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Category: International Affairs,
Kenya must deal with Chinese racial discrimination
A few weeks ago, an investigative journalist revealed that Kenyan workers at the Chinese-built railway were being subjected to repeated incidents of racial discrimination and abuse by their Chinese supervisors. The report also alleged that the China Road and Bridge Corporation, the Chinese conglomerate that operates the 473-kilometer (293 miles) Nairobi-Mombasa railway, was implementing a deliberate segregation policy.
Other allegations were that Chinese nationals were doing jobs that should have been done by Kenyans, and that highly qualified Kenyan staff were assigned minor roles. It’s also alleged that Kenyan workers were segregated from their Chinese colleagues in eating areas, toilets, accommodation and travel. The journalist also uncovered pay disparities on the basis of race. Unfair treatment, long working hours, threats, and harassment were also reported.
Kenya must deal with Chinese racial discrimination — Quartz Africa
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Russian Orthodox Church cuts ties with Constantinople | World news | The Guardian
The Russian Orthodox Church has announced it will break off relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople in a religious schism driven by political friction between Russia and Ukraine.
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church elected on Monday to cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is viewed as the leading authority for the world’s 300 million Orthodox worshippers.
The split is a show of force by Russia after a Ukrainian church was granted independence.
Last week Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the “first among equals” of eastern Orthodox clerics, granted autocephaly (independence) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which previously answered to Moscow.
Russian Orthodox Church cuts ties with Constantinople | World news | The Guardian
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Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
Migrants have long streamed out of Central America in large numbers, increasingly as family units, in attempts to flee poverty and violence.
The “Northern Triangle” of Central America — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador —rank among the most violent in the world, though homicide rates have fallen in recent years. Drug cartels move illegal merchandise through the region and street gangs control neighborhoods and routinely charge residents “rent” (a euphemism for extortion payments).
Caravans of migrants regularly convene as participants seek safety in numbers. Undocumented migrants transiting Mexico often fall victim to crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and rape — often committed by criminal gangs, drug cartels, coyotes and crooked public officials.
Analysts say most migrants are not dissuaded by the risk of the road and ignore admonishments from the U.S. government, or anti-immigrant sentiments that appear to be more prevalent in the country, because the situation is that dire in their own countries.
“Many Hondurans are or were leaving behind gang or domestic violence in marginalized neighborhoods, where government services are lacking and the day to day life may be controlled by the dominant gang,” said Stephanie Leutert director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.
Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
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Sabarimala: Mobs attack women near India Hindu temple
Crowds of agitated protesters in Kerala attacked female devotees, many of whom turned back as a result.
Several people including an old woman were injured as crowds threw stones at vehicles and attacked police officers.
…But while most Hindu temples allow women to enter as long as they are not menstruating, the Sabarimala temple was unusual in that it was one of the few that do not allow women in a broad age group to enter at all.
This was overturned by the Supreme Court last month, with judges observing that “the right to practice religion is available to both men and women”.
Sabarimala: Mobs attack women near India Hindu temple – BBC News
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I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake
I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake | Life and style | The Guardian
Queen Saga, long may she reign.
Audio proves gruesome details of Khashoggi killing, Turkey says
“They severed his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded and dismembered him,” the paper reported. Turkish officials confirmed details that first appeared in the country’s pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak.
Audio proves gruesome details of Khashoggi killing, Turkey says – AOL News
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French Plastic Use: Key facts and figures
The production of plastic packaging has been increasing since the summer of 2013, with growth of 2.4% in 2016, and an acceleration in the first half of 2017: + 3.5%. By comparison, output of manufacturing industries across all sectors stagnated in 2016 (+ 0.3%) and grew by 1.7% year on year in the first half of 2017.
…Packaging is the main plastics user sector with nearly 45.1% consumed in France and 39.9% in Europe (source PlasticsEurope 2017).
Key facts and figures – Elipso
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How Did These Other Individuals End Up Buried With Elite Germanic Warriors?
A 7th century burial site in Niederstotzingen, Germany. It was clear that the individuals were high status, and that at least some of the adults were warriors because their graves were stuffed with weapons, armor, jewelry and equestrian gear.
…The Niederstotzingen bodies belonged to the Alemanni, a confederacy of ancient Germanic tribes that were sprinkled across modern-day Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria. The Alemanni …were ultimately brought down by the Franks, another Germanic group, in 497 A.D. To reflect integration with the Franks, the Alemanni started to inter their dead in elaborate graves known as Adelsgrablege.
…Six of the individuals appeared to be from northern and eastern European populations, and five of these individuals were directly related to one another. Seven bodies, reports Michael Price of Science, were completely unrelated. Two seemed to come from southern Europe, possibly the Mediterranean.
…“Folklore from the time has tales of tribes exchanging hostage children that are raised as their own,” he says.
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New archeological research forces historians to reconsider the story of Iceland’s settlement
Written sources suggest the first settler to arrive in Iceland was Ingólfur Arnarson who settled in Reykjavík in the year 874. New research suggests the first people arrived as much as 100 years earlier.
…Bjarni Einarsson, the archeologist in charge of the dig told the local TV station Stöð 2 that the younger of the two houses was built on the ruins of the older structure, which measures as much as 40 meters (130 ft). Both structures are located beneath the “settlement layer”, a layer of volcanic tephra that fell sometime in the years 869-73, making both older than the “official” time of settlement which began in 874, according to the Icelandic Sagas and the Book of Settlement, medieval sources on the Viking Age and the settlement of Iceland.
…The very name of the farm Stöð and the fjord Stöðvarfjörður seem to support this theory: Stöð translates as camp, station or base.
Such seasonal camps could have been used for decades before permanent settlement began. Bjarni believes they played a key role in the settlement of Iceland:
“People would have come here to work part of the year, producing goods during summer to take home in the fall. They would have taken these goods home, as well as information about this new land. Based on this information people would then have been able to make an informed decision to settle here permanently.”
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