Afghan Girl's Throat Slit Over Refusal To Wed

A 15-year-old girl in Afghanistan has been murdered after her family refused a marriage proposal.

The teenager had her throat slit as she was carrying water from a river to her village home in the northern Kunduz province on Wednesday.

Two men have now been arrested over the attack.

Police said one of suspects had earlier proposed to the girl but the offer had been rejected by her family.

A police spokesman added: "The two men attacked her and slit her throat with a knife.

"They were arrested and are in police custody."

Extreme violence against women and girls remains a major problem in the conservative Muslim nation more than a decade after US-led troops brought down the notoriously brutal Taliban Islamist regime.

Figures from Oxfam show 87% of Afghan women have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

Last month a 20-year-old woman was beheaded by her husband's family in the western province of Herat after she refused to become a prostitute, police said. Four people were arrested over the brutal killing.

And in September, five people were arrested over the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for allegedly having an affair.

The girl was whipped 100 times in front of village elders and family members in the central Ghazni province. Her alleged boyfriend was fined.

Unmarried girls are often confined to the home and forbidden from maintaining any contact with men outside the immediate family.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tornado Hits Huge Steel Factory In Italy

A freak tornado has smashed into Europe's largest steel plant in the Italian city of Taranto, leaving one person missing and dozens injured.

Video footage shows the storm rolling in off the sea and tearing through the port city before hitting the huge IVLA site.

It brought down a chimney stack and caused significant damage to buildings at the factory's docks.

A total of 38 people - including 20 staff at the plant - are reported to be injured and divers have been searching for a worker who is unaccounted for after a dockside crane collapsed.

Three other people on the crane were rescued.

One worker is unaccounted for

The sudden storm filled the sky with grey swirls of cloud that ripped across the harbour.

It is the latest blow to IVLA, which has become one of the most pressing issues confronting the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Workers stormed the plant on Tuesday to protest about a planned closure announced on Monday. Managers have been attempting to address health concerns amid reports of an elevated incidence of cancer in the area.

The government wants to save the factory, which employs around 20,000 people in a region of high unemployment, saying its closure would have devastating effects on the wider economy.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Facebook Post Reveals Teen's Murder To Family

The parents of a south Georgia student found out from Facebook that their daughter had been killed at her university.

A family friend forwarded a post on the social networking site to 17-year-old Jasmine Benjamin's mother and stepfather just before Thanksgiving.

It was only later that same day, on November 18, that police officially informed Judith Brogdon and James Jackson that their daughter had died at Valdosta State University.

Mr Jackson slammed the college authorities in an interview with local TV station WGCL.

"For someone to be so insensitive not to reach out to the family, or not even to keep up with what's going on because it's a holiday and you're going away on vacation or whatever you're doing - it's very, very hurtful to say the least," he said.

Valdosta State University in Georgia. Photo: Judy Baxter/Flickr

Now the family, from Gwinnett County near Atlanta, is turning to social media to help solve the mystery of her death, which police are investigating as a homicide.

They have hired a private investigator to search the internet for clues, and a new Facebook site has been set up for fellow students to share information.

They are looking for "unusual comments or unusually timed comments about her death," their lawyer A Thomas Stubbs said.

"Anything that reveals a little more information than what's publicly known about her death, those are the kind of comments police are looking for as someone who might warrant a closer examination."

Police say they do not know for certain how the student died.

There were no obvious signs of a crime when her body was found, but the post-mortem examination raised questions, authorities said.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

China's 'Carrier Style' Takes On Gangnam

By Mark Stone, Beijing correspondent

Internet users across China have begun an unlikely craze inspired by the launch of fighter jets from the country's first aircraft carrier.

In what has quickly become known as 'Carrier Style', a cross-section of Chinese society have filmed themselves imitating the move made by the aircraft carrier's ground crew as the jets took off.

Footage of the historic launch of jets from the Liaoning were played repeatedly on Chinese state television at the weekend allowing viewers to get a close look of the ground crew's 'Top Gun' style pose.

Viewers have combined the pose with dance moves from Gangnam Style, the record breaking hit from South Korean singer Psy.

The move has been uploaded by firemen, policemen, businessmen, athletes and students.

"The successful taking off and landing of the jet on the aircraft carrier is very exciting to our entire nation, it has also encouraged our firefighters," said Hu Yang, a firemen in Chengdu.

"Doing this is to enrich our cultural life and is an entertainment for our spare time". 

According to postings on the Chinese version of Twitter, the gesture is seen as "powerful and confident as well as amusing".

Jets were first launched from The Liaoning last week

In just a day, more than eight million people had followed links to people adopting the move.

But there is a serious side to the craze. It is a gift for the Chinese government which many believe is trying to project its military might well beyond its borders.

The launch of the country's first aircraft carrier in September and the launch of aircraft from it at the weekend are hugely symbolic developments. The videos have resulted in plenty of people talking about it.

"Although the gesture has often been seen in movies, I couldn't restrain my excitement the first time I saw it used to instruct a fighter jet to land and take off from China's first aircraft carrier," Han Lu, chief editor of a leading car website told the China Daily newspaper.

The Chinese Communist Party insists  the aircraft carrier will be used only for training and that its military policy remains defensive in nature.

However, China is locked in a series of diplomatic disputes with most of its neighbours over territory in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

A craze like 'Carrier Style' could act as a perfect boost for nationalist sentiment.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pussy Riot: Court Bans Videos From Internet

Videos made by the jailed feminist punk band Pussy Riot, including the infamous "Punk Prayer" in a Moscow cathedral, have been branded "extremist" by a Russian court.

It ordered that access to the videos should be banned online.

The judge hearing the case also restricted access to the official Pussy Riot website and the band's popular Livejournal blog.

The decision came after prosecutors told the court that linguistic experts found the clips offensive.

Judge Marina Musimovich said the video "has elements of extremism, in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion".

Materials officially branded "extremist" are put on a blacklist kept by the Russian justice ministry.

Three Pussy Riot members stood trial over the Punk Prayer

Currently the list has about 1,500 items, mostly related to banned religious and ultra-nationalist groups or those considered to be fascist.

Two Pussy Riot members are currently serving two-year prison terms after their cathedral performance was ruled an act of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

The video of the February Punk Prayer has gone viral and been viewed on YouTube several million times.

Pussy Riot also sang a song "Putin Got Scared" on Red Square, and staged an illicit concert on the roof of a Moscow prison for those detained at a protest rally last December.

The band's Yekaterina Samutsevich, who has been convicted for the church stunt but freed with a suspended sentence, called the latest ruling a "direct recognition of artistic censorship" in Russia.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Moscow Hit By Biggest Snowfall In 50 Years

Moscow has been blanketed by the biggest November snowfall in 50 years, disrupting flights and causing havoc on the roads.

The snowstorm has dumped nearly 12cm (4.7ins) on the Russian capital in 24 hours – a third of the amount of snow usually expected for the whole of November.

The roads in the capital were clogged up and bulldozers were brought in to clear Red Square.

Some 70 flights from Moscow's largest airport, Domodedovo, were disrupted overnight but the service has now returned to normal.

Moscow's city hall said the Russian capital had not seen such a big snowfall in November for 50 years.

Forecasters say that the storm will continue until Friday morning.

The record snowfall follows the publication of a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report which said that January to October had been the ninth warmest period globally since records began in 1850.

It said that extreme weather patterns, such as snowstorms, heatwaves, droughts and floods, were evidence of climate change.

This year heatwaves hit Russia and the US, which registered 15,000 new daily temperature records in March alone.

China suffered drought, and flooding struck many parts of Western Africa. Russia suffered significant flooding in western regions in July.

Michel Jarraud, the chief of the WMO, said: "Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so."

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Romania: £18m Hacking Gang Smashed By Police

A gang of computer hackers in Romania has been arrested after allegedly stealing the personal details of 500,000 Australian credit card users in the biggest identity heist in the country's history.

The data was used to create false identities to enable 30,000 counterfeit transactions in Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States amounting to more than $30m (£18.7m).

The investigation - codenamed Operation Lino - began in June 2011 when the Australian Federal Police (AFP) received a referral from an Australian financial institution relating to suspicious credit card transactions.

The AFP traced the operation to Romania where they worked with local police to identify the location of the gang who had apparently hacked into 100 small businesses in Australia to snatch the data.

The operation came to an end after armed police raided premises in Romania using explosives to blast open the front door. Inside they found significant amounts of cash, weapons and networked computer equipment.

AFP Cyber Crime Operations Commander, Glen McEwen, said the arrests were the result of significant cooperation between law enforcement and the financial industry. 

"This is the largest data breach investigation ever undertaken by Australian law enforcement," he said.

"Without the cooperation of 13 other countries, along with Australia's banking and finance sector, we would not have been able to track these illegal transactions to the criminal network in Romania.

"Today's successful outcome is a culmination of 17 months of hard work with these partners, but policing is only one part of the solution to stop data compromises.

"Credit cards should be kept in a secure place, cashpoints should be checked for unusual attachments and personal details and PINs should be protected."

Australian financial institutions have reimbursed the financial losses of cardholders.

Abacus Australian Mutuals CEO Louise Petschler said the arrests demonstrate that cybercrime is a global enterprise.

"It underlines how a coordinated approach by law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, merchants and consumers can help fight card fraud," she said.

"We all have a role to play to ensure credit card transactions are safe and secure."

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Manning Guard Joked About Underwear Risk

A prison officer guarding the soldier accused of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks made jokes about him being ordered to remove his underwear because he was a suicide risk, a pre-trial hearing was told.

On the second day of the hearing, a Maryland courthouse heard that Private First Class Bradley Manning had his underwear confiscated at night because he told a prison guard that if he wanted to kill himself, he could hang himself with the waistband.

Officers testified that they regarded it as a suicidal comment when the 24-year-old said: "I have everything I need right here to be able to harm myself. The waistband of my underwear can do this."

But Manning's lawyer - who is seeking dismissal of all charges on the grounds that his imprisonment at the Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, amounted to illegal punishment - suggested he was commenting on the absurdity of his situation.

David Coombs, defending, then revealed that the chief legal officer at Quantico at the time, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greer, made light of the underwear episode in an email, composing a rhyme in the style of the popular Dr Seuss books.

The message said: "I can wear them in a box. I can wear them with a fox. I can wear them in the day. I can wear them so I say. But I can't wear them at night. My comments gave the staff a fright."

Marine Colonel Robert Oltman, the officer in charge of security in the brig, responded to the email with the signature, "Sam I am," another Dr Seuss reference.

During his court testimony, Mr Coombs asked the security chief if it was "funny to you that PFC Manning was being stripped at night?"

"No, it was not, it was a very serious issue," Col Oltman replied.

Manning's supporters protesting during the hearing

The court heard that Manning was kept under strict conditions partly because a previous prisoner had committed suicide and despite the fact that psychiatrists who examined him at Quantico repeatedly recommended that his conditions be eased.

The suicide watch confinement also came after Manning was seen engaged in "erratic dancing" and licking the bars in his cell, the court martial was told.

Manning, who made his first public appearance in over two years at the courthouse on Tuesday, is due to testify in person at some point during the hearing, which is expected to last six days.

The informant was held at Quantico for nine months, from July 2010 to April 2011, when he was moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Throughout his time at Quantico, he was designated a "maximum custody" detainee and considered at risk of either suicide or harming himself or others.

He was locked up alone for at least 23 hours a day, forced to sleep naked for several nights and required to stand naked at attention one morning, his lawyers assert.

Manning now argues that all charges should be dropped due to what he calls his "needlessly harsh treatment" during his nine months of confinement in Quantico.

The soldier faces possible life imprisonment if convicted of aiding the enemy, the most serious of the 22 charges that he faces.

He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Saturn Storm Clouds Captured By Cassini

Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has captured dramatic images of rolling storm clouds on Saturn.

The pictures were obtained while the spacecraft was "travelling the Saturnian system in a set of inclined, or tilted, orbits that give mission scientists a vertigo-inducing view of Saturn's polar regions," Nasa said.

The results show storm clouds and a swirling vortex at the centre of Saturn's north polar hexagon.

Nasa said Cassini has seen storms circling Saturn's north pole in the past, but only in infrared wavelengths because the north pole was in darkness.

But, with the change of the Saturnian seasons, the sun has begun to creep over the planet's north pole.

The latest findings mimic sightings at the south pole

The recent finds mimic a phenomena that Cassini found at Saturn's south pole a number of years ago.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint venture involving Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

It was launched in 1997 and entered into Saturn's orbit in 2004.

It has been studying the planet and its many moons since then.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russian Prison Guards Film Beating Of Inmate

Russian prison guards filmed themselves teaching an inmate a lesson by administering a savage beating.

The prisoner is repeatedly slapped and kicked

The footage shows the prisoner, who is serving two years for robbery, being repeatedly punched and kicked to the floor as he begs them to stop.

As the man is abused, the prison guards can be heard trying to instil discipline by talking him through the prison "hierarchy" between blows.

The man is punched in the stomach by a guard

The filming starts when the man, dressed in a black jacket with his hands cuffed behind his back, is brought in front of prison guards.

They shout: "Stop telling your lies" before punching him in the stomach.

A number of guards then unleash a series of punches, kicks, slaps and blows on the man in the beating, which lasts over six minutes.

A guard aims a kick at the prisoner's head

In one sequence each of the guards takes it in turns to slap and kick him.

The prisoner continually begs for their forgiveness and asks them to stop but the abuse continues.

The prisoner is kicked in the face after asking guards to stop

At one point as the inmate lies on the floor they shout at him: "Get up you fat pig. Get up."

The filming ends with the man lying on the floor, by now wearing just a black vest, weeping after the guards force a hat into his mouth.

Guards stuff a hat into the inmate's mouth

The video was originally posted on YouTube but was hastily removed because of the gratuitous nature of the violence, however, a number of Russian pressure groups saved the footage and posted it on their own websites.

According to the original post, the incident took place in the penal colony No.10, in Rostov-on-Don, in the south of Russia.

Russia's prisons are notoriously violent. Around 4,000 inmates die in the country's prisons every year, according to recent figures issued by the deputy prosecutor general.

The video was posted online just two days after a riot in one of Russia's prisons in protest at the high number of torture and suicide cases.

23.31 | 0 komentar | Read More