Monday, September 4, 2017

Six In The Morning Monday September 4

North Korea preparing to launch ballistic missile that could be intercontinental, military chiefs in South say

Each missile and nuclear test gives Pyongyang invaluable information and allows big jumps in capability


North Korea is preparing to launch a ballistic missile, possibly an ICBM, South Korean military sources have said. 
Seoul's defence ministry also measured North Korea's nuclear test at 50 kilotons, Yonhap news agency reported.
The detonation was the strongest ever from the North, which claimed the test was of a hydrogen bomb.
South Korea's defence ministry said in a parliament hearing it was still seeing signs North Korea planned to stage more ballistic missile launches, possibly including an intercontinental ballistic missile.





Myanmar blocks all UN aid to civilians at heart of Rohingya crisis

Exclusive: Military offensive against insurgents leaves thousands stranded without life-saving supplies

Myanmar has blocked all United Nations aid agencies from delivering vital supplies of food, water and medicine to thousands of desperate civilians at the centre of a bloody military campaign in Myanmar, the Guardian has learned.
The world body halted distributions in northern Rakhine state after militants attacked government forces on 25 August and the army responded with a counteroffensive that has killed hundreds.

The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar told the Guardian that deliveries were suspended “because the security situation and government field-visit restrictions rendered us unable to distribute assistance”, suggesting authorities were not providing permission to operate.



Elephants on 'hostile territory' in Sri Lanka


Poisoned, electrocuted, shot with guns just for trying to find a meal - can elephants and humans co-exist in Sri Lanka?


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Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka - It is difficult to predict when the elephants will come.
As darkness falls around Sri Lanka's Udawalawe National Park, the 52 villages that speckle its borders go on alert. Thin wire fences hum with the threat of electricity.
Across the dry zone, farmers climb up into rudimentary treehouses overlooking their paddy fields. They must try to stay alert as the darkness deepens. Armed only with torches, fireworks, and their voices - loud and hoarse - they may be forced to face down giants.
Ashoka Ranjeewa, an elephant researcher, has spent many nights out here. When he first arrived in Pokunuthanna, there were few friendly faces. Bordered on two sides by the national park, and on one side by the Dahaiyagala sanctuary, this village of some 100 families has seen more than its fair share of elephant attacks. Farmers here allege the compensation they are paid is meagre and comes late. Outsiders only come to gawk, taking pictures, commiserating.

THE UNLIKELY JIHADI

The FBI Pressured a Lonely Young Man Into a Bomb Plot. He Tried to Back Out. Now He’s Serving Life in Prison.




ARLEM SUAREZ WAS an unlikely jihadi.
When he was born in Cuba, Suarez had blue skin. His fragile brain had been deprived of oxygen, a tragedy his family points to in explaining his lifelong social and intellectual challenges. As a child, Suarez also suffered several significant head injuries, including being struck by a brick and falling off motorcycles without a helmet on. His parents brought him to Key West, Florida, in 2004, when he was 12 years old. He struggled in the public education system and dropped out of high school. He then took odd jobs in Key West — stocking store shelves, cleaning up restaurants, working in kitchens. Even after more than a decade in the United States, he spoke English without confidence.

How the demand for sand is killing rivers

You cannot have concrete without sand. River beds are being dug up across Africa to fuel a building boom, with little thought for what this means for the health of the river, and those who depend on it, as Harriet Constable found in Kenya.

Sand. The word conjures happy holiday memories: building castles from it; watching nervous crabs scuttle across it; digging giant holes in it, and then hiding in them and leaping out at opportune moments to terrify unknowing relatives. Sand is the make up of glittering beaches, hundreds of thousands of years of weathering to create millions and millions of tiny, sparkling, and yet seemingly insignificant particles. Sand is infinite, surely. And yet the world is running out.

It's obvious when you think about it. All the major building materials - concrete, bricks, glass, are made using sand. Exploding population numbers and the knock on need for development have made sand the second most used natural commodity on the planet after water. Billions and billions of tonnes are being used across the globe.

39% don't have high hopes for new Democratic Party leader Maehara: survey

 (Mainichi Japan)

Thirty-nine percent of respondents in a recent Mainichi Shimbun opinion poll said they didn't have high hopes for Seiji Maehara, newly elected leader of the largest opposition Democratic Party (DP), topping the 31 percent who said they did.

The Mainichi Shimbun conducted a nationwide survey on Sept. 2 and 3. The support rate for the DP remained low at 5 percent, suggesting that the leadership change has not improved the party's stagnating approval. In addition, 24 percent said they were not interested in the new DP leader.



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