With elections looming on April 6, a new party is trying to win over Hungary's largest ethnic minority, the Roma, a community scarred by deep poverty and racism and disillusioned by traditional politics.

"Until now, the Roma have never had credible leaders," said Aladar Horvath, a prominent rights campaigner and leader of the new Hungarian Gypsy Party (MCP), at a recent party event.

"If we stick together, we can fix our problems. No one else will," the soft-spoken 49-year-old told AFP in Ozd, a rusting former industrial town right on the Slovakian border.

Vast steelworks once employed thousands of Roma in Ozd, a town of about 34,000 inhabitants, but today, they lie derelict.

Widespread unemployment and poverty has fuelled mistrust against the Roma, and far-right party Jobbik -- the country's third biggest party -- is building on that anger.

Its posters are plastered across the town, while in its manifesto, it vows to stop "Gypsy crime", create ghettoes for Roma "deviants" and place "difficult" Roma children in special live-in schools.

But Horvath is pledging to fight that.

Campaigning in a ramshackle community hall, he told a crowd of about 100: "I have brought good news, you have something and someone to vote for!"

"We will defend ourselves from Jobbik, prevent our children from starving and guarantee free education in unsegregated schools, and normal jobs," he said.

Sometimes called Gypsies, the Roma account for around 8-9 percent of Hungary's 10-million population.

But only four Roma MPs are in the outgoing 386-seat parliament, and three of them are from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz Party.

The fourth, Agnes Osztolykan, of the green LMP party, often complained of being a lone voice battling against Jobbik's anti-Roma rhetoric.

Battered by poverty and discrimination, many Roma harbour deep mistrust of politicians.

"Always empty promises, then they just stuff their pockets once elected," said Galambacz Peterne, a 40-year-old Roma mother of two, who lives on the outskirts of Ozd.

Published: 31 March 2014

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When mobile social app Yik Yak swept into Auburn University, some of the coolest kids were quick to start posting on it.

But no one knows who is saying what because the comments are anonymous.

"It spread pretty fast," says Nickolaus Hines, a junior at the school in the US state of Alabama.

"The majority of things are jokes or things which are obviously funny," said the 21-year-old. But "some ... are pretty mean."

Yik Yak, which allows smartphone users to see posts in a radius up to five miles (eight kilometers), is part of a flurry of new apps that offer novel ways to interact on social networks without revealing one's identity.

But while some laud these new platforms, others blame them for false rumors, stress and even suicide.

"Anonymity is a beautiful thing," Yik Yak claims. "It gives people a blank slate to work from, effectively removing all preconceptions about them."

Apps of this kind are certainly raising eyebrows in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Secret, launched last year, recently raised $8.6 million in venture capital.

Published: 30 March 2014

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Recovering the black boxes from the Malaysia Airlines jet that crashed into the southern Indian Ocean is a Herculean task, even with the wealth of sophisticated equipment being deployed.

Any hope of finding survivors from the missing plane was extinguished on Monday when Malaysia's prime minister announced satellite data showed MH370's journey had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean" off the west coast of Australia.

Seventeen days after the Boeing 777 disappeared, distraught relatives were forced to accept what they had long feared -- that the 239 passengers and crew on board were never coming home.

 

The plane's two black boxes are key to solving the mystery of why the plane veered so far off course and its final fate, but experts say that the search for them will be long and difficult.

In theory, the black boxes containing flight data and cockpit voice recordings will continue emitting tracking signals for about another two weeks, with an average audible range of two to three kilometres (nearly two miles).

But with no debris in the remote search area confirmed as linked to the plane, it is still a case of looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Picking up a signal from the beacon seems an outside chance," said a member of the team that hunted the black boxes from Air France flight AF447 that crashed in the Atlantic in 2009.

- Vast search zone -

The investigator, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that in the Air France case the signals were not heard at all. One transmitter had failed and the other had fallen off on impact and was never found, he said.

"So I'm fairly pessimistic about this approach," he said, recommending that the immediate priority should be to catalogue every piece of debris that is discovered.

 

 

Published: 25 March 2014

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Almost  10 years ago Vladimir Putin came to Ukraine. Then on Ukrainian television, he campaigned for the government candidate - Viktor Yanukovich. Former intelligence bet on double sitting felon. Russian media, significant sums political strategists, even Orthodox priests were thrown out to bring him to power. However, the Ukrainian people took to the streets peacefully protesting against the rigged elections. Then we all thought that the Orange Revolution triumphed and Ukraine had a good vaccination against tyranny.

Several years passed, and Yanukovych , using , strife between Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko , still came in the corridors of power . Step by step, he firmly advancing steadily on the rights and liberties of Ukrainians , stifled free press , tearing apart the opposition faction in parliament. His son, in a short time , became a billionaire , and journalists excitedly wrote about the shadow corruption schemes related to the son of the head of state. Behind their backs Yanukovych , rubbing his hands with satisfaction , stood Putin . Ukraine gradually transformed into Belarus, further and further moving away from the civilized world toward Asian dictatorship.

Almighty  Putin*s plans  confused  by ordinary students who came to Kiev*s main square * Maidan* in November last year . Yanukovych , enticed cash loans from Moscow , just refused to sign the document on the EU-Ukraine Association . Logic dictator understandable, because Europeans demanded to release opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, fair elections and radical reforms . Russia also gave money and instead asked only to lay his knees . Rebellious youth like animals dispersed special squad "Berkut" . Only Yanukovych , like Putin , greatly miscalculated. Ukrainian people refused to cave . Less than a day after the massacre , on Independence gathered hundreds of thousands of people.

Day after day, people's resistance was growing stronger . Police catch activists ridiculed them , scurrying around Kiev authorities hired criminals who kidnap leaders protesters. And the people became more and more in the capital of their supporters came from all regions . In the 20- degree frost protesters poured water from a point blank shot machines , they were beated upc,snipers fired on them. Increased the number of deaths , which exceeded one hundred . However, the Ukrainian people was held , and he proved that no one can break his desire for freedom. Yanukovych in a hurry fled from his palace , leaving adrift huge amount of jewelry , vintage cars and other luxury items . He flew to Russia , and from the traitor refused even members of his party , formerly zealously supporting it .

Putin realized that he may lose Ukraine forever. Strong, rich state, where people are not jailed from - for a poster in his hand, and next side  to Russia, this is a nightmare for the master of the Kremlin. Indeed, in this case Russian can begin to ask questions, be interested in: "And why Ukrainians, without oil and gas, live better than us?". Naturally it is an ordinary revenge people who mistook him twice in a row all the cards.

Published: 25 March 2014

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In the dark of night in Crimea, Anastasiya steps into a pool of yellowish light from a street lamp.

The weary 30-year-old with mousy blonde hair looks furtively side to side and her voice falls to a whisper at the sounds of passersby.

"There is not going to be any democracy here. Not with Putin in charge," said Anastasiya, who lives in a housing block on the scrappy western outskirts of Simferopol -- the main city on the Kremlin-ruled peninsula.

"I want to leave but I can't sell my flat. What am I going to do? I just don't have the money," the mother of two said in an interview with AFP.

Ukraine's government estimates there are 25,000 people in Crimea like Anastasiya who want to flee the region after its Russian takeover.

Some of them are already leaving, moving in with friends and relatives in other parts of the country.

The government has set up special hotlines for people fleeing to find jobs and receive pensions, although the practicalities of uprooting and moving to a new city can be daunting.

Before a March 16 disputed referendum on breaking off from Ukraine and joining Russia, there were a few isolated pro-unity rallies in Crimea.

Published: 24 March 2014

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About a million children, double the previous estimate, fall ill with tuberculosis every year, said a study Monday that also gave the first tally of drug-resistant TB among the young.

"Many cases of tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis disease are not being detected in children," it said.

The team's computer model, based on population data and previous studies, suggests 999,800 people aged under 15 fell sick with TB in 2010.

Around 40 percent of the cases were in Southeast Asia and 28 percent in Africa.

"Our estimate of the total number of new cases of childhood TB is twice that estimated by the WHO (World Health Organisation) in 2011, and three times the number of child TB cases notified globally each year," said Ted Cohen from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The research, published in The Lancet, coincides with World TB Day, which places the spotlight on a disease that claims some 1.3 million lives each year.

The team estimated that nearly 32,000 children in 2010 had multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), meaning the strain was impervious to frontline drugs isoniazid and rifampin and was thus harder and costlier to treat.

This is the first estimate of MDR-TB among children under 15, who constitute a quarter of the global population.

Children are at a higher risk of disease and death from MDR-TB, but react well to medication. They are harder to diagnose, partly because smaller children cannot cough up sputum samples needed for laboratory tests.

Published: 24 March 2014

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As the conflict between Ukraine and Russia escalates to a "military stage" after Moscow's move to claim the Black Sea region of Crimea, hundreds of Ukrainians have mobilised to fight the battle on another front -- the media.

Journalists, advertising executives and students have signed up as volunteers to join a propaganda war against Russia, which they accuse of deliberately misleading the public using wide-reaching state-controlled news agencies, television channels and newspapers.

"Ukraine has been losing the war that's being waged in the media. Russians have been very consciously, deliberately pursuing the strategy of misinforming the worldwide community," Yaryna Klyuchkovska, one of the coordinators of the recently established Ukraine Crisis Media Centre, told AFP.

"Our weapon is information... We need to mobilise to provide a counterweight," added her colleague Oxana Melnychuk.

The centre set up by PR and advertising executives holds daily news conferences with ministers and activists, and publishes analyses that counter the Russian point of view.

Another group of mostly journalists and students have meanwhile created a fact-checking website called StopFake.org that examines official statements and news reports, and if necessary, sets the record straight.

Both information resources quickly gained a wide following in the social media sphere, acquiring a reputation like that of EuromaidanPR -- the official voice of the protests that broke out in Kiev in November and led to the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych.

Russian troops subseqently took control of Crimea, and on Tuesday Putin signed a treaty absorbing the flashpoint peninsula, while Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned that "the conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage".

Yevhen Fedchenko, who is director of Kiev's Mohyla School of Journalism and one of the coordinators of StopFake.org, said the aim of the website is to fill the "total vacuum of information" from the new Ukrainian authorities.

Published: 20 March 2014

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The 65th edition of the Netherlands' massive flower show at Keukenhof, the world's largest bulb garden with over seven million flowers, opened to the public on Thursday.

"The park is now open for two months and we received our first coachload of visitors this morning, from Singapore," Keukenhof spokeswoman Annemarie Gerards-Adriaansens told AFP.

Each year the park has a different theme, usually based on a country, and this year's theme is simply the Netherlands.

Published: 20 March 2014

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US Navy Seals have boarded and taken control of a North Korea-flagged tanker that had loaded crude oil at a port held by rebels in eastern Libya, the Pentagon said Monday.

Published: 17 March 2014

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Dutch food and cosmetics giant Unilever said on Sunday it has bought a majority stake in Chinese water purification company Qinyuan in its biggest investment in the country in a decade.

"We are delighted to be making this strategic investment –- a majority stake in Qinyuan -– our biggest acquisition in China for more than 10 years," Unilever chief executive Paul Polman said in a statement.

Rotterdam-based Unilever, which last year clocked up a net profit of 4.84 billion euros ($6.56 billion), declined to put an amount on the deal or disclose the size of its stake.

Qinyuan last year made almost 140 million euros in sales in China's rapidly-expanding water purification market, which has grown more than 20 percent a year over the last three years, Unilever said.

Published: 09 March 2014

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