Middle East Gasps In The Grip Of Drought

2:23am UK, Thursday December 09, 2010

Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent

The Middle East is in the grip of an almost Biblical drought which has brought the region's three major religions together to pray for rain.

Video: It may look inviting compared to arctic Britain - but people in Israel are seriously worried

Israel's main water source, the Sea of Galilee, is in serious trouble.

November saw it receive the least amount of water since records began in 1927.

While Britain and the rest of Europe battle arctic weather conditions, temperatures on Israel's coast remain in the mid '20s.

The month of November saw virtually no rainfall.

There has not been enough rain in the region for the last seven years.

Channel 10 weather forecaster Danny Roop told Sky News: "If I look at the the meteorology it's something we didn’t see for many years, many years, maybe from the beginning of the '60s. It’s really troubling for Israel."

Muslims pray for rain in drought-hit Jordan during a mass in Amman

The dangers of these dry conditions were made tragically clear last week with the country's worst ever forest fires, which claimed more than 40 lives and devastated thousands of acres of trees.

Agriculture is threatened by both the lack of water and seasonal confusion.

Unusually clement conditions, mean plants like fruit trees are now blooming, tricked into thinking it is spring.

The drought has brought the Holy Land’s three religions together to pray for rain

Jews, Muslims and Christians have held joint prayer sessions calling for divine intervention.

In Jordan, the government has been encouraging special prayers and fasting to ask for rain.

Water runs out at an artificial lake in Qaraoun, Lebanon

The desert kingdom now has an estimated shortfall of 500m cubic metres of water.

Lebanon is in similar trouble.

Forest fires broke out in the north over the weekend, though not on the same scale as Israel.

Not everyone was complaining when Sky News filmed on the beach in Tel Aviv.

Israelis were making the most of the unusual conditions, sunbathing and eating ice creams, while sparing a thought for people shivering through freezing temperatures in Britain.

This week saw one day of heavy rainfall before conditions turned hot and dry again.

More rain is predicted but water authorities say not nearly enough.

A Look At The National Newspaper Front Pages

11:25pm UK, Wednesday December 08, 2010

Thursday's front pages focus on what has been dubbed "Wiki Wars" - attacks by hacktivists on the websites of companies that have severed their links with the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Sky News presenter Anna Botting talks to writer and broadcaster David Prever.

:03am UK, Thursday December 09, 2010

Emma Hurd, Africa correspondent

As military tensions mount in Sudan over the South's bid for independence, the fate of one tiny state is now key to determining whether the region descends into war.

Sudan's Fate In Hands Of Small State Of Abyei

2:03am UK, Thursday December 09, 2010

Emma Hurd, Africa correspondent

As military tensions mount in Sudan over the South's bid for independence, the fate of one tiny state is now key to determining whether the region descends into war.

Abyei, with a population of just 80,000, is officially part of northern Sudan, but the people are demanding the right to join the south in separating from Khartoum.

In the dusty streets of the main town - little more than a cluster of stalls and rows of shacks - the residents of Abyei are bracing themselves for the consequences of their bid for freedom.

Tribal leaders here have warned them that it could mean another war.

"We will not attack them, but the North will attack us," Kuol Deng, the local chief said.

"And then there will be war because we can't just stand by and let them burn Abyei again."

Police guard during the last day of voter registration in Khartoum

Long after the civil war ended in the rest of Sudan, the fighting in Abyei continued.

The conflict has been fuelled by the presence of oil in the area, along with the fertile grazing land.

Scores died in 2008 after a spat between nomadic tribesmen turned into a clash between the forces of the North and South.

In October this year, a Sudanese soldier opened fire in the centre of Abyei, wounding a trader - an incident viewed as an act of provocation by Khartoum.

The area is a flashpoint for conflict because it is shared by the Dinka tribe, who are loyal to the South, and the northern supporting Misseriya, who graze their cattle in Abyei during the dry season.

Tribal rivalries frequently lead to violence, and with the forces of the north and the South massed around the area even a small incident could trigger a war that could spread not just through the south of Sudan, but into neighbouring Darfur.

UN peacekeepers in the area are keeping watch from their barbed wire compound in the centre of Abyei as tensions rise.

But for all the uncertainty, thousands of people who fled the fighting in the area years ago are now heading home.

Buses bump along the dirt tracks in convoy, stacked with mattresses and plastic chairs - the few belongings they possess after a life in exile in the North.

We will not attack them, but the north will attack us. And then there will be war because we can't just stand by and let them burn Abyei again.

Kuol Deng, local chief

They have returned because they want to vote in the referendum, and also because they fear reprisals if they stay in the North.

"I heard that they are going to kill us there," Adar Riak, who is eight months pregnant with her fourth child told me.

Her family is now living under a tree, as they have nowhere else to go.

The United Nations World Food Programme already feeds half the population of Abyei and the return of the refugees is adding to numbers needing sacks of grain to stay alive.

There may yet be a new exodus if the North opts to fight to keep this place.

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

2:33am UK, Thursday December 09, 2010

Tens of thousands of students are expected to march to Parliament on the day MPs vote on trebling university tuition fees.

Students marching up Whitehall on November 24

The proposals, which could see students being forced to pay up to £9,000 per year, have sparked outrage.

Dozens of people were arrested in November after a major protest in London against the hikes turned violent.

Riot police were deployed as groups smashed their way into Millbank Tower - the headquarters of the Conservative Party - and occupied the roof.

Today's march in the capital is set to start at University London Union, in Malet Street, at 12pm.

Protesters will then head through Russell Square, Holborn, Kingsway, Aldwych, Strand, Trafalgar Square, Admirals Arch, Horse Guards Road, Great George Street, Parliament Square and Whitehall.

Institute of Fiscal Studies

* The proposals are more progressive than the current system as richer pay more

* But it is less transparent and more complex regarding support and interest rates

* National Scholarship Fund gives 'financial incentive' for universities charging more than £6k to turn away poorer students

Analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies

The crowds are then to be dispersed along Victoria Embankment, where a rally will be held at 3pm.

Officials, activists and members of some of the country's biggest trade unions are expected to join the march.

Other protests against the proposals are also set to take place across the country.

Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister David Cameron insisted increasing tuition fees will widen access to university.

They will also create incentives to improve the quality of courses and leave the poorest graduates better off than under the existing system, the Conservative Party leader said.

He has rejected critics' claims the Government is simply seeking to save money by removing state subsidies and heaping the burden of university funding on to students' shoulders.

But the University and College Union's Sally Hunt said: "The introduction of a market in our universities will lead to students making their choice of degree based on its price.

"That might not be an issue for the millionaires in the Cabinet, but it will be for tens of thousands of students and their hardworking families."

Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced further concessions aimed at easing the financial burden on poor students in a fresh bid to win over doubters.

They included increasing the number of part-time students who would no longer face upfront tuition.

The move followed Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's announcement on Tuesday night that all his ministers would vote in favour of the fee increases.

But many Lib Dem backbenchers are still determined to oppose the plans rather than merely abstain as permitted under the coalition agreement.

Several Tory MPs, including former shadow home secretary David Davis, are also likely to vote against, although the size of the Government's majority means the measures should still make it through.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Savoie's case against judge dismissed

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who seeks to hold a Williamson County judge and a parental coordinator responsible for his children's abduction.

Christopher Savoie sued Judge James Martin III and parental coordinator Celia Woolverton after his Japanese ex-wife spirited their two children to Japan last year.

Noriko Savoie is Japanese and Christopher Savoie, who lives in Tennessee, has been unable to see his children since the abduction. Divorced fathers in Japan typically don't have much access to their children because of widespread cultural beliefs that small children should be with their mothers.

Last week, Nashville U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger dismissed Savoie's suit, ruling the two defendants were immune from prosecution.

Lebanon dig yields spiritual plate

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

KYOTO (Kyodo) An excavation team from Kyoto University working in Lebanon has found a lead plate believed to date from between the second and fourth centuries that was apparently used to invoke the spirits of the dead.

From another world: A team from Kyoto University unearthed this ancient lead plate in Lebanon. KYOTO UNIVERSITY/KYODO PHOTO

The 6-cm-wide, 14.7-cm-long plate, discovered near the entrance of an underground grave, is adorned with ancient Greek text that reads "May the unjust be removed from them" and "May signs of a gag and shame, and disgrace be given to them," along with the names of four people, the team said Tuesday.

Hiroshima University associate professor Hiroshi Maeno said, "Common people in a weak position may have made a wish for the supernatural to accomplish what they were unable to."

Russian patrol plane incursion halted SDF-U.S. drills off Noto

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Kyodo News

Two Russian patrol planes entered airspace above the Sea of Japan earlier this week, causing a temporary suspension of joint drills being conducted by the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, government officials said Wednesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said at a news conference that Japan immediately scrambled fighter jets to the area off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, but declined to give further details due to the sensitivity of the matter.

An official of Russia's Pacific Fleet acknowledged later in the day that the two patrol planes, which belong to the Vladivostok-based fleet, entered the airspace, Interfax news agency reported.

But it quoted the official as saying Russia did not contravene international law as the flights took place as planned in a region where the Pacific Fleet operates on a daily basis.

According to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, the two II-38 patrol planes entered the airspace Monday morning and remained in the area for several hours while the SDF and U.S. military were engaged in drills designed to deal with a ballistic missile attack.

The drills were based on a scenario in which Japanese and U.S. Aegis destroyers equipped with Standard Missile-3 interceptors were attacked by fighter jets, but the destroyers were at the time docked at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Maizuru base in Kyoto Prefecture, mainly for refueling purposes.

Due to the presence of the Russian planes, the drills were temporarily halted for security reasons, and planes including Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighters were scrambled.

Sengoku, the top government spokesman, would not comment on how the government will handle the issue and whether it will protest through diplomatic channels over the Russian aircraft incursion.

Sengoku-Roos talks

Close communication with the United States will continue regardless of what U.S. diplomatic cables related to Japan may be released by the confidential communications-revealing website WikiLeaks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Wednesday after talks in the morning with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos.

During their meeting, in which they discussed issues related to the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa and the WikiLeaks fallout, Sengoku said he and Roos agreed to maintain close communication "to avoid creating suspicion" in bilateral ties.