Six In The Morning

Gilad Shalit freed in Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap

Hamas has handed over Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to Egyptian mediators after five years' captivity, as part of a prisoner swap deal with Israel, Hamas officials have told the BBC.

More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners are due to be freed. The first 477 are being released on Tuesday.

Sgt Shalit was seized in 2006 by Hamas militants who tunnelled into Israel.

On Monday the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a bid by families of victims of militant attacks to delay the swap.

The day's events are unfolding in a carefully choreographed sequence.

So, what do you think of your husband's brutal crackdown, Mrs Assad?

What did Syria's First Lady, supposedly a force for compassion, say when aid workers confronted her about the bloody crackdown? Alastair Beach reports

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Vogue magazine famously called her a "rose in the desert", while Paris Match proclaimed she was the "element of light in a country full of shadow zones". But when Syria's glamorous First Lady invited a group of aid workers to discuss the security situation with her last month, she appeared to have lost her gloss.

During the meeting, British-born Asma al-Assad – who grew up in Acton and attended a Church of England school in west London – came face to face with aid workers who had witnessed at first hand the brutality of her husband's regime. Yet according to one volunteer who was present, the former investment banker and mother of President Bashar al-Assad's three children appeared utterly unmoved when she heard about the plight of protesters.

Will Merkel Take The Reins?

Europe Deeply Divided Ahead of Make-or-Break Summit

The head of Deutsche Bank is raging against politicians, Berlin is raging against Paris and the north is raging against the south. The world is expecting decisive results at this weekend's EU summit on emergency measures to shore up the euro, but the Europeans remain split. Will German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally take the lead? By SPIEGEL Staff

The script for saving the euro has already been written. The monetary union's 17 finance ministers will meet in Brussels this Friday, their counterparts from the remaining European Union countries will join them on Saturday and, finally, on Sunday the EU heads of state and government will arrive to give their blessing to the bailout package.

The most important meetings were scheduled for the weekend so that the decisions can be taken when financial markets are closed. Everyone is afraid of how the ominous markets will react.

Climate change a health threat: experts

October 18, 2011 - 11:29AM

Climate change poses an immediate and serious threat to global health and stability, as floods and droughts destroy people's homes and food supplies and increase mass migration, experts have warned.

In a statement issued at a meeting in London on Monday, they urged tougher action to reduce climate change including upping the EU target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 per cent by 2020 to 30 per cent from 1990 levels.

Tibetan nun burns self for freedom

Sapa-dpa | 18 October, 2011 08:15

A Buddhist nun has self-immolated and two other Tibetans were shot by police in the latest signs of growing unrest in Tibetan areas of south-western China's Sichuan province, exile groups said on Tuesday.

The nun set fire to herself on Monday afternoon on a road near her nunnery around 3 kilometres from the county town of Aba, which is known as Ngaba in Tibetan, according to witnesses quoted by the India-based office for exiled monks from the nearby Kirti monastery.

Tenzin Wangmo, aged around 20, is the ninth young Tibetan to self-immolate in Sichuan since March. She is believed to have died following her protest.

Dust storm roils through Texas South Plains

Store clerk in Lubbock: 'It went from light to dark, just like that'

updated 10/17/201

LUBBOCK, Texas — Winds gusting at more than 70 mph churned up a dust storm that roiled through the Texas South Plains during the Monday afternoon commute.

Dust kicked up by westerly breezes ahead of a strong cold front restricted visibility in Lubbock to about 5 miles all afternoon, said National Weather Service Lubbock meteorologist Matt Ziebell.

That was nothing compared to the 8,000-foot-high rolling dust cloud that moved through the city just before 6 p.m., dropping visibility to between zero and less than a quarter of a mile, Ziebell said.

North winds gusting as high as 74 mph had begun forming the dust cloud about 100 miles north of Lubbock around 4:30 p.m., he said.