IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • French Lesbian Couple Blocked From Adopting Child

    French Lesbian Couple Blocked From Adopting Child

    Gay rights groups in France have voiced anger after a judge prevented a French lesbian couple from adopting an infant.

    The boy, now aged four, was conceived through artificial insemination of one of the women in Belgium.

    Under French law that procedure is not explicitly open to lesbian couples. The judge said the law had been violated.

    France legalised gay marriage nearly a year ago. The Versailles judge’s ruling was “homophobic”, said ADFH, a group representing homosexual parents.

    ADFH said French law had failed to protect the rights of the child.

    A lesbian rights activist, Nathalie Allain-Djerrah of Enfants d’Arc-en-ciel (Rainbow Children), said the ruling “shows in a blatant and violent way how inequality persists between the children of homosexual parents and those of heterosexual parents”.

    According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, in similar cases French judges have allowed lesbian couples to adopt infants since gay marriage was legalised.

    France’s same-sex marriage law also legalised gay adoption. Opponents staged huge rallies against it but President Francois Hollande signed the “Taubira” bill into law after months of heated debate.

  • Samsung Ordered to Pay Apple $119.6m

    Samsung Ordered to Pay Apple $119.6m

    {{Samsung has been ordered to pay $119.6m (£71m) to Apple by a US court for infringing two of its patents.}}

    A jury in California delivered its verdict in a federal court in San Jose on Friday in the latest lawsuit involving the two tech giants.

    Apple had sought $2bn at the trial, accusing Samsung of violating patents on smartphone features.

    The court also ruled that Apple infringed Samsung’s patents and awarded $158,000 in damages.

    Apple had sought $2.2bn after accusing Samsung of infringing five of its patents covering functions such as the “slide to unlock” from its devices.

    Samsung denied any wrongdoing and sought $6m after arguing Apple had infringed two of its smartphone patents related to camera use and video transmission.

    “Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple,” said Brian Love, a Santa Clara University law professor.

    “This amount is less than 10% of the amount Apple requested and probably doesn’t surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case.”

  • Obama Calls for Death Penalty Review

    Obama Calls for Death Penalty Review

    {{US President Barack Obama plans to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate problems surrounding the application of the death penalty.}}

    The US leader’s announcement comes just days after a botched execution in Oklahoma drew widespread attention.

    Mr Obama called inmate Clayton Lockett’s prolonged death earlier this week from an improperly delivered lethal injection “deeply troubling”.

    The president said he has conflicting feelings regarding the death penalty.

    “This situation in Oklahoma I think just highlights some of the significant problems,” Mr Obama told reporters.

    Americans should “ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions around these issues”, he added.

    Mr Obama, trained as a lawyer, said the death penalty is warranted in some cases – including child and mass murder – but its application in the US is problematic.

    BBC

  • Abducted Ukraine Observers ‘Freed’

    Abducted Ukraine Observers ‘Freed’

    {{Seven international military observers seized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have been freed, Russia media say.}}

    The observers, linked to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, were seized in the town of Sloviansk on 25 April.

    Five Ukrainian officers taken with them were also freed, the reports said.

    The news comes as Ukraine’s government resumed military action to tackle the separatists in the east.

    Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Vladimir Lukin, an envoy sent by President Vladimir Putin to negotiate the release, as saying: “All the 12 people who have been on my list have been released.”

    The Associated Press news agency quoted local insurgent leader Vyacheslav Ponomaryov as confirming the releases.

    The agency also said that one of its reporters had seen one of the observers, German Col Axel Schneider, and his Ukrainian translator walk free.

    Western leaders had condemned the abductions.

    On Friday, US President Barack Obama again called for the observers to be released, saying their abduction was “inexcusable” and “disgraceful”.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel had said earlier that the release of the seven – four Germans, a Dane, a Pole and a Czech – would be “an important step” in easing tensions in the region.

    wirestory

  • World Cup Tourists Face Sky-High Prices in Brazil

    World Cup Tourists Face Sky-High Prices in Brazil

    {{Home to some of the world’s most expensive restaurants and hotels, and with some prices rising more as the opening match approaches, Brazil will shock those visitors whose idea of a tropical paradise is paying $1 for a beachside beer.
    }}

    Instead, Brazil is often the land of the $10 caipirinha (the sugar cane-based local drink of choice), the $100 risotto and the $1,000-a-night hotel room, prices fueled by many of the same imbalances and government policies that have restrained economic growth in recent years.

    Even by European and U.S. standards, prices for basic items are often staggering.

    In Sao Paulo, a bustling business hub that is surrounded by some of the country’s largest coffee farms, an espresso often costs twice as much as in Lisbon, says Paulo Duarte, a pharmaceutical consultant who splits time between both cities.

    “It’s absurd,” Duarte said. “We’re talking about one country that produces coffee and another that imports it.”

    High prices are nothing new in Brazil. The country has a long history of economic instability and runaway inflation, which topped 2,400 percent a year as recently as 1993.

    {wirestory}

  • 2,100 Killed in Afghan Landslide

    2,100 Killed in Afghan Landslide

    {{Afghan officials gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote northeast, putting the death toll at more than 2,100, as the aid effort focused on the more than 4,000 people displaced.}}

    Officials expressed concern the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster may cave in again, threatening the thousands of homeless and hundreds of rescue workers who have arrived in Badakhshan province, bordering Tajikistan.

    “More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead,” Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told reporters.

    Villagers and a few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it soon became clear there was no hope of finding survivors buried in up to 100 meters of mud.

    The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said the focus was on the more than 4,000 people displaced, either directly as a result of Friday’s landslide or as a precautionary measure from villages assessed to be at risk.

    Their main needs were water, medical support, counseling support, food and emergency shelter, said Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

    The impoverished area, dotted with villages of mud-brick homes nestled in valleys beside bare slopes, has been hit by several landslides in recent years.

    {reuters}

  • First Case of MERS Virus Confirmed in USA

    First Case of MERS Virus Confirmed in USA

    {{Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East.}}

    The man fell ill after flying to the U.S. late last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.

    He is hospitalized in good condition in northwest Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Indiana health officials, who are investigating the case.

    The virus is not highly contagious and this case “represents a very low risk to the broader, general public,” Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters during a CDC briefing.

    The federal agency plans to track down passengers he may have been in close contact with during his travels; it was not clear how many may have been exposed to the virus.

    So far, it is not known how he was infected, Schuchat said.

    Saudi Arabia has been at the center of a Middle East outbreak of MERS that began two years ago. The virus has spread among health care workers, most notably at four facilities in that county last spring.

    Officials didn’t provide details about the American’s job in Saudi Arabia or whether he treated MERS patients.

    Overall, at least 400 people have had the respiratory illness, and more than 100 people have died. All had ties to the Middle East region or to people who traveled there.

    Experts said it was just a matter of time before MERS showed up in the U.S., as it has in Europe and Asia.

    “Given the interconnectedness of our world, there’s no such thing as ‘it stays over there and it can’t come here,’” said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University MERS expert.

    MERS belongs to the coronavirus family that includes the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which caused some 800 deaths globally in 2003.

    The MERS virus has been found in camels, but officials don’t know how it is spreading to humans. It can spread from person to person, but officials believe that happens only after close contact. Not all those exposed to the virus become ill.

    But it appears to be unusually lethal — by some estimates, it has killed nearly a third of the people it sickened.

    That’s a far higher percentage than seasonal flu or other routine infections. But it is not as contagious as flu, measles or other diseases. There is no vaccine or cure and there’s specific treatment except to relieve symptoms.

    Federal and state health officials on Friday released only limited information about the U.S. case: On April 24, the man flew from Riyadh — Saudi Arabia’s capital and largest city — to the United States, with a stop in London.

    He landed in Chicago and took a bus to nearby Indiana. He didn’t become sick until Sunday, the CDC said.

    He went to the emergency room at Community Hospital in Munster the next day with a fever, cough and shortness of breath.

    He was admitted and tested for the MERS virus because he had traveled from the Middle East. The hospital said he was in good condition.

    As a precaution, the hospital said it would monitor the man’s family and health care workers who treated him for any signs of infection.

    There’s been a recent surge in MERS illnesses in Saudi Arabia; cases have tended to increase in the spring.

    Experts think the uptick may partly be due to more and better surveillance. Columbia’s Lipkin has an additional theory — there may be more virus circulating in the spring, when camels are born.

    The CDC has issued no warnings about travel to countries involved in the outbreak.

    However, anyone who develops fever, cough or shortness of breath within two weeks of traveling in or near the Arabian Peninsula should see their doctor and mention their travel history.

    {agencies}

  • Philippines in Cybersex Blackmail Arrests

    Philippines in Cybersex Blackmail Arrests

    {{Police in the Philippines say they have arrested dozens of suspects linked to an online blackmail syndicate.}}

    The suspects persuaded people in foreign countries to expose themselves in front of webcams or send explicit material, police said.

    They then threatened to send the footage or photos to relatives unless payment was made.

    Philippine National Police chief Allan Purisima said 58 people had been arrested in a probe involving Interpol.

    “The modus operandi of this group is to create an online account on social networking sites with the purpose of locating and attracting prospective clients, especially old male individuals abroad,” he said.

    “Whilst they created this account they would pose as Asian attractive females.

    “After getting acquainted with the victims… they’ll invite and further entice their would-be victims to use video-call and engage in cybersex and this will be recorded, unknown to the victim.”

    The footage was then used to extort money, usually ranging from $500 (£296) to $2,000, he said.

    Interpol said in a statement on Friday: “Operating on an almost industrial scale from call centre-style offices, such cyber-blackmail agents are provided with training and offered bonus incentives such as holidays, cash or mobile phones for reaching their financial targets.”

    wirestory

  • ICC Rejects Request on Egypt

    ICC Rejects Request on Egypt

    {{The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected a move aimed at getting it to examine crimes committed in Egypt, saying it did not come from the Egyptian state.}}

    The move came from a group of lawyers acting on behalf of, amongst others, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), according to an ICC press release on Friday.

    They lodged a communication with the ICC Registrar on December 13, 2013, “seeking to accept the exercise of the ICC’s jurisdiction pursuant to article 12(3) of the Rome Statute with respect to alleged crimes committed on the territory of the State of Egypt since 1 June 2013”.

    The Registrar subsequently verified with the Egyptian authorities whether the communication was transmitted on behalf of the State, but “did not receive a positive confirmation”, according to the press release.

    Egypt is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty. The Court’s jurisdiction with respect to non-States Parties can be triggered if the relevant State voluntarily accepts the jurisdiction of the ICC by lodging a declaration pursuant to article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, or if the United Nations Security Council refers a situation to the ICC Prosecutor. Neither of these conditions are so far met in the case of Egypt, says the release.

    This latest decision “should in no way be construed as a determination on the nature of any alleged crime committed in Egypt or on the merits of any evidence presented”, according to the ICC press release.

  • Welfare & Tax Boost for Brazil Poor

    Welfare & Tax Boost for Brazil Poor

    Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has announced a 10% increase in social security payments as well as tax cuts for the less well-off.

    The changes will affect 36 million low-income families.

    The announcements come ahead of a October’s presidential poll, in which Ms Rousseff will seek a second term.

    Her popularity has dropped in recent weeks because of high inflation and mismanagement accusations involving Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras.

    The amendments to the social security programme, known as Bolsa Familia, were announced ahead of Labour Day.

    “This will be an important indirect salary gain and more money in the pockets of workers,” Ms Rousseff said.

    Along with the increase in payments there would be a 4.5 % rise in the income bands used to tax workers, she added.

    Brazil is struggling to keep inflation under the official target rate of 6.5 %.

    An April opinion poll found support for Ms Rousseff had slipped from 44% in February to 37% in April, though she remains the frontrunner.

    {agencies}