Six In The Morning

Health crisis looms over Gaza’s death and destruction

 August 3, 2014 – 4:22PM

 Ruth Pollard

Middle East Correspondent

Gaza City: Mohamed Badran is just 10 years old but already he has lost more than most people will in a lifetime.

He is the only surviving member of his immediate family of 10 following an Israeli air strike on his home in the crowded Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza on July 30.

And now he is blind, rendered sightless in the attack that stole his family from him, in one of dozens of “mass family deaths” at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces since this latest round of hostilities began on July 8.

Syria’s dispossessed speak out: What does “home” mean now to the million refugees forced to flee across the border to Turkey?

One million Syrians who have fled their homeland have crossed the border to Turkey – yet many continue to cling to the keys of homes they are unlikely ever to see again. The photojournalist Bradley Secker hears their stories…

GILLIAN ORR  Author Biography   Sunday 03 August 2014



It is all about the little details: a painted fingernail; a silly toy; a desperate grip. Every hand offers a clue about the life behind it, yet the sitter remains largely anonymous.

They do, however, all have one thing in common: each hand belongs to a person displaced by the war in Syria; the keys belong to the homes from which they have been forced to leave.

The photographs are the work of Bradley Secker, a 27-year-old British photojournalist who has been living and working in Turkey since January 2012, focusing on how issues of identity, migration, sexuality and the socio-political affect the area. Although based in Istanbul, since June 2013 he has journeyed around the country to meet and photograph some of the million refugees who have travelled across the border from neighbouring Syria.

On Monet’s beloved cliffs, villagers fight to save church from conversion into chip shop

Chapel at Etretat on Normandy coast that entranced French artists is up for sale

Kim Willsher in Paris

The Observer, Sunday 3 August 2014

Perched high on the cliffs at Etretat, the Notre Dame de la Garde chapel surveys the rugged Norman coast famously captured on canvas by Claude Monet.

Known as the mariners’ church, the local landmark rose from the rubble in 1950 after the original building had been destroyed by the Germans during the second world war. Its current incarnation is notable for a sharp, arrow-shaped slate roof and fish-head gargoyles.

Today, however, Notre Dame de la Garde is less concerned by those facing the perils of the sea than the threat of property developers after its private owners put it up for sale for €280,000.

China makes Xinjiang death toll public

August 3, 2014 – 3:04PM

Philip Wen

China correspondent for Fairfax Media

Beijing: Chinese authorities have confirmed the deaths of more than 100 people in Xinjiang last week, underlining the worst bout of Uighur-related violence to hit the turbulent far-western region in recent years.

Putting a death toll on Monday’s violent clashes in Yarkand County for the first time, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday that 59 attackers and 37 civilians had died. It had previously said “dozens” were killed.

Is your wardrobe human-trafficking free?

A new label launched in the US and Colombia this week will certify products that were made without forced labor or trafficking victims.

By Sibylla Brodzinsky, Correspondent  AUGUST 1, 2014

CALÍ, COLOMBIA – Many American shoppers make it a point to purchase certified organic, non-GMO, or fair trade products. And now, globally conscious consumers can add another label to the list. A new Freedom Seal will certify products that are made without forced labor or by victims of human trafficking.

The Freedom Seal was launched simultaneously in the United States and Colombia on Wednesday, marking the first ever World Day Against Human Trafficking. It will eventually be used on products sold worldwide.

 New York Times To Run Ad From Marijuana Company

 

 

A week after the New York Times called for the legalization of marijuana in an editorial, a full-page ad for a company that helps marijuana users find the drug will appear in its pages.

In an ad in Sunday’s edition of the paper, Seattle-based Privateer Holdings features its medical marijuana website Leafly.com, which helps users to find pot dispensaries and to choose strains. The ad depicts a woman jogger in Spandex gliding past a brownstone building as a crisply dressed professional man stands atop its steps with a bundle of papers under his arm.