Six In The Morning

Mitt Romney, Bain Capital and the gospel of ‘creative destruction’



By Jia Lynn Yang, Thursday, January 12
Mitt Romney’s rivals this week intensified their attacks over business failures that happened on his watch at the investment firm Bain Capital. But even the successes touted by Romney’s campaign involved some painful decisions and layoffs. Both the successes and the failures reveal the candidate’s faith in “creative destruction,” the notion that the new must relentlessly replace the old so that companies and the economy can become more efficient. The concept is gospel to many businesspeople. But its intersection with politics has created what may be a recurring line of attack against Romney’s record.

EU on verge of abandoning hope for a viable Palestinian state
Israel's foreign ministry denied that Israeli settlers were taking water resources from the West Bank

DONALD MACINTYRE JERUSALEM THURSDAY 12 JANUARY 2012
The Palestinian presence in the largest part of the occupied West Bank – has been, "continuously undermined" by Israel in ways that are "closing the window" on a two-state solution, according to an internal EU report seen by The Independent. The report, approved by top Brussels officials, argues that EU support, including for a wide range of building projects, is now needed to protect the rights of "ever more isolated" Palestinians in "Area C", a sector that includes all 124 Jewish settlements – illegal in international law – and which is under direct Israeli control. It comprises 62 per cent of the West Bank, including the "most fertile and resource rich land".

Burma government 'signs ceasefire with Karen rebels'
Burma's government has signed a ceasefire deal with Karen rebels, a government official told the BBC.

12 January 2012
The agreement came at talks between officials and the Karen National Union in Hpa-an, the capital of eastern Karen state. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire, to open communication offices and to allow passage through each other's territories, the official said. The Karen have fought for greater autonomy for more than 60 years. Prior to this deal, it was the only major group that had not reached a peace agreement.

World's tiniest frogs found in New Guinea


January 12, 2012 - 11:10AM
With voices hardly louder than an insect's buzz, the tiniest frogs ever discovered are smaller than a coin and hop about the rainforest of the tropical island of Papua New Guinea, US scientists say. Not only are Paedophryne amauensis and Paedophryne swiftorum the smallest frogs known, they are also the smallest vertebrates, said the report in the science journal PLoS ONE. The little land frog Paedophryne amauensis comes in at 7.7 millimetres. The Paedophryne swiftorum measures a bit over eight millimetres.

Obama edges toward regime change
Middle East

By Barbara Slavin
WASHINGTON - The Barack Obama administration is increasingly giving the impression that it supports a policy of regime change against Iran - a policy that could backfire and convince Iran to build nuclear weapons. Senior United States officials have suggested recently that mounting economic sanctions were meant to "tighten the noose" around the Iranian government. The Washington Post on Tuesday quoted an unnamed senior US intelligence official as saying that the goal of sanctions was regime collapse.

Generic top-level domain sale begins on web
New suffixes like .Pepsi and .London will be possible as an alternative to the usual .com, .net and handful of others

Staff and agencies guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 January 2012 06.23 GMT
A revamp of the web begins on Thursday to allow companies, organisations and individuals who can come up with $185,000 to buy specific words that will replace .com, .net and the other usual suffixes on their website addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) will start accepting applications for "top-level domains" such as .Pepsi or .London rather than just the traditional .com and .net .