Six In The Morning Monday February 8

Syria refugee camps set up as Turkey limits entries

• 8 February 2016
 
• From the sectionMiddle Eas

Turkish aid workers have been setting up tents and distributing supplies for thousands of new Syrian refugees kept from entering Turkey at the border.

Some 35,000 people fled a Syrian government offensive in the Aleppo area last week, trying to enter Turkey's Kilis border region.

But Turkey has so far closed the border to most of them despite appeals by EU leaders to let them cross.

The country already shelters more than 2.5 million refugees from Syria's war.

Many Syrians have gone on to seek asylum in the EU and made up the largest group among more than one million refugees and other migrants who entered illegally last year, mainly by sea from Turkey.

A plan must be made for ‘life after Isis’ in the Middle East

In the Second World War, Allied leaders planned  for the post-war world –  a ‘United Nations’ – years before the conflict ended. We must do the same for the Middle East. 

• Robert Fisk 
• @indyvoices 

There are times in the Middle East when nightmares and delusions take the place of the real and growing tragedy which is consuming the Arab lands. More and more earnest are the calls for peace as more and more nations launch more and more air raids, from Kabul to the Mediterranean, and down through Sinai and Yemen and across to Libya. The bloodbath is real, yet no one plans for a future – for “Life after Isis”. By my reckoning, there are now 11 different national air forces bombing five different Muslim countries to “degrade and destroy” their enemies. But what comes afterwards?

History teaches us that for 100 years now, the people of this magnificent, dangerous region have sought justice and received only injustice. Foreign and proxy occupation, corruption and dictatorship – the hands of the torturer – have taken from them the one value which so many millions finally sought in the great Arab awakening of 2011: dignity. Yet what are we doing about this? Why have we never addressed the great historical injustices which have caused this human earthquake?

Aung San Suu Kyi could become Myanmar president after 'positive' talks - reports

Negotiations between the NLD leader and Myanmar’s military to remove a clause that bars her from becoming president reported to be going well

Monday 8 February 2016 04.47 GMT

Two pro-government television channels in Myanmar have reported that “positive results” could come out of negotiations between the military chief and Aung San Suu Kyi on suspending a constitutional clause that prevents her from becoming the president.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won a landslide victory in the 8 November general elections. However, she is barred from becoming president because of the Constitution’s Article 59 (f), which says anyone with a foreign spouse or children cannot hold the executive office. Suu Kyi’s late husband was British, as are her two sons.

In separate but identical broadcasts late on Sunday, Sky Net and Myanmar National Television said “positive results could come out on the negotiation for the suspension of the constitution Article 59 (f).”

French general faces court over banned anti-Islam rally

Latest update : 2016-02-08

General Christian Piquemal, a former commander of the prestigious French Foreign Legion, is due in court on Monday after he was arrested in the port city of Calais for attending a banned rally in support of the Islamophobic Pegida movement.

Piquemal, 75, was among a dozen people who were taken into custody on Saturday after clashes between police and supporters of the far-right group, which is based in Germany.

Around 150 people had gathered in central Calais carrying signs such as "This is our home," waving the French flag and singing the French national anthem, as part of a Europe-wide initiative in support of Pegida.

Police issued warnings for the demonstration to disperse and then fired tear gas to break it up.

The retired general, who was described as having a “leading role” in the event, faces charges of “involvement in a gathering that did not disperse after warning”.

Progress in the global war on poverty

Almost unnoticed, the world has reduced poverty, increased incomes, and improved health more than at any time in history. 

By Steven Radelet, Contributor

WASHINGTON — The headlines on any given day suggest a world under siege. War. Terrorism. Refugees. Disease. Recession. Famine. Climate change. But beneath these often very real problems, something remarkable has been happening, something on a more epochal level that has gone almost completely unnoticed.

Global poverty has fallen faster during the past 20 years than at any time in history. Around the world hunger, child death, and disease rates have all plummeted. More girls are getting into school. In fact, never before have so many people, in so many poor countries, made so much progress in reducing poverty, increasing incomes, improving health, reducing conflict and war, and spreading democracy.

The controversy over J.K. Rowling’s new African wizard school, explained

by Zack Beauchamp

J.K. Rowling is in trouble over her plan to expand the Harry Potter world into "Africa" — as her official Harry Potter site put it.

Last week, at the Celebration of Harry Potter event in Orlando, actress Evanna Lynch (who plays Luna Lovegood in the films) announced that Rowling had added four new wizarding schools to the Harry Potter universe. The official announcement of the expansion, on the Rowling-sanctioned fan site Pottermore, located the four schools in North America, Japan, Brazil, and ... Africa.

Not any particular African country, mind you. Just Africa.

Twitter exploded with outrage, accusing Rowling of engaging in some of the worst Western tropes about Africa. Rowling quickly clarified that she had a specific country in mind — Uganda. This didn't end the controversy, which expanded as political scientists and historians weighed in as well.