Australian bushfires: Conditions set to worsen
20 October 2013 Last updated at 06:47 GMT
The BBC
Australian firefighters battling destructive bushfires in New South Wales are preparing for worsening conditions in the next few days.
The return of hot weather and strong winds is expected to fan the flames – the worst in the state for 40 years.
State Premier Barry O’Farrell declared a State of Emergency on Sunday and several areas are being evacuated.
The Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, has been the worst-hit region with some fires still raging out of control.
About 200 homes have already been destroyed and hundreds of people have been left homeless.
World Cup 2014: Brazilians’ rage against the state will disrupt the celebration
While standards of living have improved for millions, many services remain poor and will be the focal point of unrest in 2014
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
The Observer, Sunday 20 October 2013The night of 30 June was one of intense drama in Rio de Janeiro. Inside the newly refurbished Maracanã stadium, still slick with plaster dust, a gladiatorial atmosphere turned to celebration as Neymar scored Brazil’s second goal in a 3-0 victory over Spain in the Confederations Cup final, on the cusp of half-time.
This dramatic game could have been the perfect curtain-raiser for the 2014 World Cup, were it not for the scenes outside the stadium, where thousands of protesters faced off against police in riot gear, the air thick with teargas and insults. Last Tuesday, the story was repeated. As TV Globo showed the 2-0 victory over Poland that clinched England’s place in the finals, 10,000 people joined a protest in central Rio in support of striking teachers, a few miles from the Maracanã.
‘Since the chemical weapons deal, nothing has changed’: The West has taken its eye off the carnage in Syria
Celebrated British surgeon speaks out on the country’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe – and how it could be solved
CHARLIE COOPER Author Biography , ZANDER SWINBURNE SUNDAY 20 OCTOBER 2013
The international community must establish “humanitarian corridors” between Syria and neighbouring countries to prop up a hospital system that has lost thousands of doctors and is “rapidly” running out of life-saving supplies, one of Britain’s leading surgeons has said.
Vascular surgeon David Nott, who last week returned from a six-week trip to northern Syria, said that doctors and other healthcare workers were being targeted by the regime, and that aid supplies were being disrupted by Islamist militants who were increasingly at war with both the Assad government and the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Austerity protests draw tens of thousands in Italy, Portugal
Tens of thousands of people have protested austerity in Italy. And Portugal saw its first major street mobilization since the government unveiled its budget plans on Tuesday.
DW
Police detained several people during the protest in Rome after about 100 people threw rocks, bottles and eggs at officers guarding the finance ministry (pictured).
The police then charged and chased the demonstrators into side streets. Protesters also managed to smash in the window of a branch of UniCredit bank, Italy’s biggest lender, and the hacker group Anonymous took down several institutional websites to coincide with the rally. Organizers said that about 70,000 people had taken part, though police put the number at closer to 50,000.
Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Kayani’s successor faces a host of challenges
October 20, 2013 – 3:16PM
Ben Doherty
South Asia correspondent for Fairfax MediaRawalpindi: Fourteen years ago, when Nawaz Sharif was last prime minister of Pakistan, he thought he had his man in uniform. He was wrong.
In 1998, over several more senior officers, Sharif chose to appoint Pervez Musharraf as his chief of army staff. It was to prove neither a happy, nor a long, union.
Sharif must choose a man he can work with … but not so pliant he will not have the respect of his forces.
Within a year, with both men’s reputations damaged by Pakistan’s provocation of fighting with India in Kashmir, Sharif sought to sack his general.
Nairobi mall suspect exposes ‘Scandinavia connection’
The suspected involvement of a Norwegian in last month’s Nairobi mall bloodbath is bringing into focus Scandinavia’s large Somali Diaspora, which is believed to have supplied dozens of fighters in recent years.
Sapa-AFP
Dozens of Somali-born Scandinavians have returned to their homeland to join the jihad in recent years, observers said, as suspicion fell on a Norwegian man over last month’s Nairobi mall bloodbath.
Between 20 and 30 people have departed from Norway to join Somalia’s al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, some of them to hold leadership roles, according to Stig Jarle Hansen, an independent Norwegian Somalia specialist.
“We’re not talking mass recruitment, but some of these recruits are to be taken very seriously,” Hansen said.
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