4 December 2013 Last updated at 09:15 GMT
Middle East
Fierce battles cast hopeful shadow in Syria
By Victor Kotsev
No good news seems to come out of Syria without a sinister shadow. Right around the time when a start date for the Geneva II peace conference was announced - it came last week and the big day is January 22 - some of the fiercest battles so far broke out, bringing the recorded death toll to date to more than 125,000 people.
Of course, this is not to say that the talks would necessarily end the violence if they happen as planned (many of the Syrian opposition members and especially the rebels on the ground oppose them and it is still unclear who exactly will participate from their side). But all the different factions appear to be preparing for them as they turn the heat up on the fighting and try
to conquer as much territory as quickly as possible in order to create facts on the ground and to bolster their negotiating positions.
Hezbollah commander Hassan Lakkis killed in Beirut
A senior commander of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah has been killed near Beirut, the group says.
Hassan Lakkis was "assassinated" near his home in Hadath - 7km (4.3 miles) south-east of the Lebanese capital, Hezbollah TV channel Al-Manar said.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for his death but Israel denies the accusation.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Beirut, says little is known publicly about Lakkis, but he was reputedly close to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The news comes a day after Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia was behind last month's bombings outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
Eritrea's military is trafficking the nation's children, report says
Senior military officers kidnap and hold to ransom youngsters, and many are sold on to human traffickers, according to report
Eritrean youths are being kidnapped by senior military officers, smuggled into Sudan and held to ransom, according to a report by Dutch and Swedish researchers. The captives are threatened with being sold to people traffickers if they do not raise tens of thousands of dollars. Some are freed if they raise the ransoms. Others are sold on to Bedouin traffickers in Sinai, even after money has changed hands, only to be tortured to extract further cash from their relatives.
Basing their findings on interviews with 230 Eritreans who suffered this fate, the researchers conclude that between 2007 and 2012, some 25,000 to 30,000 people were trafficked. The report, by Meron Estefanos, a Swedish human rights activist, and Professor Mirjam van Reisen and Dr Conny Rijken of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, estimates that $600m has been extracted in this way.
Garda collusion found in IRA murders of RUC officers
Government apologises to families of late officers
The Government has apologised to the families of two RUC men gunned down in an IRA ambush, after the Smithwick Tribunal found someone in Dundalk Garda station colluded with the IRA in the killings.
The damning report from the tribunal published yesterday, after eight years of investigations, found the IRA were tipped off by an unidentified person within the Garda station in 1989 before the killing of the two men, RUC Chief SuperintendentHarry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan.
The tribunal found there was no direct evidence to link the collusion to any named officer in the Co Louth Garda station.
Protesters and police pause fighting for King's birthday
December 4, 2013 - 5:50PMLindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Bangkok: King Bhumibol Adulyadej never needed to say a word to stop police and anti-government protesters clashing violently on Bangkok's streets.
It is his 86th birthday on Thursday, an occasion Thais will mark with a holiday, and it would be seen as disrespectful to the world's longest ruling monarch to make trouble.
At the height of fighting on Monday, a tear gas canister was mistakenly lobbed in the grounds of Suan Kularb palace in Bangkok's historic quarter, the home of Princess Somsavali Kitiyakara. A royal member at the palace summoned Bangkok police chief Kamronwit Thoopkrachang and told him Thais must not fight Thais. General Kamronwit said later he replied by stressing the importance of showing loyalty to the royal family.
Dec 4, '13
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Fierce battles cast hopeful shadow in Syria
By Victor Kotsev
No good news seems to come out of Syria without a sinister shadow. Right around the time when a start date for the Geneva II peace conference was announced - it came last week and the big day is January 22 - some of the fiercest battles so far broke out, bringing the recorded death toll to date to more than 125,000 people.
Of course, this is not to say that the talks would necessarily end the violence if they happen as planned (many of the Syrian opposition members and especially the rebels on the ground oppose them and it is still unclear who exactly will participate from their side). But all the different factions appear to be preparing for them as they turn the heat up on the fighting and try
to conquer as much territory as quickly as possible in order to create facts on the ground and to bolster their negotiating positions.
Global corruption: How does Latin America stack up?
An uptick in organized crime may be fueling corruption in Latin America, observers say.
Businessman Dale Smith hails from New Zealand, which is tied with Denmark as the world’s least corrupt nation, according to watchdog group Transparency International. But Mr. Smith is working in Brazil, which is ranked 72nd worldwide and is located in a region notorious for corruption.
The result, he says, is compromise.
“If you came here and did everything correctly, you’d fail,” says Smith, who has several businesses in Brazil. “You’ve got to flow with the river a little bit.”
That reality is underscored by Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, released today. The report found that corruption worsened in Latin America over the past year as economic heavyweights Brazil and Mexico didn’t improve and gang-plagued Central America worsened. The index reveals that all of the Americas – spanning from Alaska to Argentina – are now perceived as more corrupt than all of Asia-Pacific – a region that Transparency International classifies from secretive North Korea to war-torn Afghanistan.
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