Six In The Morning Monday January 20

20 January 2014 Last updated at 08:49 GMT

Iran nuclear: Curbs on uranium enrichment begin, state TV says

Iran has begun curbing uranium enrichment, state TV says, under an agreement which will also trigger an easing of international sanctions.

Centrifuges used for enrichment were disconnected at the Nantaz plant, according to TV.

The move is part of a deal reached with the US, Russia, China and European powers last November.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, will now confirm whether Tehran is implementing its side of the agreement.

This should pave the way for partial suspension of EU and US sanctions, allowing Iran to restart petrochemical exports and trade in gold, worth billions of dollars.

Dozens wounded in Kiev violence as anti-government protests escalate

Police – outnumbered by protesters armed with firebombs – respond with stun grenades, teargas and water cannon

• Oksana Grytsenko and agencies in Kiev
• The Guardian, Monday 20 January 2014

The sound of stun grenades continue to ring out and charred vehicles are smouldering in Kiev after a night of fierce clashes between protesters and police.


The leaders of the opposition, including former heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko, dismissed the violence as the work of "provocateurs" and were due to hold negotiations with the government later on Monday.

The anti-government protests, which have beset Kiev for two months, escalated into fiery street battles with police on Sunday as thousands of demonstrators threw rocks and firebombs and set police vehicles on fire. Dozens of officers and protesters were injured.

China falls in love with Sherlock as ‘People’s Daily’ calls it exquisite

FU TING SHANGHAI Monday 20 January 2014

Zhou Yeling  couldn’t wait until 7am for a long-awaited date with her favourite Englishman.

The 19-year-old from the city of Shanghai dragged herself out of bed at 5am to watch the third season premiere of Sherlock on the BBC’s website. Two hours later, the episode started showing with Chinese subtitles on Youku.com, a video website. Youku says it was viewed more than 5 million times in the first 24 hours, becoming the site’s most popular programme to date.

“I was excited beyond words,” said Zhou, a student in the central Chinese city of Changsha.

Sherlock has become a global phenomenon, but nowhere more than in China, which was one of the first countries where the new season was shown.

Shadow of bubonic plague grows over Madagascar

Experts warn former French colony faces Black Death epidemic unless it slows spread of rodent-borne disease

Mary Boland

The director of Toliara jail in southwest Madagascar is wary of giving a wrong impression. “Sure we have rats, but lots of places do,” says Serge Idriss Hasambarana. “We catch maybe 10 or so a month. Maybe more. The Pasteur Institute gave us traps.”

Some 600 prisoners are held here in four cramped cells, a situation Hasambarana insists he is powerless to change. “Look around,” he says, pointing to the crumbling walls and peeling paint of his sparse office and adjacent buildings. “This place was built by the French, and it hasn’t been touched since. We need a lot of improvements around here but we don’t get any money for it.”

Iran to halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent ahead of release of IAEA report

Iran has said that it is set to halt production of uranium enrichment to 20 percent. This came ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers who were to consider approving the suspension of some sanctions on Tehran.

Iranian media cited two separate sources who said the country's nuclear agency would halt the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent within the next few hours.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency and our experts are in technical talks ... after that ends, I believe the suspension will start around noon (local time)," a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, told the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday.

Iran's nuclear chief also confirmed the news to the official IRNA news agency.

"Voluntarily halting the production of 20 percent uranium enrichment is the major measure that we are undertaking on Monday by noon," Ali Akbar Salehi said, referring to a deal reached with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1).

Wake up Rosetta: You have a date with a comet

By Dave Gilbert, CNN

 Scientists are inviting you to take part in "waking up" a comet-chasing probe that has been in hibernation in space for nearly three years.

The spacecraft is due to reactivate itself from an internal alarm clock on Monday but to celebrate the event the European Space Agency (ESA) is asking people to film themselves shouting "Wake up, Rosetta!" and then share their video clips on a dedicatedFacebook page.

Visitors to the page can vote for their favorites and the top 10 will be transmitted towards Rosetta and out into the universe beyond.

Behind the fun lies a ground-breaking mission, which, if successful, will notch up a series of notable firsts.