— Head of Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency Bambang Soelistyo, on the missing AirAsia plane
Home | A year in jail for Peter Greste
THE GIST. Australian journalist Peter Greste's imprisonment in Egypt has reached the one year-mark. While reporting on the political unrest in the country for Al Jazeera late last year, he was arrested and charged with spreading false news and info that was "damaging to national security".
EGYPT 101. The jailing of Peter Greste (and his colleagues) is a very small part of the very large story of Egyptian unrest that has been unfolding over the last three years. In 2011, long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled in the 'January revolution'. In June 2012, Egypt's first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, took power. Things didn't work out well for Morsi, and after a year of continuous protests and failures the army booted him out. Morsi's party - the Muslim Brotherhood - was declared an illegal terrorist organisation by the new government. The new guys also began cracking down on 'pro-Morsi' media outlets, like Al Jazeera - who Peter Greste reports for.
KANGAROO COURT. The court case against Greste was basically a show trial. The prosecutors didn't have any actual evidence against him, but said that Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood had an 'alliance with the devil', and they wanted to put Greste behind bars for at least 15 years. He ended up being sentenced to seven years jail, in a result that the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said was "bizarre" and "farcical".
HOME BY XMAS. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is "optimistic" that Greste will be released soon. She had pushed for him to be let go by Christmas, but is apparently still hopeful that it might happen before the new year. Greste's brother Mike said, "we aren't going to hang our hopes on it."
THE GIST. The US and NATO have officially ended the 13-year Afghanistan war. US General John F. Campbell says: "Our committment to Afghanistan endures...We are not walking away."
BY THE #'s. The war cost the lives of nearly 10,000 civilians and 3,500 international troops. Coalition countries also spent US$686 billion on the war. 59 countries participated in the combat operations, which began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, with the number of troops 'on the ground' peaking at around 150,000 in 2010.
GOOD(ISH) NEWS. Under Taliban rule, there were 1.2 million students, 50,000 of them girls. Now, those numbers are 8.2 million and 3.2 million respectively. The Afghan Parliament is now 27% women (more than Canada, France and the UK). Around 7 million Afghanis (population 30 million) voted in the first round of recent Presidential elections, although they were marred by fraud allegations. Democratic baby steps.
FORECAST CLOUDY. The Taliban are celebrating the withdrawal, claiming that it is proof that the "infidel powers" have been "pushed to the brink of defeat." Despite a decade sitting on the sidelines, and the fact that 76% of people report being economically better-off now, the Taliban still enjoys the sympathy of about one-in-three Afghanis. This year they've been a resurgent force, with several military victories over the shaky Afghan government. Could be out with the new, in with the old.
WEREWOLF BAR MITZVAH. The President of Argentina has adopted a twelve year-old boy as her godson to stop him turning into a werewolf. Argentinian folklore says that the seventh-born son to a family will turn into a werewolf on his 13th birthday, and so President Fernandez's adoption of the boy is said to prevent that fate. Spooky, scary.
ROLE MODEL? Kosovo man Emin Djinovci is making a living as a Hitler look-alike. He reportedly travels around with a copy of Mein Kampf, calls his daughters "Hitler's children", and charges tourists for photos. It's not all fun and games, though - Djinovci actually does admire Hitler, chiefly for his WWII persecution of Serbs, who Djinovci calls "my enemies".
SEXY SCIENCE. Male birth control will be here in 2017, according to the Parsemus Foundation. They've been developing Vasalgel, a 'non-hormonal polymer' which is (gulp) injected into and blocks-up the vas deferens, which prevents...well you get the idea. But it's reversible. Apparently the treatment will be on the market in 2017 for the up-front cost of about the price of a flatscreen TV.
