World news in brief
Bollywood veteran clears £430K debt held by farmers
The Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has cleared loans held by farmers worth more than 40 million rupees (£438,000). Bachchan, one of Indian cinema’s most revered actors, wrote in his blog this week that he had helped 1,398 farmers from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. “Gratitude leans across to the desire of removing some of the burdens that farmers continue to suffer ... And the inner peace it generates when the desired is completed,” he wrote.
India’s farmers have been hit hard by a drop in commodity prices, stagnant wages, record fuel prices and high fertiliser costs, sparking rallies across the country this year calling for better prices for produce and loan waivers. Farmers and other agriculture workers together make up about half India’s 1.3 billion people.
More than 12,600 farmers and agricultural workers committed suicide in 2015 alone, accounting for about 10 per cent of all suicides in India, with almost 60 per cent of suicides caused by bankruptcy and
indebtedness, according to official data. Reuters
Italian woman kidnapped by armed gunmen in Kenya
An Italian woman has been kidnapped by gunmen during an attack on the southeastern coastal town of Chakama in Kenya; five other women and young men were shot. Police said a “Gang ... Abducted an Italian lady aged 23 years who is a volunteer of Africa Milele Onlus, an NGO operating in the area”, in a statement posted on Twitter.
A witness said the gunmen were initially demanding money from terrified residents, but took the Italian volunteer, who has not been named, with them when they left. It is the first kidnapping of a European citizen in Kenya for a number of years.
The men, armed with AK-47 rifles, attacked the town of Chakama on Tuesday evening, police said. The town is west of Malindi, a major tourism destination on the coast. Police did not say if the gunmen were suspect militants from al-Shabaab, an Islamist group based in neighbouring Somalia that has launched deadly attacks in Kenya for years, including the 2013 attack on a shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, in which nearly 70 people were killed. Reuters
Israel threatens taxes on Airbnb after settlements ban
Israel has threatened to slap high taxes on Airbnb and encourage legal cases against the accommodation website over its decision to ban listings from West Bank settlements which are considered illegal by most world powers.
Tourism minister, Yariv Levin, called on the firm to reverse what he called a “discriminatory decision” and “disgraceful surrender” to the boycott movement. He vowed that Israel would retaliate. “If you have a policy of discrimination against Israelis you cannot earn money in Israel,” he said.
The threat of sanctions against the firm comes as the country battles against the Boycott, Divesment, Sanctions campaign (BDS), which advocates boycotts against the country over its treatment of Palestinians.
Germany abolishes death penalty in public vote
Germany has abolished the death penalty after voters in the last state where capital punishment was legal, overwhelmingly approved a constitutional change. In total, 83 per cent of voters in Hesse – which includes the city of Frankfurt – approved abolishing state executions.
The ballot was purely symbolic, because Germany’s federal constitution and European treaties mean the death penalty is already banned in the country as these override state law. Capital punishment is banned in all European Union countries, including Britain.
It took so long for Hesse to reform the law because “there was a fear that if a terrible crime was committed” ahead of any referendum, “then the vote could do the wrong way”, said Hesse’s minister for work, family and health, Juergen Banzer. AP