SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Cancer is threatening to overwhelm Latin American countries, experts writing in Lancet Oncology warn. There are far fewer cases of cancer in the region than in the US or Europe - but the proportion who die is far higher, they say. Late diagnosis and poor access to treatment are the main reasons for the disparity, they add. They said as life expectancy increased, cancer would become more common, and many countries would not cope.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Tens of thousands of Canadians have staged a protest against changes by the Conservative government to employment insurance (EI), saying the reforms unfairly target seasonal workers and part-time workers. Protesters marched through the city of Montreal on Saturday, voicing their opposition against reforms by the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which took effect in January. The reforms demand workers to accept a 30-percent cut in salary and travel up to 100 kilometers (62…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Protests in Bangladesh have spread to a second city with hundreds of people throwing stones and setting fire to vehicles, as authorities made arrests in connection with the collapse of factory building that killed more than 300 workers. Police said on Saturday they had arrested two owners of the garment businesses and two engineers involved in approving the design of the shoddily constructed eight-story building which collapsed on Wednesday. Shamsul Haque Tuku, deputy home…

SHAFAQNA - Bangladeshi police say they have made three arrests after a garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 300 people. The building's owners and an engineer who was responsible for maintenance were arrested on Saturday after the death toll rose to 324. "We've arrested Bazlus Samad, the chairman of New Wave Buttons and New Wave Style factories, and Mahmudur Rahaman Tapash, a managing director of one of these plants, after midnight," Shyamal Mukherjee, deputy chief of Dhaka police, told AFP…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The figure has been confirmed by 3G provider Koryolink, a partnership between Egyptian telecoms firm Orascom and the North Korean government. The service can only be used to make voice calls, and all international calls are banned. At the start of 2012 Koryolink claimed to have one million 3G subscribers. In January 2013 the government began allowing visitors to the country to bring in their mobile phones for the first time. Unlike residents, they…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A 35-year-old Dutchman has been arrested for his suspected role in cyber-attacks against Spamhaus, according to the Dutch Public Ministry. The arrest took place in Spain. The media believe the man to be CyberBunker spokesman Sven Olaf Kamphuis. In a press release on its website, the National Office of the Public Ministry refers to the arrested suspect simply as "SK." It states that SK is suspected of a heavy attack against Spamhaus, an international…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Thousands of garment factory workers in Bangladesh have protested for the second day over the deaths of more than 300 workers after a building collapsed. Rescuers also found 50 more workers on Friday evening, as they continue to search for large numbers of survivors believed to be still trapped inside the rubble. Widespread anger has been fuelled by revelations that factory bosses forced 3,000 workers to continue working on Wednesday despite police orders to…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – India has accused China of dispatching soldiers far into its territory in the western part of the Ladakh region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian Defense Secretary Shashikant Sharma and other military officials said in a report, which was presented to a parliamentary watchdog on Friday, that Chinese troops advanced nearly 19 kilometers into Indian territory on April 15, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. The Indian defense secretary also told MPs attending the meeting…

SHAFAQNA-- Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has blamed "remnants of Baath Party for creating rift" in the country and said he would not listen to those who spread sectarianism, as a wave of violence killed more than 100 people over three days. Maliki called on everyone worried about Iraq's future "to take the initiative, and not be silent about those who want to take the country back to sectarian civil war", in remarks broadcast on state television on Thursday.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – South Korea on Thursday warned North Korea of serious consequences if it rejects an offer for talks about the dire situation at their shared manufacturing zone where Pyongyang has halted activity amid recent tensions. The South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-seok urged the North to respond to the offer of talks by noon Friday, saying South Koreans inside the zone, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, are facing "serious difficulties due to lack of food…