Newscast for Friday, February 1, 2013
Turkey: Suicide Bombing at U.S. Embassy in Ankara A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, killing at least two people. The attack struck one of the country’s most heavily secured diplomatic compounds, raising immediate questions about embassy security protocols in…
Profile: Russian Painter and Activist Elena Andreyevna Osipova
ro-democracy and human rights rallies in St. Petersburg, Russia. Some activists have taken to calling her “the grandmother of the opposition.” A Decade of Solitary Protest Elena Andreyevna Osipova, 69, first stepped into opposition activism in the years following Vladimir Putin’s initial rise to power, and her presence…
Azerbaijan Hosts European Games Despite Criticism of the Country’s Human Rights Record
The first-ever European Games opened in Baku this week with an extravagant ceremony featuring a Lady Gaga performance and a flaming torch lit by President Ilham Aliyev — a spectacle human rights organizations say was designed to project a progressive, modern image for a government that has spent…
Chicago Hunger Strike Ends but Fight for Dyett High School Continues
Twelve Chicago parents, grandmothers, and community organizers ended a 34-day hunger strike this week over the fate of Dyett High School — but the underlying fight over what kind of school will actually reopen in the Bronzeville neighborhood is far from settled. A School District’s Decade of Disinvestment…
Clashes Continue in Eastern Ukraine, Life for Civilians Stark
A ceasefire that had brought a fragile calm to eastern Ukraine for much of the spring collapsed into renewed heavy fighting this month, as clashes around the government-held town of Marinka and shelling across Donetsk pushed the death toll from more than a year of conflict past 6,400…
Opponents of Planned Louisiana Pipeline Document 144 Pipeline Accidents in 2016
As the Dakota Access Pipeline fight in North Dakota reaches a lull, a new pipeline battle is taking shape 1,500 miles away in the swamps of southern Louisiana — and opponents there are borrowing directly from the playbook that made Standing Rock a national story. A Map Built…
Data Breaches Targeting Retailers Affect Millions of Customers
The arts-and-crafts retailer Michaels announced Thursday that a malware attack may have compromised the data of some 2.6 million customers between last May and January — the latest in a string of major retail data breaches that has kept Congress scrambling for months to figure out what, if…
Indian Point Ruling Could Lead to More Regulation of Nuclear Fire Safety Exemptions
A federal appeals court has ruled that regulators cannot keep exempting the Indian Point nuclear plant from fire safety rules behind closed doors — a decision that could force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open a practice it has used at dozens of plants nationwide to public scrutiny…
African Farmers Seek Creative Solutions to Cut Back on Food Waste
Across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the biggest threat to a farmer’s harvest often isn’t drought, pests, or a failed crop — it’s what happens after the harvest is already in. Smallholder farmers across the continent lose more than 30 percent of their fresh fruits and vegetables to spoilage…
Quetzal Boycotts Fiesta Shalom
The East Los Angeles-based band Quetzal, known for blending Chicano rock with son jarocho and a long history of politically engaged songwriting, withdrew from a scheduled performance at an event called Fiesta Shalom — a decision consistent with the cultural boycott principles the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions)…
