Monday, June 26, 2017

Liu Xiaobo: China frees jailed dissident after cancer diagnosis

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Breaking News image
Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has been released from prison on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
Mr Liu, a human rights campaigner, was jailed in 2009 on subversion charges for calling for greater democracy.
His lawyer says he is being treated in hospital in northern Liaoning Province after being diagnosed a month ago.
His wife Liu Xia has been under house arrest since her husband won the award in 2010 but has never been charged.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

China landslide leaves 120 missing in Sichuan

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More than 120 people are missing after a landslide in Sichuan province in south-western China, state media say.
About 40 homes were destroyed in Xinmo village in Maoxian county, after the side of a mountain collapsed at about 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT Friday).
Rescue teams are frantically searching for survivors trapped beneath rocks dislodged by heavy rainfall. The bodies of 15 people have so far been found.
President Xi Jinping urged rescuers to "spare no effort".
A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after teams of workers used ropes to move large rocks, AFP news agency reports, citing local authorities.
Qiao Dashuai told CCTV the baby had woken them and when they came to the door of their home they were swept away by water. He said his parents and other relatives were still missing.
People search for survivors following a landslide in Xinmo Village in Maoxian county, 24 June 2017Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionRescue workers are frantically searching for survivors feared buried beneath rocks
A huge landslide has buried more than 100 villagers in Sichuan, southwest China, 24 June 2017Image copyrightEPA
Image captionBulldozers were used to help move large boulders after homes were destroyed
Rescue workers and medical staff search for survivors at landslide site in Xinmo village in Sichuan, southwest China, 24 June 2017Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionMedical staff joined the search in the hope of assisting any survivors
An earlier toll of 141 missing people has now been revised down by state media.
The landslide blocked a 2km (1.2-mile) stretch of a river, Xinhua news agency reported.
Local police told state broadcaster CCTV a lack of vegetation in the area had made the landslide worse.
Local officials said some 8m cu m (282m cu ft) of rock had been dislodged.
Roads in the county were closed on Saturday to all traffic except emergency services, the news agency said.
Landslides are a regular danger in mountainous regions of China, especially during heavy rains.
In 2008, 87,000 people were killed when an earthquake struck Wenchuan county in Sichuan province. In Maoxian county itself, 37 tourists were killed when their coach was buried in a landslide caused by the earthquake.
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Friday, June 23, 2017

Fiji 27-22 Scotland

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Scotland ended their summer tour with a disappointing defeat by Fiji in Suva.
Following a famous win in Sydney over Australia last weekend, the Scots failed to reach such heights again.
The hosts were inspired, scoring memorable tries through Peceli Yato and Henry Seniloli, with Ben Volavola kicking 17 points.
Ross Ford, Ruaridh Jackson and Fraser Brown all crossed the whitewash for Scotland, but it was not enough to overcome the swashbuckling Fijians.
The result meant a first defeat for Gregor Townsend as Scotland head coach, having opened the tour with a solid win against Italy before the triumph over the Wallabies.
John Barclay
Captain John Barclay said after the match Scotland were second best against Fiji
Fiji were magnificent, inspired by the stratospheric brilliance of former Glasgow Warriors forward Leone Nakarawa and a back row that rarely dipped below the ferocious.
They had power and subtlety, they blasted Scotland at the breakdown and in the collisions and when something more dexterous was needed they had all manner of off-loaders. Principally, they had Nakarawa, an old friend come back to haunt the visitors.
It was a frenetic day, a madcap Test. When Josua Tuisova, the Toulon wing known as The Bus, obliterated Damien Hoyland in the tackle early on there was already a sense that Fiji were on to something special.
In the mayhem of the opening minutes, Tevita Cavubati, the Fijian lock, was yellow-carded followed sharply into the sin bin by Scotland's Josh Strauss and then, a third man walked - Peni Ravai, the Fiji loosehead getting done for pulling down a maul.
Fiji had a three-point lead at that stage, but it soon vanished when Ford crashed over from a lineout maul.
Hooker Ford had become Scotland's record cap-holder with his 110th international appearance and it was his third try of the series - having scored just two for his country prior to the tour.
Jackson converted, but this was short respite for Scotland. Volavola's boot made it 7-6 as the visitors struggled awfully to gain any semblance of control. They threw risky passes, got turned over, missed a huge number of tackles and sent up distress flares in much of what they did.
Leone Nakarawa
Nakarawa was signed by Townsend at Glasgow and was pivotal in their 2015 Pro12 win
The sense that they were in serious trouble increased significantly when Fiji cut loose before the break. Clermont's Yato - a colossal presence in their back row - started it all with a howitzer tackle, Hoyland being the victim again. Then it was Nakarawa who got the locals to their feet when he sucked in Scottish defenders and pulled off an outrageous offload that had Scotland scrambling forlornly.
They swept left, Patrick Osborne barrelling through Jackson before linking with Yato, who ran on to score. Devastating.
At the break it was 11-7 to Fiji and they were good value for it. Scotland lost Duncan Taylor at half-time and Townsend re-worked things. Greig Tonks came on at full-back, Jackson went to 10 and Peter Horne moved to 12. Gordon Reid also replaced Alex Allan.
None of it worked. Scotland continued to turn over ball and could not live with Fiji when they got on the front foot, which was often. More slackness in defence cost Scotland three more points from the boot of Volavola. Townsend went to the bench again. Brown, Zander Fagerson and Hamish Watson all appeared with half-an-hour to play.
Briefly, it looked like Scotland might get a grip on the Fijians when Jackson picked up at the side of a maul and strolled over. When he converted his first Scotland try, it was level at 14-14.
The maddening thing for Townsend was that they fell behind so quickly, Volavola landing another penalty.
Jackson levelled it again but that set the scene for Nakarawa to take on, and beat, three Scottish defenders before presenting a pass - it was forward, but there was no TMO to check it - to Seniloli, who sprinted away to score.
Volavola converted and added another penalty after Tuisova had once again turned on the power to drive his team forward.
Brown scored a first international try off another lineout maul with four minutes left to play, but Scotland toiled badly as they attempted to pull it back. They could not. In truth, they did not deserve to.
Fiji: Murimurivalu, Tuisova, Vulivuli, Vatubua, Osborne, Volavola, Vularika, Ravai, Koto Vuli, Tawake, Cavubati, Nakarawa, Waqaniburotu, Yato, Qera.
Replacements: Tuapati, Veitayaki, Ducivaki, Nabou, Dawai, Seniloli, Stewart, Masilevu.
Scotland: Jackson, Hoyland, Grigg, Taylor, Visser, Horne, Pyrgos, Allan, Ford, Nel, Swinson, J. Gray, Barclay, Hardie, Strauss.
Replacements: Brown, Reid, Fagerson, Toolis, Watson, Price, Tonks.
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).

Camden flats: Hundreds of homes evacuated over fire risk fears

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More than 700 flats in tower blocks on a council estate in Camden, north London, have been evacuated because of fire safety concerns.
Camden Council says people in four towers on the Chalcots estate were moved for "urgent fire safety works".
The council said it was booking hotels but around 100 residents have spent the night on air beds in a leisure centre.
The estate's cladding is similar to Grenfell Tower in west London, where there was a deadly fire this month.
Chalcots was refurbished between 2006 and 2009 by the same firm, Rydon, that oversaw work at Grenfell Tower in 2015-16.
Camden Council said it will remove external thermal cladding from five tower blocks on the Chalcots estate.
It also said there were concerns about the insulation of gas pipes going into flats, and fire doors.
The council initially announced the evacuation of one tower block, Taplow, but later extended the move to all five tower blocks it had checked.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, the council then announced that one of the five - Blashford - did not need to be evacuated, and that residents could return.
Blashford is smaller and has "several different design elements".
Residents of the estate attended a public meeting with council officials on Thursday evening.
The council leader, Labour's Georgia Gould, said the decision to evacuate the buildings was made at about 18:30 BST on Friday.
She said the fire service "told us they could not guarantee our residents' safety in those blocks".
Some residents said the first they heard of the evacuation was on the news.
The council has secured 270 hotel rooms so far. Emergency accommodation was set up at Swiss Cottage leisure centre and at the Camden Centre in King's Cross.
"We're encouraging all residents to stay with friends and family if they can, otherwise we'll provide accommodation," the council said.
"I know it's difficult, but Grenfell changes everything and I just don't believe we can take any risk with our residents' safety and I have to put them first," Ms Gould said.
Residents will be allowed in at the weekend to collect more possessions under escort from the fire brigade.
Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted: "My thoughts are with residents being evacuated in Camden while their homes are made safe tonight."
She said the government was "offering every support we can" to residents and officials working at the estate.

At the scene

Residents leaving Chalcots estateImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Alex Regan, BBC News
As the sun set on Swiss Cottage, there was frustration among residents of the Chalcots estate.
With tower blocks being evacuated, the streets were teeming with neighbours, children, and cameramen.
Camden Council employees wearing hi-viz vests stood outside the Taplow tower, speaking to residents.
Some of them only realised their homes were being evacuated after hearing news reports.
Most were not in the mood to talk. One woman shouted angrily at a TV cameraman: "Can you tell me what's going on?"

China landslide leaves 100 missing in Sichuan

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More than 100 people are feared buried in a landslide in Sichuan province in south-western China, state media say.
About 40 homes were destroyed in Xinmo village in Maoxian county, after the side of a mountain collapsed at about 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT Friday).
A rescue operation is now under way to try to locate and rescue the missing.
Pictures posted by the People's Daily newspaper show bulldozers moving earth and large boulders as the rescue effort continues.
The landslide blocked a two-kilometre (1.2-mile) stretch of a river, Xinhua news agency reported, citing local officials.
Landslides are a regular danger in mountainous regions of China, especially during heavy rains.
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Facebook launches initiative to fight online hate speech

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FacebookImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionFacebook says it will support and train NGOs to spot and respond to hate speech and extremism
Facebook is launching a UK initiative to train and fund local organisations to combat extremism and hate speech.
It comes a week after the social network announced steps of its own to remove terrorist-related content from its site.
The UK Online Civil Courage Initiative's initial partners include Imams Online and the Jo Cox Foundation.
Facebook has faced criticism for being slow to react to terrorist propaganda on its platforms.
"The recent terror attacks in London and Manchester - like violence anywhere - are absolutely heartbreaking," said Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg.
"No-one should have to live in fear of terrorism - and we all have a part to play in stopping violent extremism from spreading.
"We know we have more to do - but through our platform, our partners and our community we will continue to learn to keep violence and extremism off Facebook."

Increasing pressure

In recent months, governments across Europe have been pushing for technology companies to take more action to prevent online platforms from being used to spread extremist propaganda.
In particular, security services have criticised Facebook, Twitter and Google for relying too much on other people to report inappropriate content, rather than spotting it themselves.
In April, Germany passed a bill to fine social networks up to €50m (£44m) if they failed to give users the option to report hate speech and fake news, or if they refused to remove illegal content flagged as either images of child sexual abuse or inciting terrorism.
Following the London Bridge terror attack, UK PM Theresa May announced that new international agreements needed to be introduced to regulate the internet in order to "deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online".
And last week in Paris, Mrs May and French President Emmanuel Macron launched a joint campaign to look at how they could make the internet safe, including making companies legally liable if they refused to remove certain content.

Other efforts

Similar initiatives to counter hate speech were launched in Germany in January 2016 and in France in March 2017.
They have held training workshops with more than 100 anti-hate and anti-extremism organisations across Europe, and reached 3.5 million people online through its Facebook page.
In the UK, people are being encouraged to visit the UK OCCI Facebook page, to share stories, content and ideas, and use the hashtag #civilcourage.
Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox and the founder of the Jo Cox Foundation, has welcomed the move.
"This is a valuable and much needed initiative from Facebook in helping to tackle extremism," he said.
"Anything that helps push the extremists even further to the margins is greatly welcome. Social media platforms have a particular responsibility to address hate speech that has too often been allowed to flourish online.
"It is critical that efforts are taken by all online service providers and social networks to bring our communities closer together and to further crack down on those that spread violence and hatred online."

Ebola virus burial teams may have 'saved thousands of lives'

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They were ordinary people doing an extraordinary job in extremely dangerous times.
Now new research suggests Red Cross volunteers who helped bury most of the bodies of Ebola victims in West Africa could have prevented more than 10,000 cases of the deadly disease.
More than 28,000 people were infected with Ebola in 2014-2015. Of those, 11,310 people died.
The worst affected countries were Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
A major part of the response was ensuring the safe burials of people who had died of Ebola. The bodies of victims were particularly toxic.
Community funerals, where people helped wash the bodies of their loved ones, contributed to so many people becoming infected in the earlier stages of the outbreak.
A Liberian health worker in a burial squad drags an Ebola victim's body for cremation in Monrovia (13 October 2014)Image copyrightEPA
Image captionMany Ebola burial workers were ordinary West Africans, such as teachers and college students
Ebola burial team in Freetown, Sierra Leone (file picture)Image copyrightMARK GEORGIOU
Image captionSome Ebola burial workers were stigmatised in their communities because of their work
Within months, the epidemic had become the worst public health emergency of modern times.
The study, published in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, used statistical modelling to measure the impact of the Red Cross safe and dignified burial programme.
Researchers focussed on 45 unsafe community burials and the 310 people who were identified as having had contact with the infected bodies. They found, on average, just over two people went on to develop Ebola for every unsafe community burial that took place.
The bigger risk was to those who cared for a loved one with Ebola before their death. Researchers found many more infections could have been prevented if the sick were treated in hospital rather than by their families and communities.
However, using these estimates, the study suggested safe and dignified burials by Red Cross volunteers prevented between 1,411 and 10,452 cases of Ebola.
The authors said these are conservative estimates.
They highlighted a number of limitations in the study, including the challenges of collecting very personal and sensitive information about funerals, and the length of time between when some of the burials took place and when the data was collected.

Ending the war

Hundreds of paid volunteers took on the grim task of collecting bodies from people's homes in full personal protective gear, while also having to manage the grieving families and communities.
A burial team wearing protective clothing remove a body of a person suspected of having died of the Ebola virus in Freetown, Liberia (28 September 2014)Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionIt is estimated that dignified burials prevented between 1,411 and 10,452 cases of Ebola
Liberian nurses put on protective clothing as preparation to carry the body of an Ebola victim for burial (08 August 2014)Image copyrightEPA
Image captionThe work of the burial teams is thought to have played a major role in reducing the impact of the Ebola virus
They were ordinary West Africans, such as teachers and college students. Many carried out the relentless and dangerous work for months.
Some were stigmatised in their communities, because people became scared they might bring the virus home with them.
In reality, they were helping to stem world's worst ever Ebola outbreak.
"It was very difficult work," said Red Cross volunteer Mohamed Kamara who I spent a day with as he collected bodies in Sierra Leone in January 2015.
"It's good news that people realise the impact of what we did to help end the transmission of Ebola," he said while reacting to the findings of the study from the capital Freetown.
"Some people didn't even want to come near us at that time.
"But the team we worked with helped give us the courage to do this important work… and we ended this war."

Red Cross safe and dignified burials

  • Teams managed over 47,000 burials
  • Carried out more than 50% of all burials during the outbreak
  • All deaths at home were presumed to be Ebola
  • About 1,500 Red Cross volunteers involved in burials
Ebola 'super-spreaders' cause most cases
 
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