16 May 2013 Last updated at 07:51 GMT
Syria conflict: BBC shown 'signs of chemical attack'
The BBC has been shown evidence apparently corroborating reports of a chemical attack in Syria last month.
A BBC correspondent who visited the northern town of Saraqeb was told by eyewitnesses that government helicopters had dropped at least two devices containing poisonous gas.
The government has vehemently denied claims it has used chemical agents.
The US has warned that such a development would be a "red line" for possible intervention.
However, President Barack Obama has said the current intelligence on possible chemical weapon usage did not constitute sufficient proof.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Can Germany show Brazil how to cope with past?
Brazil's efforts to shed light on human rights violations committed during decades of military rule are moving sluggishly. The National Truth Commission hopes for support from Germany's visiting President Joachim Gauck.
During Brazil's military rule from 1964 to 1985, Rosa Maria Cardoso defended political prisoners. Today, the 67-year-old lawyer coordinates the country's National Truth Commission (NTC). It means a lot to her that German President Joachim Gauck made time to meet with members of the commission before wrapping up his three-day visit to Brazil on Friday.
"I hope Gauck will be an inspiration to us in our efforts toward democracy and enlightenment," she told DW, adding she also hopes the former East German pastor and the federal commissioner for the Stasi archives will show the Brazilian commission avenues for a "step-by-step renunciation of authoritarianism."
Church on trial for funding pop star's career
May 16, 2013 - 2:15PM
Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Singapore's fast-growing Christian community has been shaken by the trial of six evangelical church leaders accused of embezzling more than $S50 million ($40.5 million) to fund the career of US-based pop star Sun Ho.
Ms Ho accompanied her accused husband Kong Hee to the Subordinate Courts, but left before prosecutors alleged funds of the City Harvest Church were diverted into "sham" investments.
Based on Pentecostal teachings the church's "prosperity gospel" encourages the material aspirations of mostly young members.
Ms Ho, whose beautiful voice and daring dance moves propelled her to the top of US charts, is not on trial and early this week was reinstated by Singapore's Commissioner of Charities as City Harvest's executive director after a review found she had not contributed to mismanagement of the church which has affiliates in 48 countries, including Australia.
Ghana students reach for the stars with model satellite
Their project might not sound like much: The college students launched a tiny model of a satellite the size of a soda can on a big yellow balloon.
It went aloft to a height of 165 meters (yards) and then came back down attached to a parachute.
Yet in this developing West African country, ambitious organisers, -who recently launched the Ghana Space Science and Technology Center - see the test as a sign of bigger things to come.
"We hope that this practical demonstration of what can be done by students like them will generate more enthusiasm, fire up their imagination to come up with more creative things, and show that it's possible that they'll one day be able to launch their own real satellite into orbit," said Prosper Kofi Ashilevi, director of the space center that marked its one-year anniversary earlier this month.
Middle East
In Tehran, all eyes are on North Korea
By Giorgio Cafiero and Shawn VL
By Giorgio Cafiero and Shawn VL
North Korea's nuclear weapons and Iran's purported nuclear ambitions are the subject of constant speculation by Western pundits. However, the connection between the two is often overlooked. Although Northeast Asia and the Middle East are home to different geopolitical realities, the resolution of tensions on the Korean peninsula will almost certainly influence calculations made in Washington and Tehran regarding the Iranian nuclear program.
North Korea's recent bellicosity provides the semblance of erratic behavior, but underneath its provocative rhetoric lays a rational and strategic plan to challenge the status quo of economic
sanctions, isolation, and containment that has been Washington's standard operating procedure for dealing with "outlier" or "rogue" states that have credible deterrents against military attack or invasion.
North Korea's recent bellicosity provides the semblance of erratic behavior, but underneath its provocative rhetoric lays a rational and strategic plan to challenge the status quo of economic
sanctions, isolation, and containment that has been Washington's standard operating procedure for dealing with "outlier" or "rogue" states that have credible deterrents against military attack or invasion.
World’s fish have been moving to cooler waters for decades, study finds
By ,
Fish and other sea life have been moving toward Earth’s poles in search of cooler waters, part of a worldwide, decades-long migration documented for the first time by a study released Wednesday.
The research, published in the journal Nature, provides more evidence of a rapidly warming planet and has broad repercussions for fish harvests around the globe.
University of British Columbia researchers found that significant numbers of 968 species of fish and invertebrates they examined moved to escape the warming waters of their original habitats.Previous studies had documented the same phenomenon in specific parts of the world’s oceans. But the new study is the first to assess the migration worldwide and to look back as far as 1970, according to its authors.
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