Six In The Morning Friday May 8

Election results: Conservatives on course for majority

• 8 May 2015
 
• From the sectionElection 2015
 

David Cameron says he hopes to govern for all of the UK as a BBC forecast gives the Tories 329 seats - enough to form a slender majority in the Commons.

His party made gains in England and Wales, including taking Ed Balls' seat.

Two senior Labour sources have told the BBC that Ed Miliband is expected to stand down later after Labour was all but wiped out by the SNP in Scotland.

The Lib Dems are heading for as few as eight MPs, with Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Danny Alexander losing their seats.

The BBC forecast, with 635 of 650 seats declared, is Conservative 329, Labour 234, the Lib Dems eight, the SNP 56, Plaid Cymru three, UKIP one, the Greens one and others 19.

The Conservatives are expected to have won a 37% share of the national vote, Labour 31%, UKIP 13%, the Lib Dems 8%, the SNP 5%, the Green Party 4% and Plaid Cymru 1%.

Syria 'chlorine attacks': Dozens reported suffocated as regime 'drops chemical barrel bombs' on Idlib

Prominent doctor says at least 80 people were injured in the attacks

SARAH EL DEEB

 

 

Friday 08 May 2015

Syrian activists and a doctor have reported of new suspected chemical attacks in the northwestern province of Idlib, leaving several dozens of people suffering from asphyxiation.

Mohammed Tennari, a doctor who testified before the UN Security Council last month after treating a number of victims in Idlib from an earlier chemical attack, said there were at least three separate attacks in the province that injured nearly 80 people.

Tennari, who spoke with The Associated Press from near the border with Turkey, shared field reports from doctors in the three villages that were reportedly hit. The reports said government helicopters dropped barrel bombs containing chlorine on the villages of Janoudieh, Kansafrah, and Kafr Batiekh on Thursday.

Warsaw's Palace of Culture, Stalin's 'gift': a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 32
Built by 3,500 Soviet workers after Poland’s capital was flattened by Nazi bombs, the building now stands as a contested symbol of the country’s complex past

Agata Pyzik

Friday 8 May 2015 08.00 BST

There has been no more pivotal a building constructed in Poland after 1945 than the Palace of Culture and Science – or to give it its full title: “the Palace of Culture and Science in the name of Joseph Stalin”. And none more divisive and controversial, either.

It’s a skyscraper 231 metres tall, the highest building in Poland, built in a mixture of then-compulsory Socialist realism with elements of Polish historicism. It stands for everything Poland tried to reject after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the swift crumbling of the Soviet Union, and better than any other building it epitomises the 44 years of the People’s Polish Republic.

The palace turns 60 this year: it was finished 10 years after the end of the second world war, which both destroyed and transformed Poland. What came after was the greatest challenge in the country’s history – to this day, people can’t decide whether it was a failure, or a success.

PM Najib Razak finds decapitated Malaysian opposition grows new heads

May 8, 2015 - 4:40PM

John Garnaut

Kuala Lumpur: It's hard to escape the irony that Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian strongman who terrorised Australian prime ministers and diplomats for 22 years, is now railing against his successor in the name of good governance and accountability.

This is the man who excoriated outsiders for ignoring "Asian values" when they dared to question the way he decapitated or otherwise tamed the media, police, judiciary, cabinet and opposition parties while channelling enormous contracts to his insiders.

But there he is, looking a remarkably youthful 90, firing verbal assaults across the internet about the dodgy corporate dealings of Najib Razak, the prime minister he helped install.

In Burundi, youth find their voice as president clings to power (+video)

Youth-led protests have turned violent over President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term. Critics say the move is unconstitutional and could reverse the democratic progress made since a civil war ended in 2005. 

By Abigail Higgins, Contributor

BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI — The gates of the University of Burundi are shuttered. The bumpy, tree-lined drive that leads to the once bustling campus is deserted.

It is within these walls of Burundi’s only public university that voices of protest were raised last month against President Pierre Nkurunziza after he said he would run for a third term in June. Since then street protests, many led by the university students, have rocked this small East African country – the worst since a civil war ended 10 years ago and Mr. Nkurunziza took power.

A mile away, 600 students are camping outside the US Embassy compound after the government closed their university, citing student safety during the protests. Most are here because they cannot return to their rural homes. 

41 Years in the Making: Why China's South China Sea Plan Will Fail

Leszek Buszynski

May 7, 2015

While China’s recent assertiveness in the South China Sea might shock and surprise today’s observers, its behavior has actually been remarkably consistent over recent decades.

China first exercised its power in the region in January 1974 when it ejected South Vietnam from the Crescent Islands. In March 1988, the Chinese Navy clashed with Vietnamese vessels, which resulted in Chinese occupation of seven islands in the Spratlys.

In 1995, China occupied Mischief Reef which fell in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines. It then began building and reinforcing structures on neighboring reefs. In April 2012 China’s clashes with the Philippines continued over Scarborough Shoal, which was eventually occupied by China. Chinese attention then moved to Second Thomas Shoal. In March 2014, Chinese coast guard vessels prevented Philippines cargo vessels from resupplying a contingent of marines stationed in a wrecked vessel there.