#NBCFail: NBC blames Twitter for complaint that led to journalist Guy Adams having Twitter account suspended after complaining about London 2012 Olympics coverage

Following his suspension yesterday from the micro-blogging site Twitter, Independent journalist Guy Adams writes with an update

Regarding my ongoing “suspension” from Twitter, which shut down my account after I published a message critical of Gary Zenkel, the NBC executive in charge of the network’s awful coverage of the Olympics.
The site claims I broke its rules because I included Zenkel’s work email address in a Tweet posted on Friday, when America had been forced to watch the opening ceremony on time-delay.
“The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel,” it read. “Tell him what u think!”

Six In The Morning

India's power grid crisis deepens

A massive power breakdown has hit India for a second day running, leaving more than half the country without power　

The BBC
Officials said the northern and eastern grids had both collapsed. All Delhi metro services have been halted and staff are trying to evacuate trains. Monday's power failure caused severe disruption and travel chaos across northern India. It was unclear why the grid collapsed but the power minister said some states may have been taking too much power. Sushil Kumar Shinde said power would be restored in "another 90 minutes". After Monday's cut, engineers managed to restore electricity to the northern grid by the evening, but at 01:05pm (0735 GMT) on Tuesday, it collapsed again.

The people who live in Aleppo have fled. Only the fighters remain
In Aleppo, Assad's forces are locked in bloody battle with a splintered opposition. Kim Sengupta, the only foreign reporter in the heart of Syria's second city, reports

KIM SENGUPTA TUESDAY 31 JULY 2012
There was a strange quietness to Salaheddine in between the bursts of ferocious fighting. The strips of cloth that curtain off the narrow, twisting alleys from the sight of the regime's tanks and guns rustled in the wind, there was a faint noise of traffic in the distance. The only human voices, however, were hurried conversations in doorways between fighters; the people who lived here have gone. The calm was shattered by a few shots, snipers at work. This was followed immediately by deafening rifle fire and then the deep boom of shells and mortars crashing into buildings in neighbouring streets. There were roars of "Allah hu Akbar" from the rebels as ambulances went careering by, playing religious and protest songs in full volume.

Political Bankruptcy in Madrid Adds to Woes
Spain is an attraction, and not just as a destination for vacationers and the world's best footballers. It enjoyed a booming economy for a long time, but now the entire country seems to be in free fall. Will it have to resort to the bailout fund because of mistakes by its ruling conservatives?

By Erich Follath and Helene Zuber
What a week for Spain. The Madrid Stock Exchange crashed, there was bad news of growing mountains of debt from across the country and the risk premiums Spain has to pay to borrow money are rising rapidly, reaching 7.4 percent last Tuesday -- a level that already forced three other euro countries to resort to the bailout fund. Last Thursday, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi felt compelled to restore calm by promising to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the euro, which apparently means printing as much money as possible. The euro recovered and Spain's borrowing costs fell slightly, but perhaps it's only a respite.

Adulterous couple stoned to death in Mali
A man and woman who had an adulterous relationship have reportedly been stoned to death by religious extremists linked to Al-Qaeda, in Mali.

31 JUL 2012 07:53 - DAVID SMITH
Sanda Abou Mohamed, a spokesperson for the group Ansar Dine, said the couple were executed according to sharia law in the town of Aguelhok. A resident of the nearby city of Kidal, who had spoken to witnesses in Aguelhok, said the couple were buried up to their necks, then pelted with stones until they died. The resident requested anonymity because he feared for his safety. The West African nation, once seen as a pillar of democracy in the troubled region, has been split in two since a coup in March.

Software tycoon reboots Korean politics
Korea

By Steven Borowiec
It isn't often that an anti-virus software engineer has the charisma to command an entire country's attention and paralyze its politics, but that's pretty much what Ahn Cheol-soo is managing to do these days in South Korea. As maneuvering begins for the December 19 presidential election, the big question is whether Ahn will run for the country's top post. So far, the opposition lacks a compelling candidate, and many on the liberal side think Ahn is their only hope to knock the ruling New Frontier Party out of office. Ahn still hasn't committed himself.

How Latin America is reinventing the war on drugs
Frustrated with US dictates, countries across the region are floating new ideas to curb drug trafficking, from 'soft' enforcement to legalization.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer, and Sara Shahriari, Correspondent
Like thousands of other Bolivians, Marcela Lopez Vasquez's parents migrated to the Chapare region, in the Andean tropics, desperate to make a living after waves of economic and environmental upheaval hit farming and mining communities in the 1970s and '80s. The new migrants, who spread across the undulating green hills here, planted bananas. They planted yucca and orange trees. But it was in the coca leaf that thrives in this climate that they found the salvation of a steady cash crop – and themselves at the nexus of the American "war on drugs." The coca leaf has been sacred in Andean society for 4,000 years and is a mainstay of Bolivian culture.

Brick-by-brick men's basketball; USA v France-video

An animated reconstruction of highlights of the USA's first match of the tournament, in which the favourites beat France 98-71. The American team of multimillionaires includes Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and (with his trademark white headband) LeBron James, while the French side features fellow NBA stars Kevin Seraphin, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw and the goggles-wearing Tony Parker

Six In The Morning

Syria conflict: UN says 200,000 have fled Aleppo battle

　Some 200,000 people have fled intense fighting in Syria's second city Aleppo in the past two days, the UN has said.

30 July 2012
UN humanitarian chief Baroness Valerie Amos said others were trapped in the city and needed urgent help. Government forces launched a ground assault on Saturday after a week of sporadic shelling and sorties by fighter jets. The BBC's Ian Pannell, in the Aleppo area, says residents are facing food shortages and power cuts. He says the rebels are outgunned by the army, but they are fighting an effective guerrilla war in the streets. Fighting has focused on the the Salah al-Din neighbourhood in Aleppo's south-west, where the rebels had embedded themselves.

Power cut hits northern India causing major disruption
A massive power cut has caused disruption across northern India, including in the capital, Delhi.


It hit a swathe of the country affecting more than 300 million people in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan states. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said 60% of the supply had been restored and the rest would be reinstated soon. It is unclear why supply collapsed, but states using more power than they were authorised to could be one reason. Mr Shinde said he had appointed a committee to inquire into the causes of the blackout, one of the worst to hit the country in more than a decade.

Pussy Riot trial over Putin altar protest begins
Trial of three band members over protest song highlighting church ties to Kremlin is politically motivated, say supporters

Reuters in Moscow guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 July 2012 03.00 BST
Three members of the band Pussy Riot, who staged a punk-rock protest against Vladimir Putin on the altar of Russia's main cathedral, went on trial on Monday in a case seen as a test of the president's tolerance of dissent. The trial, say observers, will reveal how much power the resurgent Russian Orthodox church and its head, Patriarch Kirill, wields. He has called the "punk prayer" blasphemy, casting it as part of a sinister anti-clerical campaign.

21st-Century torture: life under Europe's 'last dictator'
Opposition activists say two men executed for a bombing in Minsk in 2011 were forced to confess under duress. In a special report, John Sweeney experiences the torture they may have endured

JOHN SWEENEY MONDAY 30 JULY 2012
The secretary-general of Interpol, Ronald K Noble, may have thought he had little to fear from the Belarusian mother whose son was shot dead after he and a friend confessed to planting a bomb that killed 15 people on the Minsk underground system last year. But Lyuba Kovaleva is fighting a campaign that has raised grave questions about Mr Noble's judgment, and is lending weight to claims that the Belarusian secret police, the KGB, planted the device, rigged a show trial and tortured confessions out of the two suspects. The tale begins two days after the metro bombing in April last year.

Myths, Legends and the Making of Usain Bolt
Few would deny that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world -- but even fewer could say why. While his fans are happy to call him a miracle, the man himself is lost in a cloud of legends, hype and marketing.
Usain Bolt is coming to the London Olympics a defeated man, but apparently no one wants to believe it. Bolt recently lost his first 100-meter race in two years in Kingston, Jamaica. Afterwards, he was suddenly wide-eyed and shaking his head, as if he'd just woken up from a dream. He, the fastest man in the world, had crossed the finish line one or two meters behind his teammate, Yohan Blake. It was a balmy Caribbean night, the soft smell of grass was in the air in front of the stands, and an insurance broker from Brooklyn named Danny, who was running the PR effort for the Jamaican Olympic trials, was trying to contain the press at the finish line. The general consensus was that it couldn't possibly be true.
By Alexander Osang

Uganda fights to contain Ebola outbreak
Ebola has broken out in Uganda, killing at least 14 people as health officials battle to stem the spread of the deadly virus.

30 JUL 2012 07:14 - CLAR NI CHONGHAILE
Terrified patients fled from a hospital in western Uganda as soon as news broke that a mysterious illness that killed at least 14 people in the region was Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases. Ignatius Besisira, a parliamentarian for Buyaga East County in the Kibaale district, said people had at first believed the unexplained deaths were related to witchcraft. "Immediately, when there was confirmation that it was Ebola ... patients ran out of Kagadi hospital [where some of the victims had died]," he said "Even the medical officers are very, very frightened," he said.

Anti-nuclear protesters surround Japan's Diet Building

Thousands of people formed "a human chain" around Japan's parliament complex to demand the government abandon nuclear power after last year's Fukushima crisis.

Sunday's protest in Tokyo was the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations, including weekly Friday evening protests outside the residence of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

"We won't allow any more reactors to restart. We want to slam this demand to the government" - Misao Redwolf, protest organiser

Demonstrators, many wearing gas masks and beating on big, yellow oil-drum drums, filled the streets heading to the prime minister's office and the parliament building, chanting "No to restart! No to nuclear power!" as they held up banners with anti-nuclear slogans.

"After the Fukushima disaster, I thought that the government and vested interests were telling us lies about nuclear power being safe," said Miho Igarashi, 46, an architect from Ibaraki prefecture south of Fukushima.

Starting at about 3:30 p.m., they marched through Tokyo chanting “we don’t need nuclear power” and “stop operating nuclear plants,” in the latest demonstration since a recent decision to resume using nuclear power in Japan following a total shutdown.
The protesters were also wearing white protective suits similar to those used by decontamination workers at the crippled Fukushima plant, and drummed on yellow barrels emblazoned with atomic waste warnings.

Syria; Jailers become prisoners of war

Several members of the regime's military intelligence in al-Bab city in the northern province of Aleppo have become prisoners of the Free Syrian Army.

They were taken captives after opposition fighters took over the intelligence building.

The military intelligence headquarters in al- Bab was seen as one of the most feared and hated intelligence agencies in the province.

It was notorious for the alleged beating and torture of activists.

Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports from al-Bab.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Syria: Opposition in call to arm rebel fighters

　The head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has called for foreign states to arm rebel fighters.

The BBC 29 July 2012
Abdulbaset Sayda was speaking as Syrian forces continued their assault on rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo. Mr Sayda also said that President Bashar al-Assad should be tried for "massacres" rather than be offered asylum. Western nations have warned of a potential bloodbath in Aleppo, Syria's most populous city. "We want weapons that would stop tanks and jet fighters. That is what we want," AFP quoted Mr Sayda as saying at a news conference in Abu Dhabi. He urged Arab "brothers and friends to support the Free [Syrian] Army". Rebels have so far not received any overt foreign military support.

Robert Fisk: Syrian war of lies and hypocrisy
The West's real target here is not Assad's brutal regime but his ally, Iran, and its nuclear weapons

ROBERT FISK SUNDAY 29 JULY 2012
Has there ever been a Middle Eastern war of such hypocrisy? A war of such cowardice and such mean morality, of such false rhetoric and such public humiliation? I'm not talking about the physical victims of the Syrian tragedy. I'm referring to the utter lies and mendacity of our masters and our own public opinion – eastern as well as western – in response to the slaughter, a vicious pantomime more worthy of Swiftian satire than Tolstoy or Shakespeare. While Qatar and Saudi Arabia arm and fund the rebels of Syria to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's Alawite/Shia-Baathist dictatorship, Washington mutters not a word of criticism against them. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, say they want a democracy in Syria.

Pussy Riot, Russia's prosecuted girl punk band, says: 'Putin is scared of us'
As three members of Pussy Riot await trial as 'hooligans', others in the group are in hiding but defiant

Carole Cadwalladr in Moscow The Observer, Sunday 29 July 2012
Pussy Riot, the feminist punk rock band three of whose members are being prosecuted by the Russian authorities for singing an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral, have told the Observer they refused to be intimidated by the government's "brutality and cruelness" because they "had done nothing wrong". Giving their first video interview to the western media, three other members of the band, who have been in hiding since the arrests, said that, while it was "scary" knowing that the authorities could come after them too, they had also shown that "Putin is scared of us" and is "afraid of people".

Plea to end ethnic clashes
July 29, 2012

Wasbir Hussain
A top official in India's remote north-east has appealed for an end to ethnic violence that has killed at least 48 people and left nearly 400,000 homeless in the past week. The Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, said the clashes between Bodo tribespeople and Muslim settlers in Assam state had spread fear among both groups. ''This is a time for everybody to appeal for peace so that people see sense and normalcy is resumed,'' Mr Gogoi said. Tensions between the groups have long simmered, but the riots are the worst bloodletting since the mid-1990s.

Hunger soars in Zimbabwe
Famine has raised its head in Zimbabwe again, as the numbers of people depending on aid to avoid starvation soared by 60% from last year to 1.6 million, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Sapa-dpa | 28 July, 2012 10:53
The agency said that one in five of the country's rural people were in need of famine relief. Grain production in the last year was 1 million tonnes, the worst since 2009, which at 800 000 tonnes was the worst year on record. Zimbabwe had a reputation as "Africa's breadbasket" until 2000 when President Robert Mugabe launched his violent seizures of white-owned farms, forcing 1 500 white farmers of their land and displacing a million farm workers and their families.

Developing countries lead the way in deploying mobile technology
Some three-quarters of the world now has access to mobile networks. What does this mean for those in the developing world?

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer
From remote farms to rural health centers, one thing is transforming how even the world's poorest people live: the mobile phone. Cell phone use in the developing world has climbed to nearly 5 billion mobile subscriptions, and three-quarters of the world now has access to mobile networks. This technology is reshaping the way individuals and communities manage their finances, monitor weather, engage with government, and earn a living, according to the recent World Bank Maximizing Mobile report. “People are going from zero to 60. It is huge to go from no phone at all to a cellphone,” says Anne Nelson, international media development specialist and adjunct professor at Columbia University. “The rapid penetration of cellphones in developing countries is changing lives dramatically.”

China's race for gold Or winning is everything

China is home to some of the world's best athletes. At the Beijing Olympics, the country topped the medals table, winning 100 medals in 25 sports, including 51 golds.

And they are widely expected to do well at the 2012 London Games.

Each year, young talent - some just five years old - are singled out by scouts and placed in special state-run academies where they are groomed to become future champions. Some, like basketball star Yao Ming, eventually achieve success. Others are not so fortunate.

Zhang Shangwu, a former gold medalist at the World University Games survives by begging on the streets of Beijing. Zhang once had a promising career as a gymnast but was forced to retire a decade ago because of an injury to his achilles tendon. With his Olympic dreams dashed, Zhang attempted to study and find alternative employment, only to be rebuffed time and again because of his lack of paper qualifications. The young man turned to petty theft, spent time in prison, and is today homeless and penniless.

Six In The Morning

Apple officials said to consider stake in Twitter

　Social media's importance in how people spend time and money seen as driving factor

By EVELYN M. RUSLI and NICK BILTON
Apple, which has stumbled in its efforts to get into social media, has talked with Twitter in recent months about making a strategic investment in it, according to people briefed on the matter. While Apple has been hugely successful in selling phones and tablets, it has little traction in social networking, which has become a major engine of activity on the Web and on mobile devices. Social media are increasingly influencing how people spend their time and money — an important consideration for Apple, which also sells applications, games, music and movies.

Syrians: 'We shall be free or we shall suffer'
Special report: Syrians brace themselves as war planes join the battle for Aleppo. Kim Sengupta reports from Al-Bab

KIM SENGUPTA SATURDAY 28 JULY 2012
The Independent witnessed two fighter-bombers repeatedly appearing low overhead during the battle at the town of Al-Bab near Aleppo and, on at least two occasions, the aircraft appeared to be firing at the ground during the fighting. This is the second time that Bashar Al-Assad’s regime has been accused of using war planes against its own people. During most of the sorties early yesterday evening, the pilots appeared to be carrying out what is known as “show of force” to intimidate the enemy by their presence without opening fire.

UK blocks 16m aid to Rwanda pending investigation
The UK has followed measures by the US and Netherlands after a UN report accused Rwanda of arming rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

28 JUL 2012 08:48 - GUARDIAN REPORTER
Britain has frozen £16-million of aid to Rwanda pending an investigation into its alleged role in fuelling a deadly regional conflict, the most significant blow yet to a country that has long been a darling of western donors. The decision follows similar steps by the US and Netherlands to censure President Paul Kagame after a UN report accused Rwanda of arming rebels responsible for atrocities in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UK, the biggest bilateral donor to Rwanda, has previously been seen as less willing to criticise Kagame, championed by Tony Blair as a "visionary leader" despite concerns over internal repression.

Ethnic peace key to Myanmar reform
Southeast Asia

By Brian McCartan
In her first statement this week as an elected parliamentarian, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi chose to highlight the plight of ethnic minorities, underscoring the issue's rising importance in domestic politics. Her speech was delivered amid ongoing fighting between the government and ethnic insurgents in northern Shan and Kachin States and communal strife in western Rakhine State. It also underscored the need for the government to reach durable political solutions with ethnic minority groups or risk the unraveling of democratic and economic reforms.

Honduras: Contraceptive may be handed out at Catholic church...to pigeons
Nets installed at a Honduran cathedral to keep pigeons from roosting on the historic structure were met by calls of animal cruelty. Now an environmental group suggests using contraceptive feed.

By Russell Sheptak, Guest blogger
There's a legal battle brewing in Tegucigalpa between the Catholic Diocese and pigeon lovers from La Casa de Noé. The historic cathedral in Tegucigalpa was renovated in 2009. At that time the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH), as part of its mission to protect the national patrimony, installed nets designed to keep pigeons from roosting on the historic structure. Their nests damage the building, and their excrement is corrosive. Now, La Casa de Noé [The House of Noah] claims that the nets are killing hundreds of pigeons, and that constitutes animal cruelty.

Kabul hospital hell reveals depth of corruption
In 2010, the US discovered that Afghan soldiers were being starved to death in a US-funded military hospital in Afghanistan, and nothing was done. Now US lawmakers are losing patience with corruption in the country.


The scandal first broke in September last year, when the Wall Street Journal ran a feature detailing sickening conditions at the Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, a facility being run on US taxpayer's money. There was evidence of horrifying scenes - amputees being left to defecate in their own beds, blood draining from patients into open vats, maggots feeding on infected wounds - and all embedded in deep corruption. According to the report, doctors and nurses routinely demanded bribes for food and basic care.

Six In The Morning

Syria conflict: US fears Aleppo 'massacre'

　The US says that it fears Syrian government forces are preparing to carry out a massacre in the country's most populous city, Aleppo.

The BBC 27 July 2012
The US state department said the deployment of tanks, helicopter gunships and fixed-winged aircraft suggested such an attack was imminent. Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said it was a "serious escalation" in the conflict. Syrian rebels in the city have begun stockpiling ammunition and medical supplies in preparation. Ms Nuland said: "Our hearts are with the people of Aleppo. And again, this is another desperate attempt by a regime that is going down to try to maintain control." But she insisted that the US would not intervene other than by providing non-lethal assistance to the rebels who have been trying to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad for 16 months.

Showtime: London gets set to stage Olympic opening ceremony


By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN July 27, 2012
Few shows can claim such an audience. As the dramatic spectacle of the Olympics Games opening ceremony in London unfolds Friday night, millions of people around the world will be glued to their television sets. Some tens of thousands more are lucky enough to have a seat inside the Olympic Stadium, the centerpiece of the Olympic Park in east London. Dubbed Isles of Wonder, it promises to be quite a show -- but then it needs to be.

Greeks Live in Dread of Troika Verdict
Financial inspectors from the troika have arrived in Greece to draft their final report on whether the country has made enough progress with its austerity and reform efforts. But many Greeks have already lost hope and are counting on the worst -- an exit from the euro zone.

By Daniel Steinvorth in Athens
An aluminum bowl filled with pasta, a bottle of water and a bread roll. "The most important thing is that it quiets your hunger," says Yannis. The 63-year-old is leaning on the wall of a building on Sophocles Street spooning up his lunch. He spent the last half-hour waiting in line outside a soup kitchen in downtown Athens. He says he doesn't have any money for food, adding: "I earn €500 ($600), of which €200 goes to rent alone." Yannis numbers among the more than 400,000 people in the greater Athens area that rely on free food for their daily survival.

China rejects call for ban on tiger farms
July 27, 2012 - 2:48PM

Gaia Vince
The UK and India have called on China and other countries to ban tiger farms because they undermine conservation efforts. But China responded strongly at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva, challenging delegates to "show us the evidence that [tiger farms] encourage poaching of wild tigers". There are thought to be about 3000 tigers remaining in the wild, reduced from a population of 100,000 in 1900. Conservationists warn that they may become extinct in the wild in the next 20 years. China banned trade in tiger parts in 1993, but since then the country's large-scale commercial breeding of tigers in captivity has boomed.

Rainforest wildlife havens on brink of collapse
Outside destruction is threatening lush reserves designed to protect world's richest biodiversity

STEVE CONNOR FRIDAY 27 JULY 2012
The health of protected tropical forests and their rich wildlife, from exotic frogs and freshwater fish to tigers and forest elephants, is on the brink of collapse, researchers have warned. Wildlife havens set up to protect tropical forest species have suffered badly as a result of the huge deforestation and habitat destruction going on around them, a large international study concluded.

South Africa needs a 'second reconciliation', says former president
FW de Klerk claims racism is poisoning politics and the spirit instilled by Nelson Mandela is 'almost gone'

David Smith in Johannesburg
FW de Klerk, the Nobel peace laureate and former South African president, has warned that the country is again being poisoned by racism from political leaders, leaving Nelson Mandela's spirit of reconciliation "almost totally gone". De Klerk suggested that the now retired Mandela must feel sad about the betrayal of the non-racial consensus he espoused as South Africa's first black president, and that only a "second reconciliation" could restore it.

Six In The Morning

Syrian military bombards rebel strongholds

　Attacks reported in Damascus, Aleppo and Homs province, as US confirms defection of Syria's ambassador to UAE.

Last Modified: 26 Jul 2012 06:53
The Syrian military is continuing to use planes and helicopters to bombard areas where opposition fighters are mounting strong resistance. There was report of government forces attacking rebel positions in the capital Damascus, the city of Aleppo and areas of Homs province on Wednesday. Syrian troops and rebels sent reinforcements to the intensifying battle in the second city Aleppo, as the US said fresh defections from the regime showed President Bashar al-Assad's "days are numbered". Clashes raged on Wednesday in Aleppo's central al-Jamaliya neighbourhood, near the local headquarters of the ruling Baath party. In Kalasseh in the south of the city, rebels set a police station ablaze, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Yes, there's violence, but some Syrians think it's time to return
There has been a rebel surge – but most of the country is still under Bashar al-Assad's iron rule

ROBERT FISK THURSDAY 26 JULY 2012
A Syrian friend calls me early. "Just to let you know we're going back – things are OK now in the Mezzeh area." I wonder. Then a Lebanese colleague tells me that three Syrian friends of hers have just called to say goodbye, they're going back to Damascus with their families now that the fighting has died down. Then the same woman calls to tell me that she spoke to a friend in Aleppo on Tuesday night to check on his welfare. "He was in a packed restaurant in the centre of the city – it was difficult to hear what he was saying over the noise." The lines of posh Syrian cars outside Beirut restaurants last weekend – belonging to supporters of the regime taking a brief "holiday" from Syria – have suddenly vanished from the streets.

Seoul takes aim at Internet critics
Korea

By James Pearson
A 23-year-old South Korean photographer looks set to start dominating local headlines again over the next three months as he faces his final court appearance for violating the controversial National Security Law. Park Jung-geun, who inherited the family business from his father, jokingly likened the acquisition of his business to North Korea's leadership transition between the late Kim Jong-il and his son, Kim Jong-eun. Tongue firmly in cheek, Park re-tweeted a series of anti-South posts from the official North Korean Twitter account and posted a doctored photo of himself in front of the Northern flag cradling a bottle of whisky with a sad look on his face. Not seeing the funny side, South Korean authorities arrested Park for allegedly disseminating Northern propaganda.

After 20-year battle, protests over Italian high-speed train derail
Farmers lost the battle against a high-speed train they see as serving the economic interests of the Italian elite and causing harm to the environment.

By Giorgio Ghiglione, Contributor
Luca Abba, a farmer from Val di Susa, a valley that connects Italy to France, was electrocuted last February while climbing a high voltage pylon during protests against the construction of a new High Speed Railway Line (TAV) between Italy and France in a desperate attempt to resist expropriation. He survived, though severe health problems persist. But the tragic incident was evidence of the tensions that have been rising for almost two decades between the valley’s local communities and the central government, culminating in violent clashes between protestors and contractors since construction finally began last summer. The project has become emblematic of a public works culture that is driven far more by politics than local need: the current rail connection is underused and environmental problems could arise.

US says Rwanda's Kagame may be charged with aiding war crimes
The head of the US war crimes office has warned Rwanda's leaders they could face prosecution for arming groups responsible for atrocities in the DRC.

26 JUL 2012 06:14 - CHRIS MCGREAL
Stephen Rapp, who leads the US office of global criminal justice, told the Guardian the Rwandan leadership – including President Paul Kagame – may be open to charges of "aiding and abetting" crimes against humanity in a neighbouring country – actions similar to those for which the former Liberian president Charles Taylor was jailed for 50 years by an international court in May. Rapp's warning follows a damning United Nations report on recent Rwandan military support for M23, an insurgent group that has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes since April as it seized territory in the eastern DRC.

The 20-year odyssey of Eva Peron's body
Three years after Eva Peron's death in 1952, her embalmed corpse disappeared, removed by the Argentinian military in the wake of a coup deposed her husband, President Juan Peron. It then went on an international odyssey lasting nearly two decades, before it arrived back in Buenos Aires in 1974.

By Linda Pressly BBC Radio 4
Tall, silvery-haired and precise, Domingo Tellechea has a worldwide reputation for the restoration of art, antiquities - and human remains. In 1974 he was the expert chosen to make the body of Eva Peron presentable for public display. These were violent times in Argentina - government death squads targeted radicals, and guerrilla groups attacked so-called "agents of the state". So when he was approached in a bar, alarm bells rang. "I was talking to a young man who worked there when two guys all dressed in black came in," he recalls.

Kim Jong-un It's a nice day for a White Wedding

Reports referred to him attending the opening of an amusement park with his wife, "Comrade Ri Sol-ju".

There had been much speculation about Mr Kim's private life in recent weeks when an unidentified woman was pictured attending events with him.

Kim Jong-un took over as leader of the country after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December last year.

The eight-minute report on North Korean radio which mentioned Ms Ri was broadcast at 20:00 local time on Wednesday (11:00 GMT). 

Iraq: After the Americans

In keeping with Barack Obama's presidential campaign promise, the US has withdrawn its troops from Iraq and by the end of 2012 US spending in Iraq will be just five per cent of what it was at its peak in 2008.

In a special two-part series, Fault Lines travels across Iraq to take the pulse of a country and its people after nine years of foreign occupation and nation-building.

Now that US troops have left, how are Iraqis overcoming the legacy of violence and toxic remains of the US-led occupation, and the sectarian war it ignited? Is the country on the brink of irreparable fragmentation?

Correspondent Sebastian Walker first went to Baghdad in June 2003 and spent the next several years reporting un-embedded from Iraq. In the first part of this Fault Lines series, he returns and travels from Basra to Baghdad to find out what kind of future Iraqis are forging for themselves.

Six In The Morning

The women Greece blames for its HIV crisis

Prostitutes have been rounded up and jailed as new cases soar

CHARLOTTE MCDONALD-GIBSON

 

ATHENS

 

WEDNESDAY 25 JULY 2012

The women glare into the camera, their humiliated, pale faces smeared with make-up and tears. Glazed eyes stare out under lurid headlines warning of "the nightmare of Aids" with "infected prostitutes" posing a "death trap for hundreds of people".

It was early May, just days before bitterly fought elections in Greece, and another health crisis was brewing in the cash-strapped nation. New figures showed an astonishing rise in new HIV infections. Health workers blamed deep cuts to social programmes, but on the lookout for easy votes, officials instead turned their wrath on the city's sex workers.

The Endgame in SyriaAssad's Bloody Battle to Cling to Power

By Christoph Reuter

President Bashar Assad is losing his grip on power in Syria and he has responded by visiting death and destruction on his opponents. With momentum shifting in favor of the rebels, he seems capable only of intensifying the violence.

It's become very quiet. The cicadas and the birds have been silenced, and all you can hear is the sound of the wind rustling through the trees -- only occasionally interrupted by the clattering of tattered metal shutters and signs riddled with bullet holes. But human voices, the sound of cars and all the other sounds one associates with a city are gone.

In there place is a sporadic, high-pitched buzzing noise that approaches and then passes overhead. Sometimes, though, you don't even get that much warning before the roar of an explosion rips the air and the ground shakes half a kilometer away.

Tsvangirai: Mugabe will accept his loss

25 JUL 2012 07:44 - AP

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says the country's long-time ruler Robert Mugabe is ready to give up power if he loses the next election.

Tsvangirai made the comments on Wednesday in New Zealand, part of a tour to ask numerous countries toend limited sanctions against Zimbabwe. He said he's confident free elections will be held within 12 months, after a new Constitution was drafted on Friday.

Tsvagirai said Mugabe will accept the result, noting the leader wanted to protect his legacy and would abide by the result of the scheduled ballot.

"I'm sure he will accept the result," Tsvangirai told reporters during an official during the trip.

US, China threaten Southeast Asian peace

By Brendan O'Reilly 

The Chinese government is taking a dual approach to consolidating its territorial claims in the South China Sea. A recent softening of the country's diplomatic line amid a simultaneous deployment of military assets reveals a nuanced carrot-and-stick approach. 

Meanwhile, the ties that bind the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have become dangerously frayed. China's rising power and Washington's tacit aim of forming an anti-China alliance in the region may exacerbate longstanding rivalries to the general detriment of Asian stability. 

Ichiro Suzuki: How Japanese fans react to Yankees uniform

Ichiro Suzuki is arguably the most famous athlete in Japan. He is revered for his stoicism, perseverance, and attention to detail. What do Japanese fans say about Ichiro Suzuki's move to New York?

By Jim Armstrong, Associated Press

TOKYO

Japan reacted to the news that Ichiro Suzuki has been traded to the New York Yankees with surprise and anticipation that the move might lead to a World Series ring.

The Yankees acquired the star outfielder from Seattlein a trade for two young pitchers, bringing a close to Suzuki's 11 1/2-year career with the Mariners.

Suzuki is the most recognizable athlete in Japan, where he is revered for his stoicism, perseverance, and attention to detail.

All the major Japanese newspapers splashed the move on the front pages of their Tuesday evening editions, with photos of Suzuki in his Yankees uniform, and it was the top item on the noon news for public broadcasterNHK.

Al Qaeda's hand now detected in Syria conflict

By ROD NORDLAND

 It is the sort of image that has become a staple of the Syrian revolution, avideo of masked men calling themselves the Free Syrian Army and brandishing AK-47s — with one unsettling difference. In the background hang two flags of Al Qaeda, white Arabic writing on a black field.

“We are now forming suicide cells to make jihad in the name of God,” said a speaker in the video using the classical Arabic favored by Al Qaeda.

The video, posted on YouTube, is one more bit of evidence that Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists are doing their best to hijack the Syrian revolution, with a growing although still limited success that has American intelligence officials publicly concerned, and Iraqi officials next door openly alarmed.

Warplanes hit Syria's second city

Fighter jets have bombed eastern areas of Syria's second city Aleppo, a BBC reporter near the city says.

The attack is seen as a significant escalation in the conflict.

It is thought to be the first time that warplanes have been used in Aleppo, our correspondent says.

Rebels launched an offensive against Aleppo at the weekend in an attempt to wrest control of the city from the army. Fierce fighting has been reported close to Aleppo's historic Old City.

Helicopter gunships were reportedly involved in the clashes earlier on Tuesday, the BBC's Ian Pannell says from the outskirts of Aleppo.

Pro-government troops bombarded the city, Syria's commercial centre, with shells and rocket fire as the government attempted to take back districts seized by the rebels.

A French correspondent there has spoken of rebels besieging a police headquarters close to the walls of the Old City, which is a world heritage site.

Nationality:
noun: Syrian(s) adjective: Syrian
Ethnic groups:
Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
Languages:
Arabic (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian (widely understood); French, English (somewhat understood)
Religions:
Sunni Muslim (Islam - official) 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Population:
22,530,746 (July 2012 est.) country comparison to the world: 53 note: approximately 18,100 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights (2010) (July 2011 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 35.2% (male 4,066,109/female 3,865,817) 15-64 years: 61% (male 6,985,067/female 6,753,619) 65 years and over: 3.8% (male 390,802/female 456,336) (2011 est.)

Syria: Smugglers with a cause

We follow the Syrian exiles risking their lives to smuggle essential supplies to those fighting the regime.
Syria's opposition activists and the Free Syrian Army are hugely under-equipped and rely on meagre supplies trickling over the borders from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

A network of Syrian activists on both sides of the Syria-Turkey border organise the smuggling of vital supplies into the country to support the resistance, as well as getting refugees out.

Volunteers take huge risks smuggling in items ranging from walkie-talkies to blood bags for transfusions. Many are injured, some are killed in the process.

"There have been lots and lots of guys killed carrying supplies across the border. There are always ambushes at the border," says Jamil, an activist organiser wanted by the Syrian authorities because of his activism during the early days of the uprising.

Six In The Morning

American Woman Who Shattered Space Ceiling

　

By DENISE GRADY
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died on Monday at her home in San Diego. She was 61. The cause was pancreatic cancer, her company, Sally Ride Science, announced on its Web site. Dr. Ride, a physicist who was accepted into the space program in 1978 after she answered a newspaper ad for astronauts, flew on the shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, and on a second mission in 1984. At 32, she was also the youngest American in space. She later became the only person to sit on both panels investigating the catastrophic shuttle accidents that killed all astronauts on board — the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia crash in 2003.

Why is Google picking a fight with the mafia?
Last week's Google gathering on how to combat organized crime garnered headlines, but many questions remain unanswered.

By Steven Dudley, InSight Crime
Google Ideas' two-day conference on how to best use technology to fight criminal networks was a forum for tough, anti-mafia rhetoric, but competing interests and few concrete proposals make the proposed geek-government-activist partnership more difficult than advertised. If there was doubt about Google's resolve in fighting what it calls "Illicit Networks," some of it was washed away with a few words from Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on day one of the conference: "At the end of the day, there really are bad people, and you have to go in and arrest them and kill them."

Searching for the Truth Behind the Houla Massacre
Initially, the United Nations was convinced that the Syrian government was behind the brutal Houla massacre. But then, some began to have doubts.

By Christoph Reuter and Abd al-Kadher Adhun
Nothing is going to happen, Muawiya Sayyid, a retired police officer, reassured his family on the afternoon of May 25. They were afraid to leave the house, but Sayyid reminded his family that he had been a colonel and troops with regime connections had remained unharmed in previous raids. It was a fatal miscalculation, as Colonel Sayyid was forced to realize during the last few minutes of his life. According to statements by his surviving wife and daughter, he was in his room on the second floor when he overheard the murderers in front of the house as they agreed bring out the women first and then kill everyone. He told his wife and children to run. "I'll try to stall them," he said. He succeeded, but paid for it with his life.

EU ready to back African stabilisation force in Mali


By AFP
The European Union said Monday it was ready to back the deployment of an African stabilisation force under UN mandate in Mali, and threatened sanctions against those threatening democratic change. EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels asked EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton to make "concrete proposals" on support for "the possible deployment of a well-prepared ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) force in Mali, under a UN mandate and in conjunction with a government of national unity and the African Union."

Three Vatican 'moles' named in leaks scandal
A cardinal, a bishop and the Pope's German housekeeper come under investigation

MICHAEL DAY TUESDAY 24 JULY 2012
Three Vatican figures, including two senior members of the clergy, have been named as suspected moles in a scandal that has seen the Holy See rocked by a series of damaging leaks. The new intrigue comes just days after Pope Benedict's butler Paolo Gabriele, 46, was released from jail and placed under house arrest for his suspected part in the affair.

Why is India so bad for women?
Of all the rich G20 nations, India has been labelled the worst place to be a woman. But how is this possible in a country that prides itself on being the world's largest democracy?

Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk,
In an ashram perched high on a hill above the noisy city of Guwahati in north-east India is a small exhibit commemorating the life of India's most famous son. Alongside an uncomfortable-looking divan where Mahatma Gandhi once slept is a display reminding visitors of something the man himself said in 1921: "Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; the female sex (not the weaker sex)." One evening two weeks ago, just a few miles downhill, a young student left a bar and was set upon by a gang of at least 18 men. They dragged her into the road by her hair, tried to rip off her clothes and smiled at the cameras that filmed it all. It was around 9.30pm on one of Guwahati's busiest streets – a chaotic three-lane thoroughfare soundtracked by constantly beeping horns and chugging tuk-tuks.