Six In The Morning Sunday November 23

23 November 2014 Last updated at 05:00

Iran nuclear talks: Doubts over deal as deadline looms

Doubts are growing that Monday's deadline for a deal on Iran's controversial nuclear programme will be met at talks in Vienna in Austria.

Both the US and Germany said the sides were working to close "big gaps", with some suggestions that the deadline could be extended.

Six world powers want Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of United Nations sanctions.

Iran rejects claims that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

It says its programme is purely peaceful for energy purposes.

Representatives of the so-called P5+1 group - Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany - are taking part in the negotiations with Iran in the Austrian capital.

PATRICK COCKBURN

Sunday 23 November 2014

Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the remaining Christians in the country

World View: After 2,000 years, a community will try anything – including pretending to convert to Islam – to avoid losing everything

Two years ago Jalal Yako, a Syriac Catholic priest, returned to his home town of Qaraqosh to persuade members of his community to stay in Iraq and not to emigrate because of the violence directed against them.

"I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was to get Christians to stay here," he says. "The Pope in Lebanon two years ago had established a mission to get Christians in the East to stay here."

Father Yako laboured among the Syriac Catholics, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, who had seen the number of Christians in Iraq decline from over one million at the time of the American invasion in 2003 to about 250,000 today.

In Tokyo’s sake bars the mood turns grim as weary workers brace for more pain

Grilled chicken and beer fail to raise the spirits of poorly paid and part-time workers who see little sense in yet another costly election

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Sunday 23 November 2014 00.30 GMT

The neon flickers into action, bathing the central district of Shinbashi in light. Giant screens blare out ads for electronic gadgets and energy drinks. High above street level, trains arrive every couple of minutes and deposit hordes of office workers on to Shinbashi’s narrow back streets in search of grilled chicken skewers and beer, and the chance to take stock of an extraordinary week for the world’s third-biggest economy.

If the buzz of activity in Shinbashi – packed with offices, bars and restaurants – is any indication, this does not look like a country in recession. But the Friday evening feelgood factor is at odds with the hard data. Last Monday Japan’s government caught almost everyone off guard when it announced that, after a second consecutive contraction in quarterly GDP, the economy was officially back in recession for the first time since 2012. Put simply, Japan’s consumers have stopped spending. Exhibiting the same caution that consigned their economy to more than two decades of stagnation, their thrift threatens to derail prime minister Shinzo Abe’s inflation-led mission to revive the economy.

Russia says West is seeking regime change

November 23, 2014 - 12:32PM

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the West of seeking to force a regime change in Moscow through sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

"The West is showing unambiguously that they do not want to force [Russia] to change policy, they want to achieve a change of regime," Mr Lavrov told a forum of political analysts in Moscow on Saturday.

"Now public figures in Western countries are saying that it's necessary to introduce sanctions that would destroy the economy and rouse public protests," Mr Lavrov said.

Russia's Wounded Economy Is On The Verge Of A Crisis

• THE ECONOMIST

Vladimir Putin is not short of problems, many of his own creation. There is the carnage in eastern Ukraine, where he is continuing to stir things up.

There are his fraught relations with the West, with even Germany turning against him now. There is an Islamist insurgency on his borders and at home there is grumbling among the growing numbers who doubt the wisdom of his Ukraine policy.

But one problem could yet eclipse all these: Russia’s wounded economy could fall into a crisis.

Saudi Arabia 'intensifies Twitter crackdown'

Human Rights Watch says Saudi Arabia is using "vague law" to charge citizens for dissenting tweets. Last updated: 23 Nov 2014 07:19

Saudi authorities have stepped up their crackdown on online dissidents, Human Rights Watch said, alleging that prosecutors and judges use "vague law" to charge citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments.

The New York-based rights organisation on Sunday called on the government to end the crackdown and live up to its obligations to respect free speech.

Three prominent lawyers were convicted of criticising the Justice Ministry last month and sentenced to prison terms of between five and eight years.

Police also detained a liberal women’s rights activist in connection with tweets that allegedly criticised religious officials and promoted the right of Saudi women to drive.

"These prosecutions show just how sensitive the Saudi authorities have become to the ability of ordinary citizens to voice opinions online that the government considers controversial or taboo," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).