IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • FBI Offering $50,000 Reward For Arrest of 2 Bank Robbers

    {{Two convicted bank robbers who pulled off a daring overnight escape from a high-rise Chicago jail had changed from their prison garb by the time they hopped into a cab near the lock-up, investigators said Wednesday as they expanded their manhunt for the men.}}

    Authorities were raiding houses and combing through records looking for anybody with ties to the inmates who climbed out a jail window and descended 20 stories using a makeshift rope.

    The FBI said surveillance footage from a camera near the Metropolitan Correctional Center shows Kenneth Conley and Joseph Banks getting into a cab around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday — about four hours before workers spotted the rope dangling from the federal jail.

    The pair had changed from their orange jail-issued jumpsuits into light-colored pants and shirts, the FBI said.

    “We don’t know if they fashioned their own clothes, or what,” said Special Agent Frank Bochte.

    The FBI was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of Conley and Banks, with the manhunt focused mainly on Chicago and its suburbs.

    {wirestory}

  • Korea Gets First Female President

    {{Conservative Park Geun-hye clinched a climactic election victory Wednesday to become South Korea’s first female president on the back of pledges for political reform and measured economic democratization}}.

    The 60-year-old candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party won the race by a larger margin than those predicted by the most recent opinion surveys and exit polls.

    She beat progressive rival Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party, who campaigned for more drastic reform in local conglomerates and a sharper boost in welfare spending.

    With all votes counted as of 5:40 a.m., Park had 51.6 percent against Moon’s 48 percent. The gap exceeded 1.08 million ballots, with the president-elect winning 15.77 million votes out of 30.72 million cast, compared to 14.69 million for the DUP contender.

    Park will succeed President Lee Myung-bak of the same party as Korea’s 18th president, realizing her dream of leading the country that her late father Park Chung-hee once ruled for 18 years.

    “It is a victory brought by the aspiration of the people to overcome crisis and resurrect the economy. I will become a president who is devoted to the public livelihood and keeps her promises,” Park said before a cheering crowd of jubilant supporters in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul.

    They gathered to celebrate her win despite the freezing weather, chanting “President Park Geun-hye” and waving Taegeukgi.

    The president-elect is expected to bolster the alliance with the U.S. while seeking improved strategic ties with China. She has expressed firm resolve on her intolerance to North Korea’s provocations, the most recent being its Dec. 12 rocket launch. Park, however, has also expressed willingness to better cooperate with Pyongyang to defrost highly strained inter-Korean relations.

    Her emphasis on balanced growth and welfare appeared to have struck a chord with the swing voters as the country faces a challenging year ahead amid a slumping economy, frosty ties with North Korea, simmering feuds with Japan and a growing rivalry between the U.S. and China.

    It was a day of victory for the conservatives, with Hong Joon-pyo of the Saenuri Party winning in the election for South Gyeongsang Province governor, and conservative-leaning former education minister Moon Yong-lin being elected as Seoul City education superintendent.

    Looking downhearted yet composed, Moon congratulated Park at his press conference.

    “I admit defeat. But, it is my defeat not the defeat of all the people who want new politics,” Moon said.

    “I congratulate president-elect Park Geun-hye. I hope Park will implement politics of integration and harmony, and the public will give much support to Park.”

    Moon put up a formidable challenge against the solid frontrunner, largely because former independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo joined his rally at the last minute after a botched single candidacy negotiation that led to Ahn’s withdrawal.

    Ahn, who cast his vote earlier in the day, left for San Francisco for a long-term trip, reportedly to design his next step as a politician.

    “I hope that we can open a new future of the Republic of Korea, with the winner embracing the loser and the losing side accepting the result of the election and cooperating with the new government,” said the former professor, who had spearheaded the drive for political reform.

    Ahn also apologized for “failing to fulfill the people’s desire,” adding he will be seeking for the next step.

    The high voter turnout of 75.8 percent reflected heightened voter attention sparked by fierce campaigning featuring months of clashes over history, ideology and appraisals of past and incumbent governments.

    The poll was conducted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a total of 40,507,842 eligible voters.

    Regional biases continued to play into the election results with Park securing overwhelming triumphs in the traditional strongholds of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

    Park’s successes in the metropolitan and Gangwon regions, which usually favor the opposition, also boosted her win.

    The generational divide between progressive-leaning voters in their 20s and 30s and conservative-leaning ones in their 50s and 60s was also one of the key characteristics of this year’s election, which prompted the first rise in voter turnout since the introduction of the direct election system in 1987.

    The respective ratio was 89.2 percent in 1987, 81.9 percent in 1992, 80.7 percent in 1997, 70.8 percent in 2002 and 63.0 percent in 2007.

    It was a second victory for her and her party this year, following the surprise win against the DUP in the April general election, propelled by her leadership that effectively seized upon citizens’ desire for economic democratization and political reform.

    Cheong Wa Dae congratulated Park on her victory.

    “(The presidential office) expects the Republic of Korea’s great choice today to lead to a grand national integration and people’s happiness,” it said in a press release.

    “The Lee Myung-bak government will focus on state management until the end of its term while only trying to better serve the people.”

    Park joins a short list of female leaders around the world, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

    But she has little time to celebrate.

    The daughter of the late dictator faces a daunting task of steering the country through a deepened political divide, a global economic slowdown and a fast-evolving security landscape in Northeast Asia.

    “The first testing ground for the presidential-elect will be through the formation of the transition committee that shows what message the new president is sending to the people and exposes the key figures in the upcoming administration,” said Choi Jin, head of the Institute of Presidential Leadership.

    Politics professor Yun Seong-yi of Kyung Hee University criticized Park’s leadership style.

    “Park has constantly faced criticism and doubt over her leadership style that is hierarchical and enclosed. She will need to adopt visible moves to attenuate such concerns,” Yun said, adding that the formation of her Cabinet and any participation of pro-Park members will be among the indicators.

    Park’s win came as dramatically as her life had been.

    Born as the eldest daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, her reluctance to acknowledge her father’s iron-fisted rule has been her weakest link.

    Since the assassination of her father in 1979, Park spent her late 20s and 30s out of the spotlight, which generated several rumors and speculations about her extraordinary life.

    She entered politics in 1998 by joining the Grand National Party. During her 15 years as a politician, she served as GNP chairwoman multiple times to lead the party through crises.

    Upon her presidential bid in July, Park stuck to her strikingly calm and principle-oriented approach throughout the intensified partisan strife over primary rules, rising calls for her controversial interpretation of history, and even the death of her long-time aide Lee Choon-sang in a car crash.

    The only occasions in which she lost composure in public were during the three installments of television debates with her counterparts.

    Her first live TV standoff exposed her as less meticulous than her rivals as she failed to hide her frustration at her better-versed opponents’ repeated attacks.

    The incidents, however, were apparently not enough to topple her front-runner status.

    Park’s agenda set throughout the campaign period largely overlapped that of Moon, both promising to enhance the people’s livelihoods and realize political reform.

    Her North Korea policy and chaebol-related measures, however, stood in stark contrast, as she emphasized a gradual approach to the communist state as opposed to Moon’s grand gesture of immediate reconciliation. She also pledged to focus on curbing irregularities of chaebol, rather than executing fundamental reforms as suggested by her liberal contender.

    Negative campaigns were in full swing toward the end of the race, with allegations of illicit electioneering, such as the DUP’s claim of interference by the National Intelligence Service, and doubts over Moon’s security stance concerning the recognition of the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto West Sea border with North Korea.

    Her political reform pledges, meanwhile, are more drastic, with promises of fewer privileges for lawmakers, reduced power of the central party, and a revision to the Constitution to introduce a four-year, two-term presidency.

    As for welfare, Park pledges to offer free child-care to all families with children under age 5 and increase health insurance coverage.

    Experts, however, point to the lack of detailed planning for resources.

    Koreaherald

  • Al-Qaeda Gains Ground in Syria

    {{Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt.}}

    The rise of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel.

    Inside Syria, the group is exploiting a widening sectarian rift to recruit Sunnis who saw themselves as disenfranchised by Assad’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that dominates Syria’s power and security structures.

    Al-Nusra appears to have gained popularity in a country that has turned more religious as the uprising, mainly among Sunni Muslims, has been met with increasing force by authorities.

    It has claimed responsibility for spectacular and deadly bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, and its fighters have joined other rebel brigades in attacks on Assad’s forces.

    According to Site Intelligence group, Nusra claimed responsibility in one day alone last month for 45 attacks in Damascus, Deraa, Hama and Homs provinces that reportedly killed dozens, including 60 in a single suicide bombing.

    “In 18 communiqués issued on jihadist forums … most of which contain pictures of the attacks, the al-Nusra Front claimed ambushes, assassinations, bombings and raids against Syrian security forces and ‘shabbiha’, pro-Bashar al-Assad thugs,” Site said.

    {Wirestory}

  • Gunmen Attack Polio Workers in Pakistan

    {{A Pakistani health worker has been shot and injured in Peshawar, the latest in a spate of attacks against a polio vaccination drive in the country.}}

    On Tuesday, a UN-backed programme to eradicate the disease was suspended in Karachi after four female health workers were shot dead in the city.

    No group has said it carried out the shootings, but the Taliban have issued threats against the polio drive.

    Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.

    In Wednesday’s attack, gunmen opened fire on a team of four men administering polio vaccinations in Peshawar, critically injuring one,

  • Video Shows Eagle Snatching Boy in Canada

    {{A YouTube video of a golden eagle swooping down and lifting a toddler off the ground in Montreal could soar to Internet stardom as the latest episode of animals behaving strangely in Canada.}}

    Coming just a week after a monkey wearing a sheepskin coat was found wandering around an IKEA parking lot in Toronto, the video shows the massive eagle – with a roughly six-foot (two-meter) wing span, circling a public park.

    The eagle then swoops down, lifts an unsuspecting toddler off the ground by its winter coat and carries it a few feet before dropping it on the grass.

    After cursing in English, the French-speaking man filming the incident races over to comfort the bewildered child, who starts crying but does not appear to have been seriously hurt.

    “A golden eagle tries to snatch a baby in Montreal! What if he got away with it!?” reads a caption under the video, posted by MrNuclearCat.
    “Destined to be huge!” one user wrote. “Craziest video I’ve seen in a long time,” tweeted another.

    The golden eagle is the largest bird of prey in North America, and can dive at its quarry at speeds of more than 150 miles (241 kilometres) per hour, according to the US National Geographic Society.

    The eagle likely mistook the toddler for a rabbit, marmot or ground squirrel, its normal prey.

    The video, which can be seen below, had just 311 views early on Wednesday but was making the rounds on Twitter.

  • Chimp Brains Reveal Human Intelligence Secrets

    {{Despite sharing 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, humans have much bigger brains and are, as a species, much more intelligent.}}

    Now a new study sheds light on why: Unlike chimps, humans undergo a massive explosion in white matter growth, or the connections between brain cells, in the first two years of life.

    The new results, published December 18 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, partly explain why humans are so much brainier than our nearest living relatives.

    But they also reveal why the first two years of life play such a key role in human development.

    “What’s really unique about us is that our brains experience rapid establishment of connectivity in the first two years of life,” said Chet Sherwood, an evolutionary neuroscientist at George Washington University, who was not involved in the study.

    “That probably helps to explain why those first few years of human life are so critical to set us on the course to language acquisition, cultural knowledge and all those things that make us human.”

    {{Chimpanzees}}

    While past studies have shown that human brains go through a rapid expansion in connectivity, it wasn’t clear that was unique amongst great apes (a group that includes chimps, gorillas, orangutans and humans).

    To prove it was the signature of humanity’s superior intelligence, researchers would need to prove it was different from that in our closest living relatives.

    However, a U.S. moratorium on acquiring new chimpanzees for medical research meant that people like Sherwood, who is trying to understand chimpanzee brain development, had to study decades-old baby chimpanzee brains that were lying around in veterinary pathologists’ labs, Sherwood told LiveScience.

    But in Japan, those limitations didn’t go into place till later, allowing the researchers to do live magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of three baby chimps as they grew to 6 years of age.

    They then compared the data with existing brain-imaging scans for six macaques and 28 Japanese children.

    The researchers found that chimpanzees and humans both had much more brain development in early life than macaques.

    “The increase in total cerebral volume during early infancy and the juvenile stage in chimpanzees and humans was approximately three times greater than that in macaques,” the researchers wrote in the journal article.

    But human brains expanded much more dramatically than chimpanzee brains during the first few years of life; most of that human-brain expansion was driven by explosive growth in the connections between brain cells, which manifests itself in an expansion in white matter.

    Chimpanzee brain volumes ballooned about half that of humans’ expansion during that time period.

    The findings, while not unexpected, are unique because the researchers followed the same individual chimpanzees over time; past studies have instead pieced together brain development from scans on several apes of different ages, Sherwood said.

    The explosion in white matter may also explain why experiences during the first few years of life can greatly affect children’s IQ, social life and long-term response to stress.

    “That opens an opportunity for environment and social experience to influence the molding of connectivity,” Sherwood said.

    LiveScience

  • Obama supports Reinstating Ban On Assault Weapons

    {{President Barack Obama is “actively supportive” of efforts on Capitol Hill to reinstate an assault weapons ban, the White House says .}}

    Obama has long backed the ban, but has failed to push for it throughout his first term. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce legislation to reinstate the ban early next year.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney says Obama would also support legislation to close the gun show “loophole,” which allows people to buy guns from private dealers without background checks.

    The president has pledged to address gun violence in the coming weeks following Friday’s deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

    Obama spoke Tuesday with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat and avid hunter who is now supportive of a national discussion on preventing gun violence.

  • Student on Bus Gang Raped in India

    {{There has been shock and outrage in India over the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a city bus in the capital, Delhi.}}

    The student and a male friend she was travelling with were beaten, stripped and thrown out of the bus in the attack on Sunday evening.

    The couple have been admitted to hospital, where the woman is said to be in a critical condition.

    Police have arrested the driver of the bus and detained several persons.

    Delhi’s rape figures are higher than for other Indian cities of comparable size, correspondents say.

    City shamed, headlined The Times of India, saying that Sunday’s incident is a “new low for a city already notorious as India’s rape capital”.

    Savagery Shames City, headlined Mail Today, adding that “horror had revisited the streets of the capital” on Sunday night.

    The newspaper said that 582 cases of rape had been reported in Delhi so far this year.

    Delhi Shamed Again, said The Pioneer, saying the incident had “again renewed focus on the dismal state of safety for girls and women who venture out at night”.

    The Indian Express said the bus was driven around on a stretch in south Delhi for more than an hour and had “crossed” three police patrol vans.

    The Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit told The Hindu newspaper that this was a “shockingly extraordinary case”.

    “We want to ensure that the culprits are not granted bail under any circumstances. Stringent punishment for them is the need of the hour,” she said.

    Mr Dikshit said he would be considering the setting up of a fast track court to “ensure speedy justice to the victim”.

    {Wirestory}

  • Mom finally reunited with kids

    {{A mom reunited with her two kids after eight months broke down Monday as she thanked those who helped bring the family back together in time for the holidays.}}

    Biatra Muzabazi said she thought she would never get her boy and girl back from Zimbabwe, where they had gone on vacation in April but not returned.

    “I never thought (I’d see) my children again,” Muzabazi said, clutching her kids and choking back tears.

    “You made it possible for me to be with my children for Christmas.”

    The saga began in April, when Rene, 7, and Shane, 4, went for a visit to Muzabazi’s native Zimbabwe, something that had occurred several times before without incident.

    This time, however, the divorced mother began to worry when the children, who were born in Mississauga, Ont., were not returned to Canada as scheduled.

    Instead, paternal family members placed the kids in a Zimbabwean boarding school, which actively hid them from local authorities, police allege.

    In September, the worried mother approached Toronto police, who began investigating. They in turn contacted government officials, the RCMP and Interpol.

    Det.-Const. Shari Nevills, the lead investigator, said it was a steep learning curve dealing with Zimbabwean laws.

    “I had several moments when I really didn’t think these kids were coming home,” Nevills said.

    Police decided the best way to effect a possible return was to send Muzabazi to Zimbabwe, even raising the money to help make that happen.
    Muzabazi’s mother, who lives in the southern African country, helped obtain needed documentation and Zimbabwean authorities accepted the children belonged with their mother in Canada.

    However, the paternal family wasn’t ready to turn them over.
    At one point, as Muzabazi waited outside the boarding school, a family member took the kids and fled.

    Running out of money and needing to get back to work, the distraught mother said she was on the verge of giving up and returning to Canada without her children.

    Then, the Canadian embassy in Harare called her last week to say the children had been dropped off there.

    “I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

    Reunification and the trip back to Canada followed within days.

    As the wide-eyed young ones clutched their mother and watched the throng of news people, Muzabazi said her daughter still appears fretful about any separation.

    “She just can’t go far away from me,” Muzabazi said.
    “She just wants to be with me all the time.”

    Police Chief Bill Blair called it a “good story with a great ending.”
    A criminal investigation was ongoing, police said.

  • Clinton faints, now Recovering

    {{The State Department says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who skipped an overseas trip this past week because of a stomach virus, sustained a concussion after fainting.}}

    She’s now recovering at home and being monitored by doctors.

    An aide, Philippe Reines, says Clinton will work from home next week, at the recommendation of doctors.

    Congressional aides do not expect her to testify as scheduled at congressional hearings on Thursday into the Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.

    The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss Clinton’s status.

    The department says Clinton was dehydrated because of the virus and that she fainted, causing the concussion. No further details were immediately available.

    {Huffingtonpost}