Six In The Morning

Thailand blasts: police search for two more suspects

Authorities confirmed that attacks, which Israel has blamed on Iran, were targeting Israeli diplomats

Kate Hodal in Bangkok and agencies guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 February 2012 09.39 GMT
Police in Thailand are searching for another two suspects, including a possible bomb specialist, involved in Tuesday's blasts in the capital, Bangkok. The Thai authorities have confirmed that the attacks – which Israel has blamed on Iran – were targeting Israeli diplomats. Bangkok's police commissioner, Lieutenant General Winai Thongson, said one of the two new suspects may have been providing training in explosives to the three Iranian men detained after their thwarted bomb plot injured five people, including one of the Iranians

Caribbean's high crime rate is hindering development, report says
UNDP reports says violent crime, police corruption and failings in justice system are having a detrimental effect on business and investment, and could be blocking development

Frederika Whitehead guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 February 2012 07.00 GMT
High levels of violent crime in the Caribbean are hindering development, according to the latest United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on the region, published last week. The Caribbean is home to 8.5% of the global population and yet 27% of the world's murders take place in the region. The report's authors criticised the populist, hardline "Iron Fist" policies Caribbean nations are using to tackle crime, describing them as "short-sighted ... policies, which have proven ineffective and, at times, detrimental to the rule of law".

The West Bank's Bobby Sands
Khader Adnan's two-month hunger strike has made him a hero among Palestinians outraged by Israel's policy of arbitrary detention

Donald Macintyre Author Biography Friday 17 February 2012
It was only after talking with lucidity and animation for an hour about her husband's 61-day hunger strike that Randa Jihad Adnan's eyes, visible though the opening of her nekab, filled with tears. Until then, this articulate 31-year-old graduate in sharia law from Al Najar University in Nablus, the pregnant mother of two young daughters aged four and one and half, had described with almost disconcerting poise the two months following the arrest of her husband, Khader Adnan, on 17 December.

Ancient appliance of acoustics revealed
irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Friday, February 17, 2012, 07:10

DICK AHLSTROM, Science Editor in Vancouver
Researchers are finding increasing evidence that ancient civilisations used specific spaces and building designs to produce powerful acoustic effects. It is likely that these places were used as ritual spaces and places where oracles communicated with the gods. Evidence for these “auditory illusions” was offered yesterday in a session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Vancouver, entitled: “Archaeoacoustics: The sounds of the past”.

Zanu-PF lets people eat cake
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe turns 88 next week and preparations for his birthday celebration, known among his Zanu-PF supporters as the "21st February Movement", are now in full swing.

RAY NDLOVU HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Feb 17 2012 00:00
Mutare, the host city for the celebrations, will showcase the lavish wealth of the party. A giant birthday cake, three-course meals, a music gala featuring top Zimbabwean artists, a Miss 21st Movement beauty pageant and a soccer tournament dubbed the "Bob 88 Super Cup" are on offer. Over the past two months the provinces have been chipping in with "donations" to make the big day a memorable one for Mugabe. There are rumours that the bash will cost nearly $1-million, the same price Zanu-PF paid for its three-day conference in Bulawayo last December.

China sits out Syria regime change tango
Greater China

By Peter Lee
According to the authoritarian playbook preferred by China, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is doing the right things: driving a wedge between the "loyal opposition" to his rule and hardcore rebels and revolutionaries through the use of targeted amnesties and concessions; forcefully isolating and suppressing violent political dissenters; incrementally escalating the use of military force to regain control of militia-held strongholds like Homs; and offering a way out with a new constitution.