Six In The Morning

ARMED CONFLICT

Forced to fight, children suffer all their lives

Child soldiers are both victims and victimizers. They fight in conflict zones around the world - and they never get a chance to have a normal childhood. Red Hand Day aims to shed light on their plight.

Bosco was six years old when he was handed a machete by Ugandan rebels led by Joseph Kony. They demanded he kill his little sister, says psychologist Elisabeth Kaiser. Kaiser and her relief organization, Vivo International, deal with traumatized former child soldiers - some of whom they have treated in Uganda.

Bosco has spoken to Kaiser extensively about the moment he killed his sister. "The commander pointed the barrel of his gun at me and said: 'Cut her and do it quickly!' I thought: 'Please let me die.' Then I heard the rapid fire right over my head. That's the moment when my heart sank and I knew I was going to do it. I raised my arm to haul out, and my sister started to cry. And I started to cry as well and said: 'Please forgive me, Juli. I have to do this.' The commander tapped my shoulder once more. And I raised my arm and I drove the machete through my sister's neck."

The Italian Patient: Resisting Berlusconi's Charms

By Fiona Ehlers and Alexander Smoltczyk

Silvio Berlusconi may be back with his customary bombastic campaign promises. But will the Italians bite? If they do, it could spell doom for the country. If they don't, Italy's tradition of political instability might return anyway.

The rumors had been swirling for days, and there were mysterious Tweets coming from a certain Berlusconi2013. Then, last Sunday, it was finally time for Berlusconi's big surprise, when he announced "la proposta shock," -- his big campaign promise. Critics promptly dubbed it a "proposta sciocca," or foolish proposal.

It was 12:32 p.m. in the old Milan convention center when Berlusconi explained that he not only intended to abolish the real estate tax but also wanted to reimburse those who have paid it by March -- in cash if necessary. "You can pick up your money at any post office," he says. "If you vote for me."

China, North Korea - close as lips and teeth

John Garnaut

China correspondent for Fairfax Media

The Western world should not expect China to lean on its bellicose ally, North Korea, and prevent it from developing a credible nuclear weapon

The Western world is once again hoping China will lean on its bellicose ally, North Korea, and prevent it from developing a credible nuclear weapon. It will once again be disappointed.

This is not because Xi Jinping, China’s new leader, enjoys watching his 29 year-old neighbour, Kim Jung-un, brandish a toy that could obliterate Beijing as readily as Tokyo or Seoul. Tuesday’s nuclear test took the Disney-loving dictator closer to a miniaturised warhead that can be fitted to his ballistic missiles.

Rather, Beijing and Pyongyang are locked in a loveless dance of shared history, common enemies and domestic political and dynastic imperatives from which neither can easily escape. China protects and nourishes its wayward neighbour as if they were “as close as lips and teeth”—an old expression of Mao Zedong’s that has come back into vogue. But it has always been more a grimace than a smile.

Syria border bombing: How will Turkey respond if attacks continue?

Turkey has worried about Syria's war creeping across the border since the uprising began. Yesterday's bombing at a border crossing indicates it may finally be happening.

By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent

ANTAKYA, TURKEY

A day after a bomb blast killed 14 people and injured dozens on Turkey’s border with Syria, it remains unclear who was behind the attack. But for Turkish officials, the bombing itself, not the culprit, is the real issue.

Turkey has worried about violence in Syria spilling over the border since the outset of the uprising. Already Syria and Turkey have exchanged artillery fire, andNATO recently placed Patriot surface-to-air missiles defense systems along the border at Turkey’s request. 

Yesterday’s bombing at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, a major transit point for people and supplies moving in and out of opposition-controlled Syria, raises the question of how Turkey is likely to respond if terrorist-style attacks continue to happen on the border or potentially deeper inside the country.

Report: Dozens detained, jailed in crackdown on Vietnam bloggers

By Emily Alpert

February 12, 2013, 4:46 p.m.

Nguyen Hoang Vi was knocked from her motorcycle in an accident she believes was no accident. The windows of a car she was riding in were smashed nine months later, gashing her arms, legs and face, she told activists. Last spring her passport was taken away, rights groups say.

Then, in December, police arrested and stripped her, saying she was hiding “illegal exhibits” inside her body, she alleged. State nurses forcibly searched her as she screamed for help, she said.

She was targeted, human rights activists claim, for blogging.

In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, almost all teens and young adults go  online, market researchers say, making the Internet a new fact of life. Millions of blogs have popped up in the last eight years. The social media analysis company Quintly found that, over the course of a  year, Vietnam had the fastest growth in Facebook users in the world.

Why the buzz over St. Malachy's 'last pope' prophecy outdoes 2012 hype

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Just when you thought it was safe to go out of the bunker, there's a fresh wave of doomsday buzz over a purported 12th-century prophecy suggesting that the next pope will be the last pope before the end of the world. St. Malachy's "Prophecy of the Popes" has no credence in the Roman Catholic Church, but its effect could well be longer-lasting than the hype that surrounded the 2012 Maya apocalypse — especially if the papal conclave goes with one of the favored candidates for Benedict XVI's successor.

The text that's been attributed to Malachy came to light in 1595, in a book by Benedictine monk Arnold de Wyon. Supposedly, Malachy experienced a vision of future popes during a trip to Rome in 1139, and wrote down a series of 112 cryptic phrases that described each pope in turn. The text was said to have lain unnoticed in Rome's archives until Wyon published it.