Six In The Morning Wednesday April 16

South Korea ferry sinks: More than 300 missing as mass rescue gets underway

HEATHER SAUL 

 

 

Wednesday 16 April 2014

More than 300 people remain unaccounted for after a ferry carrying 477 passengers, most of them school students, sank in cold waters off South Korea's southern coast, killing at least two and injuring 14.

The South Korean Coast Guard warned many more are missing than the initial 100 announced, as dozens of boats, helicopters and divers scrambled to rescue passengers.

The Sewol ferry, which had been carrying students from the Danwon high school in Ansan city near Seoul, had been travelling from the north-western port of Incheon to the popular southern tourist island of Jeju for a four day trip when it capsized.

The Coast Guard said 164 people have been rescued so far. One rescued passenger said he believed many others were trapped inside the ferry when it sank.

Germany’s secretive weapons industry under scrutiny

Green Party wants more transparency around Berlin’s armaments deals

Derek Scally

From cars to kitchens, Berlin is proud that its “Made in Germany” exports are in demand like never before.

Yesterday judges in the country’s highest court asked government lawyers to explain Berlin’s thinking on another buoyant, less celebrated export market: arms. From machine guns to tanks, Germany is the world’s third-largest armaments exporter, behind the US and Russia.

A big seller is the G36 assault rifle manufactured by Heckler & Koch, located an hour south of Stuttgart. Another is the Leopard 2 tank, manufactured by Munich’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

Berlin says it operates the strictest weapons export regime in the world – article 26 of the post-war constitution requires official permits before German companies can manufacture and sell “weapons destined for war”.

Nigeria bombing: Abuja tightens security before WEF

15 APR 2014 11:53 REUTERS

Ahead of the World Economic Forum in Abuja in May, the event's Nigerian hosts says a large security operation is under way following a bomb blast.

Nigeria will mount a massive security operation to protect a World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa planned in Abuja next month, following the bomb blast by suspected Islamist militants on the capital's outskirts on Monday, the event's Nigerian hosts said.

"Our security planning for the World Economic Forum on Africa [scheduled from May 7 to May 9] is already well under way and will be the largest security operation ever mounted in this country for an international summit," Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement sent to forum participants and seen by Reuters.

Monday's rush-hour bomb blast at a bus station at Nyanya, in Abuja, which killed 71 people and injured more than 100 others, was the deadliest ever attack on the capital of Africa's number one oil producer and what is now the continent's largest economy.

Defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox files for liquidation: WSJ

Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:04am EDT

(Reuters) - Defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has given up plans to rebuild under bankruptcy protection and has asked a Tokyo court to allow it to be liquidated, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

These people cited the complexity of the procedure and the lack of realistic rehabilitation plans for the Tokyo-based exchange as reasons for the move, the newspaper said. (r.reuters.com/nus58v)

Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan last month, saying it may have lost some 850,000 bitcoins - worth around $454 million at today's rates - due to hacking into its computer system. It has since said it found 200,000 of those bitcoins.

Mt. Gox's lawyers declined to comment on the matter.

Ukraine crisis: Militants, army face off in Kramatorsk amid escalating tensions

By Laura Smith-Spark and Tim Lister, CNN

April 16, 2014 -- Updated 0853 GMT (1653 HKT)

Donetsk province, Ukraine (CNN) -- With armored vehicles in its streets and troops reportedly in control of the airport, the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine was at the center of a tense standoff Wednesday between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Witnesses told CNN that pro-Russian militants had surrounded an army column that moved into Kramatorsk early in the morning.

No casualties are reported and local people are talking with the soldiers. But a day after Ukraine's military launched its first, formal action against the militants who have seized government and police buildings in at least 11 eastern towns and cities, there are fears the volatile situation could erupt into violence.

16 April 2014 Last updated at 00:10

Syria crisis: Uplifting letters of hope

By Tom HeydenBBC News Magazine

Young Somali refugees living in the world's largest refugee camp, in Kenya, have sent letters of encouragement to Syrian refugee children who have also had to flee their homeland.

The young Somali students reside in the Dadaab refugee camp, in north-eastern Kenya. It is home to nearly 400,000 refugees, the majority of whom have fled conflict, drought and famine in Somalia over the last 23 years.

Care International, the aid agency that provides many basic services at the camp, organised the pen pal exchange and delivered the handwritten letters to Syrian children at the Refugee Assistance Centre in Amman, Jordan.