7 February 2013

Stories from 7 February 2013

Côte d'Ivoire's ‘Elephants’ Doomed?

  7 February 2013

What if the football history of Côte d'Ivoire was doomed in a particularly strange way? A story written in such a way that superstars cannot ever put their hands on the continental trophy ? What exactly do Didier Drogba and Laurent Poku lack to win a Africa Cup? They are...

Mali: Threats All Around

  7 February 2013

The Malian army has committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) during the ongoing conflict against armed groups, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, according to testimonies collected by Amnesty International during a ten days mission in Mali.

Mexico's Social Media Love Revolution

  7 February 2013

By knowing the negative image Mexico has in international media, some people from the international community living in Mexico got tired of seeing how the positive side of the country gets lost and created the hashtag #ForTheLoveOfMexico.

Creating Art to Kuti’s Legendary Beats

  7 February 2013

Mr. Jaeger has worked on several of Knitting Factory’s Fela efforts including Fela: Live In Detroit 1986, and the Ginger Baker compiled Fela: Vinyl Box Set 2. Wes Flexner speaks with the person behind the artwork for “Best of Black President Pt 2″, an extensive collection of  legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s music...

Dreams Come Alive, Baseball Player José Contreras Returns to Cuba

  7 February 2013

The arrival of José Ariel Contreras to Cuba, a Cuban baseball pitcher based in the US since 2002, has moved the habitants of his native province, Pinar del Río, and also fans of the island's national sport, baseball. Elaine Díaz tells us about this emotional event and its historical and political meaning for Cuba at the moment.

Solidarity Rises from Southern Brazil's Sunday Flames

  7 February 2013

One day after the tragic fire in the Kiss nightclub, in Santa Maria, which wiped away the lives of more than 230 young people, a siren went off at Vila Liberdade, in the north of Porto Alegre. 90 of the 150 houses were consumed by flames and around 800 people became homeless. The main social networking sites were used as a tool for the gathering of information about the incident, as well as a way of asking for help for the victims.

Panic and Terror Walk Hand-in-Hand in Guinea-Bissau

  7 February 2013

As the world's attention is focused on another part of West Africa, the citizens of Guinea-Bissau struggle to bring a worsening human rights situation to regional and international attention. Guinean Human Rights League released a major report on the human rights situation today, a serious wake-up call for those who think everything is okay in the country.

Bangladesh: Protesters Demand Capital Punishment for 1971 War Criminals

  7 February 2013

Abdul Quader Mollah, the secretary general of Bangladesh's Islamist party Jamaat-e Islami has been sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape, torture and other crimes committed during the 1971 liberation war. But tens of thousands feel that justice has not been served. They want him hanged. Protests are spreading like wild fire across the country.

For Chinese Cinema, the Japanese Invasion That Never Ends

  7 February 2013

With China and Japan currently sparring over islands in the East China Sea, the Chinese entertainment industry has upped its production of films about Japan's World War II-era invasion of China. TV extra Shi Zhongpeng made headlines in China last week for reportedly having acted as a Japanese soldier more than 200 times last year.

Europe's Frozen Conflicts

  7 February 2013

Black Sea News publishes Natalya Belitser's paper [en] – “Transnistrian Conflict: State of Affairs and Prospects of Settlement” – written for the international conference on “frozen conflicts” in Europe, which was held in September 2012 in Bled, Slovenia (via Andrei Klimenko).