19 May 2014 Last updated at 05:44
What Britain can learn from the Netherlands about defending against floods and adapting to climate change
BY STEPHANIE GOSK
South Korea to break up coastguard after ferry disaster
South Korea plans to break up its coastguard in the wake of the ferry disaster in which more than 300 people died, says President Park Geun-hye.
In a televised address, Ms Park apologised formally for the sinking.
A new safety agency would handle rescue duties, with investigative functions passing to the police, she said.
The Sewol ferry disaster on 16 April killed 286 passengers, most of whom were high school students. Another 18 are still missing.
"The ultimate responsibility of the poor response to this accident lies with me," Ms Park said.
She said the coastguard had "failed to fulfil its original duties" and "had it actively carried out rescue efforts immediately after the accident", more lives could have been saved.
Taming the floods, Dutch-style
What Britain can learn from the Netherlands about defending against floods and adapting to climate change
It is 100 days since David Cameron visited the submerged Somerset levelsat the peak of the winter floods that devastated swathes of England and hundreds of broken flood defences have now been repaired thanks to £270m of emergency funding from government. But in the Netherlands, also battered by the record deluge but relatively unscathed, an ongoing multibillion-euro programme continues to reshape the watery nation, with none of the political storm whipped up in the UK.
Hard-won reclaimed land – polders – are being given back to rivers and meanders are being cut back into flood plains, all as part of a back-to-nature approach that is reversing centuries of battling against water, in favour of finding ways to live with it.
Ratko Mladic defence case due to begin today
Former Bosnian Serb army general faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity
The defence case of former Bosnian Serb army general Ratko Mladic on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity is to open at the Yugoslav war crimes court today.
The 72-year-old is one of the most high-profile suspects to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
He denies 11 charges against dating to the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The war displaced some two million people and left at least 100,000 dead.
Mr Mladic, nicknamed the Butcher of Bosnia, is accused of orchestrating some of Europe’s worst atrocities since the Second World War, in particular the massacre of almost 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica.Indonesia's new broom Jokowi chooses old hand as presidential running mate
May 19, 2014 - 3:52PMMichael Bachelard
Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Jakarta: Joko Widodo, the man most likely to become Indonesia's next president, has gone back to the future in his choice of running mate, picking a significantly older former vice-president for the job.
Jusuf Kalla, 72, served as vice-president in the first term of the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, between 2004 and 2009. He will add age, experience, parliamentary clout and regional variety to the candidacy of the relatively youthful Mr Joko, 52, known universally by his nickname, Jokowi.
The July 9 presidential election now looks almost certain to come down to a battle between two camps: Mr Joko and Mr Kalla against former special forces general Prabowo Subianto and former minister Hatta Rajasa — though the second pairing is not confirmed and a third ticket is still an outside possibility.
In Tunisia an ancient Jewish pilgrimage, controversy – and hope
Every year hundreds if not thousands of Jewish pilgrims travel to Djerba island in Tunisia, where an ancient Synagogue is believed to contain a stone from the destroyed First Temple in Jerusalem. This year, controversy has come with them.
Pilgrims were crowding into the sanctuary, votive candles were glowing under the arches, and a singer from Jerusalem named Moshe Giat was atop a low bench, leading the men in an old and rousing song in Hebrew that ended, “Hear, O Israel!”
Jerusalem? No. This scene took place in Tunisia, where about a thousand Jews are gathered this weekend for an annual Jewish pilgrimage and festival on the island of Djerba. The presence of Israeli visitors like Mr. Giat has become the focus of a sharp controversy among Tunisia’s political leaders.
On May 9, legislators at a raucous parliamentary hearing cited support for the Palestinian cause, opposition to Israel, and Israeli attacks on PLO figures in Tunisia in the 1980’s as grounds for removing two government ministers and reversing a recent decision to formalize procedures for Israelis visiting Tunisia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. The government says the move will boost Tunisia’s struggling tourism industry by projecting a message of openness.
Cameroon Military Helps Search for Missing Nigerian Schoolgirls
As the search for nearly 300 missing Nigerian schoolgirls languishes, neighboring Cameroon is helping gather intelligence that might lead to the girls' rescue.
But that can be complicated.
Near the Nigerian border, where Cameroon’s military was recently seeking information about the girls, villagers distrust their central government. Some support Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group that abducted the girls from their school last month, and others are terrified
A local expert told NBC News 20 people have been assassinated after speaking to authorities over the last year.
Such violence is not new in Cameroon — in its bid to create an Islamic state, Boko Haram has waged several attacks over the last five years.
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