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Fake voter list is preparing in Madhya Pradesh of India. The Congress leaders had complained to the Election Commission on this morning, after which the Election Commission has ordered to investigate the matter by making the team.

Congress leader Kamal Nath had complained of 4 lakhs fake voters to the Election Commission, but after no satisfactory action, it has now been complained in Delhi.

Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Satyavrat Chaturvedi reached office of the Election Commission by complaining about the fake voter list with Kamal Nath.

These leaders also handed the list to the Election Commission, which has many voters on one name. Apart from this, voting with many photos on a voter's ID has remained. Not only this, the dead people are still in the Voter List.

Attacking Election Commission on the disturbances of EVM and VVPAT machines during the by-elections, Shiv Sena today said that the ruling Party has made Election Commission, elections and democracy as their mistress. Making a sharp attack against the coalition partner BJP, Shiv Sena, while calling the ruling party a dictatorship, said that they have spoiled EVMs for their benefit.

Shiv Sena has warned through an editorial in his mouthpiece 'Samna' that people has lost faith from which electoral process, that process is fatal for democracy. The article says, "Hindustan is the world's largest democratic country, so there is no meaning for banging the dunk. EVM has blown away our democracy. The current dictatorship, the ruling party with the tendency of mobocracy has kept democracy as its own mistress."

He alleged, "BJP has corrupted the EVM and made a used machinery for itself. That's why elections and the Election Commission have become the mistress of the wreckage of the Yellow House."

Referring to the complaints of EVMs and VVPAT machines in the Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar Lok Sabha bye-elections in Maharashtra, citing complaints of technical failure, Shiv Sena said, but what to say this? Our election machinery is breathing on the EVM's arbitrariness or on the kindness.

In the democracy, one vote is worth. But thousands of voters are bored after returning from the polling booth after standing in line. The Samna has written, "The present election commission and its machinery have become the spinach of the ruling class. Therefore, they are not ready to take any complaint against the distribution of liquor, distribution of money, dictatorship of the rulers, and threatening speeches, "he said.

The party also quipped on the foreign trips of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Election Commission over the issue of disturbances in EVM due to the heat.

He wrote, "Hindustan's weather and temperature varies, but the rise in temperature does not example of the prime minister's airplane closure. The rapidly running social media of BJP machinery does not shut down the computer due to the temperature, how does the EVM stop?

The editorial states, "For many years EVMs were used by Bhel Company or Central Election Commission. This time, these machines were floated by a private company in Surat for the election. "While defying the alleged setting in the EVM as BJP's cause, Samna has written," There is anger in the public against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its functioning. Despite this they are winning. This is the setting of EVMs."

Shiv Sena says, "At present, our Election Commission has got slackened eating sev - gathiya and Dhokla. He does not see scam. The complaints have not been heard. "Confronting Prime Minister Modi, the Samna has written," Russia's Putin and China's Xi Jinping have done the system of living in power in a democratic way. The same preparation has started in India, but it is not possible."

It's becoming ever more risky to be a journalist in today's world.

Two suicide attacks in Afghanistan killed at least 9 journalists on Monday.

Another journalist was killed later that day.

The UN has documented the killing of 14 journalists in Afghanistan since last year alone.

But the issue is not unique to that country, reporters from North Korea, to Syria,Turkey and Eritrea face threats every day.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, North Korea ranks at the bottom, while Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands round up the top three.

But Europe has seen the steepest decline in the regional rankings.

Malta is now ranked 65th - down by 18 points and Slovakia 27th - down by 10.

In both countries, high-profile journalists were recently murdered.

The U.S. has slipped two places to 45th - the report partly blames what it calls violent rhetoric from President Trump.  

Myanmar, which has forced out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya - has also slipped.

It's now ranked 137th, with the government intensifying arrests and prosecutions of journalists.

Middle East and North Africa has been rated the worst region for journalists.

Rights groups have reported an unparalleled crackdown on Egypt's media in recent years.

Among those in jail is Al Jazeera's journalist Mahmoud Hussein, who's been in prison for nearly 500 days without charge.

So, is press freedom under attack?

Lebanon has not held a parliamentary election since June 2009. Now thousands of Lebanese aged 21 and over are considering candidates in a May 6 ballot.

Lebanon's current parliament has postponed elections and renewed its term on three occasions. Politicians said the extensions were due to security concerns amid the war in neighbouring Syria, a crippling domestic debt crisis, and disputes over electoral reform - an issue largely resolved with a new electoral law ratified in June 2017.

New political organisations and independent candidates alike are gearing up for the election under a proportional system. Civil society groups, independents and the new Sabaa party have formed an electoral alliance under the Kollona Watani (National Coalition) banner. The coalition argues that its strength is in its numbers and its diversity - 66 candidates drawn from all religious sects - and that it represents a move away from the dynastic character of  traditional parties.

We will ask some of these new voices about advancing alternative political ideas, as well as their hopes for dramatically changing Lebanon's future.

Since 1978, 1 million hectares of mangroves have been cut down in Myanmar. In the Ayerwaddy Delta in the south, mangrove forests have been significantly depleted - often cut down to make way for shrimp and rice farming, as well as charcoal production and collecting palm oil. Worldwide, 35 percent of the world's mangroves are now lost.  

Only 16 percent of the original cover is left in the vulnerable Delta Region where the mangroves are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation.

"At the moment, mangrove conditions are severely degraded," says Win Meung, a seasoned ecologist who heads a mangrove regeneration project in Myanmar.

"In the coastal areas, 60 percent of the villagers don't have a permanent job and try to find their money in the mangrove areas. They cut the trees and within one hour they can get the money [they need] for their livelihood."

Mangroves play a vital role in the fight against climate change and extreme weather events such as cyclones. They help mitigate carbon emissions, as well as protect vulnerable coastal communities from extreme weather, while strengthening seafood stocks up to 50 percent.

While Meung and many locals have tried taking matters into their own hands, planting over 400,000 seedlings by hand to try and repopulate the mangrove population, the activity has taken 3 years and there is a lot more yet to be done before another cyclone hits.

Armed with a drone and the capacity to fire 5000 seeds an hour, can this new technology be the way forward for Myanmar's mangrove crisis?

earthrise heads to Myanmar to see how both the drones and local action are coming together to help reforest successfully, restoring a vital natural habitat.

Rising global temperatures have been linked to changing weather patterns. Drought, storms, wildfires – extreme weather have recently become the norm and conditions will only worsen unless things change.

earthrise travels to southern Kenya and to Myanmar to see how the locals in these areas are coping with extreme weather.

Navigating Drought

In drought-stricken Kenya life for all residents, and particularly the herding community, has been nothing less than devastating. Erratic weather patterns and the increasing effects of climate change have led to a lack of vegetation and water resources jeopardizing survival of livestock and the pastoralist way of life.

As the onslaught of unpredictable weather continues, some Maasai herders have turned to a hi-tech solution to help them adapt to the current environment. earthrise travels to Kenya to see how pastoralists in southern Kenya are using satellite mapping technology to make informed migration decisions.

 Cyclone Shield

In the Ayerwaddy Delta in the south of Myanmar, mangrove forests have been significantly depleted - often cut down so that people can use the area to plant rice, farm for prawns and collect palm oil. Only 16 per cent of the original cover is left in the vulnerable Delta Region where the mangroves are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation.
Mangroves play a vital role in the fight against climate change and extreme weather events such as cyclones. They help mitigate carbon emissions, as well as protect vulnerable coastal communities from extreme weather, while strengthening seafood stocks up to 50 per cent.

earthrise heads to Myanmar to see how drones and local action are coming together to help reforest are successfully restoring a vital natural habitat.

Mike Pompeo has wrapped up his three country tour of the Middle East in Jordan.

America's top diplomat highlighted the importance of the Jordanian role in helping solve conflicts in neighbouring countries.

In particular, he urged Palestinian leaders to re-engage in talks with Israel.

And Pompeo urged a united front against what the White House says is the regional threat posed by Iran - the message he emphasised earlier in both Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But what kind of threat is Iran to the US and the region?

And how will it be confronted?

The US Democratic Party has recently filed a lawsuit against the Russian government, Donald Trump's presidential campaign and WikiLeaks, charging that they carried out a wide-ranging conspiracy to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

Suing WikiLeaks - a news organisation - for publishing leaked material, when it is hardly the only news outlet to do so, could set a troubling precedent for press freedom.

The US media have remained strangely silent on the implications. Busily obsessing over Russian meddling in the election, the FBI's Robert Mueller investigation and Trump's rhetorical war with the media, reporters are taking a pass on the DNC lawsuit story and the legal assault on the fourth estate coming from the other side of the aisle.

"The DNC's suing WikiLeaks because they're the central player," says Eric Boehlert, a senior writer for
Shareblue Media. "If it weren't for WikiLeaks essentially conspiring with Russian operatives, this wouldn't have been a story ... they marketed these emails. They were reaching out to the reporters."

The core issue in this story is not what was in those hacked emails - the DNC's sabotaging of Bernie Sanders' campaign, its unseemly, cap-in-hand approach to financial donors - but rather how those emails found their way into the media food chain in the first place.

Cybersecurity specialists say the hackers who infiltrated the DNC's servers were Russian. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have stuck to their policy of neither confirming nor denying who their sources are, saying only that the "source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party".

WikiLeaks acquired the files and started publishing the emails four months before the 2016 election. No major US media outlet ignored the story. It was, for better or worse, considered newsworthy.

"These were stolen conversations, and I don't think that journalists took proper care to vet them," says Eric Alterman, a media columnist for The Nation and professor of journalism at City University of New York. "It's not that they weren't true, but the motive in releasing them in order to demonise the Democrats when there was no such comparable effort on the part of Republicans - that was not handled well."

"Journalists just rushed into print without considering the source, without considering what was behind them, without explaining it to their readers. And this had the effect of perverting the political discourse," Alterman says.

The DNC, which has an ongoing relationship with news networks and papers like the New York Times, has not taken legal issue with any of those organisations over their coverage of the story.

The lawsuit targets the alleged source of the emails, the Russian government, and the middleman WikiLeaks, but spares the news outlets that took what WikiLeaks provided and fed it to American voters.

According to Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, "a broad interpretation of the first amendment would cover WikiLeaks". She disagrees with those who "would say that this kind of lawsuit against them is perfectly acceptable and has no first amendment ramifications ... I would hope that news organisations would focus not on WikiLeaks, but rather on the principles that are at stake."

"If this is a successful campaign against WikiLeaks it would have ramifications for other news organisations. News organisations should be concerned about that aspect of the case," says Kirtley.

Leader Kim Jong-un has promised to shut down North Korea's nuclear test site next month.

He reiterated the pledge during his summit with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in on Friday.

But  there's no word on the future of his ballistic missiles programme, nor whether he'll bow to demands from the US President to get rid of nuclear weapons altogether.

North Korea's state media said before the historic summit Pyongyang wants to focus on economic growth.

A marked departure from hostile rhetoric.

How will this play out inside North Korea?

It has been more than 8 months since the start of the military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State - which has forced almost three quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh.

The United Nations has called the crisis a 'textbook example of ethnic cleansing' but the Myanmar government maintain this is a targeted operation to weed the state of Rohingya militants - a narrative they have gone to great lengths to uphold.

As Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK explains, "We've seen the government of Burma very strictly controlling the access and news coming out of Rakhine State and trying to dominate how it is reported and trying to intimidate domestic and international media organisations, who are trying to investigate and find out what really has gone on."

Rohingya refugees who have escaped the violence have stories of rape, torture, and massacres at the hands of the Myanmar security forces - stories that most media outlets in Myanmar shy away from - but one broadcaster has made it its mission to tell those stories, Rohingya Vision TV.

Rohingya Vision TV, or RVision, is run by exiled Rohingya, broadcasting from headquarters in Malaysia. The channel relies on a significant network of undercover citizen journalists in Rakhine who work at great risk to offer a rare glimpse behind the authorities' veil of secrecy.

Its founder, Muhammad Noor, told the Listening Post he started the network to tell the Rohingya side of this story and to shed light on a community that has been under-reported and persecuted for decades: "we started to get news, actual facts and figures from the ground and started to broadcast. International media are not allowed in Rakhine, so they cannot do their job. So now we have to take over the job. We are the news breaker of Rakhine because we convert citizens into citizen journalists, existing people into journalists, training them and getting the information out whatever possible equipment they have".

And it's not just the government's version of events RVision is up against. When it comes to stories of the Rohingya, most media outlets in Myanmar simply agree with the authorities' official line. Francis Wade, author of 'Myanmar's Enemy Within' explained that "the vast majority of journalists, Burmese journalists, inside the country, appear to share the government and the military's antagonism towards the Rohingya; there's a real lack of will in reporting critically on the military and a real lack of robust, vigorous, media that cast scrutiny on the military's actions against civilians - regardless of whether there is or there isn't space for independent journalism."

When Myanmar started its transition from military to civilian rule in 2011, there was real hope that a space would open up for independent journalism but any hope has since been shattered.

"I think we've seen since Aung San Suu Kyi came to power a gradual slide in press freedom and increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and that accelerated since the military offensive in August last year. The hopes that there would be an increase in media freedom under Aung San Suu Kyi, that the repressive laws of the junta era would finally be repealed, those hopes are gone, they're dashed", Mark Famaner said. Which makes outlets like Rohingya Vision TV all the more important when trying to understand all sides of the story.