SIx In The Morning Sunday January 5

5 January 2014 Last updated at 07:43 GMT

Bangladesh votes amid violence and boycott

Violent clashes have erupted between opposition activists and police as Bangladesh holds a general election boycotted by the opposition.

At least five people were killed in unrest on Sunday. Dozens have died in the run-up to the polls.

Scores of polling stations have been torched and voting is suspended at more than 100. Polling is said to be thin.

The opposition is boycotting the vote with a two-day strike against what it called a "scandalous farce".

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League is assured of victory, with government candidates already declared victors by default in many seats.

Antarctic leader defends expedition against critics of its scientific value

Chris Turney speaks of a 'growing sense of frustration over what appears to be a misrepresentation of the expedition'

• Mark Townsend and Alok Jha
• The Observer, Sunday 5 January 2014

The leader of the ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic whose members were airlifted to safety last week has condemned the sniping of its critics, accusing elements of the media and climate change deniers of deliberately distorting the scientific value of the trip.

Chris Turney, head of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, says in an article in the Observer that despite the rescue of those on board the Akademik Shikolskiy, the expedition's research ship that has been trapped in ice since Christmas Eve, there was a "growing sense of frustration over what appears to be a misrepresentation of the expedition in some news outlets and on the internet".

Variously, the expedition has been accused of being a "tourist trip" and of being hampered by poor preparation, while others have cited the"irony" of climate researchers being stuck in unexpected ice, claiming it as proof that global warming was overhyped.

As cannabis is widely legalised, China cashes in on an unprecedented boom

The country holds hundreds of patents relating to the drug, which means more profits as decriminalisation spreads globally

IAN JOHNSTON

 Sunday 05 January 2014

Almost 5,000 years ago, Chinese physicians recommended a tea made from cannabis leaves to treat a wide variety of conditions including gout and malaria. Today, as the global market for marijuana experiences an unprecedented boom after being widely legalised, it is China that again appears to have set its eyes on dominating trade in the drug.

The communist country is well placed to exploit the burgeoning cannabis trade with more than half of the patents relating to or involving cannabis originating in China. According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), Chinese firms have filed 309 of the 606 patents relating to the drug.

About 147 million people – around 2.5 per cent of the world's population – use cannabis, according to the World Health Organisation. And medicinal properties of the drug are increasingly being recognised. It can be used to treat conditions ranging from the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer patients and chronic pain to cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

Terminators or protectors? Rise of the robot soldiers may be closer than you think

January 5, 2014

Tom Chivers

President Obama's use of drones to kill is turning science fiction into fact.

Every discussion of robots and warfare will always come back to one, or both, of two science-fiction touchstones: Skynet and Asimov.

Skynet, the artificial intelligence defence system described in the Terminator films, gains self-awareness and immediately attempts to wipe out humanity.

In Isaac Asimov's robot stories, he imagines ''three laws of robotics'', the first of which instructed all robots: ''A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.'' Those are the options, popularly understood: robot murderers trying to destroy mankind; or pacifist automatons barred by their programming from hurting humans.

As battle rages, South Sudanese meet for talks

05 JAN 2014 06:44 AFP

Delegates from South Sudan's warring factions are expected to meet for talks in the Ethiopian capital on Sunday.

Face-to-face peace talks between South Sudan's warring factions are set to begin in earnest on Sunday, with artillery fire in Juba's government district underlining the risk of a slide into all-out civil war.

The talks in the Ethiopian capital are aimed at ending three weeks of fighting that are feared to have killed thousands in the world's newest nation.

"South Sudan deserves peace and development not war," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said at ceremony to formally open talks on Saturday, which bring the government and rebel teams together for the first time.

"You should not allow this senseless war to continue, you need to stop it, and you need to stop it today—and you can."

Private schools gain popularity in Cuba

Churches and private tutors are increasingly offering educational services in the Communist country. Ivet Gonzalez

Havana, Cuba - Cuba's state education monopoly is increasingly sharing space with private operators, including churches and teachers working as tutors, which are filling in gaps and providing knowledge that has become necessary as a result of the country's economic reforms, such as business management courses.

"School is not enough these days," said Raiza Martinez, the mother of a 13-year-old girl. "Sometimes a teacher does not know how to reach students or does not teach the subject well. I had to look for support from [private] tutors."

"It wasn't like that in my day. You used to get a very good education in [public] school," said Martinez, a 48-year-old resident of Havana.