Six In The Morning Thursday January 5

Father's hunch saves toddler, wife from TransAsia plane crash

By Katie Hunt, CNN

Updated 0754 GMT (1554 HKT) February 5, 2015

As they took their seats on a TransAsia Airways flight that crashed in Taipei on Wednesday, Lin Ming-wei and his young family were looking forward to a vacation.

But a noise made Lin uneasy, and shortly before take-off, he asked cabin staff if they could take an empty row on the rear right hand side of the plane, which was bound for Kinmen, an island in the Taiwan Strait, local media reported. 

Minutes later, Lin was fighting his way out of the plane's wreckage and searching frantically for his toddler in the shallow, murky waters of the Keelung River.

Isis militants are 'using mentally challenged children as suicide bombers and crucifying others', says UN body

Report reveals widespread abuse of youngsters in Isis-controlled areas - particularly those from minority communities

ANDREW BUNCOMBE 

 

NEW YORK

 

Thursday 05 February 2015

Isis militants are using children – including those with mental health problems – as suicide bombers and human shields, according to experts from a UN watchdog. Officials believe some of the youngsters may have little or no idea what is happening to them.

A report published on Wednesday said the militants were selling abducted children as sex slaves and killing others, including by means of crucifixion and burying them alive. Children from minority communities were particularly vulnerable.

“We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding,” expert Renate Winter told Reuters.

The Last Days of Annie Bus: A Chronicle of Dutch Euthanasia

By Laura Höflinger

Annie Bus of the Netherlands suffered from horrendous pain and paralysis, but not from a terminal illness. She wanted to die anyway. The story of how she got her wish demonstrates how difficult it is to set boundaries in a country that permits assisted suicide.

Constance de Vries sits in the kitchen and fills two syringes. She fills one with a strong anesthetic and the other with poison. She slowly dabs the excess liquid from the needle with a tissue before cautiously packing it up. Then she heads out to her car. At 2 p.m., Annie Bus is scheduled to die.

The two women have discussed the details of the procedure numerous times. During those conversations, they sat at the wooden table in Annie Bus' small home, located in the Netherlands just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the German border. The walls around the table are covered with pictures of Bus' children and a cross. "Are you certain," de Vries asked on many occasions, as Bus sat in her electric wheelchair, her legs covered in a knitted blanket, her shoulders crouching slightly to the front as she smiled happily. "Yes, I am certain."

Cat on the menu: outrage at Vietnamese trade in felines

February 5, 2015 - 1:20PM

Lindsay Murdoch

South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

They like their cats fried with garlic and washed down with beer in Vietnam's specialist restaurants.

Some diners even falsely believe that by eating a cat's spine they will gain the feline's agility.

Although no official statistics are available, eating cat meat in Vietnam is by all accounts almost as popular as eating dog meat, something of a tradition in the South-east Asian nation, despite the import of both meats being illegal.

Vietnam's cat trade has caused outrage among animal lovers across the world after reports that Vietnamese officials this week buried thousands of seized cats after the felines were smuggled from China.

First reports suggested that many of the cats found crammed into bamboo crates on a truck were buried alive. But Hanoi police later issued a statement denying this happened, insisting they were crushed to death with a dump truck before being buried.

South Sudan finds sweet success with honey

The charity Honey Care Africa has invested $1 million in South Sudan, and local farmers have earned more than $75,000, benefiting more than 400 families.

By Barbara Lewis, Reuters

A harvest of honey from the equatorial forests of South Sudan will help its struggling poor and, through the pollination of bees, improve the nation's crop yields, those involved say.

Spring production over the coming weeks is expected to deliver 60 tons, double the volume of an initial batch of exports last year to Kenya.

South Sudan's honey harvests had suffered because decades of fighting closed off the former main trade route through the north.

"Honey production is not a panacea. We're not trying to save the country or eliminate the conflict, but we do want to do our part," Madison Ayer, head of the development charity Honey Care Africa, told Reuters.

How to Start a Proxy War with Russia

Michael Kofman

February 5, 2015

On Wednesday, Ashton Carter, the president’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, made headlines when he told Congress that he was “very much inclined” to arm the Ukrainian troops in order to combat pro-Russian rebels.

Carter isn’t alone in this regard. The release of a report this week calling for a vast expansion of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, titled “Preserving Ukraine’s Independence, Resisting Russian Aggression,” helped reignite the debate in Washington, D.C. on the provision of lethal weapons and a reassessment of the U.S. role in the conflict. The authors are prominent former diplomats and highly respected members of the national-security establishment, including Michele Flournoy, Strobe Talbott and Steven Pifer, amongst others. As a result, the president’s administration has come under heavy political pressure to reevaluate the existing policy of support for Ukraine. The prominence and experience of the political figures behind this report makes it impossible to ignore. It is a concise piece of argument, demanding the United States supply $1 billion per year in defense articles to Ukraine, ranging from anti-tank missiles to advanced air defense, and a variety of technical enablers for the Ukrainian military.