Six In The Morning

 Air strikes target ex-Yemen president Saleh’s residence

    Former leader and his family believed to be safe after fresh attacks as Houthi rebels hint at ceasefire.

10 May 2015 06:14 GMT

Warplanes from the coalition led by Saudi Arabia has bombed the residence of Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital, Sanaa, but Yemen’s former president is believed to be safe, witnesses have said.

Three air strikes hit Saleh’s residence early on Sunday morning, but the president and his family are “well”, Yemeni news agency Khabar said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the area in the latest strike in Sanaa following a night of intensive air raids against rebel positions after rebels shelled Saudi border town on Thursday.

   Joko Widodo defends death penalty as ‘positive’ for Indonesia

 Indonesian president says it was his duty to carry out executions as calls surface for foreign aid to be linked with human rights in Asia Pacific region

Bridie Jabour and agencies @bkjabour Sunday 10 May 2015 03.20 BST

Indonesia’s president has declared the death penalty is “positive” for the country after seven foreign drug smugglers, including two Australians, were executed.

Joko Widodo defended the executions as Australia’s human rights commissioner, Gillian Triggs, suggested foreign aid should be more directly linked to improving the human rights records of countries in the region.

Widodo said “the death penalty is our positive law”, in an interview with reporters on Saturday in Abepura.

  Last great regions of pristine wilderness from Asia to Amazon under threat from massive road-building projects, scientist warns

  International finance is behind massive plans to bulldoze pristine areas from Sumatra to the Serengeti

 STEVE CONNOR   SCIENCE EDITOR  

The last great regions of pristine wilderness – from Asia to the Amazon – are threatened by an unprecedented road-building programme financed by aggressive development banks with little interest in protecting the natural world, a leading environmental scientist has warned.

Massive infrastructure and road-building are at the heart of huge development projects around the world, justified as vital attempts at helping the poorest attain a higher standard of living.

Clear-Cutting Romania: Logging Threatens One of Europe’s Last Virgin Forests

  One of Europe’s most beautiful forest areas is disappearing piece by piece in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains. Some of the logging is illegal. The wood is then sold to make flooring or heating pellets that are sold in Germany and other countries.

By Nils Klawitter

It’s not easy to fight for your cause with pepper spray in your mouth and eyes, but Gabriel Paun tried it anyway in front of the gate of a huge sawmill in the Romanian town of Sebes. On that day last winter, Paun had followed a truck loaded with lumber after the vehicle left the Retezat National Park, located in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains — one of Europe’s most beautiful forested regions — and in the heart of a threatened world.

Paun was wearing a brown vest over a camouflage hoodie. He had a buzzed, military style haircut. Paun, an activist with the Romanian organization Agent Green, followed the truck to the sawmill. He had a suspicion and all he had to do was make one phone call to confirm it.

Niger deports more Nigerians who fled Boko Haram

 

  By Kevin Conlon, CNN Updated 2211 GMT (0511 HKT) May 9, 2015

Niger deported 1,200 people who fled Nigeria so that it can carry out a military operation against Boko Haram, authorities in the French-speaking country said Saturday.

The 1,200 Nigerians are among the more than 6,000 that Niger has sent back as the Islamist militant group’s terror increasingly creeps over the border from northern Nigeria, according to Isa Umar Gusau, an adviser to Gov. Kashim Shettima of Nigeria’s Borno State.

Japan, Philippines to hold first naval drill in South China Sea: sources

 

By Tim Kelly and Manuel Mogato

TOKYO/MANILA (Reuters) – Japan and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval drill this month in the South China Sea near a disputed shoal claimed by Beijing, sources in Tokyo and the Philippines said.

The May 12 maritime safety exercise, which will practice the code for unplanned encounters at sea, known as CUES, is part of an agreement signed by Japan and the Philippines in January aimed at tightening security cooperation.