Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, June 09, 2015.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Now's The Time by Eddie Jefferson
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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Ebola crisis: UN's Ebola mission HQ in Ghana to close
By (BBC)
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The UN's emergency Ebola response headquarters in Ghana's capital, Accra, is to close as the outbreak slows.
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The BBC's Africa health correspondent Anne Soy says the mission set up its headquarters in Accra as it was far enough away from the affected countries, where there was logistical lockdown, but close enough the epicentre of the outbreak.
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Most of the mission's staff and assets have been moved to Sierra Leone and Guinea, where 24 new cases of Ebola were reported in the last week.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Liberia free of Ebola as the country had had no new cases in 42 days.
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Israel and Palestine Would Make $173 Billion If They Stopped Fighting Today
By Miles Johnson
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Researchers at the Rand Corporation's Center for Middle East Public Policy recently mounted a study to determine the net economic costs and benefits of various alternatives in the Middle East over the next ten years. . .
The study asserts that the two-state solution is most profitable, and could allow Israel to gain $123 billion by 2024. Assuming that an agreement is reached and Israel retreats to the 1967 borders (save for agreed-upon swapped territories), 100,000 Israeli settlers relocated from the West Bank to Israel, Palestinian trade and travel restrictions are lifted, and up to 600,000 refugees are returned to their homes in the West Bank and Gaza, the changes in "direct and opportunity costs"—among them a projected 20 percent increase in tourism and a 150 percent increase in Palestinian trade—would be immediate boons. The peace would bring the cessation of Arab country trade sanctions and with it, a raise of Israel's GDP by $23 billion over what it would have been under the status quo. Palestine would pocket over $50 billion under these conditions. Palestinians would see an average per capita income increase of approximately 36 percent. Under such a peace accord, Israelis would experience a 5 percent increase in income.
Conversely, the study found that "a return to violence would have profoundly negative economic consequences for both Palestinians and Israelis." Specifically, it estimates that per capita GDP would fall by 46 percent in Gaza and the West Bank, and by 10 percent in Israel.
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Juvenile incarceration yields less schooling, more crime
By (ScienceDaily)
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. . . the research project, which studied the long-term outcomes of tens of thousands of teenagers in Illinois, shows that, other things being equal, juvenile incarceration lowers high-school graduation rates by 13 percentage points and increases adult incarceration by 23 percentage points.
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"Some judges are more likely to have children placed in juvenile detention than others, but it's effectively random which judge you get," Doyle explains. "Some kids get a judge who will place them in juvenile detention, other ones get a judge who will be less likely to do so, and comparing the outcomes of the kids across the judges, we can actually say what the causal outcome is of placing the kids in juvenile detention."
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"The kids who go to juvenile detention are very unlikely to go back to school at all," Doyle explains. He adds that the later problems people have may also stem from the time spent incarcerated: "Getting to know other kids in trouble may create social networks that might not be desirable. There could be a stigma attached to it, maybe you think you're particularly problematic, so that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
For their part, Doyle and Aizer readily acknowledge that the study only represents one criminal justice system in action during one time period, and say they would welcome further examination of the issue by other scholars.
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Tech industry groups urge US to avoid policies that would weaken encryption
By Nicky Woolf
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US tech industry groups have urged Barack Obama not to pursue policies which might weaken encryption as a new report suggests that fear of government surveillance costs the economy by more than $35bn in revenue each year.
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Their statement was bolstered by a study also released on Tuesday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which found that the US government’s failure to reform many of the NSA’s surveillance programs had damaged the competitiveness of the US tech sector and cost it a portion of the global market share that would “likely far exceed” $35bn.
“In the short term, US companies lose out on contracts, and over the long term, other countries create protectionist policies that lock US businesses out of foreign markets. This not only hurts US technology companies, but costs American jobs and weakens the US trade balance,” the study found.
Since the publication of the documents leaked by former defence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, the Obama administration has been struggling to justify its bulk collection programs to an increasingly sceptical public.
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International |
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Alibaba boss Jack Ma in US charm offensive
By Emily Young
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The boss of the Chinese internet firm Alibaba, Jack Ma, has told US businesses that it needs more American products for China.
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He was at pains to explain that Alibaba, which he founded in 1999, differed to Amazon because it didn't buy and sell stock, it provided a platform for small businesses to sell their products.
Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year, raising $25bn, in the largest initial public offering in history.
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But the 51-year old could not resist a dig about doing business in the US, mentioning a board meeting in which it was "like lawyers making a decision. No-one makes the final call".
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US may have sent live anthrax to UK lab
By (BBC)
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A lab in the UK may have received a sample of live anthrax from the Pentagon in 2007, say US officials.
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It brings to 68 the number of labs involved in the anthrax scare from the US, including four foreign countries.
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In addition to labs around the US, suspect samples were sent to facilities in Australia, Canada, South Korea and the UK.
Experts in bio-safety have heavily criticised the lapse and called for improved precautions.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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U.S. Students Granted Up To $3.5 Billion In Debt Relief
By Annalee Newitz
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It’s an unprecedented move in higher education, but a welcome one. The U.S. Secretary of Education has pledged to forgive the loans of as many as 350 thousand students who were defrauded into taking on huge student loan debts by online schools owned by Corinthian Colleges. More students may also be eligible.
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Still, it’s a step forward. Duncan’s announcement was in part a response to careful organizing by students and activists — many associated with the student debt strike movement and the Debt Collective. The students in question were given fake statistics about their colleges’ job placement rates, promised help with job searches that never materialized, and wound up broke and jobless with useless degrees that had cost upwards of $100 thousand in loans.
Many critics of Duncan’s plan have pointed out that this situation reveals how flawed the U.S. system of student loans is, where the government is responsible for essentially acting as banker. Student debt in the U.S. has doubled over the past decade, and continues to rise. Hopefully this debt forgiveness will do more than help students. Maybe it will help us rethink how we fund higher education.
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How States Use Inflated DOT Forecasts to Rationalize More Highways
By Alissa Walker
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Over at Vox, Brad Plumer explores what’s sadly become standard practice in transportation infrastructure: State agencies use outdated traffic projections to prove that so many more cars will be traveling along these routes in the future that they must get more funding for highway projects. This same data helps to fuel rampant—and often unnecessary—road construction across the country.
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All is not lost: As Plumer reports, states are starting to fight back, questioning the forecasts and pushing cities to at least provide more documentation for why new roads are needed. He looks at one expressway in Illinois, a proposed $1.5 billion, 47-mile toll road that was swatted down by citizens who begged the state to re-examine the data:
That project took a hit when Chicago’s Metropolitan Agency for Planning pointed out that only 20,000 vehicles were likely to use the expressway each day — about one-third of planned capacity and well below initial projections. That meant tolls wouldn’t be able to cover the expressway’s costs, and because of the way the project was financed, taxpayers would be on the hook for the shortfall, potentially diverting public money away from useful projects elsewhere.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
One night in early 1976, alto saxophonist Richie Cole and vocalist Eddie Jefferson were both hired as subs for the same New York City gig. Despite a 30-year age difference, Cole and Jefferson found a deep musical chemistry. Cole had been a member of Buddy Rich’s big band in the late 1960s, but had only recorded one album since 1970. Jefferson was a pioneer of vocalese—the craft of adding lyrics to previously recorded instrumental jazz solos—but despite a long partnership with saxophonist James Moody and several albums, he was still an under appreciated jazz giant. All that changed when Cole and Jefferson teamed up. By the end of 1976, they had recorded three albums together and played several live dates. . .
Jefferson did not have a pretty voice, but his gravelly sound had an undeniable charm. His main vocal inspiration was Leo Watson, a member of the jazz novelty swing group the Spirits of Rhythm, whose solos were marked with outrageous humor and wild stream-of-conscious scat lines. Jefferson’s style wasn’t as zany as Watson’s, but he carried over many of Watson’s style elements into his own musical persona. The opening track of “The Main Man”, a swinging version of Duke Pearson’s “Jeannine” (with words by Oscar Brown, Jr.) features a passionate chorus by Cole and an energetic scat vamp by Jefferson. Jefferson’s scat is loaded with unusual intervals and accents, but he never loses the groove or the momentum. On “Night Train”, Jefferson’s lyric is a plaintive call to his lover and he uses subtle vocal inflections and small cries to emphasize the key words.
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Jefferson and Cole continued to work together for the next two years, and Jefferson also appeared as a guest artist on Dexter Gordon’s “Great Encounters” album. The Cole/Jefferson group was filmed at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase on May 6, 1979, and just two days later in Detroit, Jefferson was fatally shot after finishing the night’s gig. The gunman was acquitted, and no one else was ever charged in Jefferson’s murder. Later that year, the Manhattan Transfer—which had recorded with Cole and Jefferson just two weeks before Jefferson’s death—recorded a version of “Body and Soul” which featured Jefferson’s lyrics to the Hawkins solo. The second chorus was adapted to become a tribute to Jefferson. As part of the Transfer’s breakthrough “Extensions” album, it introduced many young listeners—including me—to Jefferson’s name and artistry. On their following album, “Mecca for Moderns”, the Transfer recorded “Confirmation” with Jefferson’s lyrics, along with two of his former collaborators, Jon Hendricks and Richie Cole. Hendricks, Cole and the Transfer are all still here today, a little mellowed with age, but they all continue to perform the music that Eddie Jefferson termed “the savior of the nation.”
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Don't care about climate change? What about the health of children?
By Fiona Stanley and Sallie Forrest
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Doctors are concerned Australian children are already suffering health effects from increasing temperatures, and more frequent and severe droughts, floods, bushfires and heatwaves as a result of climate change. Doctors are also worried about rising temperatures causing the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue, to areas further south, affecting air pollution levels, and increasing allergenic pollen in the air leading to higher rates of hayfever and asthma.
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While 88% of the burden of disease from climate change today is felt by children in developing countries, rich countries emitting high levels of greenhouse gas emissions are unequivocally the cause. We have a moral responsibility to assist the children of the world along with a vested interest in maintaining geopolitical stability.
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We must adapt and prepare our health system for impacts from unavoidable climate change. We know infrastructure is struggling to cope with increasing extreme weather events. For example, despite an estimated 374 excess deaths due to the heat wave surrounding the Black Saturday fires of 2009, a damning review last year by the auditor general found Victorians were still receiving mixed messages about preventing heat-related illnesses and that at least four hospitals lost power during the heatwave in January 2014. The auditor general said:
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Ultimately, climate change commitments must be made based on the medical science, as doctors have achieved before with tobacco and asbestos. We need better data on the health and other effects of climate change housed in a major centre in the Commonwealth department of health with satellite units in each state to initiate, implement and monitor a national strategy for the health effects of climate change.
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Court throws out lawsuits challenging climate plan before it was final
By (AP via theguardian.com)
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a pair of high-profile lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s sweeping plan to address climate change, saying it’s too early to challenge a proposed rule that isn’t yet final.
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The lawsuits from a coalition of 15 states and the nation’s largest privately held coal mining company claim the EPA exceeded its authority last year when it proposed the far-reaching plan to curb pollution from the nation’s coal-fired power plants.
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Opponents of the plan say it will force coal companies to shut down plants, shed thousands of jobs and drive up electricity prices. They argue that the plan is illegal because the EPA already regulates other power plant pollutants under a different section of the Clean Air Act. They say the law prohibits “double regulation”.
The EPA, however, says it has authority for the plan under the Clean Air Act. At issue are dueling provisions added by the House and Senate to the Clean Air Act in 1990. The EPA says it wins under the Senate language, but opponents argue that the House version should prevail.
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Science and Health |
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Body's response to spicy foods guides design of new pain relief drugs
By (ScienceDaily)
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Capsaicin is the ingredient that makes chili peppers spicy and hot. The same pathway in the body that responds to spicy food is also activated after injury or when the immune system mounts an inflammatory response to bacteria, viruses, or in the case of autoimmune disease, the body's own tissues.
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The research also explains why capsaicin does not activate the body's other channels for sensing temperature, and why the TRPV1 receptor in many other species is not activated by capsaicin. For example, birds are missing two key interaction sites, which explains why birds are insensitive to the spiciness of chili peppers.
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The researchers also found that sweet peppers contain a compound called capsiate, which is almost identical to capsaicin in spicy peppers but differs at one key interaction site.
'The difference is sufficient to make the sweet pepper compound bind to TRPV1 very poorly, which is probably part of the reason why it does not taste spicy,' Zheng said. 'On the Scoville pungency scale, capsaicin is 16 million, and capsiate is only 16,000.'
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Chimpanzees found to drink alcoholic plant sap in wild
By Victoria Gill
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Scientists studying chimpanzees in the Republic of Guinea have seen evidence of long-term and recurrent ingestion of ethanol by apes.
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Researchers working in the area had already witnessed chimpanzees climbing the trees - often in groups - and drinking the naturally fermented palm sap.
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In addition, chimpanzees' apparent taste for a tipple adds to an evolutionary story about humans' common predilection for alcohol. Another recent study by Matthew Carrigan, from Santa Fe College in the US, showed that humans and African apes shared a genetic mutation that enabled them to effectively metabolise ethanol.
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Dr Catherine Hobaiter, from St Andrews University, said: "It would be fascinating to investigate the [behaviour] in more detail: do chimps compete over access to the alcohol? Or do those who drank enough to show 'behavioural signs of inebriation' have a bit of a slow day in the shade the next morning?"
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Virtual reality helps stroke patients use weakened limbs
By (BBC)
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Virtual reality could help stroke patients recover by "tricking" them into thinking their affected limb is more accurate than it really is.
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"This therapy could create a virtuous circle of recovery, in which positive feedback, spontaneous arm use and motor performance can reinforce each other. Engaging patients in this ongoing cycle of spontaneous arm use, training and learning could produce a remarkable impact on their recovery process," she said.
There was an average chance of 35% that the 20-patient group chose their paretic (partially paralysed) arm to reach for something straight in front of them before the virtual reality enhancement, but an average chance of 50% afterwards, which is the same as for a healthy person.
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"The results of this pilot study suggest that the power of virtual reality could be used in the future to help stroke patients build confidence in using their weakened limb, and therefore promote their recovery. Larger trials are needed establish whether this is possible," said Dr Shamim Quadir, research communications manager at the Association.
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Technology |
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Social media effective in helping young adults quit smoking
By Stephen Feller
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Social media is twice as likely to help young adults quit smoking as are more traditional methods, according to a new study.
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"Traditional cessation services can have limited reach and this reduced visibility lessens their impact in a digital era," said Bruce Baskerville, a senior scientist at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact at Waterloo, in a press release. "Because they are such heavy users of social media, these platforms provide an alternative and successful way of reaching smokers who are less likely to relate to other cessation programs."
In Canada, the highest rates of smoking and of engagement with social media are among young adults, leading researchers in the study to focus more on methods that reach the people who need them.
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US army says it temporarily took down its website after hacking incident
By Patrick Greenfield in London and Reuters in Washington
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The US Army said on Monday it temporarily took down its website after a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army hacked into the site and posted messages.
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A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility for the hack and said it left messages on the US Army website, including one saying: “Your commanders admit they are training the people they have sent you to die fighting.”
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Cultural |
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Bangkok University transgender students get new uniform rules
By Jonathan Head
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Nothing really new there; Thai universities usually require students to wear an approved uniform.
But the new illustrations published by Bangkok University are for transgender students, showing how either "ladyboys" or "tomboys" can dress according to their chosen gender and still stay within the official dress code.
Transgender people are unusually visible in Thailand, where the annual Miss Tiffany transgender beauty contest is a national event, and people come from all over the world for gender reassignment surgery.
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As for the university, it offers a more prosaic reason for its new guidelines.
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Too many transgender students, unwilling to don the clothing that matched their official gender, were wearing whatever they liked, it said.
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Nigeria court drops child bride murder case in Kano
By (BBC)
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A court in northern Nigeria has dropped charges against a 14-year-old girl accused of using rat poison to kill her husband, aged 35.
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When the case was reported in 2014, it threw a spotlight on the issue of child brides and forced marriages in Nigeria.
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The girl's father had forced her to marry the 35-year-old man, police said.
The Islamic police in Kano and many other parts of northern Nigeria are trying to stop parents from forcing children into marriages.
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Indonesia's Aceh bans women from nightspots after 11pm
By (Al Jazeera)
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The capital of Indonesia's Aceh province has imposed a partial curfew for women that it says will reduce sexual violence but which critics say is discriminatory.
Internet cafes, tourist sites, sports facilities and entertainment venues have been instructed to refuse service to women after 11 pm unless they are accompanied by a husband or male family member.“
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The chief of Indonesia's national commission for violence against women said the measure would only restrict women's freedom and threaten their livelihoods.
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Ninik Rahayu from the Indonesian Institute for Empowerment of Women and Children said that the directive is discriminatory and contrary to Indonesia's constitution. She also said the policy shows the inability of the local government to provide adequate protection for residents.
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Under 2013 legislation, women passengers behind a male driver were forbidden to straddle motorbikes and forced to ride side-saddle instead.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |