Six In The Morning

Western pressure on Syria grows ahead of UN debate

Western countries are preparing to push for a tough resolution at a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in Syria.

The BBC 31 January 2012
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi will be asking the Council to back the League's new plan calling on President Bashar al-Assad to resign. Western foreign ministers who back the Arab plan will try to overcome Russia's threat to veto any such resolution. The diplomacy follows a day of particularly heavy bloodshed, with more than 100 people killed across Syria. Activists say more than 40 civilians were among the dead in Monday's violence, but their claims cannot be independently verified as the the BBC and other international media are severely restricted inside Syria.

China tightens security at Tibetan monasteries
Officials try to prevent protests spreading from neighbouring communities into Chinese-ruled Tibet, including Lhasa

Associated Press in Beijing guardianTuesday 31 January 2012
A senior official in Chinese-ruled Tibet has ordered an increase in security at Buddhist monasteries and along key roads as the government tries to prevent protests spreading from neighbouring Tibetan communities. Inspecting security around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa this week, the city's Communist party secretary, Qi Zhala, warned officials and clerics at monasteries that they would be dismissed if any trouble arose and told police at a highway checkpoint to be alert for acts of sabotage.

Japan's population to fall by third in 50 years
Unprecedented threat to economy, healthcare and culture as numbers plummet by 41 million

David McNeill Author Tokyo Tuesday 31 January 2012
Japan's government yesterday released stark new evidence that the nation is on the brink of a demographic crisis, forecasting that its population will shrink by 30 per cent in the next half-century, while soaring life expectancy will further burden the state. Click here to see the 'Demographic timebomb - ageing Japan' graphic The report estimates that by 2060 the number of people in the Asian powerhouse will have fallen from 128 million to about 87 million, of which almost 40 per cent will be 65 or older. The report by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research warns that by 2110 the number of Japanese could plummet to 42.9 million – a third of the current population – "if things remain unchanged".

European Politicians in Denial as Greece Unravels
Europe's politicians are losing touch with reality. Greece is broke, and yet Brussels wants to send the country billions in new loans, to which there is growing opposition within the coalition government in Berlin. Rescue efforts are hopelessly bogged down by bickering over who will ultimately step up.

By Sven Böll, Alexander Neubacher, Ralf Neukirch, Christian Reiermann, Christoph Schult and Anne Seith
Martial music booms from the loudspeakers as warlike images gallop across monitors. A short euro crisis film montage shows police officers being posted in front of the parliament building in Athens and the jostling of frantic reporters, then US investor George Soros uses grim words in an appeal to rescue the euro zone. "The alternative is just too terrible to contemplate," he says. Speaking in a panel that follows the short film, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has a gloomy expression.

Two killed in Senegal as anger mounts against Wade
Senegal readied for fresh protests Tuesday after security forces shot dead a 60-year-old woman and a teenager at a rally against President Abdoulaye Wade's controversial bid for a third term.

Sapa-AFP | 31 January, 2012 07:29
Tensions have escalated in the West African nation after the constitutional council gave Wade the green light to run in February 26 polls, prompting international calls for calm and condemnations of violence. Senegal, typically a beacon of democracy among troubled neighbours, was urged by Amnesty International to halt a clampdown on protesters after two people were shot dead by security forces in the northern city of Podor.

Mexico envoy in Venezuela kidnap drama
After being seized from upscale area of Caracas, ambassador and his wife are released in a slum before dawn.

Last Modified: 31 Jan 2012 01:35
Mexico's envoy to Caracas was seized overnight then freed in the latest high-profile kidnapping in Venezuela, where violent crime is routinely listed as citizens' top worry. In the style of "express" kidnappings that are rife in Venezuela, four armed men seized ambassador Carlos Pujalte and his wife in their car after a reception in the upscale Country Club zone of Caracas, diplomats and officials said. The kidnappers then released the couple in a slum before dawn on Monday. "We're so happy he is safe, I've been up following the case all night," said a senior European diplomat, whose own security has been increased in recent months.