Footage from within one of Australia's offshore detention facilities for asylum seekers reached its first international audience this week in London, with one of the filmmakers highlighting the plight of his co-director who remains inside the camp.

"Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time" portrays life within Papua New Guinea's Manus Island camp, built as part of Australia's immigration crackdown which has seen asylum seekers who try to reach the country by boat taken to an offshore site.

The footage was shot on a smartphone by Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian who has spent four years in the camp since the boat he was trying to reach Australia on was intercepted by the authorities.

Published: 10 October 2017

Read more ...

Personal care brand Dove has apologised for an advert that showed a black woman removing a top to reveal a white woman underneath, following accusations of racism.

The three-second video clip appeared in the United States on the social networking site Facebook.

Dove said on Twitter that it had "missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully" and deeply regretted any offence caused.

The body wash ad showed a black woman removing her top, revealing a white woman underneath. She then took off her t-shirt, showing a third woman underneath.

"Ready for a Dove shower? Sulfate free with 100 percent gentle cleansers, our body wash gets top marks from dermatologists," the advert said.

The Dove brand, owned by Rotterdam-based food and consumer products giant Unilever, which is listed on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, apologised after several people on social media deemed the advert racist.

Published: 09 October 2017

Read more ...

The case of Vladimir Kokorev, a Spanish businessmen, has moved beyond the territory of the Canary Islands and even Spain. At a roundtable event held at the European Parliament in Brussels 28 September, the Kokorev case was called a Europe-wide affair as the case now faces gross violations of law and human rights, and this takes place in a EU country. The roundtable conference was organized by MEP Fulvio Martusciello, Chair Delegation for relations with Israel.

Vladimir Kokorev (66), his wife Yulia (68) and their son Igor (35) have been kept in a Las Palmas (the Canaries, Spain) prison for two years  without being lodged any charges and without any hope for fair justice. The family are charged with money laundering on behalf of Obiang Nguema, President of Equatorial Guinea, and for almost two years the family have been in custody with their case classified. It later emerged that the secrecy was required for the investigation bodies to conceal the absence of proof and evidence of Kokorevs’ guilt.

Ana Isabel de Vega Serrano, investigative judge at Las Palmas Court No 5, who issued an international arrest warrant for the Kokorevs, apparently thought that the case being classified gives her the power to keep people in prison for as long as she would want. Kokorevs’ defense lawyers who spoke up at the roundtable conference and later at the press conference deduced that the case had been masterminded by some interested parties.

Published: 02 October 2017

Read more ...

Four children and an adult were killed when a fire engulfed a social housing block in the French city of Mulhouse on Sunday night, authorities said.

Eight others were injured, three critically, in the blaze that began in the basement of a four-storey building in the northern Bourtzwiller district, the fire service said.

The fire broke out shortly before midnight.

Published: 02 October 2017

Read more ...

On September 28 2017 at 10am, the Conference Room of European’s People Party will hold a round table on the matter “Justice, Human Rights and Due Procedure in EU – the Case of Vladimir Kokorev,” presided by MEP Fulvio Martusciello.

Vladimir Kokorev, his wife Yulia and their son Igor, have been held for over 2 years in a prison of Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain) on a suspicion of money laundering in favor of the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang. Despite the unusually prolonged detention without a trial, and the fact the investigation has supposedly started back in 2009, Mr. Kokorev and his family has not yet been formally indicted, nor presented with evidence of any wrongdoing.

Moreover, the attorneys of Kokorev family have provided the judge in charge of investigation with exhaustive documentary proof of legality of transactions deemed “suspicious” by the prosecution office of Las Palmas, and thus attesting to his innocence.

Furthermore, the case itself presents strong evidence suggesting severe police manipulation, such as deliberate mistranslations and misrepresentation of documents pertaining to the case, interference with IT devices and the reliance on a witness indicted for embezzlement and forgery.

Published: 13 September 2017

Read more ...

Azerbaijan's ruling elite ran a secret 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) slush fund to pay off European politicians and launder money, according to an investigation by a group of European newspapers published Tuesday.

The fund operated for two years from 2012 to 2014 through bank accounts of four shell companies registered in Britain, according to the investigation by papers including The Guardian and France's Le Monde and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Nicknamed the "Azerbaijan Laundromat", the origin of the fund is unclear "but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev", the report said.

Published: 05 September 2017

Read more ...

An Australian woman who fled in fear from the Barcelona attack has told how she was caught up in two other recent terror incidents in Paris and London during her European travels.

"I was in London at the time of the London Bridge attack, and we were also at Notre Dame the day the attack took place there too," Julia Monaco, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She recounted how she and her friends took refuge inside a shop as crowds ran from a vehicle as it ploughed through pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon.

Published: 22 August 2017

Read more ...

An Australian woman who fled in fear from the Barcelona attack has told how she was caught up in two other recent terror incidents in Paris and London during her European travels.

"I was in London at the time of the London Bridge attack, and we were also at Notre Dame the day the attack took place there too," Julia Monaco, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She recounted how she and her friends took refuge inside a shop as crowds ran from a vehicle as it ploughed through pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon.

Published: 20 August 2017

Read more ...

President Donald Trump on Friday turned up the heat on North Korea, warning Pyongyang that the US military is "locked and loaded" in the event of a misstep by the totalitarian state, despite mounting international calls for restraint.

Trump launched another salvo at the regime of Kim Jong-Un to keep its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in check, as the North's official news agency accused the US of driving the situation "to the brink" of war.

The latest Twitter threat from the Republican billionaire leader came as concerns swelled worldwide that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict on the Korean peninsula.

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!" Trump wrote from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, where he is spending two weeks.

The official KCNA news service countered in an editorial that "Trump is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," calling the US "the mastermind of nuclear threat, the heinous nuclear war fanatic."

Earlier Friday in Beijing, China -- Pyongyang's main diplomatic ally -- had urged Trump and Kim to tone down the saber-rattling.

Published: 11 August 2017

Read more ...

A clean-up operation was under way in Hong Kong Monday after a massive palm oil spillage from a ship collision in mainland Chinese waters clogged some of its most popular beaches.

The coast was coated with rancid-smelling sticky white clumps of the oil as it washed in Sunday, with 11 beaches still closed to swimmers Monday in the height of a summer heatwave.

There are still lumps of the solidified oil on the beaches and the sea water in some areas is greasy.

Hong Kong comprises more than 200 islands with glittering bays, but there are increasing concerns about pollution and rubbish blighting its shores.

On Pui O beach, on the island of Lantau, cleaners raked through the famous black sand Monday morning retrieving lumps of palm oil mixed with other trash, from plastic water bottles to children's toys.

Although there is still a red flag up and the beach is officially closed, some people still ventured into the water.

One 61-year-old surfer, who gave his name as Simon and is a regular at the beach, said there was still oil in the water.

"It got under my feet and on my board. It's all slippery," he told AFP.

"Yesterday there was big chunks along the beach and in the water."

He added that there was often rubbish on the beach, often left by visitors.

"I live here now, I have to put up with it. I don't like it," said Simon, who is an airport worker originally from Hawaii.

Beach announcements told determined swimmers at the closed beaches to get out of the water Monday.

But Agnes Mercado, 49, a regular at secluded South Bay on Hong Kong Island, was determined to take her morning dip, although she said she would not submerge her upper bod

"Of course I'm worried about it, but it's even worse than this on some days," she said of the pollution.

Published: 07 August 2017

Read more ...