Six In The Moerning

'Everyone is watching him': Challenges multiply for presidential winner in Egypt

　Morsi will have to spar with military, convince supporters of his opponent

By KAREEM FAHIM
As his supporters in Tahrir Square were chanting on Sunday for the end of military rule in Egypt, the country’s president-elect, Mohamed Morsi, had glowing words for none other than the army, saying he regarded it with a “love in my heart that only God knows.” Mr. Morsi’s remarks, during his first address to the nation after his victory was announced, were an acknowledgment of his new, changed role. He had gone from being a representative of a banned Islamist group to the leader of a nation and its public’s chief negotiator with the military generals who assumed power after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Mohamed Morsi is no revolutionary and not much of a nationalist. The army elite has already laid traps for him
Zaghloul might be missed today, after an election in which the words 'Islam'and 'security' seemed like interchangeable platitudes

Robert Fisk Monday 25 June 2012
While 50 million Egyptians were waiting yesterday to hear that they had elected a Muslim Brotherhood mediocrity over a Mubarak bag-carrier, I paid a visit to the home of Saad Zaghloul. Not for an interview, you understand (Zaghloul died 85 years ago and is buried opposite his house in a mausoleum styled like a pharaonic temple) but as a pilgrimage to a man who might have served Egypt well today, a revolutionary and a nationalist whose Wafd party stood up to the British empire and whose wife, Safeya, was one of the country's great feminists.

A 'dry' nation raises its glass to future prosperity


Ben Doherty June 25, 2012
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: In the land of shifting contradictions that is Pakistan, there are few more unusual or enduring than the Murree Brewery. In an Islamic nation growing steadily more conservative and where 97 per cent of the population cannot legally drink, Murree Brewery not only survives, but thrives. And Pakistanis are quaintly proud of their Raj-era oddity, a world-renowned brewer. In one building of the brewery, tucked neatly against a whitewashed wall, stand about 100 bags of barley, each stamped ''Produce of Western Australia''.

Syria puts double whammy on Turkey
Middle East

By M K Bhadrakumar
The shooting downof a Turkish fighter aircraft by Syria on Friday has become a classic case of coercive diplomacy. A Turkish F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft disappeared from radar screens shortly after taking off from the Erhach airbase in Malatya province in southeastern Turkey and entered Syrian airspace. According to Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), air-defense forces shot down the plane 1 kilometer off the coast from the Syrian port city of Latakia. A Turkish search-and-rescue aircraft rushed to the area of the crash but came under Syrian fire and had to pull out. The Russian naval base at Tartus is only 90 kilometers by road from Latakia. The incident took place on a day that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was on a visit to Russia.

Rio +20: What does it augur for the 2016 Olympics?
The UN's global conference underscored just how much ground Rio de Janeiro itself has to cover when it comes to environmental sustainability. It also showed what a long way the city has to go to prepare for the 2014 World Cup games and the 2016 Olympics.

By Julia Michaels, Guest blogger
Rio +20 and Rio, like Carnival with less trash. And less music, and more traffic, and what seemed like the entire Brazilian Navy sailing up and down the coast. There were also no costumes, unless you count people like the Brazilian Indian in full regalia who aimed a bow and arrow at BNDES security personnel … Actually the only way the UN Conference on Sustainable Development was like Carnival, is that Rio de Janeiro was invaded by visitors, anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 people. In the South Zone, everywhere you turned there was someone with a dangling identity card.

President Putin's Middle East gambit
Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories may be brief but it is full of symbolism.

By Jonathan Marcus BBC Diplomatic Correspondent
Mr Putin will unveil a memorial to Russian soldiers of the Second World War at the coastal city of Netanya, a little north of Tel Aviv. This marks the contribution of Russian troops to the defeat of Nazism. More than a million Russian Jews now live in Israel; Netanya itself has a significant Russian community. Many of Israel's Russian immigrants retain links with their former country but few analysts believe that the Russian president has much to gain in domestic political terms from this visit.