SIx In The Morning

On Sunday

World exclusive: Iran will send 4,000 troops to aid Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria
US urges Britain and France to join in supplying arms to Syrian rebels as MPs fear that UK will be drawn into growing Sunni-Shia conflict

ROBERT FISK SUNDAY 16 JUNE 2013
Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region. For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

State news: North Korea proposes high-level talks with U.S.


By K.J. Kwon and Greg Botelho, CNN June 16, 2013 -- Updated 0236 GMT (1036 HKT)
North Korea proposed high-level talks with the United States to "ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula," its state news agency reported early Sunday. The topics that "can be sincerely discussed" include easing military tensions, changing a truce treaty to a peace treaty and nuclear matters, according to a statement from the North's National Defense Commission, as reported by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. It left some details -- like where and when the talks might be held -- up to Washington, and insisted U.S. officials should not lay out any preconditions for talks. "(The United States should) not lose the opportunity that is laid out and should actively agree with our resolute step and good intention," the commission said.

Nicaragua canal approved by Nicaragua's president, Chinese businessman
A Hong Kong-based development company has signed an agreement with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to build a channel across Nicaragua, similar to the Panama Canal.

By Associated Press
President Daniel Ortega and Chinese businessman Wang Jing have signed an agreement giving his company the right to build a shipping channel across Nicaragua that would compete with the Panama Canal. The signing took place a day after Nicaragua's National Assembly voted to grant Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. a 50-year concession to study, then possibly build and run, the canal. Ortega's backers say the project would transform one of the region's poorest countries by bringing tens of thousands of jobs to the country and fueling an economic boom that would mimic the prosperity of nearby Panama and its U.S.-built canal.

SADC leaders urge Mugabe to delay vote
The Southern Africa Development Community on Saturday called on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to delay elections scheduled for July 31.

16 JUN 2013 06:48 MARINA LOPES
Southern African leaders on Saturday told Zimbabwe to ask its courts to extend a July 31 deadline to hold elections, amid high tension between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the timing of the vote. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in the Mozambican capital came two days after Mugabe declared the election day, a date immediately rejected by Tsvangirai, his partner in coalition and main political rival.

Why the US locks up prisoners for life
16 June 2013 Last updated at 00:18 GMT

By Kate Dailey BBC News Magazine
Life sentences that truly mean a lifetime in prison are rare in the UK but common in the US. Why is this punishment so prevalent in the US? Last week, an English court handed a whole-life sentence to Dale Cregan for murdering four people, including two policewomen. That penalty means he will never be eligible for release, and it puts him in rare company, making him one of about 50 people in the UK serving such a sentence. Had he been in the US, he would have been less of an anomaly. In the US, at least 40,000 people are imprisoned without hope for parole, including 2,500 under the age of 18.

Vienna embraces the romance and culture of the bicycle
Faced with increasingly congested streets, the Austrian capital is embracing cycling with a rental system, bike zones and special housing

Tracy McVeigh The Observer, Sunday 16 June 2013
On the Praterstern, where cars, buses and trams converge from several busy streets on a road that loops around Vienna's central train station, a new digital counter stands under the eye of the Riesenrad Ferris wheel. It's about the size of a bus stop advertising hoarding and picks out passing bicycle wheels from a sensor in the pavement. With a rumpled grey overcoat over his suit and a cycling helmet covering his grey hair, Wolfgang Dvorak excitedly explains that the 2,072 figure on display marks the number of bicycles that have passed this point so far today. "This is great, great! Measuring cyclists is making cycling visible, making people notice," says Dvorak. "It's very important, especially at city crossings like this. Just 14 days ago it was done, and the marking of the cycle lane here and the cycle signing. This is showing people that Vienna is cycling."