Six In The Morning

U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood By STEVEN LEE MYERS and MARK LANDLER WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats. The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.

The hunt for Gaddafi – and his victims – goes on Samia Nakhoul and Mohammed Abbas in Tripoli and David Randall report on the search for the former dictator and for the disappeared Sunday, 4 September 2011 There are two desperate searches going on in Libya this weekend. One is the hunt for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the other for tens of thousands of his victims. Many of these victims will be dead, some may be wounded but alive; but their relatives won't know which until they can trace them or their bodies. And so, across the country, at hospitals and burial grounds, relatives arrive to ask questions, show photographs, and hope for answers. Many will never be given them.

'It Is Possible to Pull the Plug' The Internet and Iran SPIEGEL: Iran has announced its intention to completely cut itself off from the Internet. Is such a thing realistic? Howard: The government in Tehran has already shown itself to be capable of such a thing. Following the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, the country was cut off for about 24 hours. But when a regime shuts down the Internet, it is usually also a last, desperate measure. SPIEGEL: Even in 2009, the country wasn't completely offline.

Elections to be held by March 2012, says Mugabe HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Sep 04 2011 　　 "We cannot go beyond March next year," Mugabe was quoted as saying by the state-run Herald while addressing his Zanu-PF members. "I will definitely announce the date. "Once I announce the date, everyone will follow. I have the constitutional right to name an election date with the GPA (Global Political Agreement) or no GPA." Mugabe's announcement marks a major about-turn for the veteran leader who has previously said elections would be held this year.

Witness to a decade that redefined Southeast Asia As he leaves his post in Bangkok, a correspondent looks at how a rising China has changed the Southeast Asia region after 9/11. By Simon Montlake, Correspondent Bangkok, Thailand It was the summer of 2001. I was covering an election in East Timor, a newly minted nation at the end of the world. It was my first assignment for the Monitor, the start of a decade of reporting in Southeast Asia, filing hundreds of stories from across a diverse region of 600 million people. Two years earlier, East Timor had broken free of Indonesia's brutal occupation. It now aspired to join the ranks of global democracies, including the mightiest of all, the freedom-loving United States. Never mind that Washington had backed Indonesia's dictator General Suharto and other Asian strongmen. The cold war was over, Suharto was gone, and Southeast Asia's tiger economies were roaring again, all under the protection of the US security umbrella.

India's Anna Hazare, from village activist to national campaigner 　Anna Hazare started out as a grass-roots activist in Ralegan Siddhi, but now he is an anti-corruption crusader tackling the Indian political establishment. His supporters believe he will win. By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times September 4, 2011 Reporting from Ralegan Siddhi, India— Suman Gaikwad's husband had a drinking problem, as did many other farmers in this small village where, in the late 1970s, dozens of shops sold fruit wine and other home brews. Back then, domestic abuse was common and families went hungry if their men diverted money to buy booze and cigarettes. Things changed, though, when squat, burly Anna Hazare returned from the army, determined to uplift the community.