Six In The Morning Sunday August 16

China

China Tianjin explosions: Nearly 100 people still missing

Ninety-five people, 85 of them firefighters, are still missing four days after multiple blasts in the north-eastern port of Tianjin, Chinese authorities have said.

At least 112 people died in the blasts and hundreds have been hospitalised.

The explosions, in a warehouse containing hazardous chemicals, were so powerful that few of the recovered bodies have been identified.

Dozens of websites have been shut down for allegedly spreading rumours.

The state news agency Xinhua said 50 sites were accused of creating panic by publishing unverified information about the blasts, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Hundreds of social media accounts have also been closed down since the explosions on Wednesday.

Kurdish women pray for peace as fears of civil war in Turkey mount

Erdogan launches missile attacks as conflict with PKK explodes after two years of calm

Constanze Letsch

Sunday 16 August 2015 00.01 BST

A group of women have gathered in the mountain pastures, a large herd of goats swarming around them. Some stir large pots of milk to make yoghurt, others prepare tea. As a missile is launched from a Turkish military outpost in the distance, they do not even look up at the sound.

“All we want, all we hope and pray for, is peace,” says Gülsen, 45. “As a woman, the war affects me very much,” she said. “I am afraid to go outside, because something might happen. If one of my children is only 30 minutes late, I am worried sick about them. We are desperate to have peace.”

Another woman nods angrily. “Didn’t [Turkish president Recep Tayyip] Erdogan promise that no mother in this country would ever have to cry again? And now look at what he is doing! Waging war!”

Anti-war campaigners and ultra-nationalists hear of Japan's Emperor's remorse

Seventy years after the Second World War ended, thousands respects to the ghosts of the past at Yasukuni Shrine

DAVID MCNEILL 

 

YASUKUNI

 

Sunday 16 August 2015

Beneath a burning mid-August sky, thousands of Japanese came to pay respects to the ghosts of the past at Yasukuni Shrine, 70 years after the Second World War ended.

At noon, the Yasukuni crowd fell silent, heads bowed. Exactly 70 years ago, Emperor Hirohito brought the war to an end, asking his subjects to “endure the unendurable”. Yesterday, just down the hill in a memorial service at the Budokan Hall, his son, Emperor Akihito, urged Japan not to forget the war and to promote reconciliation with Asia.

“Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated,” Emperor Akihito, 81, said. “Together with all of our people, I now pay my heartfelt tribute to all those who lost their lives in the war, both on the battlefields and elsewhere, and pray for world peace and for the continuing development of our country.”

World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource

Amid climate change, drought and mismanagement, our world's most valuable resource is becoming scarce. Much of the crisis is man-made -- and even water-rich countries like Germany are to blame. By SPIEGEL Staff

Men like Edward Mooradian are saving California. Indeed, there would hardly be any water left without them. And without water California, now in the fourth year of an epic drought, would be nothing but desert. That's why it's such a cynical joke and, most of all, a tragic reality, that men like Mooradian are also destroying California. In fact, they are actually aggravating the emergency that they are trying to mitigate. The Americans call this a catch-22, a situation in which there are no good alternatives. Either way, the game is lost.

On a Sunday morning in July, Mooradian is standing between rows of orange and lemon trees near Fresno in the Central Valley, the stretch of land in the heart of California that supplies the United States, Canada and Europe with fruit, vegetables and nuts. It is shortly before 8 a.m., but the temperature is already high and there is no wind. Mooradian, tanned and muscular, wearing a helmet and sunglasses, switches on the drill mounted on his truck. It gurgles furiously for a moment and drives a long pipe into the earth.

China's air kills 4,000 people a day – but not for long, say officials

About 1.6 million people die in China every year because of air pollution, but new – and newly enforced – policies are working hard to change that.

By Denise Hassanzade Ajiri, Staff writer

Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of about 4,400 people per day in China, according to a recent scientific paper.

The paper once again raised concerns about China’s air pollution, as the government, gradually getting ready for the 2022 Winter Olympics, has steadily increased their efforts to combat pollution.

In November 2014, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon reached a key climate change deal with Washington to cap its emissions by 2030 through increasing its use of renewable, zero-emission energy sources to 20 percent of its total energy budget.

Former head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency dies

Hamid Gul, who was instrumental in the formation of the Taliban, died of brain haemorrhage at the age of 79.

16 Aug 2015 04:46 GMT 

Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency who strongly backed the Taliban, has died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 79.

Gul, who was a military commander in the Pakistani Army in the 1980s, died on Saturday night at a military hospital in Muree, 50km northeast of the capital Islamabad.He served as the head of the country's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 1987 to 1989.

A controversial figure, he became a strong backer of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and often blamed the US and India for instability in Pakistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended his condolences over Gul's death.

Professor Akbar Ahmed, the chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, and also a former Pakistani Ambassador to the UK, told Al Jazeera that it was Gul’s career in the army that gave him the credibility to become such a politically renowned figure.