International News Digests 38
Contents:
Game to teach children Internet safety launched at UN meet
US Supreme Court blocks execution of child killer
Boy teacher 'killed by Taleban'
Game
to teach children Internet safety launched at UN meet
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:46am (Mla time) 11/15/2007
RIO DE JANEIRO -- A game designed to teach children how to stay away from sexual predators and other dangers lurking on the Internet was unveiled Wednesday at a UN forum in Rio de Janeiro that addressed cybercrime.
The Wild Web Woods uses familiar fairy tales to guide children through a maze of potential dangers, so they can safely reach the magnificent "e-city."
The game, designed for children aged seven to 10, was launched by the Council of Europe at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro. It is available on the Internet in English, with 12 other European languages to follow.
The 47-nation council said the game is a key step in its efforts "to curb grooming of children by abusers through the Internet."
"Internet is a major concern in relation to the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children," said the council, echoing the feelings of many of the 1,700 participants at the November 12-15 gathering in Rio.
Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio stressed children represent one of the main categories of Internet users.
"The Internet empowers them, but it also creates new threats to their safety. Sexual exploitation of children is, of course, one of such threats," she told delegates from about 100 countries.
A British group specialized in online protection of children said it has received 5,000 complaints since its creation a year and a half ago.
"The technology has increased children's exposure to an unprecedented level," said Alex Nagle, of Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center.
Several participants stressed that while the World Wide Web has spread knowledge and economic opportunity, it also has a social cost, notably with the rapid spread and easy availability of pornography.
"In many developing countries, the drive to train a new generation in technology skills as a foray into global commerce has produced an epidemic of pornography addiction that parents have no idea how to address," said Cheryl Preston, a law professor at Brigham Young University in Utah.
Gitte Stald of the EU Kids Online said there is plenty of research on risk areas of the net, including sexual violence, racist material, and drugs, but that much remains to be done, particularly on how young people should confront those Internet threats.
De Boer-Buquicchio said a key step would be for more nations to join the 43 that have signed on to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, which she said was the only international treaty dealing "in a comprehensive manner and in full respect of fundamental human rights, with crimes committed through the use of the Internet."
She also encouraged non-European countries to join a convention for the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse that seeks to strengthen international cooperation in tracking down "pedo-pornographers" and "groomers" of children.
US Supreme
Court blocks execution of child killer
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:04am (Mla time) 11/16/2007
MIAMI -- The US Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the execution of a child killer and rapist just four hours before he was due to die while the justices weigh the legality of lethal injection.
Mark Dean Schwab, 38, convicted in 1992 of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old boy, was scheduled to be put to death at 6 pm (2300 GMT) Thursday in Florida. The high court issued the stay of execution at 2 pm (1900 GMT).
The court is considering arguments from several death row inmates that execution by lethal injection violates the US Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment."
Their argument is based on Florida's December 2006 execution of convicted murderer Angel Nieves Diaz, who had to be given two lethal doses after a needle missed his vein and pierced tissue instead. Grimacing as he struggled to breathe, his execution took 34 minutes.
Following the incident, Florida imposed a moratorium on executions, which effectively ended when state Governor Charlie Crist signed Schwab's death warrant in July.
The stay of execution was appealed by the state of Florida, which said it had a "substantial" interest in seeing the death penalty carried out. However, the US Supreme Court has not allowed an execution to go forward since September 25 as they prepare to consider the controversial practice.
A US appeals court earlier Thursday ruled the execution could be carried out, reversing a lower court's stay of the death sentence.
The federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, dismissed the argument that Schwab should not be executed later Thursday until the Supreme Court rules on the lethal injection method.
But the legal back-and-forth culminated in the high court's move on Thursday afternoon, temporarily halting the execution pending a decision on lethal injections.
Authorities across the United States have executed 42 inmates in 2007, with all except one put to death by lethal injection.
Boy teacher 'killed by Taleban'
Taleban militants in eastern Afghanistan have killed a teenage boy who had been teaching English to his schoolmates, police say.
Armed men dragged the 16-year-old out of class and shot him dead, the police chief of Paktia province said.
Two policemen and two militants were killed in the ensuing battle, he said.
The Taleban have denied being involved. In recent years militants have often targeted teachers and students at government-run schools.
Warnings
"Taleban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," provincial police chief Gen Esmatullah Alizai told Reuters news agency.
Gen Alizai said one of the militants killed afterwards had been a local Taleban commander.
Locals said the boy had received a number of warnings to stop teaching English, AFP news agency reports.
More than 3,000 people have been killed this year as Afghan and foreign forces battle Taleban fighters opposed to the Western-backed government in Kabul.
The south and east of Afghanistan have seen the worst of the violence.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7096803.stm
Published: 2007/11/15 17:08:17 GMT
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