Six In The Morning

France shooting: Four die in Toulouse Jewish school attack

A gunman has opened fire on a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing three children and an adult, police say.

At least two people were also injured in the attack outside the Ozar Hatorah school in the north-east of the city. Police are hunting for the gunman, who witnesses said was riding a black scooter. The attack comes days after three soldiers were shot dead by a man on a scooter in the same part of France. President Nicolas Sarkozy, his education minister and interior minister are travelling to Toulouse, in south-west France. The grand rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, who is also on his way to the city, said he was "horrified" and "stunned" by what had happened. Israel also said it was horrified, adding that it trusted the French authorities "to shed full light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators to justice".

Syria: reports of heavy firefight in western Damascus

Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad clashing in Mezze district, say residents

Reuters The Guardian, Monday 19 March 2012
Heavy fighting has broken out between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in a main district of Damascus that is home to several security installations, according to witnesses. The sound of heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades echoed through the heavily guarded Mezze district in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, residents said. There was no immediate word on casualties but residents said by telephone the fighting was intense.

Thais cry foul as illegal criticism of King forges bitter divide
Activists say the law is unfair, unaccountable and has been used against political targets

Andrew Buncombe Author Biography Bangkok Monday 19 March 2012
The two men came from behind as Worachet Pakeerut parked his car. One punched him in the face and the pair sped off on a motorbike. "It happened so fast I couldn't see their faces," the law professor and activist said of the attack, which left him bleeding and needing hospital treatment. "Fortunately, other people could see them and were able to describe them to the police." Days afterwards, the men – brothers Supot and Supat Silarat – turned themselves in. They told police they attacked the professor because of his campaign to change a strict law relating to the Thai monarchy. "I was not happy," one of the brothers, Supat, told reporters.

'Unspeakable things happened that no human being should ever experience'
The Irish Times - Monday, March 19, 2012

MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Mohammed Busidra meets old ghosts as he revisits the Libyan prison where he spent 21 years The moment he enters the sprawling, high-walled compound in a rundown Tripoli neighbourhood, Mohammed Busidra starts whispering urgent prayers. This is Abu Salim, Libya’s most notorious prison for suspected political dissidents during Muammar Gadafy’s 42 years in power. Busidra, who spent over 21 years in jail without charge, was one of its best-known inmates. It is his first visit to Abu Salim, which has lain abandoned since it was broken open by anti-Gadafy fighters last August, since he was released from prison in 2009.

Spin doctor who calls Assad 'the dude'


Luke Harding March 19, 2012 - 12:45PM
On 27 November last year, a young, ambitious woman sent an email to her boss. It contained a single link, to a piece by the BBC correspondent Paul Woods. Woods had been smuggled into the Syrian city of Homs. His subsequent report gave a vivid account of the smouldering rebellion there, crushed two months later in a remorseless government attack. The woman was the US-educated Hadeel al-Ali; her boss was Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad. The email was sent to a private account used by Assad to communicate with his wife, Asma, other family members, and a handful of trusted advisers. Some 3,000 emails from Assad and his inner circle were leaked by Syria's opposition to the Guardsian last week, revealing a first family strangely disconnected from the bloody drama engulfing Syria and its people

‘Narco state’ Bissau at crossroads with election
Voters in Guinea Bissau kicked off an election on Sunday which was meant to steer the coup-prone West African state towards stability, but could instead extend its decades-long history of turmoil if the results are contested.

Reuters | 18 March, 2012 13:11
The stakes are high for international partners keen to see the tiny nation clamp down on rampant narcotics trafficking that has made it the main African transit point for South American cocaine bound for Europe. An estimated 800 kg to 1 000 kg of cocaine are flown into Guinea-Bissau every night, according to a leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable, along with an unknown amount ferried by sea into the maze of mangrove-lined islands that make up much of its coast.

Cuban opposition activists arrested in Havana
Cuban police have arrested dozens of opposition activists, a week ahead of a visit by Pope Benedict XVI.

19 March 2012
Most of those detained are members of the protest group Ladies in White, who are demanding the release of political prisoners. Many were stopped as they staged their silent weekly protest march along an avenue in the capital, Havana. The group says the country's Communist authorities have increased pressure on them in recent days. The government says they are paid by the US to undermine Cuba's revolution. The Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) usually attend Mass together and then stage a pro