Mali conflict: AU set to discuss troop deployments
The BBC 27 January 2013 Last updated at 06:56 GMT
African Union leaders are meeting to discuss the conflict in Mali, as members move to deploy troops to help the French-led operation there.
African states have pledged 7,700 troops to support French and Malian forces in their campaign against Islamist militants in northern Mali.
Only a small part of the African force has so far deployed.
French-led troops have retaken several towns since France intervened two weeks ago, and on Saturday captured Gao.
The French defence ministry said troops gained control of the city – northern Mali’s most populous – after securing the airport and a strategic bridge to the south.
On Japan’s school lunch menu: A healthy meal, made from scratch
By Chico Harlan, Sunday, January 27, 8:39 AM
In TOKYO – In Japan, school lunch means a regular meal, not one that harms your health. The food is grown locally and almost never frozen. There’s no mystery in front of the meat. From time to time, parents even call up with an unusual question: Can they get the recipes?
“Parents hear their kids talking about what they had for lunch,” said Tatsuji Shino, the principal at Umejima Elementary School in Tokyo, “and kids ask them to re-create the meals at home.”
Japan takes seriously both its food and its health and, as a result, its school lunches are a point of national pride – not a source of dismay. As other countries, including the United States, struggle to design school meals that are healthy, tasty and affordable, Japan has all but solved the puzzle, using a system that officials here describe as utterly common sense.
‘Human safaris’ to end for Andaman tribe
Following an Observer report, India’s supreme court has ruled that ‘disgraceful’ tourism must stop
Gethin Chamberlain
The Observer, Sunday 27 January 2013Human safaris to see the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands have finally come to an end as the authorities there bow to domestic and international pressure.
For the first time in a generation, members of the tribe are able to wander through their jungle safe from the prying eyes of the tens of thousands of tourists who travel to the islands in the Bay of Bengal every year to view them.
India’s supreme court last week ordered an end to the safaris that had scandalised the country and caused outrage around the world after they were exposed by the Observer last January.
Are we seeing the last flight of the condor?
Numbers of this magnificent bird have crashed. Mitra Taj in Lima on efforts to halt the decline
MITRA TAJ SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2013
The Andean condor, one of the world’s biggest flying birds, is in trouble. It may have a 10ft wingspan that enables it to ride warm air currents for hours at a time, but that has proved little protection against habitat destruction and hunting.
The bird’s numbers have fallen dramatically. So much so that a Bill is being introduced into the Peruvian congress that would start a conservation programme, declare the condor a national treasure, and set jail sentences of between three and five years for capturing or killing the birds.
Iraqi troops killed, kidnapped in apparent revenge attack
IRAQ
Gunmen in Iraq have killed two soldiers and snatched three, seemingly in a revenge attack after troops killed seven protesters on Friday. Meanwhile, politicians passed a bill barring the prime minister from another term.
Gunmen attacked checkpoints around the city of Fallujah, killing two soldiers, wounding one and kidnapping three, according to police Colonel Mahmud Khalaf.
No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came a day after Iraqi troops opened fire on demonstrators in Fallujah, killing seven. Nearly 60 protesters were wounded.
Riots over Egyptian death sentences kill at least 32
At least 32 people were killed on Saturday when Egyptians rampaged in protest at the sentencing of 21 people to death over a soccer stadium disaster.
27 JAN 2013 08:54 – REUTERS
The violence compounds a political crisis facing Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Armoured vehicles and military police fanned through the streets of Port Said, where gunshots rang out and protesters burned tyres in anger that people from their city had been blamed for the deaths of 74 people at a match last year.
The rioting in Port Said, one of the most deadly spasms of violence since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster two years ago, followed a day of anti-Morsi demonstrations on Friday, when nine people were killed. The toll over the past two days stands at 41.