China landslide: Rescuers search for 91 people still missing
Hundreds of rescue workers are looking for survivors after a landslide hit 33 buildings in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Seven people were pulled from the rubble with minor injuries but 91 are still missing. About 900 were evacuated as the landslide struck on Sunday.
Authorities said a huge man-made mound of earth and construction debris lost stability and collapsed.
The city is one of China’s biggest and is a major industrial centre.
It is situated in the southern province of Guangdong, across the mainland border from Hong Kong.
The landslide has blanketed a vast area of 380,000 sq m (455,000 sq yards) covering it with up to 10m (32ft) of mud at an industrial park, Shenzhen’s emergency management office said on its official microblog.
State news agency Xinhua said that the landslide caused an explosion at a natural gas pipeline. Workers have cleaned up about 400m of damaged pipeline and are now repairing it.
Stories of 2015: born on a rescue boat – a baby refugee’s progress
In the first of our interviews with people at the centre of the year’s biggest stories, we meet Stephanie and her daughter Francesca
Traditionally, the hilltop Sicilian city of Ragusa is a place where, in summer, tourists wind their way around Unesco-listed streets and, in winter, elderly men dressed in suits and sunglasses despite the grey skies go for their regular morning stroll. But this year it has also become an unlikely home for women seeking sanctuary after the perilous sea journey to Europe.
One of them, Stephanie, arrived in July with her baby girl. Just weeks before, on board an Italian navy ship in the Mediterranean, Francesca had been born. She shared her birth week with another little girl, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. But there the comparisons ended. The Italian navy issued a photograph of Francesca’s face, peeking out from beneath white fabric. She was the sixth baby to have been born on a rescue ship since 2013.
Benjamin Netanyahu ‘threatens to strip Jerusalem residency from 230,000 Palestinians’
Experts fear attempts are being made to change the demographic balance of Jerusalem
Plans to strip Jerusalem residency rights from Palestinians in the wake of recent violence could affect more than 230,000 people, according to reports.
Identity cards give around 350,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem the right to work and move freely across the city, and are used by residents both inside and outside the separation wall built in 2003.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has previously hinted at the prospect of taking away residency rights from some Palestinians, seemingly manipulating public fears about a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that began around two months ago.
But the new figures, reported by the pro-Likud Hebrew Channel 2 and the Anadolou Agency in Turkey, would also impact Palestinians inside the wall and threatens to dramatically alter the demographic balance of Jerusalem.
21 December 2015 – 08H25
Qatar rejects ‘groundless’ worker deaths claim
DOHA (AFP) –
Qatar dismissed as “groundless” Monday a claim that as many as 7,000 people would die working on projects for the 2022 World Cup, bullishly defending its preparations for football’s biggest tournament.
Doha said that the allegation — made by the International Trade Union Confederation last week — was a “falsehood” and represented “a deliberate distortion of the facts”.
It said no workers had died on World Cup projects so far, and added there was no reason to believe thousands would lose their lives in the run-up to the event.
“The International Trade Union Confederation’s claim… that ‘by the time the 2022 World Cup kicks off in seven years time, based on new data, more than 7,000 workers could have died in Qatar’ is groundless and represents a deliberate distortion of the facts,” the government said.
When the mob rules
HUNDREDS of angry protesters took to the streets of Luari Sharif on the outskirts Badin last week. They ransacked shops, and then set them ablaze. They attacked homes, and torched them too. The mob was motivated by the killing of a local teacher in the broader context of a long-standing dispute between groups over ownership of local shrines.
A few weeks ago a mob went on the rampage in Jhelum, burning down an Ahmadi-owned factory. Announcements made from the loudspeakers of local mosques rallied the mob by accusing the factory’s owners and employees of committing blasphemy. A night later, a separate mob attacked a nearby Ahmadi place of worship. This mob needed no goading. It was likely provoked by the police cordon around the site — the state’s audacity at seeking to protect the most vulnerable. When the police tear-gassed the mob, it responded by pelting policemen with stones.
A little over a year ago, a mob in Kot Radha attacked a Christian couple, accused them of committing blasphemy, broke their legs, and then threw them into the brick kiln at which they worked. They were killed by the fires they had stoked.
Why did China block Miss Canada from the Miss World 2015 competition?
The beauty queen, who left China for Canada when she was 13, is an outspoken critic of China and an advocate for human rights there.
It was the typical annual pageant of glitz, beauty, and talent, except there was one person missing from this year’s Miss World competition in Sanya, China: Miss Canada.
That’s because the 25-year-old Anastasia Lin, a Canadian actress born in China, was barred from participating in the two-week romp on the southern tip of the Chinese island Hainan, where 114 beauty queens from around the world competed for the title of the world’s best.
In a Facebook post in late November, Ms. Lin wrote that she was barred from the competition by the Chinese government “for political reasons.”
“They are trying to punish me for my beliefs and prevent me from speaking out about about human rights issues,” she wrote.