World Watch: Protest vs. Repression

* Ethiopia: According to Amnesty International at least ninety-seven people have died and hundreds were injured over the weekend after security agents fired against anti-government protesters in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

* Turkey: Turkish authorities detained at least ten foreign nationals as part of a crackdown after a failed July 15th coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

* Japan: Regulators in Japan raided the offices of online retail giant Amazon as part of an antitrust investigation.

* World: Oil futures closed at their highest point in two weeks as a result of speculation over an “informal” meeting next month of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member states.

YouTube Source – France 24 English

Online Sources – UPI, CNBC, USA TODAY, The Independent

World Watch: Court-ing Kenyatta

* Kenya: African leaders called on the International Criminal Court to transfer charges of human rights abuses against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to that country’s legal system.

* Australia: Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s top Catholic Church official, publicly apologized for the cover up decades of sexual abuse by priests against children.

* Syria: European Union nations are reportedly undecided over whether or not to sell weapons to Syrian rebels.

* Iraq: At least fifty people were killed when a series of bombs exploded in several areas of the capital city of Baghdad.

Video Source– YouTube via Al Jazeera English 

Online Sources – ABC News; BBC News; The Guardian; Al Jazeera English

World Watch: The Perils of Greed

* Bangladesh: The death toll from the collapse of a garment factory last month surpassed 650 as authorities will likely bring up murder charges against the owner of the facility.

* Syria: U.N. investigators concluded that neither the Syrian government or rebel factions have used chemical weapons though U.S. officials partially disagree with such an assertion.

* Germany: Authorities in Germany arrested 93-year-old Hans Lipschis and accrued him of serving as an Auschwitz death camp guard during World War II.

* U.S.: A new study concluded that nearly one in five youth are at risk for suicide if there’s a gun at their homes.

Video Source– YouTube via Channel 4 (Video uploaded on April 28, 2013).

Online Sources – USA TODAY; Reuters; Al Jazeera English; CBC News; NPR

World Watch: Liar, Liar

* U.S.: Disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong reportedly admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

* Mali: Defense chiefs of several western African countries will back the deployment of thousands of troops aimed at defeating Islamist rebels in Mali.

* Syria: An International Rescue Committee report found that Syria’s humanitarian crises is worsening as a result of female refugees escaping from rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

* Pakistan: Ten of thousands of people in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad participated in anti-government protests.

Video Source– YouTube via user jchau (Lance Armstrong featured in this 2001 Nike ad where he tried to downplay rumors of doping).
 
Online Sources – USA TODAY, Reuters, NPR, Christian Science Monitor

World Watch: Torture

* Georgia: Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia resigned amidst escalating protests over alleged torture and abuse in Georgian prisons.
    
* Syria: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that approximately 54 people died when an air force jet blew up a gas station.
 
* Space: Six weeks after landing on Mars the Curiosity rover is expected to analyze rock samples on the surface of the Red Planet.

* Somalia: At least a dozen people were killed as result of a double suicide attack believed to have been perpetrated by a group with ties to al-Qaeda.
 
Video Source– YouTube via euronews

Online Sources – Voice of America, Reuters, Scientific American, ABC Online

World Watch: Tensions in Libya

* Middle East: According to the Libyan media “multiple arrests” were made in relation to the recent deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

* World: According to UNICEF child mortality rates have sharply declined over the past decade reportedly “amid gains in health care, education, development programs and economic progress”.

* Russia: Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested the early release of three members of the Pussy Riot collective controversially sentenced to two years in prison for ''hooliganism motivated by religious hatred''.

* Afghanistan: Residents in Karachi paid their respects to over 260 employees of a garment factory who died as a result of a massive fire on Tuesday.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press (“The U.S. Is deploying two warships to the Libyan Coast, following the attack on a U.S. consulate that killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three others.”)

Online Sources – Voice of America, CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC News

World Watch: Melting Away

* Antarctica: A new scientific study found that methane gas trapped beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet could impact the global climate if the ice were to thaw.

* Iran: During his visit to the Nonaligned Movement conference in Tehran, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed “serious concerns on the human rights abuses and violations” in Iran.

* Asia: Envoys from Japan and North Korea will hold talks for the first time since 2008 and that could improve diplomatic relations between both Asian states.

* India: A court upheld the death sentence of Pakistani national who was convicted for a series of attacks in Mumbai nearly four years ago.

Video Source– YouTube via user 7NEWS

Online Sources – Christian Science Monitor, BBC News, CBS News, The Guardian

World Watch: To the Moon and Back

* U.S.: A private service is planned on Friday for Neil Armstrong, the pioneering astronaut who was the first man to walk on the moon, after he died on Saturday at the age of 82.

* Syria: Opposition activists claimed that at least sixty-two people were killed near Damascus as part of a military jet offensive.

* Russia: Lawyers appealed the recent conviction of three members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot who face two years in prison for performing an anti-government song at a Moscow Orthodox church.

* Kenya: Violent protests have taken place in Mombasa after “radical Islamist preacher” Sheikh Aboud Rogo died in an apparent extrajudicial killing.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters, Huffington Post

World Watch: Syrian Strike

* Syria: Three senior military members and close allies to President Bashar al-Assad were killed in a rebel bombing attack.

* Bulgaria: Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, blamed Iran for an explosion of a bus in Bulgaria with Israeli tourists.

* Netherlands: The International Court of Justice in The Hague could soon prosecute the exiled former rulers of Chad and Tunisia.

* World: A new scientific study concluded that a sedentary lifestyle that includes a lack of exercise kills as many people worldwide as smoking does.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – Reuters, CBS News, MSNBC, BBC News

World Watch: Srebrenica

* Bosnia: Over five hundred victims of the infamous 1995 Srebrenica massacre were buried though “bodies of the victims are still being found in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia.”

* Afghanistan: Demonstrations took place in Kabul condemning the public execution of a woman accused of adultery last month.

* Spain: Thousands of coal miners from around Spain gathered in Madrid to protest against austerity measures that are part of a “soft bailout” from the E.U.

* Space: The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fifth moon orbiting around the dwarf planet Pluto.

Video Source– YouTube via Journeyman Films

Online Sources – USA TODAY, ABC News, Reuters, BBC News

World Watch: Lubanga Behind Bars

* Congo: The International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to fourteen years in prison for recruiting child soldiers in his rebel army a decade ago.

* U.S.: A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that President Barack Obama has a six-point lead over likely Republican candidate Mitt Romney while both candidates are tied according to a separate Washington Post-ABC News poll.

* Syria: United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan is seeking global consensus on a peace plan aimed at ending widespread violence in Syria.

* Spain: The European Union backed a “soft bailout” of Spain that could include pushing for pension reform, cuts in public spending and a sales tax increase.

Video Source– YouTube via International Criminal Court

Online Sources – The Guardian, Voice of America, ABC News, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor

World Watch: Remembering Ray Bradbury

Prolific science fiction author Ray Bradbury died on Tuesday night at the age of 91.

He is best known for his novels "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and his many literary works have been adapted for movies and television shows. (Famed French auteur Francois Truffaut directed the 1966 film version of "Fahrenheit 451", for example).

Bradbury received widespread criticial acclaim for his texts and received numerous honors including the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, a National Book Foundation medal, and even an Emmy.

In an essay published days ago in "The New Yorker", Bradbury described how he became inspired to write fiction. "I memorized all of John Carter and Tarzan, and sat on my grandparents' front lawn repeating the stories to anyone who would sit and listen. I would go out to that lawn on summer nights and reach up to the red light of Mars and say, 'Take me home!'"

World Watch: Austerity or Not?

* Europe: Voters in countries like Greece and France are apparently disillusioned over the push for austerity while dozens of protesters were arrested during the presidential inauguration of Vladimir Putin.

* Malawi: Stores are reportedly running out of “staple foods such as sugar, cooking oil and bread” due to a consumer “panic” over the devaluation of the country’s currency.

* U.S.: Intelligence officials supposedly thwarted a plot by Al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate to destroy a U.S.-bound plane around the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden.

* Israel: The country's Supreme Court turned down an appeal for the release of two Palestinian prisoners who have been on a hunger strike for more than two months.

Video Source– YouTube via EUX TV

Online Sources – USA TODAY, CNN, BBC News, Huffington Post, Reuters

World Watch: Chen’s Destiny

* China: U.S. and Chinese officials are reportedly close to reaching a deal that would grant political asylum to escaped Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng.

* Burma: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the easing of sanctions against the government while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said her party will agree to swear the parliamentary oath this week.

* U.S.: According to a new study published online in Nature Neuroscience, the way in which the brain is wired may explain why some people engage in risk-taking behavior such as smoking or experimenting with drugs.

* France: With days to go before the country’s presidential election, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he will sue a news website that claimed that he received accepted a multi-million euro campaign donation from late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – New York Daily News, Voice of America, The Telegraph, CBS News

World Watch: Sing Your Life

* Norway: Some 40,000 people gathered in Oslo and sang en masse “Children of the Rainbow”, a popular children's song that mass murderer Anders Breivik insulted last week.

* Liberia: An international tribunal in The Hague convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's civil war.

* Japan: “Increasing competition from casual gamers playing on their smartphones” has been cited as one of the reasons behind Nintendo posting its first annual loss last year.

* Syria: The Local Coordination Committees of Syria opposition group claimed that they’ve identified the bodies of 462 people killed since a U.N. mission entered the country ten days ago.

Video Source– YouTube via HAAJHA

Online Sources – BBC News, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor, CNN

World Watch: There Goes the Fear

* Indonesia: Officials called off a tsunami alert though that didn’t prevent some Indonesians from panicking after an 8.6-magnitude earthquake occurred on Wednesday.

* U.S.: A special prosecutor in Florida charged George Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the controversial killing of teen Trayvon Martin.

* Greece: Prime Minister Lucas Papademos resigned and called for a general election in the economically weakened country to take place on May 6th.

* Syria: Will the government comply with a UN-brokered cease-fire due to go into effect on Thursday morning?

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – The Guardian, Reuters, The Australian, BBC News

World Watch: Media and Technology

* World: According to the Pew Research Center social networks are boosting news consumption but media outlets earned less revenue in 2011.

* England: The health of soccer player Fabrice Muamba is said to be improving slowly after he collapsed in the middle of a match on Saturday due to cardiac arrest.

* Egypt: Followers of Egypt's Orthodox Church mourned the death of Pope Shenouda III who passed away on Saturday at the age of 88.

* France: Authorities will reportedly raise the French terrorism alert to its highest level as a result of an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse that left four people dead.

Image Source – Flickr via Johan Larsson

Online Sources – CBS News, Reuters, SI.com, GlobalPost

Weekend World Watch: Remembrance

* Japan: A minute of silence was held on Sunday on the one-year anniversary of a major earthquake and tsunami that killed over 15,800 people, left numerous towns in ruins and raised questions over the Japanese nuclear power industry.

* Uganda: The Kony 2012 campaign has raised plenty of global attention to the abuses committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army but will it help bring positive changes to Uganda?

* Spain: Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in dozens of Spanish cities to protest against government-backed austerity plans.

* Syria: Ex-U.N. secretary general left Syria after failing to broker a deal with the government to end their crackdown on civilian opposition and rebels.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – The Guardian, Christian Science Monitor, The Telegraph, USA TODAY

World Watch: Say Hi to the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

* Russia: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may’ve won a landslide victory in presidential elections Sunday but he still faces strong opposition in the form of street protests.

* Congo: According to the local media at least 246 people died as a result of a series of explosions in arms depots at the capital city of Brazzaville.

* Syria: The U.N.’s Human Rights Office claimed to have video showing patients being tortured at a military hospital in the besieged city of Homs.

* U.S.: A Texas court convicted financier Allen Stanford for running a multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme.

Video Source– YouTube via Reuters

Online Sources – Voice of America, Associated Press, Reuters, ABC News

World Watch: March of the (Fossilized) Penguins

* New Zealand: Scientists discovered the fossilized remains of an extinct penguin species that were over four feet tall and lived between 24-27 million years ago.

* South Sudan: The South Sudan Democratic Movement, one of the county’s largest rebel groups, signed a peace agreement with the government.

* Egypt: Three judges recused themselves from overseeing the trial of over forty “pro-democracy activists” including defendants of Egyptian and U.S. background.

* Syria: According to the U.N. over 7500 people have been killed over the past eleven months as part of the Syrian government’s crackdown against dissidents.

Video Source– YouTube via slatester

Online Sources – Reuters, Voice of America, MSNBC