Six In The Morning

On Sunday

US president signs controversial defence bill
Barack Obama signs into law new provisions regarding counterterrorism and fresh sanctions against Iran.

Last Modified: 01 Jan 2012 04:44
Barack Obama, the US president, has signed a wide-ranging defence bill into law, putting into place new provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of those suspected of terrorism, as well as imposing fresh sanctions on Iran. In a statement accompanying his signature to the $662bn bill, Obama said that he was signing it despite having "serious reservations" about the provisions relating to terrorism, contending that politicians in the US congress were attempting to restrict the ability of counterterrorism officials to protect the country.

Syria accused of reneging on Arab League pledge to release 700 prisoners
Syria's government has gone back on a pledge to release hundreds of political prisoners from its jails, according to a human rights group.

By Nick Meo, in Beirut
The government had promised to release more than 700 detainees from jails last week as part of a peace plan drawn up by the Arab League. Under the plan monitors have also been allowed to observe confrontations on Syria's streets between protesters and security forces. More than 5,000 people have died since massive demonstrations against the regime started in March, including large numbers of protesters killed by security forces. Thousands are also believed to have been detained, and the names of several hundred of them were given to the government with a request to let them out.

China's sights on moon


Ian Sample January 1, 2012
NEARLY 40 years after the cold grey soil of the moon was last disturbed by bounding humans, the lunar surface has become an official destination once more. Tentative plans to land a man on the moon have been outlined in a document published by the Chinese government that confirms the nation's intention to become a major spacefaring nation.

Cameroon pins hopes on Mobilong diamond field


MPARO, CAMEROON - Jan 01 2012 06:35
The discovery of the Mobilong diamond field not far from the village located about 700km from the capital Yaounde, could vastly improve what is now a difficult life for residents. Cameroon tapped South Korea's C&K Mining for the project, issuing a 25-year exploitation permit. The company says diamond mining will begin in 2012. And if all goes according to plan, Mparo -- along with six other villages that include several pygmy settlements -- will be entitled to a 10% share of an announced 8% tax on all proceeds from the diamond mine.

Mexico's drugs war: Lessons and challenges
For the past five years, Mexico has been engaged in a bloody confrontation with drug gangs. Mexican political scientist Eduardo Guerrero Gutierrez looks at how the struggle is going and the implications for Mexico's presidential election in July.

The BBC 1 January 2012
The past year has been one of light and shade in the fight against organised crime in Mexico. The violence of the drug cartels, against one another as well as against the security forces and innocent citizens, continues to dominate the headlines. Five years after President Felipe Calderon launched his crackdown on the gangs, there have been some 50,000 drug-related killings. The number of murders in 2011, estimated at around 16,700, is 9% up on the total for 2010.

Strange case of a fake Ibsen play that has gripped Scandinavia
Literary experts embarrassed after 'lost fragments' of work by Norway's famous playwright are alleged to have been forged

Richard Orange The Observer, Sunday 1 January 2012
It's the case that has absorbed Scandinavia's elite artistic circles and tested some of Norway's finest literary experts. Over the next few months, investigators from the Norwegian police's economic crimes unit will be combing the market for supposed possessions and letters relating to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, and the Nobel-winning novelist – and Nazi sympathiser – Knut Hamsun as part of investigations into an alleged scam that exploited the nation's interest in its most celebrated authors. More than a dozen documents are alleged to have been forged by Geir Ove Kvalheim, a Norwegian scriptwriter and actor, who has been charged and is due go on trial in April.