Six In The Morning

Iran nuclear talks: Doubts over deal as deadline looms

23 November 2014 Last updated at 05:00

BBC

Doubts are growing that Monday’s deadline for a deal on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme will be met at talks in Vienna in Austria.

Both the US and Germany said the sides were working to close “big gaps”, with some suggestions that the deadline could be extended.

Six world powers want Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of United Nations sanctions.

Iran rejects claims that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

It says its programme is purely peaceful for energy purposes.

Representatives of the so-called P5+1 group – Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany – are taking part in the negotiations with Iran in the Austrian capital.

Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the remaining Christians in the country

World View: After 2,000 years, a community will try anything – including pretending to convert to Islam – to avoid losing everything

PATRICK COCKBURN Sunday 23 November 2014

Two years ago Jalal Yako, a Syriac Catholic priest, returned to his home town of Qaraqosh to persuade members of his community to stay in Iraq and not to emigrate because of the violence directed against them.

“I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was to get Christians to stay here,” he says. “The Pope in Lebanon two years ago had established a mission to get Christians in the East to stay here.”

Father Yako laboured among the Syriac Catholics, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, who had seen the number of Christians in Iraq decline from over one million at the time of the American invasion in 2003 to about 250,000 today.

Protesters clash with police in France over young activist killed by grenade

 Remi Fraisse, 21, was killed by a so-called ‘offensive grenade’ during a standoff between police and opponents of a dam project

 Reuters The Observer, Sunday 23 November 2014

Protesters clashed with police in southern France on Saturday over the death of a young activist killed by a police grenade, in the latest of a series of demonstrations which have embarrassed the Socialist government.

At least 16 people were arrested in Toulouse after garbage containers were set on fire and bus stops smashed on the margins of an otherwise peaceful march where demonstrators held placards reading “end to the licence to kill”.

Iran nuclear talks near ‘moment of truth’

Iran and international negotiators are facing an uphill battle if they are to reach an historic agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. Berlin has claimed that talks in Vienna represent a “moment of truth.”

  DW-DE

US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured above right) warned of difficulties in talks about a nuclear deal with Iran as Monday’s deadline for an agreement approaches.

“We’re working hard,” Kerry said in Vienna, “and we hope we’re making careful progress, but we have big gaps, we still have some serious gaps, which we’re working to close.”

Kerry, who remained in Vienna after postponing a trip to Paris on Friday, met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (above left) on Saturday afternoon. The meeting was the pair’s fourth in three days.

 China upholds life sentence for Uighur academic

Economist Ilham Tohti received a life sentence in September for ‘splittism’ and ‘inciting hatred.’ Many in the academic and diplomatic community say he is a rare prominent voice of moderation.

 By Robert Marquand, Staff writer

A Chinese court upheld a life sentence for internationally respected Uighur economist Ilham Tohti today, angering human rights groups and many in the academic and diplomatic communities who describe him as a voice of moderation during ongoing ethnic unrest in China’s far west.

In September, Mr. Tohti was charged in an Urumqi court with “splittism” and “inciting hatred” and was given a life sentence. The harshness of the ruling was condemned by American and European governments and leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Saudi Arabia ‘intensifies Twitter crackdown’

Human Rights Watch says Saudi Arabia is using “vague law” to charge citizens for dissenting tweets.

Last updated: 23 Nov 2014 07:19

Saudi authorities have stepped up their crackdown on online dissidents, Human Rights Watch said, alleging that prosecutors and judges use “vague law” to charge citizens for peaceful tweets and social media comments.

The New York-based rights organisation on Sunday called on the government to end the crackdown and live up to its obligations to respect free speech.

Three prominent lawyers were convicted of criticising the Justice Ministry last month and sentenced to prison terms of between five and eight years.