Six In The Morning

Libya: Sirte battle flushes out pro-Gaddafi fighters

Once-feared fighters are revealed as frightened ordinary men, who now want only to survive by surrendering, or hiding

• Peter Beaumont in Sirte
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 October 2011

The stories of some of those inside Ibn Sana hospital in Sirte do not add up. Hamad Ashrak Ali from Sudan is lying on a bed in the hospital's basement. He shows us his wound before explaining the circumstances of it. He has been shot through the side. The bullet exited through one buttock – the wound is becoming septic.

He says he came from Abyei in his own country to Sirte to earn money: "I thought I could earn money here by loading trucks."

He does not explain why he chose Gaddafi's hometown in particular and claims at first to have been in the hospital with his wound for 50 days

Global warning: climate sceptics are winning the battle

Father of the green movement says scientists lack PR skills

 to make public listen

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Climate sceptics are winning the argument with the public over global warming, the world's most celebrated climate scientist, James Hansen of NASA, said in London yesterday.

It is happening even though climate science itself is becoming ever clearer in showing that the earth is in increasing danger from rising temperatures, said Dr Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and is widely thought of as "the father of global warming" – his dramatic alert about climate change in US Senate hearings in July 1988 put the issue on the world agenda.

The Financial Crisis Returns

Europe's Attention Shifts to Its Ailing Banks

The mood was decidedly somber last Thursday as Jean-Claude Trichet put in his last appearance as the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) following a meeting of the institution's governing council. There was no farewell gift and no bouquet of flowers -- only a few words of praise from Jens Weidmann, the president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank.

Trichet briefly acknowledged that he was "deeply moved" by the tribute from his German colleague. Then the Frenchman, who will be replaced by Italy's Mario Draghi at the end of this month as the head of Europe's currency watchdog, turned to the latest casualty of the euro crisis: The banks.

Liberians test their democracy in second post-war polls

FRAN BLANDY MONROVIA, LIBERIA - Oct 11 2011

Nobel Peace Prize winner President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is facing a stiff challenge from main opposition candidate Winston Tubman (70), who has crowd-pleasing football star George Weah as his running mate.

Some 1.8-million people have registered to vote in presidential, legislative and senatorial elections in which candidates will have to sweep an absolute majority to avoid an eventual run-off on November 8.

A total of 15 senatorial seats and 73 legislative seats are up for grabs.

Tri Mumpuni Iskandar builds small hydro plants to bring electricity to Indonesian villages

A petite entrepreneur wants to bring hydropower to the 90 million Indonesians without electricity.

By Sara Schonhardt, Correspondent 

It takes a lot of energy to keep up with Tri Mumpuni Iskandar, which seems fitting given her passion: to electrify poor, rural communities across Indonesia's sprawling 3,200-mile-long archipelago.

The charismatic director of the People Centered Business and Economic Institute (IBEKA), a nongovernmental organization that develops small hydropower projects, stays on the run.

Recently she visited a village in West Java on a Thursday; returned to Jakarta, the capital, on the weekend; and then embarked midweek for a 10-day tour of Europe and the United States.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan poses challenge for Obama

Many advisors to the president see Erdogan's government as a possible model for others in the Middle East. But the Turkish premier's feud with Israel and a tendency to make threats are problematic.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington— 

In the space of a few weeks this summer, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoganslammed President Obama's approach to Mideast peacemaking, threatened to block U.S. business from drilling for oil and gas in the Mediterranean, and warned he might mobilize Turkish warships to protect activists sailing to Gaza against America's chief regional ally, Israel.

Yet when Obama met Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting last month, he once again gave him more face time than any other world leader. Erdogan, Obama declared as the two headed to a 105-minute meeting, "has shown great leadership."