ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Thousands face death, alcoholism and rising crime while eking out a dangerous livelihood in eastern state of Jharkhand. Jharkhand, India - Every morning at the crack of dawn, 13-year-old Sagar Kujur joins many others of his age and even younger to trudge towards the coal pits of Ramgarh in Jharkhand, a state in eastern India. Armed with shovels and cane baskets, they tip-toe over the jagged surface, settle down in a corner and start digging a hole through rocks of solid coal. A few back-breaking hours later, their baskets fill up with pieces of coal that had been chipped away, and they hurry to the nearest market to sell their day’s treasure. Children like Kujur, blackened with coal dust, serve as daily reminders to the dark secrets of the 15,000-odd coal mines in the state. Jharkhand is mineral-rich, but a majority of its people is dirt poor. As in the rest of India where, according to UNICEF, some 28 million children work to supplement their families’ meagre income, 400,000 ...

Amnesty International says ex-rebel government jails at least 10,000 political prisoners to 'silence dissent'.  Eritrea's hardline regime has jailed at least 10,000 political prisoners, many in "unimaginably atrocious conditions", rights group Amnesty International said in a report. With political opposition banned, independent media quashed and religious minorities targeted, the ex-rebel government uses a system of underground cells and shipping containers to house the prisoners, the report released on Thursday said. "The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people's lives," said Claire Beston, Amnesty's Eritrea researcher. The report says "at least 10,000" prisoners have "disappeared into secret and incommunicado detention" in the Horn...

The two countries agree to hold an international conference to push both sides in Syria to find an end to the bloodshed. The United States and Russia have agreed to push both sides in Syria to find an end to the bloodshed, offering to hold an international conference in search of peace. In talks which stretched late into the night, US Secretary of State John Kerry met first for more than two hours with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and then for a further three with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both the Syria government and opposition groups to find a political solution," Lavrov told reporters at a concluding news conference that ended after midnight. Hopefully by the end of May the two ministers working together could convene an international conference to build on the Geneva accord agreed by world powers last June for a peaceful solution in Syria, they said. Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from the...

Suspected members of the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram have raided the north-eastern town of Bama, leaving 55 people dead. Boko Haram gunmen killed 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians, while 13 of the group's own members died, military spokesman Sagir Musa said. Gunmen freed 105 prison members during the raid, which began about 5:00am (local time) and lasted almost five hours, Mr Musa said. Witnesses said Bama's police station, military barracks and government buildings were burned to the ground. Bama is a small, remote town in north-eastern Borno state, where Boko Haram first launched an uprising in 2009. The Boko Haram sect and offshoots such as the Al Qaeda-linked Ansaru, as well as associated criminal networks, pose the main threat to stability in Africa's top energy producer. Western governments are increasingly concerned about Nigerian militants linking up with other jihadist groups in the West African region. Boko Haram wants ...

The 3D-printed gun that Cody Wilson calls the "Liberator." Click to enlarge. (Credit: Michael Thad Carter for Forbes)  May 07, 2013  -" Forbes " - Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun . Now he has. Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,” pictured in its initial form above. He’s agreed to let me document the process of the gun’s creation, so long as I don’t publish details of its mechanics or its testing until it’s been proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense Distributed’s online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org . Update : Here’s my full account of Defense Distributed’s first test-firings of the Liberator, including firing it by hand . All sixteen pieces of the Liberator ...