Six In The Morning Monday January 13

13 January 2014 Last updated at 09:09 GMT

Ariel Sharon lauded at Israel state memorial service

Speakers at the state memorial for Israel's former PM Ariel Sharon have described him as an "indomitable" man devoted to the security of his people.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Mr Sharon was "one of the greatest military commanders the Jewish people have had".

Mr Sharon, regarded by many Israelis as a great statesmen but widely loathed in the Arab world, died on Saturday aged 85 after eight years in a coma.

He will be buried later at the family ranch in the Negev desert.

Thousands of mourners paid their final respects on Sunday, when Mr Sharon's coffin lay in state outside parliament - the Knesset - in Jerusalem.

'Giant of this land'

There were some 20 foreign delegates attending Monday's memorial service.

They included US Vice-President Joe Biden, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Middle East international envoy Tony Blair, Czech PM Jiri Rusnok and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Mexico vigilantes in turf war with drug cartel

Civilian 'self-defence' groups trade gunfire with Knights Templar cartel in Nueva Italia in Michoacán state in fight over territory

• Associated Press in Nueva Italia
• theguardian.com, Monday 13 January 2014 08.44 GMT

Hundreds of vigilantes in Mexico were involved in a gun battle with a drug cartel over the weekend in a fight over territory, while leading security officials prepared to make yet another effort to try to stop the violence.

Members of so-called self-defence groups entered Nueva Italia in Michoacán state in an effort to liberate towns from the control of the Knights Templar cartel. Opponents and critics say the vigilantes are backed by a rival cartel, something the groups deny.

The state governor, Fausto Vallejo, gave a brief statement on Sunday saying he had formally asked the federal government for more help to quell the violence. He announced a meeting for Monday in the capital to lay out a strategy to restore calm.

'Shutdown Bangkok': Thai protesters block roads in attempt to halt capital

Demonstrators also plan to occupy government buildings and even cut off electricity supplies to force the prime minister's resigantion

ANDREW BUNCOMBE  ASIA CORRESPONDENT Monday 13 January 2014

Thousands of anti-government protesters have descended on Bangkok in an attempt to shut down the city and force the resignation of Thailand's prime minister.

Demonstrators have blocked a number of major intersections in the city as they try to make Bangkok ungovernable and force Yingluck Shinawatra to leave. They are planning to occupy government buildings and even cut off electricity supplies.

Reports said that as thousands of protesters took up positions on Monday the police allowed them to do so. The authorities have said they do not intend to use force to try and resist the protesters in order to try and avoid sparking violence.

The stand-off is the latest twist in an eight-year conflict that has pitted opponents of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra against those who support him.

Pope Francis appoints 16 cardinals, 10 from outside Europe

Choice of new cardinals indicates pope’s aim to reflect global diversity of church

Paddy Agnew

 

Pope Francis very clearly emphasised the non-European “imprint” of his pontificate yesterday with his first batch of new cardinals by appointing 10 out of 16 new “electors” from outside Europe. Three of them come from Latin America, the remaining seven from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Philippines, South Korea and Canada. As is customary, the Pope named them during his Sunday Angelus address in St Peter’s Square.

Greater mix
Argentine Francis, the pontiff who describes himself as coming “from the ends of the world”, has made no secret of his belief that the Catholic Church is too “Eurocentric”. Even including yesterday’s appointments, the College of Cardinal Electors (those under 80) is still almost 50 per cent European.

Al-Qaeda's new poster boy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

January 13, 2014 - 2:54PM

Colin Freeman

London: The FBI "most wanted" mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $US10 million ($11.1 million) price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it.

Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, it is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement.

Witness to South Sudan

KATHARINE CHILD | 13 January, 2014 00:02

Cape Town psychologist Gail Womersley spent December working with war survivors in the unrelenting heat of the South Sudanese desert.

In a single day, life changed.

The Monday was a normal day at the clinic. On the Tuesday, Womersley and nine other staff from Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders] were given minutes to pack their bags and were evacuated to the UN compound. The next day they were flown to the capital, Juba.

Womersley was part of an international medical team working in the town of Gumuruk, treating the nomadic Merle people for malaria and infectious diseases.

When fighting between rebels supporting ousted vice-president Riek Machar and supporters of the president, Salva Kiir, broke out in December, the medics fled.