Six In The Morning

Talks with Pakistan break down when US refuses to apologize for airstrike

　

By Declan Walsch, Eric Schmitt and Steven Lee Myers
The latest high-level talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistani demands for an unconditional apology from the Obama administration for an airstrike. The White House, angered by the recent spectacular Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, refuses to apologize. The Obama administration’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, left the Pakistani capital Friday night with no agreement after two days of discussions aimed at patching up the damage caused by the American airstrikes last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghanistan border.

Thousands march for election reforms in Malaysia
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the centre of Kuala Lumpur calling for fair elections and greater accountability

Reuters in Kuala Lumpur guardian.co.uk, Saturday 28 April 2012 06.40 BST
Up to 20,000 protesters calling for fair elections and greater accountability marched on Kuala Lumpur's centre on Saturday in a show of force that will test the Malaysian government's reformist pledges and may affect the timing of national polls. Police shut down much of the city centre and closed off the historic Merdeka (Independence) Square with barriers and barbed wire, enforcing a court order that the protesters should not enter the symbolically important site.

Camorra code is cracked: Letter reveals how jailed boss still ran the mafia
Note about holidays and home-made jam was not so innocent

Milan Saturday 28 April 2012
Investigators have intercepted a hand-written letter sent to a jailed mobster that has shed new light on the secret language that allows mafia bosses to stay in contact with clan members from behind bars. The mafioso in question, Michele Zagaria, the head of the Camorra's brutal Casalesi clan, was dragged from an underground bunker near Naples and jailed last December, after 11 years on the run. At the time, Raffaele Cantone, a former Naples magistrate who has lived under armed protection since 2003 after Zagaria ordered his assassination, hailed the capture.

Under-age call girl scandal shakes Singapore elite


April 28, 2012 - 3:05PM
An unfolding scandal over an under-age call girl has shaken Singapore's political and economic elite after businessmen, civil servants and uniformed officers were charged in the case. Prostitution is legal in Singapore, but 48 men ranging in age from their early 20s to late 40s have so far been charged under a 2008 law making it a crime to pay for sex with a girl under 18. Singapore has long been perceived as a conservative, even prudish, city-state but it has a thriving sex industry dating back to its beginnings as a key trading port of the then British empire

A history of the world, BRIC by BRIC
THE ROVING EYE

By Pepe Escobar
Goldman Sachs - via economist Jim O'Neill - invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn't help calling it the "Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept." Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and to include four of the world's top five economies. Soon, in fact, that acronym may have to expand to include Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea and, yes, nuclear Iran: BRIIICTSS? Despite its well-known problems as a nation under economic siege, Iran is also motoring along as part of the N-11, yet another distilled concept. (It stands for the next 11 emerging economies.)

Mexico weighs law to compensate victims of drug violence
Mexico's Senate approved a law that would provide compensation of up to $70,000 to victims of organized crime, writes a guest blogger. It still needs approval from the House of Representatives.

By Hannah Stone, Guest blogger
Mexico's Senate has approved a bill to compensate victims of organized crime, one of the major demands of the peace movement led by poet Javier Sicilia. The law would oblige the state to help and protect victims of violence and human rights abuses connected to organized crime, reports El Universal. Under the law, the state will provide compensation of up to 934,000 pesos ($70,000) to victims. The legislation would create a National System for Attention to Victims, which will provide support to those hurt by crime and oversee compensation payments. The body would include representatives of victims' groups and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.