Migrant crisis: EU at grave risk, warns France PM Valls
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that Europe's migration crisis is putting the EU at grave risk.
Mr Valls told the BBC Europe could not take all the refugees fleeing what he called terrible wars in Iraq or Syria.
"Otherwise," he said, "our societies will be totally destabilised."
More than a million migrants, mostly refugees, arrived in Europe last year, many making perilous journeys. On Friday, at least 21 people were killed as their boats sank off Greek islands.
Mr Valls also said that France would seek to keep its current state of emergency until a "total and global war" against so-called Islamic State (IS) was over.
The measures were introduced after the IS-led Paris attacks on 13 November and then extended for three months.
Kurdish independence closer than ever, says Massoud Barzani
President of Iraqi Kurdistan claims the era of Sykes-Picot is over and a new international agreement is needed for the Middle East
The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish north has called on global leaders to acknowledge that the Sykes-Picot pact that led to the boundaries of the modern Middle East has failed, and urged them to broker a new deal paving the way for a Kurdish state.
Massoud Barzani, who has led the troubled country’s Kurds for the past decade, said the international community had started to accept that Iraq and Syria in particular would never again be unified and that “compulsory co-existence” in the region had been proven wrong.
“I think that within themselves, [world leaders] have come to this conclusion that the era of Sykes-Picot is over,” Barzani told the Guardian. “Whether they say it or not, accept it or not, the reality on the ground is that. But as you know, diplomats are conservatives and they give their assessment in the late stages of things. And sometimes they can’t even keep up with developments.”
French government 'very likely' to vote to extend state of emergency, despite UN criticism
The emergency measures were initially established on the evening of the 13 November Paris attacks and were expected to last 12 days in total
The French government looks poised to extend emergency powers in the country, despite criticism from the UN that to do so would constitute “excessive” controls on human rights.
The Prime Minister, Mauel Valls, said that the state of emergency introduced in the aftermath of November's Paris attacks would be keep until a "total and global war" against Isis was complete.
Emergency measures were put in place on 13 November, the evening of the Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
They were initially tabled to last 12 days, however parliament subsequently extended the time period to last until 26 February amid security concerns.Haiti to hold presidential runoff vote despite outcry
Latest update : 2016-01-22
Haiti’s outgoing leader insisted Thursday that a presidential runoff will be held as scheduled this weekend, regardless of a boycott by the opposition candidate and deep suspicion of electoral fraud.
President Michel Martelly told Haiti’s Tele Metropole that he believes the opposition has been trying to derail the vote so a transitional government they would dominate could be set up. Opposition factions have been pressing for a transitional government, though many questions remain unanswered about how long one would last and who might lead it.
“They want to take power but not through elections,” said Martelly, appearing alongside Prime Minister Evans Paul.
Martelly, who is constitutionally due to leave office on Feb. 7, asserted that a transitional government would be a debacle for Haiti, which is still struggling with a highly uneven recovery from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
China responds to Taiwan elections with military drills, Facebook trolling
Simon Denyer
Days after Taiwanese voters elected the leader of a pro-independence party to the president's office, China's military announced that a unit based opposite Taiwan had carried out live firing drills and mock landing exercises.
Separately, thousands of trolls from China jumped over the Great Firewall to flood the Facebook page of Taiwan's President-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, with hostile comments.
The Chinese government has responded warily to Ms Tsai's election, saying it wants good relations with an island it considers part of its sovereign territory. But it also demands Ms Tsai embrace the idea that there is only "one China" and renounce any notion that Taiwan could one day declare formal independence.The military drills could be seen as a gentle reminder that China would view any declaration of independence as tantamount to a declaration of war.
Is the disappearance of Bolivia's second largest lake a harbinger?
Lake Poopo, which sits high on the semi-arid Andean plains, is down to 2 percent of its former water level. Its maximum depth once reached 16 feet.
UNTAVI, BOLOVIA — Overturned fishing skiffs lie abandoned on the shores of what was Bolivia's second-largest lake. Beetles dine on bird carcasses and gulls fight for scraps under a glaring sun in what marshes remain.
Lake Poopo was officially declared evaporated last month. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have lost their livelihoods and gone.
High on Bolivia's semi-arid Andean plains at more than 12,000 feet and long subject to climatic whims, the shallow saline lake has essentially dried up before only to rebound to twice the area of Los Angeles.
But recovery may no longer be possible, scientists say."This is a picture of the future of climate change," says Dirk Hoffman, a German glaciologist who studies how rising temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels has accelerated glacial melting in Bolivia.
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