Six In The Morning

For Iraqis, aid to rebels in Syria repays a debt

Intensifying violence suggests that Assad's government faces antagonists across its borders

By TIM ARANGO AND DURAID ADNAN
Not so long ago, Syrians worked to send weapons and fighters into Iraq to help Sunnis fighting a sectarian conflict; suddenly, it is the other way around. A belated celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday on the outskirts of this western Iraqi city on Saturday quickly took on the trappings of a rally for Syria’s rebels. Young boys waved the old green, black and white flag Syria adopted in the 1930s after declaring independence from the French. Others collected money to send aid and weapons to the fighters opposing President Bashar al-Assad’s government across the border. “I wish I could go there with my gun and fight,” said Sheik Hamid al-Hais, a tribal leader interviewed at his compound in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province.

Pakistan's prime minister charged wth contempt
Yousaf Raza Gilani is accused of failing to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari

Jason Burke in Islamabad guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 05.47 GMT
Pakistan's supreme court has charged the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, with contempt of court for his refusal to reopen old corruption cases against the president, Asif Ali Zardari. Gilani pleaded not guilty saying "I have done no wrong", according to television reports. Local channels flashed the news less than half an hour after Gilani arrived at the courthouse amid heavy security, with hundreds of police and paramilitaries deployed and helicopters overhead. The hearing was adjourned for two weeks, reinforcing fears of renewed political turmoil.

Fight for the right: Sarkozy's bid to win Le Pen's people
France's far-right candidate has a new challenger: the President. John Lichfield joins her on the campaign trail in Strasbourg

Monday 13 February 2012
Marine Le Pen yesterday tore up her presidential campaign – or at least her standard stump speech. From now on, she told a cheering audience supporters in Strasbourg, it would be "back to basics": immigration, immigration, insecurity, love of country and immigration. The far right leader, running a strong third in the polls for this spring's French presidential, has been campaigning on a bouillabaisse of ultra-nationalist, social and leftist issues. From this week, she will face a challenge from a "new" candidate who plans to out-shout her on the unashamed themes and "values of the Right": "national identity", "order" "discipline", "family" and immigration. His name is Nicolas Sarkozy.

150 acid attacks on women a year: one man is saving faces


Homa Khaleeli February 13, 2012 - 2:47PM
Zakia's face looks as if half of it has been rubbed out. What's left is one eye, half a nose and a mouth that can no longer smile. She seldom leaves the house, and when she does she wears an all-encompassing black niqab and sunglasses. The young mother is just one of the 150 victims of acid attacks reported each year in Pakistan, according to the charity Acid Survivors Foundation - although the true figure is likely to be much higher. It's a form of violence that has spread across the world from Uganda to Cambodia, and the victims are most often women and children.

SADC to push for Dlamini-Zuma at AU
Southern African countries have vowed to lobby hard for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to be elected African Union chief after a recent poll deadlock.

Sapa-AFP | 13 February, 2012 00:51
The Southern African Development Community reiterated its support for South Africa's home affairs minister at a two-day meeting in Cape Town called to plot the bloc's strategy after she failed to unseat Gabon's Jean Ping as chairman of the AU Commission nearly two weeks ago. Angolan Foreign Minister Rebelo Pinto Chikoti said at an AU dinner on Saturday: "It's going to be a campaign of all SADC member states and we are going to work and convince others with strong arguments.

China tangled up in industrial espionage
Greater China

By Peter Lee
It looks like someone got their hands caught in DuPont's cookie jar. The jar in question was DuPont's closely-held knowhow in the manufacture of titanium dioxide. According to a criminal indictment unsealed in US federal court on February 8, USA Performance Technology Inc (USAPTI), a company in Oakland, California, conspired to sell DuPont's trade secrets and a major Chinese state-run corporation, Pangang Group, conspired to acquire them. The criminal indictment represents an escalation of DuPont's complaint from a civil suit that had been percolating through the US courts in 2011. That means 2012 will see a high-profile, election-year criminal case encapsulating a plethora of hot-button issues that can be summarized with the phrase "Chinese government engages in industrial espionage to rip off US companies".