Six In The Morning

Death toll surges in Japan quake aftermath
Thousands of bodies found in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday
msnbc.com news services
TAKAJO, Japan — Rescue workers used chain saws and hand picks Monday to dig out bodies in Japan's devastated coastal towns, as Asia's richest nation faced a mounting humanitarian, nuclear and economic crisis in the aftermath of a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed thousands.
Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast; the containment building of a second nuclear reactor exploded because of hydrogen buildup while the stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

Tribal loyalties have power to divide Libya or help unite it after Gadafy

MARY FITZGERALD Foreign Affairs Correspondent in Benghazi, eastern Libya
Machinations of tribes are part of the uprising and will play a key role in the country’s future

AMONG THE thousands of revolutionary slogans daubed on walls across eastern Libya, there are some that refer to the tribal dynamics that have underpinned the region’s social fabric for centuries. “No to tribalism,” says one in the town of al-Bayda. “Tribes are history. We are all Libyans,” reads another in Benghazi, the city where the uprising that has shaken Muammar Gadafy’s 42-year rule began almost a month ago.

Libya has as many as 140 tribes but only 30 are held to have any particular significance.

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes
Crown Prince of Bahrain expected to invite Saudi support following anti-government demonstrations in capita
Ben Quinn
The Guardian, Monday 14 March 2011
Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island's royal family since demonstrations began a month ago.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.

Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital's central square, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university

Southern Sudan accuses north of planning genocide

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent Monday, 14 March 2011
Southern Sudan has broken off talks with the north after accusing Khartoum of arming and directing militia attacks that have killed hundreds of people in the south in recent weeks.

The leadership of what will become the world's newest country in July has accused Omar al-Bashir's government of deploying Darfur-style tactics and planning a genocide to reclaim power in southern Sudan.

A serious escalation of violence across the south has seen hundreds of people killed in large-scale attacks by rebel militias and skirmishes across the future north-south border.

Rival forces face-off in Abidjan's tense Abobo district

THOMAS MORFIN ABIDJAN, CôTE D'IVOIRE - Mar 14 2011
At the other end, troops backing strongman Laurent Gbagbo stand guard.

In between lie two bodies, the latest casualties of a bloody stand-off between the rival camps.

"We don't know how this story is going to finish," said a worried young man seeking relief from a blazing sun in the shade of a shack.

Coming from downtown Abidjan, the road leads to Plateau-Dokui in the south of Abobo, a populous suburb which is home to 1,5-million people and is an Ouattara stronghold.

China's ethanol binge and corn hangover

By Peter Lee
America heedlessly exports revolution with its corn to the world. China, on the other hand, obsesses about the danger of shipping revolution with its corn from the country to the city.

To a large extent, communist China's economic policy has been predicated on a divergence of interests between rural producers (good prices for agricultural products) and urban consumers (cheap, stable prices for food).

The pendulum has swung back and forth from city to countryside, depending on where the most pressing national priorities - and problems - appear to reside.