Around the world
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saturday, august 22, 2015 | guyanatimesGY.com
North Korea goes on war footing Refugees pour through Macedonia border after clashes against South Korea as deadline looms
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orth Korea put its troops on a war footing on Friday as South Korea rejected an ultimatum to stop propaganda broadcasts or face military action, prompting China to voice concern and urge both sides to step back. South Korean Vice Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo said his Government expected the North to fire at some of the 11 sites where Seoul has set
The United Nations refugee agency urged the Macedonian government to do more [AP]
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acedonian Police have fired tear gas and stun grenades to drive back refugees trying to cross the border from Greece after they spent a night stranded by an emergency decree that had effectively sealed the Macedonian frontier. Five injured refugees were taken to a hospital on the Greek side of the border on Friday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. An MSF spokesman told Al Jazeera that injuries were caused by plastic bullets and tear gas. Witnesses said the bor-
der reopened around 16:00h local time (14:00 GMT) after being closed overnight, and refugees were pouring through. More than 3000 people had been waiting on the Greek side for the border to open, Al Jazeera’s Ivan Corkalo reported from the border town of Idomeni. Macedonia deployed several hundred policemen and soldiers to secure the frontier. “They shoot us today, they shoot us today, I can tell you, I see it. We were in front of the place. Officer people in Macedonia, they
shoot the people,” a refugee, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters. Macedonia is one of the major transit points for refugees trying to get from Greece to other European Union (EU) countries. At least 44,000 have arrived over the last two months. Refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, many of them Syrians, spent a cold night on the border on Thursday as Macedonia declared a state of emergency and effectively blocked its southern frontier to refugees. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)
up loudspeakers on its side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the countries. The South earlier rejected an ultimatum that it halt anti-Pyongyang broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face attack. The North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement the military and the public stood ready to safeguard its regime even if it meant fighting an all-out war, and
it rejected the idea of restraint in an apparent rebuff of China’s calls. Official media said Pyongyang’s military was not bluffing. China, which remains reclusive North Korea’s main economic backer despite diminished political clout to influence Pyongyang, said it was deeply concerned about the escalation of tension and called for calm from both sides. (Excerpt from Reuters)
Mauritania upholds conviction of anti-slave activists
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Mauritanian court has upheld a twoyear prison sentence against three anti-slavery activists who were arrested during a protest against bondage in the West African nation. In an open letter from prison published on Wednesday, one of the accused, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, vowed to continue his fight against slavery and appealed for the United States and European Union to put pressure on Mauritania to act against the practice, in-
cluding stopping financial aid. “From my dark cell I urge them to mobilise all legal and diplomatic means, including the suspension of all financial aid, to push the Government to take real action to eradicate slavery as well as the racism and exclusion underlying it,” he wrote. Abeid, runner-up in the 2014 presidential elections and head of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), was jailed in January
alongside two other activists. The three activists were arrested in November last year while protesting slavery and were found guilty of “belonging to an illegal organisation, leading an unauthorised rally, and violence against the Police”. The two others convicted were Bilal Ramdane, an assistant to Ould Abeid, and Djiby Sow, a civic and cultural rights campaigner. Sow has since been released on parole due to health problems. (Excerpt from Al
Jazeera)