Patrick deHahn

• 2013-06-04

  Uh oh. Is the Istanbul 2020 Olympics campaign now doomed by the ongoing protests?

• 2013-06-02

  

  Turkey update from reuters: Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan accused opposition parties on Sunday of provoking protests across the country.

  Erdogan made a defiant call for an end to the fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years on Saturday. He is accused of authoritarianism and abusing privacy and secularism. There were more than 90 separate demonstrations around the country on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, tens of thousands gathered in Taksim Square.
  
  More than 1,000 people were reported injured in Istanbul and several hundred in Ankara.

  [Photo: A man is hit by a jet of water as riot police use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators during a central Ankara protest June 1, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas]

  Source: reuters

• 2013-05-23

  

  From reuters:

  Obama gives major foreign policy speech: President Barack Obama plans to limit the use of U.S. drone strikes and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
  
  Obama also asked the Attorney General to report on how the Department of Justice investigates the media. The report is due by July 12, 2013. 
  

  [Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing]

  Source: reuters

• 2013-05-22

  For starters: 22 May 2013

  AFRICA

  Mortar lands in Congo city of Goma as U.N. secretary general arrives in capital (AP)

  Egyptian security abducted in Sinai freed (Al Jazeera)

  Egypt’s Morsi calls on people of Sinai to “give up their arms” (BBC News)

  World Bank pledges $1 billion to aid peace in Africa’s Great Lakes (Reuters)

  Mugabe signs Zimbabwe constitution into law (Reuters)

  AMERICAS

  Mysterious respiratory illness kills two, leaves five others hospitalized in Alabama (AP)

  ASIA

  North Korea has named hardline general as new military chief, state media shares (AP)

  North Korea leader sends “special envoy” to China (NYTimes)

  Iran bars candidates for June Presidential election (Reuters)

  China premier to discuss trade ties with incoming Pakistan government (Al Jazeera)

  EUROPE

  Hague says, “we are working on lifting the arms embargo for the Syrian opposition” (Al Jazeera)

  Ukraine prime minister bars reporters from government meetings after protest (Reuters)

  France boosts up Africa and Middle East embassy security (Reuters)

  Germany backs call to put Hezbollah armed wing on EU terror list (Reuters)

  MIDDLE EAST

  Sunni fighters backing Syria rebels fight Assad supporters in Lebanon’s Tripoli (Al Jazeera)

  Refugee numbers drop dramatically on the Jordan-Syria border (Al Jazeera)

  Rafah border crossing off Egypt and Gaza reopens after abduction (Al Ahram)

  Syrian National Coalition to attend Friends of Syria meeting in Jordan’s Amman Wednesday (Al Jazeera)

  Syria opposition calls for reinforcements in embattled Qusair (Reuters)

• 2013-05-21

  Chinese troops suffering post-traumatic stress disorder in Tibet

  From the Telegraph: 

  The battle to keep Tibetans under control is inflicting severe psychological damage on Chinese armed police, an internal training document has revealed.

  Give it a read, it’s rather quite interesting. 

• →

  Is China seeking regime-change in North Korea?

  Came across this today: 

  The sudden reduction in aggressive rhetoric and actions by North Korea has led to suggestions that Pyongyang has realized it has pushed its only ally in the region to the brink of severing its friendship.

  The superpower state, China, may be working with members of the North Korean government, to encourage regime change and shift their stances, direction as a state. Intelligence reports tell this story, that China is preparing for such contingency plans, for Kim Jong-un’s brother to take over if the country fails under his control. Interesting finds. 

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  North Korea's hidden labor camps exposed

  From CS Monitor:

  A new UN panel is vowing to hold North Korea’s Kim regime to ‘full accountability’ for decades of mass crime and murder. Will Pyongyang face ICC indictment?

  “Virtually every legal scholar and former tribunal judge looking at North Korea has come to the conclusion that these are massive crimes against humanity,”

  North Korea has largely kept these camps secret and have denied having these, with strong international suspicions that they did actually have them. The nation was able to control confirmation they had them; but now cannot control the skies, satellites  eyes and curiousness. The photos are now here. Check them out.

• 2013-05-20

  Syria: No place for back-seat drivers

  A Guardian editorial takes angle that “having rejected the option of talking to Assad, neither the US nor Britain can lead from behind.” The conflict has gone on for two years now and there hasn’t been a solid attempt to talk to Assad, as this editorial points out, and what actions can superpowers take when rejecting such talks? 

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  "Self-immolation loses its power as means of protest"

  Tibet’s opposition has continued on and has not quit in their fight for freedom. However, writer Adam Lam writes, “self-immolation isn’t what it used to be.” And also says, “A profound act of public death cannot hope to sway a world in which horror itself has lost its power.” Give it a read.

• 2013-05-19

  The Economist: "Most humans will become permanently unemployable" by 2040

  Oh great. 

• 2013-05-18

  From reuters, a very valuable infographic of Syria’s casualties after two years of civil war. 

  Source: reuters

• →

  The country is in a crisis and when a ship faces a storm, the captain does not flee. The first thing he does is face the storm and guide the ship back to safety. I am not someone who flees from my responsibilities.

  — Syria’s Bashar al-Assad says he won’t step down in a new interview with Argentine newspaper Clarin Saturday 18 April 2013. In the meanwhile, a blast in Damascus was just reported by Syria State TV. 

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  ICYMI: White House released over 100 pages of emails about Benghazi (PDF)

  From reuters:

  White House Benghazi Emails

  Source: reuters

• 2013-05-17

  17 May 2013 roundup for Syria

  • HRW report shows torture evidence found in Syrian prisons (AP)
  • United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon says an international conference on Syria should be held as soon as possible (Reuters)
  • More than 1.5 million Syrians have fled the country to escape the conflict there and register as refugees, UN says (CNN)
  • More advanced missiles - antiship cruise missiles - have been sent by Russia to Syria to support Assad (NYTimes)
  • Russian FM: “I don’t understand the uproar over supplying weapons to Syria.” (Al Jazeera)

• 2013-05-16

  ‘But as U.S. president for the last 4-1/2 years,Barack Obama has faced accusation after accusation of impinging on civil liberties, disappointing his liberal Democratic base and providing fodder for rival Republicans as he deals with the realities of office.

  News in the past week of the federal seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups, has intensified criticism already simmering over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and aerial drone strikes abroad.

  Asked at a news conference on Tuesday why the administration had not done more for civil liberties, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “I’m proud of what we have done” and emphasized the administration’s shift from Bush era harsh interrogation practices of terrorism suspects that had drawn international criticism.

  When he took office in 2009, Obama promised to close the Guantanamo camp for foreign terrorism suspects, but it remains open with 166 detainees, many on hunger strikes in protest at indefinite detentions. Obama said last month he would revisit that pledge and blamed Congress for blocking his plan to close the camp, partly through restrictions on transfers of detainees.

  The administration has defended its aerial drone strikes abroad, which have included targeting a U.S.-born terrorism suspect, as essential to the fight against al Qaeda and other militants in places such as Pakistan and Yemen.’

  (Reuters)