Six In The Morning

Syrian siege of Homs is genocidal, say trapped residents

People in the city describe snipers, bombings and their fear that the regime is preparing to make a lethal final assault

• Luke Harding, Mona Mahmood and Matthew Weaver
• guardian.co.uk

Residents inside the besieged city of Homs claim they are under "genocidal attack" from a Syrian regime apparently deaf to international opinion and determined to "bomb, starve and shoot" them into submission.

On Tuesday night the city was under massive continuous bombardment, witnesses told the Guardian, with rockets raining down from the sky every few minutes, and helicopters and fighter planes circling overhead. They said Syrian army tanks had encircled opposition-held suburbs, in preparation for what they feared was a final, deadly ground assault.

No way of stopping leak of deadly new flu, says terror chief

US biosecurity board expert warns against details of H5N1 bird flu getting into wrong hands

STEVE CONNOR 

 

 

WEDNESDAY 08 FEBRUARY 2012

The bioterrorism expert responsible for censoring scientific research which could lead to the creation of a devastating pandemic has admitted the information "is going to get out" eventually.

Professor Paul Keim, chairman of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, controversially recommended that researchers be stopped from publishing the precise mutations needed to transform the H5N1 strain of birdflu virus into a human-transmissible version.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, he argued it had been necessary to limit the release of the scientific details because of fears that terrorists may use the information to create their own H5N1 virus that could be spread easily between people.

Opinion

It's Time To End the Greek Rescue Farce

A Commentary By Stefan Kaiser

Whether it be an escrow account or a budget commissioner, the latest demands by Germany show just how absurd negotiations over Greece's future have become. It is high time to bring an end to this tragicomedy.

For the past two years, Greece has wrangled with the euro-zone states and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over its so-called "rescue." Austerity measures have been agreed to, aid has been paid and private creditors have been forced to accept "voluntary" debt haircuts. Despite all this, Greece is in even worse shape today than it was then. Its economy is shrinking, the debt ratio is rising and the country and its banks have been cut off from capital markets. There isn't even the slightest sign that the situation might improve. Something has gone very wrong with this rescue.

Egypt aid on a knife's edge over US activists' trial

MICHAEL MATHES WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - Feb 08 2012 08:40

Echoed by a bipartisan chorus of anger from US lawmakers, Republican senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, joined by independent Joe Lieberman, also warned that US congressional "support for Egypt -- including continued financial assistance -- is in jeopardy."

Washington provides some $1.3-billion a year in aid to its key Arab ally -- one of the biggest aid packages offered to any nation.

"The current crisis with the Egyptian government has escalated to such a level that it now threatens our long-standing partnership," the senators wrote in a joint statement.

India pivots, and pivots again

By Vijay Prashad 

India faces a grave dilemma. It is the fourth-largest consumer of imported oil, and as a growing economy wedded to the carbon civilization, it needs to burn vast amounts of oil to maintain its growth rate. 

The oil comes from a variety of sources, but mainly from the Gulf. The top five exporters of crude oil to India in 2011 in order of quantity were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. About 10% of India's imports of oil come from Iran. 

Contradictory political pressures have put India's government in a serious bind. 

As Subordinate ally to the United States
In the early 2000s, the United States wished to sequester India's respectable position within the Global South for its own parochial interests regarding Iran.

Aurora extravaganza glows in space

By Alan Boyle

Colorful videos prove that the astronauts on the International Space Station had the best seats in the house during last month's flare-up of auroral activity.

NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth is offering a whole new batch of time-lapse videos from the Jan. 25-30 period, when an active region on the sun was blasting out a healthy dose of electrically charged particles and lighting up Earth's upper atmosphere.

These latest videos are notable because they're assembled from still pictures that were taken at a rate of one frame per second. As a result, the pace of the videos is a near match for the true speed of the space station as it makes its 90-minute orbit around our planet.