Church in Ireland needs ‘reality check’ after gay marriage vote
BBC
One of Ireland’s most senior Catholic clerics has called for the Church to take a “reality check” following the country’s overwhelming vote in favour of same-sex marriage.The first gay marriages are now likely to take place in the early autumn.
Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin, said the Church in Ireland needed to reconnect with young people.
The referendum found 62% were in favour of changing the constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
Qatar refuses to let Nepalese workers return to attend funerals after quake
Nepalese minister says Fifa must pressure the Gulf state for better treatment of 1.5 million south Asian migrants
Vivek Chaudhary Sunday 24 May 2015 00.05 BST
Nepalese workers building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have been denied leave to attend funerals or visit relatives following the earthquakes in the Himalayan country that have killed more than 8,000 people, its government has revealed.The government in Kathmandu has also for the first time publicly criticised Fifa, world football’s governing body, and its commercial partners. It insists that they must put more pressure on Qatar to improve conditions for the 1.5 million migrants employed in the Gulf state as part of the World Cup construction boom.
Burundian opposition figure shot dead, witnesses say
Latest update : 2015-05-24
Zedi Feruzi, the head of opposition party UPD, and his bodyguard were killed in the Ngagara district, Anshere Nikoyagize, the head of the civil society group Ligue ITEKA, told Reuters. Residents said he was killed near his home.Burundi is facing its deepest crisis since the end of an ethnically fuelled civil war in 2005. The unrest was triggered by the president’s decision to seek another five years in office.
Opponents, such as Feruzi, have said it is unconstitutional.
The president has shown no sign of backing down, pointing to a constitutional court ruling that said he can run again because his first term, when he was picked by parliament not elected in a popular vote, did not count.
Cyber-Attack Warning: Could Hackers Bring Down a Plane?
For years, hackers have been warning that passenger jets are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Airlines and plane manufacturers have largely ignored the risks, but recent events are leading German authorities and pilots to take the threats extremely seriously.
By Marcel Rosenbach and Gerald Traufetter
The officials from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) were not at all happy about what they were hearing. An unshaven 32-year-old from Spain, his hair pulled back in a ponytail, was talking about cockpit computers and their weaknesses and security loopholes. Specifically, he was telling the EASA officials how he had managed to buy original parts from aviation suppliers on Ebay for just a few hundred dollars. His goal was to simulate the data exchange between current passenger-jet models and air-traffic controllers on the ground in order to search for possible backdoors. His search was successful. Very successful.
Mass graves of Rohingya, Bangladeshi migrants in Malaysia’s forests: report
May 24, 2015 – 2:43PM
Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Malaysian authorities have reportedly discovered 30 mass graves believed to contain the bodies of hundreds of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis near Malaysia’s border with Thailand.The shock find follows the discovery of similar mass graves in Thailand early in May, which prompted Thai authorities to crack down on human trafficking networks.
Malaysia has previously denied that people smuggler camps or graves were located on its territory, the destination of choice for tens of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar that has prompted a humanitarian crisis across the Bay of Bengal and in South-east Asian waters.
In Jordanian city, cries of ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ echo Ferguson
Jordan’s interior minister and police chief resigned in the wake of the latest death in custody of a suspect. Citizens in Maan, a city with a reputation for militancy, have adopted the slogans of US protesters to push back against police brutality.
By Taylor Luck, Correspondent
Maan, Jordan – Mahmoud Abu Dayeh stands atop rubble and crushed cinderblocks that once made up his family home. Tripping over bullet casings and twisted metal, he suddenly ducks behind a curtain suspended from a clothesline separating the rubble as a car approaches.“The police,” he says as a squad car rolls harmlessly by. “They won’t stop until they finish us off.”
Abu Dayeh is one of a growing number of Jordanians at the receiving end of police brutality, and the resulting public backlash led to the sudden resignation last week of the country’s interior minister and police chief. In a statement, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour cited a “lack of coordination” between security services. However, government sources say recent police killings and excessive use of force led to their resignation.