Papua was on high alert as a range of incidents, including attacks on
\npolice stations, claimed 11 lives to mar voting day in the country’s
\neasternmost province, still plagued by separatist threats.<\/p>\n
Kenya, with nearly a quarter of its 38 million people facing severe hunger,
\nis now reporting a rapid spread of diseases affecting the country’s vital
\nwheat and banana crops. The crisis is being exacerbated by plummeting
\npublic confidence in the country’s year-old coalition government.<\/p>\n
To wage today’s battles against pirates who took control of 42 ships and
\ncaptured 815 sailors last year, the Royal Navy is combining machines and
\nmethods forged during the Cold War with centuries-old naval warfare skills.
\nThe Royal Navy is also hitting back at pirates by using some of the
\npirates’ own tricks.<\/p>\n
A lone gunman shot and killed at least 13 people in a “premeditated” attack
\nat an immigrant centre in upstate New York, before turning his weapon on
\nhimself. The gunman first used his car to barricade the back door of the
\nAmerican Civic Association in Binghamton, 140 miles north of New York City.<\/p>\n
The South Asian nation of Bangladesh wants to do something about the
\nincreasing number of beggars migrating into its cities from the
\ncountryside. Legislation has been approved that could send many of the
\ncountry’s most destitute to jail for openly asking for charity. Some aid
\nagencies are skeptical this approach will solve the problem.<\/p>\n
Mobile-phone users in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru will be able to
\naccess Google Maps and search up-to-date online maps, look up businesses,
\nadvertise free via Google Maps Local Business Centre, create their own maps
\nand even check locations while on the move.<\/p>\n
It began with British betrayal after the Second World War and has
\nstubbornly outlived every other conflict. But now, as it marks its diamond
\njubilee, the world\u2019s longest-running war is nearing its endgame. The
\nguerrilla army of the Karen ethnic group, which has been fighting since
\n1949 for independence from Burma, is facing the greatest crisis in its
\nhistory. If Karen resistance collapses, as some believe is likely, it will
\nbe a triumph for the Burmese junta as it consolidates its hold on power.<\/p>\n
The incident is, by Port Moresby standards, neither here nor there. Coming
\noff an overpass and you notice people scattering in light rain. Blocking
\ntraffic is an urban response-style light police truck, with a two-sided
\ntroop seat in the back. A woman is running, followed by two police. One of
\nthe officers punches her hard in the face, then she doubles over from what
\nappears to be a truncheon in the guts.<\/p>\n
Now tsunamis won\u2019t be able to catch you unaware, thanks to a mathematics
\nformula worked out by scientists that will give advance warnings and an
\nidea of their destructive might.<\/p>\n
The incidents, however, did not prevent most Papuans from voting on
\nelection day. According to National Police data, 75 percent of Papuans
\nvoted at more than 6,000 polling stations across the province. The polls
\nhad to be delayed in Yahukimo and Paniaki, with bad weather obstructing the
\ndelivery of polling material to the two regencies.<\/p>\n
Recent reports from Kenya’s breadbasket region of the Rift Valley have
\nconfirmed what the country can ill-afford – the spread of a deadly strain
\nof a parasitic fungus called stem rust that is threatening to wipe out the
\ncountry’s wheat fields.<\/p>\n
Most of the other warships deployed to fight pirates in the region are
\nconcentrated north of Somalia, close to the Suez Canal, through which 10
\npercent of the world’s sea trade passes. Northumberland was the first
\nwarship on the scene from a new European Union task force, charged with
\npatrolling the southern flank of the 2-million-square-mile piracy zone,
\nnear Mombasa. It was here that pirates scored their biggest victory seizing
\nthe supertanker Sirius Star, laden with $100 million in crude oil.<\/p>\n
He calmly walked into the front of the building armed with two pistols and
\nbegan shooting, killing one receptionist and wounding another. Moments
\nlater he marched into a nearby classroom and began spraying bullets into
\npeople reportedly undergoing citizenship tests.<\/p>\n
Ragged beggars are a common sight on the streets of Dhaka and other cities
\nin Bangladesh. The government wants to make their presence a rarity, if not
\neliminate it totally. To that end, a new law curtailing begging in the open
\nand on crowded streets will be strictly enforced. Violators will face up to
\nthree months in jail.<\/p>\n
Google has maps for Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, but the level of detail is
\nnot what it is for Kenya. “Google Maps is not just searchable digitized
\nmaps helping you to find a local place, service or product. Our goal is to
\nmake information with a geographical dimension available to everyone and to
\nallow users to update the maps and develop.”<\/p>\n
After a three-year offensive by the junta, the Karen National Liberation
\nArmy (KNLA) has been forced into increasingly small pockets of resistance.
\nDeprived of funds and equipment, it is able to do little more than slow the
\nadvance of the Burmese Army as it lays waste to hundreds of villages,
\ndriving thousands of terrified civilians before it.<\/p>\n
We go through a roundabout and come back. The woman is running now, arms
\ncrazy above her head as the police truck pursues her over gutters. Soon
\nafter, we find the woman and a group of her friends standing by the
\nroadside, panting and bleeding heavily. One man has a deep gash running
\nacross his left cheek. The bashed woman is half-laughing, half-crying. They
\nare drunk on “steam”, the local metho-rated liquor cooked in secret stills,
\nflavoured with orange cordial and sold dirt cheap in the markets.<\/p>\n
The research, led by a maths professor, was prompted by the 2004
\npost-Christmas tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Indonesia,
\nSri Lanka, India and Thailand. In this instance, an earthquake in the ocean
\ndepths triggered a long surface wave which resulted in six massive wave
\nfronts, one after the other.<\/p>\n
The disruptions began when homemade bombs exploded under a bridge on the
\nborder between Papua and Papua New Guinea. No one was killed, but police
\nfound two unexploded bombs while sweeping the area. Unknown assailants
\nstabbed five ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers in Wamena, leaving four of them
\ndead and one in critical condition. A fuel storage tank at a state oil
\ncompany depot in Biak exploded during refilling, instantly killing a
\nbystander.<\/p>\n
The strain was first detected in East Africa a decade ago. But it has
\nspread to other wheat producing areas in the world, largely because poor
\nfarmers here have not been able to afford the fungicide needed to combat
\nthe problem. “It started spreading very fast. We have it in Kenya. We have
\nit in Ethiopia, spreading toward the north [to] Egypt and it probably
\nreached India. It is a serious concern. Stem rust, of course, is
\ncontrollable with chemicals, but it is damn expensive. The only solution is
\nto bring in new varieties that are resistant to stem rust. We are at a
\nquite advanced stage.”<\/p>\n
Somali sea bandits hijacked more than 40 large vessels last year, ransoming
\nabout 30 of them for a million U.S. dollars or more. Sirius Star was
\nreleased in January after an estimated $3 million ransom was paid, but the
\nother ships, and about 200 crew, remain in pirates’ hands. The rise in
\npiracy, and consequent rise in the cost of shipping insurance, drove up the
\ncost of shipping petroleum, electronics and food.<\/p>\n
In seconds, a dozen people were dead, another five were wounded, and more
\nthan 30 had fled amid pandemonium. The gunman, believed to be a 42-year-old
\nVietnamese American from nearby Johnson City, had recently lost his job
\nwith IBM in his home town. “It was premeditated,” said the Binghamton
\npolice chief. “The suspect had put a car against the back door blocking any
\nexit for victims.”<\/p>\n
Parliament approved a bill cracking down on beggars and it will take about
\na month to draft guidelines on how authorities will enforce the new law.
\nThey note that some beggars seek pity by pretending to be ill or displaying
\na disability. Sympathizers say most of those in such a condition on the
\nstreets really have no alternative.<\/p>\n
“We believe more accurate, representative local information can greatly
\nimprove the breadth of information available about a given area, and in
\nturn can help efforts to bolster tourism and business investment.” Google
\nMaps is available in 23 African countries, but the company is providing
\nmore detailed maps that go beyond the capital cities and include other
\naspects of life. The company will divulge more information once the team
\nfinalizes its plans.<\/p>\n
Most serious of all, the Karen leadership is losing the support of
\nneighbouring Thailand, where it was formerly able to organise, arm and \u2013
\nwhen necessary \u2013 retreat. Trapped between the Burmese Army to the west and
\nan increasingly unfriendly Thailand to the east, with hundreds of thousands
\nof their people in wretched refugee camps, the Karen are experiencing a
\nhumanitarian and military catastrophe.<\/p>\n
The man with the cut face is leaning through the window, spraying bloody
\nprotestations of innocence. Asked why they didn’t just run away, all they
\ncan repeat is: “It wasn’t our fault; we didn’t do anything.” Papua New
\nGuineans will stand before they fall. “The trouble is, they are Goilala,
\nwhich means they probably did do something, anything from holding up a car
\nto illegally selling betel nut by the side of the road.”<\/p>\n
Of these waves it was the third and largest one that caused the most
\ndevastation, hitting the beaches with terrifying speed. Reaching a height
\nof 20 metres or 65 feet, it hefted a train from its tracks as it travelled
\nalong the Sri Lankan coastline, killing almost 1,000 people.<\/p>\n
Police security posts at the Skaw Wutung border between Indonesia and Papua
\nNew Guinea were attacked by unknown gunmen, with no casualties reported.
\nAbout 50 men armed with homemade bombs, spears, cleavers, bows and
\ncassowary bones attacked the Abepura Police station in Jayapura. The police
\nshot into the crowd, killing one attacker and injuring eight others.<\/p>\n
In Kenya, most of the fields affected by the stem rust strain belong to
\nsmall-scale farmers, who grow 20 percent of the wheat consumed annually.
\nAlthough maize is the staple among most Kenyans, wheat flour has grown
\ncrucial to the country’s overall food supply. Drought and post-election
\nviolence in maize-producing areas of the country prevented many farmers
\nfrom planting crops. Domestic maize production was so poor, the government
\nhad to begin importing corn to help feed some 10 million Kenyans facing
\nstarvation.<\/p>\n
To beat pirates in potentially violent showdowns, the Navy has adopted the
\npirates’ tactics of using “mother ships” carrying fast boats to spring on
\nopponents. In the early days of Somali piracy, pirates ranged only a few
\nmiles from their hometowns and threatened just a few thousand square miles
\nof ocean. The reason was simple: Most pirates were former fishermen and had
\nonly the tools of a typical fishermen. Their personal firearms and their
\nsmall, motor-propelled wooden fishing boats, called skiffs. The skiffs were
\ntoo slow and too flimsy to catch anything but the most rickety of vessels.<\/p>\n
The surviving receptionist, lying bleeding on the floor, alerted police
\nwith her mobile phone and survived the ordeal. “After he shot her she
\npretended she was dead. As he exited down the hallway she crawled
\nunderneath the desk and sometime after that she called us.” Some of those
\nfleeing hid in the basement. More than a dozen hid in a cupboard. At least
\nfive were wounded.<\/p>\n
The Bangladesh Finance Ministry says it wants to emulate some neighboring
\ncountries that have implemented plans to rehabilitate urban beggars by
\nproviding them with employment training programs. Imprisonment and brief
\ntraining schemes will not solve the problem.<\/p>\n
The company has boosted the popularity of the maps by including content
\nfrom local celebrities such as Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace Prize winner),
\nJulie Gichuru (TV presenter), Churchill (comedian) and Humphrey Kayange
\n(Kenya Rugby 7’s team captain). Google Maps will help create a greater
\nunderstanding of the socio-economic situation in different regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military situation is as bad as it\u2019s been at any time in the past 60
\nyears. The Karen have less territory, fewer soldiers and fewer resources to
\nsustain resistance. The Burmese have them more and more surrounded, and
\ntheir backs are up against the wall.\u201d A Karen leader on the Thai border
\nsaid that the KNLA and Burmese Army were fighting near the town of
\nKawkareik, close to the Thai border. All year there have been reports of
\nKaren villagers being driven into the jungle by marauding soldiers.<\/p>\n
Goilala are conspicuously short street dwellers originally from the Central
\nProvince. They are branded Moresby’s most prolific troublemakers, first
\nsuspects in any crime. Programs to rid PNG’s capital of crime are earnestly
\nafoot. It won’t be easy because criminal behaviour is not confined to
\nstreet people. Moresby’s police wield a brutal form of shoot-first,
\nask-later justice, and some people see PNG’s politicians as notorious
\npork-barrellers. When street people are asked to clean up their act, they
\nask: What about them?<\/p>\n
If we could understand more about how these long waves behave we could
\npredict where they might hit and how devastating they might be. The number
\nand height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on
\nthe shape of the initial surface wave in deep water.<\/p>\n
At daybreak, the rector’s building at Cendrawasih University – about 5
\nkilometers from the Abepura Police station – was set ablaze by unknown
\npeople. The fire razed important documents and badly damaged one of the
\nbuilding’s three floors, but claimed no casualties. All the incidents,
\nexcept the explosion at the Pertamina depot, were intended to disrupt the
\nelections in Papua. The depot explosion was simply an accident.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, residents in western Kenya’s Nyanza province, hit hard by last
\nyear’s poor maize harvest, are now reporting the outbreak of a disease that
\nis destroying banana trees there. Many Kenyans rely on bananas to
\nsupplement their diets. But the once-plentiful fruit is prematurely
\nripening and rotting on trees infected with a disease called banana
\nbacterial wilt. On some plantations, yield losses of 90 percent are being
\nreported.<\/p>\n
Then the pirates innovated. They began capturing trawlers and small
\nfreighters for use as motherships. When about a dozen armed Somalis
\nintercepted a ship, the pirates had no interest in its cargo. Instead, they
\ncommandeered the harmless-looking freighter to launch their next attack. It
\nwas more than three months before the pirates released the ship and her
\ncrew.<\/p>\n
Police arrived within two minutes and surrounded the centre, deploying FBI
\nhostage negotiators and a heavily armed Swat team. They established mobile
\nphone contact with 27 survivors barricaded in the basement and relayed
\ninstructions about how to block the door against their attacker.<\/p>\n
Every day thousands of beggars are coming to Dhaka city and other cities.
\nSo it is not the solution by putting them in jail for three months or a
\nrehabilitation center for one month, two months. It is not the solution.
\nThe government should focus on creating jobs in rural areas to stem the
\ninternal migration by the poor into the cities.<\/p>\n
One local company, KenyaBuzz, a community events, business and tourism
\nsite, is already making use of the Google Maps API (application programming
\ninterface), on its Web site. “Google Maps serves as a great platform
\nhelping to provide accurate, comprehensive, location-based information for
\nour audience.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a cat-and-mouse kind of struggle. The Burmese burn down villages and
\nrelocate the people close to their own camps.\u201d The Karen conflict has its
\norigins in the Second World War, when many Karen fought alongside the
\nBritish Army against the invading Japanese. The seven million Karen were
\npromised their own state by the British but when independence came in 1948
\nthe promise was forgotten. A year later, in January 1949, the Karen began
\nthe armed struggle that has continued ever since.<\/p>\n
Trust between the citizens of PNG and the authorities is broken. That
\nexplains why almost half of Australia’s annual $358 million in aid to PNG
\ngoes to improving law and justice. Reinstating trust is crucial. Yumi
\nLukautum Moresby (“You, me, look out for Moresby”) is making a difference
\nby building a bridge between the people of the notorious crime-breeding
\nurban settlements – in which there is no electricity, no toilets, and a few
\nshared taps for up to 5000 people – and the authorities.<\/p>\n
From this it is possible to work out whether a \u2018trough\u2019 or a \u2018peak\u2019 is the
\nleading wave. In the case of a trough then the familiar sight of the tide
\nsuddenly going out is the precursor to an approaching tsunami.<\/p>\n
The Vice President said he had received a report from Papua Police
\nindicating efforts and a conspiracy to disrupt the elections. But the
\nNational Police chief said the attack on the Abepura Police station had
\nnothing to do with the polls, adding it was a random attack aimed at
\nundermining security officers.<\/p>\n
Wheat and banana farmers say they need the government to urgently release
\nfunds to help fight the diseases threatening to impoverish them and to
\nleave east Africa’s largest economy in even greater need of food aid.
\nMiddle-class workers say they, too, are struggling to put food on the table
\nbecause of persistent high inflation, mostly due to rising food costs.<\/p>\n
It appears the killer turned one of his guns on himself. Police took nearly
\nan hour to search the building, amid concerns there may have been more than
\none gunman, and then had to persuade 27 immigrants that it was safe to
\nleave the basement. A total of 37 people were hidden in various sections of
\nthe building. The American Civic Association is a charity that helps
\nimmigrants with naturalisation applications.<\/p>\n
It is believed that several hundred thousand Bangladeshis live off begging.
\nA survey several years ago in relatively prosperous Dhaka found that the
\naverage beggar there managed to collect about $1.5 a day. Approximately 40
\npercent of Bangladeshis get by on less than $1 per day.<\/p>\n
The tourism sector, which has faced a slump because of the worldwide
\neconomic crisis, is also looking to Google Maps for a boost. “Adding
\ntourism locations on Google Maps creates a free marketing channel and will
\ndrive more people to our Web site and ultimately to the tourist locations.”<\/p>\n
In the early decades of the war, the KNU dominated the Irrawaddy Delta,
\nclose to the former Burmese capital Rangoon, as well as areas north of the
\ncity and all of Kayin State. But in the 1990s an increasingly well-armed
\nBurmese Army made steady gains and in 1995 the KNU was driven out of its
\ncapital, Manerplaw. Buddhists in the Christian-dominated KNU broke away to
\nform the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which now fights alongside
\nthe Burmese Army. Formerly, the KNU had operated as a quasi-government,
\nproviding schools and clinics and receiving income from tax, as well as
\nfrom a profitable trade through Thailand in timber, gold, zinc and
\nantimony.<\/p>\n
Overcrowded Moresby routinely features in top 10 lists of the world’s most
\ndangerous cities. These rankings are decided by business or travel
\nmagazines, which see Moresby through the prism of tourists or expats, who
\nlive safely guarded in hotels or behind razor wire with all-night security
\nguards. The real test should be whether Moresby is safe for locals.<\/p>\n
\u2018If a peak is the leading wave, there is no warning except a
\nfast-approaching wall of water. Potentially this could provide vital
\ninformation for areas facing an impending disaster.’<\/p>\n
“This was purely an act of violence committed by armed guerillas.” Police
\nhave named six people as suspects in the attack and are questioning eight
\nothers as witnesses.<\/p>\n
The country’s growing crisis comes on the heels of allegations that top
\npoliticians on both sides of the coalition government have been involved in
\nscandals aimed at enriching themselves at the expense of Kenyan taxpayers.<\/p>\n
Warships assigned to piracy patrols rarely engage pirates on their own.
\nThey deploy specialized search-and-seizure teams, which consist of marines
\narmed with rifles and machine guns, traveling in raider craft.<\/p>\n
Two women and a man suffering gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson
\nMedical Centre in nearby Johnson City. Binghamton, a quiet university town
\nwith a population of 47,000, is the home of IBM and has a low crime rate,
\nenjoying the nickname Parlour Town for the handsome front parlours of its
\nelegant villas.<\/p>\n
An official report from the Commission of Inquiry into the Solomon Islands
\nriots found there was no conspiracy behind the violence, blaming police
\nincompetence instead. Riots erupted after Snyder Rini was elected prime
\nminister by legislators. Dozens of Chinese-owned businesses were looted and
\nburned in the riots. Chinese businesses were targeted at least partly
\nbecause of allegations they had helped fund the unpopular Mr. Rini to bribe
\nlegislators for support. The damage was estimated at $180 million Solomon
\nIsland dollars but a commission warned that compensation would only trigger
\nmore anger against the Chinese community.<\/p>\n
Google is also working with local software developers by providing APIs for
\nGoogle Maps to help programmers, Web masters and designers to incorporate
\nthe functionality of Google Maps on their sites and develop new services
\nbased on local information.<\/p>\n
The loss of territory brought a loss of funds, which made it harder to arm
\nand equip itself. The KNU claims to have 10,000 soldiers, including village
\nmilitia men, but the number of active fighters is probably between 3,000
\nand 5,000.<\/p>\n
It is women who suffer most. Domestic and sexual violence is described by
\nAmnesty International as endemic. Women fear reporting domestic violence
\npartly because of their husbands, partly because police have a reputation
\nfor raping female complainants.<\/p>\n
Later the same day, a small aircraft operated by a local airline crashed in
\nWamena, killing all six crew on board. The cause of the crash is currently
\nbeing investigated.<\/p>\n
An opinion poll was released showing that 70 percent of Kenyans believe
\nthat the coalition government, formed to help the country heal from the
\nethnic bloodletting that followed the disputed presidential elections, has
\nachieved nothing since it took power.<\/p>\n
A naval engagement with pirates often begins with a commercial ship
\nreporting an attack, using a radio frequency set aside for emergency calls.
\nOther times, a maritime patrol plane, usually flying from Djibouti, spots a
\npotential mothership or pirate skiff, identifiable not by its appearance,
\nbut by its vector. A trawler speeding away from Somalia, toward a
\nslow-moving tanker ship, just might have hostile intentions.<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama said last night: “Michelle and I were shocked and
\ndeeply saddened to learn about the act of senseless violence. Our thoughts
\nand prayers go out to the victims, their families and the people of
\nBinghamton.”<\/p>\n
The Royal Solomon Islands Police had failed to do its duty in containing
\nthe violence. There was confusion between local police and Regional
\nAssistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) police, who have access to
\nsuperior resources. RAMSI police and Solomon Islands police were not clear
\non who was to take responsibility for containing the violence. It
\ncatalogued a series of failures by the police that resulted in a security
\nbreakdown, including a lack of credible intelligence information,
\nequipment, and organizational ability.<\/p>\n
The KNU suffered another blow when its respected and charismatic leader,
\nPado Mahn Shar, was assassinated at his home in Thailand by unidentified
\ngunmen. Among many Karen there was a suspicion that the ease with which the
\nkillers escaped, and the failure to apprehend them, reflected a cooling of
\nthe welcome afforded by Thailand. Last month Karen military commanders were
\nordered out of Thailand and back across the border. This probably reflects
\nthe Thai Government\u2019s increasing dependence on Burma for raw materials and
\nenergy \u2013 the two governments are jointly planning ambitious hydroelectric
\ndams along the Salween River which forms part of their border.<\/p>\n
Chamber of Commerce members are encouraged to give street people jobs. They
\ngo through short skills courses and are placed with companies for work
\nexperience. AusAid, pays the wages. “Some are the kids straight out of jail
\nand we’re always up-front with employers. But it doesn’t seem to bother
\nmany of them. Last year we found 70 per cent of them were retained.”<\/p>\n
Naval commanders, in touch with each other by phone, e-mail and satellite
\nnetwork, sort through the roster of warships in the region to figure out
\nwho might respond fastest. They call this “deconfliction.” When the
\nresponding ship is close enough, it launches a helicopter to scout ahead
\nand confirm that the suspect seafarers are indeed armed, while preparing to
\nlower the boarding teams’ boats into the water.<\/p>\n
The New York State governor called it a “senseless killing”, adding: “When
\nare we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and
\nso rapid? We all have a profound sadness.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from the RAMSI police force in the Solomon Islands says the
\npolicing problems in the report have been fixed. The Assistant
\nCommissioner, Commander of the Participating Police Force in RAMSI says his
\nofficers acted professionally and properly in discharging their
\nresponsibility. The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force has improved their
\ncapacity to deal with riots, has more trained officers and equipment, and
\nhas developed a call out system.<\/p>\n
The border is a valuable conduit not only for the Karen but for Burmese
\nstruggling to overthrow the military dictatorship. After the junta cracked
\ndown on large pro-democracy demonstrations of monks and activists, many of
\nthem escaped into Thailand.<\/p>\n
Measures such as this are making Moresby safer. “We definitely think so.
\nThere are perceptions and everyone’s got them. But right now as we drive
\nthrough one of the roughest areas of Port Moresby, Kaugere, and we don’t
\nsee any rocks coming towards us. A safe place is good for all of us. It’s
\nincumbent upon us to get involved.”<\/p>\n
The ship’s presence alone was often enough to prevent pirate attacks.
\nBeyond that, the helicopter might deter pirates simply by “flying close to
\ndemonstrate the aircraft’s machine gun and giving the pirates warning of
\ntheir serious intentions.”<\/p>\n
The attack is the third massacre in the US in a month. A gunman in Alabama
\nkilled ten people and then himself. Another lone gunman killed eight in a
\nNorth Carolina nursing home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a crucial route for information. If that\u2019s closed down the whole
\ncountry will become much more isolated.\u201d The United Nations has ruled that
\nthe continued detention by Burma of the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
\nKyi violates domestic and international laws. The latest one-year detention
\nperiod of Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house
\narrest, expires in May.<\/p>\n
YLM (Yumi Lukautim Mosbi) hunts corporate sponsorship, runs awareness
\ncampaigns, gets kids playing sport and works with government. It has
\norganised a toll-free number to evacuate women and children from violent
\nsituations using a private security company. In PNG, people can’t rely on
\npolice to respond to 000. In Australia, this would be seen as a spectacular
\nfailure by police. Two private companies, Protect Security and phone
\ncompany Digicel, donated the service, so we are not interested in exploring
\nthe point. In PNG, do it however you can.<\/p>\n
If the pirates persist, the boarding teams deploy, flanking the pirates’
\nboats to approach from both sides, moving fast with weapons at the ready.
\nIf the pirates lay down their weapons, they are taken into custody without
\na shot fired. If they shoot, the boarding teams fire back, then climb
\naboard.<\/p>\n
Not all art is strictly about the aesthetic, some pieces provide an
\nimportant function in the community like the large black and white
\nphotographs installed this week on rooftops across Kibera, Kenya. The
\nintimate photos, taken by photographer JR, act as a second roof, protecting
\nthe village\u2019s delicate structures from water damage, a vital job in one of
\nAfrica\u2019s worst slums.<\/p>\n
Everyone is saying Moresby is safer than five years ago, but you’ll still
\nhit the accelerator hard through the several well-known trouble spots. One
\nexplanation for the lessening crime rate is that so many leading criminals
\n– they don’t much call them raskols these days, it’s seen as too cute – are
\ndead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Papua was on high alert as a range of incidents, including attacks on police stations, claimed 11 lives to mar voting day in the country’s easternmost province, still plagued by separatist threats. Kenya, with nearly a quarter of its 38 million people facing severe hunger, is now reporting a rapid spread of diseases affecting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[50,53,8,12,14,17,18,19,30,31,32,35,36,38,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}