Six In The Morning Tuesday May 27

In Ukraine, fighting at airport continues as president-elect vows to seek unity

By Fredrick Kunkle, Abigail Hauslohner and Michael Birnbaum, Published: May 26 E-mail the writers

DONETSK, Ukraine — Explosions and gun battles continued to rock this separatist region of eastern Ukraine late Monday night as state security forces fought rebels for control of a major airport, hours after Ukraine’s president-elect declared in Kiev that he would seek to unite the nation after a months-long crisis.

As a Ukrainian military helicopter exchanged fire with separatist militants along an airport highway in Donetsk and the thunder of mortar shells sent residents running for cover, Petro Poroshenko told reporters that he would move quickly to bring peace and stability to the country and that he planned to visit the violence-plagued Donets Basin in his first trip as Ukraine’s leader.

The parallel realities underscored the depth of Poroshenko’s challenges. Without the main airport of the Donets Basin, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, under full government control, even the basic practicality of fulfilling his pledge to visit was in question.

China ship 'sinks Vietnam fishing boat after ramming'

Tensions in South China Sea run high as two countries dispute events in contested waters

CHRIS BRUMMITT 

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Vietnam and China were trading accusations this morning over who was the aggressor in an incident that led to the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea, sharpening already dangerously high tensions between the two nations over their overlapping territorial claims in the waters.

Hanoi accused a Chinese vessel of ramming a smaller Vietnamese boat on Monday and then fleeing the scene.

Beijing said the Vietnamese boat rammed into one of its vessels, and then sunk.

The incident occurred around 30 kilometers (18 miles) south-southwest of large oil rig that China deployed on 1 May in a disputed section of the sea.

A resounding victory to indifference

Opinion: Parliamentarians hoped to boost the ailing profile and legitimacy of the European Parliament

Patrick Smyth

When European leaders gather in Brussels today to consider the results of the European Parliament (EP) elections the collective, largely gloomy postmortem is unlikely to produce a verdict MEPs will applaud.

Parliamentarians had hoped that personalising the campaign by turning it into a contest for the presidency of the European Commission would transform public interest and boost the ailing profile and legitimacy of the parliament.

Instead they barely maintained turnout levels – just over the 43 per cent achieved in 2009 (as low as 13 per cent in Slovakia) – and gave a resounding victory to indifference and a new platform and headlines to far-right Eurosceptic parties and far-left anti-austerity campaigners, who in at least four countries, topped the poll for the first time. 

Egypt's president to face multitude of problems

A new Egyptian president will face enormous challenges. The country is in a very bad way, and the candidate who looks set to win has no plan for overcoming its problems in the medium term.

What began as a fight for freedom and democracy has resulted in a severe economic crisis. On Tuesday (27.05.2014), Egypt will go to the polls to elect a president for the second time in the three years since long-term ruler Hosni Mubarak was toppled. And if the prognoses are correct, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi is set to become Egypt's new head of state.

"His main theme is improving the security situation," says Egypt expert Stephan Roll from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. As a result, el-Sissi's election campaign focused on the fight against Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.

The former army chief used the uprising against ex-president Mohammed Morsi to sideline the Muslim Brotherhood leader in July 2013, clearing the way for himself to become president. Attacks by suspected Islamists now occur on an almost a daily basis in Egypt. Sissi supporters are confident that he will put an end to the unrest.

Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary: the last prisoner of the protests

Twenty-five years after the Tiananmen protests, one man is still paying for the stand he took on the streets of Beijing

By Malcolm Moore, Beijing

A tall, introverted 50-year-old man from Beijing is the only known person still serving time in prison of the roughly 15,000 who were arrested after the Tiananmen protests.

Miao Deshun was a factory worker who became wrapped up in the chaos of the Tiananmen protests. Together with four friends, he was arrested for arson as he battled the army on the streets of Beijing.

"According to our records, at present he is the one prisoner still in prison," said John Kamm, the director of the Dui Hua Foundation, which has successfully lobbied for the release of several prisoners from the Tiananmen protests.

Workers like Mr Miao, who took to the streets to fight, were hit with far harsher sentences than the students peacefully occupying Tiananmen Square, Mr Kamm said. Dui Hua estimates that "fewer than 100 people" were even executed.

An empty Everest: But should you climb?

By Andrea Oschetti, for CNN

May 27, 2014 -- Updated 0615 GMT (1415 HKT)

At Camp 3 of Mount Everest at an altitude of 7,200 meters, an American woman, 50-year-old Cleonice Pacheco Weidlich, sits in a solitary tent.

Outside, fierce winds of more than 50 knots are raging.

She waits.

Soon blizzard-bearing monsoon clouds will gather around Everest and bring an end to the climbing season on the high Himalayas.

It will also draw a shroud over one of the single deadliest tragedies the world's highest mountain has ever witnessed.

Before she can make begin her ascent, Weidlich must not only find a gap in the weather and a way over the avalanche, but also face down the growing controversies that erupted around continued activity on Everest in the wake of the disaster.