19 April 2014 Last updated at 07:52
‘Sorry’ South Korea ferry captain details evacuation delay
The captain of a South Korean ferry that sank this week said he delayed giving evacuation orders because he feared passengers would "drift away".
Lee Joon-seok, 69, was arrested with two crew members on Friday.
Divers saw three bodies in the ship on Saturday but were not able to retrieve them. The number of missing stands at 273 with 29 confirmed dead. Some 174 passengers were rescued.
The official leading the rescue said it "may last one or two months."
Poor visibility and strong currents are making the search - now in its fourth day - difficult.
The captain faces charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law after being criticised for not giving orders to evacuate soon enough.
Stark reality for migrants seeking better life in Spain
From all over Africa, people try to scale fences into Spanish enclaves in Morocco
Guy Hedgecoe
Twenty feet up a tree, Ibrahim seems to have little regard for his safety as he reaches out at full stretch and snaps off branches for firewood. But since leaving his native Ivory Coast three years ago, this 18 year old has been in many more dangerous situations.
He is gathering the wood for the camp he and others from his country live in on the Moroccan mountain, Gourougou. Covered in forest and often shrouded in low cloud, Gourougou looks down on to the North African coast, just a few miles away. On that same coastline, within sight of the mountainside camp, is the Spanish city of Melilla, which represents the dream of these Africans: to reach Europe.
“We’ve got it into our heads that we have to get to Europe, however difficult that might be,” Ibrahim says, as he stacks the firewood into a large bundle. “This is no way to live,” he adds, referring to the camp.
Asthma, acid rain: life in one of India's most polluted cities
April 19, 2014 - 2:48PM
Jason Koutsoukis
South Asia correspondent at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
Chandrapur: Welcome to one of the most polluted cities in India. The air pollution is so bad that up to 70 per cent of children in Chandrapur are suffering from asthma or some other kind of respiratory disease, thanks to the ash being churned out from 12 coal-fired power stations in the district that produce a combined 5000 megawatts of electricity.
The same power stations also emit enough sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide to enable the formation of acid rain, adding to the pressure on the already shrinking Tadoba tiger reserve nearby – to say nothing of what it means for the district's 2.2 million residents.
Chandrapur is home to a huge industrial hub that includes six power-hungry cement factories, six sponge iron plants and more than 800 medium-sized factories, but its environmental hazards don't end there.
Strife-weary CAR nostalgic for bloody 'emperor'
In the nightmare of the strife-torn Central African Republic, many citizens have begun to long for the "good old days" of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the emperor who became infamous for his brutality yet worked economic wonders in their eyes.
Some residents of the capital Bangui are openly nostalgic for the Bokassa era, which lasted from his military coup in 1966 until his overthrow in 1979, two years after a hugely extravagant coronation when the former soldier proclaimed himself emperor.
His fans point to his legacy in public works, including buildings, electricity supplies and transport, neglected by his successors in one of Africa's poorest countries.
"Kolingba came, he built nothing. Patasse came, he built nothing. Bozize came, he built nothing. Djotodia came, he built nothing," Daniel Nganazouri said, reeling off the names of successive presidents.
With Brazil's Petrobras under fire for corruption, have Brazilians had enough?
Senate hearings on mounting allegations of corruption at the state-run oil company have put Brazil's ruling party in an uncomfortable spotlight. While attitudes have been slow to change, Brazilians are starting to challenge a culture of impunity.
Brazil's leading Worker's Party is under intense scrutiny this week amid Senate hearings and mounting allegations of corruption at Petrobras, the state-run oil company.
This is the second high-profile corruption scandal to plague the ruling party in the past decade. The landmark 2005 Mensalão case, where 38 national politicians were accused of crimes ranging from money laundering to tax evasion in a vote-buying scandal, ended in the conviction of 25 people in 2012. In recent weeks, pressure on the Worker’s Party (PT) has mounted amid allegations that Petrobras paid nearly triple the market rate for a refinery in Texas, and that management accepted millions of dollars in bribes from a Dutch oil-rig supplier.
Latin America has long been associated with widespread corruption and impunity – seen in everything from tax evasion to the flaunting of red lights at intersections. As corruption cases become more visible in Brazil, however, laws to battle them have been passed and political representatives have pushed for public inquiries into wrongdoing. Yet while the issue is garnering attention, attitudes are changing only slowly.
Glass half empty for Germany's proud beer industry
FREISING, Germany
(Reuters) - Behind the pale yellow walls of a former Benedictine monastery on a wooded hill near Munich, the master brewers of Weihenstephan are still perfecting their art after nearly 1,000 years of making beer.
Since Saint Corbinian and his monks first created a golden, nourishing beverage from local hops, the world's oldest brewery has withstood fires, plagues, plundering foreign armies and secularization.
Weihenstephan's cosy brew house, dominated by four steel vats of foamy brown liquid and infused with the sweet smell of malt, embodies a proud beer culture that culminates every year in Munich's Oktoberfest folk festival - a 16-day homage to beer.
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