Six In The Morning

Turkey launches rescue operation inside Syria

      Turkish forces carry out incursion into Syria to evacuate Turkish soldiers from Suleyman Shah tomb, Turkish PM confirms.

22 Feb 2015 07:27 GMT

Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah in Syria have been successfully evacuated to Turkey in a military operation overnight, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, would be moved to a different area of Syria which has been brought under Turkish military control.

The military said in a statement that there had been no clashes during the operation but that one soldier had been killed in an accident.

 At long last, Australia is able to halt the relentless advance of the cane toad

  The toad’s seemingly relentless advance across the Australian landscape has challenged and defeated two generations

Lewis Smith  Sunday 22 February 2015

When farming experts sought a solution 80 years ago to the damage that beetles were doing to Australia’s sugar cane crops, and to profits, they fixed upon a voracious amphibian as the answer. It was a decision they have regretted ever since.

Introducing the cane toad Down Under in 1935 was an ecological disaster. Placed in where food was plentiful and predators had no idea how to avoid its highly toxic skin, the toad thrived while native wildlife paid the price. Quolls (carnivorous marsupials), goannas (monitor lizards), and the fearsome freshwater crocodile could die from eating the toxic toad which can also shoot its venom and blind a predator.

  The Grexit Dilemma: What Would Happen if Greece Leaves the Euro Zone?

  Banks across Europe, including the European Central Bank, are preparing for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone. With Athens and Brussels still at odds, such an eventuality seems more realistic than ever. But how disruptive would a Grexit really be?

By SPIEGEL Staff

On Wednesday of this week, 30 top managers at a large German bank all received a text message and an email at the exact same time. A short time later, their mobile phones rang with an automated voice giving them all passwords and a number to call at exactly 8:30 a.m. to join a teleconference with the board of directors.

The communication blast was the initial step of the bank’s emergency “Grexit” plan, a strategy laid out in a document dozens of pages long detailing exactly how managers should react in the event that Greece leaves the euro zone.

 Runaway British schoolgirls ‘have already crossed Syrian border’

February 22, 2015 – 5:45PM

  Patrick Sawer

London: Three British “jihadi brides” who ran away from home to join fighters from Islamic State were believed on Saturdayto have already crossed the Turkish border into Syria.

The three students, from Bethnal Green Academy in East London, were at the centre of an increasingly desperate international hunt to find them before they entered territory controlled by fighters from IS.  But intelligence sources in Turkey said Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unnamed 15-year-old thought ot be Amira Abase appear to have travelled by car to the border on Friday, from where they crossed into the IS-controlled town of Tal Abyad, in Syria.

Nigeria military retakes Boko Haram town: Is the tide turning?

    Nigerian forces report that they have recaptured Baga, the site of one of Boko Haram’s deadliest attacks. Is Boko Haram on the run or getting ready to strike back?

  By Samantha Laine, Staff Writer

On Saturday, Nigeria’s armed forces announced on their Twitter page that they re-captured the town of Baga from Boko Haram, a terrorist organization which has claimed thousands of lives since gaining power in 2009.

The official Twitter account of the Nigerian Armed Forces tweeted:

“We have secured Baga. We are now in full control. There are only mopping up exercises left to do,” Defense Spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade told Reuters. Olukolade also said that “a large number of terrorists had drowned in Lake Chad” as troops advanced on Baga.

It’s (almost) official: The 2022 World Cup is a total abomination



   

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is still seven years away, but this week brought the latest in a long line of indignities and injustices that already define it. Call it the cherry on top of a festering, rotten sundae that won’t be served until the next decade.

Shady bidding process? Check. Atrocious working conditions that have led to scores of deaths of migrant workers building the mega-event’s infrastructure? Check. And now, moving the event to an awkward – almost sacrilegious – time of year? Check, apparently.

Sports Illustrated soccer reporter Grant Wahl reported this week that it’s a “done deal” that the 2022 World Cup will take place in November and December instead of its standard summer timeframe. FIFA brass are expected to make that move official at a meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, next month, according to Wahl.