Anti-austerity protests hit Europe
Aljazeera English
Last Modified: 29 Sep 2010 20:12 GMT
Thousands of workers from across Europe have taken to the streets to protest against a growing number of austerity measures adopted by governments to combat public deficit crises.
Police barricaded banks and shops in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, where labour leaders estimated 100,000 people turned out; other estimates placed the turnout closer to 60,000.
Strikes and demonstrations over austerity measures were also held in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Poland, Italy, Serbia and Ireland.
Modern-day slavery: horrific conditions on board ships catching fish for Europe
Felicity Lawrence and Robert Booth
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010
When environmental campaigners began tracking a hi-tech South Korean trawler off the coast of West Africa, they were looking for proof of illegal fishing of dwindling African stocks. What they uncovered was an altogether different kind of travesty: human degradation so extreme it echoed the slavery they thought had been abolished more than a century ago.
Crews marooned at sea off Africa found in squalor, with cardboard bunks, 18-hour shifts, and payment in fish
Plot to attack European cities foiled: report
Reuters
LONDON | Wed Sep 29, 2010 1:09pm EDT
Intelligence agencies have disrupted plans for multiple attacks on European cities by a group thought to be linked to al Qaeda, Britain's Sky News said on Tuesday.
Militants based in Pakistan were planning simultaneous strikes in London, as well as cities in France and Germany, the channel's foreign affairs editor, Tim Marshall, said.
Gates says too few in US bear the burdens of war
ANNE FLAHERTY
AP foreign, Thursday September 30 2010 via The Guardian
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that most Americans have grown too detached from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and see military service as "something for other people to do."
In a speech Wednesday at Duke University, Gates said this disconnect has imposed a heavy burden on a small segment of society and wildly driven up the costs of maintaining an all-volunteer force.
US imposes sanctions on Iranian officials over abuses
BBC
29 September 2010 Last updated at 17:04 ET
US President Barack Obama has ordered unprecedented sanctions against senior Iranian officials for "sustained and severe violations of human rights".
The eight men include the head of the Revolutionary Guards, a former interior minister and the prosecutor general.
Muslim developer defends NY Ground Zero plan
By Laura Trevelyan
BBC News, New York
29 September 2010 Last updated at 10:23 ET
Sharif El-Gamal has had a surreal eight months. The 37-year-old property developer behind the Islamic community centre and prayer space near Ground Zero says he never anticipated the row over its location.
Developer Sharif El-Gamal: "We are the school teachers, we are the cab drivers, we are the street vendors we are a part of this society"
India to compile 'world's biggest' ID database
BBC
29 September 2010 Last updated at 08:31 ET
India has launched a huge national identity scheme aimed at cutting fraud and improving access to state benefits.
Using biometric methods, including an iris scan, the system will log details of India's population of more than one billion people on a central database.
Hitmen kill Mexican mayors as drugs war intensifies
By Robin Emmott
Reuters
MONTERREY, Mexico | Wed Sep 29, 2010 12:54pm EDT
When criminals beat small-town mayor Gustavo Sanchez to death with rocks this week, Mexicans were horrified but no longer shocked by the latest attack on a local leader in the country's vicious drugs war.
A migrant's police shooting death in Los Angeles
resonates in remote Guatemala
Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City
LA Times
September 27, 2010 | 4:18 pm
In the highland Mayan village of Xexac, in Guatemala, the body of Manuel Jaminez Xum finally arrived for burial, the flags of Guatemala and the United States draped over his casket. Jaminez was shot and killed by a Los Angeles police officer on Sept. 5 after allegedly brandishing a knife and threatening others, in an incident that sparked several protests and has become a symbol of the sometimes tense relationship between police and immigrant communities in Los Angeles.
China raising a generation of left-behind children
Reporting from Lizhuang, China —
This is a village of empty rooms, children left behind and frail grandparents who struggle to hold it all together. Most of the able-bodied adults have left the hamlet of rutted, muddy roads and drought-withered fields of corn.
The tradition of tightknit families is eroding as increasing numbers of villagers head to cities to look for work, leaving their children, estimated at 58 million nationwide, behind with grandparents. |
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