Six In The Morning Thursday December 10

Three years and 90,000 gun deaths since Sandy Hook, appetite for change builds

Hundreds of vigils for gun violence victims are to be held across the US, and organisers sense a change, saying people are coming together like never before

Holding candles aloft and singing This Little Light of Mine with verve, about 500 people held a national vigil for victims of gun violence on Wednesday and spoke of a social movement gathering momentum across America.

There was standing room only at the St Mark’s Episcopal church on Capitol Hill, Washington, for the biggest of hundreds of vigils planned across the US this week, spurred by recent deadly shootings from Colorado to California.

On a night of tears and solemn determination there was testimony from survivors and families who have lost loved ones to gun violence, as well as prayers, music and speeches from politicians, while the names and faces of victims were projected on to a big screen throughout.

This is democracy – Marine Le Pen deserves the test of French power

Personally, I was surprised the Front National did not do better

 

The second and last stage of this weekend’s regional elections in France is being viewed with trepidation. The fear is that the results will confirm a sharp turn to the right in French national politics that makes the leader of the Front National, Marine Le Pen, a credible presidential contender in 2017.

And while France’s chattering classes agonise over what this might mean for the future of their country, those elsewhere ponder the impetus that a victory in France might give to the centrifugal forces already gathering in Europe. A Le Pen presidency plus a British vote to leave the EU could summarily end the 20th-century European dream.

Before despair overtakes all those of us who delight in France and stubbornly hope that the European Union can flourish, however, it is worth looking more closely at what the latest French vote really says. Is the future as black as it is being painted?

 

Climate deal still up in air

With two days left at COP21, a new draft agreement is on the table. There is optimism a consensus will be reached, but major sticking points remain as negotiations enter crunch time, Andrea Rönsberg reports from Paris.

Half an hour to grab a sandwich – that was all the time French foreign minister Laurent Fabius granted negotiators late on Wednesday evening before urging them to reconvene for discussions that were expected to go through the night.

Some five hours earlier, Fabius had presented negotiators with a streamlined draft for a global climate agreement.

At just under 30 pages, it is more concise than an earlier version containing more than 40.

Taking the floor on behalf of India, a negotiator acknowledged that the draft was “a good starting point for the final push.”

 

A wrong call that sank Chennai

Updated: December 10, 2015 10:20 IST

SRINIVASAN RAMANI

 

VASANTH SRINIVASAN

 

As the flood water recedes in Chennai, serious questions are being raised about reservoir management in the city. Much of the flooding and subsequent waterlogging was a consequence of the outflows from major reservoirs into swollen rivers and into the city following heavy rains. The release of waters from the Chembarambakkam reservoir in particular has received much attention.

Official data from the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board for the last 20 days suggest that the high precipitation and reservoir outflows on November 16 and December 1 respectively were primarily responsible for swelling the rivers. On November 17, 18,000 cusecs was released from the reservoir in Chembarambakkam.

However, from November 24 to November 30, when the city experienced minimal rainfall, the outflows from the reservoir were limited, even as the storage levels were maintained at almost 85-88% of the total capacity of 3645 mcft. When heavy rains to the tune of nearly 48 cm fell on the reservoir on December 1, 29,000 cusecs was released over 12 hours.

Philippines police officers fired over 2009 massacre

All but one of the 21 officers found guilty of grave misconduct during attack in Maguindanao that killed 58 people.

| Asia Pacific, Philippines

The Philippines‘ police board has dismissed 21 officers for being “co-conspirators” in the country’s worst political massacre six years ago when the son of a politician and his bodyguards shot dead 58 people, including 32 journalists.

The officers were dismissed for failing to stop the killings in the southern province of Maguindanao in November 2009, according to a police statement issued on Thursday.

All but one of the officers were found guilty of grave misconduct.

The remaining officer, Inspector Saudi Matabalao Mokamad, was found to have ignored the shooting he heard from the crime scene and not reporting it to his superiors.

He was dismissed on lesser charges.

“The 20 respondents were held liable for opting to become silent spectators to a crime unfolding before their very eyes,” said the statement.

Will China protect Kim Jong Un from international justice?

Updated 0528 GMT (1328 HKT) December 10, 2015

The United Nations Security Council will discuss the human rights situation in North Korea on Thursday, as defectors and victims of torture complain that not enough has been done since the publication of a landmark report in 2014.

The report by a U.N. panel found human rights abuses on a scale “without parallel in the contemporary world,” comparable to the atrocities of Nazi Germany, and recommended sending the case and those responsible to the International Criminal Court.

Any discussion by the Security Council will take place over the strong opposition of permanent member and veto-holder China, which has worked behind the scenes to block the debate, according to diplomatic sources.

“We have always opposed the involvement of the U.N. Security Council in a country’s human rights issues,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press conference in Beijing.