Six In The Morning Sunday July 5

Angela's Ashes: How Merkel Failed Greece and Europe

By Peter Müller and René Pfister

Angela Merkel relishes her reputation as queen of Europe. But she hasn't learned how to use her power, instead allowing a bad situation to heat up to the boiling point. Her inability to take unpopular stances badly exacerbated the Greek crisis.

Angela Merkel was already leaving for the weekend when she received the call that would change everything. The chancellor had just had a grueling day, spending all of it in meetings with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras -- sometimes as part of a larger group, and others with only him and French President François Hollande.

They discussed debt restructuring and billions of euros in additional investments. When it comes to issues important to him, Tsipras can be exhaustingly stubborn. In the end, though, Merkel was left with the feeling the EU summit was the milestone that could quite possibly mark a turn for the better.

Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, had pulled Merkel aside in Brussels and whispered to her that Tsipras was seeking allies in the opposition, with whom he could push a reform program through Greek parliament even without the consent of the radical wing of Syriza, if necessary. "Can you help me?" Tsipras had asked Schulz. Schulz has good connections in the Social Democratic PASOK Party.

Srebrenica: A son's quest amid the bones of Europe's worst massacre since World War Two

Ramiz Nukic lost his father and brother when the town was overrun in 1995

AIDA CERKEZ

 

SREBRENICA, BOSNIA

 

Sunday 05 July 2015

Day after day, Ramiz Nukic goes deep into the woods around Srebrenica in search of a tragic quarry: human bones.

There’s rarely a day in which he does not find the remains of at least one murdered boy or man, even 20 years after Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War. Srebrenica’s killing fields have swallowed up 8,000 bodies, and the murderers took pains to hide evidence of the genocide.

Mr Nukic’s quest started in 1999 after he returned to his empty hometown of Kamenice and began looking for the remains of his murdered father and younger brother. As the family’s only male massacre survivor, he became obsessed with bringing closure to their loss. Every day he discovered bones that gave other families the gift of mourning, but not his own. Every day he kept trying, and quietly he built up an astonishing record: Mr Nukic’s discoveries have allowed Bosnia’s Institute for Missing Persons to identify nearly 300 Srebrenica victims.

The Nevada ranchers taking on Washington

July 5, 2015 - 12:08PM

Julie Turkewitz

Battle Mountain:  Around here they call it "going Bundy": allowing cattle to graze illegally on federally owned land. For months, ranching families in this tiny community have itched to do it - both because of the relentless drought, which has left their own land dry and their animals hungry, and because of the anti-Washington streak that runs deep in this part of the rural West, where people fervently believe that the government owns too much land.

This month, the Filippini family finally did it: They released hundreds of cattle onto federal land here at the border of Lander and Humboldt counties, an arid patch that straddles part of the old Pony Express cross-country mail route of 1860 and 1861. Drought has reduced the grass cover here to less than 10 centimetres of stubble in some creek beds, a level that leads to a ban on grazing.

"We Will Not Negotiate With Boko Haram From A position Of Weakness"-Nigerian Govt

Following a BBC interview last night where Presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina was quoted as saying that the Nigerian government would negotiate with Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, the Nigerian government has now clarified its stand on the matter.

BY FEMI ADESINAJUL 04, 2015

Following a BBC interview last night where Presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina was quoted as saying that the Nigerian government would negotiate with Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, the Nigerian government has now clarified its stand on the matter.

 In a press release issued from his Abuja office, Mr. Adesina has said the Nigerian state is putting in place mechanisms that would completely devastate Boko Haram from a multinational level. The statement further stated that the government would consider negotiations with the dreaded Islamist group if they accept to do so.

Philippines expects to win UN South China Sea case

 

July 4, 2015 3:08 AM

The Philippines expects a United Nations tribunal to rule in its favour in an increasingly fraught dispute with China over territories in the South China Sea, a presidential spokeswoman said Saturday.

Manila will argue its position against Beijing's claim over most of the resource-rich sea at The Hague on July 7 to 13.

China has refused to participate in the arbitration proceedings. The upcoming hearings will decide whether the tribunal has jurisdiction over the case.

"We prepared a strong case. We believe we stand on strong legal ground," presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte told government radio.

"We believe the tribunal will look at our case with favour. We are confident of the Philippine position on this matter."

Security bill debate at Yamaguchi high school stirs controversy

YAMAGUCHI -- A high school debate on Japanese security bills in which students voted on the most persuasive argument, and an education official's comment on the debate have stirred controversy.

When questioned by a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prefectural assembly member on July 3, the superintendent of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Board of Education, Tsukasa Asahara, said the vote that took place at Yamaguchi Prefectural Yanai High School "lacked consideration."

As the Diet has recently passed legislation lowering Japan's voting age from 20 to 18 and some high school students are likely to start exercising their right to vote as early as next year in the House of Councillors election, experts are criticizing the comments from Asahara, claiming that such remarks could intimidate educators and undermine freedom of education.