TheDailyBlog.nz Top 5 News Headlines Tuesday 12th January 2016

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5: 

Foreigners assaulted in Germany amid tension

Two Pakistanis and a Syrian man have been injured in attacks by gangs of people in Cologne, the German city where most of the dozens of assaults on women occurred on New Year’s Eve, according to police.

Local newspaper Express reported that the attackers were members of hooligan gangs who, via Facebook, arranged to meet in Cologne’s business district to start a “manhunt” for foreigners.

Police say that they are still investigating whether the attacks were racially motivated and whether there was any link to the New Year assaults.

Aljazeera

4: 

Yemen: 5 Killed in Bombing of Doctors Without Borders Hospital

In Yemen, at least five people have been killed and 10 others wounded after a projectile hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital. The aid group says it cannot confirm the origin of the attack, but that planes were flying over the hospital at the time. Teresa Sancristóval of Doctors Without Borders spoke out after the attack.

Democracy Now

3: 

Farm hands working up to 70-hr weeks for little money

Ms Kelly, former head of the Council of Trade Unions, said many farm workers were working up to 70 hours a week for low pay – conditions which were to blame for high staff turnover.

She said fatigue was a major cause of workplace accidents, and an official inquiry was needed to introduce regulations.

In the last week, classifieds listed by the New Zealand Farm Source Jobs website included an assistant manager to milk cows for 70 hours a week with two days off out of 10 (salary negotiable), a farm assistant to work a 60-hour week with two days off out of 12, for $45,000 a year and a farm assistant to work a 55-hour week with every second weekend off (salary negotiable).

A recent report by Federated Farmers put staff turnover at 87 percent within five years, and 42 percent within a year.

“I think it’s endemic in the industry – huge staff turnover, low wages, lack of investment in training, long and increasing hours, a high accident rate – that’s why I’m calling for an inquiry into farm work,” said Ms Kelly.

RNZ

2: 

The US Spent Millions on Afghanistan Clinics — but Many Are Falling Apart and Hard to Find

The US Agency for International Development, known as USAID, has spent around $260 million on health clinics in Afghanistan — but many of those facilities lack electricity, adequate medical supplies, and sanitary waste disposal systems. And while each clinic is supposed to be tagged with a GPS identifier, many cannot be located using the official coordinates provided by the US government.

A January 5 letter by John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) who audits spending in the country, reveals that of 32 such clinics in Kabul province 11 were more than three miles away from coordinates provided by USAID and the Afghan Ministry of Health. He worried that the lack of accurate location data could hamper efforts to regularly inspect the facilities and ensure they are up to standard.

“As SIGAR has stressed previously, robust program oversight requires specific knowledge of the location where the service is provided, ” Sopko wrote in a public letter to USAID Administrator Gayle Smith. “Accurate location-specific information is critical to ensure that the local population is receiving the intended services.”

Over the summer, SIGAR asked USAID for geospatial tags on the more than 641 health clinics that the US government has helped to build in Afghanistan through the Partnership Contracts for Health program. The initiative officially ended in 2015, and is now administered by the World Bank.

Vice News

1: 

David Bowie dies of cancer at 69: ‘His death was a work of art’

David Bowie, the iconic rock star whose career spanned more than half a century and whose influence transcended music, fashion and sexuality, has died aged 69.

The singer’s death was confirmed in a Facebook post on his official page: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”

Writing on Twitter, Bowie’s son, the film director Duncan Jones, 44, said: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true.” The news came as a shock to some, who were initially sceptical, but Bowie’s publicist, Steve Martin, told the Reuters news agency: “It’s not a hoax.”

The Guardian