Six In The Morning

Ex-observer: Syria mission 'a farce'

Arab League monitor calls situation a "humanitarian disaster" as UN hears of heightened crackdown since mission began.

Last Modified: 11 Jan 2012 08:36
A former Arab League observer to Syria has decried the organisation's monitoring mission to the country as a "farce", as the UN Security Council heard that security forces had stepped up its killing of protesters after the arrival of the observers. Anwar Malek, an Algerian Arab League observer who was part of the monitoring team, told Al Jazeera that he resigned because of what he saw, and said that the mission was falling apart. "What I saw was a humanitarian disaster. The regime is not just committing one war crime, but a series of crimes against its people," he said. "The snipers are everywhere shooting at civilians. People are being kidnapped. Prisoners are being tortured and none were released."

Robert Fisk: Assad faces his people's hatred – but as their anger grows, his excuses are still just the same


Wednesday 11 January 2012
It was theAssad Speech of the Year. There was an international conspiracy against Syria. True. Arab states opposed to Syria were under "outside pressure". True, up to a point. Nobody could deny the seriousness of these plots. True. After all, the Syrian government itself registers 2,000 dead soldiers, while the UN estimates civilian dead at 5,000. And when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan warned that the violence in Syria was "heading towards a sectarian, religious war", there were few supporters of President Assad who would disagree with him.

Maverick billionaire sets out to rattle mobile phone rivals
The Irish Times - Wednesday, January 11, 2012

RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC in Paris
BEING A buccaneering billionaire with a history of investing in sex shops and a business manner reminiscent of Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary doesn’t sound like the surest route to the hearts of the French people. But as Xavier Niel was applauded off stage yesterday after an announcement that he hopes will reshape the country’s mobile phone market, even politicians on the left of the Socialist Party were singing his praises. At a packed Apple-style launch event in Paris, the 44-year-old telecoms entrepreneur – whose company Iliad recently won France’s fourth mobile phone licence – unveiled a price package that could halve the cost of having a mobile phone in what is one of Europe’s most expensive mobile markets. For just €19.99 a month, and without having to sign a contract, new customers would have “unlimited” calls and texts to 40 countries, Niel said.

Iran and the West Rediscover Oil as Weapon
The Escalation

By Alexander Jung and Bernhard Zand
Surprisingly enough, supertankers don't burn very well. Although the crude oil they transport is highly flammable, there is not enough oxygen in their tanks to create an explosive mixture. On average, 14 of these giant tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, located between Iran and Oman, every day. If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually ordered his forces to fire missiles at one of these tankers, quite a bit of firepower would be needed to set off a Hollywood-style inferno. But the verbal attacks from Tehran are more than sufficient to set the global markets ablaze.

Eight killed as ethnic violence, fuel chaos haunt Nigeria
Gunmen killed eight people in northern Nigeria on Tuesday and a mob torched an Islamic school in the south, as a fuel strike and growing religious tension rattled Africa's oil-rich giant.

AMINU ABUBAKAR KANO, NIGERIA - Jan 11 2012 06:50
Amid the sectarian and social turmoil, Nobel Literature Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, one of the country's most respected voices, warned that the continent's most populous nation was heading toward civil war. A two-day old general strike has paralysed the country and sent President Goodluck Jonathan's government -- already battling a spate of bloody attacks by the Islamist sect Boko Haram -- into crisis mode. Analysts said the tension in the country that is Africa's top oil producer contributed to rising world oil prices.

Iran keeps issuing threats, US keeps saving Iranian sailors
As Iran has been promoting its naval prowess and ability to shut the Straits of Hormuz, US naval assets have been busy rescuing Iranian sailors.

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer
The information warriors at the Pentagon probably can't believe their luck. Iran has spent much of the past month crowing about how it could shut down the Strait of Hormuz -- a choke-point for vast quantities of seaborne oil for nearly 40 percent of the world -- and said it was "warning" the US to keep its ships out of the Persian Gulf. The US, as a far greater naval power, with a naval base in Bahrain, and an interest in keeping sea lanes open, brushed off the Iranian threat.