Six In The Morning Monday June 22

Taliban attack on Afghan parliament in Kabul ends

• 22 minutes ago
 
• From the sectionAsia

A co-ordinated Taliban attack on the Afghan parliament in Kabul has ended with all six gunmen killed, the interior ministry says.

Attackers detonated a huge car bomb outside the gates, stormed the compound, then entered a building next to the chamber.

Police evacuated the premises, while trying to fight the gunmen off.

The Taliban say they carried out the attack to coincide with a vote to endorse a new defence minister.

The spokesman for the interior ministry, Sediq Seddiqi, said the gunmen had attempted to storm the parliament building itself after the gates were breached by the suicide bomb.

Chilean capital suspends heavy industry and takes cars off road to deal with smog crisis

Santiago is facing an air pollution crisis

JON STONE 

 

 

Monday 22 June 2015

The Chilean government has suspended much heavy industry and taken cars off the road in the country’s capital to curb an environmental emergency in there.

Air pollution in Santiago has got so bad that the country’s Environment Ministry has had to issue an environmental state of emergency warning.

More than 900 industries have been suspended and about 40 per cent of the capital's 1.7 million cars have been taken off the road as a temporary measuyre.

Apart from the high man-made emissions levels, officials are blaming unusual weather conditions for the deadly smog.

New battlelines for Turkey’s Kurds as they become political force

While the HDP’s success marks a historic shift, it also creates a new set of obstacles

Stephen Starr in Istanbul

Idris Ozkan wears a broad smile as he talks about Turkey’s recent parliamentary election. As a Kurd who sells tea from the back of a van in Istanbul’s Okmeydani district, he sees the future of the country’s politics very positively indeed.

“We need a Kurdish party in parliament because of all the bad things that have happened Kurds in the past,” he says, dragging on a cigarette. “There was so much murder and torture; because of that, we have to be in parliament.”

After decades of repression and a war on their people, culture and places, Turkey’s 15 million Kurds have finally emerged as a potent political force. Parliamentary elections this month saw the Kurdish-rooted Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) climb above the parliamentary threshold of 10 per cent, meaning a Kurdish-rooted party now has a seat at the top table of Turkish politics.

China emerges as 'Number 1' player in drug supply chain

June 22, 2015 - 12:04PM

Dan Levin

Shanghai: Ordering illegal drugs from China is as easy as typing on a keyboard.

In a country that has perfected the art of internet censorship, the open online drug market is a blatant example of what international law enforcement officials say is China's reluctance to take action as it has emerged as a major player in the global supply chain for synthetic drugs.

Hands down China is No.1. 

US federal law enforcement official

While China says it has made thousands of arrests and "joined hands" with foreign law enforcement agencies, officials from several countries say Chinese authorities have shown little interest in seriously combating what they see as the drug problems of other countries.

The most dangerous job in Africa

TONY WEAVER

DRC, the continent's beautiful and precarious heart, sits once again upon a ticking bomb.

It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. And one of the most tragic. It is that corner of Africa where Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo come together.

Straddling it all is the 7 800km2 Virunga National Park – Africa’s oldest proclaimed park (established in 1925) and one of our continent’s most important protected areas.

“This is probably the greatest protected area on Earth, containing as many as 40% of Africa’s species, with more endemic species than any other African park,” the park’s director, Emmanuel de Merode, says in his understated way. Everything about De Merode is understated – he plays down the fact that he has a doctorate (on the illegal bush meat trade in the Congo), that he is a Belgian prince (albeit born in Tunisia and raised in Kenya) – and that he has one of the most dangerous jobs in Africa.

Outside World Cup, women pro soccer players struggle to make ends meet

Women's soccer is growing around the world, with the US leading the way. But for most players who choose to make a career of it, it's still only a part-time job.

By Henry Gass, Staff writer JUNE 21, 2015

The Portland Thorns are one of the youngest teams in America's youngest sports league. But after little more than two years of existence, one of their players decided to retire.

Nikki Marshall, a 26 year-old a defender, announced in February that she was retiring from the Thorns and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Ms. Marshall, who started the first 46 regular season games in the Thorns' history over the past two years, cited low pay as one of the main contributors to her decision.

Retiring at 26 would be something close to financial suicide for a male professional soccer player. At that age, players are generally entering their athletic prime and can make millions of dollars a year. The average player salaries in Europe's top four leagues – the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and Spain's La Liga – sits at just over £1.5 million (around $2.3 million) a year, or about £30,000 ($47,000) a