Tag: Six In The Morning

Iraq conflict: Sunni militant push on Baghdad ‘halted’

 15 June 2014 Last updated at 08:02

 BBC

Iraqi government forces, backed by Shia Muslim and Kurdish militias, are reportedly holding back an advance by Sunni militants north of Baghdad.

A number of towns have been retaken from the rebels, but they still control the key cities of Tikrit and Mosul.

In one town that changed hands, Ishaq, security forces said they had found the incinerated bodies of 12 policemen.

A US aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Gulf in response to the escalating violence.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that American assistance in tackling any Islamist offensive will only succeed if Iraqi leaders are willing to put aside their differences.

Brazil Olympics: Rio bay ‘will not be clean for 2016’

 8 June 2014 Last updated at 01:29

 BBC

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes has said that the Brazilian city will not be able to clean the polluted bay where Olympic sailing competitions will be held before the 2016 Games.

Brazil had made a commitment to reduce pollution in the Guanabara Bay by 80%.

But Mr Paes admitted that the target would not be met.

He regretted the missed opportunity but told the AP news agency that the pollution didn’t pose a risk to the health of athletes.

Olympic sailors who visited Rio de Janeiro recently described the bay as an open sewer.

Qatar World Cup: ‘£3m payments to officials’ corruption claim

 

 David Bond BBC SPORTS EDITOR



Fifa is facing fresh allegations of corruption over its controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

The Sunday Times  has obtained millions of secret documents – emails, letters and bank transfers – which it alleges are proof that the disgraced Qatari football official Mohamed Bin Hammam made payments totalling US$5m (£3m) to football officials in return for their support for the Qatar bid.

Qatar 2022 and Bin Hammam have always strenuously denied the former Fifa vice-president actively lobbied on their behalf in the run-up to the vote in December 2010.

Ukrainians vote in presidential elections

25 May 2014 Last updated at 05:39

 BBC

Ukrainians are going to the polls to vote in a new president after months of unrest following the ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych.

Eighteen candidates are competing in the contest, which is widely seen as a crucial moment to unite the country.

But pro-Russian separatists in the east who oppose the election have threatened to disrupt the voting process.

Some 20 people have been killed amid an upsurge of fighting between insurgents and government forces in recent days.

The violence in the east, particularly Donetsk and Luhansk, has seriously disrupted preparations for the polls.

Shortly after voting began, election officials told the BBC no polling stations had opened in the city of Donetsk

Ukraine is approaching point of no return, says UN chief

 18 May 2014 Last updated at 07:20

 The BBC

Ukraine is edging towards “the point of no return”, a senior UN official says, amid rising tensions between security forces and pro-Russia separatists.

UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told the BBC that the crisis had worrying echoes of the 1990s war in his native Croatia.

Reports from eastern Ukraine say clashes between government forces and separatist militants have continued.

The separatists have not taken part in EU-brokered talks to defuse the crisis.

Ukraine rebels hold referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk

 11 May 2014 Last updated at 07:58

The BBC

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s two eastern regions are holding “self-rule” referendums – a move condemned by the Ukrainian government and the West.

BBC correspondents at polling stations report chaotic scenes, no voting booths and no electoral register.

Self-proclaimed leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are going ahead with the vote despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call to postpone it.

Ukraine says the vote could result in the “self-destruction” of the regions.

Overnight, fighting was reported around the rebel-held city of Sloviansk, which remains sealed off by Ukrainian government troops conducting what they describe as an “anti-terror” operation.

The world’s media have failed in their response to the kidnap of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls

Their abduction by terrorists has had little coverage compared with the missing Malaysian airliner

 JOAN SMITH  Sunday 4 May 2014

When members of the Islamist terror organisation Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria last month, they disguised themselves in military uniform. The girls, who knew that many schools in the state of Borno have been attacked by jihadists, initially believed that the unexpected visitors had come to take them to a safe place. But as they climbed reluctantly into trucks and on to motorcycles, the men began firing into the air and shouting “Allahu Akbar”. Some of the girls decided to make a run for it, but the majority were coerced into travelling to a bush camp. There the terrorists forced them to cook for their captors.

Demented Tony Blair recites the Saudis’ creed in his latest speech



World View: The former prime minister’s intervention on radical Islam was aimed at all the wrong targets

PATRICK COCKBURN Sunday 27 April 2014

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the core group of al-Qa’ida, may well chortle in disbelief if he reads a translation of Tony Blair’s latest speech on the Middle East delivered last week. If Blair’s thoughts are used as a guide to action, then the main beneficiaries will be al-Qa’ida-type jihadist movements. Overall, his speech is so bizarre in its assertions that it should forever rule him out as a serious commentator on the Middle East. Reading it, I was reminded of a diplomat in Joseph Conrad’s Secret Agent called Mr Vladimir who fancies himself an expert on revolutionaries: “He confounded causes with effects; the most distinguished propagandists with impulsive bomb throwers; assumed organisation where in the nature of things it could not exist.”

More bodies recovered from S Korea ferry

 Divers find 13 more bodies from sunken South Korean ferry, bringing the death toll to 54, while 266 remain missing.

  Last updated: 20 Apr 2014 04:55

Divers have recovered 13 more bodies from inside the ferry that sank off South Korea nearly four days ago, bringing the confirmed death toll to 54.

Officials said on Sunday that the bodies were recovered after divers gained access to the inside of the ferry after three days of failed attempts due to strong currents. Three bodies were pulled out of the fully submerged ferry just before midnight.

Details of how they got inside the ship were not immediately clear, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The ferry, carrying 476 passengers, many of them schoolchildren, capsized on Wednesday on a journey from the port of Incheon to the southern holiday island of Jeju.

Ukraine ‘bid to take back Sloviansk police HQ’

 13 April 2014 Last updated at 07:07

  The BBC

Ukrainian forces have launched an operation against pro-Russian activists who seized a police station on Saturday, the interior minister says.

Arsen Avakov announced on his Facebook page that “all security units” were involved in an “anti-terror operation” in the eastern city of Sloviansk.

Russia warned earlier that any use of force in eastern Ukraine could scupper crisis talks due later this week.

The US accuses Moscow of inciting the trouble. The Kremlin denies the charge.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kiev government was “demonstrating its inability to take responsibility for the fate of the country”.

But the US said there had been a “concerted campaign” by forces with Russian support to undermine the authorities in Kiev.

MH370: Plane search signal ‘important lead’

 6 April 2014 Last updated at 06:46

  The BBC

Australian co-ordinators in the search for a missing Malaysian plane say a Chinese ship has detected a pulse signal for a second time, within hours of it being heard earlier on Saturday.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston called the discovery in the southern Indian Ocean an “important and encouraging lead”.

He warned that the data were still unverified.

British naval ship HMS Echo is sailing to the area to investigate further.

It is expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday.

Australian aircraft were also on their way, Air Chief Marshal Houston told reporters. Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield would be heading to the latest search area once it had investigated a third acoustic detection elsewhere.

Both HMS Echo and ADV Ocean Shield have technology able to detect underwater signals emitted by data recorders.

Malaysia flight MH370: Chinese families ‘seek answers’

30 March 2014 Last updated at 07:01

  The BBC

Relatives of Chinese passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane have flown to Kuala Lumpur to seek answers from the Malaysian authorities.

The family members say they have not been given enough information, and want to meet Malaysia’s prime minister and transport minister face to face.

Ten planes and eight ships are looking for remains of the airliner in a vast area of the Indian Ocean.

The airliner disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board.

Some relatives of the flight’s 153 Chinese passengers have refused to accept the Malaysian account of events and have accused the authorities of withholding information.