World News Thread & Breaking News!!

[bd popeye]

this happened on Sunday..very tragic.. my condolences go out to the victims families.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) -- A fire ripped through a clothing factory near the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, killing at least 117 people and sending workers jumping out of the multistory building.

At least 200 people were injured as they rushed to get out of the factory in Ashulia, police said.

Firefighters battled to contain the raging blaze that started Saturday night on the first floor of the nine-story building and spread to other floors, leaving hundreds of workers, mostly women, trapped.

Overpass collapse kills 11 in Bangladesh; protests erupt

Officials said some 2,000 people were working in the factory as the fire began, but it was unclear how many had been rescued.

The fire department said rescue operations have been very difficult because the factory was packed with fabrics, yarn and cotton, the fire department said. It said the death toll might rise because firefighters could not enter some floors of the building.

Scores of people were anxiously waiting outside the burning factory in search of their relatives.

Bilkis Akhter, mother of teenage factory worker Munni Akhter, said she had checked with the hospitals and police stations but did not find her daughter, who had been working on the fourth floor.

Bangladesh's ready-made garments make up 80% of the country's $24 billion in annual exports.

The country has about 4,500 garment factories that make clothes for stores including Tesco, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Kohl's and Carrefour. The sector earned $19 billion this year as of June.

The state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha recently reported that some 6,000 people die every year in fires in Bangladesh.

Follow up stories;

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More than 100 years ago in New York City on March 25th 1911 the

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took place. Very similar conditions. 146 young women lost their lives.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

On the lighter side of the news the Onion Has Come out with there pick of 2012's Sexiest Man Alive, And CHINA LIKE!

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Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive For 2012 [UPDATE]
NOVEMBER 14, 2012 | ISSUE 48•46 | MORE NEWS

The Onion is proud to announce that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, 29, has officially been named the newspaper’s Sexiest Man Alive for the year 2012.

With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true. Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper’s editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile.

“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” Onion Style and Entertainment editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel said. “And that’s the quality that makes him the sort of man women want, and men want to be. He’s a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down.”

Added Blake-Zweibel, “Ri Sol-ju is one lucky lady, that’s for sure!”

With today’s announcement, Kim joins the ranks of The Onion’s prior “Sexiest Man Alive” winners, including:

2011: Bashar al-Assad
2010: Bernie Madoff
2009: Charles and David Koch (co-winners)
2008: Ted Kaczynski
2007: T. Herman Zweibel
The Onion’s commemorative “Sexiest Man Alive” issue will be available on newsstands everywhere this Friday and contains a full 16-page spread on Kim.

UPDATE: For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.

And the People's Daily is a little Redder then normal.

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The official voice of the Chinese Communist Party appears to have been had.

The People’s Daily newspaper, which for more than six decades has sternly spouted the party line, on Tuesday posted on its website a 55-photo slideshow dedicated to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Eun. The occasion: The satirical newspaper the Onion earlier this month declared the double-chinned Mr. Kim the “sexiest man alive for 2012.”

The slideshow – which begins with a photo of Mr. Kim astride a dappled gray, looking stoically into the distance – quotes liberally from the Onion and offers no evidence that a tongue is anywhere in the vicinity of a cheek. “With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman’s dream come true,” the text below the slideshow says, citing the Onion.

“He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time,” it quotes Onion Style and Entertainment Editor Marissa Blake-Zweibel as saying. Longtime readers of the Onion will note she shares a name with the fictitious T. Herman Zweibel, who the Onion claims served in a number of editorial positions at the paper for more than a century until 2001, when he was launched into space. (Mr. Zweibel’s once-weekly column has appeared only sporadically since then.)

The text of the slideshow stopped there, omitting past winners of the Onion’s sexiest man alive award, which include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, convicted investor Bernard Madoff, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Mr. Zweibel himself.

The People’s Daily posted the slideshow in both English and Chinese. The Onion’s role as a humor newspaper is widely known in the English-speaking world but is little-known in China, and the Chinese version doesn’t offer a clue to readers that what they’re reading is satire.

It isn’t clear what the People’s Daily editors were thinking. They couldn’t be reached for comment late Tuesday.

To be fair, the People’s Daily website can be a saucier read than its staid print version. (Sample headline from Tuesday’s overseas print edition: “India Should Resist the Impulse to Engage in Trade Protectionism.”) It is operated by People.cn Co., a publicly listed company that is controlled by the People’s Daily but has its own profit and audience targets and competes with a number of digital platforms that have popped up in China in recent years. Recent audience-grabbing features on the website and in other People’s Daily-associated sites include photo slideshows of attractive women at this month’s Communist Party Congress, China’s top 10 nude models and a group that claims to be China’s national pole-dancing team.

This also isn’t the first time a Chinese newspaper has mistaken the Onion for a legitimate news source. In 2002, the Beijing Evening News caused English-speaking expats around the country to slap their foreheads in disbelief after it plagiarized an Onion story that said U.S. Congress had threatened to relocate to Memphis or Charlotte unless Washington D.C. built a new Capitol building with better parking and more concession stands. According to the Associated Press, the newspaper’s international news editor at the time bristled at the suggestion he should run a correction. “How can you prove it’s not correct?” he said, according to the AP.

Nor are Chinese newspapers the only organizations to be fooled by the Onion’s brand of satire. In 2009, for example, two Bangladeshi newspapers were forced to apologize after running a story, based on a piece in the Onion, that cited Neil Armstrong as saying the U.S. moon landings were a hoax.

And in 2011, according to the New York Times, the U.S. Capitol Police launched an investigation into the Onion after the fake newspaper posted messages to its Twitter feed saying U.S. congressmen were holding 12 children hostage inside the Capitol building.

Multiple calls to the People’s Daily website rang unanswered Tuesday night. It isn’t clear how Pyongyang will react to the slideshow. China is North Korea’s chief economic benefactor and a staunch ally amid international pressure for Pyongyang to curb its nuclear weapons ambitions.

[UPDATE: The Onion has included a note at the end of its story on Mr. Kim directing readers to the People's Daily for additional coverage. "Exemplary reportage, comrades," the note reads.]

[UPDATE 2: This post has been amended to fix a typo in the second-to-last paragraph.]

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China paper carries Onion Kim Jong-un 'heart-throb' spoof

This photo of Kim Jong-un, recently released by North Korean state media, is one of the images that appears in the People's Daily spread

The online version of the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper appears to have fallen for a spoof by the US satirical website, The Onion.

The People's Daily ran a 55-page photo spread of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after he was declared The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012.

He is shown riding horses, holding children and greeting his troops.

The spread is accompanied by tongue-in-cheek quotes from The Onion about the "Pyongyang-born heart-throb".

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-born heart-throb is every woman's dream come true," the People's Daily quoted The Onion as saying.

"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle and, of course, that famous smile."


Chinese social media reaction

Li Kaifu, freelance journalist, on Tencent Weibo says: "It's amazing that the People's Daily doesn't know that the Onion is a satirical website. Now they are the laughing stock of the world media."

On Sina Weibo, internet user Yang Tuer writes: "All the People's Daily did was to carry this satire, and if the readers take it seriously, that's their problem. What People's Daily did wrong was to publish such meaningless content. They brought it on themselves."

Maoxu on Tencent Weibo says: "It serves them (People's Daily) right. They think a joke about Kim Jung-un is serious news. I hope the editors will now stop playing video games at work, and start looking at the world, and improving their standard. What a joke."

"I wouldn't say I'm surprised," Onion editor Will Tracy told the BBC, responding to the People's Daily feature.

"I mean, this kind of thing has happened in different forms before, so it never totally takes us by surprise, although it's a total delight whenever it does happen."

The Onion, which ran its Sexiest Man Alive piece earlier in the month, had an update to its article on Tuesday.

"For more coverage," it wrote," please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."

Paper trail
By around midday on Wednesday, the People's Daily spread appeared to have been removed, with the link to the English version returning an error message.

Yuwen Wu of BBC Chinese says after The Onion published the spoof on 14 November, the story was picked up by the Hong-Kong based ifeng.com. It published a Chinese version on 21 November - but with readers' comments and a clear explanation about the satirical nature of the Onion site.

A Chinese website, Yangzi Wanbao (Yangtse Evening Daily), published a shorter version of the story on the same day, citing ifeng.com as the source, but without the crucial explanation about The Onion.

Guangming Daily then carried the story on 26 November, quoting the Yangtse Evening Daily. The People's Daily in turn published the story on 27 November, citing Guangming Daily as its source.

The Onion said previous winners of its Sexiest Man Alive prize included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and US financial swindler Bernard Madoff, who is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence.

Two months ago, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency was forced to apologise after being taken in by a spoof news item from The Onion which declared rural Americans preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to US President Barack Obama.

It quoted one fictional West Virginian resident as saying he would rather go to a baseball game with Mr Ahmadinejad because "he takes national defence seriously".

Incidentally accourding too the Onion My Weather is 100 Degrees outside with a chance of Armies of Killer Androids.

 

[ManilaBoy45]

PH Refuses to Stamp Chinese E-Passports

By Fat Reyes
INQUIRER.net
5:38 pm | Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will no longer stamp its visas on China’s new electronic passports, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Wednesday.

“This action is being undertaken to avoid the Philippines being misconstrued as legitimizing the nine-dash line (claim) every time a Philippine visa is stamped on such Chinese e-passport,” it said in a statement.

 

[antiterror13]

PH Refuses to Stamp Chinese E-Passports

By Fat Reyes
INQUIRER.net
5:38 pm | Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will no longer stamp its visas on China’s new electronic passports, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Wednesday.

“This action is being undertaken to avoid the Philippines being misconstrued as legitimizing the nine-dash line (claim) every time a Philippine visa is stamped on such Chinese e-passport,” it said in a statement.

It would be simply no Chinese tourists to Philippine, very simple . And no export to China from Philippine as well

 

[joshuatree]

It would be simply no Chinese tourists to Philippine, very simple . And no export to China from Philippine as well

Entirely up to them. I see this as merely a returning of favor with the neologism of WPS. Despite all the accusations of China ratcheting up tensions, it always takes two to tango, more in this situation, and all of them have done provocative actions themselves.

 

[bd popeye]

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Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not announce which town until later this morning.

Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day.

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.

The jackpot swelled to $587.5 million, according to Lottery official Sue Dooley. The two winners will split the jackpot each getting $293.75 million. The cash payout is $192.5 million each.

An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.

"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

This is the 27th win for Missouri, ranking it second in the nation for lottery winners after Indiana, which has 38 wins. Arizona has had 10 Powerball jackpot wins in its history.

Players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.

The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.

The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers. As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.

"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one. Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning this Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."

The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.

When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So, did he buy two tickets this time?

"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

In case you were wondering, this Saturday's Powerball jackpot is starting at $40 million.

ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

 

[Jeff Head]

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IMHO, the lotteries, pretty much all of them, play on people's desire to strike it rich in one big move...it projects false hope to tens of millions and is actually more of a tax on those who are in the least position to afford it because it plays on an almost sure thing that people will spend some of their money...and in too many cases IMHO, far too much of their money to try and hit the jackpot.

It is simply playing on a "gambling" mentality and fervor that takes hold of folks and gets them to take money away from milk, food, clothing, etc. from those who are least able to afford it...but in the hopes of a one in many millions chance to strike it rich.

Sad state of affairs, IMHO...but then again, it is their choice.

But it is funny how on something like this, so many of the very people who push for safety nets and cushions to help folks avoid the consequences in some cases of improper choices they make and what they lead to, are all in favor of this type of foolish choice that drains these very people of their needed resources.

Oh well, there's my contrary post of the day. Carry on.

 

[icbeodragon]

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Reuters) - Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which illegally enter what China considers its territory in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Thursday, a move likely to add to tensions.

The South China Sea is Asia's biggest potential military trouble spot with several Asian countries claiming sovereignty over waters believed to be rich in oil and gas.

The shortest route between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, it has some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. More than half the globe's oil tanker traffic passes through it.

New rules, which come into effect on January 1, will allow Hainan police to board and seize control of foreign ships which "illegally enter" Chinese waters and order them to change course or stop sailing, the official China Daily reported.

"Activities such as entering the island province's waters without permission, damaging coastal defense facilities and engaging in publicity that threatens national security are illegal," the English-language newspaper said.

"If foreign ships or crew members violate regulations, Hainan police have the right to take over the ships or their communication systems, under the revised regulations," it added.

Hainan, which likes to style itself as China's answer to Hawaii or Bali with its resorts and beaches, is the province responsible for administering the country's extensive claims to the myriad islets and atolls in the South China Sea.

The Philippines, which also has claims to parts of the South China Sea, said the move could violate international maritime laws allowing the right of passage and accused Beijing of trying to escalate tension in the area.

"That cannot be. That's a violation of the international passage (rights)," Marine Lieutenant-General Juancho Sabban, commander of military forces in the western Philippines, which covers the contested area.

"That's too much. While we are exerting all peaceful means, that is what they are doing."

Raul Hernandez, a spokesman for the Philippines' foreign ministry, was more circumspect, saying the government was still checking the reports.

"If it is true, it will pose a concern to the Philippines and the international community," he added.

Rex Robles, a retired senior Philippine naval officer and security analyst, said China was just testing the reaction.

"Those warnings are not directed at us. They might be trying to find out how far the United States would react because this could affect freedom of navigation in one of the busiest sea lanes in the world. If this is an official policy announced by Beijing, this is very serious and a cause of concern."

China has said in the past it will respect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and that it has no intention of trying to restrict access to the area's vital shipping lanes for legitimate vessels.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said his government, which says it will brook no outside interference in its sovereignty claims, was perfectly within its rights in allowing police to board vessels in the South China Sea.

"Management of the seas according to the law is a sovereign nation's legitimate right," he told a daily news briefing.

China's assertion of sovereignty over the stretch of water off its south coast and to the east of mainland Southeast Asia has set it directly against Vietnam and the Philippines, while Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also lay claim to parts.

China occasionally detains fishermen, mostly from Vietnam, whom it accuses of operating illegally in Chinese waters, though generally frees them quite quickly.

The China Daily said that the government will also send new maritime surveillance ships to join the fleet responsible for patrolling the South China Sea.

The stakes have risen in the area as the U.S. military shifts its attention and resources back to Asia, emboldening its long-time ally the Philippines and former foe Vietnam to take a tougher stance against Beijing.

China has further angered the Philippines and Vietnam by issuing new passports showing a map depicting China's claims to the disputed waters.

So what would this entail? Boarding Vietnamese and Filipino fishing vessels?
Probably not intended for Japanese guided missile cruisers and American Carriers.
This move will rightly worry all the claimants and is potentially a huge escalation.

 

[jackliu]

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So what would this entail? Boarding Vietnamese and Filipino fishing vessels?
Probably not intended for Japanese guided missile cruisers and American Carriers.
This move will rightly worry all the claimants and is potentially a huge escalation.

Just like how Japan and Philippine boarded Chinese fishing vessel? I don't see you worry about "escalation" when that happened few years ago.

 

[joshuatree]

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Police in Hainan will be authorized to board and search ships that illegally enter the province's waters in 2013, the latest Chinese effort to protect the South China Sea.

Under a set of regulation revisions the Hainan People's Congress approved on Tuesday, provincial border police are authorized to board or seize foreign ships that illegally enter the province's waters and order them to change course or stop sailing.

The full texts of the regulations, which take effect on Jan 1, will soon be released to the public, said Huang Shunxiang, director of the congress's press office.

Activities such as entering the island province's waters without permission, damaging coastal defense facilities, and engaging in publicity that threatens national security are illegal.

If foreign ships or crew members violate regulations, Hainan police have the right to take over the ships or their communications systems, under the revised regulations.

Calling the revisions "significant", Zhuang Guotu, director of the Southeast Asian Center at Xiamen University, said: "It is urgent for China to improve its legal system regarding offshore law enforcement because disputes with other countries are on the rise in the South China Sea.

"Police have clear processes laid out in the new regulations for appraising illegal activities and punishing illegal entry," Zhuang said.

The revisions also emphasized border police should strengthen the patrolling of the waters of Sansha and coordinate with the routine patrols conducted by the country.

My gut feeling is Reuters added their own interpretation with the injection of "what China considers its territory in the disputed South China Sea". I recall China and Vietnam has officially settled on boundary lines in the the Gulf of Tonkin so enforcement of Hainan's waters is fully justified. Not unless Reuters somehow has access to the full text of regulations which has yet to be released to the public.