The 9-year-old boy with pale skin and big, piercing eyes captivated Mirzahan at first sight. “He is more handsome than anyone in the village,” the 22-year-old farmer said, explaining why he is grooming the boy as a sexual partner and companion. There was another important factor that made Waheed easy to take on as a bacha bazi, or a boy for pleasure: “He doesn’t have a father, so there is no one to stop this.” Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
Afghanistan sees rise in ‘dancing boys’ exploitation

Three village advocates who had been detained by the police during a confrontation in the village of Wukan in south China have been freed, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The rest is here:
Three Advocates for Chinese Village Are Released

Police say a woman has been charged with the murder of Emma Jones, 31, in the village of Penygroes in Gwynedd in the early hours of Saturday.

Original post:
Woman charged with village murder

“It was dark and the water surrounded the village in a few hours,” he says while wiping the sweat from his forehead. “We fled outside just before the roof collapsed. All our belongings were washed away; we have nothing left.”

Read the rest here:
The Forgotten and Abandoned: Why Flood Aid to Pakistan Has Dried Up

LOS ANGELES — Wall Street protesters in Los Angeles defied the mayor’s early Monday deadline to vacate their encampment near City Hall, with about 1,000 demonstrators flooding into the area as the village of hundreds of tents remained standing as it has for nearly two months. A celebratory atmosphere filled the night outside City Hall and the encampment near it: a group of protesters on bicycles circled the block, one of them in a cow suit, while organizers led chants with a bull horn. Read full article > >

Here is the original post:
Occupy Los Angeles protesters don’t budge from City Hall lawn as deadline passes

Syrian activists said that video posted online showed hundreds of women from the village of Bayda, where large numbers of men have been detained, protesting on the country’s main coastal highway on Wednesday.

Link:
The Lede: Syrian Women Demand Release of Detainees

Checkpoints blocked access to Baniyas, and forces carried out a violent raid on the village of Bayda.

See the article here:
Syria Presses Crackdown in Two Cities on Coast

Hungarian authorities have evacuated the village of Kolontar amid fears of a second wave of red toxic sludge.

Read the rest here:
At the mercy of a second toxic spill

The Hungarian authorities have evacuated the village worst affected by Monday’s toxic waste spill, after damage was found in another of the reservoir’s walls.

Read more here:
Toxic reservoir wall ‘in very bad shape’

David Sillito takes a look around the village pub that doubles as a library

Read the rest here:
A novel idea: The library in a pub

Allan Little heads to the village of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where many believe the Virgin Mary appears daily.

View post:
Man who ‘sees’ Virgin Mary daily