Six In The Morning Monday March 31

31 March 2014 Last updated at 00:02

Climate impacts 'overwhelming' - UN

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent, BBC News, Yokohama, Japan

The impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible", a major report by the UN has warned.

Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world.

Some impacts of climate change include a higher risk of flooding and changes to crop yields and water availability.

Humans may be able to adapt to some of these changes, but only within limits.

An example of an adaptation strategy would be the construction of sea walls and levees to protect against flooding. Another might be introducing more efficient irrigation for farmers in areas where water is scarce.

Ukraine's Gas Princess and Chocolate King fight for presidency

Analysis: Yulia Tymoshenko and Petro Poroshenko both tainted by past decade of political failure

Daniel McLaughlin

Dr Iron Fist may have thrown in the towel, but the Chocolate King and the Gas Princess should make Ukraine’s presidential election a fascinating fight.

Vitali Klitschko, a former world boxing champion with a doctorate in sports science and political party called Udar (Punch), dropped out this weekend and put his considerable weight behind Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire who owns Ukraine’s biggest confectionery maker.

The Chocolate King has a handsome lead in opinion polls ahead of a May 25th vote to find a successor to Viktor Yanukovich, the disgraced former president who fledUkraine in late February.

But Poroshenko, a former foreign minister who speaks at least three languages fluently, finds his path to the presidency blocked by a tenacious political survivor and fierce campaigner – Yulia Tymoshenko, whose 1990s exploits in the energy trade saw her dubbed the Gas Princess.

'Slavery exists in every country'

The Global Freedom Network, a new working group of religious leaders, aims to put a stop to slavery. Gina Dafalia is hopeful that the brainchild of an Australian billionaire and her Walk Free Foundation will succeed.

DW: What inspired Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest to take up the fight against slavery in the first place?

Gina Dafalia: He was visiting his daughter who was travelling at the time and working in an orphanage. When Andrew and Nicola went along to visit they discovered to their horror that the children in the orphanage were sold into sexual exploitation.

When Andrew returned to Australia, he decided that he needed to have a look at the business operations of his company, which is one of the largest iron ore companies in the world, Fortescue Metals Group. He discovered he also had slavery in his own supply chains.

He then put policies and procedures in place to tackle it. He also went a step further: He used his influence and his leverage to stop suppliers that were using slave labor. But that wasn't enough. He wanted to create a global movement where slavery would be abolished.

Brazilian police, troops, occupy slum by Rio airport

March 31, 2014 - 6:18AM

Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian police backed by troops have occupied a massive slum next to Rio de Janeiro's international airport without firing a shot to secure one of the city's most violent neighbourhoods long run by drug dealers.

Wresting control of the area from drug lords was a security priority for authorities because it surrounds the expressway to Galeao airport where tens of thousands of people will arrive in June for the soccer World Cup.

Marines in armoured cars reinforced the operation on Sunday that took barely 20 minutes to re-establish police control over the Mare slum complex, where 130,000 people live in poverty on the north side of Rio.

31 March 2014 Last updated at 07:13

Nigeria 'attempted jailbreak' leaves more than 20 dead

Twenty-one people have been killed in an attempt to escape from detention at the headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in the capital, officials say.

Police said the trouble started when a prisoner beat a guard with his handcuffs in an attempt to escape.

Local media say many of the police detainees are suspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram.

The group has waged a violent four-year campaign to install a radical form of Islam in the north.

Thousands have been killed since the conflict started in 2009.

At least three million people have been affected, Nigeria's Red Cross said last week.

Gingerly, Iran begins to rock out

In 2008, Iran banned all pop music. But a recent female solo performance signals growing freedom in a country where heavy metal musicians have been told to stay seated on stage.

By Scott Peterson, Staff writer

TEHRAN, IRAN

By the bleak standard set by 35 years of Islamic revolution, Iranian musicians have never had it so good. 

Lady Gaga is not about to play Tehran. But Iranian musicians say the growing openness of the past two years has now blossomed under centrist President Hassan Rouhani, enabling live performances today that would have been impossible not long ago. 

Exhibit A is a groundbreaking show that just finished a 20-gig run in Tehran’s renowned Vahdat Hall. Redefining what is acceptable on stage, women sang solos; Western songs filled the playlist, from John Lennon to Frank Sinatra; and most lyrics were in English.

Audiences who crammed into the plush multi-story theater gasped at the spectacle, some singing quietly along as the lead female vocalist – wearing a maroon head scarf that fell to her waist – belted out Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.”

UN court: Japan whaling 'not scientific'

The UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Japan's Antarctic whaling programme is not for scientific purposes.

Japan catches about 1,000 whales each year for what it calls scientific research.

Australia filed a case with the ICJ in May 2010, arguing that Japan's programme - under which it kills whales - is commercial whaling in disguise.

The UN's top court is currently reading out its ruling.

The United Nations has ruled that Japan's phony scientific whaling program has finally been shown for what it is.  Perhaps the Japanese government will suspend the program.  

Squeal

This a political advertisement from Joni Ernst who's running for the U.S. Senate from the state of Iowa. Believe me when I say that the title says it all as to what this ad is suggesting. And, Its funny.

Killer Crocs

As saltwater crocodiles stalk Australia's waterways, we investigate if they should be culled to curb attacks on humans.

Heralded as the 'animal most likely to eat a human', saltwater crocodiles are a common feature in Australia's tropical north. The ancient predator is the world's largest reptile, growing up to seven metres long and weighing more than a tonne.

Once endangered due to commercial hunting, their numbers had dropped dramatically to just 3,000. However, following the introduction of protection laws in 1971, this steadily increased, with scientists now estimating their population at more than 100,000.

They are now so prevalent that saltwater crocodiles have been found in swimming pools and living rooms in the northern city of Darwin. But with more crocs, comes a higher chance of attacks on humans.

The most recent fatality was just few months ago. On January 26, a 12-year-old boy was taken by a 4-metre-long croc as he swam with other children in a swimming pond in Kakadu National Park. Park officials claim the area was well signposted as a crocodile danger-zone. Two of the fatal attacks in the past few months have involved indigenous children.

Six In The Morning

Flight MH370: Chinese relatives arrive in Malaysia to demand answers

Two dozen family members fly into Kuala Lumpur to meet 'highest officials' as huge search continues to draw blanks

Agencies

Sunday 30 March 201407.51 BST

More than two dozen Chinese relatives of passengers on Flight 370 arrived in Malaysia on Sunday to demand to meet top officials for more information about what happened to the airliner that has been missing for more than three weeks.

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared 8 March en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur were Chinese, and Beijing has urged Malaysia to be more open about the investigation.

As the 29 family members arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the search for the missing airliner was continuing with 14 aircraft from seven different countries scouring an area in the southern Indian ocean about the size of Norway.

Concern as Brunei brings in system of Islamic law with punishments that include the dismemberment of limbs and stoning to death

ANDREW BUNCOMBE

The Sultan of Brunei, one of the world’s wealthiest rulers and a close ally of Britain, will this week oversee his country’s transition to a system of Islamic law with punishments that include flogging, the dismemberment of limbs and stoning to death.

The 67-year-old absolute monarch declared last year that he wanted to introduce a full sharia system in his oil-rich nation and warned critics who took to social media sites to complain that they could be prosecuted using the new laws.

The decision to introduce sharia and reintroduce the death penalty has been condemned by NGOs and legal rights campaigners, who say the new rules will breach international laws. It has also triggered alarm among some of Brunei’s non-Muslim communities, who will also be subject to some of the rulings.

The development could put pressure on Britain to rethink its close relationship with Brunei, a former colony. A British regiment based in the country – the last surviving UK regiment stationed in East Asia – is paid for entirely by the Sultan.

Ebola 'a regional threat' as contagion spreads

29 MAR 2014 07:31 MOUCTAR BAH

Guinea's capital Conakry is on high alert after a deadly Ebola epidemic that has killed dozens in the southern forests, spread to the port city.

Eight cases have been confirmed in the capital, the Guinean health ministry said on Friday, including one fatality.

All those infected have been put into isolation at the capital's biggest hospital to avoid the highly contagious virus from getting into the population.

Aid organisations have sent dozens of workers to help the poor west African country combat the outbreak of haemorrhagic fever.

"The total number of suspected cases recorded from January to 28 March 2014 is 111 cases of haemorrhagic fever including 70 deaths ... or a fatality rate of 63%," said the ministry.

Most of the cases were recorded in southern Guinea but in the past two days it has spread to the capital.

"Intensive case investigations are underway to identify the source and route of these patients' infection, record their travel histories before arrival in Conakry and determine their period of infectivity for the purposes of contact tracing," the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement.

In Amsterdam, web archaeologists excavate a digital city

Dutch researchers are trying to reconstruct a social-media platform from 1994, raising questions over how to preserve humanity's digital heritage.

By Peter Teffer, Correspondent

AMSTERDAM

Imagine yourself walking into a public library in Amsterdam on a weekend. You sit down at a computer and, with a click of a mouse, join other users of a virtual community. After catching up on recent postings, you chat with other members, update your image, and share a couple of links. 

Sounds perfectly mundane – minus the fact that the year is 1994, long before the Internet became a fixture of daily life.

This rudimentary social-media platform, launched in Amsterdam twenty years ago and known as the Digital City (or by its Dutch acronym DDS), was one of the earliest virtual public domains and a precursor to the modern Internet. But the software that kept it buzzing with activity until 2000 is now virtually lost. The challenge of retrieving and preserving this and other web artifacts has given rise to a new profession: web archaeologist. 

Horrific Taboo: Female Circumcision on the Rise in U.S.

BY ANNABEL ROBERTS AND MARIAN SMITH

When Marie was two years old, a woman in her village in Africa cut off her clitoris and labia. Now 34 and living thousands of miles away in New York, she is still suffering.

“I have so many problems, with my husband, with sex, with childbirth,” she told NBC News, withholding her real name to protect her identity. “The consequences on my life are all negative, both physically and psychologically."

The practice of Female Genital Mutilation is common across much of Africa, where it is believed to ensure sexual purity before marriage. But Marie says FGM is also “very common” in some communities in America.

“The pressure to get daughters cut is great,” she said.

30 March 2014 Last updated at 01:24

Sri Lanka: Displaced in north long for home

By Charles HavilandBBC News, Jaffna district, Sri Lanka

"Would you like to go home?" The men chorus "Yes!" as my question is translated into Tamil. "We're waiting for that date. There's enough land. We'll farm it. We'll fish."

They cannot do that here in the Konapalam camp, the cramped home to 240 displaced families where children play in the dust.

There are 31,524 people still in camps around Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka because their land is held by the military.

Saharayani Thangarajah, a 42-year-old mother of two, wants to return to her birthplace at Kankesanthurai on the northernmost coast. "Some officials have told us we'll be resettled by mid-April," she says. "Is that true, do you know?"

She longs for normality because she has been through trauma - forced from her home in 1990 and then losing her father, brother and sister in the war that ended in 2009 with the final defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Shining a light on South Korean suicides

How can the country tackle its suicide epidemic?


South Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD members with more than 40 Koreans committing suicide every day. It’s the leading cause of death among young people and a recent poll found more than half of teens have suicidal thoughts. While the government has taken steps to curb the epidemic, there seems to be no signs the rate is declining.


With the highest suicide rate of any developed nation, at least 40 South Koreans kill themselves every day. As suicide rates across much of the developing world have started to fall, in South Korea they continue to trend upward as shown in the graph below:

Six In The Morning Saturday March 29

29 March 2014 Last updated at 09:05

Afghan election commission HQ under attack

Insurgents are attacking the headquarters of the Afghan election commission in Kabul, a week before the presidential election, police say.

Gunmen have entered a nearby building and are firing at the election commission with automatic weapons.

The attack comes a week before presidential elections which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

It comes a day after a major attack on a building housing foreign aid workers in the Afghan capital.

A police officer quoted by Associated Press news agency says the assailants have not entered the heavily secured compound of the International Election Commission and are based in a house about 500m away.

The insurgents are attacking the commission headquarters with assault rifles and some heavier weapons, says the BBC's David Loyn

Tony Abbott hails 100 days without asylum-seeker boats arriving

Prime minister says that during the same period under the former Labor government there were 66 boat arrivals

Australian Associated Press

Saturday 29 March 201403.33 GMT

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has touted the success of his anti-people- smuggling operation, but stopped short of labelling it mission accomplished, as the end of the monsoon season is looming.

Abbott on Saturday said it had been 100 days since an asylum-seeker boat had reached Australian shores.

He said that during the same period under the former Labor government there had been 66 boat arrivals.

Abbott warned, however, that the end of the monsoon season might prompt asylum seekers to attempt to reach Australia by boat.

Twenty years on, Rwanda still bears the scars of its genocide

RICHARD DOWDEN Saturday 29 March 2014

It was possibly the fastest genocide in history. They called it work – “Kasi” – carried out with methodical planning and execution. Guns, grenades, spears, studded clubs, hatchets but mostly kitchen knives were used. Many women were raped before they were murdered. The final solution was planned and proclaimed by national and local government, and carried out by the army and police and the ordinary people guided by traditional social hierarchies based on the Collines – hills of Rwanda. All were urged on by radio stations and some public officials, and carried out with appalling efficiency.

In such a densely populated country it was hard to hide or escape. Even the churches were not places of sanctuary. Indeed many pastors and Catholic priests were involved in the killing. Some killed because they wanted to, others because they were forced to.

Three reasons Putin will march into eastern Ukraine. And three he won’t.

Putin and Obama agreed Friday to seek a 'diplomatic path' to resolve the crisis. But what Putin intends is unclear. Here are reasons for and against his sending forces into eastern Ukraine.

By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer 

WASHINGTON

Will he or won’t he?

Concerns are growing that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to launch a lightning military strike into eastern Ukraine, as US military officials report suspicious increases in the number of Russian troops amassed on the Russian-Ukraine border.

Even President Obama has gotten into the speculation about Mr. Putin’s intentions, saying in an interview with CBS News released Friday that the Russians might “simply” be trying to “intimidate” Ukraine’s struggling interim government – “or it may be that they’ve got additional plans.”

Calling on Putin not to “revert back to the kinds of practices that … were prevalent during the cold war,” Mr. Obama urged the Russian leader to “de-escalate the situation” and “move back” Russian troops from the border.

But also on Friday, Putin called Obama, and the two leaders discussed ways to forge a “diplomatic path” for resolving the Ukraine crisis. The two presidents agreed to have their top diplomats – Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – meet soon to discuss what the White House called a “de-escalatory approach" to the crisis.

Egypt reopens Gaza crossing for three days

Following a 50-day closure, the land crossing is limited to those seeking medical treatment, students and foreigners. Last updated: 29 Mar 2014 08:33

Egypt has reopened its land border with the Gaza Strip after a 50-day closure, but only for three days and then just for special cases, Gaza's governing group Hamas has said.

Passage to Egypt will be limited to those seeking medical treatment, students going to their places of study, foreigners and in cases deemed as humanitarian, according to Hamas's interior ministry.

A busload of Palestinians heading for Egypt was the first vehicle through the crossing in the city of Rafah, which is also open to traffic in the opposite direction.

Egypt has severely restricted access through the crossing since July, when the army deposed Hamas's ally, president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Why is public support for the death penalty declining?

Fifty-five percent of US adults support the death penalty, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Friday – down from a peak of 78 percent in 1996.

 

By Mark Guarino9 hours ago

Public support for the death penalty is dropping in the United States, although more than half of adults still say they favor it as a punishment for murder.

Fifty-five percent of US adults support the death penalty, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Friday – down from a peak of 78 percent in 1996. In 2011, the figure was 62 percent.

Why the decline in support?

The trend coincides with a drop in violent crime in most major cities – something that also peaked in the early-to-mid-1990s, notes Drew DeSilver for the Pew Research “Fact Tank” blog. In 1991, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data, there were about 758 violent crimes reported per 100,000 people. By 2012, the rate had fallen to about 387 crimes per 100,000 – the lowest rate in more than four decades.

Random Japan

Casey Baseel 

Do you think Walt Disney ever scratched his butt in public?

Sure, it may not be the classiest thing to do, but sometimes when you’ve got an itch, it needs to be scratched right away. It doesn’t make him a monster, it just means, like all of us, he occasionally his base urges won out against social propriety.

Still, it’s a little hard to reconcile the man responsible for Mickey Mouse having an itchy behind. Just like it’s a little shocking to learn that Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, kept a stash of sexy mouse drawings locked in his desk.


In Japan’s sizeable pantheon of beloved comic artists, Tezuka is Zeus. He’s uniformly referred to as Manga no Kami-sama, literally the “God of Manga.” Despite having passed away more than 25 years ago, Tezuka is still so famous and uniformly revered that fans will come to see exhibitions of things as mundane as a desk he worked at.

stats

• 282Money-laundering cases recorded by Japanese authorities in 2013, a record, according to the National Police Agency
• 11Number of children McDonald’s Japan will send to Brazil to escort members of the national soccer team onto the pitch for a World Cup match on June 19
• 74.8Percent of Japanese high school girls who say they use their cellphones while watching TV, according to a survey by Tokyo-based IT security firm Digital Arts

THE HORROR, THE HORROR

• Cops in Osaka arrested a father and son who spent the last 15 years touring the country with a film projector showing unauthorized screenings of Anpanman flicks to elementary school students.
• German shoppers will get their first taste of Uniqlo early next month when the Japanese retailer debuts a store in Berlin.
• The Cabinet Office says Japan’s population will stay above 100 million—but only if the country “accepts a large number of immigrants and the birthrate improves.”
• Officials at the MPD—along with counterparts in Ibaraki, Gunma, Gifu and Fukuoka—say they’ve deployed a facial recognition system featuring a camera that “can instantly spot a particular person in a crowd.”

All That Money Was For My Private Use
That's Why I Used It For My Campaign

800 Million And A Lucky Charm
What Else Would The Money Be Used For?

Terror And Missiles
Come To Your Mobile Phone

TPP copyright talks could shut the book on otaku fan fiction

March 29, 2014
By SATSUKI FUJITA/ Staff Writer

Tokyo company employee Tatsuya Usami is worried about developments in talks over copyright protection in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative.

The 23-year-old is not concerned that the trade agreement may affect his job, but rather, his hobby.

Usami, an amateur manga artist, sells “dojinshi,” self-published fan fiction that borrows characters from popular manga, anime, video games and other sources.

Like many of his peers in fan fiction, Usami does not obtain permission from the copyright owner over the use of the characters--in his case, ones from a video game.

Karachi Cop

People & Power goes behind the scenes with a famous super cop in Pakistan's fastest-growing and most lawless city.


Karachi is Pakistan’s financial and commercial capital; a vast, sprawling metropolis of more than 20 million people, which generates almost a quarter of the country’s wealth.

Yet in recent years it has also been riven by bitter political and sectarian tensions, it has been undermined by organised crime, and has become a prime target for Taliban insurgents. Things have become so bad that some residents fear that it is now only a few steps away from falling into complete anarchy.

The city’s police are fighting desperately to prevent that from happening and, in combination with the army and the country’s intelligence agencies, are taking the fight to their enemies with an aggressive strategy of armed raids and arrests.

But as these tactics draw bloody reprisals and the death toll on both sides rises, the success or failure of Operation Karachi, as it is known, now hangs in the balance.

South Dakota Enacts Anti-Abortion Law Based On Racial Stereotypes About Asian Immigrants

How does one reinforce stereotypes in a most effective way?  Pass and sign into law a bill which targets Asian American women.  One might think that passing such law might just be found to be discriminatory by  a court but that hasn't stopped the state of South Dakota after all it's all  about protecting the unborn no matter how racist your actions might be.

The lawmakers who push sex-selective abortion bans typically claim that it’s an important policy to preserve gender equality. And during the debate over HB 1162 in South Dakota, elected officials were particularly candid about the racial implications. As Mother Jones reported last month, Republican lawmakers in the state were very clear about their position that the bill was necessary because of South Dakota’s population of Asian immigrants.
“Let me tell you, our population in South Dakota is a lot more diverse than it ever was,” one GOP lawmaker, Rep. Don Haggar, said to explain his support for HB 1162. “There are cultures that look at a sex-selection abortion as being culturally okay. And I will suggest to you that we are embracing individuals from some of those cultures in this country, or in this state. And I think that’s a good thing that we invite them to come, but I think it’s also important that we send a message that this is a state that values life, regardless of its sex.”
In fact, this type of legislation is a solution in search of a problem. While female infanticide is an issue in some parts of the world, there’s absolutely no evidence that the Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) individuals who live here in the U.S. are having abortions based on gender. There is no epidemic of sex-selective abortion among the AAPI community, and passing legislation to “fix” this nonexistent issue simply ends up damaging women of color. Ultimately, these laws scrutinize Asian American women based solely on their race.
“South Dakota’s governor has signed a purposefully misleading bill that undermines our health as women and discriminates against us as Asian Americans,” Miriam Yeung, the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, explained in a statement. “Our community has made it clear we don’t support these misleading, stigmatizing bans that hurt us and only serve to exacerbate the health disparities we already face. Nearly 2,000 women and men from South Dakota and around the country signed a petition condemning the racist legislation.”

Six In The Morning Friday March 28

Missing MH370: How Do You Sue When There's No Wreckage?

BY ALASTAIR JAMIESON

  A  U.S. law firm claiming to represent several of the Flight 370 families said Thursday that it hopes to prove that the Boeing 777 fleet has a design defect – even as investigators struggle to locate a single piece of wreckage.

Monica Kelly, head of global aviation litigation at Ribbeck Law, told NBC News she was meeting families in Beijing “at their request,” hours after the firm filed a petition at a Chicago court against Boeing, seeking evidence of possible design and manufacturing defects that it believes will form the basis of a lawsuit.

The move has raised eyebrows, even among seasoned observers of litigation specialists who approach the victims of air disasters. It has also prompted some to ask how it is even possible to start forming a lawsuit on behalf of families before a single victim has been found.

Turkey blocks YouTube amid 'national security' concerns

Turkish PM's office claim voice recordings posted to YouTube created 'national security issue' leading to website block one week after restricting access to Twitter

Constanze Letschin Istanbul andDominic Rushe in New York

Friday 28 March 201408.37 GMT

The Turkish government reinforced its heavily criticised clampdown on social media on Thursday, blocking YouTube a week after it restricted access to the micro-blogging platform Twitter. The latest curbs came hours after an audio recording of a high-level security meeting was leaked on the video-sharing website.

According to Turkish media reports, the decision to block YouTube was taken by Turkey’s telecommunications authority (TİB) as a “precautionary administrative measure.” In February, Turkey passed a much criticised new internet law that allows the telecommunications regulator to block websites without a court order. Turkey previously banned YouTube in 2007, but lifted the ban three years later.

Social media users in Turkey were able to access the site using "virtual private networks" (VPNs) – which allow an anonymous connection to the web – or by changing the domain name settings (DNS) on computers and mobile devices.

Spanish historians claim to have found Holy Grail

Research suggests chalice from which Christ supposedly drunk is in León’s basilica of Saint Isidore

Guy Hedgecoe

It has been the subject of theological and historical argument for centuries, but Spanish historians now claim to have tracked down the Holy Chalice, the cup from which Christ was supposed to have drunk during his last supper. They believe the 2,000-year-old vessel is in a church in León, in northern Spain.

Margarita Torres and José Ortega del Río have spent three years researching the history of the chalice and, on Wednesday, presented in León a co-written book, Los Reyes del Grial (The Kings of the Grail), containing their findings.

The onyx chalice itself, they explain, is contained within another, antique cup known as the Chalice of Doña Urruca, which sits in León’s basilica of Saint Isidore. The historians say it has been there since the 11th century.

Philippines, Muslim rebels sign peace pact to end 45-year conflict

March 28, 2014 - 3:22PM

The Philippines and its largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,  have signed a final peace pact, ending about 45 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people in the country's south.

Under the pact, Muslim rebels agreed to disband guerrilla forces, surrender weapons, and rebuild their communities while the government gives them self-rule with wider powers to control their economy and culture.

But potential threats to lasting peace remain, ranging from a small breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front faction to criminal gangs, Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and feuding clans.

Escape for trapped Muslims

Stephan Hofstatter | 28 March, 2014 00:03

The UN yesterday ramped up efforts to relocate 20000 Muslims trapped in enclaves in the Central African Republic facing massacre and starvation.

UN humanitarian head Abdou Dieng said yesterday 500 Muslims trapped in Bossangoa would be killed if they were not relocated urgently.

"Bossangoa was the epicentre of the crisis. There are only 500 out of 7000 Muslims left, and they are being attacked and killed every day," he said. "These are the anti-balaka extremists who are now attacking the Misca peacekeepers. It is really getting out of hand."

The relocation was to take place from Thursday next week.

"But we are still running into problems with the local population, who don't want Muslims there and fear they will attract the anti-balaka," he said.

Protest over Myanmar census brings ethnic tensions to the fore

Anti-census protesters attacked an international NGO office on Wednesday. The census allows ethnic minorities to self-identify in a country wracked by ethnic and religious divisions. 

By Joseph Schatz, Correspondent / March 27, 2014

KYAUNGGON, MYANMAR

The last time a national census was held in Myanmar, the country was an isolated military dictatorship known as Burma. Then, Daw San San was a 28-year-old primary school teacher tasked with counting heads in this rural rice-growing region in the Ayeyarwady river delta.

Now 59 and retired, Ms. San San is helping to oversee the country’s first census in 31 years, this time held under a civilian-led government. The new administration took power three years ago and has cracked open the door to international donors who are underwriting the $60 million census, which begins March 30. 

Now, as then, authorities face a common challenge: earning the trust of people wary of how the census data is used, particularly when it comes to ethnicity and religion in a country scarred by decades of inter-ethnic conflict and political repression.