Six In The Morning Tuesday September 1

Middle East

Palmyra's Temple of Bel destroyed, says UN

A satellite image confirms that the main temple in the ancient city of Palmyra in northern Syria has been destroyed, the United Nations says.

There had been earlier reports of an explosion at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, which is held by militants from the Islamic State (IS) group.

Syria's antiquities chief had earlier said the basic structure of the 2,000-year-old site was intact.

But UN satellite analysts Unosat say the imageshows almost nothing remains.

"Unfortunately, the images we acquired do show that the main building of the temple has been destroyed," Einar Bjorgo, Unosat's manager, told the BBC early on Tuesday.

Prehistoric sea scorpion that grew to 6ft in length named after Trojan warship

Scientists call predator Pentecopterus, after the ancient 'penteconter' ship

JOHN VON RADOWITZ

 

 

Tuesday 01 September 2015

A monstrous creature from the distant past, named after a Trojan warship, could have stepped straight from the pages of Greek myth.

The newly discovered sea scorpion lived 467 million years ago and grew to a length of nearly 6ft.

It was one of the most powerful ocean predators of its time, with an exoskeleton “helmet” shielding its head, a sleek narrow body, and large grasping limbs for trapping prey. Scientists named the beast Pentecopterus decorahensis, after the “penteconter”– an ancient Greek ship rowed by 50 oarsmen that saw service in the Trojan War.

Although they look like relatives of lobsters, sea scorpions, or eurypterids, were the ancestors of modern spiders.

EU split grows and rules fray as migrant crisis intensifies

Germany calls for unity as central European states seek their own tough stance

Daniel McLaughlin on the Serbia-Hungary border

The European Union’s border and asylum policies were in disarray on Monday night, as member states sought their own solutions to a continuing surge in migrants from the Middle East, Africa and south Asia.

On Monday, Hungary lifted a ban on migrants using international trains, amid outrage over last week’s death of 71 people in a truck driven by suspected people smugglers, only for Austrian border police to stop migrant-filled trains from Budapest to Germanyfor several hours.

Austrian police said they wanted to check migrants’ papers and send those who had applied for asylum in Hungary back to Budapest. But when the trains finally enteredAustria, it seemed the police had abandoned their plan.

Thai court acquits journalists of criminal defamation

A court has cleared two journalists who were sued for slander by the Thai navy. The article which appeared on news website "Phuketwan" accused some members of the Navy of being involved in migrant smuggling.

An Australian and a Thai journalist were also found not guilty of violating the Computer Crimes Act, their lawyer said from the island Phuket.

Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian (pictured) had faced up to seven years in prison over the July 2013 piece for the "Phuketwan" news website in a case that had sparked global condemnation from the United Nations and human rights groups. In the article, they had quoted a Reuters news agency investigation which suggested that the some members of the Thai navy helped smuggle Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Reuters was not charged over the series of articles, which were honored with a Pulitzer Prize last year.

"The judge did the right thing, this is a big step for freedom of expression and freedom of the media in Thailand," Chutima told French news agency AFP after the verdict was read.

What new violence in South Sudan spells for the region

Conflicts between government forces and rebel leaders has prompted the United States to threaten renewed UN sanctions against the world's newest country.

By Elias Meseret and Jason Patinkin, Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA — South Sudan's rebel leader is warning attacks by government troops on rebel-held areas could sabotage a peace agreement.

Riek Machar told reporters in Ethiopia Monday that the South Sudan government is not respecting the cease-fire.

"The cease-fire has not been respected by the government since it was declared ... they still are on the offensive," Machar said. "If this situation goes on, it means the peace agreement is not implementable."

Both sides agreed to a cease-fire that took effect Sunday, but there are reported violations in the volatile states of Upper Nile and Unity.

Is this disturbing video Israel's Eric Garner moment?

Updated by Max Fisher

For a few years now, Palestinians in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh have held a weekly demonstration to protest the Israeli occupation that has confiscated village land for a nearby Israeli settlement. These protests don't usually make international news.

But last week's was different. Friday's demonstration in Nabi Saleh escalated into a violent confrontation between an Israeli soldier and a young child — all caught on camera by the press who had attended the protest. The result was a video of an IDF soldier placing an 11-year-old child in a chokehold, holding a gun near his head, and then sitting on him as he screamed in fear and pain.