Six In The Morning

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.

As forests are cleared and species vanish, there’s one other loss: a world of languages

A new report shows a direct link between disappearing habitats and the loss of languages. One in four of the world’s 7,000 spoken tongues is now at risk of falling silent for ever as the threat to cultural biodiversity grows

John Vidal

The Observer, Sunday 8 June 2014

Benny Wenda from the highlands of West Papua speaks only nine languages these days. In his village of Pyramid in the Baliem valley, he converses in Lani, the language of his tribe, as well as Dani, Yali, Mee and Walak. Elsewhere, he speaks Indonesian, Papua New Guinean Pidgin, coastal Bayak and English.

Wenda has known and forgotten other languages. Some are indigenous, spoken by his grandparents or just a few hundred people from neighbouring valleys; others are the languages of Indonesian colonists and global businesses. His words for “greeting” are, variously, Kawonak, Nayak, Nareh, Koyao, Aelak, Selamt, Brata, Tabeaya and Hello.

As the Democratic Republic of Congo suffers another day of bloodshed, its soldiers talk with astonishing candour of their own brutality

Officially the country is at peace, but murder and rape are ever-present threats

KITTY KNOWLES , CHIARA RIMELLA   Sunday 08 June 2014

The Congolese soldiers march through the night, but not towards battle. In the dark, they are hunting for women who have fled their homes in Minova to hide in the bushes. The women know that if they are seen, they will be raped and maybe killed.

The army has been ordered to retreat to the town, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its young soldiers, 2,000 of them, fire gunshots in the air.

The commander gives an order. “Go and rape women,” he says. The soldiers obey.

“It’s true that we raped here. We found women because they can’t escape. You see her, you catch her, you take her away and you have your way with her,” says one soldier later. “Sometimes you kill her. When you finish raping then you kill her child. When we rape, we feel free.”

FARC rebels declare cease-fire for Colombia presidential runoff

The rebel group FARC has declared a cease-fire during Colombia’s upcoming presidential runoff. The election comes amid peace negotiations between Bogota and the rebels.

DW

FARC announced on Saturday that the cease-fire would begin at midnight on June 9 and run through the end of the month. The cease-fire was announced in a letter addressed to right-wing presidential challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga.

“We want to tell the country, through you, our decision to declare another unilateral cease-fire for the occasion of the second round of elections to the presidency of the republic,” read the letter, which was signed by FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez, known as Timochenko.

Ukraine’s new president stands up to Putin over Crimea

Ukraine’s new president Petro Poroshenko said Russian occupied Crimea is still Ukrainian soil. Russia reportedly tightened border security.

By Richard Balmforth, Reuters

Ukraine’s new president Petro Poroshenko said his country would never give up Crimea and would not compromise on its path towards closer ties with Europe, spelling out a defiant message to Russia in his inaugural speech on Saturday.

The 48-year-old billionaire took the oath of office before parliament, buoyed by Western support but facing a crisis in relations with Russia as a separatist uprising seethes in the east of his country.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March, weeks after street protests ousted Poroshenko’s pro-Moscow predecessor Viktor Yanukovich, in a move that has provoked the deepest crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War.

“Citizens of Ukraine will never enjoy the beauty of peace unless we settle our relations with Russia. Russia occupied Crimea, which was, is, and will be, Ukrainian soil,” Poroshenko said.

Thai junta amasses security force to smother Bangkok protests

 

 By By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Panarat Thepgumpanat

Thailand’s junta has prepared a force of over 6,000 troops and police for deployment in Bangkok on Sunday to smother protests and prevent opposition to the May 22 coup from gaining momentum.

The military has cracked down hard on pro-democracy dissidents and supporters since it ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra last month, seeking to mute criticism and nip protests in the bud.