China ( China has banned smoking in schools, state media reported ) Something wrong with this picture ?

 

China has banned smoking in schools, state media reported on Wednesday, the latest step in a government drive to kick the country’s pervasive tobacco habit.

Despite years of campaigning by health activists, China is the world’s largest consumer of cigarettes and smokers can be spotted everywhere, even in schools and hospitals.

But with a huge public health burden looming ever larger, China has recently intensified efforts to stamp out smoking.

The State Council, or cabinet, is aiming for a nationwide ban on smoking in public places this year, and several cities have already introduced anti-smoking regulations.

But critics say authorities only enforce bans sporadically, if at all, and it is common to see people puffing away in front of no smoking signs.

Thats what " Catch a tiger by it's tail means " Hmm

Afghanistan ( Six Afghan police were shot and killed Monday by another " Cop " )

KABUL – Six Afghan police were shot and killed Monday and another was wounded by one their comrades at a checkpoint in the eastern province of Herat, a police official told Efe.

The slaying occurred at mid-morning in the Gulran district, and after shooting his comrades the police officer escaped to join the Taliban, according to the official who preferred to remain anonymous.

Security forces are hunting the fugitive, the official said.

Such insider attacks have occurred with some frequency over the past two years – including more than 50 in 2012 – and the targets have often been international NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.

Taliban rebels tend to claim responsibility for these attacks, which are launched by their combatants who have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces.

The conflict in Afghanistan has entered one of its bloodiest phases since the U.S. invasion that brought down the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001, and at a time when the complete withdrawal of NATO troops is scheduled for the end of 2014.

Mexico ( Mexican Government Signs Agreement with Vigilante Groups ) Wow

Mexican Government Signs Agreement with Vigilante Groups
The agreement calls for the “self-defense groups” to be incorporated into the Rural Defense Corps regulated by the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has signed an agreement with the vigilante groups that spread across the western state of Michoacan to fight drug traffickers, opening the way for the organizations to gain legal status.

The agreement, which was signed in the city of Tepalcatepec on Monday, calls for the “self-defense groups” to be incorporated into the Rural Defense Corps regulated by the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force.

“These corps are temporary and will be under the command of the authority established under the applicable legal regulations,” the Government Secretariat said in a statement.

Self-defense group leaders will have to submit membership lists, which will be evaluated and registered by the Defense Secretariat, to join the corps.

Rural Defense Corps units are legally part of the army and air force, and they are made up of volunteers under the command of active-duty officers.

The units’ mission, according to the law, is to “cooperate with the troops in activities being carried out, when they are asked to by the military command.”

The agreement signed by the government and the vigilante groups opens the way for the organizations’ members to join municipal police forces so they can help protect their communities, “as long as they follow the law and are approved by the city council.”

The agreement requires self-defense group members to register their weapons with the Defense Secretariat, while security officials must provide the groups with the equipment and transportation needed to do their jobs.

Measures will be taken so that self-defense group members arrested on arms charges and placed on probation “can report in the state of Michoacan, without having to go to other federal entities,” the agreement says.

Commissioner for Security and Development in Michoacan Alfredo Castillo, who was recently named to his post, Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo and the leaders of the different community self-defense groups operating in the state signed the agreement.

“We are all happy, all the leaders and all the members of the self-defense groups,” Hipolito Mora, leader of the self-defense group in La Ruana and founder of Michoacan’s vigilante movement, told Grupo Milenio.

The first community self-defense groups were formed in Michoacan in February 2013 to fight the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

Los Caballeros Templarios, which was founded in December 2010 by former members of the Familia Michoacana cartel, deals in both synthetic drugs and natural drugs.

The federal government deployed soldiers and police in Michoacan on Jan. 13 in an effort to end the wave of violence in the state.

India ( Man arrested for the Rape of " 4 yr old Iranian Girl " )

PANAJI: Indian police said Tuesday they had arrested a man in the tourist state of Goa for allegedly raping a four-year-old Iranian girl holidaying with her mother.
Goan police arrested the 32-year-old man on Monday after the alleged attack on the girl on Jan. 22 in the northern village of Arpora, where he lived and the Iranians were staying, police inspector Paresh Naik said.
The girl told her mother about the incident on Monday prompting her to lodge a police complaint. “Police began search operations immediately and nabbed him,” despite the man's attempts to escape on learning of the complaint, Naik said.

MANILA ( 10 Philippine police officers have been suspended for running a secret prison )

MANILA: Ten Philippine police officers have been suspended for running a secret prison where jailors wearing wigs and masks beat and abused inmates, the government said Tuesday.
The police officers played a “wheel of torture” game to have fun and punish criminal suspects during interrogations, including bouts of punching named after boxing star Manny Pacquiao, human rights officials and activists said Tuesday.


 Criticizing the Philippine National Police, the Commission on Human Rights and global rights organization Amnesty International demanded the prosecution of the suspects and that the facility be shut down.
“The torture happens at time of arrest, a few days later, and every time the officers become intoxicated, or when they are forcing the inmates to admit to a crime,” Commission spokesman Mark Cebreros told AFP.
“According to one of the complainants, the officers wear wigs and masks. There is a terror effect,” he said.
The torture had been going on since February last year, Cebreros said.
The prison, which is not in the official list of Philippine police detention facilities, is a converted house in a gated residential community in Binan town just outside of Manila.
It is run by an intelligence unit of the Binan police, Cebreros added.
Its officers spun a “roulette” wheel to pick among a list of tortures to be meted out, he said.
One punishment, code-named “Manny Pacman” after the Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, has an officer continuously punching an inmate for 20 seconds.
Another had a prisoner hung upside down, like a bat, for 30 seconds, Cebreros said.
Investigators have seized the painted wheel and a brown woman’s wig as evidence as they carry out a criminal investigation, Cebreros said.
The officers face life in prison if convicted of torture, he added.

Pakistan ( Pakistan’s air force launched the airstrikes in North Waziristan )

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Thousands have fled Pakistan’s troubled northwest region bordering Afghanistan after airstrikes this week targeting suspected Taleban militant hideouts killed dozens of people, elders and officials said Saturday.



 Pakistan’s air force launched the airstrikes in North Waziristan after the Taleban claimed responsibility for deadly attacks against security forces there and elsewhere.
There were conflicting claims about who was killed in the airstrikes, which began late Monday and continued into early Tuesday. A military official said the strikes killed 40 insurgents, while residents said civilians were among the dead.
Latifur Rehman, a provincial disaster management spokesman, said Saturday the strikes displaced 6,000 families, but half of them had gone back to their homes. Rehman said authorities were making arrangements to provide shelter and food to those affected.
A tribal prominent elder, Gul Saleh Khan, said more than 70,000 people had left their homes. He said people were still fleeing to nearby towns, villages and cities.
“We were sleeping at our home when the army suddenly started the airstrikes just before midnight on Monday,” Khan said. “We quickly moved to a farm field with women and children, and other people also spent that night under the sky.”
Khan said he arrived in the northwestern city of Peshawar with his family on Tuesday.
Local resident Raham Nawaz said many had to leave their homes due to fears of a full-fledged military operation.
“The government should have issued a warning before dropping bombs in our villages,” Nawaz said. He said his family and other relatives were living at a school, miles away from their town of Mir Ali.
Resident Salim Khan said people continued to flee Saturday. He urged the government to making public warnings ahead of such airstrikes.
“How we can go back to our homes when we don’t know what will happen tomorrow?” Khan asked.
Angered over the increasing violence, people are pressuring the civilian government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to tackle the issue of militancy aggressively. Sharif long has supported a policy of negotiating with militants.
The Pakistani Taleban said earlier this week that they would be interested in peace talks but only if the government proved it was sincere and had enough “power,” a reference to the perception that the army wields the real power in Pakistan.
Pakistan has carried out several offensives against the Taleban in other tribal regions, but North Waziristan has largely been spared