Six In The Morning Sunday May 25

Ukraine's Presidential Election Starts Under Cloud

Ukrainian polling stations opened on Sunday in a presidential election overshadowed by violence in the country's mainly Russian-speaking east and by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

Voting began at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) across the former Soviet republic of 45 million people. It will end 12 hours later, when exit polls will indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday.

Voters will find many polling stations shut in the east, where armed pro-Moscow separatists are trying to block an election they say is illegitimate. European election monitors have largely pulled out of the Donetsk region, citing a separatist campaign of "terror" against Ukrainian officials.

Ramallah father: I want to believe that the boy soldier who shot dead my son seeks forgiveness

CCTV footage of Nadeem Suwara, shot dead by Israeli forces, spread around the world. Here his father talks of a teenager of the new Ramallah, a world of smartphones, western music and prosperity – but one in which life is still overshadowed by the threat of violence

• Peter Beaumont
• The Observer, Sunday 25 May 2014

Towards the end of our interview about his son Nadeem's short life, Siam Nawara says something unexpected. Nadeem, 17, was one of the two boys shot by Israeli forces whose deaths were captured on CCTV. The shootings took place at a Nakba day demonstration outside Ofer prison on the West Bank on 15 May, while the boys were posing no apparent threat to Israeli soldiers. The shocking footage last week provoked international calls for an investigation.

Israeli accounts of what happened on that day in the town of Beitunia, near Ramallah, have failed to explain the circumstances satisfactorily. At first it was alleged the boys had been shot in the midst of a potentially lethal riot, but that live ammunition was not used.

As human rights groups and media investigated the claims, it became clear that at the time they were shot, the boys were a long way from the soldiers and that their wounds were consistent with the use of live ammunition, which is permitted only as a last resort.

'Ghetto TV' shows another side to residents of Rio's largest favela

Angered by stereotypical portrayals, a group in the city's biggest shanty town are launching their own channel

JANET TAPPIN COELHO RIO DE JANEIRO Sunday 25 May 2014

Residents of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, have been portrayed as domestic servants, thieves and uneducated nonentities for too long, they say.

Now, fed up with not seeing their real way of life represented on Brazilian television, a group of residents are pooling their talents to launch the first "ghetto TV" station. The initiative will challenge what shanty town dwellers say are "stereotypical depictions" of their lives – poorer neighbourhoods that are inaccessible, and violent no-go areas.

"We are opening up a new way of speaking, a new way of being heard and a different way of accessing television for our communities," said Joilson Pinheiro, the brains behind Evolution Television (ETV) and the president of the station. "For decades we've been portrayed as domestics, labourers, thieves and illiterate nobodies who only have their lives reported on when there is an outbreak of violence, drug-related shootings, a tragedy or a protest."

Sudan rebels launch 'big offensive' in Kordofan

AFP | 25 May, 2014 09:54

Sudanese rebels say they have launched a major operation against an area in South Kordofan which a controversial counter-insurgency unit showed off to journalists after “liberating” it last week.

The local commander of the government troops, known as Rapid Support-2, was reported killed.

“Our forces launched (a) big offensive in Daldako“, Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), told AFP late Saturday in an email.

Fighting continued into Saturday evening, Lodi said.

Troops from Rapid Support-2 said they had seized the strategic Daldako area, 17 kilometres (11 miles) northeast of South Kordofan’s state capital Kadugli, on May 18.

Pope Francis lands in politically sensitive West Bank

BY PHILIP PULLELLA AND NOAH BROWNING

BETHLEHEM, West Bank Sun May 25, 2014 3:28am EDT

Pope Francis arrived in the West Bank on Sunday to start the most delicate part of his stay in the Middle East, with visits to the Palestinian Territories and Israel, where his every word will be scrutinized.

Church officials say his three-day tour of the region, which started on Saturday in Jordan, is purely focused on religious issues. However, the dividing lines of the generations-old Middle East conflict will be impossible to ignore.

Francis flew straight by helicopter to Bethlehem, becoming the first pontiff to travel directly to the West Bank rather than enter via Israel - a decision hailed by Palestinian officials as a recognition of their push for full statehood.

Tokyo's National Stadium hosts final sports event

 

By JIM ARMSTRONG25 minutes ago

Tokyo's National Stadium, the centerpiece of the 1964 Summer Olympics, hosted its final sporting event on Sunday before it is demolished to make way for a new 80,000-seat structure that will be the main venue of the 2020 Olympics.

Japan faced Hong Kong in a rugby match at the 54,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1958 and hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletics, at the 1964 games.

Workers will begin demolishing the stadium in July and work on the new Olympic Stadium will begin in October 2015.

"I'll be sorry to see this stadium go but it's inevitable," said salary worker Akira Hara, who attended Sunday's match. "Even though it's old, this was one of the more fan-friendly stadiums in Japan."