Six In The Morning Saturday October 11

11 October 2014 Last updated at 05:55

Iraq's Anbar appeals for help against Islamic State

Iraqi officials have made an urgent appeal for military help in the western Anbar province, saying the area could fall to Islamic State (IS) militants.

The jihadist group has been attacking the provincial capital Ramadi, and has seized army bases in the area.

A US official told AFP news agency the situation in Anbar was "fragile".

IS fighters control large stretches of territory in Syria and Iraq. They are also fighting for control of the Syrian border town of Kobane.

Anbar is a strategically important province, and home to Iraq's second-largest dam, the Haditha dam.

Seizing Anbar would give IS control of a stretch of territory across much of Syria and Iraq, enabling it to establish a supply line and potentially launch attacks on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Erdogan’s plan for more political power in Turkey falters

Upsetting Kurdish parties may go against the former prime minister

Stephen Starr

Turkey has stood strong this week in the face of intense international pressure to act against the jihadist forces laying siege to the Syrian town of Kobani across its southern border.

Leading the diplomatic resolve is a man with little political power on paper: presidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan moved to the presidential palace in August after becoming Turkey’s first popularly elected president. En route, he simultaneously held the positions of prime minister and president for a time – in violation of Turkey’s constitution and to the chagrin of Turks who see his actions as an affront to the country’s democratic and secular nature.

White House denies plans to unilaterally close Guantanamo Bay

The White House has denied a media report that it's planning to close Guantanamo Bay by circumventing Congress. Opposition Republicans have warned the president against unilaterally closing the prison.

The White House said on Friday that it preferred to work with Congress to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, denying a Wall Street Journal report that the president was planning to close the prison through unilateral executive action.

"Our position right now, our policy right now, is seeking support from Congress to lift the restrictions which we feel are misguided," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a press conference on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that the Obama administration was drafting options to bypass a congressional ban against transferring Guantanamo detainees to the US mainland.

The fight to save the last Ebola-free district in Sierra Leone

October 11, 2014 - 5:27PM

Todd Frankel

Only in Koinadugu does he relax. That's where his fears of Ebola fade.

John Caulker, executive director of the nonprofit Fambul Tok, travels across Sierra Leone these days tense with worry about contracting the dreaded disease. He worries in the bustling capital of Freetown and in the smallest villages. But not in Koinadugu.

"It's a sense of relief," Caulker says, "a sense that here you are going to be OK."

The last region in Sierra Leone untouched by Ebola sits in the rugged, mountainous north, in a place called the Koinadugu district. It is a poor place, dependent on small farms and gold mines, the largest of the country's 14 districts by land size and home to 265,000 residents.

How Hong Kong protests are a big problem for Beijing – even if they fizzle (+video)

The city's youth increasingly identify themselves as 'Hong Kong people' rather than Chinese. An effort to bring the mainland's 'patriotic education' to Hong Kong in 2011 failed – resulting in wide gaps in core values.

By Peter Ford, Staff writer

BEIJING AND HONG KONG — As pro-democracy street protests swell and recede inconclusively in Hong Kong, Beijing may feel little pressure to give way. But the wave of discontent that has swept the city over the past two weeks threatens much greater challenges to China’s rule there in the future.

“There will be a long period of confrontation,” predicts Ting Wai, who teaches politics at Hong Kong Baptist University. “The recent movement may stop, but the conflict will continue,” he adds, fueled by fundamentally different views of what Hong Kong should look like.

Behind the dispute over how Hong Kong’s next leader should be elected lies an awkward contradiction at the heart of the city’s status since its handover to China in 1997: “one country, two systems” as Deng Xiaoping put it.

AP ANALYSIS: In wake of Gaza war, hints of change

 

By DAN PERRY2 hours ago

The wars between Israel and Hamas tend to be futile and frustrating for all. Each side ends up more or less where it began, having learned little, entrenched in its position, preparing for the next pointless, deadly round.

Cynicism seems reasonable in the Middle East, but this summer's Gaza war may prove an exception. Neither side seems able to dislodge the other, yet the situation is even more unbearable than before.

The shared need for change has nudged along a series of compromises that set the stage for a conference on Sunday in Cairo where world donors are expected to fork over billions of dollars for reconstruction in Gaza.