Six In The Morning

Congo supreme court upholds Joseph Kabila's election victory

More violence feared after appeal by opposition candidate against incumbent president's victory rejected by court

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 December 2011

Congo's supreme court has upheld President Joseph Kabila's victory following a contested election, raising fears of more violence in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation because the main opposition candidate has already rejected the results.

The November election was only the second democratic vote in Congo's 51-year history, and the first to be organised by the Congolese government rather than by the international community. Observers have expressed concern about irregularities, saying voter turnout results were impossibly high in some districts.

The town that dared to defy Beijing

The death in police custody of a village elder who tried to fight land-grabs by the state has galvanised protesters, says Clifford Coonan

CLIFFORD COONAN 

SATURDAY 17 DECEMBER 2011

Until the land seizures began, Xue Jinbo was not a particularly notable man and his home of Wukan was not a particularly notable village.

Mr Xue had a small business selling handicrafts in the Chinese fishing community of about 20,000. He had no history of involvement in politics. Wukan, a reasonably well-off place, was not known as a hotbed for radicals.

Then the authorities decided to sell the village's land for development without residents' consent. After months of simmering protests at the imposition, Mr Xue put himself forward as a representative in negotiations that were supposed to bring the crisis to a close.

Burned for Spoiling Beer

Germany Rehabilitates Its Persecuted 'Witches'

By Kristen Allen

It began with the trial and execution of an eight-year-old girl for witchcraft in the spring of 1630. Compelled to name others involved in an alleged nighttime dance with the devil in the German town of Oberkirchen, young Christine Teipel's confession sparked a wave of fingerpointing and subsequent trials. Within just three months, 58 people, including 22 men and two children, were burned at the stake there.

The Oberkirchen trials represent just a small fraction of those that led to the execution of some 25,000 alleged witches between 1500 and 1782 in Germany. The country was a hotbed of persecution, says witch-trial expert Hartmut Hegeler, explaining that some 40 percent of the 60,000 witches who were tortured and killed in Europe during the infamous era were executed in what is now modern Germany. Hegeler, 65, a retired Protestant minister and college religion instructor in the western German town of Unna, is now working to rehabilitate these supposed witches city by city.

Egypt conflict erupts into bloody violence, killing 7

AYA BATRAWY CAIRO, EGYPT - Dec 17 2011 07:03

At least seven protesters were shot to death in the clashes, including a prominent Muslim cleric, activists said. The heavy-handed assault was apparently an attempt to clear out protesters who have been camped out in front of the building for three weeks demanding the ruling military leave power.

But the mayhem -- which came despite promises from the army-appointed prime minister that the protesters would not be cleared by force -- threatened to spark a new round of violence after deadly clashes between youth revolutionaries and security forces in November that lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.

A dictatorship without a dictator

By Sami Moubayed 

DAMASCUS - News of the United States' formal withdrawal from Iraq is receiving mediocre coverage in mainstream Arab media. On the popular al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television networks, for example, Iraqi news come forth on the list, after Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. 

In popular pan-Arab dailies, like Asharq Alawsat, Syria rather than Iraq was the main headline. Although glad to see the Americans leave after nearly nine years - ending a very long and unwelcomed stay - the Arab masses feel that they have too much on their plates in countries experiencing the Arab Spring to mind about Iraqi affairs any longer. 

Despite Delay, the 100-Watt Bulb Is on Its Way Out

By DIANE CARDWELL

The law to phase out traditional incandescent light bulbs was promoted as a simple, almost painless, change when Congress first passed it. By requiring that light bulbs use at least 25 percent less electricity, starting in 2012, the nation would use less energy, manufacturers would invent more efficient types of bulbs and the planet would be spared millions of tons of carbon emissions every year.

But the traditional light bulb — that lowly orb of glass, filament and threaded metal base — has become a powerful emotional symbol, conjuring both consumer anxiety over losing a familiar and flattering light source and political antipathy to government meddling.