Protesters in China Call For Press Freedoms

Hundreds of press-freedom advocates have gathered outside the offices of a liberal Chinese newspaper at the center of a censorship row to call for media freedom in China.
The protesters gathered outside the office of Southern Weekly in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, on Monday calling for media freedom, a taboo subject in the country, holding banners and chanting slogans, agencies reported.
“We want press freedom, constitutionalism and democracy,” read one of the banners at the protests.
An open letter from staff and interns at the newspaper last week called for the resignation of Tuo Zhen, a provincial ‘propaganda’ official after a new year editorial piece calling for guaranteed constitutional rights was changed to one that mirrored the views of the Communist Party.
“The Nanfang [Southern] Media Group is relatively willing to speak the truth in China so we need to stand up for its courage and support it now,” Ao Jiayang, an NGO worker attending the protest, said.
“We hope that through this we can fight for media freedom in China,” Ao said. “Today’s turnout reflects that more and more people in China have a civic consciousness.”
Another letter released last week and signed by prominent academics from across China, called for the removal of Tuo and more press freedoms as well.
A foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing is reported to have said, “There is no so-called news censorship in China.”

Nelson Mandela Recovers From Lung Infection

Nelson Mandela has recovered from a lung infection and surgery to remove gallstones that kept him in hospital for nearly three weeks, the government said on Sunday.
The 94-year-old former South African president, who has been in frail health for several years, spent most of December in a Pretoria hospital – his longest stay for medical care since his release from prison in 1990. He has been receiving treatment at his Johannesburg home since leaving hospital on Boxing Day, Reuters reported.
“President Mandela has made steady progress and clinically he continues to improve,” the South African presidency’s office said in a statement. He has recovered from his surgical procedure and the lung infection, it said, citing his medical team.
Nobel peace prize laureate Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years on Robben Island, off Cape Town.
He became South Africa’s first black president after the first all-race elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid.

US Lawmaker Wants Limits On Drone Use

A US freshman lawmaker from North Dakota is one of numerous state legislators across the country suggesting regulations to limit the use of unmanned planes for law enforcement, an effort that is gaining bipartisan support and fostering unlikely political alignments.
The bill proposed by Republican state Rep. Rick Becker stems from the 2011 arrest of a Lakota farmer during a 16-hour standoff, an event that sparked national debate. State courts held up law enforcement’s use of a drone to help a SWAT team apprehend Rodney Brossart, but Mr. Becker says there should be safeguards in place to make sure the practice isn’t abused, Washington Times wrote.
Lawmakers plan to introduce similar bills in several states, and although Republicans are mostly leading the charge, the issue crosses party lines in Florida and brought together a tea party member from Virginia’s General Assembly and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Becker insists he’s not out to hinder police; he says it’s a matter of privacy.
“It’s a new technology that has really amazing capabilities and can be used in excellent ways for our communities. I don’t want to say that drones can’t be used,” Mr. Becker said. “But with the new technology there are also issues, primarily privacy issues, which can come into play.”

Cameron’s EU Threat ‘Economic Insanity’

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“The signal it sends to the world is that we are on our way out of the European single market and that those who invest in Britain in order to trade in that market should think again.”
His remarks are supplemented by a warning from the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, that Cameron is in danger of putting a long-term question mark over the UK’s relations with its largest trading partner at a time when the country is desperate to secure growth.
Alexander writes, “Announcing an in/out referendum halfway through this parliament to take place more than halfway through the next, given the Conservatives’ hostility towards Europe, could risk up to seven years of economic uncertainty, threatening vital investment and effectively playing roulette with the country’s economic future.”
Alexander added “Focusing on an in/out referendum now actually risks the UK missing the best chance in a generation to reform Europe so that it better serves our interests and meets our expectations.
“Simply presenting a shopping list of repatriations – backed by the threat of exit – will not deliver for Britain and will undermine our ability to shape and lead the broader project of EU reform.
“While the Prime Minister is right to recognize that Europe, and our position within it, is changing, he is wrong to imply that these changes inevitably threaten our interests It is still unclear how these changes will affect Britain’s relationship with the EU, or indeed the nature of our membership”.
Cameron reiterated on Sunday that he does not favor the UK leaving the EU, arguing that countries outside the EU such as Norway are subject to its rules but have no influence over its policies.
Setting out how Britain would have a lever over the rest of the EU to demand repatriation of UK competences, Cameron said, “What’s happening in Europe right now is massive change being driven by the existence of the euro. The countries of the euro, they have got to change to make their currency work. They need to integrate more … This is something they recognize they have to do. There isn’t a single currency in the world that doesn’t have a banking union and forms of a fiscal union.” He added: “As they need to change, what that means is they are changing the nature of the organization to which we belong. And thus we are perfectly entitled, and not just entitled but actually enabled because they need changes, to ask for some changes ourselves.”
Britain can veto treaty changes to make the euro more effective, such as closer EU supervision of banks and deficits. These treaty changes require the unanimous support of all EU members, and euro members are likely to take a dim view of Britain threatening to block an effective euro as part of a bargain designed to allow Britain to opt out of other EU laws, especially laws designed to create social equality.
EU sources have also claimed there is no certainty that treaty changes will be required, and if they are, and Britain seeks to veto them, they could still be agreed between governments without the need to use EU institutions.

400 South African Soldiers Deployed to CAR

Up to 400 armed South African soldiers have been deployed to the Central African Republic (CAR) by President Jacob Zuma in a bid to help the country’s army as it faces threats from rebel groups.
Zuma’s office issued a statement on Sunday saying the decision to send soldiers to the CAR is part of South Africa’s efforts “to bring about peace and stability in the region”.
Several neighboring countries have sent soldiers to prevent rebels from reaching Bangui, a city of 700,000.
Chad has sent hundreds of forces who are fortifying the road to the capital, while Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo have already sent an estimated 120 troops each.
Zuma’s statement also said the South African National Defense Force troops would “assist with capacity building of the CAR Defense Force and will also assist CAR with the planning and implementation of the disarmament, demobilization and re-integration processes” to deal with the country’s rebels.
The rebels had pledged to halt their advance pending peace talks in Gabon that are due to start Tuesday, Aljazeera reported.
However, residents say rebels seized two more towns over the weekend, though they are not en route to the capital.
A dozen towns have come under rebel control since the rebel alliance calling itself Seleka began its offensive on December 10.
Seleka, which comprises three rebel groups, accuses Bangui of failing to honor a 2007 peace deal under which fighters who laid down their weapons were supposed to be paid.
Negotiations between the rebels and the Bozize government are set to begin in Gabon on Tuesday.
President Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic flew Monday to the Republic of Congo for talks with President Denis Sassou Nguesso who will mediate peace talks between Bangui and a rebel force.

Indian Gang-Rape Suspects Appear in Court

Five men accused of the gang rape and murder of an Indian student have appeared in court to hear charges against them.
The defendants appeared in a Delhi court on Monday, with two of them offering evidence possibly in return for a lighter sentence, Rajiv Mohan, a public prosecutor, told the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan, reporting from Delhi, said, “The prosecutors say they have a very, very tight case against them. People are watching closely to see what happens to those accused.”
The five, including a 17-year-old who will go to a juvenile court, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in New Delhi, inflicting fatal injuries on her. She died two weeks later on December 28 in a Singapore hospital.
Television images showed the blue police van believed to be transporting the suspects from Tihar jail as it arrived at the court gate prior to the hearing.
The court appearance comes days after police said they discovered forensic evidence to link them to the killing.
The men - who face charges of kidnap, robbery and conspiracy besides murder - could face the death penalty if convicted of the attack on December 16 that sparked protests in India and soul-searching about levels of violence against women. The defendants have been named as Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vijay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta.
The government, sensitive to criticism that a sluggish justice system often compounds the agony of victims, has pledged to fast-track the case against the defendants. They all live in Delhi.
Police have pledged “maximum security” during the hearing at the magistrates’ court amid fears for the defendants’ safety. A man was arrested last week as he allegedly tried to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the men.

Judicial Overhaul
As prosecution of the suspects gets under way, legal experts have called for an overhaul of the country’s judicial system.
Experts also said the court in Delhi’s Saket district was likely to transfer the case to a higher court during Monday’s hearing.
“The court will ask them if they have lawyers and then it will appoint an amicus curiae [lawyer] to represent them and supply copies of the charge sheet to the accused,” Vishwender Verma, a senior advocate at Delhi High Court, said.
“The case will then be committed to a sessions court as a magistrates’ court cannot try rape and murder cases.”
Madhu Kishwar, an academic and founder of the Manushi human rights organisation, told Al Jazeera “police and judicial reforms” were needed to deal with sexual violence against women.
She said “tampering with this or that clause in rape law will achieve next to nothing if the police force remains as incompetent and as corrupt as it is”.
The student, whose death united the nation in mourning, remains unidentified as Indian rape law forbids naming of victims of sexual violence.
She had spent the evening at a cinema with her boyfriend on the night of the attack. After failing to flag down an autorickshaw, she and the boyfriend were tricked to board a schoolbus they thought would take them home.
The attack began once they got on the bus, with assailants taking turns raping the student. The attackers are said to have used an iron bar to sexually assault the student, who was thrown off the moving bus along with her companion after the rape.
Outlining their case before the same court in Saket on Saturday, prosecutors said there was DNA evidence to tie the defendants to the crime scene.

Ghana’s New President

Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama was sworn in as president on Monday at a ceremony attended by thousands in the capital.