Syrian Kurdish official appeals for weapons for Kobani fighters; says airstrikes not enough
MURSITPINAR, Turkey — In its battle for the Syrian town of Kobani, the Islamic State group enjoys a key advantage: a supply of weapons, ammunition and fighters shuttling between Syria and Iraq.
The town’s Syrian Kurdish defenders, while backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, are outnumbered, poorly armed and squeezed against the unwelcoming Turkish border. Reflecting growing desperation despite their success so far in holding out, Syrian Kurdish officials are increasing their appeals to better arm the defenders of the strategic frontier town.
“We call upon the international community to open a humanitarian safe passage to allow in food, medicine and weapons supplies,” said Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani’s foreign relations committee.
It’s unclear what friendly countries could do. Weapons for Kurdish fighters would have to cross through Turkey — a request the Ankara government is likely to rebuff.
Hong Kong police swoop in to remove barricades at a protest zone in dawn raid
HONG KONG — Dozens of Hong Kong police have descended on a pro-democracy protest zone to remove barricades in a dawn raid.
Officers wearing riot helmets arrived at the site early Friday to take down some of the tents and canopies in Mong Kok. Police said they were not trying to clear the site, which is an offshoot protest zone across the Victoria Harbor from the main occupied area in the city’s financial district.
Police surrounded about 30 protesters, who did not put up resistance.
FBI director: Cellphone encryption has ‘very serious consequences’
WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey warned in stark terms Thursday against the push by technology companies to encrypt smartphone data and operating systems, arguing that murder cases could be stalled, suspects could walk free and justice could be thwarted by a locked phone or an encrypted hard drive.
Privacy advocates and technology experts called the concerns exaggerated and little more than recycled arguments the government has raised against encryption since the early 1990s.
Likening encrypted data to a safe that cannot be cracked or a closet door that won’t open, Comey said the move by tech companies to protect user communications in the name of privacy is certain to impede a wide range of criminal investigations. New legislation to allow law enforcement to intercept communications is needed at a time of advancing technology and new forms of communication, he said.
Rape and romance: Thailand soap operas’ long successful mix draws fire
BANGKOK — In a famous scene from Thailand’s award-winning soap opera “The Power of Shadows,” the handsome protagonist gets drunk and rapes the leading lady. He later begs her forgiveness, and the producers say they will live happily ever after in the sequel.
Boy Meets Girl, Boy Rapes Girl, Boy Marries Girl. The premise is so common in Thailand’s popular prime-time melodramas it could be called a national twist on the universal romantic plotline. But calls for change are growing.
The recent real-life rape and murder of a girl on an overnight train in Thailand has focused national outrage on messages in popular culture that trivialize — and some say even encourage — rape. Even the powerful general who took over the country in a coup this year had to apologize after suggesting that women who wear bikinis on the beach are vulnerable to sexual assault.
Many in the soap opera industry continue to defend sexual violence, in part, as a key to high ratings in a fiercely competitive industry that draws more than 18 million viewers a night to network television, nearly a quarter of Thailand’s population.
Award-winning director Sitthiwat Tappan even describes some rape scenes as a sort of public service.
By wire sources