Ukraine fails to stop careening towards possible revolution – Terrorist bombs rock Egypt – Thousands stand up to extremists in Vienna – And a lot more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:
A promise from Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich to reshuffle his cabinet failed to satisfy protesters in Kiev. They expanded the barricades, burned tyres, and seized a number of government offices. Earlier in the day, they held a memorial for activist Yuri Verbytsky, who was found dead in woods near Kiev after apparently being abducted, tortured and left to die in the snow.
At least six people are dead and scores more are wounded after Islamists in Egypts stepped up their bombing campaign, attacking sites in Cairo including the Museum of Islamic Art, and the historic Giza district. Another ten died in clashes between the banned Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian Security forces. Angry mobs gathered in the capital, denouncing the bombings and shouting, “Death to the Muslim Brotherhood,” even though other Islamist groups claimed responsibility for some of the blasts.
The Syria peace talks are already in trouble. The first day of talks ended.. without talks. Plans to have the Syrian government and rebel delegations merely sit in the same room even fell through, although a UN envoy insists he’ll get the parties between the same walls at some point. Diplomats say for now they will focus local truces rather than an overall peace deal.
Thousands marched in Vienna, Austria against an annual ball attended by European far-right leaders. They carried banners reading “Nazis Raus” (Nazis Out) and demanded an end to the politics of racial hatred and exclusion. Days earlier, the organisation Jetzt Zeichen Setzen! (Take a Stand Now), which campaigns for remembrance of victims of Nazism, published an open letter signed by six Holocaust survivors opposing the ball, which attracts the like of extremists such as French National Front leader Marine le Pen.
A much, much smaller crowd protested in Tokyo against the annual Dolphin hunt in Taiji, a fishing village several hundred kilometers away. The gruesome process was made infamous in the movie, “The Cove”, and is opposed by many of Japan’s allies as well. The nationalist government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe echoes the rationalizations of the villagers, claiming the hunt is a centuries old tradition, but in reality it started in 1969.
Human rights groups and victims are condemning Peru for ending the investigation into whether former dictator Alberto Fujimori ordered the sterilization of poor, illiterate indigenous women as part of a birth control campaign. Fujimori claims the operations were consensual, the victims say they were tricked or otherwise coerced. An independent congressional investigation in 2002 established that Fujimori’s regime ordered the sterilization of 346,219 women and 24,535 men during his terms in office between 1990 and 2000.
A judge in Texas is ordering a hospital to remove a pregnant, brain-dead woman from artificial life support. Her family says paramedic Marlise Munoz did not want to be kept this way, and the fetus she is carrying is significantly deformed. She suffered pulmonary embolism in November. The hospital claims it couldn’t pull the plug because of Texas’ draconian anti-Reproductive Rights laws. The hospital has until Monday to comply.
A former United States Senate aide committed suicide by hanging, weeks after being arrested and charged for possessing child pornography. 35-year old Jesse Ryan Loskarn was chief of staff to high-ranking republican Lamar Alexander or Tennessee, a former conservative presidential candidate. During his rapid rise in republican circles before his arrest, this accused pedophile helped craft the conservative party’s message of little government intrusion and traditional family values.