Friday, August 7, 2015

Six In The Morning Friday August 7

MH370: France to launch air and sea searches around Reunion


  • 3 hours ago
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  • From the sectionAsia

France is to conduct air, land and sea searches in and around the island of Reunion in the hope of finding more debris which could be linked to MH370.
Malaysia said on Thursday that a wing section found on the French Indian Ocean island definitely came from the doomed Malaysia Airline flight.
But investigators in France are yet to confirm the link, causing frustration among the families of victims.
France has also dismissed Malaysian claims that more debris has been found.
The Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when it vanished from radar. It had 239 people on board, most of them Chinese.




Opinion: Mexico, where freedom of the press is being killed

Another murdered journalist. That's four this year and over 80 in the last decade. But it's not happening in a civil war or dictatorship; it's happening in Mexico. That is unworthy of a democracy, says Uta Thofern.

Mexico is near the top of several different types of lists: The second largest country in Latin America is the world's 10th largest oil exporter, its 14th largest economy, and also its fourth largest automobile exporter. Mexico is a confident industrial nation, a free-trade pioneer, and not least, it is the largest democracy in the region.
However, on the Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index, Mexico ranks 148 of 180, with Cuba being the only other Latin American country ranked lower. But Mexico is deadlier. Here, journalists are not simply "hindered" in their work, nor are they censored or jailed for unfavorable reporting, in Mexico they are tortured and killed.


Tehran's authorities destroy Sunni worship space


While most Iranians follow the Shiite branch of Islam, there are millions of Sunnis who also call Iran their home. However, in the capital Tehran and major cities like Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad, this minority religious community is forbidden from having its own mosques. Now, authorities in the capital have also started destroying unofficial prayer Sunni spaces.

In 1997, Iran’s last official census recorded about five million Sunnis. The number has grown since then: today, an estimated one million Sunni Muslims live in Tehran province alone.

There are 47,291 Shiite mosques and 10,344 Sunni mosques in Iran, according to official statistics. Many of these mosques on the official record are tiny spaces serving small villages. However, there are no Sunni mosques at all in Iran’s large cities.

For decades, Tehran’s Sunni minority has sought to build a mosque but authorities have always prevented the construction. The Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, refused to grant the Sunnis building permission. During the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomenai originally promised to let them build a mosque. However, after he took power, he changed his mind. Post-revolution, Shiite clergy gained power under the Shah’s rule and Tehran’s Sunnis lost hope of building a mosque. 

Harnin Manalaysay is a father figure for hundreds of Filipino street children

For 30 years he has mentored youths, many of whom were out of school and on the streets – neglected, abused, or abandoned. He helps them go on to higher education and good jobs.




Harnin “KB” Manalaysay was in a mad scramble the Friday before Father’s Day weekend. Some scholarship sponsors who had committed to funding about half a dozen college student volunteers at his youth outreach organization hadn’t come through. The school year had just started, and he and senior members of Club 8586 would have to do some serious pavement pounding to gather donations to cover the shortfall.  
This meant he would have to reschedule an interview – again. The week before, he had had to attend the funeral of a close friend who “was like a brother.”
“He left me an inheritance,” says Mr. Manalaysay.

Warring South Sudan rivals restart peace talks


AFP
By Karim Lebhour
South Sudan's rival forces began peace talks on Thursday, as international pressure mounts ahead of an August 17 deadline to strike a deal to end 19 months of civil war.
The conflict has left tens of thousands dead and has been marked by widespread atrocities on both sides.
"We have now reached a critical juncture whereby participants of this phase will make decisions that may impact the destiny of the people of South Sudan," chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin said at an opening ceremony.
Delegates met in the Ethiopia capital Addis Ababa, under mediation from the regional eight-nation bloc IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Australia admits to turning back 633 asylum seekers since 2013

 By Tiffany Ap, for CNN

Updated 0745 GMT (1445 HKT) August 7, 2015
The government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed Australia has turned back 633 asylum seekers on 20 boats as part of a strict but highly contentious migration policy. 
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton revealed the numbers in a statement on Thursday, which marked the one-year anniversary of the last boat to arrive on Australian shores. Canberra usually declines to provide specific details on boat turn-backs.
"We have had 20 successful turn-back operations," he told reporters. "We have had 633 people that would have arrived otherwise on those ventures."













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