Blancer.com Tutorials and projects
Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials
world news,online new,us news,uk news
The pirates are now roaming up to 1,000 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia A South Korean fishing boat with 43 sailors aboard has been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Kenya, South Korea’s foreign ministry says.
The ministry said the crab fishing vessel was seized off Lamu Island on 9 October.
South Korean media reported the boat had been taken to a pirate stronghold in northern Somalia.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Somalia, which has had no effective government for two decades.
In a statement, South Korea’s foreign ministry said it was investigating the incident and had set up an emergency team at its embassy in Kenya.
The statement did not say if contact with the pirates had been made or if a ransom had been demanded.
South Korea has a warship on anti-piracy patrol in the waters of the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
The area is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, leading to the Suez Canal.
European naval officers fighting piracy in the waters warned earlier in October that pirates would likely be more desperate with the onset of the piracy season as their success rate was declining.
The European Union’s naval force, Navfor, estimates that the pirates’ success ratio – the number of successful hijackings versus the number attempted – has dropped from 50% a few years ago to 20-30% this year because of international patrols.
The patrols have forced the pirates to range a wider area of the Indian Ocean in search of targets.
But Navfor also warned that hostages are being held for a longer period on average and that ransoms being demanded – and paid – are breaking new records.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The stamps were originally printed in 2001 A rare sheet of 10 stamps showing film star Audrey Hepburn smoking is expected to fetch at least 400,000 euros (£350,000) at an auction next week.
The German Postal Service printed 14 million of the stamps in 2001 depicting the actress as Holly Golightly in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
But after Hepburn’s son refused to grant copyright, all but a few sheets were destroyed.
Proceeds from the sale in Berlin next week will got to charity.
The stamps were printed as part of a series featuring classic film stars, but it was only after production that Sean Ferrer, the actress’s son, was contacted for copyright permission.
“In the original photo, she’s got sunglasses hanging from her mouth, but they had flipped the negative and replaced the glasses with the cigarette holder,” Ferrer told AP.
He suggested either the original photo or an alternative, but the postal service hastily replaced the actress with a generic film roll and ordered the stamps to be destroyed.
Two sheets were spared, one for the Postal Service Archives and one for the German Post Museum, however two additional sheets of stamps disappeared.
‘Supply and demand’
Auctioneer Eliisabeth Schlegel with the stamp sheet During the last six years, five of the missing stamps were sold at auction for between 62,500 euro (£54,700) – 173,000 euro (£151,000) by stamp appraiser Andreas Schlegel.
Schlegel then contacted Ferrer to suggest asking the German government if they could sell one of the archived stamp sheets for charity.
However, Ferrer already had a sheet the government had sent him for approval in 2001, which will now be sold.
Mercer Bristow, from the American Philatelic Society, said a contract Ferrer signed with the German finance ministry earlier this year, securing rights to the stamp sheet and ensuring the government would not sell either of its sheets until 2040, helped drive up the reserve price of the set.
“It goes back to supply and demand. It’s the only sheet out there people can bid on and she’s still such a popular actress,” he said.
Money raised will be split between Unicef and the Audrey Hepburn Children’s foundation.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Bishop John Broadhurst is the most significant Anglican so far to convert A traditionalist Anglican group has voiced regret after an Anglo-Catholic bishop said he would convert to Rome.
The Bishop of Fulham, John Broadhurst, has become the fourth Anglican bishop to make the announcement.
He intends joining the Roman Catholic Church because of his opposition to the way the Church of England plans to introduce women bishops.
The Catholic Group on the CofE’s General Synod said it deeply regretted the decision by Bishop Broadhurst.
The bishop, who is the leader of the traditionalist organisation Forward in Faith, is the most significant Anglican so far to say he will convert to Catholicism.
He is currently the “flying bishop” charged with looking after traditionalist parishes opposed to women priests and bishops in the dioceses of London, Southwark and Rochester.
The Catholic Group said it was determined to stay in the Church of England and fight for a better deal for Anglicans who did not want to serve under women bishops.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says the group’s statement seems intended to counter any encouragement Bishop Broadhurst’s announcement might give to traditionalist clergy to take up Pope Benedict’s offer of a privileged place in the Roman Catholic Church.
Our correspondent says many traditionalist clergy are unhappy with the level of protection so far offered to them from serving under a woman bishop, but might hesitate in the face of a decision likely to cause them considerable personal hardship.
Bishop Broadhurst’s statement came as it emerged that the traditionalist Anglo-Catholic congregation of St Peter’s in Folkestone had become the first to begin the process of leaving to join the Roman Catholic Church.
The Pope has created a special enclave in the Roman Catholic Church for Anglicans unhappy with their Church’s decision to let women become bishops.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Fifa is investigating allegations that two officials offered to sell their World Cup votes Fifa is investigating allegations that two of its officials offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup.
Reporters from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies who wanted to bring the tournament to the United States.
They approached Amos Adamu, a Nigerian who serves as a Fifa executive committee member.
He allegedly told reporters he wanted cash to build pitches in Nigeria.
Mr Adamu, who is president of the West African Football Union, is said to have told the undercover journalists that he wanted $800,000 (£500,000) to build four artificial football pitches.
This would be completely against Fifa’s rules.
The Sunday Times footage shows Mr Adamu wanting money to be paid to him directly for endorsing the US bid.
In the video, he was asked whether the money for a “private project” would have an effect on the way he voted.
Closely monitored
He replied: “Obviously, it will have an effect. Of course it will. Because certainly if you are to invest in that, that means you also want the vote.”
Reynald Temarii, president of the Oceania Football Confederation, is also alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case to finance a sports academy.
A statement from Fifa read: “Fifa and the Fifa Ethics Committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups and will continue to do so.
“Fifa has already requested to receive all of the information and documents related to this matter, and is awaiting to receive this material.
“In any case, Fifa will immediately analyse the material available and only once this analysis has concluded will Fifa be able to decide on any potential next steps.
“In the meantime, Fifa is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter.”
A European nation will definitely host the 2018 World Cup after the United States – the last remaining non-European bidder – pulled out of the race on Friday. Australia withdrew its candidature in June. Both will refocus their efforts on 2022.
England will now battle it out with bids from Russia, Belgium/Holland and Spain/Portugal.
A 24-strong committee will decide by secret ballot on 2 December who should host the tournaments.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
An Iranian judge has sentenced a man convicted of robbing a confectionery shop to have one of his hands cut off, Iranian media report.
The judge also sentenced the man to one year in prison.
Police arrested the man in May after finding $900 (£560), three pairs of gloves and a large amount of chocolate in his car, Fars news agency said.
Under Iran’s Islamic law, amputations are usually reserved for habitual thieves.
Last week, authorities cut off the hand of a man convicted of two robberies in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Women in Sweden still do a majority of the housework and childcare Is Sweden really one of the best places to be a woman? That is the view of many women outside Sweden, as well as some of us who live here. But is it a myth or a reality?
Let’s face it, we are no longer topping the charts as we used to, when it comes to gender equality. Sweden has gone from the first position to fourth, according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index.
Nevertheless, we do stay in the top cluster with the other Nordic countries Iceland, Finland, and Norway.
Every day next week, BBC World Service’s The World Today programme will focus on the movement for gender equality.
Among the influential women giving their views will be the head of the UN’s gender equality body and the former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar, World Bank Director Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, and top UK barrister Cherie Blair.
However, Sweden still has a long way to go.
The latest edition of the report from Statistics Sweden, Women and Men in Sweden: Facts and figures, hints at various areas of concerns.
Both in education and in the labour market, the genders are not equally represented.
The number of female managing directors in listed companies is just eight out of 269.
Swedish women still earn on average 15% less than men. And one third of women still work part-time, some because they can’t find full-time jobs and others because they have family responsibilities which hold them back.
Shall I go on?
In Sweden both men and women are entitled to 480 days of parental leave but the latest Daddy Index, published by the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TOC), a trade union umbrella group, shows that men use only one fifth of their allowance.
Few Swedish men use up their paternity leave entitlement The move towards both men and women taking equal parental leave is at a snail’s pace.
I can hear the incredulous gasps from women around the world who are not entitled to such generous parental allowance systems. So, yes, I accept that compared to other parts of the world, the parental allowance system does make Sweden a good country in which to be a women.
As does the government’s decision, taken in 1972, to make equal opportunities between the sexes a central political issue.
The Danish sociology professor Gosta Esping-Anderson once wrote: “In Sweden, maximum female labour-force participation is a principle of social policy.” I agree with that.
“Equality between the sexes should be the benchmark by which a society is judged as a good or bad”
In Sweden, society makes it possible for each and everyone to earn his or her own living.
Well-built systems of child care and geriatric care, gender-neutral parental insurance, generous school opening hours and – not the least – individual taxation, have all contributed to this.
And yes, Sweden does have one of the highest employment rates in the world for women. But if you bring out the magnifying glass, you’ll see that many women are working part-time in low-paid jobs.
According to a report from the TOC, among blue-collar workers, 50% of the women work part-time in often insecure employment conditions, compared with only 9% of men.
Their earnings are even further reduced when they decide to work less after having children.
This conflict between employment and childcare stops women from becoming economically independent, and reinforces the notion of men being the principal breadwinners.
There is an on-going discussion about how income differences between the sexes can be counterbalanced by equal opportunities at home.
Swedish women – like women around the world – are often still expected to play the lead role on the family stage. Two-thirds of housework is done by women.
So, how to make gender equality work at home?
The government is already providing some tax relief to households for using services for cleaning, laundry and gardening, but should it do more?
Should the government provide more child care?
Or should it allocate parental leave equally between the father and mother and force them to use it?
The debate on this issue is intense in Sweden.
Gudrun Schyman, leader of the Feminist Initiative party, claims that there is a political unwillingness in Sweden to see this debate in a wider societal context.
She wants politicians to see this imbalance as a profound societal conflict, which is the result of the power structure that has to be fought and corrected, just like human rights’ violations.
The feminist political philosopher Susan Moller Okin once said that a fair society is a society in which men and women participate in more or less equal numbers in every sphere of life.
I would say that equality between the sexes should be the benchmark by which a society is judged as a good or bad place.
And in that sense I suppose you could say that Sweden is a fairly good place to be a woman.
But more needs to be done. It’s still an unfinished business.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Right-wing nationalist groups do not want Serbia to join the EU or Nato A crisp autumn morning in Belgrade last Sunday: Activists gather for what they hope will be the city’s first successful gay pride.
They walk through the streets, guarded by police – a chance to express themselves in a society still riven by homophobia.
But as they follow their short route, trouble brews in several parts of the city.
Hundreds of anti-gay protesters have congregated, hurling stones and petrol bombs at armed police, who respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 100 officers are injured in hours of street battles.
Two days later, Serbia’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy in Genoa: Hooded Serbian fans throw flares on to the pitch and threaten the Serbian goalkeeper.
Italian riot police intervene. The game is cancelled and more than 30 fans arrested.
Serbia, still emerging from the darkness of the Yugoslav wars and diplomatic isolation in the 1990s, now seemingly at war with itself.
“These groups are extremely right-wing and clearly have a political goal”, says Zoran Dragisic, a professor of security studies in Belgrade.
“I am worried that this violence could be very dangerous for Serbia’s European ambitions””
Zoran Dragisic Professor of security studies
“They are close to organised crime and are sending a message that they don’t want Serbia to join Nato and the EU.
“If Serbia becomes a member of the EU, they can’t perform their criminal activities in the same way. I am worried that this violence could be very dangerous for Serbia’s European ambitions”.
Serbia has long grappled with football-related violence.
Paramilitary groups in the 1990s forged close links with aggressive supporters’ clubs.
Last year, Brice Taton, a young Frenchman who had travelled to Belgrade for an away match, was beaten to death by a Serbian gang in the centre of the city.
But this week, football hooligans and ultra nationalist groups came together in a toxic mix that has thrown Serbia into a bout of soul-searching.
One newspaper headline read “Shame on Serbia”. Another screamed “The Death of Serbia.”
“This is related to problems in our past because most of these people are young and grew up during the wars,” says Slobodan Homen, Serbia’s deputy justice minister.
“We’re now paying the price for not caring for our young people enough.”
The parade was a “provocation against Serbian people”, says nationalist Boris Bratina He is adamant that the government will take a firm line, including banning several groups, but believes the reaction should not simply be punitive.
“The priority should be the education system and the family,” he says.
“We need to explain to our young people that we are very definitely heading for European integration, otherwise every couple of years, we will have this kind of violence”.
I ask whether he is confident these groups can be defeated.
“A hundred per cent,” he replies. “This is the end of them. I think we will never again face the kind of violence we’ve seen this week.”
But the perpetrators believe they have the upper hand, and have pledged to step up their actions.
Boris Bratina is a member of one of the biggest organisations, 1389 – a reference to a momentous battle in Serbian history.
We talk in the group’s tiny, dark office on the outskirts of Belgrade. The walls are adorned with “No EU” signs, Orthodox Christian icons and photographs.
Among the latter is a print of the former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, currently on trial in The Hague on charges of genocide. The word “hero” has been scrawled beneath his image.
Boris admits members of his group were at the gay pride protests. I ask whether they were involved in the violence.
“Oh, no,” he says, before stammering: “Er… um… of course they had to defend themselves against aggressive policemen.
“The gay parade was a provocation against Serbian people.”
He goes on to make allegations about homosexual behaviour.
So is it justified to throw rocks at policemen and smash bus shelters? I ask.
“Of course it is,” he replies. “This was just a reaction of angry people.”
The official investigation into the incidents in Italy suggests members of 1389 were there too, but he denies it.
“I would like them to be members, because they acted the way we would like,” he says.
“We were saying in Italy that we don’t want to be a member of the EU.”
How far will they go to achieve their goals?
“There will be much more violence than on Sunday,” he says. “We will call on civil disobedience to push out this banana government.”
I tell him the authorities say they will crush the groups. He sniggers: “Let them. We are unconquerable.”
And yet when I ask him how many members 1389 boasts, he tries to evade the question.
“Maybe 2,000,” he ventures finally.
So against a population of over seven million and the full state machinery, how can he possibly claim to represent the majority of public opinion?
“Everybody basically supports 1389,” he says, somewhat spuriously.
This week has profoundly shocked a population trying hard to move away from the 1990s and present a changed, democratic Serbia.
Those behind the violence are an extreme minority but the images have undoubtedly tarnished the country’s image.
Serbia is a proud nation but the challenge now is to replace violent nationalism with peaceful patriotism.
For now, there is still the fear that renegade elements from Serbia’s past could yet hold this country up on its path to a European future.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Cosla has warned that all areas of people’s lives could be hit Major cuts to the services provided by Scottish local authorities could have a “catastrophic” impact on the country, council leaders have warned.
Local government body Cosla said they were facing a defining moment.
The UK government Spending Review is due on Wednesday and the Scottish government will unveil its budget proposals in November.
Cosla warned that the consequences of cutting too deep would impact on all aspects of people’s lives.
Cosla president Pat Watters said: “This is crunch time for the vital local government services that communities across Scotland rely on, and also for the workers who work day in and day out to deliver them.
A special BBC News season examining the approaching cuts to public sector spending
“If it is not handled correctly then the consequences could be disastrous.”
Mr Watters said the decisions in the Spending Review and in Finance Secretary John Swinney’s budget would have “a massive bearing not only on the local services we so often take for granted but also on tens of thousands of local jobs”.
He said: “To do damage to such services would be catastrophic.”
Mr Watters added: “From making sure that the food we eat is safe, the buildings we live and work in are fit for purpose, and the communities we live in are clean and vibrant, councils are there providing vital round-the-clock services that support every aspect of our work, learning and leisure lives.
“From registering births to carrying out cremations, councils really can be relied on from the cradle to the grave.”
A BBC Scotland news special examining the cuts to council budgets
He said ignoring frontline services would carry major risks and could set the most vulnerable in Scotland’s communities back by decades.
“Councils provide a safety net for all of us – housing the homeless, protecting women and children from domestic and sexual abuse, helping those with mental health issues and rehabilitating offenders,” Mr Watters warned.
“We deal with those that others often choose to ignore and this must be recognised in the decisions that will be taken in the days and weeks ahead.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour accused the coalition government of being “hell-bent on cutting too fast and too deep” and claimed Scotland would suffer more than the rest of the UK.
Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said: “Our unemployment is now the highest in UK. But the coalition is using the deficit as a smokescreen to axe public services, hammering the poorest and most vulnerable when it should be concentrating on growing the economy and protecting jobs.”
The Treasury has said that “a decisive plan” was needed to reduce the UK’s “unprecedented deficit” and restore confidence in the UK economy.
“Not taking action to tackle this problem would put the economic recovery at risk,” a spokesman added.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is backed by new owner John W Henry as his side prepare to take on Merseyside rivals Everton.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Sunday Times alleges two Fifa officials offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup finals.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Just two of the 33 miners rescued after more than two months underground in Chile remain in hospital, and many of the men are now looking to the future
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Angela Merkel said Germany had “kidded itself” multiculturalism was working Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have “utterly failed”, Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called “multikulti” concept – where people would “live side-by-side” happily – did not work.
Mrs Merkel’s comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.
A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was “overrun by foreigners”.
The study – by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank – also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany’s immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.
Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at “the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country… We kidded ourselves a while, we said: ‘They won’t stay, sometime they will be gone’, but this isn’t reality.
“And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other… has failed, utterly failed.”
In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was “part of Germany” like Christianity and Judaism.
Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration While acknowledging that this was the case, Mrs Merkel stressed that immigrants living in Germany needed to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.
“Anyone who does not immediately speak German”, she said, “is not welcome”.
Her comments come a week after she held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany’s estimated 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.
Earlier this week, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, CSU, said about integration that it was “obvious that immigrants from different cultures like Turkey and Arab countries, all in all, find it harder”.
“‘Multikulti’ is dead,” Mr Seehofer said.
In August, Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany’s central bank, said that “no immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime”. Mr Sarrazin has since resigned.
Such recent strong anti-immigrant feelings from mainstream politicians come amid an anger in Germany about high unemployment, even if the economy is growing faster than those of its rivals, the BBC’s Stephen Evans in Berlin says.
Our correspondent adds that there also seems to be a new strident tone in the country, perhaps leading to less reticence about no-go-areas of the past.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A new wave of pension protests hits France, sparking fuel shortages, but with police and unions giving sharply differing figures of those taking part.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The 12 are locked to immobilized vehicles Twelve women climate campaigners are blocking access to an oil refinery in Essex.
The group outside the Coryton refinery said it was affiliated to the campaign group Crude Awakening.
The 12 are locked to immobilized vehicles on both lanes of the refinery access road holding back oil tankers.
A spokeswoman for Petroplus who own Coryton refinery said the site operates seven days a week, with tankers leaving and returning every day.
‘Devastating local environments’
Protest spokeswoman Terri Orchard said: “We don’t have a hope of tackling climate change if we don’t find a way to start moving beyond oil.
“Big Oil is relentless. From the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic to the Canadian tar sands, oil companies are devastating local environments, trampling the rights of local communities, and pushing us over the edge to catastrophic climate change.
“We are here at the source of the problem, at the UK’s busiest oil refinery, to stop the flow of oil to London.
“We’re here to put a spanner in the works of the relentless flow of oil and to say no more.
“This place, this whole industry, must become a thing of the past.”
Road closed
Essex Police confirmed there was a protest in the road at Coryton oil refinery, near Thurrock and and they had closed the road called The Manorway.
Officers were called to the scene at about 1130 BST and said they would not be giving an estimate of numbers of demonstrators.
The headquarters of Petroplus are at Zug in Switzerland.
The company has six refineries across Europe.
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or 0044 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Police have charged a man with conspiracy to murder and firearms offences after a gun was recovered from a car in which he was travelling.
Officers investigating suspected dissident republican activity found the weapon after stopping the vehicle outside Cookstown on Monday.
The 30-year-old is also charged with possession of a firearm with intent and possession of ammunition.
There other men have already been charged over the gun find.
They were charged on Wednesday with possession of a gun and possession of ammunition.
The man charged on Friday is also accused of having articles in his possession for the purposes of terrorism.
He is expected to appear in court in Omagh on Saturday.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
