Rins has compartment syndrome surgery
Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins has compartment syndrome surgery in his left forearm on Thursday in Barcelona.
The operation was carried out by the renowned Doctor Xavier Mir at the Hospital Universitario Quirón Dexeus in Barcelona, after Rins had experienced pain in his left forearm at Le Mans and Mugello. The symptoms worsened during the first day of a two day private test at Motorland Aragon, and so the decision was made to operate straight away.
Dr. Xavier Mir: “The operation went well. Tomorrow we will make a first examination, since during the first days he must have his arm immobilised with plaster protection. Starting Monday will begin physical therapy and stretching the fingers, elbow, forearm and wrist to evaluate his participation in the Catalunya GP.”
The fake pictures of the Rohingya crisis
The Rohingyas are a distinct Muslim ethnic group mainly living in Myanmar, also known as Burma. They are not recognised as citizens of Myanmar and face persecution in the majority Buddhist country, where many live in crowded camps. Powerful and seemingly genuine pictures and videos emerged of what Rohingyas must endure in Myanmar after thousands of migrants were left adrift with low supplies of food and water last month. But BBC Trending found some of the images being shared online don't show Rohingyas at all - but instead come from other disasters and news events.
Many of these images are graphic and disturbing. One of the photos, for instance, that shows up in search results shows Buddhist monks standing among piles of body parts. On Facebook and Twitter, the photograph has been cited as an example of Buddhist violence against Rohingyas. But the picture is not from Burma at all - it was actually taken in the aftermath of an earthquake in China in April 2010.
Another picture shows a man on fire running across the road. One group that shared the photo on Facebook suggesting the man suffered horrific abuse - that he was chopped up and burnt alive. But the real story is much different. In fact, the photo is of Jamphel Yeshi, a Tibetan activist who set himself on fire in Delhi in 2012 to protest against the Chinese president's visit to India.
There are many disturbing pictures of children circulating as well. One shows a boy tied to a wooden pole, with the marks of beatings visible across his back. While online posts call him a Rohingya boy, he's actually a seven-year-old Thai child who was beaten up by a relative for stealing sweets earlier this year.
Then there's this photo which has been widely shared, particularly in India and Pakistan, showing a motorcycle riding across the hands of school students who are lying on the ground with outstretched arms. The incident was actually a stunt by a martial arts trainer in south India:
An AFP photo of a motorcycle stunt in an Indian school is shared with the message 'Burma's Muslims'
The caption reads "Burma's Muslims" in Urdu ...
Screenshot of BBC story of 'stunts' banned in India schools
... however it's really an AFP photo of a stunt in India, as the BBC reported in 2009
Other misleading images traced by BBC Trending using online photo search tools include a large crowd of people laying on the ground (actually of protesters being detained in Thailand in 2004), one showing burnt bodies (in reality from an oil tanker blaze in 2010 in the Democratic Republic of Congo) and a grisly photo of children with bloodstained clothes which apparently comes from Sri Lanka's decades-long conflict. These and other images have been shared thousands of times on Facebook mostly by people hoping to support the Rohingyas.
"We appreciate everyone's concern but encourage everybody to always check carefully before using images," says UK-based Rohingya activist and blogger Jamila Hanan. "Whenever the Rohingya hits media headlines these same photos are redistributed with some new ones included."
"There are so many genuine images of tragic scenes of the Rohingya that are genuine, there is simply no need for anyone to fabricate anything," Hanan told BBC Trending. "The most tragic images are the real ones."
Right to die: Court backs France in Vincent Lambert case
The European Court of Human Rights has upheld the decision of a court in France to allow a paralysed man to be taken off life support.
Vincent Lambert, 39, has been in a coma for seven years after a motorcycle accident left him tetraplegic.
His family have been split over whether he should be kept alive.
The case was taken to the European court last year after France's highest court had ruled in favour of ending his life support.
It sparked fierce debate in France where euthanasia is illegal, although doctors can withdraw care under a 2005 passive euthanasia law.
The court in Strasbourg ruled on Friday that the decision to stop intravenously feeding Mr Lambert did not violate European rights laws.
'No relief, no joy'
Mr Lambert has been kept alive with the use of intravenous food and water at a hospital in Reims in north-eastern France.
His wife Rachel and some of his brothers and sisters had agreed with doctors' recommendation that his life should be ended as there was no hope of recovery.
The doctors said Mr Lambert had shown signs last year of resisting treatment, and Rachel Lambert said her husband would "never have wanted to be kept in this state".
"There's no relief, no joy to express. We'd just like his will to be done," she said after the ruling.
But Mr Lambert's parents - who are said to be devout Roman Catholics - and other siblings say he has shown signs of progress and believe he just needs better care.
"They are trying to make us say we don't want him to go, but it is not at all the case, we don't want him to be snuffed out," his mother Viviane said earlier this year.
They took the case to Strasbourg after France's highest court ruled last year in favour of ending Mr Lambert's life support.
And their lawyer hinted before the ruling that they would fight on if it went against them.
Jean Paillot said the decision to stop life support "was taken by a doctor and can only be carried out by this doctor", who is no longer in charge of Vincent Lambert's care. He said they would seek a new medical decision through the French courts.
South Koreans win Darpa robotics challenge
A South Korean robotics team has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge.
The contest is a battle of robots on an obstacle course meant to simulate conditions similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot defeated 22 others to win the top $2m prize from the US Department of Defense's Darpa research unit.
The robots had an hour to complete a series of tasks, such as a driving a car and walking up steps.
The challenge involved a series of tasks for the robots to complete, somewhat autonomously, with intermittent connectivity with their operators to simulate real disaster conditions.
The challenge was the first where robots performed without being tethered and there were plenty of hard falls, soliciting groans and laughter from the crowds at the contest in Pomona, California.
The other tasks the robots were set included getting out of a car, opening a door, drilling a hole in a wall, turning a valve and crossing rubble either by clearing a path or walking over it.
Team Kaist was the fastest, completing all the tasks in 44 minutes and 28 seconds.
Team IHMC Robotics came second, winning $1m, and Tartan Rescue's Chimp robot was third, winning $500,000, a day after taking a hard fall and then wowing the crowd by getting back up and back to work without human help.
The contest also included two mystery tasks over two days - on day one the mystery was pulling a lever and on day two it was pulling a plug out of one socket and inserting it into another.
Each team was given two attempts to complete the course.
There were meant to be 25 teams competing, but Japan's team Hydra dropped out at the last minute because of an electronics accident during training.
A Chinese team was also due to compete but reportedly couldn't get their visas in time.
Google in 'right to be forgotten' talks with regulator
Google is in talks with regulators over nearly 50 "right to be forgotten" cases it is accused of getting wrong.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it hoped to resolve the dispute during a round of talks, but noted that it had enforcement powers available should they fail.
Google said it was taking its responsibilities seriously.
The news comes exactly one year since the controversial ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Along with other search engines, the internet giant has been obliged to remove links to articles that contain "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant" information about an individual.
Under the decision, the person named must make a request to have the links removed from the results for a specific search.
Google has consistently said that it considers it a mistake to make it the arbiter in such cases, as the ruling effectively does.
The ICO confirmed to the BBC that it was discussing 48 cases it believed Google had not got "quite right" and has asked the internet giant to revise its decisions.
The action available to the ICO, should the discussions over those cases fail, includes a fine and a legally binding enforcement notice that could lead to court action, if the firm refused to comply.
But the body would only take such action if it found that Google's processes were not fit for purpose, rather than as a direct reaction to a single complaint.
An ICO spokesman said: "Since the details of the right to be forgotten ruling were first announced, we have handled over 183 complaints from those unhappy with Google's response to their takedown request.
"In around three-quarters of these cases, we have ruled that Google was correct to turn down an individual's request to have their information removed. This suggests that, for the most part, Google are getting the balance right between the protection of the individual's privacy and the interest of internet users."
But, it said, there were still a "significant number of cases where we believe Google haven't got it quite right and they have been asked to revise their decision".
While Google has done so in "many cases", the ICO said it was "looking to resolve the remaining cases through discussion and negotiation with Google, though we have enforcement powers available to us if required".
A Google spokesman said: "We haven't always got privacy right in Europe, not just because of errors we've made, but our attitude too. But our swift and thoughtful implementation of the right to be forgotten ruling showed that for Google this was a genuine 'we get it' moment.
"We've also worked hard to give users more control over the data we collect and we're looking at how to make those tools easier to find and use. So stay tuned."
Free speech campaigners have claimed that the ruling makes it easier for people to hide negative - though fair and accurate - references to them online and there have been sites set up to track the links taken down.
The BBC said in October 2014 that it would publish a list of its articles to which links have been taken down. A spokesman said on Wednesday that that remained its intention, though a decision on when and where to publish has not yet been taken.
However, others have pointed out that the ruling helps people avoid bad news stories unfairly dominating the results of searches related to them.
Google has said that it has received more than 250,000 requests to remove about 920,000 links, of which 41.3% have been removed from its search results, according to its transparency report.
While the ruling only applies to European sites, the deputy information commissioner David Smith told the Times that he believed Google should remove links on its US domain as well.
The ICO is also running a review of websites and apps used by children, it announced on Tuesday.
It will look at how information collection is explained and what parental permission is sought on 50 websites and apps.
It said: "The same approach will be taken by 28 other privacy enforcement authorities from around the world, with a view to publishing a combined report in the autumn. The ICO will also consider action against any website or app that it finds to be breaking the Data Protection Act."
The Facebook smugglers selling the dream of Europe
Across the Mediterranean, people smugglers are advertising their services on Facebook, promising safe passage to migrants desperate to reach Europe. Their pages offer a glimpse into a smuggling network that spans three continents, generates hundreds of millions of dollars, and has become, in effect, an alternative asylum service for the EU.
"With the beginning of the new season we have a range of journeys on offer. Turkey Libya Italy, $3,800. Algeria Libya Italy, $2,500. Sudan Libya Italy, $2,500… The boats are all wood… If you have questions, contact me on Viber or WhatsApp."
This is not an ad from a travel brochure. It's a Facebook update posted by a people smuggler, Abdul Aziz, from the Libyan port of Zuwara on 21 April. Abdul Aziz is just one of hundreds of smugglers now using social media to promote their services to migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe.
Their pages advertise everything from fake documents to safe passage by land, air, or sea. Many are illustrated with photos of luxury cruise liners or crisp new passports, and include package deals - "Kids go free" is a popular offer - as well as glowing testimonies that purport to be from migrants who have made the journey.
But behind the glib promises and the slick online communications is a ruthless real-world web of smugglers and con men who thrive on the vulnerability of the migrants.
This web extends not only across the Mediterranean and the Middle East but deep into sub-Saharan Africa. Abdul Aziz alone claims to have agents in "almost every Arab state" and says "if people can't get here to Libya, I have legal and illegal ways to get them into the country."
The network that links a boat-runner like Abdul Aziz to a passport forger in Istanbul or a truck driver in Eritrea is an underground, ever-shifting configuration of personal contacts, criminal gangs, and one-off business deals that runs across national borders and is almost impossible to police.
The adaptability of this system only makes it more efficient: last year some 220,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean, most leaving Libya in smugglers' boats before being rescued at sea by the Italian coastguard or navy. Since the start of 2015, another 35,000 have reached Italy. More than 1,800 have drowned in the attempt.
There is nothing new in this. African migrants have been sailing from Zuwara for at least 30 years. But the proliferation of Arabic-language smuggling pages on Facebook reflects a surge in demand from Syrian and other Arab migrants since the uprisings of 2011, as well as a growing confidence among the smugglers themselves, many of whom post their mobile phone numbers online or field enquiries via online messaging apps.
Abdul Aziz, who spoke to the BBC via Skype, said that between 10 and 20 people contact him through his Facebook page every day. "Until 2012 we didn't use social media at all," he said. "Now, it accounts for between 30% and 40% of my business."
The collapse of the Libyan state has also emboldened the smugglers, allowing them to promote themselves online without fear of arrest. Abdul Aziz laughed at the suggestion that his Facebook page might attract the attention of the authorities. "What authorities? There aren't any authorities. There isn't even a regime. There's nothing."
Giampaolo Musumeci, an Italian journalist who has written a book about North Africa's smuggling gangs, sees their growing social media presence as "part of the marketing operation for the biggest illegal travel company in the world."
According to Musumeci, this "company" made something between 300m and 600m euros (£235m-£470m; $215m-$430m) last year from those trying to get into Europe, and now constitutes an unofficial asylum service for people whose lives have been derailed by poverty, chaos, and war.
"What I'm selling," a Pakistani smuggler in Italy told Musumeci, "is the dream of Europe."
For many of those who arrived in the EU last year, it's a dream that could not be realized through legal channels.
Take Ayham al Faris, a Syrian translator and anti-Assad campaigner who fled his country in fear for his life in October 2011. Before he left, Ayham tried to apply for a visa from the French and Austrian embassies in Damascus. He got nowhere. Later, after he had reached Turkey, Ayham approached the German, Australian, and Bosnian embassies with the same request. "They didn't even say, 'We don't have programmes for you, we can't give you a visa now,' or something like that… They just say, 'Send us an email,' but when I send them my email they just throw it away."
Faced with this wall of bureaucratic indifference, Ayham made his own way into Greece, where he used Facebook to contact a Syrian smuggler called Hafez. "He said he can take me wherever I want, no problem, it's easy for him. The most important thing is that you have your money in your pocket."
Despite the sales patter, Hafez failed to get Ayham out of Greece. Eventually, Ayham bought a fake passport from another smuggler and, at the 11th attempt, got on a flight to Paris. He has now been granted asylum in the Netherlands.
It's a case that illustrates the crux of the problem: people smugglers are responding to a demand for asylum that Europe's politicians are unwilling to meet. As long as this situation persists, says Musumeci, the smugglers will always find a way into the fortress.
"They're thinking about how to get into Europe 24 hours a day… They communicate. They stay in touch. They change routes… one of these guys told me, "We study Europe, we study the laws, and the more you close the borders the more money we're going to make.'"
New EU proposals to distribute migrants across member states and break up clandestine networks might help to reduce people smuggling within Europe. But Musumeci says it will do nothing to stop the boats coming across the Mediterranean. Dealing with that, he argues, will require a whole new level of engagement with the political turmoil in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
"Migration is going to force us to deal with these international issues… We need to focus on Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria. It may sound naive, but it's the only way to stop the influx… We'll never stop this just by closing the doors. I've talked to dozens of migrants, and these people are willing to die to get into Europe."
Despite the obvious difficulties, European countries are still trying to solve the problem at the level of policing. Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, recently launched an intelligence program, JOT Mare, which is supposed to disrupt or dismantle the smuggling networks that are bringing so many migrants across the Mediterranean.
A spokesperson for Europol confirmed that their agents will look at the online presence of the smugglers: "JOT Mare is focussing on all modi operandi used by facilitators of irregular migration in the Mediterranean Sea, including the use of social media."
He conceded, though, that "Europol has no operational cooperation agreement with Libya" - the point of departure for the vast majority of migrants.
In Zuwara, Abdul Aziz hadn't heard of JOT Mare, but didn't sound too worried. "It's just words on paper. I'm not afraid, because it's meaningless. How are they going to follow me? Are they going to come to Libya? If they try, it would be considered an invasion. Are they going to catch me outside Libya? I don't go outside Libya. And if I do go, they won't know about it."
Facebook: a window into the people smuggling business
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