Six In The Morning Sunday August 9

Nagasaki atomic bombing remembered with calls for Japan to stay off path of war

Survivor and city mayor at anniversary of 1945 nuclear attack warn prime minister Shinzo Abe about the dangers of his plan to lift constraints on military

Associated Press in Nagasaki

Sunday 9 August 2015 09.04 BST

The city of Nagasaki has marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing with calls to abolish nuclear weapons and halt the Japanese government’s push to loosen restrictions on what its military can do.

With the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in the audience, a representative of Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors told an annual ceremony that security legislation introduced by Abe’s government went against the wishes of the survivors and “will lead to war”.

“We cannot accept this,” said 86-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi after describing in graphic detail his traumatic injuries and how others died in the 9 August 1945 attack on Nagasaki.

ALISTAIR DAWBER
Sunday 9 August 2015

Muhammadu Buhari: Nigeria's new president promises to rid country of terrorists, but corruption and falling oil revenues hold him back

Boko Haram is only getting stronger and will not wait for him to be ready - Buhari can’t afford to carry on going as slowly as he is

Like many politicians before him, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s new president, is finding that promises made during a campaign are easy to announce, but more difficult to keep. A former army major-general who briefly seized power in Africa’s most populous state in the 1980s, Mr Buhari swept to power in April promising not only to tackle Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has wreaked havoc and bloodshed in Nigeria, but to defeat it.

“What I can pledge, with absolute certainty,” he wrote in The New York Times in April, a month before taking office, “is that from the first day of my administration, Boko Haram will know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid this nation of terror, and bring back peace and normalcy to all the affected areas.”

Good words, but since Mr Buhari won the election, as many as 200 Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram, and so far at least, it seems the military has been unable to live up to the new president’s verve.

'We were the first victims of the atomic bomb'

Seventy years after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, New Mexicans say they’re still waiting for the US government to recognize them as the first victims. Teri Schultz reports from the US state of New Mexico.

Tina Cordova's grandfather Reynaldo Cordova was killed in Germany's Hurtgen Forest in December 1944, one of hundreds of thousands of Americans who died fighting Nazi-led Germany and its Axis partners in World War II.

So if anyone would cheer the memory of Japan being brought to its knees and a surrender by nuclear bombs, it would be logical to think it would be those soldiers' families. Yet when the August 6 and 9anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings roll around each year, Cordova says she feels nothing but sadness - and empathy for the Japanese civilians who suffered in the attacks. Who suffered "too," as Cordova puts it.

With Summer Olympics a year away, Brazil wonders if it’s ready

BY VINOD SREEHARSHA

McClatchy Foreign Staff

RIO DE JANEIRO Let the countdown begin.

With slightly less than a year to go before the opening of next year’s Summer Olympic Games, preparations are entering their most critical phase. With 10,500 athlete from 205 countries, expected officials are proclaiming that everything is looking wonderful.

Athletes, including rowers and swimmers, have started testing sporting venues, including waters considered highly polluted and possibly unsafe. Reporters from around the globe have arrived. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach met with Brazilian President Dilma Roussef and radiated optimism that the games will be a roaring success, despite previous IOC criticism of the slow pace of preparations.

“Brazilians will show the entire world your unique combination of passion and efficiency,” he said during a speech, the latter word almost never associated with this country.

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes also oozed confidence, telling reporters this week that Olympic Park construction is 82 percent complete and that six of the seven new venues being built will be completed by the end of the year, including the velodrome and the basketball and tennis arenas. The golf course is expected to be ready by November.

Plugging Leaks: Merkel's War on Germany's Press and Parliament

In recent months, Germany's government and intelligence agencies have gone after journalists and parliamentarians in an effort to keep classified information secret. Now, their efforts have resulted in a bona fide scandal for Berlin.

By SPIEGEL Staff

When former German Federal Prosecutor Harald Range greeted SPIEGEL journalists for an interview at the end of July, he seemed combative. The 67-year-old recalled his oath of office as a young public prosecutor in the university town of Göttingen, to investigate "independent of a person's standing."

He also said he refused to allow his position to be influenced by politics in any way, adding that he "had so far" not been given any orders by the government. "I am free in my decisions," he said. But did he already suspect at that point that an investigation into two journalists would soon rock both his office and the government in Berlin?

Two weeks after the interview, Range stood in front of his admiring staff in Karlsruhe, where the federal prosecutor's office is headquartered. It was the day after he had challenged the federal government, which he accused of an "intolerable intervention" into his work. And it was a few hours after he had been terminated. He said it was more important to him to be able to look in the mirror than in a newspaper. "I did it for myself and I did it for the agency," he said. His staff showered him with applause.

Ferguson marks Michael Brown shooting anniversary

• 4 hours ago
 
• From the sectionUS & Canada

The US town of Ferguson is marking the first anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

On the eve of Sunday's anniversary, several hundred marched through the town in his honour, led by his father.

The shooting of the 18-year-old by white police officer Darren Wilson sparked demonstrations across America.

Along with killings of unarmed black men elsewhere in the US, it also fuelled a national protest movement against racial bias by the police.

Activists and religious figures from across the country are among those who have gathered this weekend in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri.

Saturday's rally was peaceful and heavily policed.

Some of those marching shouted: "Hands up, don't shoot", and "We do this for who? We do this for Mike Brown."