Six In The Morning Tuesday December 16

16 December 2014 Last updated at 08:36

Pakistan Taliban in deadly assault on Peshawar school

At least 20 people have been killed and 40 hurt in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say.

Five or six militants wearing security uniforms entered the school, officials said. Gunfire and explosions were heard as security forces surrounded the area.

The army says most of the school's 500 students have been evacuated. It is not clear how many are being held hostage.

A Taliban spokesman says the assault is in response to army operations.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area.

A school worker and a student interviewed by the local Geo TV station said the attackers had entered the Army Public School's auditorium, where a military team was conducting first-aid training for students.

Chechens join Ukraine fight against Russian-backed separatists

Kremlin opponents based in Ukraine are planning how they can to topple Putin

Daniel McLaughlin

“Who asked for a selfie with Adam?” Amina Okuyeva wrote on Facebook last month, next to a picture of her with husband Adam Osmayev.

“It’s basically just an ordinary, everyday photo.”

But the snapshot, like the couple’s life, is somewhat unusual.

Clad in camouflage and carrying Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers, Osmayev and Okuyeva are pictured somewhere in eastern Ukraine, where they are among a growing number of Chechens now fighting Russian-backed separatists.

Moreover, the photo was taken just days after Osmayev’s release from jail in Odessa, where he had been held for nearly three years on suspicion of plotting to blow up Russian president Vladimir Putin – charges that were eventually quashed.

Journalist kidnappings, attacks on increase: press freedom report

Attacks and kidnappings of journalists have soared over the past year, the latest Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders has said. In all, 66 journalists were killed in 2014.

Reporters without Borders said on Tuesday that there had been a sharp spike in kidnappings of reporters, with attacks on reporters growing more 'barbaric.'

In its latest report on press freedom, it said journalists face a new dangerous new threat - as shown by the Islamist militant beheadings of reporters in Syria this year.

"Rarely have reporters been murdered with such a barbaric sense of propaganda, shocking the entire world," Reporters Without Borders said.

66 journalists were killed this year, down from 71 in 2013, although the nature of the killings was troubling, the report said. The deadliest countries for journalists' lives were Syria, where 15 died, followed by Iran, Eritrea, eastern Ukraine, Iraq and Libya.

Vegetable spawns larceny and luxury in Peru

December 16, 2014 - 3:00PM

William Neuman

Junin, Peru: Thieves recently broke into a storehouse in this farming town high in the Andes, knocked the manager over the head and made off with 1100 kilograms of contraband. Trucks have been surreptitiously crossing the border, laden with an illicit cargo bound for China. And with the price of their signature crop soaring, once-poor farmers bounce along the unpaved roads in shiny new vehicles.

The precious substance that has provoked sudden larceny and luxury here is not drugs, gems or precious metals. It is a pungent, turnip-like vegetable called maca, heralded as a cancer-fighting superfood and sold on the shelves of supermarkets.

It is so popular in China for its perceived aphrodisiac effects that this year Chinese buyers showed up here with suitcases full of cash for the harvest.

In monarchist Thailand, does money now trump a royal title?

Former Princess Srirasmi Suwadee became a commoner last weekend as part of her divorce from the heir to the Thai throne. For more minor royals, a title that once offered social capital and access is being edged out by the glamour and power of a monied elite.

By Simon Montlake, Staff Writer

BANGKOK, THAILAND — What’s in a title? In the ranks of Thailand’s royal family, one of the last still standing in Asia, the answer is everything – and nothing.

Just ask former Princess Srirasmi Suwadee who was stripped on Friday of her title as a prelude to a divorce from Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the heir to the throne. Ms. Srirasmi, the prince’s third wife, is now a commoner. In recent weeks, several of her family members have been arrested in a crackdown on a police corruption ring that allegedly used royal connections to extort money and favors.

Such falls from grace rarely happen so publicly in Thailand, where criminal defamation laws forbid criticism of the revered monarch and his family. Dozens of people have been jailed in recent years for lesé majesté, and the pace of prosecutions has quickened under the military junta that seized power in May.

UN: Tens of thousands dead in S Sudan war

Security Council says feuding leaders "personal ambitions" fomented crisis, as nation marks one year since start of war. Last updated: 16 Dec 2014 01:32

Tens of thousands of people have died in South Sudan during one year of war and the country's leaders are putting their "personal ambitions" ahead of the young nation's future, the UN secretary-general has said.

Ban Ki-moon called on the country's leaders to agree to an inclusive power-sharing arrangement that would address the root causes of the conflict and ensure accountability for any crimes committed on the battlefield.

There is no official death toll for the conflict, but Ban said "tens of thousands" of South Sudanese have died.

The UN Security Council blamed South Sudan's "man-made political, security and humanitarian catastrophe" on its feuding leaders on Monday, as the world body threatened targeted sanctions against those impeding the peace process.