Six In The Morning

Cyclone Hudhud pounds India’s Andhra Pradesh and Orissa

 12 October 2014 Last updated at 08:07

BBC

Cyclone Hudhud is pounding the eastern Indian coast, causing extensive damage and prompting the evacuation of some 300,000 people.

The cyclone, classed “very severe” and bringing winds of up to 195km/h (120mph), is passing over the coast near the city of Visakhapatnam.

Hundreds of trees have been uprooted and power lines brought down in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states.

Two people have so far been reported killed in Andhra Pradesh.

It is feared a storm surge of up to two metres could inundate low-lying areas and hundreds of relief centres have been opened in the two states. Disaster relief teams have also been sent.

Girls worldwide are ‘living in fear of abuse’

 Plan International research in Asia, South America and Africa produces worrying findings of girls living in fear and enduring abuse

Tracy McVeigh

The Observer, Sunday 12 October 2014

Girls across the world face a future where they have no control over who they marry or when they have babies, according to a survey by children’s charity Plan International.

The Hear Our Voices research showed that 52% of girls surveyed felt they were unlikely to be able to decide for themselves whether or not they got pregnant, while 40% said they were unlikely to be able to choose their husband. Plan spoke to more than 7,000 adolescent girls and boys in 11 countries across Asia, South America and Africa – the charity claims it is the largest study of its type to date.

Italy’s city mayors go to the barricades to defend same-sex marriages performed abroad

 The country is the last major Western nation not to allow even civil partnerships for gays and lesbians

 MICHAEL DAY ROME  Sunday 12 October 2014

Italian cities are leading a rebellion against the state over its hard-line stance on gay marriage.

The mayors of Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples are openly defying an order by the coalition government’s right-wing Minister of the Interior, Angelino Alfano, to remove from city registers any gay and lesbian unions performed abroad.

Italy is the last major Western nation not to allow even civil partnerships for gays and lesbians. As a result, hundreds of same-sex couples have travelled to the US or other EU countries to tie the knot.

The fight to keep ‘macho men’ off election ballots in Bolivia

Two political scandals swept headlines in Bolivia recently, giving rise to protests and a campaign to publicize past misogynistic comments or policies by political candidates. Violence against women affects more than 50 percent of Bolivian females.

       By Sara Shahriari, Correspondent

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA – In the lead-up to Bolivia’s Oct. 12 presidential election, stump-speech favorites like the economy and unemployment are being debated side-by-side with a slightly less conventional topic here: women’s safety. A handful of controversial statements involving male politicians this election season combined with a highly publicized series of murders, rapes, and kidnappings of females across the country have made violence against women a top issue as Bolivians go to the polls.

President Evo Morales, who is running for his third consecutive term in office, is expected to retake the presidency with roughly 59 percent of the vote. In the past he has come under fire for making sexist jokes, but has said little on the recent events.

China detains scholar on charge of troublemaking



(AP)

 A Chinese scholar and rights advocate who founded an influential non-governmental think tank has been detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles, his lawyer said Sunday.

Guo Yushan is the latest of dozens of people who have been detained at a time when Hong Kong protesters are demanding universal suffrage in elections for the top official of the semiautonomous territory.

Earlier this month, Beijing detained the dissident poet Wang Zang and seven others ahead of a poetry reading planned in Beijing to support the Hong Kong protesters.

 Gunther Holtorf’s journey around the world could be the longest road trip

For 26 years German Gunther Holtorf was traveling around the world with Otto – a vehicle he refers to as “part of my family.” This week he returned to Berlin – as nothing less but a winner.

  DW

It was supposed to be an 18-month long adventure in Africa, but has become a lot more than that. 76 year old Gunther Holtorf from Gottingen decided to leave everything behind 26 years ago. He quit his job at Lufthansa and hit the road in a journey that took him around the world.

“The more you have traveled, the more you realize how little you have seen,” Holtorf said upon his return to Berlin this week. He traveled with his wife, Christine, completely under the radar – there was no Facebook at the time – no mobile phones and no Web. It was just the two of them and Otto, their beloved Mercedes G wagon, which they consider “the third member of the family.”

Guo Yushan is the latest of dozens of people who have been detained at a time when Hong Kong protesters are demanding universal suffrage in elections for the top official of the semiautonomous territory.

Earlier this month, Beijing detained the dissident poet Wang Zang and seven others ahead of a poetry reading planned in Beijing to support the Hong Kong protesters.