In aftermath of Kenya mall siege, shop owners suspect security troops in widespread thefts In aftermath of Kenya mall siege, shop owners suspect security troops in widespread thefts ADVERTISING NAIROBI, Kenya — Jewelry cases smashed. Mobile phones ripped from displays.
In aftermath of Kenya mall siege, shop owners suspect security troops in widespread thefts
NAIROBI, Kenya — Jewelry cases smashed. Mobile phones ripped from displays. Cash registers emptied. Alcohol stocks plundered.
For the second time in two months, poorly paid Kenyan security forces that moved in to control an emergency are being accused of robbing the very property they were supposed to protect. First the troops were accused of looting during a huge fire in August at Nairobi’s main airport.
Now shop owners at Westgate Mall are returning to their stores after last week’s devastating terrorist attack to find displays ransacked and valuables stolen.
One witness told The Associated Press that he saw a Kenyan soldier take cigarettes out of a dead man’s pocket.
Shopkeepers spent Monday carting merchandise and other valuables out of their stores and restaurants to prevent any more thefts. No one can say for sure who is responsible, but Kenya’s security forces are strongly suspected.
N.C. governor, lawmakers vow to fight lawsuit alleging voting rights discrimination
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s Republican governor is vowing to fight a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department challenging the state’s tough new elections law on the grounds it disproportionately excludes minority voters.
Gov. Pat McCrory said Monday he has hired a private lawyer to help defend the new law from what he suggested was a partisan attack by President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration.
“I believe the federal government action is an overreach and without merit,” McCrory said at a brief media conference during which he took no questions. “I firmly believe we have done the right thing. I believe this is good law.”
North Carolina’s new law cuts early voting by a week, ends same-day voter registration and includes a stringent photo ID requirement. The measure also eliminated a popular high school civics program that encouraged students to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays.
More than 70 percent of African-Americans who cast a ballot in North Carolina during the past two presidential elections voted early. Studies show minority voters are also more likely to lack a driver’s license.
Report finds world
not prepared to support growing
elderly population
The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study going out Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.
The report ranks the social and economic well-being of elders in 91 countries, with Sweden coming out on top and Afghanistan at the bottom. It reflects what advocates for the old have been warning, with increasing urgency, for years: Nations are simply not working quickly enough to cope with a population graying faster than ever before. By the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors over the age of 60 will outnumber children under the age of 15.
Truong Tien Thao, who runs a small tea shop on the sidewalk near his home in Hanoi, Vietnam, is 65 and acutely aware that he, like millions of others, is plunging into old age without a safety net. He wishes he could retire, but he and his 61-year-old wife depend on the $50 a month they earn from the tea shop. And so every day, Thao rises early to open the stall at 6 a.m. and works until 2 p.m., when his wife takes over until closing.
Thao’s story reflects a key point in the report, which was released early to The Associated Press: Aging is an issue across the world. Perhaps surprisingly, the report shows that the fastest aging countries are developing ones, such as Jordan, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Vietnam, where the number of older people will more than triple by 2050. All ranked in the bottom half of the index.
By wire sources
