South Africa hotel workers steal from Columbia team

South Africa hotel workers steal from Columbia team

South Africa hotel workers steal from Columbia team

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:59 AM PDT

JOHANNESBURG, May 28 — Police arrested two hotel workers on charges of stealing from Colombia's national football team, in South Africa for a friendly match ahead of next month's World Cup, the Times newspaper reported today. "Two female employees of the plush Hyde Park Southern Sun Hotel, in northern Johannesburg, were arrested and appeared in ...


China PM faces Korean standoff over warship sinking

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:30 AM PDT

SEOUL, May 28 — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao confronts mounting regional tensions today, when a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will test China's efforts to stay above the fray of strife with North Korea. Seoul is convinced that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, and, along with the United States and ...


China PM faces Korean standoff over warship sinking

Posted: 28 May 2010 01:02 AM PDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao confronts mounting regional tensions on Friday, when a summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will test China's efforts to stay above the fray of strife with North Korea.


Yemen Al Qaeda video announces a new leader

Posted: 28 May 2010 01:02 AM PDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - A fugitive Saudi Arabian man, who was once detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, was named as a senior member of Al Qaeda's Yemen wing, according to a tape by the group shown on al Arabiya television on Friday.


Australia sues Japan over whaling

Posted: 27 May 2010 06:35 PM PDT

SYDNEY -Australia will start legal action next week to stop Japan hunting whales, officials said Friday, abandoning diplomacy after years of tension over the annual slaughter in waters near Antarctica.

Read more...

INTERVIEW - Greek unions to strike in June, call for joint action

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:36 AM PDT

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek labour unions will strike in June to protest pension reform and are trying to mobilise workers across Europe to take joint action against austerity measures, the private sector union GSEE said on Thursday.


BP "top kill" continues, spill costs hit $930 mln

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:27 AM PDT

LONDON (Reuters) - BP Plc still does not know whether its "top kill" operation designed to plug the biggest oil spill in United States history will be successful and puts the cost of tackling the disaster so far at $930 million.


Maoists suspected of sabotaging India train, 65 dead

Posted: 27 May 2010 04:34 PM PDT

NEW DELHI, May 28 — Maoist rebels are suspected of sabotaging a high-speed train in eastern India today, killing at least 65 people after it smashed into the path of a goods train, officials said. Local television showed the mangled wreckage of capsized carriages across the tracks and the death toll could rise as many passengers were still ...


Suicide-plagued China plant sees 10th death

Posted: 27 May 2010 03:38 PM PDT

BEIJING: The tenth employee of the year jumped to his death at an electronics factory in southern China, hours after the conglomerate's chairman visited the plant to try to stem a rash of suicides there.

The latest suicide at Foxconn Technology in Shenzhen was a 23-year-old man who died late Wednesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said, citing police. Witnesses said they saw him jump from a seventh-storey balcony of a dormitory.

Twelve similar falls have occurred at Foxconn this year. Two of those employees survived.

There was also a suicide attempt yesterday when a 25-year-old employee cut his veins in a Foxconn dormitory. The man survived after receiving hospital treatment.

The latest death came after Terry Kuo, chairman of Taiwan's Hon Hai Group, which owns Foxconn, visited the sprawling factory with reporters on Wednesday to combat charges that poor working conditions and mistreatment of workers there were leading to the suicides.

He announced that the company would implement new policies to try to prevent further suicides.

Kuo yesterday returned to China after the latest suicide, turning around almost immediately after his arrival back in Taiwan.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract maker of electronics, produces computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles for firms such as Apple Inc, Sony Corp, Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co (H-P) and Nokia Corp.

According to some media reports, those clients are now putting pressure on the company to improve its working conditions.

In a statement to Bloomberg news Apple said it was "saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn."

Factory 'not a sweatshop'

The world's No 1 tech company said it was deeply committed " to ensuring safe conditions and was in direct contact with Foxconn on the matter.

Dell said it expected its suppliers to follow its own high standards which it monitored via self-assesments and audits while H-P said that it was investigating "the Foxconn practices that may be

associated with these tragic events".

About 420,000 people work at the plant, and most live in dormitories in the factory grounds. Some have complained on the Internet of long working hours, almost daily overtime, low pay, beatings and verbal abuse by their Taiwan supervisors. Foxconn and Hon Hai officials, including Kuo, have denied abuse of workers with Kuo saying the factory "is not a sweatshop".

Kuo on Wednesday expressed his sorrow over the suicides and announced measures to prevent more, including installing nets around buildings, bringing in psychiatrists and training employees to be counsellors for their fellow workers.

Experts said the potential causes for the spate of suicides were work pressure, lack of a social network for the uprooted migrant workers and personal isolation.

The Chinese government expressed its concern and stressed employers' obligations to look after their workers.

- dpa

Tobacco firms getting around restrictions to target women

Posted: 27 May 2010 03:15 PM PDT

WELLINGTON: Tobacco companies are using at least eight ways to persuade women to smoke cigarettes, 10 years after a law restricting advertising was introduced, a group of New Zealand researchers said today.

The Health Ministry said that while only 1-in-5 adult New Zealanders smokes, half of all indigenous Maori women use cigarettes regularly with negative impacts on children, including infant mortality, premature births, low birth weights, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome.

Researchers from the University of Otago and Whakauae Research for Mori Health and Development released their study ahead of Monday's World Smokefree Day.

They said tobacco companies used female-oriented cigarette brand names such as Cameo Mild, Vogue Bleue and Topaz and packaging and colours designed to appeal to women.

Foreign fashion magazines contained cigarette advertising directed at women and girls, showing women smoking brands available in New Zealand and continued to use deceptive terms such as "light" and "mild" in online advertisements contrary to a ruling by the watchdog Commerce Commission in 2008, their study found.

The researchers said the use of words like "subtle" and "mellow" to describe brands formerly called "light" in New Zealand and menthol cigarettes were aimed at female smokers who may delay quitting they believed they were less harmful.

Dr Heather Gifford from the Whakauae group called for tighter marketing controls pending a phase-out of all tobacco sales in 10 years.

- dpa

Suspected Indian Maoists sabotage train, 65 killed

Posted: 27 May 2010 03:13 PM PDT

By Mitul Das

SARDIHA: Suspected Maoist rebels derailed a high-speed train packed with sleeping passengers into the path of a freight train in eastern India today, killing at least 65 people, officials said.

Police said the death toll was expected to rise with dozens more bodies feared trapped in the mangled wreckage after 13 carriages of the Mumbai-bound express from Kolkata careened off the tracks in a remote area of West Bengal.

Initial reports had suggested the derailment was triggered by an explosion, but police said there was evidence that the fishplates used to secure adjoining sections of track had been removed.

"We found some Maoist leaflets at the site so it appears to be the work of Maoists," West Bengal police chief Bhupinder Singh said.

"It seems there are still a large number of passengers trapped in the carriages -- dead or alive, we are not sure," Bhupinder said.

Another senior police official helping coordinate the rescue operation said emergency teams had recovered 65 bodies.

"And the fear is that there will be many more," police inspector general Surajit Kar Purakayastha said.

More than 120 people were reported injured, some of them in critical condition.

'Railways a soft target'

Four of the carriages which had slammed into an oncoming goods train were badly crushed and flipped on their sides with body parts clearly visible amid the twisted metal.

Rescue workers with bolt cutters struggled to free anyone still alive inside.

One survivor, Vinayak Sadna, said he had been sleeping when his carriage lurched violently to one side and then flipped over, flinging passengers around the compartment.

"I ended up stuck between two seats with an iron bar crushing my hand," Sadna said. "I was trapped for three hours before I was pulled out. My wife is still missing."

Another distraught passenger, Ranjit Ganguly, who was travelling to Mumbai for a holiday with his family said he had been thrown from his carriage by the impact but his daughter and son were trapped inside.

Paramedic teams treated the injured on the side of the track, while the most serious cases were evacuated by air force helicopters.

Railways Minister Mamata Bannerjee, who rushed to the site, confirmed that Maoists were believed to be responsible.

"The railways are a soft target. They are a lifeline ... which the Maoists have attacked in the past and, it seems, even now," she told reporters.

The incident occurred at around 1.30am in the district of West Midnapore -- a Maoist stronghold around 135km west of Kolkata.

If Maoist involvement is confirmed, it will increase pressure on the Indian government, which is currently reviewing its anti-Maoist strategy after a series of deadly attacks.

The railway system -- the main form of long-distance travel in India despite fierce competition from private airlines -- runs 14,000 passenger and freight trains a day, carrying 18.5 million people.

- AFP

Muslim rebels 'disgusted' with peace efforts under Arroyo

Posted: 27 May 2010 03:12 PM PDT

MANILA: Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines said today they were "disgusted" by President Gloria Arroyo's failure to seal a peace agreement with them after nine years of negotiations.

Mohaqer Iqbal, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) chief negotiator, also said his group was wary of Arroyo's successor, Benigno Aquino, because many of Aquino's close advisers were more hostile to the rebels than Arroyo.

"It is disgusting that after almost 10 years in office, the peace process was not completed during her term," Iqbal said in an interview.

He singled out the failure of a draft agreement forged in 2008 that would have created a large autonomous area on the Philippines' southern island of Mindanao under the control of the 12,000-strong MILF.

The agreement was widely opposed by many prominent political figures and was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court.

In retaliation, MILF commanders launched a series of attacks on mostly Christian communities that killed nearly 400 people and displaced more than 700,000 at the height of the fighting.

Iqbal said that even though Arroyo's negotiators helped forge the agreement, she failed to support it in 2008 when the draft came under political attack.

"She lacked real political will to push through with the agreement," he said.

When she became president in 2001 Arroyo said she was determined to end the conflict with the MILF, in which more than 150,000 people have died since 1978.

She will step down on June 30, as required by constitutional term limits, without having reached a peace agreement with the MILF.

Iqbal said the MILF regarded Aquino, who won this month's presidential elections by a landslide, with caution because he was associated with politicians who had opposed the 2008 draft agreement.

He said the MILF feared this indicated that Aquino could take a more hardline stance than Arroyo towards the rebels.

"If his decisions are based on those around him, we would be worried," he said.

- AFP

Nepal on the brink of political turmoil

Posted: 27 May 2010 03:09 PM PDT

By Claire Cozens

KATHMANDU: Nepal teetered on the brink of political chaos today, with the Parliament's term set to expire and rival party leaders deadlocked over agreeing an extension.

An emergency meeting called by President Ram Baran Yadav yesterday failed to secure a breakthrough and the troubled country now faces the looming prospect of trying to work without a functioning legislature.

The term of the current Parliament, or Constituent Assembly (CA), ends at midnight today going into tomorrow.

It was elected in 2008 with the task of writing a new constitution within two years to pave the way for fresh polls this year but has singularly failed.

The constitution was to have turned the page on a decade-long insurgency waged against the state by the Maoists, who won elections in 2008 and took power for nine months but who have sat in opposition for the past year.

Two years of bickering produced no agreement on the wording of the constitution, and now the Maoist party, which holds the highest number of seats, is refusing to vote for a bill extending the CA's term unless the prime minister stands down.

Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, has been locked in talks with the leaders of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and Nepali Congress to press his demands for a new power-sharing government.

But the other parties are refusing to stand down, resulting in the current deadlock.

With just hours to go before lawmakers are due to vote on an extension of the CA, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged party leaders to put national interests first.

"The Constituent Assembly and its progress to date toward the adoption of Nepal's new constitution represent a significant and hard-won achievement of the peace process," he said.

Stumbling block

Newspapers in Nepal warned that a failure to do so could mean a return to conflict just four years after the end of a civil war in which at least 16,000 people died.

"There is a strong possibility that this day could become the worst in our history," said the Nepalese-language daily Naya Patrika in its editorial today.

"If the Constituent Assembly is dissolved, it will be an open invitation to civil war."

UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal pledged to "keep all options open to make sure that the sovereignty of the people is protected" after meeting senior members of his party on Friday morning.

But there was no sign of any progress towards agreement among the three parties.

Analysts have suggested the Maoists might agree at the last minute to an extension but this could force another change of administration in a nation that has had 10 governments in as many years.

The Maoists formed a government after the 2008 polls, but Prachanda resigned as prime minister a year later in a disagreement with the head of the army over the integration of former Maoist fighters into the national army.

They have been agitating for a return to government ever since and earlier this month brought the country to a standstill by forcing a nationwide general strike to press their demands.

The strike was called off after six days following intense international pressure and a mass rally in the capital Kathmandu protesting at the disruption of schools and businesses.

Almost 24,000 members of the Maoists' army were confined to camps around the country after the end of the civil war.

Around 4,000 were formally discharged this year after UN checks found they did not qualify as soldiers, and several thousand more are thought to have drifted away from the camps and returned home in the intervening years.

But more than 15,000 are estimated to remain, and their fate is a key stumbling block in the peace process.

-AFP

 

Mixed reactions over subsidy cuts

Posted: 27 May 2010 11:38 PM PDT

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) has welcomed the government's openness in its subsidy rationalisation plan but said that subsidies on essential items should be retained.

read more

Ruler wants protection for sanctity of mosque

Posted: 27 May 2010 11:13 PM PDT

Muslims must safeguard the sanctity of mosque and not abuse it as a platform to advance one's own agenda, the Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Putra Jamalullail said when opening the AlHusna Mosque in Batu Bertangkop near Pedang Besar on Thursday night.

read more

Japan ruling bloc risks splitting over U.S. base

Posted: 27 May 2010 11:57 PM PDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and the United States agreed on Friday to keep a controversial U.S. airbase on southern Okinawa island, patching up a feud between the allies but risking a split in Japan's ruling bloc ahead of a mid-year election.


Heirs of Nazi victim to sell restituted Klimt

Posted: 27 May 2010 11:57 PM PDT

"Frauenbildnis (Portrait of Ria Munk III)," painted in 1917-18, is the third and final work in a series of three portraits commissioned by the Munk family of their daughter Ria.


U.N. sees N.Korea exporting nuclear technology - envoy

Posted: 27 May 2010 11:26 PM PDT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A new U.N. report suggests that North Korea has been using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology and has helped Iran, Syria and Myanmar, a Western diplomat said.


Woman sues American airline for leaving her asleep in seat

Posted: 27 May 2010 10:10 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES, May 28 — A woman left locked alone in a plane asleep for about four hours after landing at Philadelphia International Airport is suing United Airlines. Ginger McGuire, 36, is suing for false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and negligence, her attorney Geoffrey Fieger told the US newspaper Detroit Free Press. McGuire ...


Japan ruling coalition risks splitting over US base

Posted: 27 May 2010 09:52 PM PDT

TOKYO, May 28 — Japan and the United States agreed today to keep a controversial US airbase on southern Okinawa Island, patching up a feud between the allies but risking a split in Japan's ruling bloc ahead of a mid-year election. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's decision to abandon a pledge to move the US Marine base out of Okinawa has upset the ...


No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)