Archive for month: September, 2014

The UK government’s education policies are damaging the life chances of a generation of children and must be overhauled, a leader of a major teaching union warns.

Mark Barker, the new president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said Sunday that British children will lose out due to the Coalition government’s “competition agenda.”

Unless new policies are introduced, “more and more children will lose out as education policy continues to be based on the survival of the fittest, with school pitted against school, staff against staff, and parent against parent,” said Baker.

In addition, Baker accused Prime Minister David Cameron’s government of encouraging schools “to act like businesses…with children as the products.”

“You can’t then be surprised if schools focus on children in the middle because the least resources bring the greatest returns in terms of exam grades and a good position in the school league tables,” said Baker.

The union leader also said that the intense competition between schools to prove themselves was having a negative impact on relationships within schools to children’s disadvantage.

“The sense of autonomy has been lost by teachers because school leaders issue directions and teachers just have to do as they are told,” said Baker, adding, “Schools have lost the benefit of a team approach and the generation of lots of ideas.”

Baker called on teachers, lecturers and support staff to “take back our profession.”

“I see it as make or break – we’re at a fork in the road where we have the tensions of big business against the ideals of a profession,” argued Baker. 

CAH/HSN

Shooting incidents in two US states on Sunday left two people dead, including one who was shot by a security guard, authorities said.

Hector Uribe, a 22-year-old man, was shot dead by a security guard in Oakland in what appears to be the fiftieth homicide of the year that took place in an unlikely place and at unlikely time: the Coliseum flea market, at 1 p.m.

According to some witnesses, the guard interrupted Uribe during an auto break-in.

“A lot of people say, he was only looking,” said Patricia Miranda of Fremont. “He was trying to open his car and this security guard came and shot him, I think it’s unfair.”

“They didn’t have to kill him, there’s no reason for him to be dead right now,” his 16-year-old sister Jocelyn Uribe said.

In another incident in North Carolina, one person was shot dead and another was critically injured in a hotel.

Officers arrived to find a large crowd who were there for an album release party. Police said witnesses had heard an argument on the second floor and then they heard gunshots.

Raphael Currie and David Williams, the two victims, were rushed to a hospital, but police said Williams died from his wound and Currie was in critical condition.

According to one study, over 12,000 gun deaths were reported by the US media between December 14, 2012, when the Sandy Hook massacre left 20 first-grade school children and six adults dead, and December 31, 2013.

AT/AGB

The Australian government has ratcheted up sanctions against Russia for allegedly supporting the pro-Moscow forces in Ukraine’s restive east.

On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the parliament that Canberra seeks to tighten its anti-Russia bans, so that they would match those slapped on Russia by the European Union over the country’s alleged role in the Ukraine crisis.

“Australia will lift its sanctions against Russia to the level of the European Union,” the premier told Australian parliamentarians.

According to Abbott, the new sanctions restrict arms exports and the access of Russia’s state-owned banks to Australian capital markets. The fresh bans will build on the financial sanctions and travel bans placed by Canberra on the Kremlin in March.

Over the past months, the EU and Washington have imposed several rounds of sanctions against a number of Russian entities and individuals over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the turmoil in Ukraine.

EU leaders have recently threatened Moscow with new sanctions if there is no change in the chaotic situation in Ukraine.

In response to the restrictive measures, Russia has banned food imports from the EU, the US, Canada, Australia, and Norway.

Moscow has also vowed to exhaust all efforts to safeguard its legitimate interests should the Western states adopt fresh sanctions against the country.

Since Kiev launched military operations to silence the pro-Russia protesters in mid-April, Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the country’s east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Moscow forces and the Ukrainian army.

Kiev and its Western allies have accused Moscow of meddling with the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly rejected the allegations.

MKA/NN/SS

Pakistan’s army has called for a political solution to the current standoff between Islamabad and opposition protesters.

“The situation should be resolved politically without wasting any time and without recourse to violent means,” the Pakistani military said in a statement, issued on Sunday.

But it also warned that if the crisis is not resolved politically, the army will have its own role to play in maintaining security.

“The army remains committed to playing its part in ensuring security of the state and will never fall short of meeting national aspirations,” the statement added.

Pakistan has been the scene of anti-government protests since August 14.

The opposition protests, led by former cricketer Imran Khan and cleric Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, accuse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of corruption and rigging last year’s general elections.

The demonstrators have called for the premier’s resignation.

On Saturday night, thousands of protesters trying to storm Sharif’s residence in the capital, Islamabad, clashed with riot police. Three people were killed and hundreds injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government said it is trying to re-open negotiations with opposition groups.

Information Minister Pervez Rashid said on Sunday that Islamabad remains open to restart talks with the opposition to end the crisis peacefully.

“The government did not initiate the (Saturday) clashes. They turned violent and tried to enter sensitive government buildings, which are the symbol of the state. They wanted their demands to be met at gunpoint, but still, our doors are open for talks,” Rashid said.

MSM/MAM/AS

A number of senior US congressmen have called on President Barack Obama’s administration to provide the Ukrainian government with weapons to use against pro-Russian fighters.

On Sunday, the leading American senators said Washington should supply weapons for the government forces of the crisis-hit country.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the neighboring Ukraine should “hold substantive, meaningful talks, not about technical issues but about the question of the political organization of society and statehood in southeast Ukraine.”

Robert Menendez, the head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the situation in eastern Ukraine as part of Russia’s “aggression.”

Speaking to US media outlets later, Menendez said Washington “should provide the Ukrainians with the type of defensive weapons that will impose a cost upon Putin for further aggression.”

Senator John McCain also made comments in this regard, saying, “This is not an incursion. This is an invasion… This is no longer the question of some rebel separatists. This is a direct invasion by Russia. We must recognize it as that.”

McCain also called for “strong sanctions” on Moscow, saying, “Give them (Ukrainians) the weapons they need. Give them the wherewithal they need. Give them the ability to fight.”

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence the pro-Russians.

The political unrest in eastern Ukraine has so far claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people, according to figures released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Nearly 300,000 people have also been forced to flee their homes due to fierce fighting in the east, according to the UN.

NT/MAM/AS