Six In The Morning

 Fifa corruption: Documents show details of Jack Warner ‘bribes’

   

 By Ed Thomas BBC News, Trinidad

A BBC investigation has seen evidence that details what happened to the $10m sent from Fifa to accounts controlled by former vice-president Jack Warner.

The money, sent on behalf of South Africa, was meant to be used for its Caribbean diaspora legacy programme.

But documents suggest Mr Warner used the payment for cash withdrawals, personal loans and to launder money.

The 72-year-old, who has been indicted by the FBI for corruption, denies all claims of wrongdoing.

 Half the dolphins caught in Japan hunt exported despite global outcry: report  

 Of the live dolphins caught in the town of Taiji about half find buyers in China and other countries, it’s reported, despite criticism of the hunt

Agence France-Presse Sunday 7 June 2015 05.35 BST

About half of the live dolphins caught in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji were exported to China and other countries despite global criticism of the hunting technique used, a news report has said.

The so-called “drive hunt” method has been criticised overseas as cruel and Japanese zoos and aquariums were recently forced to vow not to buy animals caught with the controversial fishing.

War with Isis: As the militant threat grows, so does the West’s self-deception

  World View: Chinese mandarins used to claim rhubarb was a war-winning weapon. Our leaders also fantasise

 Patrick Cockburn

In the declining years of the Chinese empire, high officials developed a handy way of dealing with military setbacks and defeats by foreign powers. They simply announced that the heroic forces of the emperor had won yet another victory against the barbarian enemy.

To do those officials credit, they saw that serial mendacity was only a short-term solution to their problems and the news about China’s calamitous defeats could not be permanently suppressed. But they believed that by the time this became apparent, one of their country’s hidden strengths would have kicked in which would give them a tremendous advantage in any drawn-out conflict.

  Why Russia cancelled South Stream

     Russia’s no 2 export changes its strategy

by Hélène Richard

Russia has abandoned its plans to build the South Stream gas pipeline, intended to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea and via Bulgaria to the EU. President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to Turkey last December: “If Europe does not want to implement [South Stream], then it will not be implemented. We will redirect our energy flows to other regions of the world” – mainly Asia.

The South Stream project involved European investors – EDF (France), ENI (Italy) and Wintershall (Germany) – and was launched in 2006 with the aim of bypassing Ukraine and scuppering the Nabucco pipeline (which was to link the gas fields of the Caspian Sea to central Europe). The decision to cancel South Stream came at a time of increased diplomatic tension with the EU (which had adopted sanctions against Russia after its annexation of Crimea in March 2014).

Turks vote in election set to shape Erdogan’s legacy

  World | Sun Jun 7, 2015 3:56am EDT

   ISTANBUL | By Daren Butler and Ayla Jean Yackley

Turks began voting on Sunday in the closest parliamentary election in more than a decade, one that could pave the way for President Tayyip Erdogan to amass greater power or end 12 years of single-party rule for the AK Party he founded.

A deadly bombing in the mainly Kurdish southeast on Friday has magnified attention on the pro-Kurdish opposition, which is trying to enter parliament as a party for the first time. Efforts to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency as well as Erdogan’s political ambitions could hinge on that party’s fate.

Amnesty International calls for probe into Nigerian army war crimes

  The organisation wants senior military officers investigated for war crimes including murder, starvation, suffocation and torture.

 David Smith

Senior military officers in Nigeria should be investigated for war crimes including the murder, starvation, suffocation and torturing to death of 8 000 people, Amnesty International has said.

An investigation carried out over several years, perhaps the most damning account yet of the military response to Boko Haram, casts a shadow over the first foreign trip of the new Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, during which he is likely to discuss a fresh regional strategy against the Islamist group.

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This week Amnesty set out the case against five senior Nigerian officers in a 133-page report based on hundreds of interviews, including with military sources, and leaked defence ministry documents.