GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Four climbers died while returning from the summit of Mount Everest, over the weekend, Nepali officials report.
All four climbers, from Germany, China, South Korea and Canada, died along the Southeast Ridge route, at altitudes of over 8000 meters above sea level. This area is also known as the “death zone”, as it becomes nearly impossible to survive the treacherous conditions, including low oxygen levels for more than 48 hours.
Eberhard Schaaf, a 61-year-old German participating in the Eco Everest Expedition to remove accumulated garbage left on the mountain, died Saturday 19 May from cerebral edema, according to Ang Schering Sherpa, as reported on the Everest News website.
Shriya Shah, 32, a Nepali-born Canadian, who had dreamt all her life of climbing the summit, and a South Korean climber, Song Won-bin, 44, also died on Saturday. The first good weather days for climbing this spring were Friday 18 and Saturday 19, which lead to an estimated 150 climbers attempting the ascent each day. Nepali mountaineering official Gyanendra Shrestha told the Associated Press ”There was a traffic jam on the mountain on Saturday. Climbers were still heading to the summit as late as 2.30pm, which is quite dangerous”.
The body of Chinese climber Ha Wenyi, 55, who had been missing since the weekend, was found near to where the other climbers died.
Ang Tshering Sherpa explained “Most of these deaths occur due to high altitude sickness”.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A former Rudgers University student convicted of spying with a webcam on his gay room-mate who then committed suicide was sentenced Monday 21 May to 30 days in prison in a US court.
The sentencing of Dharun Ravi, 20, who had filmed Tyler Clementi, 18, kissing another man in his dorm room, and twittering about the incident days before Clementi killed himself, was criticized by both sides in the case. Ravi, an Indian national, could have received up to ten years in jail, but instead was given three years probation in addition to the jail term, and was ordered to get counseling on cyber-bullying and “alternate lifestyles” and to pay $10,000 to help victims of hate crimes.
The prosecution’s lawyer, Bruce Kaplan said he would appeal the New Jersey court decision, saying the jail term was insufficient. A gay-rights organization in the northeastern state, Garden State Equality issued a statement saying that whilst it objected to a ten year term, the 30 day term was not enough. “This was not merely a childhood prank gone awry. This was not a crime without bias”.
Ravi’s lawyer, Steven Alman, said his client had been “demonized by the gay community” and objected to the sentence, complaining that the case was “being treated as if it’s a murder case”.
As he announced the judgment, Judge Glenn Berman said he had not heard Ravi apologize once, and felt that while he did not think he had acted out of hate towards Clementi, he was guilty of “colossal insensitivity”.
The case sparked a debate in the United States on the issues of anti-gay bullying, teenage suicide, hate crime laws and the use of new technology by young users.
Links to other sources: BBC, NPR, Associated Press
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Scuffles and arrests marked Sunday’s Occupy Chicago protest against the Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) meeting being held in Chicago, Illinois, USA, the Chicago Sun Times reports. Some streets in the city centre have been blocked and traffic redirected at times. About 2,000 journalists are covering the two-day summit, the first held in a US city other than Washington, DC. President Obama, who hails from Illinois, is attending the summit Monday.
Links to other sites: Chicagonato, Nato, WGN-TV, Chicago
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The annular eclipse by the moon of the sun, leaving only the famous ring of fire showing around the edges of the moon, was visible in parts of Japan and the US, including California and New Mexico, but bad weather blocked the view of it in some areas, including Vancouver, Canada. NPR reports that it was the first time in 25 years that an annular eclipse has been visible in Japan. Nasa’s web site in the US nearly crashed, according to the Los Angeles times, because of the high number of visits.
Links to other sites: Los Angeles Times, Nasa, NPR, Vancouver Sun
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mary Richardson Kennedy’s death and burial, like her life, has been a struggle. The 52-year-old designer/architect and environmentalist, estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr involved in a rancorous divorce case, was found dead 16 May and her hanging was ruled a suicide. The Kennedy family held a wake Friday near Boston, Massachussetts, but the the Richardson family also announced it was holding a wake in Manhattan at an unspecified date. The families went to court over custody of the body; the court documents were then sealed. “The medical examiner’s office in Westchester County had been told there would be court proceedings related to custody of Mary Kennedy’s body and waited for a court order before releasing it to a funeral home in Bedford,” NPR cites county spokeswoman Donna Greene as saying.
The couple had four children. Mary was Kennedy’s second wife; the two married in 1996 but had known each other since she was a teenage friend of Robert’s sister Kerry, who told US media outside the Catholic church where the service was held that “She struggled so hard, for so long, with mental illness, which so many Americans suffer with … She fought with dignity, and in the end, the demons won.”
AP video
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Apple and five publishers have lost a bid to have a class action case on electronic book pricing rejected, thus allowing the case to proceed in court in the United States.
US district attorney judge Denise Cote in New York Tuesday 15 May rejected a motion by Apple and the publishers to dismiss the case, citing concerns of a “conspiracy”. Cote wrote in an opinion that the agreement to set prices for e-books between the electonics giant and the publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuste—”is unlawful per se because it is, at root, a horizontal price restraint”.
The class action suit, filed last August, preceded US Department of Justice allegations last month which claimed that Apple had colluded with the publishers to wrest control from online book vendor Amazon and to boost the price of e-books. Judge Cote is overseeing both cases.
Links to other sources: Business Week, Publishers Weekly, Times of India
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Federal Bureau of Investigations has opened a preliminary inquiry into a $2 billion trading loss at JP Morgan Chase, which led to the resignation Monday 14 May of the bank’s chief investment officer, Ina Drew.
Shareholders defended the investment bank’s chief Jamie Dimon at the annual general meeting, rejecting a motion intended to split his CEO and chairman roles. The vote comes amid revelations of risky derivatives trades made using the bank’s own assets, which led to the losses.
The FBI investigation is widely seen as an expected public step, given the ongoing debate in Washington on banking regulation. Reuters cites Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, addressing an event sponsored by the Petersen Foundation, “I think this failure of risk management is just a very powerful case for … financial reform.”
Meanwhile, Dimon promised shareholders to take further disciplinary measures against those responsible for losses at the bank.
Shares at the bank have fallen sharply since losses were exposed last week, after having outperformed most competitors in the past year.
Links to other sources: Times of India, ABC, Sydney Morning Herald
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Carlos Fuentes, one of Latin America’s most prolific and eloquent authors, died Tuesday 15 May, aged 83, following a heart attack.
Fuentes, born in Panama to Mexican parents, was a frequent critic of governments and a defender of human rights. His novel “The Death of Artemio Cruz” focused on the excesses of the former Mexican ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Together with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Julio Cortazar, Fuentes belonged to part of a new Latin American literary movement in the 1960s and 1970s known as the “boom”, which often used a non-linear style and changing perspectives.
“The Old Gringo”, written in 1985, was the first Latin American book to reach the New York Times bestseller list.
As the son of a diplomat, Fuentes spent his childhood in several Latin American countries, before moving to Washington. Fuentes later studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He began a career in diplomacy, followed by work as a journalist.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Dalai Lama is giving $900,000 to the UK-based Save the Children Fund’s India operations, the organization said Monday 14 May. The Tibetan religious leader was awarded $1.1b Monday 14 May in London as a recipient of the Templeton prize given by the John Templeton Foundation, for scientific investigation into the power of compassion and its potential to solve world problems. The money will be used to fight malnutrition in India.
The Dalai Lama’s Indian organization and Save the Children India have worked closely together since just after the second world war. Irish writer Dervla Murphy wrote about her experience with the two organizations in 1963 in Tibetan Foothold, republished in October 2011.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 17th-century Stradivarius cello housed at the Royal Palace of Madrid has been broken but “will be repaired” said an unnamed Spanish National Heritage official who did not confirm when the accident took place. The news were first reported by El País, Spain’s largest daily a couple of days ago.
The cello is part of the only string quartet in the world -two violins, a viola and a cello- entirely made by Antonio Stradivari. The group is known as “the Quartet.”
What makes this accident so significant is that the set of musical instruments was requested directly by the Spanish court to Stradivari in 1694, making it, unique.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the quartet “was built by Stradivari as if it were a single instrument. So when the four sound together, it’s as if twenty played in unison.”
The Royal Palace and the National Heritage office have not said how much the Spanish cello is worth, however, the Associated Press reports that the head of the musical instrument department at Sotheby’s auction house in London said he believed it to be worth €15.4 million, or CHF18.4, at today’s exchange rate.
While many versions are circulating on how the accident happened, and what the extent of the damage is, the official version from the Palace is that it “broke” and it “will be fixed”.
Many Spaniards are up in arms as the costs of repairing the instrument will fall on taxpayers; an instrument of such high value, has the backing warranty of the State.
Links to other sites: Associated Press, El País (Spa)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Joran Van der Sloot, 24, a Dutch citizen, pleaded guilty on Wednesday 9 May, to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino.
Flores murder took place five years to the day after Natalie Holloway, an American student on holidays, disappeared on Aruba, the Dutch dependency where the young man grew up.
Van der Sloot remains the main suspect in Holloway’s murder and faces an indictment in the US for allegedly accepting money in exchange for an unfulfilled promise to lead to the victim’s body.
The Dutch man’s lawyer says his client will fight extradition.
Van der Sloot could be released on parole after serving a third of his 28-year sentence for killing Flores.
Links to other sites: Christian Science Monitor, the Huffington Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two days after UN Special Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan said in Geneva that he is worried by the growing number of bombs being used, and the growing threat of civil war, two major blasts have caused heavy damage to the south side of the capital, Damascus. State media say that scores have been killed and wounded, reports Reuters, without giving estimated figures. Aljazeera reports 29 people have died. The target appears to have been military buildings. Wednesday a bomb went off near UN monitors who are part of the agreement Annan has brokered with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The blasts appear to have been powerful enough to be heard throughout the city.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Reuters
Indonesian authorities say wreck could be jet that went missing with 45 aboard
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Indonesian officials say a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 that was on a demonstration flight but disappeared from radars has been spotted by a helicopter. The plane lost contact at 14:50 Wednesday 9 May, local time, with 45 people aboard. The plane went down near a 2,200m peak, Salak, says Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and rescue operations to check for survivors are underway but Russian media say teams have not yet reached the site. Strong winds followed by fog early Thursday slowed down the search.
The plane is the first commercial airliner made by Russian military plane company Sukhoi in a joint venture with several other Russian and international companies, including Italy’s Finmeccanica, according to the BBC. Sukhoi is reported by Reuters to have been hoping to sell 45 of the planes to Indonesia, where air travel is growing rapidly thanks to an expanding middle class
Ria Novosti reports that “The Sukhoi Superjet is Russia’s only civil airliner in production in significant numbers, and is regarded by many aviation industry analysts as Russia’s last hope of remaining as a player in civil aerospace.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It’s taken two years of allowing his position to “evolve” but US President Barack Obama came out with it Wednesday evening 9 May: he now supports same sex marriages, he told ABC news, saying that he’s always believe “gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly, and equally”. Vice-president Joe Biden said last week that he is in favour of same sex marriages, putting pressure on Obama to re-state his own position. A Gallup poll published Tuesday in the US says that public opinion is divided nearly equally on the issue, 50 percent for and 48 percent against, reports Bloomberg.
Part of the debate in the US is over whether the states have the right to decide, as Obama suggested, or if the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Slowing the expected increase in growing obesity rates in the United States can drastically reduce health care costs, according to an analysis presented at a Washington health conference, National Public Radio reports.
According to the evaluation presented at the Weight of the Nation conference in Washington and published in the American Journal for Preventative Medicine, if obesity in the US were to stay at 2010 levels, the combined savings in medical costs over the next two decades would amount to $549.5 billion.
The study also presented a leveling in the rate of growth of the US overweight population. Currently 33 percent of Americans are obese and by 2030, 42 percent are expected to be so, below the expected level of 51 percent. Obesity is defined in terms of a body mass index that compares weight to height. Obesity represents a ratio above 25 kg/m2, and severe obesity a ratio greater than 30kg/m2.
The World Health Organization says that worldwide, obesity is on the rise, having more than doubled since 1980, with 1.5 billion people being overweight or obese. It attributes the problem of overweight and obesity to 44 percent of the diabetes burden and to 23 percent of the heart disease burden.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Save the Children’s annual State of the Mother Report, which ranks countries around the world according to women’s and children’s wellbeing, is focusing on maternal nutrition ahead of this month’s G8 meeting in Camp David, at which US President Barack Obama is expected to discuss food and agriculture.
The charity considers “nutrition as one of the key factors in determining mothers’ and their children’s well-being”. Maternal malnutrition is responsible for one-fifth of deaths in childbirth and one-third of all childhood deaths.
Save the Children is recommending that the G8 take “bold efforts” to tackle malnutrition. Carolyn Miles, CEO of the charity said, “We urgently need global leadership on the malnutrition issue, so that policies and programmes are put in place to ensure the health and survival of mothers and their babies.”
In its annual ranking, Norway tops the list of 165 countries where it was best to be a mother in 2011. The United States moved up from 31st to 25th position this year, while Switzerland slipped from 14th in 2011 to 18th place, behind the United Kingdom (10th), France (14th) and Portugal (15th). Niger occupies the last place on the list as the worst place in the world to be a mother. Seven of the 10 countries at the bottom of the list, located in central Africa, including Niger, are currently affected by a severe food crisis.
The Mother’s Index brings together factors such as womens’ and children’s health statistics, socio-economic information, including schooling, and political status achieved by women, adjusted according to the level of development in various groups of countries.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Harvard University and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology are joining forces within a not-for-profit partnership, edX, to offer free online courses to all.
The two universities, based in Cambridge, Massachussetts, have committed US$30 million each to develop the project, which will begin offering online courses in the fall. Course choices will be set in the summer.
“Certificates of mastery” could be obtained at a small fee by students capable of keeping up with the material, though full diplomas will still be reserved for full-time students enrolled at the universities.
On its website, MIT explains that edX will offer “its learning platform as open-source software so it can be used by other universities and organizations that wish to host the platform themselves” and allow other universities to help edX “improve and add features to the technology”.
Online learning has evolved rapidly with other elite academic institutions introducing free courses. In April, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania launched a new for-profit company, Coursera. Other ventures include Udacity, started by a Stanford professor, the educational pioneer, the Open University, as well as the Khan Academy.
Links to other sources: Reuters, CNN
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Bolivian president Evo Morales announced the expropriation of Spanish power firm Red Eléctrica Española’s shares in that country during a televised celebration Tuesday to commemorate International Workers’ Day.
Morales justified the move by saying that the company, which operates under the name Transportada de Electricidad (TDE) in Bolivia, had not invested enough in the country. Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos expressed concern that the move may deter investment, but said that Bolivia had agreed to some compensation.
REE, which owned and operated 85 percent of the country’s electrical power lines, bought 99.94 percent of TDE in 2002, leaving the remaining 0.06 percent to Bolivian employees.
The announcement, made at the May Day celebrations in Cochabamba near to the company’s national headquarters, comes just a week after neighboring Argentina announced the expropriation of YPF from its Spanish parent company Repsol.
Links to other sources: BBC, Mercopress, Wall Street Journal
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Eleven people were killed outside the ministry of defense in Cairo Wednesday 2 May, and up to 160 were reportedly wounded. Plainclothes gunmen attacked a group of protesters who were camped outside the ministry. The group, which numbers in the hundreds, has been protesting army rule for a number of days.
Reuters reports that “The violence casts a deep shadow over the presidential election due on May 23 and 24, with a run-off in June, and highlights the fragility of Egypt’s transition to democracy, which has been punctuated by violence and political bickering.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Egypt.com, Reuters
Aljazeera news video
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch responded to accusations by British lawmakers about Rupert Murdoch’s running of media conglomerate News Corp., saying that BSkyB is fit to hold its broadcasting license.
Darroch told reporters that his company “remains fit and proper” to hold the license, stating that “It’s important to remember that Sky and News Corporation are separate companies, we believe that Sky’s track record as a broadcaster is the most important factor in determining our fitness to hold a licence”.
A British parliamentary committee Tuesday 1 May said Murdoch, currently under questioning for possible implication in a phone hacking scandal, was “not a fit person” to run the company and accused him of “willful blindness” in the scandal.
The scandal lead News Corp to abandon its bid last year for full control of BSkyB. On April 1 Murdoch’s son, James quit as chairman of BSkyB, in an attempt to dilute criticism over the hacking scandal. He has stayed on as non-executive director at the company.
Meanwhile, the British media regulator Ofcom said it “won’t be rushed” to make a decision on the future of the BSkyB licence, which claims a total of 10.55 million subscribers.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has left the US embassy in Beijing where, the US says, he was seeking medical help, in a first confirmation that he was at the embassy. His six-day stay had potential to badly strain relations between the two countries just as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to begin a state visit to discuss tough issues such as differences over Syria and trade. But Chen is reportedly happy with the outcome, which makes him a free man and will allow him to continue his studies; he had been under house arrest for his political activities.
Hillary Clinton issued a statement noting, “Mr. Chen has a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment. Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task. The United States Government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks, and years ahead.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Guardian, US State Department, Washington Post, Xinhua news agency
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US President Barack Obama promised to “finish the job” begun in Afghanistan, in a speech pronounced during a surprise visit to a US military base in the country, Wednesday morning 2 May.
The president’s speech, which takes place a year after Osama Bin Laden’s death and broadcast from Bagram Air Base to prime-time audiences in the US, stated that US troops would not be kept in dangerous circumstances “a single day longer than is absolutely required for our national security”, but he pledged to “end this war responsibly”.
Obama had met Afghan president Hamid Karzai in a secret midnight meeting in which the two men signed a long-term strategic partnership valid till 2024, which will deal with issues of internal security and development in Afghanistan.
Six months prior to US Presidential elections, Obama committed in his speech to the withdrawal of 24,000 troops from the country by the end of the summer, and to adhere to its NATO agreement to turn security over to Afghan forces by 2014. Currently, 88,000 US troops are stationed in Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks Wednesday morning on guesthouses in the capital Kabul, in which at least seven people where killed.
Links to other sources: CNN, Washington Post, BBC, Daily News
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to parliament Wednesday 2 May, finally taking public office after a 25-year long struggle against the country’s military regime.
The Nobel prize winner had initially refused the phrasing for the swearing in, which holds her to “safeguard the constitution” drafted by the military regime of the country, also known as Myanmar. She wanted the wording to be changed to “respect”, but backed down after being personally encouraged by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
Suu Kyi’s swearing-in comes a month after her party, the National League for Democracy, swept through by-elections to fill 45 vacant parliamentary seats. The party will hold little power within the assembly, with a quarter of all seats reserved for the military and the majority held by the army-backed ruling party. Changes to the country’s constitution require a 75 percent backing. The next national elections are scheduled for 2015.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the capital, Naypyitaw, built by the military junta.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Wall Street was boosted Tuesday 1 May on better than expected US manufacturing reports, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a four-year high.
The Dow closed the first day of May, historically known as a “sell” month, at 13,279.40, up 0.5 percent from Monday’s closing, reaching its highest level since December 2007.
Concerns over a possible slowdown in US economic recovery and renewed worries about the European debt crisis were countered by the release of a report on US domestic manufacturing for April, showing the highest growth since June 2011.
Other US indices were also up on Tuesday’closing, with the S&P rising 0.6 percent to 1,405.82 just shy of its 2012 peak, and NASDAQ up 0.1 percent to 3,050.44.
Links to other sources: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Alexander Dale Oen, age 26, one of the world’s finest competitive swimmers, was found dead in his Arizona hotel room shower Monday 30 April. The medical examiner reported he died of cardiac arrest and there were no signs of foul play. He had been doing high altitude training with his team.
Dale Oen was widely considered a favourite for the London Olympics this summer and he was Norway’s great swimming hope.
The New York Times recalls that “at last summer’s world championships in Shanghai, Dale Oen turned in the most emotionally charged performance of the meet. Competing in the 100 breaststroke final three days after 77 people, mostly children, died in the worst massacre in Norway’s history, he won in 58.71 seconds. It was the fastest time recorded by a swimmer not wearing the now-banned polyurethane suits and the fourth fastest in history.”
Links to other sites: ESPN, New York Times, SuperSport (rival Kitajima’s remarks)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – At least 21 people were killed in two separate attacks on Christian church services Sunday 29 April, in northern Nigeria.
In a first attack at a university campus in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, gunmen killed at least 16 worshippers congregating at a lecture hall, using explosives and gunfire, as people attempted to flee. A chapel in the city of Maiduguri was later attacked, and five people, including the pastor, were killed.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks but the attacks resembled others carried out by the Boko Haram sect, which has used bombs and guns in previous attacks in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and in the country’s capital, Abuja. Earlier victims have included Christians, Muslims and government officials.
Officials claim the group has links with Al-Qaeda sympathizers including Islamist insurgents in northern Mali. In March Tuareg and islamists took control of northern Mali.
Links to other sources: The Guardian, CNN, Reuters, AP
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Europe’s busiest airport, Heathrow, was ordered by Britain’s Border Agency not to distribute leaflets to arriving passengers warning them of “very long delays”, after some of the worst queues the airport has seen last week.
BAA, the owner of Heathrow airport, on Saturday 28 April distributed pamphlets apologizing to passengers about long waits at immigration checks and advising them to direct complaints to the British Home Office, responsible for the UK Border Agency.
Marc Owen, director of the UK Border Agency at Heathrow airport, requested that BAA withdraw from distributing the “inflammatory” brochures which will “increase tensions” amongst passengers.
The Telegraph reported that Terminal 5 at the airport had queues of up to two hours, several times last week. A number of frustrated passengers resorted to “storming past officials without showing their documents”.
The Border Force said that it will rehire former members of staff to begin work in July, when the Olympics get started in London.
Links to other sources: Daily Mail, The Telegraph, UK Press Association
Updated 16:40: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Chen Guancheng, a reknowned blind Chinese human rights activist who had escaped house arrest on 24 April is in the US embassy in Beijing, according to a friend and fellow dissident, Hu Jia.
Hu, who had been detained over the weekend in relation to the escape, told AFP that his interrogators had suggested that Chen had met with US Ambassador Gary Locke. He was asked when had Chen met with the ambassador. “So it seems very clear that he has met with the American ambassador”, Hu said. “I had no way of answering. I do not know what is going on inside”.
Hu had met with Chen following his escape.
There has been much speculation about Chen’s whereabouts since his escape. The United States has not commented till now on Chen’s location. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are scheduled to arrive in Beijing for an annual round of talks with the Chinese government.
A video was released last week following the escape by a US-based Chinese dissident group, Boxun.com, in which Chen addressed Premier Wen Jiabao. He requested that local officials allegedly involved in the beatings of his family members be investigated and prosecuted and that the safety of his family members be assured. He also asked Wen to address and punish those involved in corruption in China.
Chen, known as the “barefoot lawyer” had been in house detention since he was released in 2010 following a four-year jail term. He has been blind since childhood.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Standard & Poor’s dropped Spain’s credit rating by two notches to BBB-plus on expectations that the country’s finances will continue to retract due to a prolonged recession and an ailing banking sector.
European stock markets opened lower on Friday morning 27 April following the US rating agency’s announcement that it expects the Spanish economy to keep shrinking into next year.
S&P further warned that the situation could worsen without the measures now being taken at the European level. It said Spain’s outlook could “deteriorate further than we anticipated earlier this year unless offsetting eurozone policy measures are implemented to support investor confidence and stabilize capital flows with the rest of the world”.
Links to other sources: El Pais, The Telegraph, Reuters
Former president of Liberia first head of state indicted, tried and convicted in an int’l court
This two-‐year-‐old girl lost her right arm when her grandmother was shot and killed by Revolutionary United Front rebels. She was being carried on her grandmother’s back and was wounded by the same bullet that killed her grandmother. The four other men all had their hands amputated by rebels ©1999 Corinne Dufka/Human Rights Watch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was convicted in The Hague Thursday 26 April on 11 counts of war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The court’s statement noted that the 11-count indictment alleged that he was responsible for crimes committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. “The Special Court’s Trial Chamber II found unanimously that Mr. Taylor aided and abetted RUF and AFRC rebels in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.”
The court did not accuse him of personally committing crimes but rather “found that he had aided and abetted the rebels by providing them with arms and ammunition, military personnel, operational support and moral support, making him individually responsible for their crimes”, from his base in neighbouring Liberia.
The charges included the recruitment, enlistment and use of child soldiers and
- several war crimes: terrorism, outrages upon personal dignity and cruel treatment, pillage plus
- several counts of crimes against humanity: rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, mutilations and amputations and murder.
A sentencing hearing will be held 16 May and he will be sentenced 30 May. The court must sentence him to a specific number of years in prison; it cannot give him a life sentence or the death sentence.
