Six In The Morning

Obama concludes Summit of the Americas on the defensive about inviting Cuba

　

By Scott Wilson, Monday, April 16
CARTAGENA, Colombia — President Obama concluded a contentious hemispheric summit on the defensive Sunday as it ended without agreement on whether Cuba’s Communist leaders should be invited to the next meeting, something the United States firmly opposes. The standoff meant that the sixth Summit of the Americas ended without an official declaration — a negotiated statement of shared principles from the hemisphere’s heads of state — and left open the question of whether there would be a seventh such meeting. The ambiguous conclusion underscored the fact that Obama, while pledging a new relationship with the United States’ leery southern neighbors, has had little success in bridging significant policy differences that have divided the region for decades.

China's censors tested by microbloggers who keep one step ahead of state media
China may have the world's most internet-savvy government but Beijing has been struggling to keep a lid on bold social networks

Tania Branigan in Beijing The Guardian, Monday 16 April 2012
In the opaque world of Chinese censorship, a few red lines shine through the murk. One of the clearest is: no gossip about top political leaders, their families or internal party affairs. But just as the authorities had vowed to tame China's rumbustious microblogs, they have seen an unprecedented wave of speculation and comment on the most sensitive subjects: political infighting, lurid allegations of murder and even (unfounded) claims of a coup. State attempts to control the web, including stern admonitions, large-scale deletions, real-name registration, website closures and even detentions have failed to rein in users.

Belarus opposition politician Andrei Sannikov freed from jail


Moscow Monday 16 April 2012
After more than a year in jail, opposition politician Andrei Sannikov was freed over the weekend, after he was granted a pardon by Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus. Mr Sannikov arrived in Minsk late on Saturday night, and was greeted by a number of well-wishers chanting slogans of support and foisting flowers upon him. He thanked those who had supported him and said his first wish was to spend time with his family.

Army, opposition agree to share power in Guinea-Bissau


ALLEN YERO EMBALO AND MALICK ROKHY BA BISSAU, GUINEA-BISSAU - Apr 16 2012 08:01
The Guinea-Bissau army and opposition parties have agreed to set up a transitional body to run the country ahead of talks on Monday with the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has denounced the recent coup. The news came before shortly before the new junta said on Sunday it was closing all air and sea borders. That move was prompted by former colonial power Portugal's announcement that it was sending two navy ships and a military plane for a possible evacuation of its nationals.

Israel dismisses 'flytilla' protest, pointing to human rights abuses in Syria, Iran
Israel denied entry and deported several dozen pro-Palestinian activists who flew into Tel Aviv's airport on Sunday, arguing they are missing the bigger regional issues.

By Joshua Mitnick, Correspondent
Israel denied entry and deported several dozen pro-Palestinian activists who arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, as fears of a mass confrontation at the country’s main international gateway prompted a deployment of hundreds of police and security personnel. With turmoil in the region dominating the international agenda and diplomacy on Palestinian statehood mothballed, the vacuum in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is being filled by the civil disobedience of a limited but creative band of local and foreign activists. After today's round, both sides claimed victory in what many observers said was mainly a public relations battle. Palestinian organizers of the "Welcome to Palestine Campaign," argued that Israel’s refusal of the activists focused attention on claims of injustice in the West Bank and contradicted Israel’s boast of being the only democracy in the region.

Why does the 1970s get painted as such a bad decade?
Of all post-war decades, the 1970s has undoubtedly had the worst press, but the truth is that most ordinary families in 1970s Britain were better off than ever, writes historian Dominic Sandbrook.

The BBC
The 1950s are symbolised by the television and the washing machine, which transformed the lives of so many families. We misremember the 1960s as the decade of the Mini, which was actually invented in 1959, the mini-skirt, which surprisingly few women actually wore, and the Pill, which most women never took. We remember the 1980s as the decade of gigantic hair, shoulder-pads, the Filofax and the home computer. But in the popular imagination the 1970s are the poor relations, to be lampooned and despised - the era of Edward Heath, the decade of the donkey jacket, the age of the Austin Allegro.