Six In The Morning

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.

How Antwerp turned into Europe’s go-to city for cocaine

Antwerp, Belgium’s genteel port city, is now revealed as a global drugs gateway and the cocaine capital of Europe

Jamie Doward

The Observer, Sunday 1 June 2014

A country probably has to admit to a drugs problem when even its wildlife is on cocaine. As of yesterday morning, an online petition calling on the Belgian government to protect the country’s racing pigeons from being doped with performance-enchancing cocaine was 200 shy of its target of 45,000 signatures.

That nefarious pigeon fanciers have apparently been using the drug as their doping agent of choice is a reminder that a nation often pilloried for being boring is also partial to South America’s most notorious export.

 Brazil’s sex trade: How the country’s one million prostitutes are preparing for the World Cup

The headlines say that the sex workers of Brazil are preparing for the World Cup with English lessons and credit-card facilities. But what is life really like in the country’s licensed brothels? Ewan MacKenna reports from the ‘zonas’ of Belo Horizonte, where England will play their final group match

EWAN MACKENNA   Sunday 01 June 2014

According to the locals, it’s the bar capital of the world, with more than 12,000 catering for the five million citizens of Brazil’s third city. Others will recall Belo Horizonte as the scene of England’s most humiliating football defeat, when a hearse driver and teacher from the US stunned the national team at the 1950 World Cup. But if the 5,000 or so English ticket holders expected here for England’s final group game against Costa Rica in a few weeks’ time look a little more closely, they may remember it for something else. As is the case across Brazil, peer behind the mask and another reality stares back at you.

The Opinion-Makers: How Russia Is Winning the Propaganda War

With the help of news services like RT and Ruptly, the Kremlin is seeking to reshape the way the world thinks about Russia. And it has been highly successful: Vladimir Putin has won the propaganda war over Ukraine and the West is divided.

By SPIEGEL Staff

Ivan Rodionov sits in his office at Berlin’s Postdamer Platz and seems to relish his role as the bad guy. He rails in almost accent-free German, with a quiet, but sharp voice, on the German media, which, he claims, have been walking in “lockstep” when it comes to their coverage of the Ukraine crisis. During recent appearances on two major German talk shows, Rodionov disputed allegations that Russian soldiers had infiltrated Crimea prior to the controversial referendum and its annexation by Russia. He says it’s the “radical right-wing views” of the Kiev government, and not Russia, that poses the threat. “Western politicians,” he says, “are either helping directly or are at least looking on.”  

West Africa seeks regional effort against Boko Haram

The West African bloc announced plans Saturday to increase cooperation with Central African states in the battle against “terrorism”, amid fears of Boko Haram’s insurgency spreading across the region.

 AFP

Nigeria has repeatedly said it needs more help from its central African neighbours — including Chad, Cameroon and Niger — to end the brutal five-year insurgency being waged by the Islamists.

In the final communique of an extraordinary security summit, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it would “establish a high level partnership with Central African States to effectively combat terrorism.”

Nigeria insists that Boko Haram fighters escape military pursuit by fleeing across the porous borders of its northeastern neighbours and some analysts believe senior Boko Haram commanders are in fact based in Cameroon.

Pakistan’s ‘Burka Avenger’ uses books, pens to right wrongs

 A children’s cartoon TV series, in which a female superhero dons a burka to fight injustice, has won a prestigious Peabody Award.

 By Nita Bhalla, Thomson Reuters Foundation

NEW DELHI

“Burka Avenger,” a Pakistani children’s cartoon series about a female superhero who dons a burka to tackle a range of issues from discrimination against women to environmental protection, has won a prestigious Peabody Award, the organization has said.

The 13-episode series was launched in Pakistan in August last year and has been extremely popular both there and abroad.

Its main protagonist, a teacher called Jiya – who uses books and pens as weapons in her fight – was named as one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013 by Time magazine.