Six In The Morning

America The Only Industrialized Nation Whose Conservative Political Party Works To Deny Health Care For Its Citizens

The Truth and Consequences of Repeal
Get ready for more theater on Capitol Hill. House Republicans plan to push through legislation this week to repeal the health care reform law.In deference to the new vows of civility, the tone of the debate may be a bit more restrained. But Republicans have already said that they will not strip the word “killing” from the bill — which is titled, “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” Civility apparently goes only so far.

While repeal will certainly pass the House, it has no chance in the Senate. So House Republicans are already planning other ways to undermine the reforms, like denying agencies enough money to hire personnel to carry out the program.

They're Back Be Afraid If Not Downright Paranoid
The German capital is divided once again, as residents of the former east are forced from their homes by gentrification
East Berlin fights back against the yuppy invaders
"How long is now," the giant mural on the side of the Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin's Mitte district asks. The answer, it appears, is not very long at all. The former department store, turned prison and then squat and alternative culture centre, appears to be on the verge of shutting down.

"We are expecting to be closed any day," says Yvonne Hildebrandt, a jewellery designer in a studio named Kalerie. After years of legal appeals, she admits, the occupants of the colourful graffiti-covered Tacheles in what was once the Jewish quarter of Berlin have finally run out of road.

A Disaster Waiting To Happen
Environmentalists are angry at the energy giant's plans to drill for oil in a remote region of the Arctic
BP targets one of the world's last unspoilt wildernesses after deal
The Arctic is to become the "new environmental battleground", campaigners warned yesterday after BP announced plans to drill in one of the last great unspoilt wildernesses on earth.

Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have vowed to confront BP's American boss, Bob Dudley, over the agreement with the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft to explore the Kara Sea, north of Siberia. The British energy firm was branded the world's "environmental villain number one" by Friends of the Earth (FoE) yesterday in response to its move to exploit potential oil reserves in the remote waters.

Why Be Concerned The Dictators Will Hang On
Friday's coup in Tunisia sent shockwaves throughout the Arab world. But don't expect it to herald an era of democratic reform, says Richard Spencer
Tunisia: Why the Jasmine Revolution won't bloom
There is a Tunisian proverb that says if an old man is incontinent, his sons will call him wise and full of advice. The family of President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, suddenly expelled from their beachfront palaces, may today be wondering if they should have been a little more honest with themselves.
Here is Mr Ben Ali’s advice to America on the Arab world, given to a visiting assistant secretary of state in 2008. He was glad Tunisia was in the Maghreb not the Levant, he said – part of stable North Africa, not the fractious Middle East.

The Effects Of Global Warming

Melting in Andes Reveals Remains and Wreckage
LA PAZ, Bolivia — In the haunts of this city where climbers gather over plates of grilled llama and bottles of Paceña beer to swap tales of mountaineering derring-do, they feign boredom when talk turns to the 19,974-foot-high Huayna Potosí, a jagged Andean peak that looms over La Paz.
“A training climb,” scoffs Julio Choque Alaña, 32, who guides foreigners up the mountains of Bolivia, which boasts peaks higher than the Alps and the Rockies.

But such bravado fades when talk shifts to what climbers are discovering on Huayna Potosí’s glacier: crumpled fuselage, decades-old pieces of wings and propellers, and, in November, the frozen body of Rafael Benjamín Pabón, a 27-year-old pilot whose Douglas DC-6 crashed into the mountain’s north face in 1990.

What's More Important Political Advantage Or Actually Governing
Seven weeks after a flawed Haiti presidential election, President Rene Preval is resisting an international panel's recommendation his handpicked candidate be removed from a runoff, diplomats say.
Standoff over presidential runoff seen as threat to Haiti
Reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti —
Haiti is locked in a political crisis that threatens to further stall recovery from the devastating earthquake of a year ago and could swiftly turn violent.

Seven weeks after a flawed presidential election, President Rene Preval is resisting an international panel's recommendation that his handpicked candidate be removed from a runoff, according to diplomatic sources. Preval also is saying he intends to remain in office beyond his term.