Six In The Morning Thursday May 21

Islamic State seizes Syria's ancient Palmyra

• 42 minutes ago
 
• From the sectionMiddle East

slamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco world heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, reports say.

The Syrian Observatory monitoring group says there are no reports yet of any destruction of artefacts.

It says IS also controls the nearby airport, prison and intelligence HQ. Syria has admitted it has pulled pro-government troops out of the city.

IS has previously demolished ancient sites in Iraq that pre-date Islam.

Syrian state media said pro-government forces had been pulled out of Tadmur, the modern settlement on Palmyra - a Unesco World Heritage site - after "assuring the evacuation" of most of its inhabitants.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the population would normally number around 70,000, but it has recently been swollen by an influx of people displaced from other combat areas.

China warns US plane to leave airspace over disputed islands

TV crew witnesses exchange between Chinese naval operator and US pilots over South China Sea as tensions rise in region over contested reefs

Justin McCurry in Tokyo, and agencies

Thursday 21 May 2015 08.41 BST

China’s navy has issued multiple warnings to a US surveillance aircraft to leave the airspace over artificial islands Beijing is building to strengthen its claims over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

The warnings, witnessed by a US TV crew aboard the P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft, came soon after the Pentagon said it was considering military patrols in the region, amid warnings that Chinese activity was raising the risk of a confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

CNN reported that a Chinese naval vessel issued eight warnings to the US plane on Wednesday, in an apparent effort to establish a no-fly zone near the artificial islands. When US pilots pointed out that they were flying through international airspace, an exasperated Chinese radio operator responded: “This is the Chinese navy … you go!”

PENNY GREEN

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Aung San Suu Kyi's silence on the genocide of Rohingya Muslims is tantamount to complicity

There will be much more blood if the Burmese government is not stopped in its tracks

In a genocide silence is complicity, and so it is with Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s desperate Rohingya community. The Burmese government’s ongoing persecution of the Rohingya has, in the last two years, reached a level so untenable that the Rohingya are faced with only two options, to remain and risk annihilation or flee. The current exodus of those seeking asylum is just one manifestation of genocide.

Genocide is a process built up over a period of years involving an escalation in the dehumanisation and persecution of the target group. Inside Burma, the Rohingya have been subjected to decades of stigmatization, violence and harassment.

In 2012 the persecution entered a new and more devastating phase. Organised massacres left over 200 Rohingya dead, hundreds of homes destroyed and the displacement of 120,000 people into what can only be described as detention camps.

North Korea ever more desperate, says Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

May 21, 2015 - 6:54PM

David Wroe

National security correspondent

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says rogue state North Korea is feeling the pressure of sanctions and Beijing's cooling support, and could be forced back to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.

Speaking a day after Pyongyang announced it had made progress in ballistic nuclear missile technology, Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media that while such provocations always needed to be taken seriously, there were signs the hermit nation was feeling ever more isolated and desperate.

"It's interesting that North Korea is now seeking to engage with other countries ... What it indicates is that the sanctions and China's cooling of its relations with North Korea are having an impact now," she said in the South Korean capital Seoul where she is holding meetings with senior officials.

Victory behind bars? How imprisoning politicians in Venezuela could backfire.

Venezuela currently has 77 people imprisoned for political reasons. But in a show of defiance toward the government, two prisoners scored spots on the opposition ballot in upcoming National Assembly elections.

By J.J Gallagher, Contributor

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Venezuelan congressional candidate Daniel Ceballos wasn’t out corralling voters prior to Sunday’s primary election here. He didn’t brandish his youthful smile for photo-ops, shake hands, or kiss babies. Mr. Ceballos’s wife tweeted on Election Day that she hadn’t heard from her husband in 48 hours. In fact, no one had.

That’s because Ceballos, a 31-year-old former mayor, has been sitting in federal prison for the past 14 months, after refusing to help the federal government halt a wave of antigovernment protests that swept the country last year.

Ceballos isn’t the only candidate in this year’s National Assembly race to have seen the inside of a jail cell. He is joined on the opposition ballot by former student leader and current inmate Renzo Prieto, and another former mayor, Enzo Scarano, who was freed in February after spending 11 months behind bars

World Cup 2022: Qatar pledge on worker rights 'mere PR stunt'

John Sinnott and James Masters, CNN

Updated 0834 GMT (1534 HKT) May 21, 2015

Amnesty International says world football governing body FIFA is failing to demonstrate any sort of commitment to ensuring Qatar 2022 is "not built on a foundation of exploitation and abuse."

In 2010 the Gulf state won the right to host the World Cup in 2022, but the decision to award the tournament to Qatar left it and FIFA with a number of headaches.

Both Qatar and FIFA have been forced to answer allegations of poor working conditions and abuse of immigrant workers brought in to build the facilities for the World Cup, while questions have been raised about the bidding process -- in which, also, Russia was awarded the 2018 tournament.