Thursday, July 11, 2013

Smartphone theft: Apple, Samsung and Nokia asked for help by London mayor

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has written to Apple, Samsung, Nokia and other handset makers asking for their help in tackling smartphone theft in the capital.

Around 10,000 handsets are stolen every month in London, and according to the Mayor's office there has been a troubling increase in the number of incidences of theft-from-persons offences?? which in the last year rose by 12 percent.

This is largely driven by mobile phone theft, which accounts for 75 per cent of these offences. Figures also appear to show a correlation between the release of new smartphone models and spikes in thefts.

The mayor and the leaders of the London Crime Reduction Board (LCRB), which has responsibility for public safety in the capital, have written to Apple, BlackBerry, Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Google-Motorola, HTC, and Microsoft to ask for help in tackling these crimes.

The mayor's letter said that smartphone theft is a problem "fuelled by a large cross-border black market in stolen devices involving organised criminal gangs who in our assessment are exploiting the poor safeguards for identifying stolen devices and the ease of selling on the handsets for use overseas. These criminals create thousands of new victims daily in London."

It added: "Police and criminal justice agencies cannot tackle this crime type alone. We need the companies who manufacture and supply these smartphones to play their part and take this issue seriously."

The letter, sent to the UK chief executives of the main mobile phone manufacturers, calls for "meaningful engagement from business and a clear demonstration that your company is serious about your corporate responsibility to help solve this problem".

The mayor is asking for each manufacturer to nominate a senior staff member to work with the LCRB through the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime, and to detail the steps they have already taken to support the police and others in deterring theft, identifying stolen devices, and protecting the public.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/uk/smartphone-theft-apple-samsung-and-nokia-asked-for-help-by-london-mayor-7000017822/

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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

SAP Fosters New Hope for HIV/AIDS Orphans in Africa

SAP Fosters New Hope for HIV/AIDS Orphans in Africa?MANZINI, Swaziland, July 9, 2013 /3BL Media/ -- As part of its commitment to help the world run better and improve people's lives, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) has contributed technology and education-related donations to Young Heroes, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that supports HIV/AIDS orphans. This donation is part of SAP's ambitious corporate social responsibility (CSR) program in Africa.The devastation of HIV/AIDS is creating a generation of orphans in Swaziland. Though it is one of Africa's Read Full Press Release[...]

[Published in NonProfitBlogs - Read the original article]

Source: http://humanitariannews.org/20130709/sap-fosters-new-hope-hivaids-orphans-africa

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Spitzer, Weiner make NYC political comeback city

NEW YORK (AP) ? First, Anthony Weiner vaulted back from an embarrassing sexting scandal to become a top mayoral contender. Now, Eliot Spitzer has sprinted onto the comeback campaign trail in New York City, where this fall's races are turning into a mini-Olympics of political redemption.

So Weiner, just two years after a tweeted underwear photo spelled the end of his congressional career, jumps into the race for the nation's biggest mayoral job less than two months before the deadline to get on the ballot? Well, Spitzer embarked Monday on something just as audacious, if not more so: Only four days before the deadline, he launched a bid to become city comptroller, asking voters to look past the prostitution scandal that cost him the governor's mansion five years ago in one of politics' steepest falls from power.

While the two Democrats insist they're not looking at one another's examples, they're drawing from a common playbook: ask voters for clemency, tell them you've changed and focus on what you can do for the city.

"What I'm looking for is a chance to be heard. I want the voters to listen to what I've done, look at the record that I developed as attorney general, as an assistant district attorney, as governor, and say, 'This guy understood the public interest,'" Spitzer said at a Manhattan subway stop during his first public campaign appearance, where a heckler and some Spitzer supporters tried to out-shout each other while the candidate talked up his plans to make the city's top financial office into a muscular watchdog.

"New Yorkers, as good souls, have a sense of forgiveness," he added. "But whether or not they forgive me is a whole separate issue."

The limits of forgiveness are becoming a theme in this fall's New York City elections, which also feature former Democratic state assemblyman Vito Lopez, a onetime power player tarnished by a sexual harassment scandal, running for a City Council seat.

Not that New York is the only political climate undergoing a season of rebounds: Republican former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose extramarital affair spurred his resignation in 2009, was elected to Congress this spring.

But the prospect of both Spitzer and Weiner ? who were some of the state's best-known and most driven politicians before their respective downfalls ? on the same ballot, at least in September's primary, could give the contest an undertone of being a referendum on how much and how soon voters can be asked to excuse.

Will it matter that Weiner's undoing was only two years ago, while Spitzer's was five? That the former congressman has stayed out of the public eye, while the ex-governor kept himself visible as a TV commentator? That Weiner lied about misdeeds that were cringe worthy but not criminal, while Spitzer's scandal involved allegations of illegal behavior, though he was never charged with any crime?

Voters' response so far has been fairly encouraging for Weiner: he's polling at or near the top of a crowded Democratic mayoral field. As for Spitzer, New Yorkers expressed mixed feelings as they digested the news of his re-emergence.

Cleonie Sinclair wedged her way through the media crush to shake Spitzer's hand on her lunch break from her medical records job.

"I forgave you, and we all made mistakes," Sinclair told him after hollering back at a heckler.

Sinclair, who's in her 50s, feels Spitzer was effective in his prior posts, "so I can't just take one mistake and turn it against him forever."

But Diane Abrams, who was passing through a park elsewhere in Manhattan, said Spitzer shouldn't be asking voters to put him back in a prominent office.

"It's just kind of crazy," said the publishing editor. "He let a lot of people down. I think he let a whole state down."

Spitzer said he thought about entering the race for months and decided just this weekend, leaving him only four days to collect 3,750 voters' signatures needed to get on the ballot. A scion of a real estate family, he plans to finance his own campaign.

He promised to amp up the office of comptroller, which invests the city's $139 billion in pension funds, analyzes the budget and audits agencies and programs.

Spitzer ? known as "the sheriff of Wall Street" for taking on some big financial firms as attorney general ? says he'd use the pension funds' shareholder stakes to force changes in how corporations operate; he believes corporations shouldn't let one person be both CEO and board chairman, for instance.

In a phone interview Monday, Spitzer said he would also use the comptroller's voice to make sure policies are working, "not just that the paper clips are counted."

But political analysts say Spitzer will need to walk a fine line between maintaining the "steamroller" persona that propelled him into the governor's office and signaling to voters he knows he made a mistake.

"He's got to be a different model of Spitzer," said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic strategist. "And this model has got to be as competent and less arrogant and be prepared to say, 'Look, I screwed up, forgive me, because I think I can do this job.'"

Spitzer's arrival shakes up what had looked to be a predictable comptroller's race. Democratic Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, a former state assemblyman, had raised more than $3.5 million while his lesser-known opponents had yet to report any fundraising or spending.

"Bring it on. We're ready for this," Stringer said at a news conference Monday. His campaign manager has said Spitzer is trying to "buy personal redemption with his family fortune."

Republican candidate John Burnett, meanwhile, said New Yorkers deserve better than "a disgraced former governor" as comptroller.

And another contender, Kristin Davis, may make it difficult for Spitzer to avoid questions about his past. She was convicted of promoting prostitution and claims to have provided call girls to Spitzer, which hasn't been proven.

As for Weiner, when asked whether Spitzer was someone he could work with as mayor, he said yes but declined to comment further.

"I think everyone was surprised, but it hasn't changed my life at all," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Jon Gerberg and Jonathan Lemire in New York, and Michael Gormley and Michael Hill in Albany contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spitzer-weiner-nyc-political-comeback-city-232142728.html

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Apple?s app store giving away popular titles for free

July 08, 2013

Apple is giving away popular iOS apps for free. - AFP/Relaxnews, July 8, 2013. Apple's app store is giving away some of its most popular applications, including "Infinity Blade II" and "Traktor DJ" ?for free in a move that is suspected to be part of its fifth anniversary celebrations.?

These applications appeared for free in the App Store at sometime over the period from Sunday, July 7 to Monday, July 8.

The move is likely to be part of celebrations for Apple's fifth anniversary of the app store that takes places on July 10. However, the appearance of these free apps has not been accompanied by any promotional material including a list of the apps that are now available for free.

Thinkdigit.com is reporting that "Infinity Blade II", "Where's my Water?", "Badland", "Tiny Wings" and "Traktor DJ" are available for free; Engadget.com adds "Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP" to that list ; and The Verge also reports that "Barefoot World Atlas" is among the apps that are now free.

However with no comprehensive list of these now-free apps it is largely up to iPad and iPhone users to explore the app store and see what they can find. - AFP/Relaxnews, July 8, 2013.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tmi/news/allnews/~3/gKjZrekz8S8/story01.htm

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How to reduce the risk of West Nile virus - Infections -Public Health -

? Infections ? ? Public Health ? Jul 07, 2013

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a report on the early discovery of the year?s first mosquito carrying the West Nile virus in Pennsylvania. The infected mosquito was found May 3 in Exeter Township, Berks County.

Typically, the state?s first West Nile virus-carrying mosquito is found in mid-June, but the unseasonably warm weather in March caused the virus cycle to begin early this year. The virus has also been detected in mosquitoes in Luzerne, Dauphin and Beaver counties, in a bird in Erie County, and in a horse in Northampton County.

West Nile virus is spread by the bite of a mosquito that acquired the virus from the blood of an infected bird. The virus can cause encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Last year, West Nile virus was detected in 59 counties in Pennsylvania, resulting in six human cases statewide.

Although most people do not become ill when infected with West Nile virus, all are at risk.

Older adults and those with compromised immune systems have the highest risk of becoming ill and developing severe complications.

The best way to prevent the spread of West Nile virus is to eliminate mosquito breeding areas.

How to reduce the risk of West Nile virus Mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water around homes, weeds, tall grass, shrubbery and discarded tires, so DEP encourages residents to:

- Dispose of cans, buckets, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar containers that hold water on one?s property.

- Properly dispose of discarded tires that can collect water. Stagnant water is where most mosquitoes breed.

- Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers.

- Have roof gutters cleaned regularly, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to block drains.

- Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.

- Turn over wheelbarrows and don?t let water stagnate in birdbaths.

- Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.

- Clean and chlorinate swimming pools not in use and remove any water that may collect on pool covers.

DEP also suggests homeowners can buy Bti products at lawn and garden, outdoor supply, home improvement and other stores to treat stagnant pools of water. Bti is naturally occurring bacteria that kills mosquito larvae but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants.

For more information about West Nile virus and the state?s surveillance and control program, visit westnile.state.pa.us.

###

By Rep. Tarah Toohil

Provided by ArmMed Media




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Source: http://www.health.am/ab/more/risk-of-west-nile-virus/

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NTSB: Pilots tried to abort landing moments before deadly crash

Josh Edelson / AFP - Getty Images

A Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crash landed at SFO.

By Julie Yoon, F. Brinley Bruton and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

A cockpit voice recorder recovered from Asiana Airlines Flight 214 revealed the pilots attempted to abort the landing just 1.5 seconds before the jet crashed in San Francisco, killing two and injuring scores, federal investigators said Sunday.?

National Transportation Safety Board chief Deborah Hersman said at a Sunday news conference that the ?black box? flight data recorders also showed there was an attempt to boost airspeed just before the aircraft impacted the sea wall and then slammed into the runway.

There was no evidence in the two recovered ?black boxes? that the Boeing 777 was experiencing any problems before the crash on Saturday, Hersman said. The airline?s president said earlier that engine failure was likely not the cause of the deadly incident.?

The ?black boxes? from the aircraft, which record critical in-flight data, were recovered from the wreckage and transported on a late-night flight to Washington, D.C., then by guard to the NTSB lab for examination, Hersman said. NTSB investigators were analyzing both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder for clues as to what went wrong. Herman said the information detailed at the news conference was preliminary.

The black boxes from the relatively new plane could potentially contain thousands of data points about the plane's behavior before the crash. Hersman said investigators are also planning to conduct interviews with the pilots, the crew and passengers in order to reconstruct the events leading up to the dramatic event.

Asiana Airlines told NBC News that Lee Kang-kook, the pilot in charge of landing the plane, was in "transition training" to qualify to fly the Boeing 777, and it was his first attempt to fly into San Francisco while manning a 777. The airline said Kang-kook had flown different planes to that airport and was also being assisted by a more experienced pilot.

The flight to San Francisco was Kang-kook's ninth flying a 777 for a total of 43 hours, the airline said, and he has flown 9,700 hours in an Airbus A320. To qualify as a captain on the 777 requires 60 hours of flight time and 10 takeoffs and landings, the airline said.

The two passengers who died in the crash were identified as Chinese girls in their teens, airline president Yoon Young-doo said at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday. The official Weibo microblog account for Asiana identified the victims as Ye Mengtuan and Wang Linjia, both 16 years old. The two were students at Jiangshan Middle School, according to the airline.

?We think there was no engine defect,? Yoon said.

AP

Parents of Wang Linjia, center, are comforted by parents of some other students who were on the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 when it crashed at San Francisco International Airport, while they gather and wait for news of their children at Jiangshan Middle School in Jiangshan city, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, Sunday July 7, 2013.

A team of NTSB investigators had its first full day on the ground Sunday, collecting and sifting through evidence at the site of the crash that ?could have been much worse,? Hersman told Meet the Press.

A photograph published on the NTSB?s official Twitter account showed Hersman and Bill English, the investigator-in-charge, looking at the charred interior of the aircraft where collapsed luggage containers and other equipment hung from the ceiling.

?We have a lot of information to go through, and I think at this point everything is still on the table for us,? Hersman said. ?We have to not only identify what we?re focused on, but also to rule things out, and to do that we need good evidence.?

While the NTSB was working in conjunction with the FBI, Hersman said that there was still ?no indication? that any criminal activity was involved in the crash.

More than 180 people were transported to area hospitals after the crash landing that left debris strewn across the runway and ripped open the plane?s tail.

Of the 291 passengers and 16 crew members on board at the time of the crash, 49 incurred serious injuries including fractures and burns and were taken to one of nine Bay Area hospitals. The injured ranged in age from 20 to 76 years old.

Dr. Margaret Knudson, chief of surgery at San Francisco General, said on Sunday that her doctors and nurses had seen a large number of abdominal and spinal injuries, with many of the patients they spoke to telling them that they had been in the back of the plane during the crash. She said that six patients remained in critical condition at the hospital, including two with ?road rash? injuries across their bodies consistent with what might be seen after a motorcycle accident.

Triage teams at the airport may have saved lives, Knudson said, adding that without the immediate care the patients received, ?I can tell you two of them likely would not have survived.?

?We are very sorry for the pain to the families and passengers,? Asiana chief executive Yoon said on Sunday.

NTSB

Asiana flight data recorder, left, and cockpit voice recorder, right, in NTSB's Washington lab.

Passenger Benjamin Levy said he heard screams after the crash landing, and for a few moments, confusion filled the cabin.

"It was surreal," Levy told NBC Bay Area on Saturday, shortly after being taken by ambulance from San Francisco International Airport. ?"A lot of people screaming and not really believing what has happening to them. I wasn?t believing it either."

Get more local coverage of crash on NBC Bay Area

Among those who made it to safety were 34 Chinese high school students and a teacher, on their way to summer camp near Los Angeles, according to NBC Los Angeles.

The group was slated to arrive at West Valley Christian School in West Hills, an upscale city in Los Angeles County, for a three week stay, NBC Los Angeles reported. The school said via its website that it planned to hold a campus prayer vigil at 10 p.m. ET Sunday.

The crash ? the first involving a jumbo jet in the United States in more than a decade ? happened at 11:27 a.m. local time. It left a field of debris down the runway, beginning at the seawall that divides the runway from San Francisco Bay. Pieces of the tail could be seen among the wreckage.

As the plane approached the runway from the waters of San Francisco Bay, travelers in the terminals and others eyewitnesses could see that the aircraft was swaying unusually from side to side and that at one point the tail seemed to hit the ground before breaking off.

Tom Costello and Chairman of the NTSB, Debbie Hersman discuss the latest developments on the crash landing in San Francisco.

Despite the deaths and scores of injuries -- many of them serious -- San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee said at a Saturday evening news conference that "This could have been much worse."

Federal investigators said on Saturday that it was too early to determine a cause. Hersman said at the afternoon news conference that it may take months before investigators have a hypothesis.

Sources who spoke with NBC News said the pilot did not make a distress call before landing. The plane crashed in favorable weather ? partly cloudy skies and light wind.

A San Francisco airport spokesman said that a component of the facility's instrument landing system that tracks an incoming airplane's glide path was not working on Saturday.

Hersman confirmed Sunday that the so-called Glide Path system ? a ground-based aid that helps guide pilots to a safe descent ? had been shut down at SFO since June.

But pilots and air safety experts said the technology was far from essential for a safe landing in good weather.

Kevin Hiatt, chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation and a former Delta pilot, said it was common for airports to take instrument landing systems offline for maintenance on clear days. Pilots use several other instruments and visual cues to land in clear conditions, Hiatt said.

The fiery crash landing of a Korean jetliner at the San Francisco International Airport late Saturday morning has left at least two people dead, and up to 70 injured, according to NBC Bay Area station KNTV. Hospitals say some of the injured are critical. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

"All of those are more than adequate to fly an aircraft down for a successful landing on the runway," he said.

Stefanie Turner, a witness, told MSNBC that she saw the plane clip the runway with its tail, then come to rest with flames and smoke billowing from the fuselage.

?The tail was too low. Instead of coming in flat it was coming in at, I would say, maybe a 45-degree angle, with the tail far too low,? she said.

?It really went through quite a few acrobatics on the runway.?

The jet carried 141 Chinese, 77 Koreans, 61 Americans, three passengers from India, one each from Japan and Vietnam and seven whose nationalities were unknown, the airline said. A situation room was set up in Beijing to provide information and help to the families of Chinese passengers, Yoon said.

Three of the four runways at SFO were open Sunday afternoon, the airport announced.

NBC News'?Erin McClam, Emma Ong, Daniel Arkin,?Julie Yoo, Le Li, Jay Blackman, Jonathan Dienst, Richard Esposito, Tracy Jarrett and Kristen Welker contributed to this report. The Associated Press and Reuters also contributed.

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee thanks the first responders of the Asiana Airlines crash and says "this could have been much worse."

Related:

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Rising religious fundamentalism, conservative ... - Minivan News

Rising religious fundamentalism, conservative thinking impacting women: Department of National Planning thumbnail

Progress toward achieving gender equality has not kept pace with other development achievements in the Maldives, as reflected by the 12 percent of women who have suffered sexual abuse before the age of 15 while one in three have been the victim of violence, a Department of National Planning study has found.

The study examined how much human development progress has been achieved in the Maldives in terms of population and development, reproductive health and rights, gender equity, equality and empowerment of women as well as education during the period 1994 ? 2012.

The ?Maldives Operational Review for the ICPD Beyond 2014? study was conducted under the supervision of the Department of National Planning (DNP), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to determine whether the Maldives has met the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) thematic Programme of Action (PoA) goals.

The study found that ?Despite impressive advancements in all development areas, the progress towards achieving gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women have not been the same.?

?Even though, the Maldivian Constitution guarantees equal rights and freedom for all Maldivians without any discrimination, prevailing traditions and socio-cultural norms have limited women?s participation in the workforce and in the community,? the study determined.

?The increasing level of religious fundamentalism and conservative thinking has worsened the situation,? it added.

Although the Domestic Violence Act 3/2012 was ?a historical milestone for women in the country,? domestic violence and violence against women remains a ?major concern? in the Maldives.

?One out of three females aged between 15-49 years has experienced some form of violence within their lifetime. Further, 12 percent of women reported having experienced sexual abuse before their 15th birthday,? the report stated. ?Most of the time, the perpetrators are a close family member or intimate partner and the incidence goes unreported and undocumented.?

Victims to not receive appropriate and timely support, since domestic and sexual violence are perceived as a private matter and often go unreported, the study found.

Additionally, ?Women continue to be stereotyped and underrepresented at professional decision making levels,? noted the report.

The low level of women being represented in senior level positions is partly due to the ?high domestic burden on females,? with women heading 47 percent of households in the Maldives, one of the highest rates in the world, the study determined.

Although women are represented in the workforce, they are ?mostly represented in stereotypical roles? such as education (72 percent), health (68 percent), manufacturing (65 percent) and agriculture (64 percent), said the report.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of young women remain unemployed, with 10.5 of the overall youth population being neither employed nor seeking to further their studies, the report added. Employment opportunities for many have been obstructed primarily due to inadequate employment opportunities as well as the mismatch between skills and job requirements.

The report also found that the number of women continuing their studies beyond secondary education is low compared to men. This disparity is the result of ?limited access to educational institutions at the island level, domestic responsibilities and hesitance to allow females to study on another island.?

?Special affirmative actions are needed to create more employment and livelihood opportunities for women and to increase the number of women in public and political life,? stated the report.

Despite the Maldives achieving the Millennium Development Goal target to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, malnutrition and anemia are still limiting women?s equality, equity and empowerment, noted the study.

?Poor nutritional status and anemia are significantly high among pregnant women and women of reproductive age, [which] puts them in high risk for maternal mortality,? the report found. ?Malnutrition among women puts them in high risk during pregnancy and hinders their full participation in education, employment and social activities.?

Women ? and young women?s ? health is also at risk due to the lack of access to quality services, particularly in regard to sexual and reproductive health.

?With regard to reproductive rights, men often control decisions regarding women?s reproductive health, often based on religious and cultural grounds,? the report noted.

?[Furthermore,] the sudden growth of religious fundamentalism and conservative thinking is an emerging challenge, particularly for women and young girls,? the study stated. ?There have been increase towards certain trends such as preference for home schooling and refusing vaccination and other medical services for women based on religious beliefs.?

Violence against women

Despite the extensive provisions in the Domestic Violence act, it has done little to curb the abuse of women, minors and other vulnerable people; the police, the judiciary and wider Maldivian society have made minimal progress addressing domestic violence and abuse, former Gender Minister and Chairperson the Hope for Women NGO, Aneesa Ahmed, recently told Minivan News.

Meanwhile, support for women?s equality has experienced a ?significant drop? despite overall progress in improving the human rights situation nationally, a Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) second baseline survey recently concluded.

?Despite the freedoms that the constitution has provided for women, attitudes towards women?s empowerment show a negative trend,? stated Andrew Cox, the former UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP representative in the Maldives.

?Alarmingly, the study also suggests that there has been a regression in people?s sensitivity towards domestic violence and gender based violence,? he added.

Male attitudes have become ?more conservative? regarding women?s rights issues, whereas female views have become more supportive of rights in some areas, the report stated.

In a reversal from the 2005 human rights study, more women than men now consider it inappropriate for men to hit their wives. However, significant numbers of respondents stated where there was a ?substantive justification? ? as opposed to something trivial ? ?violence against wives was justified,? the report determined.

Both genders in the Maldives were also found to believe that in the husband/wife relationship, women should play a ?subordinate role?.

In spite of this culturally conservative shift regarding women?s rights, an ?overwhelming? 92 percent ofMaldivians believe that laws and systems to protect women from sexual assault should be reformed, according to the results of a survey conducted by Asia Research Partners and social activism website Avaaz.org.

Of those polled, 62 percent supported an outright moratorium on the practice of flogging, while 73 percent declared existing punishments for sexual crimes were unfair to women.

The international community has echoed this sentiment, particularly in regard to the recent
case in which a 15 year-old rape victim was sentenced to 100 lashes and eight months? house arrest for a separate offence of fornication garnered substantial international attention and condemnation.

In March, an Avaaz petition calling for the repeal of the sentence and a moratorium on flogging in the Maldives collected more than two million signatures ? a figure more than double the number of tourists who visit the country annually.

Currently, British couples are being asked to avoid the Maldives as a honeymoon destination to force the country?s government to overturn the conviction of the girl, who was given the draconian sentence after being raped by her stepfather, while UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been asked to intervene in the case, writes Jane Merrick for the UK?s Independent newspaper.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Eva Abdulla explained the current context of women?s rights in the Maldives to the publication.

?Consider the statistics on flogging: that 90 per cent of the cases are women. Consider the statistics on rape charges: 0 per cent success rate of prosecution, with the latest being the release of four men accused of raping a 16-year-old, on the grounds that there wasn?t enough evidence,? said Abdulla.

?The increasing religious fundamentalism followed by the attempts to subjugate women, both politically and otherwise, should be cause for alarm. This is a country of traditionally very strong women.

?However, increasingly, the Adhaalath Party, a self-claimed religious party which is in alliance with the current government, uses the religious card to scare off women. We women MPs are often threatened whenever we speak against the party,? she added.


Source: http://minivannews.com/society/rising-religious-fundamentalism-conservative-thinking-impacting-women-department-of-national-planning-60859

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Sunday, July 7, 2013

McConnell, Paul forge mutually beneficial alliance

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) ? To cover his political flank, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has forged an alliance with tea party darling Rand Paul, picked up support from other national tea party leaders and brought in a campaign manager from the upper echelons of the tea party movement.

The GOP's fiscally conservative wing has proven particularly powerful in Kentucky, and elsewhere it has felled incumbents including McConnell's longtime Republican colleague U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana. But McConnell's efforts to make inroads with the tea party movement have clearly paid off, virtually ensuring that no would-be challenger can get the kind of infusion of cash from tea party channels that allowed Paul to win here in 2010.

Paul, who has presidential aspirations and is looking to run in 2016, needs McConnell's connections to the wealthy donor base of the Republican establishment. Meanwhile, McConnell needs Paul's tea party influence to keep potential primary challengers at bay and to energize his general election campaign against the likely Democratic nominee, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

While the alliance with the family that includes former Texas Rep. Ron Paul may not be enough to ward off a challenger in next year's Republican primary, observers say McConnell has little to fear in securing the nomination.

McConnell's new allegiances go deep into the Paul family. Jesse Benton, who married the older Paul's granddaughter, signed on last year to lead McConnell's re-election campaign. Benton has previously served as campaign manager and political adviser to both Pauls, and his affiliation with McConnell sends a not-so-subtle signal to would-be tea party challengers to stand down and to potential donors to support McConnell or keep their wallets in their pockets.

"Mitch McConnell is an important ally and a conservative voice in Washington for the people of Kentucky," the younger Paul said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The commonwealth is stronger because of his service and I look forward to continuing to work with him."

The McConnell alliance also is a boon for Paul in other ways, such as providing leverage to push his political agenda. McConnell has even signed on to one of Paul's and the tea party's top political priorities, legalizing industrial hemp farming.

McConnell, a skilled political tactician, watched Paul rise from relative obscurity as a Bowling Green eye surgeon to be elected U.S. senator. Paul knocked off McConnell's own hand-picked candidate in the GOP primary and then went on to defeat a strong Democrat in the general election.

McConnell, who had been reluctant even to meet with Paul during the primary, reached out after his primary victory, helping him to raise money from the GOP establishment and offering general election counsel in a state where no one knows the political landscape better.

That won McConnell not only Paul's favor, but his early endorsement for re-election. TheTeaParty.net also endorsed McConnell. The group's founder, Todd Cefaratti, called McConnell "an indispensable ally of conservatives in the Senate."

The group's chief strategist, Niger Innis, said tea party activists in Kentucky largely "seem to be circling the wagons around Sen. McConnell."

Still, one of Kentucky's most outspoken tea party activists, David Adams of Nicholasville, has been bent on fielding a serious tea party challenger to McConnell. So far, he has no takers, though Louisville resident Matthew Bevin continues to toy with the idea. Bevin, who has offered no timetable for making a decision, has kept a low profile, declining interview requests. He has attended several GOP meetings, including a dinner last month where he sat three tables away from McConnell.

A millionaire businessman and investor, Bevin has no choice but to weigh the symbiotic relationship that has developed between Paul and McConnell.

Louisville attorney Mike Karem, a Republican activist who worked for the Nixon and Reagan administrations, said the relationship between Paul and McConnell has essentially cleared the path for McConnell to the GOP nomination. "They worked out a backroom deal," Karem said. "Nobody can say McConnell is dumb."

University of Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss agreed McConnell has "shored up his right flank" and really has nothing to fear from potential GOP challengers.

"Upsets are never impossible, which is why incumbents always run scared," Voss said. "But it's hard to believe that Mitch McConnell is going to see a serious threat in the primary."

Voss said McConnell has been delivering "olive branches" to tea party activists as a vocal opponent of federal health care reforms and other Obama administration policies and initiatives. He also won favor with conservatives back home by filing legislation earlier this year to force the federal government to speed up the process for approving permits for new coal mining operations.

Kentucky has lost more than 4,000 mining jobs since 2011, largely due to market factors. But in the Kentucky coalfields, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking blame for "regulatory overreach" that political leaders insist is making it difficult for coal operators to open or expand mines, thereby costing jobs. McConnell toured the coalfields when he filed the legislation and was heralded a champion for Kentucky miners.

Adams, who served as Paul's campaign manager through the 2010 primary but has since fallen into disfavor with him, doesn't dispute that McConnell has appeal within the tea party movement, including some "who would lay their heads on a train track for him." Adams isn't one of those. He insists McConnell is vulnerable to a strong Democratic challenger and should be pushed aside for a tea party nominee in the primary.

Voss said he doesn't expect that to happen.

"There's no clear stalking horse to come after him in the primary," Voss said.

What is clear is that McConnell has a strong Democratic challenger to face in next year's general election. Grimes announced recently that she will take on the Republican stalwart who already has raised some $13 million for his re-election campaign. When Grimes stepped up, several other potential Democratic candidates stepped aside, including former Miss America Heather French Henry of Louisville, the wife of former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry.

Defeating McConnell would be the Democrats' biggest prize of the 2014 election. His seat is one of 14 that Republicans are defending, while Democrats try to hold onto 21.

McConnell, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1984, has never lost an election. He spent more than $20 million in 2008 to beat Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford, a wealthy Louisville businessman, by 6 percentage points.

Most think McConnell could spend as much as $30 million on the upcoming next race. Republican super PACs could spend an additional $30 million, making the race Kentucky's most expensive ever.

McConnell told GOP supporters in Kentucky that he's bent on winning re-election with hopes that voters will elect enough additional Republicans to the Senate to allow him to move up to majority leader.

"You know, I've had a lot of experience as defensive coordinator," he said. "I want to get a chance to call the plays."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mcconnell-paul-forge-mutually-beneficial-alliance-162614571.html

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