Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

Fearful women tourists shunning India

Written By Unknown on Senin, 01 April 2013 | 23.45

Two Indian men watch a foreign tourist at a market in New Delhi. The number of foreign women tourists visiting India has dropped by 35 per cent in the past three months following a spate of sex attacks that have made global headlines. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE number of foreign women tourists, including Australians, visiting India has dropped by 35 per cent in the past three months following a spate of sex attacks that have made global headlines, a new survey has found.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) says overall tourist arrivals are down 25 per cent year-on-year, with holidaymakers opting instead to visit other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.

The fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old Indian student by six men on a bus in New Delhi in December sparked outrage over the country's treatment of women, and since then there have been other widely reported attacks.

A Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in Madhya Pradesh last month, while a South Korean tourist was allegedly drugged and raped in the same state in January by the son of the owner of a hotel where she was staying.

These incidents have "raised concerns about the safety of female travellers to the country", said D.S. Rawat, secretary general at ASSOCHAM, which surveyed 1200 tour operators from different cities.

Nearly 72 per cent of tour operators reported a number of cancellations in the past three months - usually a busy tourist season - especially by female visitors from countries such as Australia, Canada and the US.

Mr Rawat said deteriorating standards of safety and security were the main reasons for the drop in tourists, although the global economic slowdown was also a factor.

"The situation has been further aggravated by the advisory issued by various countries to their citizens visiting India to be cautious and avoid India," added the release from ASSOCHAM on Sunday.

The survey comes as a blow to government attempts to boost the tourism industry in a period of lagging economic growth.


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aussie prepares to charge kidnappers

The family of freed Australian hostage Warren Rodwell have thanked Philippine and Australian authorities.

FREED Australian hostage Warren Rodwell met with a Philippine prosecutor on Monday to help prepare charges against the Islamic extremists who held him in captivity for 15 months.

A gaunt, grim-looking Rodwell, who was in a wheelchair and escorted by Australian embassy personnel, filed a statement describing his ordeal before assistant prosecutor Aristotle Reyes at the Justice Department in Manila.

"This is to process the investigation of the case. The statement can be used by the PNP (Philippine National Police) to pursue a complaint," said Reyes, without disclosing details of the statement.

Armed men posing as police abducted Rodwell, 54, from his home in a coastal town of the southern Philippines in December, 2011, and demanded US$2 million ($1.9 million) for his safe release.

The militants freed a deeply emaciated Rodwell on March 23 after a payment, reportedly of four million pesos ($94,000), was made.

Authorities say the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of militants based in lawless islands of the southern Philippines and designated by the US government as a terrorist organisation, was responsible for the kidnapping.

Warren Rodwell has filed a statement in the Philippines, describing his kidnapping ordeal at the hands of Islamist extremists. Picture: Noel Celis

Australian Warren Rodwell, in a proof-of-life photo issued by kidnappers in the Philippines during his 15-month captivity. Picture: Facebook


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Saudi women allowed to ride bikes

Saudi women wait for their drivers outside a shopping mall in Riyadh. Religious police have reportedly eased up on a ban on women riding bicycles and motorcycles. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

A SAUDI newspaper says the kingdom's religious police are now allowing women to ride motorbikes and bicycles but only in restricted, recreational areas.

The Al-Yawm daily on Monday cited an unnamed official from the powerful religious police as saying women can ride bikes in parks and recreational areas but they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya.

Saudi Arabia follows an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam and bans women from driving. Women are also banned from riding motorcycles or bicycles in public places. The newspaper didn't say what triggered the lifting of the ban.

The official says women may not use the bikes for transportation but "only for entertainment'' and that they should shun places where young men gather "to avoid harassment.''
 


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Afghan teen fatally stabs US soldier

The body of Sergeant Michael Cable, 26, is transported home via Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Cable was killed in Afghanistan by a local teenager. Picture: Cliff Owen Source: AP

SENIOR US military officials say an Afghan teenager has killed an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck.

Two officials said Monday that Sergeant Michael Cable, 26, was guarding a meeting of Afghan and US officials in Nangarhar province when the stabbing occurred.

One of the officials estimated the attacker was 16 years old, but he escaped so the age couldn't be verified.

The official says the youth was not believed to be from the Afghan security forces so the Wednesday stabbing is not being classified as an insider attack.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The Pentagon said in a statement last week that Cable died from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces.


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Berezovsky's girlfriend doubts suicide

Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, pictured leaving London's High Court last year, was said by some to be depressed before his death. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

THE 23-year-old girlfriend of the late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky has said she did not believe he had killed himself and that they had been planning to go to Israel on holiday together days after he was found dead.

Katerina Sabirova said in a magazine interview she did not believe Berezovsky, 67, whom she first met in 2008, would have killed himself, and that in their last conversation a day before his death, his voice "had sounded better than usual".

Berezovsky was found on March 23 in the bathroom of a mansion outside London and a post-mortem found that he had been hanged and no evidence of a struggle.

"He was definitely planning to come to Israel on Monday (March 25). I know that for sure," she told the liberal weekly New Times, and showed a printout of her air ticket to Tel Aviv.

"He had big plans" of going to the Dead Sea, she said, adding that he had been down but that she had not believed he was suicidal.

Berezovsky "used to say: 'Imagine if I'm not around, all the problems will go away,' but this wasn't a guide to action, I could not and cannot imagine that he could do this. It's very hard to believe this," Ms Sabirova said.

Berezovsky was due to meet her at Tel Aviv airport's VIP lounge, after flying out with his bodyguard Avi, she said. He had proposed the trip on March 18, choosing Israel because Ms Sabirova's British visa had run out.

The magazine printed a photograph of Ms Sabirova with Berezovsky, his arm around her shoulder. Friends of Berezovsky confirmed that they were in a long-term relationship, it said.

When she came to a Moscow restaurant for the interview, "heads turned", the magazine wrote.

Ms Sabirova also confirmed that Berezovsky had discussed with her his letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for forgiveness, whose existence was revealed after the oligarch's death by Putin's spokesman.

"He said that he did not see another way (to return to Russia) than to bow down," she said, adding that she saw a draft and inferred that Berezovsky sent it in November but there had been no answer.

Alexander Goldfarb, a close associate of Berezovsky, wrote on his Snob.ru blog, that the businessman would have been likely to confide in Ms Sabirova.

"It's true that Katya Sabirova was dating Boris, and this relationship was close and trusting enough for him to have shared his plans for such a letter, if he planned to write it," he said.

"I was in touch with Katya in the last days and I think she told the truth in her New Times interview."

Friends of Berezovsky concurred that he had been extremely depressed after losing a multi-million-pound court battle against fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, last year.

Ms Sabirova said she last met Berezovsky in November after his court defeat, when she brought him Chinese herbal medicine cures from Moscow to help him sleep.

"He smoked a lot - he didn't drink but he smoked, sometimes several packs a day. He ate very little. By our last meeting, he had lost a lot of weight," she said.

Berezovsky, who made his fortune in the post-Soviet 1990s before quarrelling with Mr Putin and gaining asylum in Britain, had a complicated love life. He was married twice and had six children by three different women.

In 2011 he agreed to pay a record-breaking divorce settlement to his second wife, Galina Besharova, set by a British court, even though they had not lived together for more than a decade.

His former long-term partner Elena Gorbunova last year went to a British court to freeze some of his assets to prevent him selling them to settle his debts.

For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au

For help with depression, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36 or at www.beyondblue.org.au

The SANE Helpline is 1800 18 SANE (7263) or at www.sane.org


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

More die in second blast at mine

Rescuers with excavators search for buried mine workers at the site of a landslide in Lhasa, China, one of a number of deadly mining accidents in the country in recent days. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images

AN EXPLOSION has killed six workers at a coal mine in northeast China where 28 miners were killed in a similar accident just three days earlier, state media reported, one of a string of industrial accidents across the country that is again focusing attention on lax enforcement of safety regulations.

The explosion at the mine outside the city of Baishan in Jilin province left another 11 miners missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The cause of the most recent accident was under investigation and it wasn't clear why work had restarted at the mine so soon after last week's deadly blast.

Further south, an explosion at the Xinyu Group Iron Works smashed its 100-tonne No.2 furnace, killing four people and leaving 32 injured Monday, Xinhua said. It said the injured were transported to hospital but gave no word on the cause of the accident.

Staff members reached by phone at the company confirmed the explosion, but said they had no other information to provide. Local government officials declined to comment, and all refused to give their names.

Meanwhile, workers yesterday had recovered 36 bodies from the site of a massive landslide outside Tibet's capital Lhasa that buried 83 copper miners on Friday, Xinhua said.

Just one worker survived the disaster at the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine, having left the site earlier to purchase tents in the city, it said.

The miners were mostly impoverished farmers from the southern province of Guizhou recruited to work in the frigid conditions at 4600 metres above sea level.

More than 4000 rescuers were still looking for those buried, but little hope was being held out for their survival, Xinhua said. The sudden collapse of the surrounding hillside left a layer of rocks and soil over the miners 30 metres deep in places, the reports said.

China has struggled to boost workplace safety in recent years amid the pressures of rapid economic growth. Tougher enforcement of safety rules has brought major improvements in areas such as coal mining, while companies have also been forced to improve conditions to attract workers amid a tightening labour market.
 


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

N Korea plots stronger economy

Pak Pong Ju shakes hands with then Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2005. North Korea has announced the appointment of Pak Pong-Ju, an economics expert, as prime minister. Picture: Takanori Sekine Source: AFP

NORTH Korea on Monday shifted, at least temporarily, away from weeks of warlike rhetoric, appointing a new premier seen as an economic reformer.

The appointment followed a high-level declaration that nuclear bomb building and a stronger economy are the nation's top priorities.

The US, meanwhile, announced its latest conspicuous display of firepower, sending F-22 stealth fighter jets to participate in annual US-South Korean war games that Pyongyang calls preparation for invasion. The new South Korean president, who has a policy meant to re-engage Pyongyang with talks and aid, told her top military leaders Monday to set aside political considerations and respond strongly should North Korea attack.

The reemergence of Pak Pong Ju as premier at an annual spring parliamentary session is seen by analysts as a clear signal that leader Kim Jong Un is moving to back up recent statements vowing a focus on strengthened economic development. The UN says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages. Pak was reportedly sacked as prime minister in 2007 after proposing a US-style wage system.

The appointment signals that Mr Pak will play a key role in economic policymaking again.

"Pak Pong Ju is the face of economic reform, such as it exists - reform with North Korean characteristics as they say," said John Delury, a professor and North Korea analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University.

Any economic changes won't be radical, Delury said, and, for the time being, they're mostly aspirational. One possible change could entail a shift of part of the country's massive military spending into the economy as a whole, he said.

South Korean armoured vehicles conduct an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the demilitarised zone (DMZ) in Hwacheon, South Korea on April 1, 2013. Picture: Lee Hae-ryong

Pyongyang has reacted with anger to the US-South Korean military drills and to a new round of UN and US sanctions that followed its February 12 underground nuclear test, the country's third.

Analysts see a full-scale North Korean attack as unlikely and say the threats are more likely efforts to provoke softer policies toward Pyongyang from a new government in Seoul, to win diplomatic talks with Washington and to solidify the young North Korean leader's military credentials at home.

Despite the rising hostility, there has been a noticeable shift in North Korea's rhetoric to a message that seeks to balance efforts to turn around a moribund economy with nuclear development.

"There was a danger that this was getting to the point ... of a permanent war footing," Mr Delury said. "In the midst of this tension and militant rhetoric and posturing, Kim Jong Un is saying, 'Look, we're still focused on the economy, but we're doing it with our nuclear deterrent intact.'"

On Sunday, Mr Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars." Pyongyang cites the US military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The US has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

While analysts call North Korea's threats largely brinkmanship, there is some fear that a localised skirmish might escalate. Seoul has vowed to respond harshly should North Korea provoke its military. Naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years. Attacks blamed on Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans.

Under late leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea typically held a parliamentary meeting once a year. But Kim Jong Un held an unusual second session last September in a sign that he is trying to run the country differently from his father, who died in late 2011.

Parliament sessions, which usually are held to approve personnel changes and budget and fiscal plans, are scrutinised by the outside world for signs of key changes in policy and leadership.

At a session last April, Mr Kim was made first chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission, the body's top post.

On Sunday, Mr Kim presided over a separate plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, a top decision-making body tasked with organising and guiding the party's major projects. The meeting set a "new strategic line" calling for building both a stronger economy and nuclear arsenal.

North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent the nation's life, which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on Earth," according to a statement issued by state media after the meeting.

Sunday marked the first time for Mr Kim to preside over the committee meeting. The last plenary session was held in 2010, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry, and before that in 1993.

South Korea now faces a major decision. If President Park Geun-hye and her advisers react as her hardline predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, did, "then they're stuck in the same place, where North Korea limps along, but with regime stability," Mr Delury said. If so, then "the risk of a conflict is like a dark cloud over the next five years of the Park Geun-hye administration. It's not such an appealing path for her."


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Prosecutors want Holmes executed

James Holmes sits with defence attorney Tamara Brady during his arraignment last month. Picture: AP Source: AP

PROSECUTORS have said they will seek the death penalty against the man accused in last year's movie theatre attack that killed 12, wounded 70 and spurred new gun control laws in Colorado.

The much-anticipated disclosure came in a court hearing held four days after prosecutors publicly rejected an offer by James Holmes' lawyers that the former neuroscience graduate student would plead guilty to avoid execution.

Prosecutors had said the defence proposal wasn't a valid plea bargain offer, although they could still agree to a plea before the case goes to trial.

Mr Holmes' lawyers are expected to argue he is not guilty because he was legally insane at the time of the July 20 shooting. They balked at entering that plea last month, saying they couldn't make such a move until prosecutors made a formal decision on the death penalty.

Investigators say Mr Holmes methodically stockpiled weapons and ammunition for his assault on a packed midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, and booby-trapped his apartment to explode and distract any police who responded.

The massacre was repeatedly cited by gun control advocates who pushed a hotly contested package through the Colorado state Legislature last month. The bills include a ban on the sort of high-capacity magazines that Mr Holmes allegedly used to spray the theatre with dozens of bullets in a matter of seconds.

US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Denver on Wednesday to highlight the legislation as part of his push for more gun control following December's Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

As the tangled case against Mr Holmes returns to court, survivors and families of the victims are uncertain about what happens next.

If the case goes to trial, "all of us victims would be dragged along potentially for years", said Pierce O'Farrill, who was shot three times.

"It could be 10 or 15 years before he's executed. I would be in my 40s and I'm planning to have a family, and the thought of having to look back and reliving everything at that point in my life, it would be difficult," he said.

Defence lawyers revealed in a court filing last week that Mr Holmes would plead guilty if prosecutors allowed him to live out his days in prison with no chance of parole instead of having him put to death.

That prompted an angry response from prosecutors, who called it an attempt to gin up public support for a plea deal.

Prosecutors also said the defence has repeatedly refused to give them the information they need to evaluate the plea agreement.

If prosecutors do accept a deal, they will want to ensure that it's air-tight, said Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who is now an adjunct professor at the University of Denver law school.

Mr Holmes would give up his right to appeal by pleading guilty, she said. And although he could ask to change the plea if new evidence surfaces or if he claimed his lawyers were ineffective, "it's very, very hard to withdraw it", she said.

District Judge William Sylvester would want assurances from defence lawyers that Mr Holmes is mentally competent to plead guilty and accept a life sentence with no parole, Prof Steinhauser said.

The judge could order a mental competency evaluation before accepting a guilty plea, but Prof Steinhauser said that's unlikely unless Mr Holmes showed some sign of incompetence.

She said Judge Sylvester would probably accept the word of Mr Holmes' lawyers.

If Mr Holmes is convicted and sentenced to prison, the state Department of Corrections would determine what kind of mental health care he gets, said Alison Morgan, a department spokeswoman.

A third of the state's inmates have moderate to severe mental illness, and the prison system has an extensive mental health division with a 250-bed facility for the acutely mental ill, she said.

Inmates can be sent to the state mental hospital - where people found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed - but the stay is temporary, and they are returned to the prison system after treatment, she said.
 


23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger