Brazilians believe victims deserved sexual assault, study finds

The results of a recent study in Brazil couldn't be clearer: 'Women who wear tight-fitting clothes deserve it when they are attacked,' and 'If women knew how to behave, there would be fewer rapes.'

Those were comments a majority of Brazilians said they could identify with, according to a study published at the end of last month by the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA). The survey polled 3,810 people between the ages of 18 and 50 with 58.5 percent agreeing with the first statement and 65 percent with the second.

The study's results came as a shock to the public as well as the polling agency. 'The results are frightening because they are based on an old patriarchal mentality,' said Rafael Osorio, director of socio-scientific studies at IPEA.

First India, then Brazil

The statements Brazilians agreed with largely mirror similar comments made in India after a number of gang rapes were reported in the media. A video created by the satire group 'All India Bakchod' addressing the brutal sex attacks titled 'It\'s Your Fault,' was clicked on 1.5 million times within the first week, a total that has now jumped to over 3.5 million clicks. In it, a woman cheerily describes all the ways women cause rape and reaches the conclusion 'No women, no rape' before telling viewers to 'Stop blaming the victim.'

Brazilians were concerned by the pervasive belief that victims of rape and sexual assault are the cause of the crimes committed against them. 'It is demotivating that despite significant progress when it comes to equality, patriarchal views are still widespread, ' Osorio said.

The study also showed that 69 percent of those surveyed said men should be the head of the family. Paradoxically to the study's other findings, the survey said 91 percent of people agreed that men who hit women belong in prison.

Guilt - but not for the guilty

The state-run IPEA research institute estimated that there are 527,000 cases of rape in Brazil each year. But despite tightening laws regarding domestic violence in 2006, only a tenth of the cases are brought to the authorities' attention.

The majority of rapes take place in a domestic environment and, according to IPEA 70 percent of rape victims who filed charges were under 18 years old. The majority of perpetrators were either direct family members or acquaintances.

It's not just the recent IPEA study showing that an increasing number of Brazilians is playing down sexual violence - reports of abuse have also flooded social media networks in Brazil. Thousands of men have publicly condoned sexual assault and have even used the networks to organize meetings where the intent is to sexually attack women traveling on public transportation.

Subway attacks

'There have always been attacks in busses and trains, but now there are videos about it posted on the Internet to excite men and instigate sexual harassment,' said Sonia Coelho of the NGO Sempreviva Organizacão Feminista. She said such a Facebook page with 12,000 fans was recently taken off the Internet.

Despite the increasing number of attacks, the number of sexual harassment charges filed with police in Sao Paulo is low. There were just 100 cases in 2013 and 29 in the first three months of 2014.

Unlike other Brazilian cities, such as Rio and Brasilia, Sao Paulo does not plan to introduce separate train subway cars for women. The city's subway system, which transports 7.4 million people daily, uses camera surveillance and undercover security personnel to protect passengers.

Coelho, however, said she was skeptical that separating male and female passengers would be of much use as it does not address the problem of rampant sexual abuse. 'Pink train cars only separate the sexes,' she said, adding that would do less to protect women than increase men's sense of machismo.

Musharraf survives assassination attempt as he returns home from hospital

Policemen inspect the site of a bomb explosion in Islamabad on April 3, 2014. The bomb was planted on Musharraf's route from an army hospital where he has been staying since January to his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb went off shortly before his convoy was due to pass early Thursday, police said.

The former military ruler was on his way to Chak Shahzad farmhouse from the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, where he has been staying since January 2, when the bomb went off.

Nobody was injured and there have so far been no claims of responsibility.

“Four kilogrammes of explosive material – planted in a pipeline under a bridge – exploded around 20 minutes before the former president was supposed to cross the spot,” senior police official Liaqat Niazi said.

The blast occurred at the Faizabad interchange, which lies at the boundary of the twin cities, and destroyed a footpath around two metres wide.

Niazi said the former president was then taken home via an alternative route.

Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Islamabad police, confirmed the incident, saying a bomb disposal squad had cleared the area after the blast.

“Nobody was injured in the blast,” he said, adding Musharraf was the intended target.

On March 31, the Special Court had formally charged Musharraf for imposing emergency rule in the country in 2007. The former army chief had appeared before the three-judge bench and had rejected all charges against him.

Read about the five charges levelled against Musharraf here.

Explosives planted

This is the fifth time that explosive material was found from places close to either the former army chief’s accommodation or his travel route.

• On January 1, explosives with three electronic circuits and remote control were found on the route scheduled to be taken to Special Court by the former president. The police had said 1kg of explosives was planted near the Chak Shehzad traffic signal on Park Road.

•  On December 30, 2013 five packets each containing 0.5kg explosives were found near Musharraf’s farmhouse in the jurisdiction of the Bani Gala police station.

•  On December 24, the day Musharraf was to appear before a specially-constituted court that is hearing a treason trial against him, a five-kilo Improvised Explosive Device was found in a briefcase along the route the former dictator would have taken to reach the court. Musharraf failed to show up for that hearing citing security concerns. A detonator was also found in one of the packets, police said, citing the Bomb Disposal Squad which was called to the spot after police were alerted.

•  On April 23, 2013, an explosive-laden car was found outside the farmhouse. The police had claimed the car was meant to target the former president’s convoy on his return from an anti-terrorism court from Rawalpindi.

Hagel aims at Congress with 2015 Pentagon plan

The first Pentagon budget under the tenure of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is 'an opening shot,' says Mark Gunzinger, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank specializing in US defense policy, planning and budgets.

That shot was aimed at a US Congress which had tied Hagel's hands. Budget wrangling generally, and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2013 in particular, made cuts to the US military inevitable. The Pentagon in 2014 has $496 billion (360 billion euros) at its disposal, or '$31 billion below what the president requested,' Hagel noted during his speech.

No one, Gunzinger says, likes cuts to 'current readiness and modernization programs which will reduce future readiness.' The same members of Congress who forced Hagel to act, in other words, just don't want him to do so in a way which hurts their own districts or states or which weakens perceptions of US military might.

If Congress passes Hagel's plan in the future without providing supplemental funding, the 2015 Pentagon plan implies just that.

A Hagelian budget

The plan's most controversial aspect - that active-duty members of the armed services are to drop from 520,000 to between 440,000 and 450,000 - will, Hagel says, 'help ensure the Army remains well-trained and clearly superior in arms and equipment.' It's a statement which can be read in terms of Hagel's personal experience in war.

'Because he served as an infantryman - not an officer, he was right there in the trenches - he has a point of view other people don't have,' said Charlyne Berens, who has written the only biography to date on Chuck Hagel and is the current associate dean at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Hagel served as an infantryman in Vietnam with his brother, making him the first US defense secretary in history to have been enlisted as a combat soldier.

Rather than coming up with something that that sounds 'lovely politically,' she told DW, he tends to opt for battleground preparedness.

'He told me that when he was in the Senate, and they'd be considering any kind of military legislation, he'd say, 'We have to understand that these are real people we're talking about and real lives that are being affected. It's not some textbook, sanitized version of conflict. It has real consequences.''

Europe to the rescue?

According to Gunzinger, 'There are some hints in Hagel's announcement that the Defense Department is serious about pursuing new technologies such as unmanned systems and cyber capabilities.' He also hopes to see the department expand in its upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review report on what he calls its 'crown jewels:' special operations forces, cyber and space capabilities, long-range stealth strike systems, underseas warfare and directed energy weapons such as high-powered lasers.

Hagel will likely also prioritize a military rebalance in the Asia-Pacific region and a stable military posture in the Middle East.

And while the US is urging Europe to modernize its military capabilities and prepare to contribute more in out-of-region contingency operations, it is not a question of Europe simply filling in the gap in the future, Gunzinger says.

'I don't see the US military reducing their planned investments in the hope that Europe will play a larger role in maintaining stability in critical regions such as the Middle East and western Pacific.

Pakistan eyes US military equipment in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: The US military may have another option for disposing of $7 billion worth of armored vehicles and other equipment it s struggling to get rid of now that its war in Afghanistan is ending.Some of it could be driven across the border and handed over to Pakistan, part of an effort by the Pentagon to unload excess military supplies to US allies at no cost.

The discussions between American and Pakistani officials have been going on for months and center on leftover military hardware that the United States does not want to pay to ship or fly home.Although no final decisions have been made, Pakistan is particularly interested in the US Army s mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles, which Pentagon officials say will have limited strategic value as US forces withdraw from Afghanistan this year.

But with Pakistan s military expected to be battling Taliban insurgents for years, the MRAPs could help Pakistani forces slow their high casualty rate of more than 20,000 dead or injured troops since 2001.

“We will not take it for the sake of just taking it, and we will not take it because it s free,” said one senior Pakistani military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the negotiations. “We will take it because we need it.”About 150,000 Pakistani soldiers are along the country s border with Afghanistan, and US officials are counting on them to help keep the pressure on militant groups after 2014.

But Pakistan s troops remain vulnerable to roadside bombs and explosive devices, and their armored vehicles can withstand far less force than a US-made MRAP, officials said.The United States had been a major weapons supplier to Pakistan for decades, but those sales slowed dramatically after the US military raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

Over the past year, the tension has eased, and leaders in both countries have stressed that they need to work together to try to ensure regional stability after the US-led coalition withdraws from Afghanistan.Last fall, Secretary of State John F. Kerry signed a waiver authorizing US weapons sales to Pakistan through at least this year.

The backbone of the US military s vehicle fleet in Afghanistan, MRAPs were designed to protect American troops from explosive devices. But each MRAP weighs as much as 40 tons, and Pentagon leaders have said it would potentially cost more than $100,000 per vehicle to ship them back to United States. They also have qualms about leaving them in Afghanistan, noting that the stock is far larger than what the Afghan army would be able to maintain.

The Washington Post reported in June that the US military was shredding hundreds of MRAPs for scrap metal, despite their initial cost of $400,000 to $700,000 each.But Mark E. Wright, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military still has about 13,000 MRAPs scattered worldwide that remain in good working condition, including about 1,600 in Afghanistan.

The US government is offering them to allies for free on an “as-is, where-is” basis, Wright said. But the recipients, who would be vetted by the State Department, would be responsible for shipping them out of Afghanistan.Twenty countries have expressed an interest, he added.

The Defense Department “is reviewing every request and is expediting the review process to support US retrograde timelines,” said Wright, noting that decisions must be made by the end of this year.But Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that many countries have ultimately decided that it s neither cost-effective nor practical for them to pay to collect the MRAPs from Afghanistan.“It s very expensive for countries to take those vehicles from Afghanistan,” he said.

Pakistan, however, shares a 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan. Coalition forces also use Pakistani highways and ports to ship material into and out of landlocked Afghanistan.In January, the New York Times reported that Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, also has been inquiring about receiving surplus US military hardware.

At the time, the newspaper noted­ that the US-led coalition was increasingly relying on Uzbekistan to transport equipment and supplies out of Afghanistan because supply routes through Pakistan were partly blocked.

Since then, however, a major Pakistani political party has lifted its blockade of NATO supply routes through the northern part of the country. Since January, there also have been several high-level meetings between US and Pakistani officials over ways to bolster cooperation.

A Pakistani security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the military is exploring the acquisition of night-vision and communications equipment.The official said Pakistan stepped up its efforts to find more advanced counter-terrorism equipment and armor in the fall after a Pakistani army general was killed by a roadside bomb near the Afghan border.

About 5,000 Pakistani troops have been killed in clashes with the Taliban or in terrorist attacks since 2001, including 114 over the past six months.Siemon T. Wezeman, a senior researcher and South Asia expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global weapons sales and transfers, said Pakistan also has reached out to Turkey in search of more heavily armored vehicles.

But Wezeman said a deal between the United States and Pakistan to transfer old MRAPs could benefit both countries.Although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been boosting the defense budget, Wezeman notes that Pakistan remains a cash-strapped nation. And US military commanders, he said, fear leaving surplus equipment in Afghanistan because of uncertainty about the Afghan army s ability to fend off Taliban insurgents.“

Handing them all over to the Afghan army isn t really an option,” Wezeman said. “There is a feeling in the US that the Afghan army is not totally reliable, so it may be safer to just park them in Pakistan.”Still, US officials are mindful that any significant transfer of military hardware to Pakistan could complicate relations with Afghanistan and India, another US ally in the region.

Pakistan and India have fought three major wars since 1947, but Wezeman doubts that India would seriously object “to a few hundred MRAPs ending up in Pakistan.” He notes that the bulky vehicles were built to fight an insurgency and would have little value in a major cross-border war involving tanks and warplanes.It s less clear, however, how Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghan military leaders would react.

Karzai, who is leaving office this year, is deeply skeptical of Pakistan and believes that the US-led coalition has not done enough to prepare the Afghan army for threats from Pakistan and other countries that border Afghanistan.Even if the United States agrees to give Pakistan military hardware from Afghanistan, Pakistani officials stress that there are limits to what they re willing to accept.“Pakistan won t become America s junkyard,” one official said.

3G license auction will be transparent, open to all competitors: Nawaz

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with a delegation of international telecom investors at PM House Islamabad on April 3, 2014. PHOTO: PID

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that the upcoming 3G license auction will be open for all national and international competitors and it will be awarded in a transparent manner.

According to a release from the Prime Minister house, Nawaz met with a three-member delegation from the telecom sector on Thursday. He said that Pakistan hoped that international bidders will partake in the upcoming auction.

He was of the opinion that the introduction of 3G technology in Pakistan will provide the crucial momentum to the growing economy and usher in a new era of information technology in the country.

Government should not run businesses but facilitate businesses and for this purpose we have raised the trust of the investors, Nawaz added.

The delegation comprised of Vimplecom CEO Jo Lender, Emeritus co-founder and Chairman Augie K Fabela, and Mobilink CEO and President Rashid Khan.

They appreciated the government’s privatisation policy and said that the introduction of 3G technology in Pakistan will provide the necessary momentum to the growing economy.

The delegation also called on President Mamnoon Hussain.

Deadly shooting at Fort Hood US military base leaves four dead and several injured

A shooting at Fort Hood military base in the US has left four people dead including the gunman. Sixteen others have been wounded – some critically. The whole base was put under lock down as police investigated the incident. The suspect is thought to have served in Iraq and had been suffering from depression. Witnesses say he used a semi-automatic handgun when he opened fire . Lieutenant General Mark Milley: 'The shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. With regard to the investigation at this time there is no indication that this incident is related to terrorism although we are not ruling anything out – the investigation continues.' The shooting is the third such incident at a military base in the United States in about six months. President Barack Obama gave his reaction: 'The folks there have sacrificed so much on behalf of our freedom. many have been on multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, they served with valour and distinction. We are heartbroken that something like this might have happened again.' Five years ago Fort Hood was the scene of the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in US history. Maj Nidal Hasan shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others.He claimed to be protecting the Taliban from US troops who were about to be deployed to Afghanistan. Hasan was sentenced to death last September.

Hollande puts Valls in charge after election debacle

French President Francois Hollande Hollande is pictured after he recorded a speech to be broadcast on French television on March 31, 2014 at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris. PHOTO: AFP

PARIS: French President Francois Hollande on Monday reacted to a humiliating electoral rout for his Socialist Party by naming popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls as the country’s new prime minister.

Valls, 51, replaces Jean-Marc Ayrault at the helm of a new government which will not include the two Green ministers who were part of the outgoing administration.

Hollande confirmed Ayrault’s dismissal and Valls’ promotion in a televised address to the nation, a day after the Socialists lost more than 150 towns and cities to the right or far-right in municipal elections on Sunday

“In the elections, you expressed your unhappiness and your disappointment. I have heard your message, it is clear,” Hollande said, admitting that voters had lost patience with high taxes and record unemployment.

He said Valls would be charged with implementing a package of pro-business policies known as the Responsibility Pact, which have been attacked by the left of his party.

But he said this would be balanced by a new “solidarity pact” which would include steps to boost spending on education and health, reduce income and payroll taxes – provided they can be financed by cuts in state spending elsewhere.

“It is about reforming our state … and preserving our social model. In short, we want to be both fairer and more efficient,” Hollande said.

Waking up to headlines Monday that included “A rout”, “A slap” and “A kick up the backside”, Hollande was left with little option but to order a radical shake-up of a government seen as drifting hopelessly against a backdrop of real economic pain for millions of French families.

Both the far-right National Front (FN) and the mainstream opposition made historic gains in Sunday’s nationwide elections, which were the first major electoral test since Hollande’s 2012 election.

The scale of the setback was unprecedented.

Marine Le Pen’s FN, skilfully rebranded as more than just an anti-immigrant party, won control of 11 towns and more than 1,400 municipal seats nationwide, easily its best ever performance at the grassroots level of French government.

But even more worrying for Hollande and Co. was the strong showing of the mainstream Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy snatched a string of major towns that were once considered bastions of the left in a performance which, if repeated in national elections, would see them sweep back to power with ease in 2017.

Valls popular but divisive

Born in Barcelona, Valls is a dapper, good-looking politician who has consistently been the most popular member of the Socialist-led government with approval ratings Hollande can only dream of.

Having acted as Hollande’s communications manager in the 2012 campaign, the twice-married father of four is personally close to the president.

But he is regarded with suspicion by many on the left of his party because of his attacks on shibboleths such as the 35-hour working week and his uncompromising stance on law-and-order issues.

Appointing him as prime minister is a bold and decisive move by Hollande, some might say uncharacteristically so. But, as with his adoption of the Responsibility Pact — which aims to reduce companies payroll taxes in the hope it will lead to them hiring more staff — it comes with the risk of exacerbating internal party tensions.

The issue was underlined on Monday when Green ministers Cecile Duflot and Pascal Canfin announced they would not be part of the new government, describing the appointment of Valls as “not an adequate response to the problems faced by the French.”

Divisions inside the Socialist Party are already acute because of misgivings on the left over Hollande’s pursuit of spending cuts required to get France’s budget deficit under control.

The full line-up of the new cabinet is expected to emerge on Tuesday with interest particularly keen in whether Hollande will recall the mother of his four children, Segolene Royal, from the political wilderness.

Royal was the Socialists’ presidential candidate in 2007 but her inclusion in Hollande’s first cabinet was reportedly blocked because of hostility from Valerie Trierweiler, the president’s then girlfriend.

That obstacle has now been removed following Hollande’s separation from Trierweiler, and Royal is tipped for a return to the frontline of politics with a major portfolio covering education, sport and youth.