Six In The Morning Tuesday February 11

11 February 2014 Last updated at 09:11

China and Taiwan in first government talks

China and Taiwan have begun the highest-level talks since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Wang Yu-chi and Zhang Zhijun, the top cross-strait officials from each side, are both attending the four-day talks in Nanjing.

No official agenda has been released for the talks, which are widely seen as a confidence-building exercise.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. In the past, all talks have gone via quasi-official organisations.

Speaking to reporters before departing from Taiwan, Mr Wang, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said: "My main aim during this visit to the mainland is to promote mutual understanding between the two sides."

The real 'Hurt Locker': On patrol in Iraq with the Hawks of Baghdad elite bomb squad

Baghdad’s elite fast-reaction force – whose job it is to defuse bombs and collect evidence – is struggling to keep up with the sectarian violence in the city. Benjamin Hall was embedded with the squad and went on patrol

BENJAMIN HALL

The blast ripped through the tent, in the cold Baghdad morning, obliterating those nearest the bomber and sending body parts 200m through the air.

Ten people died instantaneously and 34 others lay wounded, limbless and screaming. Blood flowed around the scene.

A few miles away, in a different part of the Iraqi capital, alarm bells went off. Men leapt from their bunks and sprang into action, before racing to the scene. These men form the elite Hawks of Baghdad, the bomb squad at the forefront of the battle to protect the city, but which is struggling to keep up with the growing sectarian violence engulfing Iraq.

I was recently embedded with the squad and followed it on patrol, passed the anxious hours between attacks alongside its members and listened as they remembered dead comrades.

Córdoba mosque the subject of bitter dispute over its ownership

Attempt by Catholic Church to take building out of public hands seen as part of effort to suppress monument’s Islamic identity

Guy Hedgecoe

 The Mezquita, or Great Mosque of Córdoba, was for centuries a symbol of diversity and tolerance in the southern Spanish city and has long been one of Europe’s most admired historical monuments.

But recently, disagreements over its management and efforts by the Catholic Church to take it out of public hands have made it the subject of a fierce dispute.

Sitting on the shore of the Guadalquivir river, the Mezquita has long been revered not just as a remarkable piece of architecture, but also one with a unique history.

The caliph of Damascus constructed the huge mosque on top of a Visigothic church in the eighth century, ushering in a period of intense intellectual and cultural activity in Córdoba.

Trial date set in Egypt for Al-Jazeera journalists

A date has been set in Egypt for the trial of 20 people accused of working for the Al-Jazeera television network. They all face terrorism charges for allegedly backing the Muslim Brotherhood.

February 20 has been set as the date for the trial, where the four foreigners and sixteen Egyptian nationals will face the Cairo Criminal Court on terrorism charges, according to the Middle East News Agency. Eight of the accused are in detention but twelve others are to be tried in absentia.

Defendants include Al-Jazeera English acting Cairo bureau chief, Mohammed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian, award-winning correspondent Peter Greste of Australia, producer Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, Britons Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, and Dutch journalist Rena Netjes.

Fahmy, Greste and Baher Mohamed were arrested on December 29 at their office in a Cairo hotel.

The 16 Egyptians have been charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation and harming national unity and social peace.

Southeast Asia

Feb 11, '14

Historic failures haunt Moro peace deal
By Richard Heydarian 

MANILA - After two years of intensive negotiations, the Philippine government and the country's largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have signed a final peace agreement which paves the way for a lasting resolution of one of the world's longest-running intra-state conflicts. 

The January 25 agreement stipulates among other things the disarmament and eventual reintegration of about 12,000 MILF soldiers into the Philippine security forces. This could effectively end a primary source of armed challenge to the Philippines' territorial integrity, and put an end to four decades of conflict in the



southern island of Mindanao that has resulted in the death of up to 150,000, mostly civilian, individuals. 

In exchange, the Philippine government will facilitate the establishment of an autonomous "Bangsamoro" entity in the predominantly Muslim regions of Mindanao. The Philippine Congress is expected to pass a law for enactment of the new autonomous entity this year. 

Ski jumper Sara Takanashi of Japan poised to make Olympic history

By AJ Willingham, HLNtv.com

Ten years ago, Sara Takanashi was studying ballet and piano, not flying through the air with a pair of skis on her feet.

But since she discovered the sport of ski jumping at age 8, the Japanese teen has been poised to make Olympic history.

Takanashi will compete in the first-ever women's ski jump event at the Sochi Olympic Games. At 17, she's already made a name for herself in the sport, winning a record 19 World Cups since the women's World Cup series was established in 2011.

It's been a long battle for female ski jumpers to see their sport on the global stage. In 2006, the International Olympic Committee rejected a request to include women's ski jumping in the 2010 Vancouver Games.