Bono Shares New Song ‘Let Your Love Be Known’ to Honor Italians Dealing With Coronavirus

CREDIT: Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Spin Magazine

Foxconn says plant worker jumps from apartment

(Reuters) – Foxconn Technology Group, the main supplier of Apple Inc (AAPL.O), said on Thursday a worker at a Chinese plant jumped from his apartment on Wednesday, the first suicide since the company agreed with its U.S. client to improve work conditions.

The 23 year-old worker fell to his death from his apartment located outside the plant in the southwestern city of Chengdu, according to a statement by Foxconn. The worker had joined the company last month and police were investigating the death.

Apple and Foxconn reached an agreement in March to improve conditions for the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads, a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business inChina.

reuters.com

Επιμένει το ΔΝΤ για Ισπανία

Το ΔΝΤ επανέλαβε σήμερα ότι δεν έχει κανένα σχέδιο για οικονομική βοήθεια προς την Ισπανία και κάλεσε την ισπανική κυβέρνηση να συνεχίσει τις προσπάθειές της για ανάκαμψη των δημόσιων λογαριασμών και της οικονομίας.

enikos.gr

Oi mayor gives OK to restart 2 nuclear reactors

TOKYO —

Japan moved closer Thursday to restarting nuclear reactors for the first time since last year’s earthquake and tsunami led to a nationwide shutdown after a mayor gave his support to a plan to bring two of them back online.

All 50 of Japan’s workable reactors are offline because of safety concerns or for maintenance since the March 11 disaster touched off a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Public opposition to nuclear power remains high, even though the government has been pressing for the restart of reactors because it says nuclear energy is crucial to Japan’s economy.

Power companies have warned of shortages in the months ahead, as demand reaches its summer peak.

Work to restart two reactors in the Fukui town of Oi, which are the first ready to resume generating power, could begin as soon as this weekend now that the mayor signed off on the plan. Once the work begins, it takes about three weeks to get a reactor operating at full capacity.
japantoday.com

Egypt’s transition plunged into chaos

Today’s decision is being seen as «soft coup» by the military, a massive blow to the Muslim Brotherhood, and raises serious questions about the independence of the judiciary, says Abdel-Rahman Hussein.

guardian.co.uk

Ιταλία: Νέες ιδιωτικοποιήσεις για την τόνωση της οικονομίας

Νέες ιδιωτικοποιήσεις εξήγγειλε ο Ιταλός πρωθυπουργός Μάριο Μόντι, τονίζοντας ότι «οι παρεμβάσεις θα αφορούν κυρίως εταιρίες της τοπικής αυτοδιοίκησης, σε περιφερειακό και δημοτικό επίπεδο», με στόχο την τόνωση της οικονομίας της Ιταλίας. Σύμφωνα με εκτιμήσεις ειδικών της ιταλικής κυβέρνησης «οι εταιρίες αυτές μπορούν να προσελκύσουν πολύ μεγαλύτερο ενδιαφέρον από τους επενδυτές, απ΄ ό,τι μεγάλες κρατικές επιχειρήσεις». Η κυβέρνηση Μόντι επιδιώκει να προχωρήσει σε περικοπές κρατικών δαπανών ύψους 5 δισ. ευρώ το 2012 και 9 δισ. το 2013, όπως υπογραμμίζει η εφημερίδα Κοριέρε Ντέλα Σέρα.

thepressproject.gr

Στο ιλιγγιώδες 7% τα ισπανικά ομόλογα, πιέζεται και η Ιταλία

Στον κλοιό των αγορών βρίσκονται πλέον η Ισπανία και η Ιταλία. Οι αποδόσεις των 10ετών ισπανικών ομολόγων εκτινάχθηκαν την Πέμπτη στο ιλιγγιώδες 7%, μετά την υποβάθμιση της πιστοληπτικής ικανότητας της χώρας από το Moody’s και παρά την πρόσφατη συμφωνία διάσωσης των ισπανικών τραπεζών. Η Ιταλία, πάλι, εν μέσω ανησυχιών για μετάδοση της κρίσης από την Ισπανία, σημείωσε σήμερα, κατά τη δημοπρασία ομολόγων, μεγάλη αύξηση στο κόστος κρατικού δανεισμού της. Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο ανησυχίας, συναντώνται  στη Ρώμη, Μάριο Μόντι και Φρανσουά Ολάντ.

tvxs.gr

Spain’s Borrowing Rate Hits High Not Seen Since Country Joined Euro

MADRID — Spain’s key borrowing rate hit a fresh high Thursday not seen since the country joined the euro in 1999, after a credit ratings agency downgraded the country’s ability to just above junk status amid rising fears a bank bailout may not be enough to save the country from economic chaos.

The interest rate – or yield – on the country’s benchmark 10 years bonds rose to a record 6.96 percent in early trading Thursday, close to the level which many analysts believe is unsustainable in the long term and the rate that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts of their public finances.

huffingtonpost.com

Γκρουέφσκι: Δεν θα αλλάξουν με εκβιασμούς οι Έλληνες τους Μακεδόνες

Σε νέες προκλητικές δηλώσεις για το Σκοπιανό προχώρησε ο πρωθυπουργός της ΠΓΔΜ Νίκολα Γκρουέφσκι. Καλεί την Ελλάδα να συνειδητοποιήσει ότι εκεί ζουν Μακεδόνες

Νέες κατηγορίες σε βάρος της Ελλάδας εκτόξευσε ο πρωθυπουργός της ΠΓΔΜ Νίκολα Γκρούεφσκι, σημειώνοντας ότι επιδιώκει την αλλαγή της ταυτότητας του λαού της χώρας του.

«Η Ελλάδα πρέπει να κατανοήσει ότι σε αυτό το κράτος ζουν Μακεδόνες, οι οποίοι μιλούν τη μακεδονική γλώσσα και ότι αυτό είναι κάτι που δεν μπορούν να αλλάξουν με οποιονδήποτε εκβιασμό», ανέφερε χαρακτηριστικά πρωθυπουργός της ΠΓΔΜ.

Απλά, προσέθεσε, «θα πρέπει να βγάλουν από το μυαλό τους ότι μπορούν να αλλάξουν την ταυτότητα του μακεδονικού λαού».

Σημείωσε ακόμη ότι «ο μακεδονικός λαός υπήρχε, υπάρχει, και θα υπάρχει και αυτό συνιστά πραγματικότητα την οποία κάποτε θα πρέπει να αποδεχθούν».

news247.gr

‘US expanding spying network’ in Africa

The United States military is expanding a secret network of air bases across Africa in order to spy on al-Qaeda and other such groups, a US newspaper said.

The surveillance is carried out by small, unmarked turboprop planes with hidden state-of-the-art sensors that fly thousands of kilometres between air bases and bush landing strips across the vast continent, the Washington Postreported on Wednesday.

The programme, dating back to 2007, underscores the massive expansion of US special forces operations in recent years and the steady militarisation of intelligence operations during the decade-long war on al-Qaeda.

Bases in Burkina Faso and Mauritania are used to spy on al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), while bases in Uganda are used in the hunt for the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal guerrilla movement led by Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

aljazeera.com

Syria accused of organised attacks

Syria is committing crimes against humanity as part of state policy to exact revenge against communities suspected of supporting rebels, Amnesty International has said in a report.

The London-based rights group called for an international response on Wednesday after claiming it had fresh evidence that victims, including children, had been dragged from their homes and shot dead by soldiers, who in some cases then set the remains on fire.

«This disturbing new evidence of an organised pattern of grave abuses highlights the pressing need for decisive international action,» said Amnesty’s Donatella Rovera on release of the 70-page report entitled «Deadly Reprisals».

The group interviewed people in 23 towns and villages across Syria and concluded that government forces and militias were guilty of «grave human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes».

Reporting on the revolt which broke out in March last year, Amnesty described how soldiers and shabiha militias burned down homes and properties and fired indiscriminately into residential areas, killing and injuring civilian bystanders.

The report also accused the regime of routinely torturing those who were arrested, including the sick and elderly.

In the report, Amnesty called on the United Nations Security Council to refer the case to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to impose an arms embargo on Syria.

aljazeera.com

Iowa Family Finds Mammoth Bones In Backyard

An excavation is underway thanks to the discovery of the bones of a prehistoric mammoth in one Oskaloosa, Iowa, family’s backyard.

According to ABC’s affiliate ABC5-WOI  in Des Moines, the first bones were discovered in July 2010 by a man named John and his two teenage sons when they were walking in the woods of their property looking for blackberries.

One of his sons pointed out what he thought was a ball in the creek below to his family. Once they got closer, John, who has an interest in archeology, noticed a marrow line at the top of the object, said reporter ABC5-WOI reporter Katie Eastman, who interviewed the family.

Realizing this was no ball, the family dug out what has now been identified as a mammoth femur.

abcnews.go.com

Syria agrees to let in UN humanitarian aid

Teams to be stationed in four hard-hit cities, including Homs, for first time since anti-government uprising began.

The Syrian government has agreed to let aid workers into the country, the UN says, even as the country expels foreign diplomats.

It would be the first time humanitarian workers – aside from the International Committee of the Red Cross – have been granted permission to enter Syria.

The workers will initially be based in just four cities hard hit by the fighting: Homs, Deraa, Idlib, and Deir Ezzour.

UN teams have been sent to scout those areas, said John Ging, director of the co-ordination and response unit at the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

aljazeera.com

Δικαστής έπαιζε πασιέντζα στη δίκη του Μπρέιβικ

Δείτε πως «σκότωνε» την ώρα του ένας εκ των δικαστών της δίκης του Μπρέιβικ στο Όσλο (Vid)

Η δίκη του Άντερς Μπέρινγκ Μπρέιβικ μπήκε αισίως στην 8η εβδομάδα. Υπάρχει ωστόσο ένας δικαστής που κουράστηκε να τον ακούει και προτίμησε  στη διάρκεια της διαδικασίας να παίξει πασιέντζα.

news247.gr

Al-Qaida number two Libi killed in Pakistan drone strike, US says

Claim follows official reprimand from Islamabad over recent increase in attacks by remote-controlled aircraft

A drone strike has killed al-Qaida‘s second most senior militant, Abu Yahya al-Libi, according to US officials.

Pakistan earlier officially reprimanded a top US diplomat, declaring such attacks to be against international law and in violation of its sovereignty.

Richard Hoagland, the US chargé d’affaires in Islamabad, was called into the foreign ministry on Tuesday after a recent increase in missile attacks by remotely controlled aircraft.

He was told «drone strikes represented a clear red-line for Pakistan,» a government statement said. The diplomatic step comes with Islamabad looking ever more isolated in the region as the US seeks to reduce its dependence on Pakistan.

guardian.co.uk

Kuwait blogger gets 10 years for insulting prophet Mohammed

A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a blogger to 10 years in prison for insulting the prophet Mohammed and for harming Kuwait’s interests with disparaging tweets about the regimes in neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Gulf News and other media report.

The court convicted Hamad Al-Naqi, 26, of Kuwait, of blasphemy for tweets about the prophet Mohammed, his companions, and his wife, Aisha, in February and March.

usatoday.com

US urges China to free Tiananmen Square activists

The US government has urged China to free all those still in prison 23 years after Beijing’s 1989 crackdown against protesters in Tiananmen Square.

The US state department message also called on China to «provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing».

Beijing considers the June 1989 events a counter-revolutionary revolt and defend their response.

In 1989 the army shot dead hundreds of civilians rallying for democracy.

«We renew our call for China to protect the universal human rights of all its citizens; release those who have been wrongfully detained, prosecuted, incarcerated, forcibly disappeared, or placed under house arrest; and end the ongoing harassment of human rights activists and their families,» US state department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

bbc.co.uk

Sisma: la terra trema ancora, Severino pensa a detenuti per ricostruire

Paura, scosse e maltempo. Oggi lutto nazionale. Ministro Severino lancia proposta per carcerati

Si è aperta una nuova giornata, quella del lutto nazionale, nelle zone dell’Emilia colpite dal terremoto e nuovamente provate dalla forte scossa, di magnitudo 5.1, registrata alle 21.20 di ieri. Ed è stata un’altra lunga notte di paura e di attesa nelle tendopoli e nelle strutture allestite per accogliere gli sfollati. Molti hanno invece preferito passare la notte all’aperto, chi in auto, chi in camper, qualcuno ha scandito le ore girando in bici. Oggi scuole chiuse tra il Modenese e il Mantovano. La scossa, avvertita in tutto il Nord Italia e non solo, ha avuto epicentro nel Modenese in una zona compresa tra Novi, Cavezzo, Concordia, San Possidonio e Mirandola. Non ha provocato feriti, ma solo qualche malore per lo spavento tra la popolazione, e nuovi crolli nelle ‘zone rosse’, già interdette alle persone, tra cui quella della torre dell’orologio di Novi, da tre secoli esatti simbolo della cittadina. Nella notte poi un’altra scossa, nella stessa zona, di magnitudo 3.1.

ansa.it

U.S. drone strike kills 15 in northwest Pakistan: officials

(Reuters) – Rockets fired from a U.S. drone killed 15 people in northwest Pakistan on Monday, intelligence officials said, an attack likely to add to tensions between Washington and Islamabad amid a standoff over NATO supply routes to Afghanistan.

The strike, the third in three days, targeted a militant hideout in the Hesokhel village of the North Waziristan tribal region, officials said.

It brought the death toll from drone attacks in Pakistan in the past three days to 27. Pilotless U.S. drones hit targets in the South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday and Sunday.

reuters.com

All passengers dead in Nigeria plane crash

An aviation official says that all passengers on board the plane that crashed in Nigeria’s largest city have been killed. The
government says 153 people were on board.

Harold Denuren, of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed that all the passengers on Sunday’s Dana Air flight died. He did not say how many were on the flight.

The Lagos state government said in a statement that 153 people were on the flight going from Abuja to Lagos. The plane crashed in a densely populated neighborhood near the airport.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s national emergency management agency said there were likely more casualties on the ground, but the number was unknown.

Several thousand gathered at the site as firefighters tried to put out flames and carry out survivors.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning on Sunday night.

Jonathan «has declared a three-day period of national mourning for all those who lost their lives in the Dana plane crash in Lagos today,» a statement from his office said.

aljazeera.com

Seattle gunman kills five then shoots himself

Police believe same man killed four in cafe and one in carjacking before turning gun on himself

A gunman has killed five people in Seattle, four at a cafe and another in a carjacking before he apparently shot himself as officers closed in following a citywide manhunt, authorities said.

The suspect died later on Wednesday at the Harborview medical centre, according to hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg.

Police who began scouring the area for a man who opened fire at the cafe near the University of Washington responded a short time later to another fatal shooting near the city centre. They say a man killed a woman in an apparent carjacking and fled in a black SUV.

Police said they believed one man was responsible for both attacks.

«At this time, we feel pretty confident that we have the suspect,» said the assistant Seattle police chief, Nick Metz.

The latest bout of gun violence to hit the city worried Seattle’s leaders and prompted police to consider increasing patrols in high-crime areas. The five deaths bring the number of homicides in the city this year to 21, matching the total for all of last year.

guardian.co.uk

Songs of War

Award-winning musician Christopher Cerf has composed music for the famous children’s television show Sesame Street for 40 years. During this time, he has written more than 200 songs intended to help children learn how to read and write.

But these innocent children’s songs were abused for inhumane purposes.

«It is music’s capacity to take over your mind and invade your inner experience that makes it so terrifying as a potential weapon.« – Thomas Keenan, the director of the  Human Right’s Project at Bard College

In 2003, it transpired that US intelligence services had tortured detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib with music from Sesame Street.

Human rights researcher Thomas Keenan explains: «Prisoners were forced to put on headphones. They were attached to chairs, headphones were attached to their heads, and they were left alone just with the music for very long periods of time. Sometimes hours, even days on end, listening to repeated loud music.»

«The music was so loud,» says Moazzam Begg, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram. «And it was probably some of the worst torture that they faced.»

aljazeera.com

From New York, Chen Guangcheng Calls Attention to Rights Abuses in China

When blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng flew from Beijing to the United States earlier this month, some analysts in the Western and Chinese press predicted that his influence would wane once he left China.  It’s difficult to imagine how his clout could be any less than when he was in prison or under house arrest with his family in their village in Shandong province. It is true that after long periods outside of their homeland, the voice of Chinese dissidents does weaken. But that process can take years. Chen, his wife and their two children have just arrived in New York, and for now his stature is only rising.

time.com

EXPO 2017 Astana, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has been a member of the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE) since 1997. The country has participated in EXPO since 2005 (EXPO-2005 (Aichi), EXPO-2008 (Zaragoza), EXPO-2010 (Shanghai)). During EXPO-2008 in Zaragoza, among 104 participating countries, in category “C”, the exposition of Kazakhstan was awarded a bronze medal for the third place taken for the external and internal decoration.

expo2017astana.com

Force against al-Assad regime a no-go for Russia, China

(CNN) — As world anger mounted toward the Syrian regime after the Houla massacre last week, Russia and China staunchly renewed their opposition to military intervention in the volatile nation.

«China opposes military intervention and does not support forced regime change,» said Liu Weimin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. «The fundamental route to resolving the Syrian issue is still for all sides to fully support Annan’s mediation efforts and push all the relevant parties to carry out diplomatic dialogue.»

«One cannot take decisions on military operations in Syria by being guided by only emotions,» Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported, quoting Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov.

More than 100 people, including many children, died in Houla on Friday, a suburb of the anti-government bastion of Homs in western Syria.

cnn.com