Six In The Morning

On Sunday

1st nuclear reactor to go online since Japan disaster meets with protests despite power crunch

　

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, July 1, 3:42 PM
Dozens of protesters shouted and danced at the gate of a nuclear power plant set to restart Sunday, the first to go back online since all of Japan’s reactors were shut down for safety checks following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Ohi nuclear plant’s reactor No. 3 is returning to operation despite a deep divide in public opinion. Last month, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restarts of reactors No. 3 and nearby No. 4, saying people’s living standards can’t be maintained without nuclear energy. Many citizens are against a return to nuclear power because of safety fears after Fukushima.

Hong Kong's new leader sworn in amid protests
Beijing-backed Leung Chun-ying takes office as demonstrators gather to protest against inequality and lack of full democracy

Associated Press in Hong Kong guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 July 2012 03.42 BST
Hong Kong's new Beijing-backed leader has been sworn in amid rising public discontent over widening inequality and lack of full democracy in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese financial centre. Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets later in the day in an annual protest that is an occasion for ordinary people to air their grievances over a range of issues. Leung Chun-ying took office in an early morning ceremony overseen by the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, becoming Hong Kong's third chief executive since more than a century of British colonial rule ended and China regained control of the city 15 years ago

10,000 still missing in Gaddafi's killing fields
The Ministry of Martyrs is compiling details of those that disappeared in Libya's civil war

Tripoli Sunday 01 July 2012
Abdul Samia is searching for his brother. Abdelbaset disappeared in the final days of the Libyan civil war when he was in the town of Sirte, where Muammar Gaddafi made his final stand. The family's last contact with the 33-year-old café owner was on 26 September, a few weeks before the city fell to rebel forces. Since then, their only sighting of him was in a television news report, where they glimpsed him surrounded by rebel fighters. "We've tried everything", explained Abdul Samia. The family has visited all the prisons in Benghazi and Misrata.

Race for equality in the Middle East
Teenager Noor al-Malki is changing perceptions about women and sport in Qatar and neighbouring countries

July 1, 2012 Andy Bull and Stephen Moss.
Even for a 17-year-old, Noor al-Malki is slight: 1.52 metres tall and a little under 45 kilograms. That small frame shoulders a heavy burden: this northern summer Noor will become the first female athlete to compete for Qatar in the Olympics. Her participation should last about 13 seconds, the time it takes her to run the 100m. By Olympic standards it is treacle-slow, more than a second outside the qualifying mark. Qatar had to seek special dispensation to get her on the starting blocks.

Search for kidnapped aid workers in Somalia intensifies
Kenyan security forces are scoureing border regions with war-torn Somalia in the hunt for armed kidnappers who seized four aid workers from Dadaab.

Peter Martell
Dadaab is the world's largest refugee camp. The two men and two women who work with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), come from Canada, Norway, Pakistan and the Philippines. A Kenyan driver was killed and two others were wounded during Friday's attack. "The search is intensifying and more security forces have been sent to make every effort possible but, so far, no one has been recovered," Kenyan army spokesperson Cyrus Oguna told AFP. Aerial searches were ongoing using both military helicopters and aircraft, while vehicles and troops on foot searched the remote scrubland either side of the porous border with Somalia.

Australia introduces controversial carbon tax
Australia has introduced its highly controversial carbon tax, after years of bitter political wrangling.

The BBC 1 July 2012
The law forces about 300 of the worst-polluting firms to pay a A$23 (£15; $24) levy for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce. The government says the tax is needed to meet climate-change obligations of Australia - the highest emitter per-head in the developed world. But the opposition calls it a "toxic tax" that will cost jobs. The opposition also argues that the tax will raise the cost of living, promising to repeal the legislation if it wins the next election, due in 2013