China arrests 355, rescues 89 from child abduction!

China's Ministry of Public Security said Monday that it conducted the nine-province operation in December after receiving reports of child abductions from southern China's Fujian and Yunnan provinces. The operation  busted nine child abduction gangs, arresting 355 suspects and rescuing 89 children.

The ministry said the child trafficking activities spanned several provinces and that the suspects bought abducted children in provinces including Yunnan and Sichuan and transported them to other provinces, where they were sold for huge profits.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that in one case, a 1-month-old baby boy from Yunnan province was sold for 62,800 yuan ($10,000) to a family in Fujian province. A baby boy could fetch as much as 90,000 yuan ($14,250), Xinhua said.

Despite severe legal punishments that include the death penalty, child trafficking has been a major problem in China. The commerce is highly profitable for the traffickers, the demand is strong, driven partly by the traditional preference for male heirs, a strict one-child policy and ignorance of the law.

In 2011, Chinese police rescued 8,660 abducted children.

Indian Protest, Injured policeman dies!

An Indian policeman who was injured in clashes during the "Gang Rape" protest has died.An Indian policeman who was injured in clashes during a protest sparked by a gang-rape in New Delhi has died, a police spokesman said.

Violence erupted as demonstrators tried to break through police barricades to march on President Pranab Mukherjee's palace.

"The protesters pelted stones at Tomar, he was unconscious for two days and today he died," New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said on Tuesday.

The 47-year-old police constable, Subash Tomar, was deployed at the India Gate monument on Sunday to help control the protests.

He was beaten up by a mob and rushed to hospital by the police.

More than 50 police officers were injured in Sunday's violence as police struggled to quell increasing outrage over sex crimes following the gang-rape of a student.

Police had arrested eight people, including an activist of a newly formed anti-corruption political party, in connection with "the injuries caused to Mr Tomar".

Four South Korean workers kidnapped in Nigeria, freed!

Four South Korean workers kidnapped in Nigeria have been freed!

All Four Hostages were handed over to South Korean officials in the African country late on Friday, Yonhap news agency and YTN TV said.

There was no immediate comment from either the South Korean government or Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Gunmen kidnapped the four working on Hyundai’s operations in the Niger Delta region on Monday.

3 killed in Suicide Bomb Attacks on Airtel and MTN offices in Kano!

  

According to eyewitness report, the first suicide bomber dropped his Golf car at the Airtel office in Malam Kato Square, where the bomb explosion killed one security officer of the company and the bomber.

“The car hits the place at about 8a.m. on Saturday morning, although I don’t know if there were people inside the office but I can confirm to you that one security officer who was standing at the gate when the car came was dead” a source confirmed to Channels TV.

Officials of the state fire service are still trying to extinguish the fire from spreading to the neighbouring business areas.

The second suicide bomber was said to have hit MTN office at Post Road, 30 minutes after the attack on Airtel’s office.

A staff of MTN in Kano, who witnessed the attack and does not want to be identified, told Channels TV that “it was an unsuccessful attack in our office. They wanted to penetrate the office but they could not and they detonated the bomb from the outside.”

The suicide bomber is dead and there are no other casualties at the attack on MTN’s office.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks.

Boko Haram, an Islamic fundamentalist group has in the past launched a number of attacks at transmission mast of telecoms companies, operating in the northern parts of Nigeria.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) after mobilising response agencies to the scene of the early morning explosions in Kano confirmed the “coordinated attacks by suicide bombers at the facilities of two telecom operators in separate locations in Kano Municipality.”

A statement signed by NEMA’s Head of Public Relations, Mr Yushau A. Shuaib, explained that “the attacks which took place this morning were targeted at Airtel office around Mallam Kato Square old Parade Ground of Unknown Soldiers and MTN facility opposite Floor Mill, Malali Road Kano.”

“While securities have further been strengthened in the state, the areas of the attacks have been cordoned off” the statement added.

Funeral today for Ana Marquez-Greene, a Connecticut school shooting victim!

Ana Marquez-Greene

Funeral services were scheduled Saturday afternoon in Connecticut for 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene, who returned with her family to their home state six months ago after living for three years in Winnipeg.

Ana in her Grade 1 class last Friday morning when Sandy Hook Elementary School erupted in a hail of bullets that killed her along with 19 other children and six adults. Her older brother, Isaiah, was in a Grade 3 classroom down the hall. He made it out of the building..... Ana did not.

R.I.P Angel

POPE BENEDICT DENOUNCES GAY MARRIAGE!

Pope Benedict XVI

                                                         
Pope Benedict XVI, in his annual Christmas address, pushed his opposition to same-sex marriage on Friday, denouncing what he called people manipulating their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices. He dedicated his speech, one of his most important of the year, to traditional family values in the face of campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S., Britain, and France. "The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned," the Pope said. 

Egypt's vice president resigns!

Egypt's Vice President, Mahmoud Mekky, has resigned from his post, a presidential source said on Saturday, without giving any reason. This came on the day of a referendum on a new constitution that leaves uncertain if his position would be maintained.

Egyptian vice president Mahmoud Mekki

Mekky took a leading role in hosting "national unity" talks called by President Mohamed Mursi, although the main opposition politicians stayed away.