Six In The Morning

7 January 2013 Last updated at 07:31 GMT

Delhi gang rape suspects appear in India court

Andrew NorthBBC News, Delhi

Five men accused of the abduction, gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi are in court for a preliminary hearing in a case that has shocked India.

Security outside the building is tight. The case is expected to be transferred to a new fast-track court for trial.

The hearing comes as four Indian policemen have been suspended over the handling of another suspected rape and murder case near Delhi.

The woman's body was found on Saturday.

The father of the alleged 21-year-old victim, a factory employee in the Delhi suburb of Noida, has told the BBC she was gang-raped.

HEALTH

More female foetuses aborted in Europe

It is not just a problem confined to China and India: more female foetuses are being aborted in Europe than previously thought, new statistics show - especially in the Balkans.

In Albania, 112 boys are born for every 100 girls. In Kosovo and Montenegro the figures stand at 110 and 109 boys per 100 girls respectively, according to a recent sturdy by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Analysts point to the persistence of archaic family models as the likely cause. Boys are often considered the family's heir, who are expected to carry on its name and traditions, while women leave the family when they marry.

Chinese journalists strike against censorship

January 7, 2013 - 3:12PM

John Garnaut

John Garnaut is The Age and Sydney Morning Herald's China correspondent.

Chinese journalists fed up with censorship have staged what may be the first walkout of its kind since the Tiananmen crackdown of 1989.

The strike marks a major escalation of a rebellion that was ignited last week at one of China's most credible and reader-oriented newspapers, Southern Weekend, by the ham-fisted intervention from propaganda officials.

It poses an early test of China's direction under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, who has made strong and seemingly contradictory calls for the country to press forward with reform while also returning to the revolutionary legacy of its Maoist past.

Ghana president to be sworn in after disputed vote

Sapa-AFP | 07 1月, 2013 08:39

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama will be sworn into office on Monday following last month’s polls in a ceremony to be boycotted by the opposition, which has claimed fraud and challenged the results in court.

The 54-year-old Mahama, who initially became head of state after the death of his predecessor John Atta Mills in July, won December 7 elections with 50.7% of the vote compared to main opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo’s 47.7%.

Observer groups hailed the polls as another successful election in the country viewed as a stable democracy in turbulent West Africa, but Akufo-Addo’s party has alleged the vote was stolen.

The stakes were especially high in the election, with the newly elected president in charge of a growing stream of oil revenue.

West Africa’s second-largest economy and a longtime producer of gold and cocoa, Ghana started pumping oil in 2010, and now produces 105 000 barrels per day.

Turkey sees promise in pivoting north

With its attempts to join the EU stalled and its leadership role in the Middle East marred by Syria's conflict, Turkey is turning its attention to a less tumultuous border – the Black Sea.

By Catherine Stupp, Contributor / January 6, 2013

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Its protracted bid to join the European Union remains stalled and its "zero problems" policy in the Middle East is cracking over support for Syria's opposition. But one foreign policy front retains promise for Turkey: the Black Sea.

Nowhere is it more evident than the busy industrial city of Trabzon in northeastern Turkey, a regional trade hub because of its location on roads that connect it to both Istanbul and other cities to the east. The cobblestone streets of the city center are bustling with buses and private cars carrying passengers toGeorgia, only 125 miles to the northeast, as well as trucks shipping goods across the region via the highway that cuts through the city.

Scavanging for food, Syrian children witness war

By Nick Paton Walsh, CNN

January 7, 2013 -- Updated 0431 GMT (1231 HKT)

Bab al-Salam, Syria (CNN) -- It is a sight almost as surreal as it is disturbing: three boys, on the cusp of being teenagers, digging furiously with their hands and sticks. It is in some ways playtime, but there is little innocence left in this refugee camp sandwiched between Syria's north and an unwelcoming Turkish border.

Muhammad Zafir says their frantic excavations are in case "jets come and drop bombs," he said. "We put children here to hide them, but of course we will make it much bigger for 20 to 30."

It is a testament to their fast and unnatural path into manhood: Hours that should be spent idling or playing football are lost to digging an air raid shelter. Muhammad can explain the different noises made by jet missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. The three boys are also digging peepholes into their structure, so they could see outside during any attack. It's rudimentary and made entirely of mud and finger marks, but it is all they have.