Italy proposes measures to combat violence against women

Antonella Cinelli 6 hours agoSociety & CultureItaly

View Gallery

Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta meets with his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras (not pictured) in Athens July 29, 2013. Letta is on a two-day working visit to Athens. REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis

By Antonella Cinelli

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government on Thursday proposed emergency measures to combat violence against women after national outrage over a spate of attacks including the burning alive of a teenager by a jealous boyfriend.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta told reporters he was "very proud" of the emergency decree, which toughens penalties and increases protection for victims. It must be approved by both houses of parliament to become law.

Under the decree, after a women has reported an attack she can no longer ask for the case to be dropped, something that often happens as a result of intimidation.

Among other changes, women victims will be continually informed of developments in their case, such as when their attacker's sentence has expired or when he is released from custody.

Cases of violence against women are to be given priority in Italy's notoriously slow justice system and victims will be guaranteed a state lawyer regardless of their income.

"We have not only sent out a signal, we have made radical changes," Letta said.

The decree increases current sentences by a third if violence against a woman is carried out in the presence of a minor, if the victim is pregnant or the perpetrator is a husband, ex-husband or boyfriend.

If the victim is an illegal immigrant she will be entitled to a resident's permit on humanitarian grounds.

No official statistics exist on the number of murders of women in Italy, but Telefono Rosa, a domestic violence support group, said that last year 124 women were killed by men because of their gender, most by current or former partners.

A 2012 United Nations report on violence against women in Italy said more than 90 percent of women who suffered rape or abuse did not report it, and though murders of men by men had fallen, the number of women killed by men had increased.

In May 16-year-old Fabiana Luzzi was burned alive by her jealous 17-year-old boyfriend in southern Italy. The lower house of parliament observed a minute's silence in her memory.

Italy ranked 80th out of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2012 Gender Gap Report, one of the lowest ratings in Europe. The report said it had low wage equality and low numbers of women in senior positions.

(Writing by Gavin Jones; editing by Andrew Roche)

Quebec judge calls disaster railway 'deplorable', grants protection

By Leila Lemghalef

MONTREAL (Reuters) - A Quebec court granted bankruptcy protection on Thursday to the U.S. railway whose runaway train smashed into a tiny Quebec town, killing 47 people, but Judge Martin Castonguay called Montreal Maine & Atlantic's behavior "deplorable" and said he was not impressed by its management.

"This decision is to prevent legal anarchy," Quebec Superior Court Judge Castonguay told the courtroom after approving the bankruptcy protection for MMA's Canadian unit.

MMA filed for protection in Canada and the United States on Wednesday, saying its revenues had deteriorated since the July 6 crash and it could not afford to pay its mushrooming financial obligations.

The company's runaway crude oil train derailed in the small lakeside town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, exploding in huge fireballs that destroyed a swathe of the town's core. An estimated 5.6 million liters of crude oil were spilled.

The bankruptcy filing sparked anger in Lac-Megantic, where residents fear victims' families may not get the compensation they are seeking through several class-action and individual suits against the company in U.S. and Canadian courts.

The governments of Quebec and the town of Lac-Megantic have also been demanding MMA foot the cleanup bill, which already amounts to C$7.8 million ($7.6 million). Canadian officials vowed on Thursday to make the railway pay for the damage.

Quebec Health Minister Rejean Hebert said the provincial government was seeking status in the bankruptcy case as a "privileged creditor," which would assure it would receive payment from MMA before some other claimants.

"We are assured of having a guaranteed creditor status which allows us to come before a few other people," Hebert told French-language RDI television. "We're going to use all the necessary legal procedures to go out and seek what we are due, both from MMA and the insurers."

QUEBEC A PRIORITY DEBTOR?

In U.S. court documents, MMA named the U.S. government, through the Secretary of Transport's Federal Rail Administration (FRA), as its biggest secured creditor. It owes about $27.5 million to FRA, which holds the first lien against MMA's U.S. and Canadian real estate.

In the documents filed at the Quebec court, MMA named provincial or federal governments in Canada as "potential secured creditors" for any costs already incurred or incurred in the future for the environmental cleanup of the train crash.

"It is financially impossible to continue the operations and the provision of services without the benefit of the protection from its creditors," MMA said in the Quebec court document.

Hebert said the Quebec government would take priority over the U.S. government with regard to claims against MMA's Canadian unit.

Federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, who pledged C$60 million to help the town of Lac-Megantic rebuild, said the bankruptcy protection "does not mean that MMA is off the hook for their responsibilities to the people of Lac-Megantic".

Daniel Larouchelle, a lawyer representing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Lac-Megantic victims, said he thought having an arbiter oversee how MMA repaid its debts would help his case.

MMA's Canadian petition said insurance covered liabilities up to C$25 million, far too little to cover damages. One source familiar with the matter said big operators like Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway likely had coverage in the "hundreds of millions" of dollars.

MMA estimated the cleanup costs alone at the disaster site would exceed C$200 million.

A court hearing on U.S. bankruptcy protection for MMA was also being held in Bangor, Maine, on Thursday.

($1=$1.03 Canadian)

Egypt's coup puts fearful Christians in a corner

HAMZA HENDAWI4 hours agoSocietyReligionEgypt

ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting "Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians." A half-dozen kids were spray-painting "Boycott the Christians" on walls, supervised by an adult.

While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi, in Assiut and elsewhere in Egypt's deep south they are waging a stepped-up hate campaign, claiming the country's Christian minority somehow engineered Morsi's downfall.

"Tawadros is a dog," says a spray-painted insult, referring to Pope Tawadros II, patriarch of the Copts, as Egypt's Christians are called. Christian homes, stores and places of worship have been marked with large painted crosses.

The hostility led a coalition of 16 Egyptian rights groups to warn on Wednesday of a wave of violence to come, and to demand that the post-coup authorities protect the Christians who are 10 percent of the population, and suffer chronic discrimination.

Nile-side Assiut, a city of one million people 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, dates back to the pharaohs. The New Testament says Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus passed through as they fled the infanticidal King Herod. Today, its Christian fears are compounded by the failure of authorities to curb the graffiti-spraying and the Islamists' demonstrations, which have gone on almost nightly since the July 3 coup that ousted Morsi.

View gallery."

Egyptian men chants slogans against the Army during a rally in Assiut, Upper Egypt, Tuesday, Aug. 6, …

"They (the Islamists) will not stop as long as they are left to do as they please without fear of accountability," said Hossam Nabil, 38, who owns a jewelry store on Youssry Ragheb Street, where the demonstration passed on Tuesday night. "They are many and one day they will trash our stores."

Like other Christians with stores on the street, Nabil shuttered his establishment until the protesters had passed. "They (the marchers) run their index finger across their throats to suggest they will slaughter us, or scream Morsi's name in our faces," he said.

A young couple arrived to shop while scores of marchers were still on the street. They froze in fear, the husband shielding his wife with his body.

Families living in apartment blocks above the stores stayed home, shutting windows and staying off balconies. Those outdoors kept their distance from the march.

Assiut's Islamists are strong because local authority is weak and religion is powerful in a region where poverty is widespread and envy of the relatively high number of well-to-do Christians runs high.

View gallery."

A Coptic Christian monk holds a Coptic cross at Al-Mahraq monastery during the preparation of a reli …

As for the graffiti, acting provincial Gov. Gamal Adam told The Associated Press the authorities have given up on washing it away because it quickly reappears. He also said municipal cleaners might be roughed up if caught in the act by Islamists.

For the 40 percent of Assiut people who are Christian, life has changed radically. They find their apartment blocks disfigured by painted crosses with a red X painted over them. They stay at home at night. Churches have cancelled afternoon activities. Some of the wealthy have left town.

"We had never experienced the kind of persecution we suffer now. We are insulted every day," said Nevine Kamal, a 40-year-old Christian pharmacist and mother of two teenagers. "We are angry and frustrated but we are not leaving Assiut," she said, seated at her desk at the St. George Pharmacy on Youssry Ragheb Street. Under her desk's glass is a poster of the Virgin Mary and on the wall is an image of St. George slaying the mythical dragon.

"Sadly, my children are angry with Egypt and want to leave and they don't believe us when I and my husband tell them that things will get better soon. But, personally, I have faith that all this will yield something good for us and the country. We thought the Muslim Brotherhood will rule for 80 years and they are out after just one year. Who would have believed this?" Morsi is a longtime leader of the Brotherhood.

At least seven Christians have been killed since the coup, one of them in Assiut. Scores have been injured.

View gallery."

A priest purifies the church with incense during prayer at Al-Mahraq monastery in Assiut, Upper Egyp …

This week, in a village in the province of Minya south of Cairo, a pro-military song playing on a coffee shop radio sparked an argument between a Muslim and a Christian, and the next day a mob of thousands ransacked Christian homes and stores and tried to storm a church. At least 18 people were injured and arrests warrants issued for 35.

Egypt's Christians used to shun politics, but since the Arab Spring of early 2011 they have started to demand a say in the country's direction. They took it to a new level during Morsi's year in office and the empowerment of his Islamist allies. Tawadros, the Coptic Christian pope installed last year, openly criticized the president and told Christians they were free to actively participate in politics.

It was a risky gamble for a minority that has long felt vulnerable, with its most concentrated communities, like the one in Assiut, living in the same rural areas where the most vehement Islamists hold sway.

During Morsi's year in office, some of his hard-line allies increasingly spoke of Christians as enemies of Islam and warned them to remember they are a minority. When the wave of protests against Morsi began on June 30, media supportive of his Muslim Brotherhood depicted the movement as dominated by Christians.

Still, at the ancient convent marking the last spot where the Holy Family is thought to have stayed before it left Egypt, hundreds gathered this week for an annual festival in upbeat mood. Children played, families picnicked, people lined up to buy blessed bread.

View gallery."

A supporter of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi paints graffiti on the wall of a Coptic Chur …

The experiments are expected to create lab strains of H7N9 bird flu that spread more easily between people. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

sage: Unbeknown to the wider public, most pandemics are man-made and possibly created in the interest of eugenics. But, as we know, many have been “handled” or neutralised by our Star Family. Nevertheless, I found this article to be a twofold revelation: that ‘scientists’ would blatantly announce they have the capability to genetically engineer diseases but also that they would further admit that they are planning to “create lab strains that spread more easily between people”. No matter what kind of “bird generated, trying to save mankind” spin they put on it, I feel it’s just another last gasp attempt by the cabal at provoking fear.

By Ian Sample, The Guardian – August 7, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/n4zmngu

Scientists say genetically modifying the H7N9 virus in the lab will help drive efforts to develop pandemic drugs and vaccines.

Scientists have unveiled plans to genetically engineer a lethal strain of bird flu to understand how it could mutate in nature and trigger a catastrophic pandemic.

The H7N9 bird flu virus has infected more than 130 people and killed 43 since it emerged in China in March. The first strong evidence that the virus can spread from person to person appeared in the British Medical Journal this week.

While the closure of poultry markets has brought the outbreak under control, researchers fear infections may rise again in the winter.

As long as the virus is in circulation, it can transform into a strain that is more dangerous, through natural mutations or by mixing with other strains of bird flu in animals such as cattle and pigs.

Scientists outlined their plans to work with the virus in joint letters to the journals Nature and Science on Wednesday. The 22 signatories include Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam and Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Work by the scientists on another strain of bird flu sparked security fears last year.

The controversial experiments are expected to make the H7N9 virus more virulent and increase its ability to spread between people. But researchers argue the work is crucial for public health because it will drive research into drugs and vaccines, and help identify dangerous mutations to watch out for in the wild.

“The pandemic risk rises exponentially should these viruses acquire the ability to transmit readily among humans,” the authors write. They go on to describe a raft of experiments that should reveal how the virus might adapt to humans, spread more rapidly, become more virulent and develop resistance to frontline drugs.

Scientists already track mutations in bird flu viruses found in patients, but this kind of surveillance does not give health authorities time to respond if they find a pandemic strain. The proposed experiments should give scientists early warning of the kinds of mutations that could spark a pandemic.

The work will be done in high-security laboratories to minimise the risk of the modified viruses escaping and causing precisely the kind of devastation the research aims to prevent.

Last year, the US government’s biosecurity watchdog raised the alarm over similar work on another bird flu virus called H5N1. The panel feared that details of the experiments by Fouchier and Kawaoka could help terrorists create lethal viruses as bioweapons.

Their papers were eventually published, but tougher review procedures have since been brought in by US authorities on “dual use research”, along with updated guidelines to ensure the work is done under tight security.

Fouchier told the Guardian that he and the other scientists announced their plans to be as open as possible about their research. Much of the work can continue under European funding without further scrutiny.

Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London, said it would be “ludicrous” not to do the experiments. “They allow us to see how the virus might evolve and what we can expect from nature,” she said. “This type of work is like fitting glasses for someone who can’t see well – without the glasses the vision is blurred and uncertain, with them you can focus on the world and deal with it a lot more easily.”

Heavy rains unleash deadly Midwest flooding

Heavy rains unleash deadly, damaging flash floods throughout Midwest; worst may be yet to come

Torrential rains wreak havoc on the nation's midsection — and the worst may be yet to come.
'It was like a raging river'