rpannier
rpannier's JournalBoys With Brides: Afghanistan's Untold Dilemma Of Underage Marriages
Mohammad Wali was just 12 years old when his widowed mother began arranging his marriage to a 24-year-old woman from their village in Ghazni Province.
"I don't want to be married," the young Afghan boy is said to have pleaded with his mother. "I just want to play soccer and cricket. I want to go to school."
But his mother insisted on the marriage to ensure that she and Mohammad Wali's two teenage sisters would not become street beggars -- a possibility she feared because of local inheritance customs for widows who don't have any male heir.
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"You must get married," she is said to have begged her son. "You must marry soon and you must have a son of your own or we could become destitute, without any property, and your sisters will have no say about anything that happens to them."
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Hussaini says UNICEF has recently been registering about 200 Afghan boys each month, aged 11 to 17, as they return to Herat Province from Iran where they've being working to help support their families.
https://www.rferl.org/a/boys-with-brides-afghanistan-untold-dilemma-of-underage-marriages/30106032.html
Death toll from typhoon in eastern China rises to 28
The death toll from a major typhoon in eastern China rose to 28 on Sunday, with 20 people missing, state media reported, after torrential rains forced more than one million people to evacuate and triggered a landslide.
Typhoon Lekima made landfall early on Saturday in the eastern province of Zhejiang with winds gusting to 187 km (116 miles) per hour, causing travel chaos with thousands of flights cancelled and rail operations suspended.
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The deadly landslide occurred about 130 km north of the coastal city of Wenzhou, when a natural dam collapsed in an area deluged with 160 mm (6.3 inches) of rain within three hours, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
State media reports showed rescuers wading in waist-high waters to evacuate people from their homes, while the Ministry of Emergency Management said that more than one million people in the financial hub of Shanghai, as well as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, have been evacuated.
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/11/death-toll-from-typhoon-in-eastern-china-rises-to-28
Norway mosque shooting: One injured, suspect in custody
One person has been injured in a shooting inside a mosque in Norway, police said on Saturday, adding that a suspect had been apprehended.
The suspected shooter at the al-Noor Islamic Centre near the country's capital was described as "a young white man" who appeared to have acted alone, the police added.
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"The man carried two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol. He broke through a glass door and fired shots," he said.
The shooter, who wore body armour and a helmet, was overpowered by members of the mosque before police arrived, Mushtaq added.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/10/norway-mosque-shooting-one-injured-suspect-in-custody
5 Stories from Europe You May Not Have Seen
1. Greece scraps law banning police from university campuses
Greece’s newly elected, centre-right government has ignored leftists’ protests to overturn a law that had prohibited police from entering universities.
In a stormy debate preceding Thursday’s vote, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, insisted the old law – regarded as sacrosanct in a country that had once known military rule – had turned campuses into dens of criminality and no-go zones for police.
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In recent years academics have been attacked on university sites, while drug addicts have been seen shooting up in broad daylight on campuses.
The law that has barred security forces from universities for close to 40 years was drafted in response to the decision of Greece’s colonels to send a tank crashing through the gates of Athens’ Polytechnic in 1973 – a move that resulted in the deaths of 23 students.
link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/08/greece-scraps-law-banning-police-from-university-campuses
2. How a hashtag looks set to offer LGBTI people a #MeToo moment in Poland
Ten days ago, approaching the main city square where Białystok’s first ever LGBTI pride march was due to start, I was met with a scene of chaos
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For many Poles, the level of violence witnessed at the Pride March in Białystok came as a shock but it did not come from nowhere. Over the past few months, the Polish government and pro-government media have been increasingly spreading homophobic and transphobic propaganda and using homophobia as a rallying poing ahead of upcoming general elections.
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Two days ago, a young man called Tomasz tweeted a message suggesting that LGBTI people post photos of themselves “in school or work showing that we are the normal people whom you might meet anywhere: in the shop, on the street, the office”. He added the hashtag #jestemLGBT ("I am LGBT”) and for the last two days, it has been trending at the No.1 spot on Polish twitter, with thousands expressing solidarity by tweeting and re-tweeting.
Poles have used the hashtag on social media to show the people they are behind the labels: students, waitresses, firemen, doctors or just people you sit next to on a bus or pass in the street. “I'm fed up with the way the LGBTI community in Poland are dehumanised” tweeted Alexandra, a student. ”I am just a normal person. I get up, go to work, come home, make dinner for me and my girlfriend, go to a class, then go to bed." Tens of thousands of others are joining in, offering solidarity and support by tweeting #jestemzLGBT (I am with LGBTI) expressing solidarity with LGBTI people.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/31/how-a-hashtag-looks-set-to-offer-lgbti-people-a-metoo-moment-in-poland-view
3. Bosnia To Start Tracking Migrant Injuries After Alleged Beatings By Croatian Police
Authorities in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina say they will start recording injuries sustained by migrants after 18 of them were allegedly beaten by Croatian police near the two countries' border.
Una Sana Canton’s Health Minister Nermina Cemalovic made the announcement to RFE/RL on August 8, a day after 14 Pakistanis and four Iraqis were found with signs of physical trauma while trying to illegally cross the border into EU-member Croatia.
Bosnian media and a Croatian refugee assistance center said they were beaten by Croatian police, an allegation that Zagreb authorities deny.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/bosnia-tracking-migrant-injuries-alleged-beatings-croatian-police/30100316.html
4. Two dead in explosion at military testing site in northern Russia: defence ministry
Two people died in an explosion at a military testing site in northern Russia on Thursday, according to RIA news agency, citing the ministry of defence.
Six people were injured in the incident near Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk region in the Russian Arctic, it added.
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It was the second accident involving the Russian military this week.
Massive explosions at a Russian military ammunition depot in Siberia injured at least eight people and prompted the evacuation of thousands Monday.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/two-dead-in-explosion-at-military-testing-site-in-northern-russia-defence-ministry
5. Pro-LGBT Coca-Cola adverts spark boycott calls in Hungary
Advertisements by Coca-Cola relating to a popular music festival in Hungary that promote gay acceptance have prompted a boycott call from a senior member of the conservative ruling party.
The posters are timed for the week-long Sziget festival – that takes the theme of “Love Revolution” and starts on Wednesday in Budapest – and show gay people and couples smiling with slogans such as “zero sugar, zero prejudice”.
That has annoyed some supporters of Viktor Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, which opposes same-sex marriage.
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Tamás Dombos, an advocate with the Háttér gay rights group, said the government was homophobic but also aware of society’s growing acceptance of gay lifestyles.
link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/05/pro-lgbt-coca-cola-ads-spark-boycott-calls-in-hungary
Thailand's Fugitive Ex-Prime Minister Gets Serbian Citizenship
Serbia has granted citizenship to Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who fled the Southeastern Asian country nearly two years ago to avoid prosecution.
Serbia’s Official Gazette published the notice about the decision on August 8.
The government decided to grant Yingluck citizenship on June 27, citing a legal provision that a foreign citizen can be granted Serbian citizenship if that’s in line with the country's interest.
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With a Serbian passport, the ex-prime minister can travel without a visa to more than 100 countries, including most of members of the European Union.
link:
https://www.rferl.org/a/thailand-s-fugitive-ex-prime-minister-gets-serbian-citizenship/30100018.html
Good for Serbia
Poland's parliament speaker Kuchcinski to resign in private flight scandal
Poland's parliament speaker, Marek Kuchcinski, said on Thursday he would resign after it was revealed that he used government aircraft for private trips by family members.
With elections set for October, the scandal has embarrassed the ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has said it is cleaning up an alleged legacy of graft and communist influence tolerated by previous governments.
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Political analysts said that until Thursday the PiS had adopted a wait and see approach, hoping the scandal would die off amidst the summer holiday lull.
But after Polish media published further details of the flights and pointed to discrepancies in explanations by Kuchcinski and the government, the potential damage became too serious to gloss over.
link
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/poland-s-parliament-speaker-kuchcinski-to-resign-in-private-flight-scandal
'Useless to go ahead with daily quarrels': Italy's coalition government on brink of collapse
Source: euronews
Italy's ruling League party said on Thursday the only alternative to the current government was a fresh election, as it ruled out another cabinet reshuffle in the wake of growing policy differences with its coalition partner.
In reply, 5-Star said in a statement: ""The League note is incomprehensible. They have to clearly state what they want to do. They have to be clear".
The government looked to be nearing the brink of collapse yesterday, when the Italian Senate rejected a motion by 5-Star to block an alpine rail link with France, paving the way for the long-contested project to continue.
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League's leader Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday that tensions with 5-Star meant the government could soon collapse, and the parliamentary debate ahead of the Senate vote exposed the growing gulf between the two parties.
Read more: https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/08/useless-to-go-ahead-with-daily-quarrels-italy-s-coalition-government-on-brink-of-collapse
Has Anyone Seen The Turkmen President Lately?
The big news from Turkmenistan in the last few weeks has been that the country's mercurial president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, has been absent from the news for large periods of time.
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While officially on vacation, that has never stopped Turkmen state media from following Berdymukhammedov around in previous years.
But his absence from nightly Turkmen television newscasts and daily reports in state print media have some people seriously considering rumors that Berdymukhammedov is in poor health or possibly even dead.
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And RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, noted that Berdymukhammedov was wearing exactly the same suit and tie as he wore in a May 10 broadcast on state television, which is strange because he never wears the same suit -- or even the same clothes -- twice in his television appearances.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/has-anyone-seen-turkmenistan-president/30095576.html
on edit:
Sounds like it's time for Acme Detective Agency to get going
Personally, it's likely he's dead or pretty close
But we'll see if he attends the Caspian Economic Forum, we'll know
Zoran Lazarevic has been crowned the mustache king
At a festival in rural Serbia, retired construction worker Zoran Lazarevic has been crowned the mustache king with white whiskers measuring 140 centimeters.
Video of the man, his 'stache and story at link
https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-mustache-man/30097954.html
One Dead As Kyrgyz Forces Leave Ex-President's Compound, Hostages Freed
Source: rferl
KOI-TASH, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz forces withdrew from the village where former President Almazbek Atambaev resides early on August 8 after an unsuccessful attempt to arrest him in a raid that left one serviceman dead and 45 people hospitalized with injuries.
The decision was based on negotiations with Atambaev supporters who agreed to free all six servicemen whom they had taken hostage during the failed special forces operation on August 7.
Authorities moved on the former president’s compound to carry out a subpoena in an unspecified investigation, but were met with bloody resistance by Atambaev’s supporters.
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After parliament on June 27 voted to strip immunity from prosecution for former presidents, the embattled Atambaev has spent most of his time at his residential compound and has publicly stated that he has weapons.
Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyz-police-storm-ex-president-s-house-near-bishkek/30097824.html
Video at link
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