Six In The Morning

Russia: Syria agrees to take part in talks

Foreign ministry says Assad government has agreed "in principle" to attend US-Russia brokered proposed peace conference. Last Modified: 24 May 2013 09:13

Russia says the Syrian government had agreed in principle to attend an international peace conference proposed by Russia and the US, and criticised what it called attempts to undermine peace efforts.

The summit has been suggested by the US and Russia and could take place in the Swiss city of Geneva.

"We note with satisfaction that we have received an agreement in principle from Damascus to attend the international conference, in the interest of Syrians themselves finding a political path to resolve the conflict, which is ruinous for the nation and region," Alexander Lukashevich, Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Friday.

Faisal Mekdad, Syrian deputy foreign minister, said after talks in Moscow on Wednesday the government would soon decide whether to take part in the conference aimed at bringing government and opposition representatives together for talks.

JIM ARMITAGE

Friday 24 May 2013

Voices in Danger: Pakistan faces urgent calls to address violence against the press

A total of 23 journalists were murdered in the past decade, without a single conviction

The new government of Pakistan today faced urgent calls to address the country’s appalling record of violence against the press.

A total of 23 journalists were murdered in the past decade, with not a single conviction, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a major new report on the troubled country.

The Independent’s Voices in Danger campaign highlighted the plight of Pakistani journalists earlier this week in an interview with Umar Cheema, a local journalist who was driven off the road, taken to an anonymous building and subject to a brutal ordeal of torture and rape. He was explicitly told that the attack was due to his journalism and was ordered to stop his reporting. He refused, despite fears for his safety and that of his family.

British security services face inquiry after London attack

House of Commons committee to investigate brutal killing of soldier following disclosure that suspects were known to MI5

Mark Hennessy

British MPs will investigate the brutal killing of a British soldier by Muslim extremists following the disclosure that the two suspects were known to MI5.

British prime minister David Cameron parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee chaired by former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind would investigate the killing.

Drummer Lee Rigby (25) from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was brutally hacked to death by two men outside the Woolwich Barracks in London on Wednesday.

Described as “extremely popular and witty”, the Manchester-born Rigby was married and the father of a two-year-old son, Jack.

North Korea open to China talks, says envoy

May 24, 2013 - 11:17AM

Jane Perlez

A North Korean envoy, Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, said the North would "accept the proposal" by China to "open up dialogue," the China News Service reported on Thursday.

The comments were reported after Mr Choe met Liu Yunshan, a member of the Communist Party Standing Committee and the politician who heads ideological affairs for the Communist Party.

Mr Liu was quoted as saying that China wanted a resumption of talks that would result in the removal of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula "as soon as possible". Chinese officials frequently make such appeals.

Mr Choe, who arrived in China, North Korea's biggest benefactor, on Wednesday on a fence-mending mission, is a close aide to North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, and as such, what he says is taken relatively seriously.

China offers troops to keep peace in Mali: UN

Sapa-AP | 24 May, 2013 09:10

China has offered to contribute troops to the new UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, where Islamist jihadists controlled the country's north until French-led troops launched an offensive in January to oust them, a UN official said.

Andre-Michel Essoungou, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department, told The Associated Press that it "has received pledges and offers of contributions from a number of countries from around the world, including China."

UN officials and diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made, said China has offered to send a civil engineering company, comprising about 150 soldiers, and is likely to send as many as 600 peacekeepers.

24 May 2013 Last updated at 00:18 GM

Cockroaches lose their 'sweet tooth' to evade traps

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News

A strain of cockroaches in Europe has evolved to outsmart the sugar traps used to eradicate them.

American scientists found that the mutant cockroaches had a "reorganised" sense of taste, making them perceive the glucose used to coat poisoned bait not as sweet but rather as bitter.

A North Carolina State University team tested the theory by giving cockroaches a choice of jam or peanut butter.

They then analysed the insects' taste receptors, similar to our taste buds.

Researchers from the same team first noticed 20 years ago that some pest controllers were failing to eradicate cockroaches from properties, because the insects were simply refusing to eat the bait.