Hundreds arrested at Occupy Oakland; protesters break into City Hall
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
Sgt. Christopher Bolton of the Oakland Police Department told msnbc.com that the number arrested was likely between 200 and 300. “We are still processing the arrests,” he said. He was speaking after the release of a statement on the Oakland City website that put the number of arrests at 200. “That figure is probably on the low side and we don’t have a confirmed total yet,” said. Sgt Bolton. In the statement, released in a PDF file format, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said: “Once again, a violent splinter group of the Occupy Movement is engaging in violent actions against Oakland. The Bay Area Occupy Movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground.” The statement also said there were reports of damage to exhibits inside City Hall during the protest.
Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
US writers attack conditions at Foxconn plant and call for consumers to act
Paul Harris in New York The Observer, Sunday 29 January 2012
Apple, the computer giant whose sleek products have become a mainstay of modern life, is dealing with a public relations disaster and the threat of calls for a boycott of its iPhones and iPads.
The company’s public image took a dive after revelations about working conditions in the factories of some of its network of Chinese suppliers. The allegations, reported at length in the New York Times, build on previous concerns about abuses at firms that Apple uses to make its bestselling computers and phones. Now the dreaded word “boycott” has started to appear in media coverage of its activities.
Is Sarkozy about to throw in the towel?
France’s leader addresses nation as speculation grows he may not run again
By John Lichfield Sunday 29 January 2012
President Nicolas Sarkozy will be fighting for his political life when he makes a live appearance on French TV tonight. Some senior figures within his own party fear that he has already lost all chance of winning the two-round presidential election in April and May. There is speculation – possibly rooted in wishful thinking – that Mr Sarkozy may soon be tempted to throw in the towel and allow another senior centre-right politician to run in his place.
Sources within his centre-right party insist that the President will make no dramatic statements tonight. He will not say that he is pulling out of the race.
A Papua New Guinea wedding: Face paint, grass aprons and pigs
It’s not every day you get a chance to visit Papua New Guinea, and even rarer to be invited to a highland wedding, where grass aprons are de rigeur and the bride’s value is measured in pigs.
By Pauline Davies Papua New Guinea
It was a wedding I could not pass up – a traditional tribal ceremony in the remote southern highlands of Papua New Guinea and I was invited as family.
Komya village was once home for Moses, the bridegroom. After being abandoned as a child and on the verge of starvation, he was taken in by an Australian couple and ended up in Melbourne.
There he met Danielle – my niece. They were only 13 years old, but romance slowly blossomed and a decade later they decided to marry.
Nigeria pressured to end Boko Haram violence
Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has killed hundreds in an onslaught of attacks that authorities have been unable to stop, prompting growing calls for talks to bring an end to the bloodshed.
MJ SMITH AND AMINU ABUBAKAR KANO, NIGERIA
The group has long had unclear aims and a structure that is difficult to define, but a number of patterns have emerged in violence attributed to Boko Haram, offering more pieces to a complex puzzle.
Attacks blamed on the group took on a new dimension on January 20, when a siege of Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano saw coordinated bombings and shootings which killed at least 185 people.
Active 200-km fault found off Honshu’s Kii Peninsula
Previous shifts caused magnitude 8.6 quake, huge tsunami: scientists
Kyodo Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012
An active fault around 200 km long that is believed to have been a source of huge quakes in the past has been found off Honshu’s Kii Peninsula, according to researchers at the University of Tokyo.
If the fault on the Nankai Trough moves, it could trigger a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, the researchers said, adding they have found a seabed cliff several hundred meters high that was created by the fault’s past movements.