Six In The Morning

Obama's gay marriage move risky, inevitable

　The president faces considerable risk in the heat of a close election

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage on Wednesday was by any measure a watershed. A sitting United States president took sides in what many people consider the last civil rights movement, providing the most powerful evidence to date of how rapidly views are moving on an issue that was politically toxic just five years ago. Mitt Romney reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage on Wednesday but declined to condemn President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage, noting the sensitivity of the issue. Mr. Obama faces considerable risk in jumping into this debate, reluctantly or not, in the heat of such a close election. The day before he announced his position, voters in North Carolina — a critical state in Mr. Obama’s re-election plan and the site of the Democratic convention this summer — approved by a 20-point margin a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. It was the 31st state to pass such an amendment.

Special Report: Afghan surprise in Ghazni province
At a meeting to celebrate the Taliban's 'retreat', what could possibly go wrong?

Kim Sengupta Zana Khan, Ghazni, Afghanistan Thursday 10 May 2012
The mortar rounds came in from the hills, spraying shrapnel as they sank into the red earth; long bursts of machine-gun and Kalashnikov fire followed, all aimed at the helicopter landing strip. The attack just missed its target – the aircraft in which the governor was leaving after a public meeting to celebrate the defeat and expulsion of the Taliban from this area. The helicopter scrambled away, as did a second one in which a group of journalists was due to travel, with just two passengers on board. The rest of us ran to a disused school which was being used as a headquarters by Afghan and Nato forces for the mission to clear insurgents from the villages in this harsh and unforgiving stretch of Ghazni province.

Greece in chaos as Alexis Tsipras's coalition talks fail
Greece's political turmoil deepened last night after a key Leftist leader failed in his bid to form a coalition government, making fresh elections next month all but inevitable.

By Alex Spillius, Athens
Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party was the surprise runner-up in Sunday’s election and is expected to fare even better in a second election, had earlier declared the €130 billion (£104 billion) EU bail-out of Greece dead in a letter to Brussels. He told colleagues "we cannot make true our dream of a Left-wing government" after failing in a bold challenge to the two mainstream parties, Pasok and New Democracy, to renounce the recovery plan they supported last year.

Mega-cities pose climate test as consumption grows


Michael Bachelard May 10, 2012 - 1:31PM
The mega-cities of Asia will be the toughest test for climate-change policy as a rising middle class begins to consume goods at rates only previously seen in the west. A new report released by the United Nations Development Program in mega-city Jakarta today has a tough message: Asian cities “can't afford to grow first and clean up later”. Regional director Ajay Chhibber told Fairfax that these countries have a moral obligation to grow fast economically because, without it, 900 million people living in absolute poverty in the region will not be able to afford decent lives.

Libya govt starts to get tough on road to democracy


By AFP
The tendency to resort to the arms which ousted Muammar Gaddafi poses a roadblock to democracy in the new Libya, analysts warn, while recognising the government's growing capacity to defuse crises. Libyan authorities resorted to force on Tuesday for the first time to repel dozens of armed men who had laid siege to Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib's offices to demand stipends and medical treatment for the war wounded. "It is not just rogue elements but a pernicious logic that prevails across the country," Middle East specialist Karim Bitar told AFP, warning that Libya risks becoming swept by instability spreading across the Sahel region.

Slain American's legacy continues in Nicaragua
Ben Linder, the only US citizen killed by US-backed contras during Nicaragua’s war in the 1980s, continues to inspire a new generation of foreign activists working with the country's poor.

By Tim Rogers, Correspondent
Of the countless bullets fired during Nicaragua’s brutal counterrevolutionary war in the 1980s, few shots have continued to resonate as loudly as the one that ended the young life of US citizen Benjamin Linder on April 28, 1987. Twenty five years after contra insurgents killed Mr. Linder as he worked at a small hydroelectric plant for the Sandinista government, his life continues to reverberate. His death was front page news, and further inflamed the US debate over support for the contras, coming just months after the Iran-Contra scandal had erupted. Linder's angry friends and family complained that the US had paid for the bullet that killed him, while officials in the Reagan Administration said he should have known better than to go to a war zone.