Six In The Morning Sunday February 16

Brazil's World Cup courts disaster as delays, protests and deaths mount

An attack on the president's office was just the latest alarming episode in the runup to June's tournament

• Jonathan Watts in Brasília
• The Observer, Sunday 16 February 2014

Another week, another storm of teargas and rubber bullets at a World Cuphost city in Brazil. This time, the clashes were in the capital, Brasília, where 15,000 protesters from the Landless Workers Movement marched from the Mané Garrincha football stadium to the Palácio do Planalto state office of the president, Dilma Rousseff.

Riot police using batons and teargas fought off several attempts to invade the building. The demonstrators threw stones and tore down railings which they used as weapons. In the fierce fighting, 12 protesters and 30 police officers were injured.

Rousseff was not in her office at the time, but this latest explosion of unrest is yet another headache for the president in what is supposed to be one of the most triumphant, feelgood years in the nation's history.

No nudity please, we're... French! Gloves off – and everything else – over children's book 'All in the Buff'

Book designed to help French children accept bodies of all shapes and sizes is causing an outsize row

JOHN LICHFIELD 

 

PARIS

 

Sunday 16 February 2014

No nudity please, we're French.... A strange prudishness has seized a section of political opinion in France – a country that habitually mocks the alleged sexual squeamishness of "les Anglo-Saxons". The leader of the main centre-right opposition party, Jean-François Copé, declared on television last week that his "blood ran cold" when he read a children's book called Tous à poil (All in the Buff).

The book has comical drawings of ordinary people – policemen, bakers, and teachers – taking off their clothes. Its aim is to teach small children not to be obsessed with perfect bodies.

According to Mr Copé, the book is being forced on primary school children as part of a campaign by an "ideologically rigid" socialist government to subvert traditional attitudes to gender and the family.Tous à poil had sold only 1,000 copies before Mr Copé's comments on television made it sound like a blend of the Marquis de Sade and Karl Marx for five-year-olds. Sales have since rocketed and the book is now the second best-selling French-language book on Amazon.

Second round of Syria talks stall with no agreement, even on how to negotiate

February 16, 2014 - 1:35PM

Anne Barnard

Geneva:  The United Nations mediator for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has wrapped up the second round of peace talks  without breaking a longstanding deadlock or setting a date for a third round, and urged the parties to think seriously about their commitment to the negotiations.

Mr Brahimi said the talks had broken down primarily because the Syrian government balked at his suggestion that the negotiators discuss both sides' top demands early on, rather than spending days on the government's demands.

"I am very, very sorry, and I apologise to the Syrian people," Mr Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat who has spent decades negotiating thorny conflicts, said after a last-ditch 45-minute meeting with the two sides ended in disagreement. "I apologise to them that on these two rounds we haven't helped them very much."

CAR disarmament drive fails to capture militia leader

French and African peacekeepers have seized weapons from militia in the capital of the Central African Republic, which has been gripped by sectarian strife.

Troops conducted house-to-house searches for several hours in a neighbourhood of Bangui believed to be a base for attacks against Muslims.

Automatic weapons, grenades, knives and ammunition were confiscated.

More than 250 military personnel were deployed in the disarmament drive.

The peacekeepers hope to secure the northern district of Boy Rabe.

It is a base for the anti-balaka militia - formed in response to killings by Muslim rebels and now blamed for their own revenge attacks.

North Korea promotes key military officials

Chief of missile unit and other army officials promoted as North Korea marks the birthday of late leader Kim Jong-il. Last updated: 16 Feb 2014 05:23

North Korea has announced the promotion of several key military officials to coincide with the birthday of late leader Kim Jong-il.

Kim Rak-gyom, the commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Strategic Rocket Force Command, was promoted to colonel general at the order of the country's current leader Kim Jong-un, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported late Saturday, according to AFP news agency.

The unit is in charge of the country's mid- and long-range missiles programme.

Dozens of other senior military officials were also promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and major general, the KCNA said. The latest round of military promotions - often announced on key political anniversaries - came as the North celebrated Jong-Il's birthday on Sunday. 

Chinese film wins Best Picture at Berlin film festival

The Chinese film Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice) has won the Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin international film festival.

Liao Fan won the prize for best actor in the same film, while Haru Kuroki won best actress for her role in the Japanese movie Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House).

American Richard Linklater was named best director for his film Boyhood.

An eight-person jury decides the awards.

This year it was headed by American director and producer James Schamus, probably most well-known for producing Brokeback Mountain.