Six In The Morning Sunday May 17

South-east Asia migrant crisis: Burma faces blame over influx of boat people

Malaysia, Indonesian and Thailand have sparked outrage by turning away boats filled with migrants from Burma’s ethnic Rohingya minority and Bangladeshis

Agence France-Presse

Sunday 17 May 2015 10.02 BST

Malaysia said Sunday its foreign minister would meet his Indonesian and Thai counterparts to discuss the influx of boat people to south-east Asia as international pressure grew for a regional solution.

The three nations have sparked outrage by turning away vessels overloaded with migrants from Burma’s ethnic Rohingya minority and with poor Bangladeshis.

Officials have increasingly pointed the finger at Burma and its alleged systematic persecution of Rohingya for fuelling the mass migration.

Despite regional conflict, Lebanon is planning to become a railway powerhouse once again

Amid regional uncertainty Beirut has the chance to revive its steam-age role as a key transit hub

ROBERT FISK 

 

 

Sunday 17 May 2015

Lebanon as a rail powerhouse for the rebuilding of post-war Syria, high-speed double-track trains running in tunnels through the Lebanese mountains above Beirut, sidings for the building-blocks of Syria’s new cities in the Bekaa Valley – do not think here, dear reader, of the Roman temples of Baalbek – and a link up with the great railways that will run from the Gulf to Europe via the new Iraq and the new Syria. Why, even pipelines may run alongside the tracks.

The Lebanese dream dreams. But in Beirut they also suffer some of the Middle East’s most titanic traffic jams. Why not an electric rail between the northern city of Tripoli and Tyre in the far south? With Beirut Central Station built, as was once planned by the French after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, beneath the Virgin Megastore at one end of Martyrs’ Square? With its mountains, Roman ruins, crusader castles, snow and beaches but with a hopeless sectarian system of government, Lebanon may be a Rolls-Royce with square wheels but it could at least have trains.

Opinion: Fear devours open societies

A bomb threat halted the recording of a German TV show and an arena evacuation. Bicycle races, opera performances, carnival processions have been canceled. We're on the brink of paranoia, writes Martin Muno.

For umpteen-thousand girls and young women, it was the most important event of the year: the winner of Heidi Klum's reality TV show "Germany's Next Top Model" (GNT) was to be chosen on Thursday evening, in front of an audience of 10,000 in Mannheim's SAP Arena, and many more glued to their TV screens.

But we still don't know which of the four finalists was the lucky one: A bomb threat made sure that the event came to an sudden end. The venue was evacuated, broadcaster ProSieben showed a movie instead of the highly anticipated reality show finale.

The show is part of a spate of events that have been canceled in Germany due to fears of terrorist attacks: others include a May 1 bicycle race in Frankfurt, a Carnival procession in Braunschweig in February, and an anti-Islamist PEGIDA demonstration in Dresden in January.

Seattle flotilla protests Shell's Arctic drilling plans

May 17, 2015 - 2:14PM

Bryan Cohen

Seattle:  Hundreds of activists in kayaks and small boats fanned out on a Seattle bay to protest plans by Royal Dutch Shell to resume oil exploration in the Arctic and keep two of its drilling rigs stored in the city's port.

Environmental groups have vowed to disrupt the Anglo-Dutch oil company's efforts to use the Seattle as a home base as it outfits the rigs to return to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, saying drilling in the remote Arctic waters could lead to an ecological catastrophe.

Demonstrators have planned days of protests, both on land and in Elliott Bay, home to the Port of Seattle, where the first of the two rigs docked on Thursday.

Village of Bedouins Faces Eviction as Israel Envisions a Village of Jews

By DIAA HADID

UMM AL-HIRAN, Israel — Salim al-Qian settled back on his white faux leather couch strewn with pink cushions and took a sip of tea, clearly comfortable in his tiny home in this ramshackle hamlet in the dusty hills of southern Israel. The sense of permanence suggested by his comfort, however, looks to be short-lived.

Mr. Qian and the other members of some 70 Bedouin families are likely to be evicted soon from their homes in the hamlet of Umm al-Hiran, where they have been living since the 1950s. In their place, the Israeli government plans to build a community with nearly the same name, Hiran — but its expected residents will be religious, Zionist Jews.

The government says Umm al-Hiran is on state-owned land that it would like to develop, and it has fought a long legal battle to have the Bedouin families, about 1,000 people, relocated. This month, the Supreme Court ruled in a 2-1 decision that the families would have to leave. The court gave no date for when evictions could begin, and residents intend to appeal the decision.

Macedonia braced for huge anti-government protest

• 48 minutes ago
 
• From the sectionEurope

Thousands of protesters are due to take part in a rally in the Macedonian capital Skopje to demand the resignation of long-serving Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

The rally follows months of allegations that he has abused his power.

Covert recordings released by the opposition appear to show ministers plotting vote-rigging and the covering-up of a murder.

Last week two ministers and the head of the intelligence service resigned.

Opposition leaders said intelligence chief Saso Mijalkov and Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska were behind attempts to control the press, judiciary and electoral officials by tapping their phones.