Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionRelations between Switzerland and Germany have been damaged by the Daniel M row
The story could be straight out of a Graham Greene novel, or a James Bond film.
The case of Daniel M, a Swiss man arrested by the Germans on charges of spying, has focused attention in Switzerland on the activities of the Swiss intelligence services, the banks and the often awkward relationship between Switzerland and Germany.
Daniel M, now detained in Mannheim in south-west Germany, was once a police officer in Zurich, then a security specialist for Swiss banking giant UBS and finally, it is alleged, a spy for the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS).
During the years of Daniel M's multifaceted career, Germany watched with growing irritation as its citizens squirreled their savings away in Swiss banks, in effect - thanks to Switzerland's famed banking secrecy laws - hiding their money from the German tax authorities.
Pressure
At the same time, the Swiss government, faced with globalisation, and Switzerland's need to have good trading relations with the European Union, began to realise that banking secrecy was no longer the economic advantage it may once have been.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionFormer German finance minister Peer Steinbrück criticised the Swiss authorities' slow progress
Methodically but very, very slowly, the Swiss government began to dismantle banking secrecy. New laws on money laundering - among the world's strictest - were approved and tax disclosure agreements were discussed with European neighbours.
All the while the Swiss banks delayed and objected and Germany ratcheted up the pressure.
In 2009, Peer Steinbrück, the then German finance minister, warned that if the Swiss did not behave, Germany might have to "send in the cavalry".
Nothing could have been calculated to more infuriate the neutral Swiss, who insisted they would not be cowed by threats from what the Swiss sometimes call "the big canton to the north".
Germany's ambassador to Berne was swiftly summoned for a dressing-down.
Secrecy unveiled
But the process of killing off banking secrecy continued, helped by massive losses for big banks UBS and Credit Suisse in the 2008-2009 sub-prime mortgage crisis.
There were also suggestions that those same banks were still aiding and abetting tax evasion, advising clients to invest in artwork or precious stones to disguise cash and even suggesting they hide diamonds in tubes of toothpaste.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionDaniel M had previously worked as a security specialist for Swiss banking giant UBS
Meanwhile, Germany, impatient for its lost tax revenue, began to buy client information which had been stolen from Swiss banks.
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone has spent millions of euros on at least 11 CDs containing information on German citizens with Swiss bank accounts.
Again, this infuriated the Swiss. Government ministers painstakingly shepherding banking reform through parliament were angry that Germany - instead of waiting for the promised agreement on sharing banking information - had, in effect, walked in and helped itself.
Bizarre twist
For some, it looked as if Mr Steinbrück's cavalry had actually charged.
At some point, Switzerland's intelligence chiefs seem to have concluded that the Germans had gone far enough and decided to investigate the theft of data from Swiss banks.
Who had stolen it, who was selling it and who was buying it on behalf of Germany?
The intelligence service turned to Daniel M, now no longer working for UBS, because - and here is the bizarre twist - he was suspected of dealing with the Germans in stolen banking data.
Long before his arrest in Frankfurt, Daniel M had already been arrested in Zurich as part of an investigation into the theft of bank data.
What happened during that arrest? Was Daniel M "turned" by the Swiss authorities?
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionSwiss defence minister Guy Parmelin said there had been no contact between Daniel M and the intelligence service "since 2014"
The details are murky, but the Germans allege that, between at least 2012 and 2015, Daniel M - armed with 90,000 euros (£76,000) in cash and a prepaid mobile phone - was spying in Germany, hoping to bribe German officials for information, and even trying to plant a mole in North Rhine-Westphalia's finance ministry.
Ironically, it appears the Swiss attorney general's office - which had not closed its case on Daniel M - actually gave Germany the information which led to his arrest in Frankfurt on 28 April.
'Hung out to dry'
Meanwhile, FIS, the agency which is supposed to know everything, knew nothing until the arrest became public.
Now it was Germany's turn to be outraged, and Switzerland's ambassador to Berlin's turn to face criticism.
Swiss government ministers were once again squirming with frustration and embarrassment. While FIS chief Markus Seiler refused to confirm or deny Daniel M was an agent, Switzerland's defence minister Guy Parmelin told Swiss media there had been no contact between Daniel M and the intelligence service "since 2014".
Now the case will end up in the courts. Daniel M has hired a high-profile Zurich lawyer, who has demanded that FIS contribute to his client's legal costs.
FIS has not responded, leaving the lawyer to threaten that if Daniel M is "hung out to dry" by his former bosses in the intelligence service, he may use his court appearance to sing like a canary.
Much more intrigue and drama is predicted, and relations between Germany and Switzerland, always a trifle sensitive, are on tenterhooks.
Image copyrightBLICKImage captionThe Blick newspaper rejected claims that the affair is "old news", insisting "No way, minister!"
But meanwhile the everyday business between the two neighbours continues.
The Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter has suggested the spy scandal is an "old story" that should be forgotten. "No way, minister!" responded mass circulation Blick newspaper in a furious editorial.
The Swiss want answers.
Some ask whether their intelligence services were just bumblingly incompetent, or whether they could have been serving the interests of the banks even as elected officials strove to regulate them.
Others, remembering that the Tunisian extremist responsible for Berlin's Christmas market attack in which 12 people died, had both a gun bought in Switzerland and a Swiss mobile, are asking why FIS does not concentrate on the more important matter of combating terrorism.
The whole affair is now likely to be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.
Image copyrightFAMILYImage captionMohammad Amin, or Meeno, died after being arrested at a party in Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Amin was a family man, with a wife, four sons and five daughters.
But on 26 February, a contingent of Saudi police who broke up a party of transgender Pakistanis in Riyadh found him in women's clothes, wearing jewellery and make-up, and being addressed by others as Meeno Baji - the last name a customary title for an elder sister.
Cross-dressing is not tolerated in Saudi Arabia, so Mohammad and 34 others were rounded up and thrown in Azizia prison.
Mohammad died that night. Pakistani activists say he was beaten by policemen with clubs and hosepipes, causing his chronic heart condition to deteriorate.
The Saudi authorities were quick to deny the allegations of mistreatment, saying he had a heart attack in custody. Pakistani officials followed suit by accusing him of indulging in "illegal and immoral activities".
But Meeno's family, friends and some transgender rights activists paint a different picture of the person, and the events of that last night in Riyadh.
Who was Meeno?
Meeno was born Mohammad Amin in Barikot town in Swat in 1957 to a family of tenant farmers. He had three brothers and four sisters.
At some point during his adolescent years he became a ladies' tailor with a shop in Barikot.
Image copyrightFAMILYImage captionMohammad Amin worked as a tailor for many years
But unlike most transgender women from Pakistan's rural hinterland who seek anonymity by leaving home, Mohammad stuck with his family.
He married a woman from his tribe in the mid-1980s and a decade later he left for Saudi Arabia on a work visa as a ladies' tailor - a job he held for most of the rest of his life.
We can only guess at his real sexual identity. Social taboos prevent his family and childhood friends from speaking openly.
We know, however, that apart from tailoring, Meeno's favourite pastime was to hang out with the area's trans women who lived together and earned a living by dancing at wedding parties or occasional prostitution.
These activities led to discussions at home.
"He was not a 'moorata' [local slang for trans woman], but he did keep their company which created occasional tensions in the family," says his eldest son, Sar Zameen, who is married with children and also works in Saudi Arabia, as a driver.
"His parents and siblings reprimanded him; we, his children, boycotted him for a while; my mother would argue with him often.
"We would tell him that you are giving everyone a bad name; say your prayers. But he would say he couldn't give up his friends. He was not an angry man, but such talk at home often landed him in a bad mood."
Image captionSar Zameen speaks fondly of his father but says parts of his life remain a mystery
Despite this, Sar Zameen remembers his father as a kind and loving person. He put Sar Zameen in an expensive school before he travelled to Saudi Arabia, at a time when he did not have much income.
He also kept the house well supplied, and was often around to offer financial support when relatives or neighbours stumbled on bad luck.
The family's only complaint, says Sar Zameen, was that "he never told us how much money he had, though many of his friends knew".
One of those friends, a local transgender woman called Spogmai (not her real name), shines some light on this.
"Meeno spent a lot of money on looking fresh and attractive," she said.
"She got an expensive facelift done at a clinic in Rawalpindi, and also took a dozen skin-whitening injections. Besides, she had several laser hair removal jobs done on her face and body. She was a beauty."
A long love affair
Farzana Jan, a trans woman who works with a Peshawar-based transgender rights group, Blue Veins, met Meeno in the late 1990s during the latter's first trip home from Saudi Arabia.
Farzana Jan was a dancer then, years before she became a rights activist.
"Meeno came to see me with three other friends. They were in men's clothes but their clean faces, manicured hands and made-up eyebrows gave them away. They were all from rural Swat, mostly tailors.
"They had brought me some gifts. Meeno introduced herself and said Ibrahim Ustad [a locally well-known trans woman who kept an open house for the transgender community in Swat's main city, Mingora] was her guru [guardian, in the transgender community].
"They had heard that there was a new dancer on the Peshawar circuit, and so they had come to see me. They wanted me to dance for them. When they were leaving, Meeno promised that when she came the next time, she would bring me some fine maxi dresses."
Meeno brought Farzana Jan many precious gifts on her subsequent visits, she says.
Image captionFarzana Jan, a transgender rights activist, first met Meeno in the late 1990s
Those who knew Meeno more intimately say she had another, more secret life which others could guess at but never found out about for sure.
Spogmai said that Meeno had a 30-year love affair with a man from her native town, until that man died in 2008.
"Gul Bacha [not his real name] was a 'real' man, with a family of his own, but they were both in love with each other," she says.
They went to Saudi Arabia together, and lived together in Riyadh. When Gul died of heart failure in 2008, Meeno accompanied his body to Barikot and then did not return to Saudi Arabia for several years.
A year after Gul's death, Meeno, then 54, was diagnosed with a heart condition, unusual in a family known for longevity.
Spogmai believes Meeno took Gul's loss to heart and that, even though it was not apparent, Meeno's double life was taking its toll on her health.
During those years, Meeno would spend a lot of time with her transgender friends.
"We had a niche for ourselves in a photographer's shop in Barikot bazaar. Or sometimes I would call her over to our place in Mingora," she said.
"All friends would sit together and chat or have singing sessions. Her health had taken away her voice. She could no longer sing as well as she used to, but she would try."
Return to Riyadh
Meeno tried to keep herself busy tailoring clothes at home. Two of her sons were in Saudi Arabia, which meant family money was still coming in.
But then she couldn't take life at home any more - she felt she would be more at peace with herself if she went abroad, says Spogmai. She departed in 2013.
Spogmai says that in Riyadh Meeno tried some relationships, but none succeeded. When she came back to Pakistan on her last trip in the autumn of 2015, she told her friends jokingly: "Your mother remarried, but the guy was not man enough, so we divorced."
She told them there was someone else she had her eye on, though. "She told us, 'your mother will soon marry again'. 'In which lane this time,' we would quip back, suggesting she had a potential lover in every street of the town."
In February 2016, Meeno headed back to Riyadh for what turned out to be the last time.
Farzana Jan, who is popular with the transgender community because of her social work, was kept in the loop by a transgender group who were planning a birthday party for one of the "sisters" at a guesthouse in Riyadh on 26 February 2017.
On 24 February, she received a call. "The birthday girl and another one were planning to adopt Meeno as their mother at the party and there was confusion over rituals. They wanted my advice," she says.
"They were not planning any music or dance, but some of them did wear women's clothing and jewellery and make-up."
Image captionFarzana Jan was alerted by text message to the arrests in Riyadh
But then came terrible news. At about 0300 on 27 February, Farzana Jan was awoken by a WhatsApp message from an unidentified caller. It contained a number of pictures of people, some in dresses, their eyes blanked with a pink marker.
"I was puzzled. I replied, asking who this was, and who were the people in those pictures. I then received a voice message stating who the people were and what had happened. I looked at the pictures again, and the faces started to become alive and familiar…"
A Riyadh-based newspaper carried a report of the arrests, but it was Farzana Jan who came out with the claim that the police had tortured everyone at the party and that at least two of them, including Meeno, had been bundled into hessian sacks and beaten with clubs.
According to initial reports provided to Farzana Jan by her contacts in Riyadh, both had died, though no evidence of a second body ever emerged.
Only Meeno's body was shipped back to Pakistan, in the second week of March.
Some transgender rights activists who have been calling for Islamabad to lodge a protest with Riyadh advised Meeno's family to allow a post-mortem of the body in Pakistan but the family refused, thereby foregoing crucial medical evidence.
One of those activists, Qamar Naseem of Blue Veins, received the body at Islamabad airport and says he had a chance to open the casket and look at Meeno's face.
"Her teeth were broken and a part of the torn upper gum was hanging loose in her mouth. I took some pictures of the face."
But in the absence of a post-mortem report, that has not impressed the authorities.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Senate has responded to pressure from activists to form a committee to liaise with the Saudi authorities and establish how Meeno died.
But few expect a positive outcome - the two states have a "special relationship" that harbours no embarrassing spats over citizen's rights.
The facts of Meeno's death may never fully be known.
But what is clear is she spent her life torn between the necessity of being Mohammad Amin, the husband and father, and an enduring urge to be her other self.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGESImage captionThe Sewol sank in 2014, killing 304 people
A piece of bone found on the site of the Sewol ferry disaster off South Korea has been confirmed as belonging to one of the missing victims.
The Sewol sank off Jindo island on 16 April 2014, killing 304 people, almost all of them children.
The bodies of nine people have never been recovered and relatives have long campaigned for them to be found.
The ship was raised in March after almost three years on the sea floor and towed to port.
Workers are searching the silt and debris inside the wreck to search for human remains, while divers are looking on the seabed where the ferry had been lying.
The 34-centimetre bone was found at the site of the sinking.
"The result of a DNA test on a bone piece identified it as Danwon high school teacher Ko Chang-seok," the maritime ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionThe ferry was raised from the ocean floor in March this year
The sinking of the Sewol shocked the nation.
Most of those on board were teenagers from the same high school. Many obeyed erroneous crew instructions to remain in their cabins as the ship sank.
The disaster was blamed on a combination of illegal redesigns, cargo overloading, the inexperience of the crew member steering the vessel, and lax government regulations.
Hey there, We are Blossom Themes! We are trying to provide you the new way to look and use the blogger templates. Our designers are working hard and pushing the boundaries of possibilities to widen the horizon of the regular templates and provide high quality blogger templates to all hardworking bloggers!
