Most Recent Posts

The death toll in the coal mine where an explosion hit in Soma, Turkey, keeps rising, and anger over the incident has spread around the country. Thousands of people staged protests after a speech from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that suggested such accidents are unavoidable.

Officials say at least 282 mine workers have died in the incident; that figure seems certain to rise, with around 100 more people still missing. The mine explosion is already being called the deadliest industrial disaster in the country's history.

Burials are being held today in Soma. As Reuters reports, "Loudspeakers broadcast the names of the dead and excavators dug mass graves."

The fate of workers still trapped in the mine is uncertain, but officials have said they aren't optimistic about bringing anyone else out alive. Rescue efforts have been hampered by fires inside the deep mine; it also contains lethal amounts of carbon monoxide, which is being blamed for many of the deaths.

Turkey's mine safety standards are the subject of a story by the country's NTV network today, which notes that emergency safe rooms, like the one that helped 33 miners survive for more than two months after a collapse in Chile, are not required in Turkey.

Anger over the mine disaster has sparked public protests, particularly after Erdogan made remarks Wednesday in which he compared the event to industrial accidents in nineteenth-century Britain.

He was quoted by Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News:

" 'I went back in British history. Some 204 people died there after a mine collapsed in 1838. In 1866, 361 miners died in Britain. In an explosion in 1894, 290 people died there,' Erdogan said on a visit to the grieving town of Soma, while choosing not to elaborate on how accidents in 19th-century Britain might be applicable to Soma's unfolding disaster.

" 'Take America with all of its technology and everything ... In 1907, 361 [miners died there],' he added. 'These are usual things.' "

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the U.S. is using surveillance drones to try to locate more than 270 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria.

"We are now providing unmanned reconnaissance intelligence over Nigeria and we'll continue to do that," Hagel told reporters in Saudi Arabia at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Wall Street Journal reports: "The American drones will be flying over Nigeria along with a piloted U.S. reconnaissance plane as part of an effort that also includes more than two dozen specialists sent by Washington to aid the Nigerian government in the search."

Meanwhile, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has reportedly rejected a possible swap of Islamic militants for the return of the girls, who were abducted on April 15 by Boko Haram militants in the northeastern town of Chibok.

Jonathan has "made it very clear that there will be no negotiation with Boko Haram that involves a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners," Mark Simmonds, British foreign office minister, told journalists in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, according to The Associated Press.

"The point that also was made very clear to me is that the president was keen to continue and facilitate ongoing dialogue to find a structure and architecture of delivering lasting solution to the conflict and the cause of conflict in northern Nigeria," Simmonds said.

This is the third in a very occasional series of posts in which we interview inanimate objects during fever dreams. This particular interview is with the purse that the internet will gleefully tell you was allegedly used by Solange Knowles to allegedly smack Jay-Z, the husband of her sister Beyonce, as was allegedly caught on alleged hotel security video.

So, how do you feel?

Famous, I guess.

Big week for you!

Big week for you.

For ... me?

Well, for you. [waves zippers] You know, all of you. You're having a lot more fun than I am.

What do you mean? You're famous! Being famous is fun!

You saw it. Did it look fun?

Well, I don't know that it looked fun, exactly —

Let me ask you a question: do you have a family?

I do.

Have you ever had a fight with them that you wouldn't want anyone to watch on video? Or, like, everyone to watch on video?

Well, we don't hit each other with purses, which I would think you would appreciate.

Hey, I do appreciate it. That's great. My kind, we have a long history of being used in combat. And we're delicate. And full of your precious things. But you didn't answer the question.

What was the question?

Are you serious? I'm a purse and I remember the question! I'm not sure you have enough to think about.

Oh, you asked whether I've ever had a fight I'm glad people didn't see on video. I would say ... yes.

Have you ever behaved in private, like in an elevator, in a way you're not super proud of?

I kind of feel like you're turning this interview around on me.

Well, I wouldn't want to do that.

You seem like a very opinionated purse.

Is that a question? I don't want to turn this around on you or anything. So go ahead, genius. Ask me a question.

Okay. Well ... what was the fight about?

I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. I can't even tell you who's in that video.

Why not?

Client-bag privilege. Do you know what women put in their purses?

Well ... I have a purse right now. So yes.

Would you like to continue this piece by explaining absolutely everything that's in it?

I ... no?

And fortunately, you don't have to, because of CLIENT-BAG PRIVILEGE. I'm saying. If they interviewed your bag right now, you wouldn't want it to tell everyone that there's still a bag from a filled prescription in it.

Well, that's true. I'm not famous, though.

If you became famous, you'd be okay with your bag giving it up as far as your prescriptions?

...I'm not sure my bag can talk.

Oh, you wish.

Wait. Are you talking to it right now?

I'm just saying, next time you stuff a blueberry muffin in there, you might want to put it in a plastic bag. Crumbs are a menace.

I never do that usually! That was like a year ago!

My point exactly.

You keep changing the subject.

What is the subject?

The subject is this elevator fight, and what it was about, because everybody is really curious.

Why?

It's just interesting. And it's been kind of rainy, and everybody likes the Met Gala, and this is sort of what we have instead of a royal family. In a way, it's a compliment!

Sort of in the same way picking a particular lobster out of a tank is a compliment.

Exactly! Wait.

No, I think I get it.

You have to understand, though, they love all this when it's positive. Being the quasi-royal family is not an accident. There's all this publicity, and they like it when it's friendly.

"That lobster was totally taunting me!"

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that it's hard to convince people to feel sympathy for famous people who court all this bizarre attention up until it becomes unpleasant.

Believe me, you do not have to explain famous people to me, assuming that it was a famous person who was holding onto me in the video, which I can neither confirm nor deny. If you only knew the things I've seen and the money I cost. It's not so much sympathy as it is this feeling of ... what are you doing? I mean ... what, y'all have never seen people argue before? You've never seen family fights? Don't you watch The Real Housewives? I mean, who cares?

So "no comment" is what you're saying, sort of.

[snaps shut]

President Obama has issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against five people in the Central African Republican in connection with the country's sectarian conflict.

In a statement, the White House cited "[escalating] violence and human rights abuses," and noted that "[communities] that have lived together peacefully for generations are being torn apart along sectarian lines."

The president's executive order "imposes sanctions on five individuals – sending a powerful message that impunity will not be tolerated and that those who threaten the stability of the CAR will face consequences."

Reuters reports that the individuals include former CAR President Francois Bozize and four other men linked to violence and human rights abuses in the country.

"Also sanctioned were Nourredine Adam, a former minister of public security, and Levy Yakete, an 'anti-balaka' [anti-machete] Christian militia leader. Bozize, Adam and Yakete were blacklisted by the United Nations on Friday."