Six In The Morning

Syria accused of organised attacks

　 Amnesty International claims government is committing crimes against humanity and calls for international response.

Last Modified: 14 Jun 2012 04:28
Syria is committing crimes against humanity as part of state policy to exact revenge against communities suspected of supporting rebels, Amnesty International has said in a report. The London-based rights group called for an international response on Wednesday after claiming it had fresh evidence that victims, including children, had been dragged from their homes and shot dead by soldiers, who in some cases then set the remains on fire. "This disturbing new evidence of an organised pattern of grave abuses highlights the pressing need for decisive international action," said Amnesty's Donatella Rovera on release of the 70-page report entitled "Deadly Reprisals".

The green movement at 50: Mission unaccomplished
In the fourth part of our series marking 50 years of the green movement, Michael McCarthy looks at the areas where environmental activism has failed

Thursday 14 June 2012
If you've ever seen large-scale deforestation, especially of the rainforest, and seen it close up when it's just happened, you feel you're in the aftermath of an armoured battle. The scale of the destruction stuns you: cleared ground which seems to be everywhere smoking, burning tree stumps flickering like huge candles. It feels as if some giant beast has torn off a great lump of the landscape and savagely consumed it, leaving bits of it bleeding behind. Serious deforestation has been going on for more than 30 years across the tropical zones of the world, starting in Amazonia and gathering speed, spreading to Indonesia and then to West Africa.

Cloud over Europe as Greek voters prepare next chapter
Some in Athens appear set to call Brussels’s bluff on Sunday. But the euro zone has primed itself for an exit

ARTHUR BEESLEY The Irish Times - Thursday, June 14, 2012
IN THE early days of the debt crisis, European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso decried what he termed “the intellectual glamour of pessimism” about the outlook for Europe. As Greece faces into its second election in as many months, there are many who would argue that pessimism is more the prerogative of the realist than anyone who might glamorise doom. No one knows what will emerge after Greeks cast their ballots on Sunday. The campaign has been a tumultuous affair, the sense of unpredictability being characterised by a far-right politician’s assault on two female left-wing rivals on live television.

UN review lashes SA over secrecy Bill
South Africa found itself on the receiving end of significant international condemnation, during a UN review of its human rights record this week.

14 Jun 2012 06:46 - Guardian Reporter
The United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland all expressed concerns that the proposed laws could threaten media freedom. The intervention – the biggest collective stand yet taken by foreign governments on the issue – was welcomed by activists who oppose the Protection of State Information Bill, which could make journalists and whistleblowers vulnerable to prison sentences of up to 25 years. South Africa’s human rights record was scrutinised by a working group of the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in Geneva recently. A draft report of the meeting shows Spain “asked about measures adopted to ensure that the future protection of state information does not curtail freedom of the press and the right to information on possible inappropriate action by public officials”.

Leveson Inquiry: David Cameron set to give evidence
Prime Minister David Cameron will face a full day of questioning in front of the Leveson Inquiry on Thursday.

The BBC
The media ethics inquiry is expected to focus on his relationship with figures in Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Mr Cameron is a friend of ex-News International boss Rebekah Brooks and hired ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief. The inquiry is also likely to ask him about Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's handling of News Corp's BSkyB bid. News Corp unveiled its bid for the satellite broadcaster in June 2010 but abandoned it in July 2011 amid outrage over the phone-hacking scandal at its now defunct News of the World (NoW) newspaper.

The Zetas: Coming to a racetrack near you
Mexican drug trafficking organizations are already operating in an estimated 1,000 US cities, but according to a recent investigation by The New York Times, they are on the racetracks too.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer
Forget “spillover” violence. It appears that residents living in US towns along the border with Mexico are not the only Americans likely to come into contact with Mexico's drug traffickers. There is already ample evidence of how Mexican traffickers have infiltrated American cities. The Department of Justice says Mexican drug trafficking organizations were operating in more than 1,000 of them as of 2010. And now, according to an investigative piece by The New York Times, they are on the nation's racetracks too. Ginger Thompson of the Times writes about the Treviño family, which is accused of establishing a notable horse breeding operation in the US called Tremor Enterprises, through which they have allegedly laundered millions of dollars.