Six In The Morning

Syria crisis: US hails opposition move to attend peace talks

 19 January 2014 Last updated at 04:41 GMT



US Secretary of State John Kerry has welcomed a decision by Syria’s main political opposition group to attend next week’s peace talks in Switzerland.

His praise for the Syrian National Coalition’s “courageous” move was echoed by the UK and France.

The aim of the talks, to be held in Montreux, is to start the process of setting up a transitional government to end the war in Syria.

The three-year conflict has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.

An estimated two million people have fled the country and some 6.5 million have been internally displaced.

‘Monsieur Jacques’ reveals role in release of Nelson Mandela

Working in the shadows between the Marxist and apartheid regimes of Angola and South Africa, businessman Jean-Yves Ollivier helped broker changes that shook a nation

Dalya Alberge

The Observer, Sunday 19 January 2014

The extraordinary part played by a French businessman in hastening the collapse of apartheid and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison after 26 years is revealed in a documentary to be shown in British cinemas.

In the 1980s Jean-Yves Ollivier was a commodities trader who used business connections and private funds to negotiate an African maze. Under the codename Monsieur Jacques, he acted as an unofficial diplomat, influencing the course of talks between African and western political leaders.

No picnic at Hanging Rock: Australian beauty spot which was setting for famed Seventies film under threat from hotel developers

Protest meetings – and even a protest picnic – held at the site as petition with 5,000 signatures urges council to reconsider

 KATHY MARKS  Author Biography   Sunday 19 January 2014

Visitors to Hanging Rock no longer call out “Miranda, Miranda, where are you?” as they were wont to following the release of Peter Weir’s film about the mysterious disappearance of three schoolgirls and a teacher on St Valentine’s Day, 1900.

Hanging Rock remains a popular day-trip destination, not to mention picnic spot. But its unique ambience is under threat, thanks to a bizarre plan by the local council to encourage developers to build a conference centre and 100-room hotel at the site high up in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges.

Hydropower Struggle: Dams Threaten Europe’s Last Wild Rivers

Europe’s last remaining wild rivers flow through the Balkans, providing stunning scenery and habitat to myriad plants and animals. But hundreds of dam projects threaten to do irreparable harm to the region’s unique biospheres — to provide much needed electricity to the people who live there.

 By Philip Bethge

How did Europe’s rivers look before they were tamed — back when they were allowed to flow freely through the beds they spent centuries carving out?

Most of the Continent’s waterways, like the Elbe, the Rhine and the Danube, have long since been hemmed in. But examples of Europe’s largely vanished wilderness remain. Such as the Vjosë, which flows unfettered through its valley in southwestern Albania, splitting off into tributaries that once again flow together in a constant game of give-and-take with solid ground.

“With every flood, the Vjosë shifts its course,” says Ulrich Eichelmann, a conservationist with the organization RiverWatch, as he looks across to the narrow ribbon of alluvial forest that clings to the side of the valley. “The river fills the entire valley,” says the 52-year-old. “Such a thing in Europe can only be found here, in the Balkans.” Then he pauses. On the opposite shore, a cormorant takes flight.

Brazil shopping malls: New epicenter for social protest?

In recent months, Facebook-organized teen gatherings at malls in São Paulo have caused protest that’s fractured Brazilians along class lines.

By Rachel Glickhouse, Guest blogger

When you think about social conflict in Brazil, you probably don’t think of a mall. But in recent months, the mall has become the epicenter of a different kind of protest in and around Brazil’s largest city, a protest that has fractured along class lines and has divided Brazilians.

What are the rolezinhos?

The so-called “rolezinhos no shopping” began in December in São Paulo. These are mass mall gatherings organized on Facebook, made up of young people, largely working class from the city outskirts. Hundreds, and even thousands of teens show up for these events. They’re not explicitly political in nature; they’re meant to be social, as well as for flirting and meeting members of the opposite sex.

Gay rights protester reportedly detained at Sochi Olympic torch relay

 

By Nick Zaccardi,

NBC Olympic Talk

A man who unfurled a rainbow flag at the Olympic torch relay in Russia was detained and taken to a police station Saturday.

Pavel Lebedev was protesting growing homophobia in Russia in his hometown of Voronezh, according to The Associated Press. Voronezh is 560 miles north of Sochi.

Photos show Lebedev pulling out a flag and being wrestled to the snow by men described as Olympic security personnel by the AP.

“Hosting the Games here contradicts the basic principles of the Olympics, which is to cultivate tolerance,” Lebedev said in a phone interview while at the police station, according to the AP.