WSJ:

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. acknowledged that it hired underage workers at one of its China plants, in the latest hit to the labor practices of the major contractor for Apple Inc. and other electronics giants...

The company didn't disclose specifics, including how many were hired, and it wasn't clear what products are made at the plant. But it said in a statement that despite "a strict company policy of not commenting on our customers or their products," that "our Yantai facility has no association with any work we carry out on behalf of Apple."

One side of the conflict:

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, of running a criminal justice system rife with arbitrary arrests, torture and unfair trials. Hamas officials responded sharply, challenging the methodology of the group’s research.

In a 43-page report titled “Abusive System,” Human Rights Watch detailed seven cases and called for an immediate moratorium on capital punishment in the Gaza Strip, as well as an end to prosecutions of civilians in military courts.

Gaza’s “criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees’ rights, and grants impunity to abusive security services,” Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement accompanying the report, which was presented at a news conference on Wednesday morning at a coastal hotel. “Hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that Egyptians, Syrians and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end.”

On the other side of the conflict:

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday extended by two days the remand of three settlers arrested last week for attacking three undercover Israel Police posing as Palestinian shepherds on a hilltop outside Susiya in the West Bank.

According to the court protocol, on October 4th, three cops dressed as Palestinian shepherds were standing on a hill outside Susiya when they were approached by a settler who told them they had one minute to leave. Police said the suspect then made a phone call and within moments, the three suspects arrived armed with sticks, with their t-shirts pulled over their faces as masks.

Police said the men immediately began attacking the police, who began yelling “police! police!” and fighting back, using pepper spray and arresting the three suspects. The fourth man, the one who initially called the three suspects for back-up, fled and has not been arrested.

It's old news now...

One of the strangest elements of the Bo Xilai scandal and his subsequent removal from the Communist Party was that the official report that stated he "had or maintained improper sexual relations with multiple women".

While Bo's alleged crimes — corruption, cronyism, and even involvement in murder — were big, rumors about his sexual conduct seemed far vaguer, and had been mostly limited to one strange story, sourced to overseas news site Boxun, about a sexual relationship with the Chinese star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi.

According to the report, Zhang been paid $110 million over a number of years for sex with Bo and a number of other senior Party officials. While the story sounds far-fetched, it spread quickly and hit her wallet hard — Zhang's lawyer says she lost $750,000 in work after the fall-out. Zhang is now taking Boxun and a number of other publications to court for publishing the claims.

But enough of the smut. Let's get serious. This article, Bo Xilai and Mao's Ghost's, throws another light on the politician's downfall:

The regime is facing huge economic problems on the home front, one of the most volatile being the millions of migrant workers, some 16 percent of the population, who provide cheap labor for China’s export-driven economy. Social and regional tensions are exacerbated by this vast mobile workforce, who exist at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder: a recent riot in Guangdong province is but a rerun of numerous previous incidents. The number of large scale riots and other examples of public “disorder” has increased exponentially since the early nineties, when 8,300 such incidents were recorded. In 2012, the number exceeded 90,000. Land seizures by party officials are often the cause.

Bo appealed to some of these sources of rising discontent — to those who witnessed the degeneration of the Communist party into a kind of Mafia, and remembered — or, thought they remembered — a better day. His crackdown on China’s rampant gangster underworld — often linked to party officials — inspired widespread support. He stoked all those fires the central party leadership most fears — Maoism, nationalism, and growing economic inequality.

That said, let's turn to this interesting piece of information in Bo Xilai and Mao's Ghost's article:

China, America’s number one creditor, and supposedly the rising superpower of the future, is a paper tiger. Efforts by the neocons to make them into a replacement for the vanished Soviet threat seem doomed to failure when the Chinese spend a fraction of what we spend on “defense.” To put it all in perspective: the Chinese government spends more on its internal police than on their military, which should give us a good indication of what they’re really afraid of. And they have reason to fear.

The Guardian:

Ironically it is in affluent Germany, the only place in Europe that currently seems to have any hope of economic growth, where the consensus on the intrinsic value of growth is most sceptical. A recent survey commissioned by Bertelsmann Stiftung found that eight out of ten Germans crave a new economic order. The number of Germans who see growth as very important was down 14% compared with two years ago. The proportion of Germans who highly value money and possessions also dropped. Nearly two-thirds disagreed with the idea that a higher income could increase their quality of life. Many Germans now value protection of the environment over material prosperity, according to the findings.

Academic research seems very much in line with the popular mood: German thinkers are increasingly publishing work, which denounces growth and touts drastic alternative economic policies. One of the more high-profile members of this movement is Niko Paech from the University of Oldenburg, who recently published a controversial new book called Liberation from Affluence, in which he lambasts growth, argues that societies need to shrink their economies, and calls for an embrace of self-sufficiency models and regional exchange. His policies for the ideal society include a 20-hour week, the introduction of regional currencies, and decommissioning large development projects such as motorways and airports.

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell, the controversial author Edward Abbey once said.

Via the New York Times:

SHANGHAI — Foxconn Technology, a major supplier to some of the world’s electronics giants, including Apple, said it had closed one of its large Chinese plants Monday after the police were called in to break up a fight among factory employees...

A spokesman said some people had been hurt and detained by the police after the disturbance escalated into a riot late Sunday. The company said the cause of the disturbance was still under investigation.

One Foxconn employee reached by telephone Monday afternoon, however, said the disturbance had begun when workers started brawling with security guards, and it eventually had led to a huge riot involving more than 1,000 workers.

And from YouTube, "Foxconn Worker Riot, Taiyuan Plant - 9/24/2012." It's mostly large crowds of people walking around in the dark, sometimes shouting. But if the video is legit, even this would be a significant departure from what's reportedly the norm at Foxconn:

If you doubt those words, check out this Fox News report on Libya:

[Libyans] stormed the compound of the Islamic extremist militia suspected in the attack, evicting militiamen and setting fire to their building Friday.
In an unprecedented show of public anger at Libya's rampant militias, the crowd overwhelmed the compound of the Ansar Al-Shariah Brigade in the center of the eastern city of Benghazi.
Ansar Al-Shariah fighters initially fired in the air to disperse the crowd, but eventually abandoned the site with their weapons and vehicles after it was overrun by waves of protesters shouting "No to militias."

Al Jazeera:

Demonstrators in Libya have stormed the headquarters of the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group and evicted its fighters from the site in a sweep of militia bases in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Friday's action against the group appeared to be part of a co-ordinated sweep of militia headquarters buildings by police, government troops and activists following a mass public demonstration against armed groups earlier in the day.

Chanting "Libya, Libya," hundreds of demonstrators entered the compound, pulling down militia flags and torching a vehicle inside the headquarters, Ansar al-Sharia's main base in Benghazi - once the base of forces of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The crowd waved swords and even a meat cleaver, crying "No more al-Qaeda!" and "The blood we shed for freedom shall not go in vain!"

It's for sale at the Blue Nile...

• Joel Sanders
• Gaza, 2003

I believe this was a bad day not only for our family, but a bad day for human rights, for humanity, for the rule of law and also for the country of Israel.

The bulldozer's advance, according to ISM activists who witnessed it, pushed up a mound of dirt that Rachel came to be standing atop, so that she was looking straight at the bulldozer driver in his high cab. The bulldozer kept advancing.

Here the stories get a bit confused. Some say Rachel kneeled atop the mound of dirt. Others say she tried to run down off the mound, away from the bulldozer, but lost her footing. Either way, all the activists who saw it agree that the bulldozer pushed the mound of dirt over Rachel, burying her alive and dragging the giant blade across her body, first forward as the bulldozer advanced, and then backward as the bulldozer driver backed up.

So says Obama...

The President of the United States of America, Senator Barrack Obama has declared Nigeria as the world's next economic success story, stressing that the discovery was one of the major reasons why his government is committed to helping the country build strong democratic institutions and as well remove constraints to trade and investment through the African Growth and Opportunity.

Freedom has its limits:

The timing was perfect. For days, neo-Nazis in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been mobilizing supporters for marches on Sept. 1, the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Right-wing extremists in the state traditionally meet on that day in the city of Dortmund for a large-scale demonstration. Neo-Nazis have been busy distributing flyers, organizing information stands and holding rallies.

But now the authorities in the state have put the brakes on their plans. On Thursday, the state's interior minister, Ralf Jäger, banned three right-wing extremist groups following a series of massive raids. All three groups are considered to be very active and extremely violent. In recent years, they have reportedly seen a rapid increase in their membership numbers.

"The members and supporters of the banned organizations reject our democracy and the established legal order," said Jäger, justifying the decision to outlaw the groups. The organizations openly pledge allegiance to the Nazis and their leaders, Jäger said, describing the groups as "xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic."

Meanwhile in the US...

Michele Obama spent nearly 90 minutes visiting with the Khattras and other families of Sikh worshippers who were killed or injured in the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. She expressed her sympathies, offered support and listened to many stories about victims.

"She gave us a hug and said, 'I'm sorry for what happened,'" said Khattra, 26, whose grandfather, Suveg Singh Khattra, was one of six people killed Aug. 5. "She asked what kind of person he was, and my dad told her he was always good-natured, always at the temple."

Relatives of the victims said afterward that Obama asked informed questions that showed she had read up on the plight of those killed and injured.

She especially seemed to know the story of Satwant Singh Kaleka, the temple president who tried to stab the gunman with a butter knife in an effort to stall him so women and children in the temple would have time to hide.
"The thing she kept repeating was, 'Your father was a true hero,'" said Amardeep Kaleka.

Eli this morning writes about his fascination with the Committee on Geographic Names, which is considering changing the name of Soap Lake and Squamish Harbor. While they're at it, I suggest changing the name of Lake Stevens to "Lake Africa." I mean, just look at it:

Now, I've also been to Lake Stevens and I can't tell you my idea would be super popular there.

NYT:

JERUSALEM — Scores of Israeli youths assaulted a group of Palestinians last week, beating one unconscious as hundreds of bystanders watched without intervening in the heart of West Jerusalem, the police said on Monday, announcing that among the seven people arrested was a 13-year-old boy and two teenage girls.

On Monday, some of the teenage suspects commented near the courthouse where they were remanded, adding to the shocking nature of the case. “For my part he can die,” said one of the suspects, who admitted taking part in the assault. “He’s an Arab,” he told reporters outside the courtroom by way of explanation. “He cursed my mother.

“If it was up to me, I’d have murdered him,” he added.

The attack, described by one witness as a “lynch,” has laid bare the undercurrent of Jewish-Arab tensions that plague this mixed but politically divided city and that is leading many Israelis to question how their society could have come to this.

The police said the episode started as a brawl on Thursday, after a girl in a crowd of Israeli youths complained that she had been harassed by an Arab. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said that her comments spurred the crowd to seek vengeance.

NPR...

I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.

Great story...

CNN:

Cinnabon has opened a bakery-cafe in downtown Tripoli, making it the first U.S. franchise to enter Libya.
Cinnabon, based in Atlanta, is also looking to enter Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, said Mike Shattuck, president of Focus Brands International, parent company of Cinnabon and other brands.

To be fair, Cinnabon had planned to move into Libya before the revolution, but the subsequent regime change did not change its plans.

"We quickly halted everything because the revolution happened," said Shattuck. "Fortunately we were able to secure the location and it made it without serious damage."

In the first week of its opening, the Tripoli Cinnabon store logged $45,000 in sales, according to the company.

The story:

Belarus has finally confirmed that an airplane "invaded" its territory earlier in July to drop a payload of teddy bears holding signs promoting free speech, infuriating a regime often known as "Europe's last dictatorship".

Confirmation came on Thursday from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting on the modernisation of the country's armed forces, according to Russian news agency Interfax. "This plane was discovered in time, but why didn't the senior officials stop the flight?" asked Lukashenko. "Where did the fault lie? In these bungling officials or some error in the airspace control system?"

The video:

A little perspective to start your Tuesday. I suggest full-screen mode:

See also: Oldie But Goodie

My fascination with the disgraced and dethroned Chinese leader Bo Xilai only grows and grows...

When Bo left as deputy secretary of the Jin county Communist Party committee to become Dalian mayor in 1993, the city was a mess.

Liaoning province, of which Dalian was a part, had many state-owned companies left behind in the wave of economic reform and open-door policy that swept other parts of the country.

The unemployment rate in the province was higher than the national average. Environmental pollution was a serious problem due to the prominence of companies in the heavy industry sector.

Bo tried to erase the image of Dalian as a dirty municipality and strove to live up to his slogan of a "beautiful Dalian."

He tore down old factories and barracks and planted trees along the streets. During the eight years Bo served as mayor and secretary of the municipal Communist Party committee, more than 80 public squares were constructed in the city.

"The ratio of greenery reached 40 percent," a municipal government document proudly stated.

The mayor increased the number of sewage treatment facilities as part of a campaign to purify the city’s 40 foul rivers. He also pushed ahead with construction of rental housing for those in lower income brackets. In total, housing for 450,000 people was constructed.

He continued to come up with offbeat ideas as Dalian mayor. For example, the squad of female police officers on horseback was the first of its kind in China.

Bo instructed the first recruits to "become the beautiful calling cards for Dalian." The average age of the first 50 female officers chosen was 23.

From the veranda of the mayor’s office that overlooked the People’s Square, Bo often watched with satisfaction as the female officers circled the lawn...

That's what many call Zimbabwe's House of Parliament.

"In most cases when these people wake-up they start making noise and senseless arguments," the sources said.

It's all they have left...

NYT A week after an extremist right-wing party gained an electoral foothold in Greece’s Parliament earlier this summer, 50 of its members riding motorbikes and armed with heavy wooden poles roared through Nikaia, a gritty suburb west of here, to telegraph their new power.

As townspeople watched, several of them said in interviews, the men careened around the main square, some brandishing shields emblazoned with swastikalike symbols, and delivered an ultimatum to immigrants whose businesses have catered to Nikaia’s Greeks for nearly a decade.

“They said: ‘You’re the cause of Greece’s problems. You have seven days to close or we’ll burn your shop — and we’ll burn you,’ ” said Mohammed Irfan, a legal Pakistani immigrant who owns a hair salon and two other stores. When he called the police for help, he said, the officer who answered said they did not have time to come to the aid of immigrants like him.

The report further states that illegal migrants “were routinely discouraged from filing official complaints,” and that “the police told some victims they would have to pay a fee to file a complaint.” In addition, it says, the police told some victims to fight back themselves.

Radio Free Europe:

The website of Iran’s state television news channel says hackers are responsible for the results of its recent poll, in which the majority of respondents said they were in favor of the country halting its uranium-enrichment.

As Persian Letters reported earlier this week, the poll on Irininew.ir found that more than 60 percent of respondents were in favor of Iran stopping its uranium-enrichment program in return for the gradual lifting of international sanctions.

The government has long claimed that its sensitive nuclear program has widespread support among the country’s population.