Six In The Morning

Riots: Cameron under attack
Boris Johnson calls for U-turn on police numbers, while No 10 ridiculed over plans to use water cannon
By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor and Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter Thursday, 11 August 2011

David Cameron appeared increasingly isolated last night after senior police officers, MPs and even the Conservative Mayor of London united in a call for him to reconsider police cuts in the face of four days of sustained rioting.

In an attempt to regain the political initiative the Prime Minister had declared that a police "fightback" was under way, and that water cannon were being made available at 24 hours' notice. But senior police chiefs said these would be ineffectual and the real question was not whether they could cope with the current disturbances, but whether they would be able to deal with similar civil disturbances in future with thousands fewer officers.

How Ai Weiwei lost his voice
The dissident Chinese artist, recently released from jail, gives the impression of having had the fight knocked out of him
By Clifford Coonan Thursday, 11 August 2011
It was just eight months ago that the dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, told me that revolution was the only way to solve China's problems, and he felt change was in the air. Soon after that, he was taken away by security officials, emerging frail and subdued in June after three months of incarceration on alleged tax violations.

Now, in his first full interview since his release, Ai Weiwei is communicating again. But fans of the man who once called China's Communist Party a group of "gangsters" may have been surprised to read some of the sentiments expressed by the 54-year-old in his conversation with the Global Times – the only organ he has spoken to at length.

Secret peace talks between US and Taliban collapse over leaks
Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph.
By Dean Nelson, Ben Farmer in Kabu
The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures.
Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Troops take Syrian oil hub after siege lasting four days
The Irish Times - Thursday, August 11, 2011

MICHAEL JANSEN

SYRIAN TROOPS have taken control of the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zor after a four-day siege, moving into two northeastern towns near the Turkish border, reportedly killing one person and wounding 13.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by saying his foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who met President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, had called for an end to the crackdown, but Mr Erdogan also said he expected political reforms to be enacted within 15 days.

Deir al-Zor, 450km from Damascus, is inhabited by 600,000 mainly well-armed Sunni tribesmen with Iraqi connections. The government apparently decided to move after 500,000 people from the city and surrounding areas were said to have staged a protest against the regime.

Arab Revolution Caught Between Euphoria and Despair
Halting Steps Toward Democracy
By SPIEGEL Staff.
Gilamo's donkey was a cheerful sign of hope in Hama. Its owner had hoisted the animal up onto the empty pedestal that had supported a statue of former Syrian President Hafez Assad until June 10. The regime's troops had withdrawn from the city in western Syria. It was there in 1982 that Hafez Assad, the father of current president Bashar Assad, had set a brutal example when he crushed an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 20,000 people died in the massacre.

It was ironic that in that June week, government troops were pulling out of Hama, a city that had been burned into the collective memory of Syria's multiethnic society as a symbol of the regime's capacity to commit atrocities. The city, in which sons bear the names of fathers and uncles murdered in the 1982 massacre, had taken its fate into its own hands.

Ugandan police crack down on new Besigye gathering

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA MASAKA, UGANDA - Aug 10 2011 21:06
The east African nation was rocked by widespread anti-government protests in April and May, sparked by rising prices. At least nine people were killed in the government's clampdown and Besigye was arrested and badly beaten by security agents.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, in power for 25 years, had vowed to crush the Besigye-led protests, blaming the rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in crude oil prices. He accused the opposition of being desperate for power.

Museveni won February elections that Besigye and other opposition leaders said were rigged. Since the vote, opposition leaders have led a series of often violent protests against high food and fuel prices.