Oct 03 2023

Six In The Morning Tuesday 3 October 2023

 

Iran: activists say 16-year-old girl hospitalised by police over hijab rules

Incident puts country back on edge a year after mass protests erupted over death in custody of Mahsa Amini

The hospitalisation of a 16-year-old girl in Tehran has led to accusations by a rights group and activists that she was beaten into a coma by Iran’s feared “morality police”, putting the country back on edge a year after mass protests erupted over the treatment of women.

Footage of the incident showed a girl being carried off a train by other girls at a metro station and placed on the platform, where she stays still, apparently unconscious.

According to Hengaw, an exiled human rights organisation, Armita Garawand suffered a “severe physical assault” by the “morality police” for not complying with national rules on the hijab.

India police raid journalists’ homes in China funding probe

Another independent news outlet has been targeted by police in India after reports of illegal funding. Journalists said their homes were raided and devices seized.

Police in India on Tuesday carried out raids on a number of locations connected to a news site the government has accused of receiving funds from China.

The NewsClick online portal describes itself as “an independent media organization dedicated to covering news from India and elsewhere with a focus on progressive movements.” It’s known for critical coverage of Narendra Modi’s governnment.

“A special investigations team launched a search operation to identify all those individuals who were possibly getting funds from overseas to run a media group with the main agenda of spreading foreign propaganda,” an interior ministry official overseeing the police raids in Delhi said.

‘Haitian solutions to Haitian problems’: Security begins with free & fair elections, self-determination

The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved a Kenyan-led mission aiming to bring stability to Haiti, a year after leaders in the violence-ravaged Caribbean nation first pleaded for help. The Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation has been in turmoil, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, and the economy and public health system also in tatters. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been calling since late 2022 for international support to back the police force, but much of the global community had been jaded by the failure of earlier interventions in Haiti. As the UN approves the Kenya-led Haiti force following a year of pleas, FRANCE 24’s Annette Young is joined by Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law Conflict and Global Development and the Director of the Global Development Division at the University of Reading.
Benito Mussolini’s tomb is a rather strange place. A stern-faced guard is sitting at the entrance of the crypt, wearing a scowl on her face to go with a black blouse reminiscent of the fashion back when the fascist Mussolini, an ally of Adolf Hitler’s, was in power.
She doesn’t deviate even a single meter from the visitor’s side, following closely on the descent into the crypt and also paying close attention as we flip through the memorial book, where fans express their admiration for the former dictator. “The family doesn’t want that,” she growls.

Armenia to join International Criminal Court; ‘wrong’ decision, says Russia

Armenia parliament ratifies ICC’s founding statute, subjecting itself to court’s jurisdiction and vexing Russia, whose president the ICC wants to arrest.

Armenia’s parliament has approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move that is set to escalate tensions with the ex-Soviet country’s traditional ally, Russia.

Lawmakers ratified the ICC’s founding Rome Statute on Tuesday, subjecting itself to the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague and vexing Russia, whose president the world court wants to arrest.

COMMENTARY/ Despite ‘fresh start,’ Johnny’s reluctant to part with old ways

By BUNNA TAKIZAWA/ Staff Writer

In just half a month since Johnny & Associates Inc. established an external committee for victim relief, 325 people have sought compensation over the sexual abuse committed by agency founder Johnny Kitagawa.

Although it’s uncertain if all of them will be recognized as victims, the number underscores the severity of the problem.

Obviously, the talent agency could not continue to manage and train performers under the name of its sexual predator founder.

And it’s only natural for the agency to focus on compensating the victims and to eventually cease operations.

But are the right people in the right positions for the agency’s new direction?

Oct 02 2023

German TECHNO BUNKER | 24/7 Deep Dark & Hard Techno Underground Live Stream

Oct 02 2023

Six In The Morning Monday 2 October 2023

Migrants trying to reach the UK cross the Alps on foot

By Mark Lowen
BBC Rome correspondent, Italy-France border

In a corner of the Italian Alps, a queue of Sudanese and Afghans are swapping their sandals for hiking boots and replacing flip-flops with sturdy trainers, preparing, they hope, for their trek to freedom.

They are today’s arrivals – around 150 – at a makeshift camp in the picturesque town of Oulx manned by local volunteers. They give out donated coats to the migrants to help them survive the mountain temperatures on the arduous journey ahead.

For even here, having reached Italy from across Africa and the Middle East, these groups of mostly young men want to go on to France and beyond. More than 130,000 migrants have entered Italy this year – almost double the same period in 2021, following a surge of arrivals by boat to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Scandinavian spy drama: the intelligence chief who came under state surveillance

How Lars Findsen and Claus Hjort Frederiksen came to be facing trial for allegedly disclosing ‘state secrets’ that had been in public domain for years

Lars Findsen was in police custody when he discovered that spies from Denmark’s domestic intelligence agency had tapped his phone and wired his house with bugs.

The spies, he learned, had spent months eavesdropping on his daily life at home, recording hundreds of hours of his conversations in his home, including with his three children.

It was the kind of intrusive surveillance operation normally reserved for a suspected terrorist or enemy foreign agent. Findsen was neither; he was Denmark’s top spy chief.

Bangladesh records 1,000 deaths in record dengue outbreak

The South Asian country, where dengue is endemic, is suffering the worst outbreak of the disease in its history.

Bangladesh is reeling from its worst-ever outbreak of dengue that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since the start of this year.

The death toll due to the endemic disease has seen a staggering rise in 2023 when compared to last year’s 281 deaths.

Data shared by government health officials on Sunday showed that 1,006 people have died since the start of the year, of which 17 were reported in the last 24 hours.

Among the deaths reported, 112 were of children aged 15 and under, including infants, according to the figures provided by the Directorate General of Health Services.

Algeria says Niger coup leaders accept mediation, six-month transition plan

Military leaders in coup-hit Niger have accepted Algerian mediation and “a six-month transition plan”, the foreign ministry in Algiers announced Monday.

The West African nation has been governed for more than two months by a military regime which took power after deposing Niger‘s elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.

“The Algerian government has received via the Nigerien ministry of foreign affairs a (statement of) acceptance of Algerian mediation aimed at promoting a political solution to the crisis in Niger,” the ministry said in a statement.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has tasked Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf with “visiting Niamey as soon as possible with the aim of launching discussions… with all stakeholders,” the statement said.

Sweltering Japan suffered hottest September ever recorded

By RYOMA KOMIYAMA/ Staff Writer

Following record-breaking heat in July and August, Japan also continued to experience its hottest September on record, official data showed.

The average temperature in September was 24.91 degrees, the highest since recordkeeping began in 1898.

This is more than one degree higher than the previous record of 23.76 degrees in 2012, followed by 23.68 in 1999.

The heatwave was caused by “high-pressure systems from the Pacific Ocean, in addition to global warming,” according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

US condemns China’s reported life sentence of acclaimed Uyghur scholar

By Simone McCarthy
Published 4:13 AM EDT, Mon October 2, 2023

The United States has condemned China’s reported sentencing of prominent Uyghur academic Rahile Dawut to life in prison, calling for the immediate release of the scholar known for documenting folklore and traditions of the Muslim minority in China’s

 northwestern Xinjiang region.

Oct 02 2023

Enhanced 24/7 Live • Progressive & Trance Radio

Oct 01 2023

Six In The Morning Sunday 1 October 2023

 

Attackers detonate bomb near Turkish government buildings in Ankara

Two assailants dead and two police injured after blast that president calls ‘last flutters of terrorism’

Two attackers have detonated a bomb in front of Turkish government buildings in the heart of Ankara, in an assault that left both dead and two police officers wounded.

The blast was the first in the Turkish capital since 2016 and happened less than a mile from the parliament building on Sunday, hours before lawmakers were due to return after a three-month summer break. In a speech to mark the reopening, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, slammed the morning attack as the “last flutters of terrorism”. He added: “Those who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their goals and never will.”

Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, said on the social media platform X that two attackers approached the general security directorate building at about 9.30am local time on Sunday in a commercial vehicle.

Exodus from Nagorno-KarabakhThe Day Anna, 36, Lost Her Home

Anna Khachatryan had to flee Nagorno-Karabakh with her children when Azerbaijan attacked. Her story is part of a bigger one about the tragedy of the Armenians, who must now fear the looming threat of an even bigger invasion.
By Walter Mayr in Goris, Armenia

“I want the world to see through my eyes what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh,” says Anna Khachatryan. That’s why she is now sharing her story – that of her expulsion from her homeland.

The dark-haired woman, 36 years old, is sitting on the seventh floor of a hotel together with her husband, four children, grandmother and great-grandmother. She arrived here the day before, in the Armenian provincial town of Goris: the temporary end of a hasty escape from Nagorno-Karabakh, from the self-administered Armenian republic not recognized by the international community that is located in Azerbaijani territory.

Outside, in front of the hotel, scenes of a biblical-like exodus are playing out: People squeeze out of overcrowded minibuses and cars around the clock, stuffing their remaining belongings into plastic bags and suitcases.

Slovakia election: Strongman Robert Fico’s return to power

Elections in Slovakia saw former Prime Minister Robert Fico secure the most votes. His victory threatens to turn the small Central European country away from Western partners.

Former strongman Prime Minster Robert Fico returned to power on September 30 when he won parliamentary elections in Slovakia, defeating his liberal rivals by some margin.

With almost all the votes counted, Fico’s Smer-SD party took 23.3%, beating the liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party that garnered just below 18%.

Five other parties crossed the 5% threshold to enter parliament following a high-profile race driven by Fico’s unlikely political resurrection. The turnout of 68.5% was the highest in 20 years.

His victory has many ramifications for the Central European country and will likely weaken Western unity regarding Ukraine.

Myanmar residents of Japan vow to help 2 million displaced in homeland

Myanmar residents of Japan held a fundraising event in Tokyo over the weekend to help provide support for the approximately 2 million people displaced in the military’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the strife-torn country.

At the Federal Festival in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro shopping and entertainment district, members of ethnic minority groups performed traditional music and dancing and offered local dishes and crafts to showcase Myanmar’s diversity as a country with more than 100 ethnic groups.

“With proceeds from this event, we would like to help ethnic minority people in Myanmar…suffering due to the military crackdown,” Khin Zay Yar Myint, one of the organizers, told Kyodo News on Saturday.

Who is Mohamed Muizzu, Maldives’s pro-China president-elect?

The opposition candidate beats the incumbent, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who is considered pro-India.

Voters in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldives on Saturday elected opposition leader Mohamed Muizzu as the country’s president, giving him 54 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results.

Muizzu, candidate for the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), roundly defeated incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and is set to be sworn in on November 17.

Redonda: Tiny Caribbean island’s transformation to wildlife haven

By Gemma Handy
St John’s, Antigua

The incredible eco-restoration of one tiny Caribbean island – transformed from desolate rock to verdant wildlife haven in just a few years – has captured the imagination of environmentalists worldwide.

Now the tenacious Antiguans and Barbudans who led the metamorphosis of the country’s little known third isle of Redonda are celebrating another impressive feat.

The mile-long spot has been officially designated a protected area by the country’s government, ensuring its status as a pivotal nesting site for migrating birds and a home for species found nowhere else on Earth is preserved for posterity.

Oct 01 2023

Late Night Music: ZHU, partywithray – Came For The Low

 

Sep 30 2023

Six In The Morning Saturday 30 September 2023

 

‘Azerbaijan is hungry for land’: Armenians fear country will seek to grab more territory

After Baku’s success in Nagorno-Karabakh, it could attempt to encroach farther, locals believe

The beehives were in no man’s land. After the border clash near his village in April, Geram drove down to the fields where his family has been farming for decades and kept a small apiary.

But when he got near, he heard gunshots. The Azerbaijanis were firing at him from their new positions on the surrounding hilltops. He ran back to his car and never returned.

Another local, Samvel Hyusunts, lost nearly 70 hectares (173 acres) where his family had been farming wheat for decades. “They take what they can have,” he says, standing in a dusty suit and flat cap on the roadside where thousands of refugees have passed from Karabakh into Armenia. “The village is suffering.”

One year on: Life in Russian-annexed eastern Ukraine

One year ago, Russia announced the annexation Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya regions. Residents in the occupied territories describe how their lives have changed in the past year.

Russia is celebrating the first anniversary of the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regionson September 30. The Kremlin is flaunting its land grab using entirely different language, referring to it as the “accession of new regions.”

Russia has minted special anniversary coins to mark the occasion, and concerts and festivals will be on show in the occupied territories. All the while, Russia promises prosperity and stability.

In reality, however, an estimated 1 million to 2 million people have fled the Russian-annexed regions of Ukraine this year alone.

DW spoke to residents in these regions to learn how their life has changed in the past year.

‘Counterfeit people’: The dangers posed by Meta’s AI celebrity lookalike chatbots

Meta announced on Wednesday the arrival of chatbots with personalities similar to certain celebrities, with whom it will be possible to chat. Presented as an entertaining evolution of ChatGPT and other forms of AI, this latest technological development could prove dangerous.

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) sees these as “fun” artificial intelligence. Others, however, feel that this latest technological development could mark the first step towards creating “the most dangerous artefacts in human history”, to quote from American philosopher Daniel C. Dennett’s essay about “counterfeit people”.

On Wednesday, September 27, the social networking giant announced the launch of 28 chatbots (conversational agents), which supposedly have their own personalities and have been specially designed for younger users. These include Victor, a so-called triathlete who can motivate “you to be your best self”, and Sally, the “free-spirited friend who’ll tell you when to take a deep breath”.

Paradise prison: How 107 Bangladeshis became enslaved on a Pacific island

Instead of being given legitimate jobs, 107 men from Bangladesh were enslaved in Vanuatu working under the threat of violence and even death.

By Prianka Srinivasan
Published On 30 Sep 2023

When Bangladeshi businessman Mustafizur Shahin left for a job opportunity overseas he did not expect to be held captive on a Pacific island, forced to work without pay, physically abused when he complained and saved only after he made a daring escape.

What had promised to be a chance of a lifetime, working with a millionaire entrepreneur and his chain of clothing boutiques, turned out to be a case of modern-day slavery where the threat of physical injury and even death hung over 50-year-old Shahin.

Shahin said he felt he was “a living dead body” when recounting events that brought him from the streets of Bangladesh to the shores of the Pacific nation of Vanuatu to toil in slavery with little food and in constant fear.

Alien life in Universe: Scientists say finding it is ‘only a matter of time

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Many astronomers are no longer asking whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe.

The question on their minds is instead: when will we find it?

Many are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes – possibly in the next few years.

And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be “surprising” if there was no life on one of the planet’s icy moons.

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently detected tantalising hints at life on a planet outside our Solar System – and it has many more worlds in its sights.

Ex-gangster rewinds troubled life, admitted to Keio University

By TABITO FUKUTOMI/ Staff Writer

September 29, 2023 at 07:00 JST

An intimidating man with a bald head, big chest and lacking his left little finger showed up at a tiny cram school in a residential area in Hiroshima Prefecture in autumn six years ago.

The man was not there for a shakedown but a desire to further his education.

Speaking to Katsuyoshi Fujioka, 47, the manager of the educational institute located near JR Fukuyama Station, the former yakuza member asked, “Is it possible to pass Keio University’s entrance exam within one year?”

The man in his 40s, who came from Tokyo, described himself as having graduated only from junior high school.

Fujioka replied, “How far you can go depends on how hard you will work.”

Sep 30 2023

Late Night Music:The Source – Fly Away (Revisited) [Classic Trance]

Sep 29 2023

Six In The Morning Friday 29 September 2023

At least 59 people killed in twin attacks on mosques in Pakistan

Suicide bombing kills at least 54 at parade to mark prophet’s birthday, while further five die in attack at police compound

At least 59 people have died in bomb attacks on two mosques in Pakistan as the country held a public holiday to celebrate the prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

In the most serious incident, a suicide bomber killed at least 54 people who were gathering for a parade near a mosque to mark the prophet’s birthday in restive Balochistan province.

A second attack struck a mosque in a police station compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing five people and collapsing the building.

Sweden to call in military to help crack down on gangs

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has blamed “irresponsible immigration policy and a failed integration” for the violence. He is taking several steps to help stem growing gang activity.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was meeting the head of Sweden’s armed forces and the police chief on Friday to discuss ways to stem growing gang violence in the country.

He wanted “to see how the armed forces can help the police fight the gangs.”

In September alone 12 people were killed in the wave of violence sweeping the country. One was killed in a bomb attack, and another 11 were shot dead in separate incidents.

“We’re going to hunt down the gangs, and we’re going to defeat them,” Kristersson said during a televised address on Thursday evening.

Karabakh refugees burn cherished possessions on way out

 The video on Angelina Agabekyan’s phone shows her husband’s military uniform and her son’s toys burning over a bonfire they had set before fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh.

Agabekyan’s little boy adds his bicycle to the flames melting his toys “so that the Azerbaijanis don’t get to play with them”.

The scene has been replayed across the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan so often that the separatist government this week urged people not to burn things down before taking flight.

But refugees interviewed by AFP on the Armenian side of the border recount how they had set everything from their books to family albums ablaze to keep them from falling into Azerbaijani hands.

Japan held secret talks with North Korea in March and again in May

By TAKUYA SUZUKI/ Staff Writer

September 29, 2023 at 14:52 JST

Japan initiated secret talks with North Korean officials on two occasions this spring in an apparent attempt to reopen negotiations on resolving the decades-old abduction issue once and for all.

Despite the overture, no agreement was reached for formal talks between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kishida has repeatedly said he was prepared to meet with Kim  to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and ’80s to train North Korean spies in the Japanese language and the nation’s customs and culture.

Imprisoned Tunisian opposition leader Ghannouchi starts hunger strike

The 82-year-old opposition leader has been in jail since last April on charges of incitement against Kais Saied’s rule, which he denies.

Rached Ghannouchi, a prominent opposition leader in Tunisia and the former speaker of the country’s parliament, has begun a three-day hunger strike behind bars, in solidarity with a fellow political prisoner and head of the opposition coalition National Salvation Front, Jaouher Ben Mbarek.

Ghannounchi has been imprisoned since last April on charges of incitement and plotting against state security, which the opposition figure and his supporters say are baseless. He is a fierce critic of President Kais Saied.

Family in gymnastics racism row say apology is ‘useless’

By Stephanie Hegarty
BBC News

The mother of a black girl who was not given a medal at an Irish gymnastics event ceremony says the apology she has received is “useless”.

A video emerged recently showing the alleged racist treatment of a young black gymnast being ignored by an official who was handing out medals at an event in Dublin last year.

The mother said watching the incident unfold at the time was “horrendous”.

Gymnastics Ireland apologised on Monday “for the upset that has been caused”.

In the statement, the governing body said it was “deeply sorry”, that it knew it needed to do more to ensure “nothing like this will happen again” and it condemned “any form of racism”.

But the mother of the girl said the sports body only publicly apologised after 18 months “because the world wanted them to”.

Sep 29 2023

Late Night Music:ZHU, partywithray – Came For The Low

Load more