Six In The Morning

NATO chief sees parallels between Syria and Balkans

　 Official says crisis starting to resemble Bosnia sectarian warfare during 1990s

By PAUL GEITNER
The secretary general of the NATO alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday that the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s illustrated what might befall Syria unless Russia and the West agreed on a “unified, clear message” to the Syrian government to stop the violence. In an interview, Mr. Rasmussen said that alliance members were disappointed by the failure of President Bashar al-Assad’s government to comply with the peace plan promoted by Kofi Annan, the special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League. Mr. Rasmussen said he agreed with the British foreign secretary, William Hague, who told Sky News over the weekend that the crisis in Syria was starting to resemble the sectarian warfare in Bosnia two decades ago, another time when Russia and the West were at odds over how to stop the violence.

Bailout for banks has conditions for Spanish state policy
The Irish Times - Tuesday, June 12, 2012

ARTHUR BEESLEY in Brussels and DEREK SCALLY in Berlin
THE GOVERNMENT is preparing to intensify its campaign to cut the cost of rescuing Anglo Irish Bank after Spain failed to secure direct European aid for its ailing banks. Dublin had hoped that any deal to recapitalise the Spanish banks without increasing the country’s debt would be applied retrospectively to the Irish bank rescue. Questions over the viability of the Spanish bailout drove the country’s borrowing higher yesterday and led to a fresh wave of pressure on Italy. The euro rose at first but then dropped in value against the US dollar. Italian borrowing costs over 10 years rose by 0.27 percentage points to rise above the critical 6 per cent threshold to 6.04 per cent.

Murder of children tops UN's shame list


June 12, 2012 - 2:52PM
Syrian troops have tortured children, executed them and used children as young as eight as "human shields" during military raids against rebels, according to a UN report to be released today. The United Nations named the Syrian government one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame" of conflict countries where children are killed, tortured and forced to fight. Human rights groups estimate that about 1200 children have died during the 15-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests has been widely condemned.

China's Afghan oil deal on the skids
South Asia

By M K Bhadrakumar
Within a week of the Afghan government's resolve to take its relationship with China to a "new strategic level", Sino-Afghan ties have run into bad weather. China finds itself in the middle of a cesspool of first-class political intrigue, sleaze and power plays that could sully its good-neighborly image among the people of northern Afghanistan. The facts are as follows. Toward the end of last year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the fateful decision to award the first contract for exploring, developing and extracting oil in the Amu Darya basin. In a crisply worded statement, Karzai's office put his personal stamp on the decision: "The Afghan cabinet has ordered Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez seeks re-election


Tuesday 12 June 2012
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez rallied tens of thousands of supporters, wearing his signature red beret and singing a folk song as he launched his re-election bid. Mr Chavez waved and blew kisses to crowds while he rode atop a truck to the country's elections office, then picked up a document registering as a candidate. Afterward, he stepped onto a stage and energetically sang along with a band to a traditional tune from the rural plains where he was born. Mr Chavez laughed and danced briefly on stage.

Africa land deals lead to water giveaway
Africa heads for 'hydrological suicide' as land deals hand water resources to foreign firms, threatening environmental disaster

Mark Tran guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 June 2012 07.00 BST
Millions of people will lose access to traditional sources of water because of "land grabs" in Africa, according to a report on Monday that looks behind the scramble for farmland in Africa. The report: Squeezing Africa dry: behind every land grab is a water grab, shows how land deals, covering millions of acres of fertile lands, also pose a threat to Africa's fresh water systems.