JUBA, South Sudan – Over 3000 residents of Kworijik village, Central Equatoria state fled their homes after unknown gunmen attacked the village on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 19, 2015.
Armed men from the Mundari tribe (cattle keepers) attacked the village in a claimed revenge attack over the killing of one of their tribesmen in December 2014 by the Bari tribe (farmers) of the same village.
Eye witnesses say that one cattle keeper (Mundari tribe) drove his cattle into the farm of a Bari farmer, and when the farmer tried to chase away the cattle using a stick, the cattle keeper opened fire at him and he had to run for his life.
Over Five people are reported dead and several others severely injured, and the displaced are taking refuge at Juba One Primary School near Juba town. Some residents were said to have crossed the river Nile for safety. Police and military personnel were deployed to the village to restore calm.
According to one Mundari elder who spoke on condition of anonymity, the attacks were not planned by the Mundari as a tribe but this was individuals who chose to discredit their mutual and peaceful co-existence with the Bari people. The elder expressed hope that the police wl bring the culprits to justice.
The two tribes of Mundari and Bari belong to the Main Bari speaking group of Central Equatoria and have lived peacefully for many years.
While addressing internally displaced people in Juba One Primary school, the Central Equatoria governor Major General Clement Wani Konga assured the people of continued efforts to bring a lasting solution to the problem facing the village and also that the culprits would be brought to book.
Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC), Red Cross, and other humanitarian organizations are on the ground to make needs assessments for internally displaced persons.
Kworijik village is home to Vice President of South Sudan Hon. James Wani Igga and former Mayor of the Juba City Council Mr. Babala Abdullah.
Five masked gunmen attacked the luxury hotel, Corintha, on the Mediterranean in Tripoli, Libya Tuesday killing three guards and five foreign guests. Three others were injured.
The working staff said that the men came through the doors and began shooting erratically in the main lobby, killing the guardsmen on duty, and later taking hostages inside of the hotel. A car bomb that was located in the parking lot went off as well, reports say.
Mahmoud Hamza, commander of the Special Deterrent Forces commented that the situation is currently “under control,” yet there is no sign of the five masked men who left destruction in their way.
One of the men working at that time told sources that the hotel which usually staffed British and Turkish nationals was largely empty. This is also the site where Libya’s prime minister was kidnapped in 2013.
The Libyan state is currently in a pseudo-civil war between two factions — rather two governments fighting for power. One is found in Tripoli, and the other which is internationally recognized, in Eastern Libya. In fact, ever since former Libyan ruler Omar Qaddafi’s death in 2011 Libya has been stuck in constant rifle.
Sources were not clear on what happened to the men inside the hotel. Some say that they might have blown themselves up inside, or even escaped. The flow of information has been terrible since fighting commenced last summer, leading to a great deal of the embassies in Tripoli closing shop and heading home.
Information was cleared up earlier today however as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made it clear in a tweet that the five men were killed in an exchange of fire with police forces.
In light of the attacks that shook Canada at the end of last year, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has become more intensely committed to fighting terrorism at home and abroad. This coming Friday will be the day that Harper’s government will unveil new anti-terrorism legislation that will attempt to do just that.
The new bill is designed to make the verbose forces of terrorism diminish both online and on other mediums. What this means is that the new legislation will make it a crime to promote terrorism, or any sort of harmful activity, thus cutting out the arm by which foreign elements try to persuade Canadian youth to turn to violence.
In addition he said that the bill will give the police the necessary tools and powers to combat terrorism and prevent events such as the shooting of soldiers in front of war memorials — obviously alluding to the recent attack on the Canadian Parliament last year, but also to label those suspected of terrorist activities and prevent them from going on flights.
On the Oct. 22, 2014, Michael Zehad Bibeau entered Parliament Hill and murdered Col. Nathan Cirillo, who was standing guard at the National War Memorial. The attack occurred only two days after another Canadian serviceman, Patrice Vincent, was struck by a car and killed in Montreal.
At first this seems reasonable as a means to counter such despicable activities as home-grown terrorism, but a great deal of people are concerned with what the increase of Canada’s policing powers will lead to, and how it will affect Canadians individually, as well as the nation as a whole.
“To be clear,” Harper added, “In doing so, we shall be safeguarding our constitutional rights of speech, of association, of religion and all the rest.”
This comes a few weeks after the egregious attack on Charlie Hebdo office that shocked the world, and sparked talks of increasing policing measure in the European Union, and most Western countries.
“These measures are designed to help authorities stop planned attacks, get threats off our streets, criminalize the promotion of terrorism, and prevent terrorists from travelling and recruiting others,” he said in Ottawa.
Harper’s office has always been a vanguard amid Canada’s political leadership in the fight against terrorism, and although the infringement of free speech is exceptionally worrying, the climate which has bred such policies seems almost understandable. Almost.
Although it an imperative to minimize the dangers that terrorism poses, it is also exceptionally important to maintain a balance between the infringement of violent speech, and that of what may be considered as coercive speech.
When issues such as the containment of “free speech” come into play it is difficult not to feel weary, regardless of the good it maintains to set out an accomplish.
VANCOUVER, B.C — Seventy years have gone by since the Allies liberated Auschwitz and the horrors that laid inside were made public to the world. The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre has decided that in addition to a symbolic memorial, they will bring forgotten heroes to light.
Carl Lutz and The Legendary Glass House in Budapest exhibit is a mesmerizing ode to a man who managed to save 62,000 people by handing out fake papers and setting up a total of 76 safe-houses across Budapest. The exhibit is dedicated therefore to positivity in life, rather than to death.
Trinkets, personal belongings, memoirs, diaries and the full narratives of many of the survivors that Lutz’s bravery saved are on display, yet above all it is the stories that all of these form together which is salient. Ones which show how the moral alacrity of an individual managed against great odds to save people from their certain death in places such as Auschwitz.
Who was Carl Lutz?
Born in Switzerland to a quintessentially Swiss family, he escaped European mores and left for the United States to attend college in Washington, D.C., which led him to an inspiring –and successful mind you — career in diplomacy.
In 1942 he was appointed as vice-consul in Budapest, from where he managed to save over 10,000 children by giving them safe passage to Israel through Switzerland. However, in 1944 during the Nazi occupation, when the reality of what was happening became known across Eastern Europe, Lutz came up with an ingenious plan.
After being able to persuade the local government to allow the safe passage of 8,000 Jews by issuing letters of protection, he gave out tens of thousands that all contained a number between 1 to 8,000. He did this without ever being caught, which is incogitable. Despite this brilliant moral attainment, the safe-houses that he set up were equally essential to their escape. The most famous of these was the “Glass House,” from which the exhibition borrows its name.
The “House,” which was in fact more of an industrial storage building, functioned as a safe haven for around 3,000 people, during the most difficult period of the war when the Nazis were losing and wanted to murder as many Jews as possible before the front moved back. The logistics of providing food, and water for that many people was without a doubt mind-numbing, especially when trying to evade any suspicion from both the German army and Hungarian citizens.
During his commission, apparently one day Lutz saw a woman bleeding from gunshot wounds and drowning in the Danube river. He jumped in after her and saved her, all in front of the German firing squad that pushed her in. He took her to his car and gave her a ride to the Swiss Embassy. Today that staith is named the Car Lutz Rakpart. Incidentally he was the first Swiss-born national to be awarded the Righteous Among Nations award which is given to those who saved the lives of Jews, at the risk of their own.
The exhibition is meant to educate people on the Holocaust, but more precisely highlight the actions of Lutz that seem to have been forgotten by history in the last few decades. In addition it is a stepping stone for the collaborative efforts of the Swiss consul and like-minded Jewish institutions who want to tell his story: one of hope and dignity.
Nina Krieger, the executive director of the VHEC said of the exhibit, “The response to the Carl Lutz exhibit, particularly among students, has been very positive. Presented to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Nazi occupation of Hungary, the exhibit illuminates a story of diplomatic rescue, providing an opportunity for visitors to reflect on the complexity of moral decision-making during the Holocaust. Visitors have been particularly drawn to the artifacts and testimonies displayed alongside the travelling exhibit, which relate to the experiences of Vancouver-based Hungarian Holocaust survivors. The power of these primary sources is unparalleled, particularly for young people visiting the VHEC.”
The VHEC, founded in 1983 by survivors, aims to educate the public, not only of the events of the Holocaust but the narratives of the individuals that both perished, and survived. The Carl Lutz Exhibition ends on the 13th of March
By Milad Doroudian
Photo: Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Additional details have emerged regarding the ongoing military takeover of a rural Cambodian village that started over a month ago. The 562 families involved hope a court will allow them to return to their own land soon. In addition, one of the imprisoned villagers may be released in a matter of days.
The village of Phnom Tebang Bantay Srey, north of Siem Reap, has been undergoing a gradual military takeover due to a supposed lack of land deeds. Those documents have since reappeared and the villagers hope that this will be what they need to re-acquire their land.
According to the village’s primary spokesperson Solina, previously they would have been content with each of the families having 5 hectares of land returned to them. However, they would now be satisfied with 1 hectare each, as the villagers primary source of food is their own crops. In this case, “They’ve backed off and are remaining patient as they await further developments from the courts.”
Solina says that she’s being sought by the police, primarily because she speaks English and can thus increase awareness of the villagers’ situation. However, she is not overly concerned for her individual safety. “They may threaten us with their guns, but they won’t shoot us. Here in Siem Reap they’re afraid of hurting us because of all the tourists. They’d lose out on lots of business [if word of any violence were to get out].”
However, other villagers are more wary of the police presence and want to take things one step at a time. Not helping things, however, is that what news has gotten out has been negative. According to village leader Chirn, ”The radio station [Asia Free Radio] is saying that we were abusing our own land [having roadblocks set up and burning forest land]. Why would we do that?”
He also said that the government considers the land to be valuable and has slowly been edging the villagers off their land for years. “Starting around 2011, they [the military] have been taking our land, an acre at a time. They do it slowly so we don’t get too alarmed too quickly.”
Another reporter who has been involved in researching the situation and who spoke to The Speaker on condition of anonymity said that he was disappointed with the reaction of a human rights NGO in Phnom Penh. “After I didn’t get much of a response from LICADHO [the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights], I decided to go it alone and help as much as I could independently.” He continues to hope that gradually additional food and water will be able to get to the villagers, who at this time are cautious to return to their land.
On a positive note, one of the imprisoned villagers may be released within a few days, possibly as early as Jan. 28, as the courts review her case. “We just have to be patient,” says Solina. “One day we will get our land back and not have to worry anymore.”
Despite being one of the most feared inhabitants of marine life, it seems like even sharks are not exempt from becoming the victimized party deep within the ocean.
Leilani Tresize, a local resident of Hawaii, reported to have found the butchered remains of a 12-foot shark at the ocean floor of Makua Beach, Oahu several weeks ago, when she went for a swim to photograph dolphins.
Tresize recounted the gruesome sight in detail, saying that the shark had a “cut mark on the back, like someone had sliced him through him.” Its stomach “had been cut open” and its jaws were “missing.” She also noted that the shark’s fins were cut off from the body and that she found it floating in the water about thirty feet away from the rest of the carcass.
While there are no state laws in Hawaii that pertain to the outright killing of sharks, there is a bill that was passed in 2010 that banned the practice of shark finning in an effort to save the shark population from being depleted due to the popularity of shark fin soup.
Former State Senator Clayton Hee, who authored the bill, said that it is not limited only to the unlawful possession of shark fins, but extends also to any part of the shark.
“It demonstrates an ignorance of the law and, unfortunately, it demonstrates that who ever did it got away with it,” Hee said. “It doesn’t make sense that you kill it in the first place because it’s unlawful to do so, and then leave it there.”
Many speculated that the culprit was most likely after the shark’s teeth, as the only things that appears to be taken from it would be its jaw. Shark teeth are known to be a very valuable resource for making weapons and jewelry.
Oriana Kalama, founder and CEO of Hawaii’s marine life supporter group Ocean Defender, said that a proper protocol should have been observed in killing the shark, so as to honor Hawaiian traditions and values.
Tresize has also shown the same sentiments as Kalama, stating that a Hawaiian would have taken the whole shark rather than mutilate it, take only a few parts and leave everything else to rot.
Currently, Tresize has already brought it to the attention of the local authorities, sharing the photos that she took of the shark’s remains to the lifeguards of Makaha. However, nothing has been heard from any authority figure as far as the matter is concerned.
SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean teenager who disappeared in Turkey this month is believed to have joined the Islamic State (IS). Authorities are basing this suspicion on the teen’s social media communications, which consistently included sentiments of longing to join the Muslim militant group.
Kim’s disappearance
The 18-year-old, whose surname was given as Kim, went missing in Kilis near the Syrian border with Turkey on Jan. 10. Kim had traveled to Turkey with a pastor on Jan. 8.
Although Kim had originally planned to take the trip alone last October, his mother had asked a pastor who was introduced by a church friend to accompany Kim.
The pair moved to Kilis the following day, because Kim wanted to visit. He disappeared in the morning around 8 a.m. The pastor said that Kim left in the middle of breakfast. He thought that Kim went back to the hotel room, but was not there.
The pastor reported his disappearance to the Embassy of South Korea in Turkey on Jan. 12.
Kim’s whereabouts
Hotel CCTV showed footage that Kim went out of the hotel and met a man who beckoned to him from the opposite side of the road. They disappeared together in a black car.
According to South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it has been discovered that the vehicle number plate of the black car was that of an illegal taxi, run by Syrian nationals. The man’s face was not clearly recognized on the CCTV footage.
The ministry has not confirmed whether Kim crossed the Syrian border after the car stopped at a Syrian refugee town in Besiri, Turkey.
Gathering information via social media
Social media was the main medium to gain information about Kim’s being a member of IS.
Kim was called “sunni mujahideen” on Twitter. “Sunni” refers to Sunni Muslims, which are the largest branch of the religion. “Mujahideen,” the plural of mujahid in Arabic, refers to “guerrilla fighters in Islamic countries.” Kim followed 90 accounts relevant to IS.
He had asked advice on how to become a part of the Islamist group on Twitter by sending tweets of “I want to join isis” to those accounts, and one of users, “H. abodou afriki” tweeted back to him. This user advised him to go to Turkey.
“H. abdou afriki” even suggested that Kim should contact “Hassan” through mobile messaging application Surespot.
According to his mother, Kim said that he would meet a Turkish pen pal friend during the trip. The pastor also told police that he was going to see his friend called “Hassan” in Kilis.
Officials of the ministry said that they have not identified who “Hassan” is, as this is a common Arabic name.
Moreover, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency found out from information on Kim’s home computer that he bookmarked articles regarding IS. The officials added that he often accessed the websites which explain that IS members’ benefits include good salaries and the provision of a luxury car.
He also wrote that “I want leaving my country and families to get a new life” in English on Facebook, a day before traveling away.
Who is Kim?
The 18-year-old was a home-schooled student since he dropped out of middle school due to bullying. Kim was preparing a qualification exam as a high school graduate.
He spent most of time at home after quitting school. Internet was the only means for him to communicate with the outside world. His parents worried about his lack of a social life.
His mother said that he wanted to go to Turkey. “My son promised me to concentrate on studying for the exam if I allow him to go to a trip in Turkey,” his mother told the Korean police authorities.
His father flew to Turkey on Jan. 16, and came back to Korea after being interviewed by the Turkish police on Jan. 18.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still tracing his whereabouts by investigating Turkey as well as Syrian refugee town with the aid of Turkish authorities.
In the wake of the shooting deaths of 12 French cartoonists at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris earlier this month, rallies and protests erupted in several nations around the globe, involving millions of participants who took to the streets to express their reactions to the attack and to the cartoon itself — calling out for both for the right to freedom of expression and for censorship of Muslim sacrilege.
In Paris, the largest rally since the liberation of the city during the second world war took place within one week of the attack, involving over 3.7 million people and including world leaders such as British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in addition to French President Francois Hollande.
In this series, “The Face of Charlie,” Parisian photographer Andrea Peter Fly captures in vivid detail the individual face of those protesters who took part in the January response to what many considered to be an attack against France itself and human rights in general.
Andrea Peter Fly is a Paris-based photographer whose driving passion is documenting with photography issues that involve humanitarian concerns. She is also active in the domains of fashion, events and celebrity photography.
Jellyfish are able to detect the direction of ocean currents, according to recent research by a joint team of environmental scientists. The team studied the movements and of free-ranging barrel-jellyfish and found that the animals are “incredibly advanced in their orientation abilities.”
“Most people who have spent time on the coast will have seen jellyfish and probably assume they are simple animals that just drift with ocean currents,” Dr. Graeme Hays, professor at Deakin University’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences and an author of the study, told The Speaker.
Dr. Graeme Hays
“Our work shows this is not necessarily the case, and instead jellyfish can show remarkable abilities to sense currents, change their swimming behaviour accordingly, and hence maintain their position in preferred areas. These abilities contribute to the massive blooms of jellyfish that are widely being reported around the world.”
The team collected data using GPS loggers that were placed both on the jellyfish and on floats on the ocean’s surface. The researchers then created a model of jellyfish behavior that took into account ocean currents.
From the research, the team has formed a clearer picture of the lives of individual and groups of jellyfish.
“We now know that jellyfish are not simply passive drifters, but instead can make complex movements that help maintain massive blooms which have been seen in many places around the world.”
The research will help efforts to manage these blooms, which can involve hundreds to millions of jellyfish for months-long periods and which can be troublesome when they clog fishing nets or sting beachgoers.
Drs. Sylvie Vandenabeele and Sabrina Fossette
How jellyfish are detecting the currents remains unknown, but Hays provided us with an educated guess about what he believes is the most likely answer: that the jellyfish are able to sense the shear of the water.
“Most probably the jellyfish are using the fact that the currents change slightly with depth–current shear. So this means that different parts of the body of the jellyfish are experiencing slightly different currents. It is probably this difference in current flow across their body that the jellyfish can perceive, allowing them to detect the current flow and modify their swimming accordingly.”
During a government meeting on urbanization this week, the administration of Tibet stated their decision to increase the permanent urban population of Tibet by 30 percent by 2020 — a figure that represents roughly 280,000 new Chinese immigrants to Tibet.
The urban population of Tibet has risen dramatically since the 1980s, when China launched a “National Strategic Project to Develop the West” following the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Before the campaign, under 300,000 people lived in 31 towns and cities in Tibet. According to Chinese estimates for 2013, over 740,000 people now live in 140 towns and cities in Tibet. The new push will bring that number to over one million.
Because the majority of new residents in Tibet are ethnic Chinese, many Tibetans have expressed concern about a threat to their distinct cultural, religious and national identity. The Chinese population has increased in all Tibetan regions since China invaded Tibet in 1959.
In the administrative capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Lhasa, Chinese outnumber Tibetans three to one, while in 1990 there were only 81,200 Chinese in all of TAR.
In addition to the Chinese resident population measured in government figures, there are also an additional 300,000 to 500,000 (150,000 to 250,000 in TAR) ethnic Chinese stationed in Tibet as cadres, administrative staff, and ordinary and military police.
Losang said that Tibet wanted to improve public services in urban areas in order to attract more people to move to Tibet, and to boost local economies.
According to a report by anti-poverty charity organization Oxfam America, the wealthiest 1 percent of people will possess global assets in excess of assets possessed by the rest of earth’s 7.12 billion people by next year.
The percentage of global wealth owned by the richest 1 percent rose from 46 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014, and it will rise to over 50 percent by 2016, Oxfam reported.
“The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast,” said Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who is a co-chair of the upcoming World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which will be attended by a record 300 heads of state.
Oxfam also reported that 80 percent of the world’s population currently owns just 5.5 percent of global wealth. This equates to under $4,000 per person, while the average wealth of the top 1 percent is $2.7 million. Further down the line, 1 in 9 people cannot afford enough food for themselves, and over 1 billion people have less than $1.25 per day to live on.
The wealth of the richest people continues to rise, Oxfam reported. In 2014, the 80 richest people had the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people, representing a doubling of the wealth of the richest 80 since 2009.
“Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?” Byanyima asked.
“The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.”
Oxfam’s report comes just ahead of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Schizophrenia has been known to be associated with a dearth of neural connections in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The onset of the disease, which often takes place in a person’s early 20s, may be associated with something quite different, however. A joint research team analyzed MRI data from a group of individuals who had recently experienced their first psychotic episode and found that excessive communication within the PFC — rather than a lack of signals — seems to produce abnormal internal states in schizophrenics.
Dr. Alan Anticevic
“It is already appreciated by the research community that schizophrenia is likely a ‘dynamic’ neurodevelopmental illness. The reported effects suggest that perhaps following illness onset — which typically occurs in late teens and early 20s — there may be an abnormal elevation in neural activity in certain areas,” Dr. Alan Anticevic, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale and lead author on the paper, told The Speaker.
The PFC is the frontal lobe of the brain, responsible for higher-order thinking, and has been implicated as a major site of functional impairment in schizophrenia and other severe menal illnesses. Specifically, schizophrenia has been linked in numerous studies with deficits in PFC funcional connectivity, structure and activation.
However, PFC functional connectivity during early-course schizophrenia has not yet been characterized.
The joint Yale-Sichuan University team examined the MRI’s of 129 individuals who had recently undergone their first psychotic episode and who had not yet been medicated.
They found evidence of increased PFC connectivity in these patients.
They also tested for hypoconnectivity, and while not finding evidence for this in the PFC, they did detect evidence for hypoconnectivity at the whole-brain level. Generally, the team found, early-course schizophrenia was associated with more severe elevation in PFC connection strength.
“Typically schizophrenia, especially in its more chronic stages, is associated with abnormal reductions in neural activity and connections across the PFC,” Anticevic told us. “The reported effects in part call into question this view by showing that at certain illness stages there seems to be prevailing elevation in PFC connectivity. However, this elevation is likely to be abnormal as it predicted symptoms. This finding may map well onto some emerging theories suggesting that early illness stages may be associated with an abnormal spike in glutamate — a key excitatory neurotransmitter that is present throughout the brain.”
Dr. John Murray
This effect was also captured by a sophisticated mathematical model Anticevic’s group is developing in collaboration with Dr. John Murray at NYU. “This ‘computational psychiatry’ approach helps us to mathematically formalize hypothesized disease mechanisms at the cellular level” Anticevic added. In turn, the team can relate these neurobiologically plausible modeling predictions to their neuroimaging effects.
The team also found that PFC hyperconnectivity normalized for some patients over time, and that this predicted symptom improvement.
Anticevic noted the challenge of attempting to answer the question of what was is happening neurobiologically when PFC hyperactivity is normalized in some individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in response to treatment, but provided an educated guess.
“We currently don’t have a deep mechanistic understanding of this problem. However, one possibility is that somehow medication is ‘normalizing’ the abnormal elevation in excitation and inhibition balance in local cortical circuits that may be responsible for the hyperactivity. One possible mechanism at the neural system level may involve the interplay of domaine and glutamate between the dorsal striatum and prefrontal cortex, which is the pathway where medication may expert its key effects.”
“We hope to demonstrate that alterations occurring in people who suffer from schizophrenia are likely ‘dynamic,'” concluded Anticevic. “In addition, we hope to demonstrate how the combination of leading neuroimaging approaches and our mathematical models can help us understand these dynamics to develop better therapies for the earliest stages of the illness when intervention is critical.”
