Six In The Morning

 Revealed: how the world turned its back on rape victims of Congo

    A year ago a global summit hosted by Angelina Jolie and William Hague vowed to end army sexual violence in Africa. But women are still threatened and funds are drying up

Mark Townsend in Minova

On an imposing hill above the town of Minova, at the end of a trail down which rivulets of rainwater run past tarpaulin-tented homes, a small women’s refuge can be found.

Here, groups of women silently till the land. Others stare warily over Lake Kivu towards the distant mountains, waiting for news of the fighting.

Three years have passed since a column of Congolese soldiers entered Minova after being defeated and ousted by M23 rebels from the nearby city of Goma. Many were drunk, firing their guns in frustration towards the sky, but mostly they were humiliated. Over the next three days they took their defeat out on the women and girls of Minova.

 Sudan’s Bashir travels to S Africa despite ICC warrant

 ICC has asked members, including South Africa, to arrest President Bashir who is set to join AU talks in Johannesburg.

 14 Jun 2015 08:00 GMT

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has travelled to South Africa to attend an African Union summit, despite being the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

The court issued the arrest warrant in 2009, accusing Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Darfur. He denies the charges.

Bashir boarded a flight on Saturday to Johannesburg to head Sudan’s delegation at the summit which starts on Sunday, presidential sources and the state Sudan News Agency said.

Spies need a view from outside the top secret bubble

  The biggest intelligence failures are rooted in the kind of errors that proper oversight would help to eliminate

 STEPHEN GREY

Contrast the spies of yesteryear with Ryan Fogle, the forlorn-looking CIA officer who was paraded on Russian television in 2013 after being caught red-handed on a mission in Moscow. Apart from a hilarious wig, a pair of shades, knife, compass and a large wodge of €500 notes, his main piece of kit was a typed letter that instructed a would-be Russian agent on how to create a Gmail account to communicate with the CIA.

“We can offer up to $1m a year for long-term co-operation, with extra bonuses if we receive some helpful information,” it read. “To get back with us, please go to an internet café, or a coffee shop that has wi-fi, and open a new Gmail account which you will use exclusively to contact us.”

  Could ‘Jurassic World’ become reality?

     Hollywood has turned the idea of de-extinction into blockbusters, with the newest dinosaur movie just around the corner. But some scientists say creating new dino-like animals could be reality – someday.

DW-DE

“Welcome to Jurassic Park!” These words, spoken by Richard Attenborough’s character John Hammond, set in motion a great adventure for millions of moviegoers when Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster “Jurassic Park” was released in 1993. All over the world, the movie about a dinosaur theme park gone horribly wrong sparked fantasies about bringing the giants back from extinction.

The June release of “Jurassic World,” the fourth film in the series, will likely restart dinosaur mania. But is the idea of de-extinction really just a crazy movie plot – or could T-Rex and Brontosaurus one day roam the earth again?

Ethnic cleansing claims as Kurds take fight to Islamic State in Syria

  June 14, 2015 – 5:57PM

  Rana Moussaoui

Beirut: Kurdish fighters have advanced to the outskirts of a key Syrian border town held by Islamic State, as Turkish forces sought to prevent thousands fleeing the fighting from crossing the frontier.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have edged closer to Tal Abyad, a border town used by jihadists as a gateway from Turkey into Syria’s Raqqa province, the Islamic State’s stronghold.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said YPG fighters, backed by Syrian rebels and air strikes from the US-led coalition fighting IS, advanced to within a few kilometres of the town.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said there were only 150 IS fighters holding Tal Abyad itself, and that they had threatened to withdraw if they did not receive reinforcements from Raqqa.

New exhibit offers different perspective on World War II end

 

 By MATTHEW PENNINGTON

WASHINGTON (AP) – As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, a new museum exhibition provides a different perspective on the end of the conflict – one in which Japanese were the victims.

That has the potential to upset American veterans, especially at a time of intensifying focus on Japan’s reluctance to face up to its militaristic past.

The American University Museum is showcasing artifacts and art recalling the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: a pocket watch that stopped at 8:15 a.m., when the first atomic bomb dropped; a picture of twisted bodies and screaming faces engulfed by the flames; the school lunch box of a girl who disappeared without trace.