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.