Monday, November 7, 2011

Six In The Morning


Greek leaders agree to unity government as future hangs in balance

Markets braced for more turmoil as key details of new deal still missing
Greece's economic and political future – and with it the fate of the eurozone – hung in the balance on Sunday after its political leaders announced that the formation of a government of national unity would have to wait until Monday morning at the earliest – well after global financial markets had opened.
Amid fears of the crisis worsening and the political situation in debt-laden Italy further imperilling the single currency, party heads in near-bankrupt Greece said while agreement had been reached on an interim coalition government, further talks were required on the new administration's life span and who would lead it.

Occupy protests changing nature of crisis debate

As Wall Street wormed its way into everyone's life, so Occupy protests grow everywhere: symbolic for now, but changing debate
Gary Younge
November 7, 2011
On the night of 28 October, more than 100 Tennessee highway patrolmen made their way down the steps of Nashville's war memorial in single file. Above them, embossed in stone, a quote from President Woodrow Wilson: "America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured." Below them, in the plaza, supporters of Occupy Nashville, who believe too much treasure is concentrated in too few hands, corrupting the principles on which their nation was founded.
Earlier in the day the state had imposed a curfew on Legislative Plaza, where the protesters had been camping. That night, after a five-minute warning, the troopers marched silently to physically remove them by their arms and legs.

Liberia runoff in chaos as opposition calls for boycott

TAMASIN FORD MONROVIA, LIBERIA - Nov 07 2011 


Winston Tubman, the leader of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), told his supporters that he had evidence of widespread fraud and voting irregularities in last month's first round of elections. He claimed that his opponent, the incumbent president and recent Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was trying to create a one-party state.

A boycott would guarantee victory for Sirleaf but would cast a cloud over Liberia's fledgling democracy, which has been praised by the international community.

Sirleaf called on Liberians to ignore the boycott and the National Elections Commission said the runoff will go ahead as planned.

IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability

By Monday, November 7, 

Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.
Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, the officials and experts said. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, they added.

Tuna fished 'illegally' during Libya conflict

Evidence is emerging of unregulated and probably illegal tuna fishing in Libyan waters during this year's conflict.
Signals recorded from boats' electronic "black boxes" show a large presence inside Libyan waters, a major spawning ground for the endangered bluefin tuna.
Several strands of evidence, including a letter from a former industry source, suggest the involvement of EU boats.
The issue will be aired this week at the annual meeting of Iccat, which regulates tuna fishing in the region.

In Beijing, shipping containers double as community center

Government closures and demolitions have left almost 15,000 migrant youths without gathering places. But an aid group is turning shipping containers into portable community centers for migrants.

By Jonathan Kaiman, Los Angeles Times

Inside the shipping containers stacked like Lego blocks and painted bright, pastel colors, groups of middle-school students sat in newly renovated classrooms scribbling in notebooks and joking distractedly with their friends.

Their classrooms at a 19-container community center in Heiqiao Village, a dusty sprawl in suburban Beijing, had survived a summer run of local government closures and demolitions of more than 30 schools for migrant children in the Beijing area. Almost 15,000 youths lost their gathering places for studying and socializing.

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