News in Brief
SYDNEY (Guardian) -- Australia’s shocking treatment of Indigenous people has been laid bare with the publication of new figures by the Guardian showing 147 Indigenous people – some of them children – have died in custody in the past 10 years.
Opposition parties have declared it a "national shame” and Aboriginal groups have demanded the government immediately allow independent monitoring of all detention centers, with Indigenous prisoners as the priority.
Just 2.8% of the Australian population identifies as Indigenous. Yet Indigenous people make up 27% of the prison population, 22% of deaths in prison custody and 19% of deaths in police custody.
Pat Dodson, an Indigenous Labor senator, said: "We are going backwards as a nation. The current government is failing to show leadership and commitment to turning around the appalling state of how our justice system treats Indigenous people.”
However, the numbers tell only part of the story. Reading 463 reports by coroners, Guardian Australia found a record of systemic failure.
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BEIJING (AFP) -- China appears poised to scrap its two-child policy, with a state-run newspaper citing a draft civil code that would overhaul decades of controversial family-planning rules.
The wide-ranging code would end a policy that has been enforced through fines but was also notorious for cases of forced abortions and sterilization in the world's most populous country.
The Procuratorate Daily said the draft code omits any reference to "family planning" -- the current policy which limits couples to having no more than two children.
The draft civil code, which is being discussed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress this week, is set to be completed by 2020.
The Communist Party began enforcing a one-child policy in 1979 to slow population growth. The limit was raised to two children in 2016 as the nation scrambled to rejuvenate its greying population of some 1.4 billion.
Concerns are mounting that an ageing and shrinking workforce could slow down China's economy, while gender imbalances could lead to social problems.
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GENEVA (Reuters) -- African migrants rejected by Italy in a standoff with the European Union last week said they had been held by smugglers for up to two years in Libya and many had been beaten, tortured and raped, the UN migration agency said Tuesday.
The 150 migrants, mainly Eritreans and Somalis, were rescued in the Mediterranean Aug. 15 but waited 10 days while Italy's anti-immigrant government refused to let them disembark, until Ireland, Albania and the Vatican agreed to accept them.
The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its staff had gathered testimony from the migrants.
All were malnourished and exhausted and said they had been held against their will in Libya for up to two years, IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a UN briefing in Geneva.
"In Libya they complained that many had been beaten and tortured by smugglers and traffickers seeking ransom money from their families in their countries of origin," he said.
"Italian doctors who attended all the women ... reported that many of them said they had been raped while in Libya."
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NEW DELHI (REUTERS) -- India said on Tuesday it expected to spend less than 100 billion rupees ($1.94 billion) on its first manned space mission to be launched by 2022, suggesting it is likely to be cheaper than similar projects by the United States and China.
India is cultivating a reputation as a low-cost space power, after the 2014 launch of an unmanned Mars mission at a cost of $74 million, or less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster "Gravity" and a fraction of the $671 million the U.S. space agency NASA spent on its Maven Mars mission.
The Indian manned mission, announced this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to be led by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will aim to send a three-member crew to space for five to seven days in a craft that will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km, the Department of Space said in a statement.
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COPENHAGEN (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron traveled Tuesday to Denmark for a two-day visit, hoping to build the relationships he needs to push France's agenda of a more closely united European Union.
Macron wants Europe to take more responsibility for its own defense, saying the continent's security shouldn't rely so much on the United States.
Denmark has a defense opt-out in its EU ties, meaning it does not taking part in military matters. The Danish government and a majority of lawmakers want the defense waiver to be removed but are hesitant about calling a referendum on it since previous referendums on modifying the opt-outs have been defeated twice.
Macron was greeted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe at Copenhagen Airport and laid a wreath at a monument for fallen Danish soldiers. He was also to talk with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and join in a debate with students.
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TRIPOLI (AFP) -- A truce has been reached after deadly clashes erupted between rival militias in Tripoli, a security source said Tuesday as residents reported calm had returned to Libyan capital.
Five people were killed and 33 wounded Monday, the health ministry said, as two factions faced off with tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.
After explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli's suburbs, a truce was reached Monday evening according to a source from the security services.
Negotiations were due to take place Tuesday aimed at achieving a lasting ceasefire, the source added.
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Opposition parties have declared it a "national shame” and Aboriginal groups have demanded the government immediately allow independent monitoring of all detention centers, with Indigenous prisoners as the priority.
Just 2.8% of the Australian population identifies as Indigenous. Yet Indigenous people make up 27% of the prison population, 22% of deaths in prison custody and 19% of deaths in police custody.
Pat Dodson, an Indigenous Labor senator, said: "We are going backwards as a nation. The current government is failing to show leadership and commitment to turning around the appalling state of how our justice system treats Indigenous people.”
However, the numbers tell only part of the story. Reading 463 reports by coroners, Guardian Australia found a record of systemic failure.
***
BEIJING (AFP) -- China appears poised to scrap its two-child policy, with a state-run newspaper citing a draft civil code that would overhaul decades of controversial family-planning rules.
The wide-ranging code would end a policy that has been enforced through fines but was also notorious for cases of forced abortions and sterilization in the world's most populous country.
The Procuratorate Daily said the draft code omits any reference to "family planning" -- the current policy which limits couples to having no more than two children.
The draft civil code, which is being discussed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress this week, is set to be completed by 2020.
The Communist Party began enforcing a one-child policy in 1979 to slow population growth. The limit was raised to two children in 2016 as the nation scrambled to rejuvenate its greying population of some 1.4 billion.
Concerns are mounting that an ageing and shrinking workforce could slow down China's economy, while gender imbalances could lead to social problems.
***
GENEVA (Reuters) -- African migrants rejected by Italy in a standoff with the European Union last week said they had been held by smugglers for up to two years in Libya and many had been beaten, tortured and raped, the UN migration agency said Tuesday.
The 150 migrants, mainly Eritreans and Somalis, were rescued in the Mediterranean Aug. 15 but waited 10 days while Italy's anti-immigrant government refused to let them disembark, until Ireland, Albania and the Vatican agreed to accept them.
The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its staff had gathered testimony from the migrants.
All were malnourished and exhausted and said they had been held against their will in Libya for up to two years, IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a UN briefing in Geneva.
"In Libya they complained that many had been beaten and tortured by smugglers and traffickers seeking ransom money from their families in their countries of origin," he said.
"Italian doctors who attended all the women ... reported that many of them said they had been raped while in Libya."
***
NEW DELHI (REUTERS) -- India said on Tuesday it expected to spend less than 100 billion rupees ($1.94 billion) on its first manned space mission to be launched by 2022, suggesting it is likely to be cheaper than similar projects by the United States and China.
India is cultivating a reputation as a low-cost space power, after the 2014 launch of an unmanned Mars mission at a cost of $74 million, or less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster "Gravity" and a fraction of the $671 million the U.S. space agency NASA spent on its Maven Mars mission.
The Indian manned mission, announced this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to be led by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will aim to send a three-member crew to space for five to seven days in a craft that will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km, the Department of Space said in a statement.
***
COPENHAGEN (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron traveled Tuesday to Denmark for a two-day visit, hoping to build the relationships he needs to push France's agenda of a more closely united European Union.
Macron wants Europe to take more responsibility for its own defense, saying the continent's security shouldn't rely so much on the United States.
Denmark has a defense opt-out in its EU ties, meaning it does not taking part in military matters. The Danish government and a majority of lawmakers want the defense waiver to be removed but are hesitant about calling a referendum on it since previous referendums on modifying the opt-outs have been defeated twice.
Macron was greeted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe at Copenhagen Airport and laid a wreath at a monument for fallen Danish soldiers. He was also to talk with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and join in a debate with students.
***
TRIPOLI (AFP) -- A truce has been reached after deadly clashes erupted between rival militias in Tripoli, a security source said Tuesday as residents reported calm had returned to Libyan capital.
Five people were killed and 33 wounded Monday, the health ministry said, as two factions faced off with tanks and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.
After explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli's suburbs, a truce was reached Monday evening according to a source from the security services.
Negotiations were due to take place Tuesday aimed at achieving a lasting ceasefire, the source added.
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