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Amnesty Intl. 2018 report: Global judicial executions down one-third, declines in Pakistan and Iran


RFE/RL
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 23:56 UTC
Pakistan jail
© A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan central jail in Peshawar where judicial executions took place.
The number of known judicial executions around the world declined by nearly one-third in 2018 compared to 2017, reaching the lowest level in at least a decade, Amnesty International says in its annual report on death sentences and executions.

Belarus was among a handful of countries that defied the trend, the human rights group said in the report released on April 10: The only European state that carries out executions put at least four people to death in 2018, it said, twice as many as in 2017.

Although Iran remains "a country where the use of the death penalty is rife," a change in Iran's drug laws led to a reduction of executions by "a staggering 50 percent," Amnesty International said. Still, the rights group said, executions in Iran often "were carried out after unfair trials."

It said Pakistan, Iraq, and Somalia also showed "a significant reduction in the number they carried out," helping to push down the number of global state executions from at least 993 in 2017 to at least 690 in 2018.

"The dramatic global fall in executions proves that even the most unlikely countries are starting to change their ways and realize the death penalty is not the answer," Amnesty International Secretary-General Kumi Naidoo said.

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Briefcase

Czech court: Alleged Russian hacker Nikulin's rights violated by forced extradition to US


RT
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 17:33 UTC
Yevgeniy Nikulin
© Fiveprime
Yevgeniy Nikulin
A former Czech justice minister violated the rights of Russian national Yevgeniy Nikulin by ordering his extradition to the US on hacking charges, the country's constitutional court ruled Tuesday.

Following an appeal from the accused, judges in the Czech court overturned Justice Minister Robert Pelikan's decision last year which led to Nikulin's extradition to the United States. According to the court's spokeswoman Miroslava Sedlackova, the decision had "violated Mr Nikulin's legal right to judicial protection."

Nikulin was arrested in Prague in 2016 after the FBI accused him of targeting three Bay Area companies with cyber-attacks in 2012, including social media site LinkedIn and file host Dropbox, charges which could net him 30 years in prison. Nikulin has consistently maintained his innocence. The hack was allegedly one of the largest data breaches in US history, with some 117 million login codes being stolen.
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Attention

British woman's family relentlessly mobbed by activists for "misgendering"

Sandra Allard
The Post Millennial
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 14:08 UTC
Caroline Farrow
Caroline Farrow is a columnist for the UK Catholic Press, her husband, Robin, a Priest in the parish of their local community in the United Kingdom. Together they have 5 children, the youngest 4, the oldest 15.

While on the exterior they might present as a beautiful, quiet family living their lives in quaint English parish, they have recently been the target of a seemingly limitless campaign of harassment.

Why? Because Caroline Farrow misgendered someone.
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Yoda

Craig Murray goes on the pavement to protect Assange and Wikileaks

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 17:12 UTC
assange protest embassy
© Wise Up Action
Entirely unexpectedly, I have been down in London this last three days outside and around the Ecuadorean Embassy, following WikiLeaks' announcement that their sources indicate Julian might be expelled within hours or days. Plainly Julian's position within the Embassy has deteriorated fundamentally, to the extent he is now treated openly as a closely guarded prisoner. I still have not myself been granted permission to visit him and he is now very isolated.

Nothing has happened so far this weekend, though I stated from the start that if the police were going to move in. the most likely time would be 4am on Monday morning. There is a thought that the massive media presence occasioned by Wikileaks' announcement may have succeeded in deterring President Moreno from the expulsion. Let us hope that will prove the case.

Comment:

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Attention

Whistleblowers call for end to transgender 'unregulated live experiment on children' at NHS clinic

Chris Dyer
Daily Mail
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:28 UTC
Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic in London

Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic in London.
Five whistleblowing workers at the only NHS transgender clinic in Britain have quit over fears children as young as three are going through unnecessary gender reassignment treatment.

The clinicians from the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic based in London and Leeds left over concerns children were being incorrectly diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

It was feared some gay children struggling with their sexual identity are being incorrectly diagnosed as transgender.

Specialists also worried that some of the youngsters were being referred and pressured into having gender change treatment after suffering homophobic bullying.

All five former staff members were part of the team deciding if youngsters should be given hormone blockers to stop their development before puberty, according to the Times.

The patients then take a course of cross-sex hormones at the age of 16 depending on whether they want to develop as male or female.

At least 18 staff have reportedly quit the controversial clinic over the past three years, citing fears not enough checks are being done to correctly diagnose child patients.

One of the five whistleblowers even said the only reason many stayed in their post was to prevent more children from having the treatment.
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Stock Up

IMF upgrades 2019 growth forecast for China, praising Beijing's efforts on economy

Yen Nee Lee
CNBC
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:39 UTC
Qingdao port in Shandong province, China
© Reuters
Qingdao port in Shandong province, China
The International Monetary Fund upgraded its 2019 growth forecast for China, citing Beijing's effort to support the economy and improved outlook for the Asian giant's tariff fight with the U.S.

IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report that China is projected to grow by 6.3 percent this year, higher than the fund's previous forecast of 6.2 percent. The latest report, released Tuesday, is widely read globally for the IMF's assessment of the world economy.

China's economy, the second-largest in the world, grew by 6.6. percent last year - its worst performance in 28 years.

"China has ramped up its fiscal and monetary stimulus to counter the negative effect of trade tariffs. Furthermore, the outlook for US-China trade tensions has improved as the prospects of a trade agreement take shape," Gita Gopinath, IMF's economic counselor, wrote in the report.
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Stock Down

Boeing gets ZERO new orders on its troubled 737 Max airliner after being grounded worldwide

David Koenig
Miami Herald
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 15:34 UTC
Boeing 737 Max 8 jets
© ELAINE THOMPSON, FILE AP PHOTO
Boeing 737 Max 8 jets
Boeing failed to win any orders for its 737 Max airliner in March as scrutiny of the plane increased following a second deadly crash in less than five months.

Deliveries of finished Max jets also tumbled, to 11 from 26 in February. That was not surprising - Boeing suspended deliveries in mid-March after regulators around the world ordered the plane grounded.

Boeing's report Tuesday on orders and deliveries came just three days after the company announced that it will cut production of 737s from 52 a month to 42. Meanwhile, airlines that own the nearly 400 grounded Max jets are canceling flights.

The damage to Boeing could be temporary, however, if the company can complete a fix to key software on the Max and reassure regulators and passengers that it is a safe plane.
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Eye 1

WikiLeaks says Julian Assange has been subject of sophisticated spying operation in Ecuadorean embassy

Andrew MacAskill
Reuters
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:25 UTC
assange supporters
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been the subject of a sophisticated spying operation in the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been holed up since 2012, the group said on Wednesday.

WikiLeaks said video, audio, photographs, copies of private legal documents and even a medical report turned up in Spain, where a group threatened to start publishing unless they were paid three million euros ($3.4 million).

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said he met members of the group who were selling the material and that Spanish police are now investigating the case.

"Extortion is a very serious matter but of much greater concern to me is this material-gathering and spying on Julian Assange by the (Ecuadorean) government ... against an individual who was granted asylum," Hrafnsson told reporters.
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Arrow Down

Canada oil industry loses over 20% of workforce since 2014

Irina Slav
Oilprice.com
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 15:11 UTC
oil pump
Canada's oil and gas industry could shed another 12,500 and more jobs this year, which would bring the total job losses over the past five years to 23 percent of the 2014 total, which stood at 226,500. These are among the findings of a report by PetroLMI, the labor market information service for Canada's oil and gas industry, a division of Energy Safety Canada.

The reasons PetroLMI lists for the job losses expected for this year contain few surprises, and include "low commodity prices, a decline in capital spending and uncertainty over market access."

"Many exploration and production and oil sands companies reported only limited capital and production guidance for 2019 because of the uncertain market conditions," said PetroLMI's vice president, Carol Howes, in a comment on the report's findings.

Comment: The oil and gas industry in Canada can thank the West's economic war on Russia for this situation.

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Fire

Popular Bangkok tourist hotel up in flames, people jumping from skyscraper


RT
Wed, 10 Apr 2019 13:27 UTC
Emergency vehicle
A 57-floor hotel and shopping building has gone up in flames in Bangkok, Thailand. At least three people have died jumping to escape the fire, which ripped through the popular tourist spot.

The fire broke out at the Centara Grand hotel and Centralworld shopping plaza at around 6pm local time on Wednesday. Plumes of black smoke spewed out of the building, and three jumped to their deaths from the horrific blaze, local media reported.

Shocking footage shared on social media shows the smoke pouring out of the burning skyscraper.
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