Six In The Morning

Timeline: Kim Jong-il

Key dates in the history of North Korea and its late leader, Kim Jong-il, whose death was announced on Monday

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 December 2011 08.05 GMT

15 April, 1912: North Korean founder Kim Il-sung is born in Pyongyang.

16 February 1942: Kim Jong-il is born in a guerrilla fighters' camp on Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean peninsula, according to official North Korean history. Some sources say he was born in a Siberian village, and that the year of his birth was 1941.

9 September 1948: Kim-il sung establishes the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the northern half of the Korean peninsula.

25 June 1950: North Korea invades South Korea.

27 July 1953: The Korean War ends in a truce, not a peace treaty.

September 1973: Kim Jong-il assumes the Workers' party's No. 2 post – the secretary for the party's organisation, guidance and propaganda affairs.

Vaclav Havel: The king of Wenceslas Square

Vaclav Havel did more than anyone to rip down the Iron Curtain. Peter Popham salutes an extraordinary man, who died yesterday

PETER POPHAM 

 

 

MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2011

Vaclav Havel hated Communism with a passion, but it was the making of him. The Czech dissident-playwright turned president was a product of Prague's wealthy and cultured haute bourgeoisie, and without the Communist takeover of 1948 and all that followed he would probably have lived a life of charming bohemian privilege, a chip off the old block. But with Stalin's chosen men in Prague Castle, that was never an option: Havel and his ilk were the class enemy, and were never allowed to forget it.

His class origins barred him from further education under the Communists, and he only managed to pay his way through secondary night school by working as a lab technician. His two years of army service were as a sapper – getting young toffs to clear minefields was a useful way of eliminating them.

DR Congo's Tshisekedi insists he is 'president-elect'

Sapa-AFP | 19 December, 2011 07:35

The move heightened tensions in the vast and poor country where the poll result that handed President Joseph Kabila another five-year term had sparked violent protests and looting in the capital.

"I will take the oath next Friday," at Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi, 79, said at his home in the capital two days after the country's highest court upheld Kabila's victory in the much-criticised election.

"I consider myself the president-elect of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it is in that capacity that I address you this evening and thank the people for the confidence they have placed in me," he said

The man Israel didn't release from prison: Marwan Barghouti

Palestinians originally hoped that Marwan Barghouti, compared by some to former South African prisoner-turned-president Nelson Mandela, would be included in a prisoner swap finalized today.

By Rebecca Collard, Correspondent 

There were rumors and Palestinians hopes that the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap this fall would result in the release of Marwan Barghouti, the man who many see as a possible successor to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Under the Shalit deal, more than 1,000 Palestinians were to be released over several months in exchange for the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in 2006. But as Israel announced the names of the remaining 550 prisoners to be released today, Mr. Barghouti was not among them.

Barghouti is perhaps the most prominent Palestinian still imprisoned by Israel, and he is championed by many Palestinians not only as a preferred successor to Mr. Abbas but also the man who can make peace with Israel.

Concealing of evidence highlighted in Texas wrongful conviction

Activists say the case of Michael Morton, exonerated of murder after 25 years in prison, underscores a problem of prosecutors withholding material that could help defendants.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Houston and Washington— 

The case of a grocery store clerk wrongly convicted of murdering his wife has rocked the legal system across Texas, and not just because an innocent man served 25 years of a life sentence.

Supporters of Michael Morton, who was set free in October, say he might never been convicted if a prominent prosecutor had shared significant evidence with the defense at the time of the trial.

"Mr. Morton was the victim of serious prosecutorial misconduct that … completely ripped apart his family," said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project in New York, which represented Morton in his appeal.

Manning case: Army 'failed to spot Wikileaks danger'

Lawyers defending a US soldier accused of leaking government secrets say his supervisors failed to recognise his troubled emotional state and revoke his access to classified information.

19 December 2011 

Private Bradley Manning faces 22 charges of distributing state secrets to whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

On the third day of the hearing, one supervisor refused to testify, invoking his right against self-incrimination.

The hearing is to decide whether Pte Manning should face a court martial.

The charges he faces include aiding the enemy, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment.