14 June 2014 Last updated at 07:02
Ukraine crisis: Military plane shot down in Luhansk
Pro-Russian rebels have shot down a military transport plane in eastern Ukraine, killing all 49 Ukrainian service personnel on board.
Ukraine's defence ministry said the Il-76 transport plane crashed after coming under anti-aircraft fire over Luhansk.
In a statement it said "terrorists" had "cynically and treacherously" fired on the aircraft.
The plane was carrying troops and military equipment and was about to land at the city's airport.
It is thought to be the biggest loss of life suffered by government forces in a single incident since Kiev began an operation to try to defeat the insurgency in east Ukraine.
English teacher who planted seeds of curiosity about mysteries of the Amazon
Brazil Letter: an English redhead stirs a teenage boy’s imagination in the 1960s
In my youth, two British travellers were chosen for discussion by my history teacher. Behind the choice lay a moral presupposition. The first traveller was naturalist, biologist and geographer Alfred Russel Wallace, who conducted research in the Amazon between 1848 and 1852.
Wallace and Charles Darwin were friends, and both developed the theory of evolution of the species at the same time, though Wallace never achieved anything like the fame Darwin did. Our Amazonian secondary schoolteacher wanted to repair the injustice done to Wallace by the history of science and always spoke of him with the utmost admiration. The second traveller, our schoolmaster would say, was one of the biggest thieves of the 19th century.
Stolen seeds Indeed, the failed botanist Henry Wickham was a famous imposter, the kind who would not look out of place in Jorge Luis Borges’s A Universal History of Infamy. In 1873, Wickham smuggled 70,000
Poachers kill famed giant Kenyan elephant
One of Africa's largest elephants has died after being shot by poachers using poisoned arrows in Kenya, wildlife officials said as they mourned the loss of an "old friend."
The elephant famed for his giant tusks, known as Satao and aged around 45, was wounded by poisoned arrows in May in Kenya's vast southeastern Tsavo national park.
The Tsavo Trust, which works to protect the wilderness and its animals, announced the death "with great sadness" for one of the "most iconic and well-loved tuskers."
The death of the elephant, the latest in a surge of the giant mammals killed by poachers for their ivory, came a day after wildlife regulator CITES warned entire elephant populations are dying out in many African countries due to poaching on a massive scale.
10 ways soccer and organized crime mix in Latin America
Soccer has long been a unifying force in Latin America. But 'the beautiful game' has attracted some of the most infamous drug kingpins in the region, something that's corrupted players, officials, and even whole clubs.
1. Narcos become owners: America de Cali
• InSight Crime researches, analyzes, and investigates organized crime in the Americas - opinions are their own.
In 1983, then-Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla denounced a list of six professional soccer teams in the country as being "in the hands of individuals linked to drug trafficking." Among those named by Mr. Lara was America, a professional team based in the southwestern city of Cali, which was owned by brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the heads of the Cali Cartel. When star player Anthony de Avila scored a winning goal in a 1997 match that qualified the country for the following year's World Cup, he said in a subsequent interview that he dedicated the goal to "those who've been deprived of their liberty, especially Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez," who had been jailed in the years prior.
Myanmar ruling dents Suu Kyi presidential bid |
Parliament committee votes against amending law barring anyone whose family are loyal to foreign state from presidency.
Last updated: 14 Jun 2014 07:21
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A parliamentary committee has voted against changing a clause in Myanmar's constitution that bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running for president.
The clause bars anyone whose spouse or children are loyal to foreign countries from becoming president or vice president. Suu Kyi's late husband and her two sons are British citizens.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party is expected to mount a strong challenge in next year's general election, with a good possibility of winning, but without Suu Kyi as a prospective president, its backers may flag in their support.
Twenty-six of the 31 members of the committee tasked with recommending changes voted against amending the clause.
Inside Virgin Galactic's newest passenger spaceship
Mojave, California (CNN) -- When I first poked my head inside Virgin Galactic's newest spaceship, I felt a little like I was getting a front-row seat to space history.
The company, led by billionaire Richard Branson, allowed CNN unprecedented access to a "SpaceShipTwo, Serial Two" spacecraft which was being carefully assembled by workers at a secure facility in the high desert north of Los Angeles.
This invention spun from carbon fiber and imagination is designed to fly tourists some 60 miles high to the edge of space.
In 2008, Branson predicted the company would be launching paying passengers by 2010. Obviously that hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, more than 700 people -- reportedly including astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher -- are awaiting to gain official status as Space Cowboys.
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