In 2024, there were 146 murders and long-term disappearances of environmental and land activists, according to a report by the NGO Global Witness.
Tag: kidnapping
Cyber slavery rings are growing across the region, trapping young jobseekers in brutal scam compounds — and fueling a global criminal enterprise.
In southern Italy, a 19-year-old woman was kidnapped by her parents for falling in love with a transgender man. Tracked down with a GPS, imprisoned, and forced to “recover” from her “disturbance.” Are we returning to the days of witch hunts?
The absence of documentation and an international accountability mechanism capable of deterring warring parties in Yemen has exacerbated the severity of violations related to sexual assault against children. These violations have spread across social media, revealing the extent of unspoken crimes that have yet to find their way to justice.
Sudan’s ongoing war has been marked by widespread reports of rape and gang rape, atrocities long documented in the African country dating back to the Darfur conflict in early 2000s.
At least 91 Indians have been forced to fight alongside the Russian army on the frontlines, and so far, eight Indian nationals have been killed. Many families have been waiting agonizingly long for their loved ones to return home.
Married shortly before ISIS militants began their genocide of Yazidi people in northern Iraq, Samia Samu was later abducted and held captive for nine years. Upon her recent release, she and her husband, Dakhil Hassan, celebrated by renewing their wedding vows.
Updated Jan. 2 2024 at 12:00 p.m. Billed as “the trial of the century,” the case begins against Richard “Bruno” Hauptmann, accused of kidnapping and killing the 20-month-old son of renown aviator Charles Lindbergh. Who was Richard “Bruno” Hauptmann? Bruno Hauptmann was a German immigrant who was accused of breaking into famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, […]
The kidnapping of more 200 Israelis by Hamas suggests that its patron, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is exporting its terrifying and lucrative methods at home to the rest of the Middle East.
The Germany-made thriller has made it to the “top 10” list of the streaming platform in more than 90 countries by breaking away from conventional tropes and mixing in German narrative techniques.
The story remains a mystery to this day. On February 4, 1974, the 19-year-old daughter of millionaire newspaper publisher Randolph Hearst was kidnapped from her home in Berkeley, California.
For years, Pyongyang kidnapped hundreds of people from neighboring countries, in order to train spies in foreign languages and cultures, or to steal identities. Today, their families are still looking for them.
POPE FRANCIS ARRIVES IN U.S. TODAY Photo: Ricky Fitchett/ZUMA After a four-day visit to Cuba, Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C., this afternoon for his first U.S. visit since becoming pontiff. He will meet with President Barack Obama tomorrow morning and address a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday. He and the […]
Categories
The Mystery Of India’s Vanishing Children
MUMBAI — Night has fallen on Mumbai, and a monsoon fog fills the air as an aging man looks over the vast Indian metropolis from his balcony. Rajendra Dhondu Bhosale retired earlier this year as deputy inspector at a local police precinct, but still lives in dilapidated government housing with walls dampened by the constant […]
Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust on Tuesday joins the rest of the world in marking the first anniversary of the terrorist organization Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok, There are 219 still missing. The mass kidnapping sparked the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, drawing international attention to the fate of the victims and […]
A child goes missing in India every eight minutes. After India’s Supreme Court censured police for failing to act, authorities launched an operation to bring children home. But it’s still too little, too late.
The kidnapping of a Colombian general is the clearest sign that FARC guerrillas may have entered in peace talks, but have yet to give up their war mentality and false populist ideology.
BAGHDAD – Everywhere in the Iraqi capital is an off-limits “red zone” for Westerners except for the American invasion’s legacy known as the “green zone.” This central quarter in Baghdad, accessible only by the right identification document or special permission, is actually a sort of privileged prison for those with valuable blood. But I have […]
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a crackdown on trafficking rings is not enough – there is also the question of parental responsbility. And extreme poverty.
Police are monitoring traffic from a small wooden gatehouse in eastern Vientiane, on the outskirts of the Laotian capital. It was here nearly one year ago, opposite the Indian embassy, that 62-year-old Sombath Somphone mysteriously disappeared. The rural development promoter and farmers’ rights activist hasn’t been heard from since. On Dec. 15, 2012, Somphone was […]
Over the past week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted to the newest U.S. spy revelations that suggested her personal cell phone was targeted, and Pope Francis struck a strong note after the suspension of a bishop who lived a breathtakingly extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, the biological mother of the little Roma girl named Maria was found. […]
REUTERS, AP, BBC Worldcrunch CLEVELAND — Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three Cleveland women he held captive in his house for nearly 10 years, was found hanged in his prison cell late Tuesday evening, Reuters reports. According to a prison official quoted by […]
Shiva was not like the other detainees in the Argentina prison. For one thing, this convicted kidnapper was studying to be a lawyer — which turned out to be the ticket for his daring escape.
Italy’s Giulio Andreotti died this week at the age of 94. His handling of the abduction of fellow politician Aldo Moro tells us much about the seven-time prime minister.
UKRAINE LAUNCHES MILITARY OPERATION Acting Ukraine President Olexandr Turchynov announced the launch of a military “anti-terrorist” operation in the northern region of Donetsk, The Kyiv Post reports. Speaking to the country’s parliament, Turchynov said that the operation “will be conducted step by step, responsibly, deliberately. The goal of these actions, I want to underline, is […]
GUARDIAN, SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, JERUSALEM POST Worldcrunch The Philippine Foreign Affairs Ministry on Thursday demanded the immediate release of 21 Filipino U.N. peacekeepers who have been taken captive by Syrian rebels. “The main concern of the Philippine government at this time is to ensure the safety and well-being of our peacekeepers,” Foreign Affairs […]
Forced marriages in this central Asian country are not simply about arrangements between families, but also strangers abducting women to be their wives.
NBC NEWS (USA) Worldcrunch ISTANBUL – NBC News’ chief correspondent Richard Engel and members of his production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, NBC News said early Tuesday. “After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign […]
CALCUTTA– Captain Manpreet Jolly has not quite recovered yet. Nothing in his career at the Haldia port authority had prepared him for this. The captain was abducted by masked men in the middle of the night, and told at gunpoint to leave and never return to the port town. “We were at my assistant’s house […]
BBC, GUARDIAN, SYRIAN NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (UK), AVAAZ (USA) Worldcrunch According to human rights organizations, at least 28,000 civilians have disappeared in Syria since the beginning of the protests last year, the BBC reports. Most of them seem not to be militants but ordinary people who have been picked up by the regime of […]
-Analysis- LIMA – The negotiations that are set to begin formally in October are by no means the first attempt to demobilize members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and incorporate the guerilla organization into the political process. There’s no guarantee, therefore, that these talks will succeed where others have failed. And yet […]
AFP (France), THE NEW YORK TIMES, BLOOMBERG NEWS (U.S.), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch LEBANON – Persian Gulf states urged their citizens to leave Lebanon on Thursday after more than 30 members of the Syrian opposition movement were abducted by a Lebanese Muslim Shiite clan, in retaliation for the kidnapping of one of its members in […]