detained for possessing photos of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama.”
Monk seized in town
Separately, police in China’s northwestern Gansu province last week took into custody a Tibetan monk believed to have been involved in a March 20 protest against Chinese authorities, according to a local source.
“On Aug. 28, Kalsang Gyatso, 28, a monk at the Bora monastery, was detained and taken away from a bathhouse in Tsoe town,” the source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gyatso, with permission from senior monks who were supervising a retreat, had gone to the nearby town and was bathing with friends when he was detained, the source said.
“The police, who were not in uniform, asked which of the men was Kalsang Gyatso, but his friends refused to identify him,” he said.
“The police then pointed directly at him, overpowered his friends, and took him away in a police vehicle,” he said, adding that no explanation was given for the detention.
When family members later sought word from county and prefecture offices on Kalsang Gyatso’s condition and place of detention, “no information was given to them,” he said.
Kalsang Gyatso comes originally from Yagpa Yarne village in Labrang (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in Gansu’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the source said.
“His father is Kalsang Tsering, and Dronpu Thar is his mother,” he said.
The day after Kalsang Gyatso was detained, a group of 30 county, prefecture, and provincial-level officials, together with a press team, arrived at Bora monastery to conduct a “legal education” session for the monks, the source said.
Growing concern
Human rights groups have expressed concern over the increasing number of Tibetan detentions amid the 51 self-immolations in protest against Chinese rule since February 2009.
Last week, police also detained a monk from the restive Kirti monastery in Sichuan province, which has been the epicenter of the burning protests, along with another Tibetan, possibly in connection with the deadly self-immolation protests in the area.
The London-based Free Tibet said it "has grave concerns for the well being of the hundreds of Tibetans who we know are in detention following protests, often in locations unknown to their families, without any legal rights and at very serious risk of being tortured."
“Tibetans’ fundamental human rights are being ignored by international leaders who are afraid of risking their relationships with China. The time has come for each one of us to speak up and demand Tibetan freedom,” Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said last week.
Separately, the U.S.-based advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who began a two-day visit to Beijing on Tuesday, to “continue to insist on demonstrable improvements in the human rights situation [in Tibet].”
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee and Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Analysis: South Sudan struggles to meet demand for education
Analysis: South Sudan struggles to meet demand for education:
 | YEI, 4 September 2012 (IRIN) - Five decades of war and upheaval in South Sudan has had an inevitable impact on education - almost three-quarters of adults in the world's newest country are unable to read or write. |
IRAQ: Still no clear policy to tackle displacement
IRAQ: Still no clear policy to tackle displacement:
 | AL-RUSTUMIYA, 4 September 2012 (IRIN) - Some four years after Iraq's civil conflict died down, more than 1.3 million people are still displaced. Many of them are living in a state of limbo in makeshift settlements, while bureaucracy and a lack of vision slow progress towards long-term solutions. |
Kenya navy shells Somali port town
Kenya navy shells Somali port town: Kismayo, last stronghold of Islamist group al-Shabab militia, attacked in preparation for ground forces to capture town.
In Iran, sanctions take toll on the sick
In Iran, sanctions take toll on the sick:
TEHRAN — The tightening of U.S. banking sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program has had an impact on all sectors of the economy but is increasingly hitting vulnerable medical patients as deliveries of medicine and raw materials for Iranian pharmaceutical companies are either stopped or delayed, according to medical experts.
Read full article >>
TEHRAN — The tightening of U.S. banking sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program has had an impact on all sectors of the economy but is increasingly hitting vulnerable medical patients as deliveries of medicine and raw materials for Iranian pharmaceutical companies are either stopped or delayed, according to medical experts.
Read full article >>
VIDEO: How are social media sites changing China?
VIDEO: How are social media sites changing China?: BBC Monitoring's Qiang Zhang explains how social media websites such as Weibo, Renren and YouKu are changing the way news is made and consumed in China.
Bangladesh pins hope on Chittagong port
Bangladesh pins hope on Chittagong port: Can Chittagong port keep pace with Bangladesh's growing trade?
VIDEO: Road to recovery after Thai floods
VIDEO: Road to recovery after Thai floods: Thailand was hit by devastating flooding last year since then the government has launched a series of flood-prevention initiatives.
Salamworld: Facebook's new rival?
Salamworld: Facebook's new rival?: Could a new Muslim social network challenge Facebook?
SRI LANKA: Refugees in India reluctant to return
SRI LANKA: Refugees in India reluctant to return:
 | TAMIL NADU, 4 September 2012 (IRIN) - More than three years after the end of Sri Lanka's 1983-2009 civil war, most Sri Lankan refugees in India say they would rather not return, citing economic hardship and concern over human rights abuses. |
Deaths reported in Turkey fighting
Deaths reported in Turkey fighting: Nine soldiers and up to 20 Kurdish fighters killed in overnight clashes in the country's southeast, sources say.
Fight spreads in Syria's northwest mountains
Fight spreads in Syria's northwest mountains: Rebels in the forested and ethnically Turkmen region push towards the Mediterranean Sea, despite lack of supplies.
French unemployment hits 13-year high
French unemployment hits 13-year high: Pressure builds on President Francois Hollande as number of unemployed people passes three million threshold.
Students lose as Kenya teachers go on strike
Students lose as Kenya teachers go on strike: At least 250,000 public school teachers walk out demanding 200 per cent pay rise, affecting millions of students.
Unrest spreads to South Africa gold mine
Unrest spreads to South Africa gold mine: At least four people wounded after police and security guards fire at sacked miners blocking colleagues from working.
Hezbollah ponders an uncertain future
Hezbollah ponders an uncertain future: Lebanese group at risk of losing one of its two closest allies as Syrian President Assad struggles to crush uprising.
Bahrain courts uphold activists' conviction
Bahrain courts uphold activists' conviction: Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who went on 110-day hunger strike, among 20 leading opposition figures convicted by appeals court.
Boehner Raises Millions for Republican Candidates
Boehner Raises Millions for Republican Candidates: John A. Boehner has assisted G.O.P. candidates with what some say is a record amount of money raised by a House speaker, surpassing the former speaker Nancy Pelosi in this cycle.
Muslims Enroll at Catholic Colleges in Growing Numbers
Muslims Enroll at Catholic Colleges in Growing Numbers: More Muslims have enrolled in Roman Catholic colleges in the United States in recent years, with students saying they prefer a place where religious talk and observance are encouraged.
Drought in India Devastates Crops and Farmers
Drought in India Devastates Crops and Farmers: With the nourishing downpours of the monsoon season down an average of 12 percent across India, farmers are on the brink of disaster.
Syrian Children Speak of Revenge Against Alawites
Syrian Children Speak of Revenge Against Alawites: If Syrian rebel fighters portray their battle as a struggle for democracy, refugee children at the Zaatari camp in Jordan tell a much uglier story of sectarian revenge against Alawites.
Africa’s Elephants Are Being Slaughtered in Poaching Frenzy
Africa’s Elephants Are Being Slaughtered in Poaching Frenzy: Conservation groups say poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades, with the ivory trade becoming increasingly militarized.
Money and People Leave Spain as Economic Gloom Deepens
Money and People Leave Spain as Economic Gloom Deepens: While the situation in Spain is not as dire as that of Greece, some Spaniards are taking their euros, and sometimes themselves and their families, out of the country.
Gotham: In the Safest Big City, a Summer of Guns and Death
Gotham: In the Safest Big City, a Summer of Guns and Death: Matt, a college graduate; Kemar, an A student; a 4-year-old girl; a young boxer — fatal shootings in New York City are up.
Asia, Europe Slowdowns Deepen
Asia, Europe Slowdowns Deepen: Manufacturing downturns gripped Asia and the euro zone in August, surveys of purchasing executives showed, in the latest sign of weakness in the global economy.
Baidu Launches Mobile Web Browser
Baidu Launches Mobile Web Browser: Baidu released its own mobile-Internet browser and said it would invest in a new cloud-computing center in a bid to gain more control over how Internet users in China access the Web through smartphones.
U.S. Pushes for Protocol to Resolve Sea Disputes
U.S. Pushes for Protocol to Resolve Sea Disputes: Clinton said Asian countries need a code of conduct defining how they will interact in disputed parts of the South China Sea.
Luxury Firms Lavish Perks on China VIPs
Luxury Firms Lavish Perks on China VIPs: Luxury companies have grown in China, and so have the lengths to which they will go to make Chinese consumers feel special.
Singapore Cracks Down on Shoebox Homes
Singapore Cracks Down on Shoebox Homes: Singapore's government will curb the development of small "shoebox" apartments in the city-state's suburban areas, a move aimed at boosting a larger supply of family-friendly homes.
Karzai cabinet picks seen as aimed at consolidating power beyond his term
Karzai cabinet picks seen as aimed at consolidating power beyond his term:
KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his choices for top government security posts Monday, part of a cabinet overhaul that some analysts said better positions him to extend his political influence after his tenure ends in 2014.
Read full article >>
KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his choices for top government security posts Monday, part of a cabinet overhaul that some analysts said better positions him to extend his political influence after his tenure ends in 2014.
Read full article >>
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