Six In The Morning

Syria unrest: 'Massacre leaves 200 dead' in Tremseh

　Some 200 people have been killed in an attack on the Syrian village of Tremseh, opposition activists say.


Residents told the activists that the village, in Hama province, was attacked with helicopter gunships and tanks. Pro-government Shabiha militia later went in on foot and carried out execution-style killings, they said. State media said "terrorist groups" had carried out a massacre to raise tensions ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the Syria observer mission. The mandate for the UN mission expires on 20 July. If the casualties in the Tremseh attack are confirmed, it would be the bloodiest single event in the Syrian conflict. Some 16,000 people are thought to have been killed since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March 2011.

Sophisticated border drug tunnels discovered
The tunnels, outfitted with lighting and ventilation systems, were discovered on the border

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, JACQUES BILLEAUD
Two drug-smuggling tunnels outfitted with lighting and ventilation systems were discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest signs that cartels are building sophisticated passages to escape heightened surveillance on land. Both tunnels were at least 150 yards long. One began under a bathroom sink inside a warehouse in Tijuana but was unfinished and didn't cross the border into San Diego. The Mexican army found the tunnel Wednesday. The other was completed and discovered Saturday in a vacant strip mall storefront in the southwestern Arizona city of San Luis.

Son: Iranian dad arrested for my Facebook posts


By Ashley Fantz, CNN
How many young people have gotten in trouble for something they've posted on Facebook? Maybe a party picture or an offensive comment compromised their chances at a job. But a 25-year-old Iranian says his Facebook activity has led to his father's detention in a notorious prison in Tehran. And now he's struggling to find a way to free him. "I want my family to forgive me," Yashar Khameneh said. "But I believe what I believe in." A year ago, while studying at a college in Holland, Khameneh joined a Facebook page that made fun of a top Shiite Muslim imam, Ali al-Naqi al-Hadi.

Unions want boycott of Swaziland's cultural highlight
Swazi unions are calling on the government to pay out a 4.5% salary increase and end the teachers' strike or risk a boycott of the reed dance.

13 JUL 2012 08:58 - LOUISE REDVERS
Held annually, the umhlanga, as it is also known, is regarded as the highlight of the Swazi cultural calendar. It involves tens of thousands of maidens who dance for the king at a special ceremony where he often chooses a wife. As well as holding great symbolism among Swazis, the reed dance is also a major tourist attraction, bringing scores of overseas visitors and much-needed money to the cash-strapped kingdom, despite claims from rights groups that it exploits young girls.

The Next Holy Grail for Physics
The apparent discovery of the Higgs boson was hailed as a historic milestone, but for particle physicists it mainly marks the beginning of a new search.

By Johann Grolle in Geneva, Switzerland
Sheep are grazing to the left of the gate to the anti-world. On the right-hand side, a pair of rust-brown steel bottles is waiting to be picked up. A sign warns: "Caution. Radiation!" Another sign prohibits the use of bicycles. A yellow steel door leads into the interior of the so-called AD building on the grounds of the CERN research center near Geneva, Switzerland. The machine that was built here is called the anti-proton decelerator. The rhythmic hissing and thumping sounds of vacuum pumps and cryo-aggregates combine with the dull droning of the air-conditioning system. This is where scientists are making a material that is highly mysterious because it probably doesn't exist anywhere else in the universe: anti-atoms.

Thailand court may dissolve ruling party
Fears that ruling on constitution could trigger further political chaos in biggest test yet of Yingluck Shinawatra's government

Associated Press in Bangkok guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 July 2012 08.11 BST
Thailand's constitutional court is expected to issue a ruling on Friday in a pivotal case that some fear could trigger a fresh round of political chaos and violent street protests if judges take the extreme step of dissolving the ruling party. The case involves an attempt by lawmakers to establish a drafting committee to amend the constitution, which they claim is undemocratic because it was created in the wake of a 2006 army coup. Opponents say the plan is part of a plot to dismantle the south-east Asian nation's constitutional monarchy – a claim proponents staunchly deny.