Six In The Morning

Robert Fisk: Assad's army remains defiant as it buries its dead

Syrian officers told me 1,150 soldiers have been killed in Syria in the past seven months - an extraordinary death toll

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Sergeant Jassem Abdul-Raheem Shehadi and Private Ahmed Khalaf Adalli of the Syrian Army were sent to their graves yesterday with the send-off their families would have wished for; coffins draped with the Syrian flag, trumpets and drums and wreaths held by their comrades, and the presence of their commanding officer. There was a Last Post, Chopin's funeral march – mixed with ululating staff at the Tishreen Hospital to which their remains had been transferred – and then the nine-hour journey by ambulance to their hometown, Raka. Shehadi was 19, Adalli was 20. And their uncles swore they had died for President Bashar al-Assad.

Kenyan herders reap dividends from livestock insurance

Pastoralists whose herds have been decimated by drought receive first payments under innovative new scheme

Mark Tran guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 October 2011

About 650 herders in the vast arid area of Marsabit in northern Kenya last week received the first insurance payouts from an unusual project designed to cushion the impact of drought on pastoralists. Payouts have averaged 3,000 Kenyan shillings (£18), with a maximum of 37,000 Ksh. Developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi and US universities – and backed by USAid, the Department for International Development and the World Bank – the scheme was launched last year in Marsabit, where pastoralists keep 86,000 cattle and 2m goats and sheep.

Turkey earthquake: Government will accept foreign aid

Turkey will accept offers of aid from foreign countries to cope with the aftermath of the Van earthquake, after initially declining offers of help.

BBC Jonathan Head:26 October 2011

Officials said that, with more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, there was an urgent need for accommodation. The death toll from the disaster stood at 461 but aid agencies warned of "hundreds, possibly thousands" of people trapped under rubble. A teacher, 27, and a student, 18, were rescued on Wednesday in Ercis. Gozde Bahar, an English-language teacher, was rescued as her mother watched in tears. University student Eyup Erdem was found using tiny cameras mounted on sticks. Rescuers broke into applause as he emerged from the debris.

Javan rhino goes extinct in Vietnam after last rhino poached

Javan rhino extinct: The last Javan rhino in Vietnam was found poached for its horn.

By MIKE IVES, Associated Press / October 26, 2011

Vietnam has lost its fight to save its rare Javan rhinoceros population after poachers apparently killed the country's last animal for its horn, pushing one of the world's most endangered species closer to extinction, a conservation group said Tuesday. Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park has had no sightings, footprints or dung from live rhinos since the last known animal living there was found dead last April, shot through the leg with its horn chopped off, the WWF said. Genetic analysis of rhino feces had confirmed in 2004 that at least two rhinos were living in the park, raising hopes that Vietnam's population might survive.

'There Is No Reason for Somalis to Starve'

A Somali politician living in Berlin has a simple plan for his country: He wants German construction aid to build a small harbor complex in Somalia's Galmudug region that he says could help stimulate the local economy and lift people out of poverty. With civil war, Islamist gunmen and pirates, however, that is easier said than done.

By Michael Scott Moore in Berlin

Mohamed Sahal Gerlach, like about one-fifth of all Somalis, lives abroad. He's a Deputy Minister of Trade for Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, but he serves from a distance, without a salary. In fact, he has lived in Berlin since the 1970s. "That was my best time," he says of Somalia's heady postcolonial days, when he was a student at Berlin's Free University. "We'd party all night and then come to class, and you know ...," he jokingly imitates falling asleep. "But I regret nothing."

Hungry residents won't leave flooded Bangkok



Lindsay Murdoch October 26, 2011

BANGKOK: Fast-rising waters have inundated a widening swathe of the Thai capital as residents, refusing to leave already flooded areas, complain of shortages of food and bottled water. Boats and makeshift floats are being used to take essential items through filthy waist-deep water to thousands of residents in the city's northern suburbs who have chosen to remain at home rather than go to the overcrowded evacuation centres. ''The government is providing some essentials but it is not enough,'' a middle-aged man told the Herald as he waded through water with his family.