U.S. scientists: Russians rapidly die out

KavKaz Center, 13 August 2010, 22:50

The number of suicides, poisonings, homicides and accidents in Russia is comparable to the level of mortality from the same causes in such countries as Sierra Leone, Angola and Burundi. These are the countries that are undergoing or have recently emerged from a military conflict. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there are only two births for every three deaths in Russia .

These figures based on a optimistic study were published by professor Nicholas Eberstadt from the American Enterprise Institute in his book entitled "Russia's Peacetime Demographic Crisis".

"It's not only a vast demographic crisis, it is a far-reaching all-pervading crisis of Russian human resources", says Eberstadt. According to the researcher, despite all the signs of extinction of Russians as a people, Russia's political elite has not yet realized the extent of the changes in the main slave contingent among its citizens.

American scientists are confident that in the next twenty years the problem of rapid reduction of working slave population in Russia would have an impact on all spheres of life in the Russian society.

Because of a dramatic demographic crisis, according to researchers, Russia will have to realize its place on the margin of the global arena, stop making stupid and ridiculous attempts to stand up from its knees, abandon its totalitarian political system and get out from its illegal borders.

A sharp decline in population that Russia is going through over the last 20 years is primarily due to the predominance of deaths over the number of births. An average birth rate by Russian women is basically the same as with residents of Western Europe. In this area, Russia can be considered as a country of "the second demographic sift", says Nicholas Eberstadt.

At the same time, Russians die with a speed incredible for Europeans.

"Average Russian mortality rate today is more than twice higher than the mortality rate in Western Europe", says Eberstadt.

No less interesting, according to the researcher, is the fact that "average death rate in Russia is about 50% higher than in new EU member states, i.e. countries of the former Soviet bloc".

One of the main cause of death among Russians are cardiovascular diseases. People die from them 40% more often in Russia than in Finland which has a European record for the number of deaths from heart attacks and strokes..

"The leadership in the Kremlin is trying somehow to fight these problems, but it seems that ambitious leaders of Russia have not even begun to realize the scope of what is really happening", Eberstadt emphasizes.

Department of Monitoring

Kavkaz Center

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Saudi king 'pardons rape victim'

BBC News

The Saudi king has pardoned a female rape victim sentenced to jail and 200 lashes for being alone with a man raped in the same attack, reports say.

The "Qatif girl" case caused an international outcry with widespread criticism of the Saudi justice system.

Saudi women are subject to strict sex segregation laws

She male and female victims were in a car together when they were abducted and raped by seven attackers, who were given jail sentences up to nine years.

Press reports say King Abdullah's move did not mean the sentence was wrong.

Quoted by the Jazirah newspaper, Justice Minister Abdullah al-Sheikh said the king had the right to issue pardons if it served the public interest.

Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to mix with men who are not close family members.

The custodial sentence plus 200 lashes was imposed after the woman, who has not been named, appealed against an earlier sentence of 90 lashes.

'Astonishing' case

The Saudi king frequently pardons criminals at the Eid al-Adha festival which takes place this week, but correspondents say that is usually announced by the official press agency.

The BBC's Heba Saleh says the king's decision to pardon the woman victim is already arousing controversy with some contributors to conservative websites, who say he has breached the rules of religion in order to appease critics in the West.

The US had called the punishment "astonishing", although it refused to condemn the Saudi justice system.

Human rights groups had been calling on King Abdullah, who has a reputation as a pro-Western reformer, to change it.

The justice ministry recently rejected what it saw as "foreign interference" in the case and insisted the ruling was legal and that the woman had confessed to having an affair with her fellow rape victim.

Earlier, the woman - who is a Shia Muslim from the Qatif area - had reportedly said she met the man in order to retrieve a photograph of them together, having herself recently got married.

She says two other men then entered the car and took them to a secluded area where others were waiting, and both she and her male companion were raped.

The woman's companion was sentenced to 90 lashes. It is not known if his sentence was also lifted.

Gap pulls 'child labour' clothing

BBC News

Fashion chain Gap has withdrawn from sale children's clothing allegedly made using forced child labour in India.

A 10-year-old boy was filmed making clothes for Gap shops in the US and Europe as part of an investigation by the UK's Observer newspaper.

The boy told the Observer he had been sold to a factory owner by his family.

Gap, which has made commitments not to use child labour, said that only one item - a girl's smock blouse - was involved.

The boy said he had been working for four months without pay and would not be allowed to leave the job until the fee his family had received was repaid.

Another boy of 12 said children were beaten if bosses thought they were not working hard enough, the paper reported.

Dan Henkle, a spokesman for Gap, said: "We were made aware earlier this week that a reporter had found an incident of children working in a factory that was producing for one of our brands, and this is completely unacceptable to us.

"We have a strict prohibition on child labour, and we are taking this very seriously. This is very upsetting and we intend to investigate thoroughly."

Emergency meeting

The spokesman said Gap monitors factories which make its clothing and in 2006 revoked approval for 23 factories which it said failed to comply with its standards.

Mr Henkle also said the company was calling an emergency meeting with its suppliers in the region.

The smock blouse will not be offered for sale in the company's 3,000 stores around the world, Gap said, and instead will be destroyed.

Western clothing chains increasingly get their products made in Asia, taking advantage of cheaper labour.