Sunday, April 17, 2016

Six In The Morning Sunday April 17

Japan earthquake: Search for Kyushu survivors intensifies


17 April 2016

The search for survivors of two powerful earthquakes that struck the south-western Japanese island of Kyushu has intensified.
Rescuers used improved weather on Sunday to fly helicopters to the worst-affected areas as tremors continued.
Concern is also growing for nearly 250,000 homeless people.
At least 41 people were killed in Thursday and Saturday's quakes and it is feared that dozens of people could still be trapped under rubble.
The BBC's Robin Brant says fears persist that another big quake may further damage houses already weakened.




Edward Snowden on police pursuing journalist data: the scandal is what the law allows

NSA whistleblower responds to admission by Australian federal police that it investigated leaks to a Guardian journalist by requesting his metadata

 and  in New York


Edward Snowden has condemned Australian law enforcement for collecting the communications records of a Guardian journalist without a warrant.
The world’s most prominent whistleblower, who disclosed dragnet surveillance unprecedented in its scale by the National Security Agency and its allies, singled out for critique the Australian government’s contention that it broke no laws in its leak investigation of Paul Farrell, a Guardian reporter who in 2014 exposed the inner workings of Australia’s maritime interception of asylum seekers.
“Police in developed democracies don’t pore over journalists’ private activities to hunt down confidential sources,” Snowden told the Guardian.



Syria conflict: Turkish ultra-nationalist suspected of killing Russian pilot may have ties to his country's 'deep state

Alparsian Celik is suspected to be a member of a far-right militia called 'the Grey Wolves' 

The arrest of Alparsian Celik at a restaurant in Izmir, on the east coast of Turkey, did not generate much publicity. He is not a well known figure - but he is the man accused of a brutal act of violence in Syria’s civil war which has had widespread international repercussions.
Celik, a Turkish citizen fighting in Syria, led militia fighters who shot dead a Russian pilot after his warplane was shot down by Turkey. The missile strike on the jet led to a bitter confrontation between Moscow and Ankara with a furious Vladimir Putin ordering economic sanctions and rushing advanced weaponry to his forces on the ground.

Erdogan and the Satirist: Inside Merkel's Comedy Conundrum

By SPIEGEL Staff

With his insulting poem about Turkish President Erdogan, Jan Böhmermann has triggered an affair of state. Now, Chancellor Merkel has elected to allow legal proceedings against the German comedian. What, though, was Böhmermann's intent?

Jan Böhmermann has disappeared. He's not giving interviews; he's not answering his phone. Since Monday, he has also gone silent on Twitter, where he is normally extremely active. He has hardly left his home in Cologne in the last few days and he is also now under police protection.

He had his Thursday show on the German public broadcaster ZDF cancelled and his Sunday radio show on RBB will likewise not be broadcast this week. It was cancelled last Sunday as well. Böhmermann was already in his home studio ready to record when he realized that he was in no mood to be funny. So he called it off.


Trump's foreign policy alarms the world: analysts

Guy Jackson,AFP

US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has rung alarm bells around the world with his proclamations on foreign policy, but his targets are increasingly shrugging off his barbs.
By suggesting that NATO is "obsolete" and that Japan and South Korea should acquire nuclear weapons to rid the United States of the burden of protecting those countries, Trump has called into question some of the cornerstones of US foreign policy for decades.
The property developer's comments have earned sharp rebukes from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.
An exasperated Obama said he was "getting questions constantly from foreign leaders about some of the wackier suggestions that are being made".
Obama said Trump "doesn't know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy, or the Korean peninsula, or the world generally".

Rousseff impeachment vote divides a tense Brazil

Thousands of people have gathered in the Brazilian capital ahead of an impeachment vote on Sunday. It remains uncertain whether the opposition has the votes necessary to oust President Dilma Rousseff.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff scrambled to avoid impeachment on Saturday, canceling an appearance at a pro-government rally in the capital, Brasilia, to lobby members of Congress for support.
The lower house is set to vote Sunday on whether to send the embattled president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate, an attempt Rousseff has called a "coup." It remains uncertain whether Vice President Michel Temer and Eduardo Cunha, speaker of the lower house, have the two-thirds majority needed to advance the impeachment proceedings.
Rousseff is accused of using an accounting trick to hide a budget shortfall in 2014, something she says was not illegal and a common practice in previous governments.















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