Hooligans attacked Minority Hindu families on Tuesday last night at Sadar Upazila of Feni District. Due to abrupt attacks twenty including pregnant Hindu women seriously injured & her baby died in the womb. This unfortunate incident took place at Pachgachia (Jele para) Union of Feni District at night. It is also alleged that local Muslim perpetrators also looted shops & properties belonging to Hindus indiscriminately.
Hindus on the occasion of "Laksmi Puja" were celebrating puja chanting and bursting non-explosives,the cadres of Iqbal group belonging to Awami League started to rebuke Hindus and prohibited chanting slogans. The Hindus,thereafter, stropped chanting and prayed apology. But thereafter at O.Clock 7 to 8 perpetrators under the leadership of Iqbal son of Shahabuddin attacked Hindu victim Jahar Lal Das. Soon after the attacks under the leadership of Samrat and Iqbal more armed Hooligans 20 to 25 assembled at Hindu Para, started looting belongings of Minority Hindus, attacked women and children. Ms. Tulshi Rani Das (18) wife of Rabindra Das tried to rescue her husband Rabindra Das, but she has been mercilessly beaten causing bleeding on her bally and her baby died in the womb at the Hospital.
Consequent upon barbarous attacks 1) Ms. Aloke Rani Das (28), 2) Jahar Lal Das (45), 3) Ms.Shova Rani Das (45), 4) Bikash (24), 5) Sukdev Das (12), 6) Parimal Das (60) along with 20 others were physically assaulted by those Hooligans.
50 Minority Hindus left the village towards Feni River by boat for their safety and security. ( Source : The Daily Jugantor dated 28th October,15) The local S.P. Md. Rezaul Hoque visited the place of occurrence.
Bangladesh Minority Watch immediately communicated with Md. Rezaul Hoque - S.P. Feni over his mobile number 01713373773 who informed us that the incident is not a big thing,it arises on a simple matter and it is not a " Minority Repression" I also communicated with local A.S.P. Circle Refaeu Ullah who also tried to suppress the matter showing the incident is a normal one. I also communicated with Morshed - Officer in Charge of Feni Sadar Police station who also tried to disconnect telephone line time and again and he last said - " I am busy and you will call me later on "
Bangladesh Minority Watch is very much concerned about attacks on Minority Hindus families at Feni and BDMW also demand immediate arrest of perpetrators responsible for attacking Hindu families rendering them homeless. The perpetrators should be brought to book as per law of the land. - See more at: http://www.eibela.com/english/article/minority-hindu-families-brutally-tortured-in-feni#sthash.nsZRoH8Z.dpuf
War crimes Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid has met with the relatives of the Dhaka Central Jail today at around 2 pm. A 12 member groups meet to Mujahid, after an hour long meeting came out at 3 pm from the Jail.
His wife Tamanna-e-Jahan, Elder brother Afzal Ali Mohammad younger brother Ujayer M Akram, Elder son Ali Ahmed Tazdid ,second son Tahakik Ali Ahmed youngest son Ali Ahmed Mahrub, daughter Tamrina Binte Mujahid, daughter in laws Farzana , Nasrin Kakoli, Syeda Rupaida,nephews and others were also present.
Eilder brother Ali Afzal Mohammad Mujahid said he is not upset for this verdict. Moreover, he is mentally and physically alright.
However, Mujahid has death penalty for killing of intellectuals on the independence war in 1971 in Bangladesh.
Were
I a fundamentalist militant in Western Europe, or, indeed, in a number
of other places, I would not be overjoyed at the success of the Nov. 13
suicide attacks in Paris.
Worry would be the more appropriate response.
The intelligence and security services of many European and other
countries have already swung into action. Their activities will be of
greater consequence than anything that happened in the original attacks —
because they want to solve the mystery of exactly what happened in
Paris, and because key suspects are already proving elusive, the dangers
of a crackdown are growing by the hour.
Conversely, in my role as an ordinary citizen — even though people
like me were the targets of the Paris attacks — I am reassured. The
reasons why become evident as you consider just how a massive search
like this is conducted.
In the first place, while it may be true that the police started with
no information about the perpetrators, that condition changed swiftly.
One perpetrator, identified by a finger blown off in the detonation of
his suicide vest, immediately yielded the information that the man’s
brother was also an Islamist. There’s a suspect already. The discovery
of a rental car leads to another identification. Immediate family,
relatives and friends of individuals who have been identified become
instant persons of interest in investigations like this.
In this age of aggregation, metadata and data mining, the recognition
of connections or links between and among individuals has received
quite a great deal of attention. That is precisely what Washington’s
National Security Agency was up to with its tracing of second- and
third-level associations of persons whose phone numbers were being
monitored.
In the Paris investigation, making associations like this will guide
one segment of the inquiry. This kind of tracking will become even more
important as authorities develop real leads. For example, the militants
killed in Paris on Nov. 13 may have carried phones, were wearing
clothes, were carrying weapons. All those things can be traced and some,
like the phones, can yield more new associations.
Take the weapons used in the attacks, for example. The Islamist group
known as Islamic State has no logistics network in Western Europe. The
attackers had to procure their weapons somewhere, which leads to the
question of where there is a black market in AK-47 assault rifles that
would be accessible to them. The Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is one
such place.
The weapons used in the attack on the Brussels-to-Paris train in
August that was foiled by three young Americans; in a shootout with
Belgian police earlier this year, and in the May 2014 attack on the
Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels — all came from this suburb. The
attackers had lived in this area, too — and the two brothers linked to
the Paris attacks have been traced to Molenbeek already.
Belgian police have deployed in force into Molenbeek. Here comes the
next thing that is reassuring — or not, depending on which side of the
law you inhabit. The security services are not without knowledge.
In Belgium, there was a group called Sharia4Belgium that advocated
sharia law and was ranked as one of the main recruiters of fighters to
go to Syria. Belgium itself has gained the distinction of being the
highest per-capita supplier of recruits for jihad in the Middle East.
Early in 2015, a Belgian judge designated Sharia4Belgium a terrorist
organization, and 45 people associated with the group were found guilty
of terror-related offenses. The evidence from that trial, from the
investigations of all the defendants and from the train and shoot-out
incidents — all give the security services names of individuals to
question in the Paris attacks.
Similarly, the French police — and their special security service,
the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) — have “Q” files
that indicate persons of interest who may have been investigated in the
past. There are reports already that at least one of the Paris attackers
had a “Q” file and had been followed for a time. In Britain, Scotland
Yard’s Special Branch compiles the same sort of files.
A certain number of French Muslims in Seine-Saint-Denis, or British
Muslims in Birmingham or Tower Hamlets, can expect to find themselves
pulled in for questioning — regardless of whether there is specific
evidence linking them to events in Paris. In France alone, 168 raids
were reportedly carried out on Monday. More than a hundred persons are
being held in their homes.
These are reflexive elements of an investigation before there is
specific evidence. They are about suspect lists and generic doubts.
Interviews with such a broad swath of individuals, data mining and
following the threads from detritus found at the attack scenes will, in
due course, furnish investigators with even more concrete leads.
Coordination among services in different nations will be imperative.
Speed is important, of course. As with the January shootings at the
headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, big fish such as suspected ringleader
Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have flown the coop already. But what gives
Islamic State the capability is the network, and here thoroughness takes
precedence over velocity. As security services expand their
investigations, they will become more precise and able to hone in on
persons or elements that have a more direct connection, if not to the
Paris attacks themselves, then to other jihadi activities.
This is why I think that the Paris attacks will damage Islamist
purposes throughout Western Europe more than the destruction wrought by
the Paris attackers on Nov. 13. In the six months after the 9/11
attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency tells us, it and its allies
swept 2,500 individuals with terrorist connections off the streets in
many countries.
Expect something similar to happen here.
- See more at:
http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2015/11/18/clues-isis-left-behind-in-paris-attacks-will-cost-it-dearly/#sthash.qtt48MyA.dpuf
Were
I a fundamentalist militant in Western Europe, or, indeed, in a number
of other places, I would not be overjoyed at the success of the Nov. 13
suicide attacks in Paris.
Worry would be the more appropriate response.
The intelligence and security services of many European and other
countries have already swung into action. Their activities will be of
greater consequence than anything that happened in the original attacks —
because they want to solve the mystery of exactly what happened in
Paris, and because key suspects are already proving elusive, the dangers
of a crackdown are growing by the hour.
Conversely, in my role as an ordinary citizen — even though people
like me were the targets of the Paris attacks — I am reassured. The
reasons why become evident as you consider just how a massive search
like this is conducted.
In the first place, while it may be true that the police started with
no information about the perpetrators, that condition changed swiftly.
One perpetrator, identified by a finger blown off in the detonation of
his suicide vest, immediately yielded the information that the man’s
brother was also an Islamist. There’s a suspect already. The discovery
of a rental car leads to another identification. Immediate family,
relatives and friends of individuals who have been identified become
instant persons of interest in investigations like this.
In this age of aggregation, metadata and data mining, the recognition
of connections or links between and among individuals has received
quite a great deal of attention. That is precisely what Washington’s
National Security Agency was up to with its tracing of second- and
third-level associations of persons whose phone numbers were being
monitored.
In the Paris investigation, making associations like this will guide
one segment of the inquiry. This kind of tracking will become even more
important as authorities develop real leads. For example, the militants
killed in Paris on Nov. 13 may have carried phones, were wearing
clothes, were carrying weapons. All those things can be traced and some,
like the phones, can yield more new associations.
Take the weapons used in the attacks, for example. The Islamist group
known as Islamic State has no logistics network in Western Europe. The
attackers had to procure their weapons somewhere, which leads to the
question of where there is a black market in AK-47 assault rifles that
would be accessible to them. The Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is one
such place.
The weapons used in the attack on the Brussels-to-Paris train in
August that was foiled by three young Americans; in a shootout with
Belgian police earlier this year, and in the May 2014 attack on the
Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels — all came from this suburb. The
attackers had lived in this area, too — and the two brothers linked to
the Paris attacks have been traced to Molenbeek already.
Belgian police have deployed in force into Molenbeek. Here comes the
next thing that is reassuring — or not, depending on which side of the
law you inhabit. The security services are not without knowledge.
In Belgium, there was a group called Sharia4Belgium that advocated
sharia law and was ranked as one of the main recruiters of fighters to
go to Syria. Belgium itself has gained the distinction of being the
highest per-capita supplier of recruits for jihad in the Middle East.
Early in 2015, a Belgian judge designated Sharia4Belgium a terrorist
organization, and 45 people associated with the group were found guilty
of terror-related offenses. The evidence from that trial, from the
investigations of all the defendants and from the train and shoot-out
incidents — all give the security services names of individuals to
question in the Paris attacks.
Similarly, the French police — and their special security service,
the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) — have “Q” files
that indicate persons of interest who may have been investigated in the
past. There are reports already that at least one of the Paris attackers
had a “Q” file and had been followed for a time. In Britain, Scotland
Yard’s Special Branch compiles the same sort of files.
A certain number of French Muslims in Seine-Saint-Denis, or British
Muslims in Birmingham or Tower Hamlets, can expect to find themselves
pulled in for questioning — regardless of whether there is specific
evidence linking them to events in Paris. In France alone, 168 raids
were reportedly carried out on Monday. More than a hundred persons are
being held in their homes.
These are reflexive elements of an investigation before there is
specific evidence. They are about suspect lists and generic doubts.
Interviews with such a broad swath of individuals, data mining and
following the threads from detritus found at the attack scenes will, in
due course, furnish investigators with even more concrete leads.
Coordination among services in different nations will be imperative.
Speed is important, of course. As with the January shootings at the
headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, big fish such as suspected ringleader
Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have flown the coop already. But what gives
Islamic State the capability is the network, and here thoroughness takes
precedence over velocity. As security services expand their
investigations, they will become more precise and able to hone in on
persons or elements that have a more direct connection, if not to the
Paris attacks themselves, then to other jihadi activities.
This is why I think that the Paris attacks will damage Islamist
purposes throughout Western Europe more than the destruction wrought by
the Paris attackers on Nov. 13. In the six months after the 9/11
attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency tells us, it and its allies
swept 2,500 individuals with terrorist connections off the streets in
many countries.
Expect something similar to happen here.
- See more at:
http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2015/11/18/clues-isis-left-behind-in-paris-attacks-will-cost-it-dearly/#sthash.qtt48MyA.dpuf
Were
I a fundamentalist militant in Western Europe, or, indeed, in a number
of other places, I would not be overjoyed at the success of the Nov. 13
suicide attacks in Paris.
Worry would be the more appropriate response.
The intelligence and security services of many European and other
countries have already swung into action. Their activities will be of
greater consequence than anything that happened in the original attacks —
because they want to solve the mystery of exactly what happened in
Paris, and because key suspects are already proving elusive, the dangers
of a crackdown are growing by the hour.
Conversely, in my role as an ordinary citizen — even though people
like me were the targets of the Paris attacks — I am reassured. The
reasons why become evident as you consider just how a massive search
like this is conducted.
In the first place, while it may be true that the police started with
no information about the perpetrators, that condition changed swiftly.
One perpetrator, identified by a finger blown off in the detonation of
his suicide vest, immediately yielded the information that the man’s
brother was also an Islamist. There’s a suspect already. The discovery
of a rental car leads to another identification. Immediate family,
relatives and friends of individuals who have been identified become
instant persons of interest in investigations like this.
In this age of aggregation, metadata and data mining, the recognition
of connections or links between and among individuals has received
quite a great deal of attention. That is precisely what Washington’s
National Security Agency was up to with its tracing of second- and
third-level associations of persons whose phone numbers were being
monitored.
In the Paris investigation, making associations like this will guide
one segment of the inquiry. This kind of tracking will become even more
important as authorities develop real leads. For example, the militants
killed in Paris on Nov. 13 may have carried phones, were wearing
clothes, were carrying weapons. All those things can be traced and some,
like the phones, can yield more new associations.
Take the weapons used in the attacks, for example. The Islamist group
known as Islamic State has no logistics network in Western Europe. The
attackers had to procure their weapons somewhere, which leads to the
question of where there is a black market in AK-47 assault rifles that
would be accessible to them. The Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is one
such place.
The weapons used in the attack on the Brussels-to-Paris train in
August that was foiled by three young Americans; in a shootout with
Belgian police earlier this year, and in the May 2014 attack on the
Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels — all came from this suburb. The
attackers had lived in this area, too — and the two brothers linked to
the Paris attacks have been traced to Molenbeek already.
Belgian police have deployed in force into Molenbeek. Here comes the
next thing that is reassuring — or not, depending on which side of the
law you inhabit. The security services are not without knowledge.
In Belgium, there was a group called Sharia4Belgium that advocated
sharia law and was ranked as one of the main recruiters of fighters to
go to Syria. Belgium itself has gained the distinction of being the
highest per-capita supplier of recruits for jihad in the Middle East.
Early in 2015, a Belgian judge designated Sharia4Belgium a terrorist
organization, and 45 people associated with the group were found guilty
of terror-related offenses. The evidence from that trial, from the
investigations of all the defendants and from the train and shoot-out
incidents — all give the security services names of individuals to
question in the Paris attacks.
Similarly, the French police — and their special security service,
the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) — have “Q” files
that indicate persons of interest who may have been investigated in the
past. There are reports already that at least one of the Paris attackers
had a “Q” file and had been followed for a time. In Britain, Scotland
Yard’s Special Branch compiles the same sort of files.
A certain number of French Muslims in Seine-Saint-Denis, or British
Muslims in Birmingham or Tower Hamlets, can expect to find themselves
pulled in for questioning — regardless of whether there is specific
evidence linking them to events in Paris. In France alone, 168 raids
were reportedly carried out on Monday. More than a hundred persons are
being held in their homes.
These are reflexive elements of an investigation before there is
specific evidence. They are about suspect lists and generic doubts.
Interviews with such a broad swath of individuals, data mining and
following the threads from detritus found at the attack scenes will, in
due course, furnish investigators with even more concrete leads.
Coordination among services in different nations will be imperative.
Speed is important, of course. As with the January shootings at the
headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, big fish such as suspected ringleader
Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have flown the coop already. But what gives
Islamic State the capability is the network, and here thoroughness takes
precedence over velocity. As security services expand their
investigations, they will become more precise and able to hone in on
persons or elements that have a more direct connection, if not to the
Paris attacks themselves, then to other jihadi activities.
This is why I think that the Paris attacks will damage Islamist
purposes throughout Western Europe more than the destruction wrought by
the Paris attackers on Nov. 13. In the six months after the 9/11
attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency tells us, it and its allies
swept 2,500 individuals with terrorist connections off the streets in
many countries.
Expect something similar to happen here.
- See more at:
http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2015/11/18/clues-isis-left-behind-in-paris-attacks-will-cost-it-dearly/#sthash.qtt48MyA.dpuf
Were
I a fundamentalist militant in Western Europe, or, indeed, in a number
of other places, I would not be overjoyed at the success of the Nov. 13
suicide attacks in Paris.
Worry would be the more appropriate response.
The intelligence and security services of many European and other
countries have already swung into action. Their activities will be of
greater consequence than anything that happened in the original attacks —
because they want to solve the mystery of exactly what happened in
Paris, and because key suspects are already proving elusive, the dangers
of a crackdown are growing by the hour.
Conversely, in my role as an ordinary citizen — even though people
like me were the targets of the Paris attacks — I am reassured. The
reasons why become evident as you consider just how a massive search
like this is conducted.
In the first place, while it may be true that the police started with
no information about the perpetrators, that condition changed swiftly.
One perpetrator, identified by a finger blown off in the detonation of
his suicide vest, immediately yielded the information that the man’s
brother was also an Islamist. There’s a suspect already. The discovery
of a rental car leads to another identification. Immediate family,
relatives and friends of individuals who have been identified become
instant persons of interest in investigations like this.
In this age of aggregation, metadata and data mining, the recognition
of connections or links between and among individuals has received
quite a great deal of attention. That is precisely what Washington’s
National Security Agency was up to with its tracing of second- and
third-level associations of persons whose phone numbers were being
monitored.
In the Paris investigation, making associations like this will guide
one segment of the inquiry. This kind of tracking will become even more
important as authorities develop real leads. For example, the militants
killed in Paris on Nov. 13 may have carried phones, were wearing
clothes, were carrying weapons. All those things can be traced and some,
like the phones, can yield more new associations.
Take the weapons used in the attacks, for example. The Islamist group
known as Islamic State has no logistics network in Western Europe. The
attackers had to procure their weapons somewhere, which leads to the
question of where there is a black market in AK-47 assault rifles that
would be accessible to them. The Brussels suburb of Molenbeek is one
such place.
The weapons used in the attack on the Brussels-to-Paris train in
August that was foiled by three young Americans; in a shootout with
Belgian police earlier this year, and in the May 2014 attack on the
Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels — all came from this suburb. The
attackers had lived in this area, too — and the two brothers linked to
the Paris attacks have been traced to Molenbeek already.
Belgian police have deployed in force into Molenbeek. Here comes the
next thing that is reassuring — or not, depending on which side of the
law you inhabit. The security services are not without knowledge.
In Belgium, there was a group called Sharia4Belgium that advocated
sharia law and was ranked as one of the main recruiters of fighters to
go to Syria. Belgium itself has gained the distinction of being the
highest per-capita supplier of recruits for jihad in the Middle East.
Early in 2015, a Belgian judge designated Sharia4Belgium a terrorist
organization, and 45 people associated with the group were found guilty
of terror-related offenses. The evidence from that trial, from the
investigations of all the defendants and from the train and shoot-out
incidents — all give the security services names of individuals to
question in the Paris attacks.
Similarly, the French police — and their special security service,
the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) — have “Q” files
that indicate persons of interest who may have been investigated in the
past. There are reports already that at least one of the Paris attackers
had a “Q” file and had been followed for a time. In Britain, Scotland
Yard’s Special Branch compiles the same sort of files.
A certain number of French Muslims in Seine-Saint-Denis, or British
Muslims in Birmingham or Tower Hamlets, can expect to find themselves
pulled in for questioning — regardless of whether there is specific
evidence linking them to events in Paris. In France alone, 168 raids
were reportedly carried out on Monday. More than a hundred persons are
being held in their homes.
These are reflexive elements of an investigation before there is
specific evidence. They are about suspect lists and generic doubts.
Interviews with such a broad swath of individuals, data mining and
following the threads from detritus found at the attack scenes will, in
due course, furnish investigators with even more concrete leads.
Coordination among services in different nations will be imperative.
Speed is important, of course. As with the January shootings at the
headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, big fish such as suspected ringleader
Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have flown the coop already. But what gives
Islamic State the capability is the network, and here thoroughness takes
precedence over velocity. As security services expand their
investigations, they will become more precise and able to hone in on
persons or elements that have a more direct connection, if not to the
Paris attacks themselves, then to other jihadi activities.
This is why I think that the Paris attacks will damage Islamist
purposes throughout Western Europe more than the destruction wrought by
the Paris attackers on Nov. 13. In the six months after the 9/11
attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency tells us, it and its allies
swept 2,500 individuals with terrorist connections off the streets in
many countries.
Expect something similar to happen here.
- See more at:
http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2015/11/18/clues-isis-left-behind-in-paris-attacks-will-cost-it-dearly/#sthash.qtt48MyA.dpuf
Jennifer Lawrence, coming into her own in a business dominated by men.
While heroine Katniss Everdeen leads a rebellion in the final Hunger Games movie, the actress who brought the character to life, Jennifer Lawrence, is coming into her own in a business dominated by men.
With an
Oscar and a number of hit films to her credit, Lawrence, 25, was ranked
by Forbes as the highest-paid actress last year with an estimated $52
million in earnings.
Hollywood’s top actors earned much more. When Lawrence spoke out against the wage gap last month, her comments went viral.
Lawrence reprised her role as Katniss in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2,
due in theaters on Friday. She said the franchise had shown that “a
female lead in an action movie can still be a critical and commercial
success.”
“The huge
misconception that women can relate to male leads but men can’t relate
to female leads, I think that’s something studios are saying and it’s
just getting repeated. Hopefully that kind of mentality is on its way
out,” Lawrence said in an interview.
Lawrence’s
brash sense of humor helps audiences relate to her. And she said that as
she gets older, she is becoming more passionate about issues.
“You can
actually really start to appreciate that you do have a platform and a
voice that people will listen to and the option to use it hopefully for
betterment,” she said.
Last month
Lawrence wrote an essay for actress Lena Dunham’s newsletter in which
she discussed being angry with herself for not asking for more money, as
her male co-stars do, for fear of coming across as a “spoiled brat.”
“I was
really shocked,” Lawrence said of the mostly positive response. “When
(Dunham) asked me to write something, I just typed something up and
pressed send. I didn’t really have any expectations.”
Lawrence
has mainly played strong women. She won her first Oscar nomination for
playing survivor Ree in 2010’s independent drama Winter’s Bone. She played the outspoken Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook and Katniss, the Hunger Games heroine.
Next up is Joy,
in which she plays the matriarch of a family business through four
generations. It is expected to earn the Kentucky native her fourth lead
actress Oscar nomination in five years.
Lawrence does not see herself sticking with a particular type of character.
“I don’t
think it’s incredibly important as a part of my job or craft to play
strong women,” she said. “I think it’s ok to play something more
vulnerable, more passive or a little weaker.”
This year after wrapping up Hunger Games and X-Men, in which she plays blue, shape-shifting Mystique, Lawrence will step into a post-franchise chapter of her career.
She is co-writing a script with comedian Amy Schumer and filming space romance Passengers with Chris Pratt.
“I have complete control over my schedule and I really like that,” said Lawrence.
Violent
storms and flooding send water cascading through Antibes, Cannes and
Nice, inundating a retirement home and killing three people inside
Nineteen people are feared dead after violent storms and severe
flooding swept the French Riviera, including three people who drowned in
a retirement home after a river broke its banks.
Heavy flooding along the Cote d’Azur on Saturday saw the river Brague
burst its banks close to the city of Antibes, flooding a home for the
elderly.
The French president, François Hollande said in a statement at least
16 people were dead and a further three are missing. The interior
ministry said earlier in the morning that there was “little hope to find
the [missing] alive”.
Five people are believed to have died trying to park their cars under
shelter, according to local authorities. Three more people drowned when
their car became stuck inside a tunnel.
A woman in her 60s died in the street in Cannes when huge storms hit
the region on Saturday. Water and debris coursed down submerged roads in
the festival town and in the neighbouring city of Nice. Another victim
was found dead at a campsite in Antibes, according to officials.
More than 17cm (6.7in) of rain fell on the Cannes region in two hours, radio France Bleu-Azur reported.
Guardian journalist Stuart Dredge, attending the MIPJunior television
conference in Cannes, said the venue for the event had been flooded. He
said he had walked knee-deep in water on his way home on Saturday night
after watching the England-Australia Rugby World Cup match.
“By half-time, the street outside was running with water, and the
main Rue d’Antibes road in Cannes was between ankle and knee-deep at its
lower points,” he said.
“The crossroads were the most dangerous parts: the water really was
pouring down from the higher ground with strong currents – and a fair
few people walking home had been drinking, so their balance would have
been a bit impaired already.”
Dredge said he did not see anyone fall into the water, although some
moped drivers needed assistance. “This morning, there are a few cars
that have clearly been swept along and deposited leaning against
railings. When I got home the power was out in my building, but it came
back on again shortly before midnight.”
“I think Cannes probably got off lightly, comparably. It was a hairy walk home, but I didn’t feel in true danger,” he added.
If you're a well-to-do Shanghai resident, you might start a typical
day with a cup of Starry Hope, and then check email on your Triple Stars
before driving to the office in your Treasured Horse. After work, you
might unwind with a cold bottle of Hundred Prestige.
In case you missed it, that's actually Starbucks(SBUX), Samsung, BMW and Budweiser.
The Chinese names of these well-known brands
might sound silly in English, but they're key to helping foreign
companies rake in billions in China, where a name is thought to make or
break your luck.
For companies, coming up with a name that fits
the firm's image is tricky enough. But it's even more challenging in
Chinese, which has multiple dialects and scores of homophones that can
lead to unintended double entendres.
For example, in Mandarin,
the word for "tall" (高) sounds exactly like the word for "cake" (糕) --
they're both pronounced "gao."
"The wrong name will just give
the wrong impression," said Tait Lawton, founder of Nanjing Marketing
Group. Foreign firms have "to understand there is meaning in Chinese
characters -- it's not like English where you can take letters and mash
them together to make different sounds." Best Buy(BBY),
for example, didn't have a very catchy Chinese name, using a
near-direct translation from English, Lawton said. While it's hard to
discern just how much the name had to do with its business prospects,
the electronics retailer never caught on in China, and shuttered its
namesake stores in 2011. Related: The crazy flavor experiments behind Chinese fast food
Some brands have found success with names that not only sound like
their English monikers, but also have significant meaning in Chinese.
"Rui bu," used by Reebok, means "fast steps," while Nike(NKE) goes by "nai ke," which translates to "endurance and perseverance." Coca-Cola(KO)
came up with a clever one, "kekou kele," which means "delicious fun,"
and stays true to the original English. On top of that, part of the name
sounds like the Chinese word for "thirsty."
While that kind of
significance might be lost to a foreigner's ears, it's something that
sticks with Chinese consumers, who are more inclined to remember the
Chinese name over the English one, said Vladimir Djurovic, CEO of
Labbrand, a company that helps foreign firms brand in China.
It's important "to connect with the category ... [and] to be close to your target audience, to be accessible," he said.
The best Nike ads ever
Banks, for instance, seeking to attract the rich, should consider names
that give off the impression of wealth and prosperity. Goldman Sachs'
name in Chinese is "gao sheng," or "highly prosperous."
London
bank HSBC went with "hui feng," which roughly translates to "gathered
abundance." A direct translation for HSBC, which stands for Hong Kong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation, wouldn't have worked -- in Chinese, it
would have sounded like every other local bank, instead of a global
finance powerhouse, Djurovic said.
Others, like French grocery
chain, Carrefour, will want to appear more consumer-friendly. Its
Chinese name, "jia le fu," means "happy family."
Djurovic said
that choosing a good Chinese name can take up to a year. "There is no
absolute rule ... the right name will always depend on a couple of
things," he said.
Russian
forces bombed targets in Syria for a fourth day despite international
concerns over Moscow's intentions in the war-torn nation.
The
Russian defense ministry said its soldiers bombed nine ISIS positions
Saturday near the terror group's de facto capital in Raqqa.
In the past 24 hours, the air force conducted 20 airstrikes near Raqqa, the ministry said.
Tactical
bombers destroyed various militant facilities, including ammunition and
oil depots, and all-terrain vehicles, the defense ministry said in a
statement.
At least 11 people were killed in an alleged double strike by Russia in Syria's Idlib province, according to opposition groups.
Members
of Syria's Civil Defense, a volunteer group operating in
rebel-controlled areas, rushed to save people after the aerial attack on
the village of Ehsim when a second strike hit the area. A rescue worker
and nine members of one family were among the dead, according to the
rebel-run Revolutionary Forces of Syria.
"There
were families living there," said Ahmed alHmady, head of Syria Civil
Defense in Balyoun, Idlib, who survived the attack. "There are no armed
fighters there."
CNN could not
independently verify it was a Russian strike. Syria and the U.S.-backed
coalition against ISIS have also launched strikes.
Russia's defense ministry reported aerial strikes in Idlib but did not say what villages were hit.
Col. Gen. Andrey Kartapolov said Russia notified the United States of the airstrikes in advance.
"The
U.S. military attache to Iraq was the first to be informed by our
representative in Baghdad, Gen. Kuralenko, on Wednesday morning,"
Kartapolov said, according to Tass. The official said that Russia also
notified the U.S. side through diplomatic channels.
New day, more bombs
Saturday marks the fourth day Russia has carried out airstrikes in Syria.
And with every passing day, the international community raises alarms over Moscow's intentions.
In a joint statement, a coalition made up of the United States, Britain,
Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar and Saudi Arabia accused Russia of
attacking the Syrian opposition and civilians, instead of fighting ISIS.
"These military actions constitute a
further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and
radicalization," the statement said.
It questioned whether Russia's primary concern is attacking ISIS or propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia defends airstrikes
Russia has denied it conducted any strikes against civilians, and maintained it is targeting the brutal militant group.
"There
were no strikes against civilian infrastructure, especially against
buildings where there could have been or were peaceful residents," the
defense ministry said.
As the diplomatic squabble grows, the White House downplayed Russia's decision to launch the strikes without coordinating with the United States.
No warning
Russia
gave the U.S. a one-hour warning before it launched airstrikes in the
western Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday. Moscow told the U.S. aircraft
battling ISIS in Homs to leave Syrian airspace.
The
U.S. force did not leave, raising the possibility of military mishaps
between the two powers as their forces operate in the same area.
The
Pentagon has suggested Russia is backing close ally al-Assad -- who
appears to be losing his grip on power as the nation's years-long civil
war continues unabated.
U.S. defense officials have warned that Russia's move will inflame the civil war and set back efforts to drive out ISIS.