Six In The Morning Monday March 2

Middle East

Middle East

Iraq moves against Islamic State in Tikrit

23 minutes ago

Iraq has launched a military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from Islamic State (IS), Iraqi TV says.

Local media reported that forces were attacking the city, backed by airstrikes from Iraqi fighter jets.

Tikrit lies 150km (95 miles) north of the capital Baghdad and was seized by IS militants in June 2014.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met military leaders in Salahuddin province ahead of the advance.

He offered to pardon all Sunni tribal fighters who abandoned IS, describing it as a "last chance".

Asia Pacific

China increases its aid contribution to Pacific Island nations

Lowy Institute figures reveal the Asian powerhouse’s growing influence in the Pacific, with China set to become the third largest donor in the region

Michael Safi

 

@safimichael

Monday 2 March 2015 06.42 GMT

Chinese aid to the Pacific has exceeded $1.9bn in the past decade, according to new research that reveals the Asian powerhouse’s growing footprint in Australia’s neighbourhood.

Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu were among the largest beneficiaries of Chinese largesse between 2006 and 2013, which was spent on 167 projects across the region, Lowy Institute figures published on Monday show.

Though Australia remains the region’s largest provider of development money to the region – contributing roughly six times more than China – assistance to every Pacific country other than Papua New Guinea and Nauru has fallen sharply under the Abbott government.

Rise of the French far right: Front National party could make sweeping gains at this month's local elections

However, revelations about the bizarre candidates being fielded mean it may not do quite as well as its 30 per cent support nationwide may suggest

JOHN LICHFIELD

The rise of the French far right continues apace. And, despite a wave of revelations that it has fielded racist, bizarre and geriatric candidates, the Front National could make sweeping gains in important elections this month.

An opinion poll published today gave Marine Le Pen’s Front National (FN) 29 per cent of support in the local elections on 22 and 29 March – joint top with the centre-right. Other polls in recent days have placed the FN ahead with 30 per cent of support nationwide.

The surveys also point to a polarisation of political opinion in France since the jihadist attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery in Paris in January, with many urban and young voters still clinging to the “Republican spirit” of the epic marches “against hatred” in Paris and other cities on 11 January.

The hidden facts of egg production

Ahead of this year's parliamentary elections, the German Greens party has called for an end to factory farming. During the industrial breeding of chickens, young chicks are often treated particularly badly, say critics.

They're known as one-day chicks - baby chickens that never grow older than a day. Thousands of them are killed every day across Germany. The reason: they are male, so they won't lay any eggs, so feeding them up simply isn't economically viable.

When chicks are hatched in industrial hatcheries, workers set to work, sorting the seething fluffy masses into male and female. The hens go onto the right-hand conveyor belt, are packed into boxes and sent to breeding farms. The cocks, meanwhile, end up on the left-hand conveyor belt, where a steel slide sends them to certain death.

"There are chickens for fattening, and laying chickens, which lay a lot of eggs," explains Marius Tünte from German animal protection organization, Deutscher Tierschutzbund. "So the male chicks among the laying breeds don't have any economic value. That's why the decision was made at some point to kill all the male animals."

Mother of convicted Malaysian cop Sirul Azhar Umar arrives in Sydney to plead for asylum

March 2, 2015 - 6:48PM

Eryk Bagshaw and Lindsay Murdoch

The mother of a Malaysian police commando sentenced to hang in Kuala Lumpur has arrived in Sydney to plead with the Australian government to give him full protection and political asylum, describing his murder conviction in Kuala Lumpur as "utter nonsense." 

"It is safer here than in Malaysia for Sirul," said 74-year-old Piah Samat, referring to her son Sirul Azhar Umar, who has been sentenced to death over the murder of  28-year-old Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Ms Shaariibuu begged for the life of her unborn child before before being shot and blown up with C-4 military explosives in a jungle clearing on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. 

China's Surprise Viral Hit: An Environmental Documentary

 

By Matt Schiavenza10 hours ago

On Saturday, Chai Jing, a former television journalist from China, released a feature-length documentary film that, unusually for China, took the government to task. Titled Under the Dome, the video featured Chai giving a presentation on stage, using both photographs and slides to examine how China's notorious air pollution got so extreme—and why the Communist Party has failed to fix it. Jing's interest was personal: Her daughter underwent surgery soon after her birth to remove a tumor that, Chai claims, was caused by pollution.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Chinese government might have swiftly removed the video from Youku, China's YouTube, before it could gain much traction. But the film has been left untouched, amassing tens of millions of views and touching off a spirited discussion online.Under the Dome, which is embedded below, has even received praise from senior government officials.

“Chai Jing’s documentary calls for public environmental consciousness from the standpoint of public health,” Chen Jining, China's environment czar, said. “It deserves admiration.” This isn't how the Communist Party normally reacts to videos that criticize its governance.