Six In The Morning

Panic Seizes India as a Region’s Strife Radiates

　

By JIM YARDLEY Published: August 17, 2012
BRAJAKHAL, India — Like a fever, fear has spread across India this week, from big cities like Bangalore to smaller places like Mysore, a contagion fueling a message: Run. Head home. Flee. And that is what thousands of migrants from the country’s distant northeastern states are doing, jamming into train stations in an exodus challenging the Indian ideals of tolerance and diversity. What began as an isolated communal conflict here in the remote state of Assam, a vicious if obscure fight over land and power between Muslims and the indigenous Bodo tribe, has unexpectedly set off widespread panic among northeastern migrants who had moved to more prosperous cities for a piece of India’s rising affluence.

Damascus: A deserted city, a deserting UN, and a storm about to break
Last week a UN security guard was kidnapped, tortured and murdered near his home

ROBERT FISK SATURDAY 18 AUGUST 2012
"He will not survive," my Syrian friend said, and I think he was right. The man on the state television was bearded down to his chest, a self-confessed Salafist – nom de guerre "Abu Dolha", real name Ahmed Ali Gharibo. A Syrian – "alas," said my friend – from the Ghouta district of Damascus. He admitted, right there in front of the cameras, that he "regretted" killing 200 people with his own hands. What did it take to get a man like this to admit such things on television? Sitting up in this breezy villa, 16 miles from Damascus – Bashar's brother Maher lives just round the corner – I could well believe what my friend said: Ahmed Gharibo will not survive.

Putin clampdown not winning public support
The Irish Times - Saturday, August 18, 2012

JENNIFER RANKIN in Moscow
THE TWO-YEAR prison sentence handed down to Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova for a one-minute protest song against Vladimir Putin in a church will be seen as a defining moment of his presidency. The guilty verdict, never in doubt, and the jail sentence, mostly expected, confirms the authoritarian tendency in Putin’s Russia. It is a landmark in Russias post-Soviet history, just as the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was during Putin’s first term in office. The Pussy Riot follows a wave of attempts to control dissent since Putin returned to the presidency for a six-year term in May. In his first 100 days, fines for participating in unofficial demonstrations have been drastically increased, defamation has become a criminal offence and new controls on the internet introduced.

Zuma announces inquiry into Marikana shooting
President Jacob Zuma says a commission of inquiry will be established to investigate the cause of the Marikana shootout that led to over 30 deaths.

17 AUG 2012 17:58 - PHILLIP DE WET
"We have to uncover the truth about what happened here. In this regard I've decided to institute and commission of inquiry. The inquiry will enable us to get to the real cause of the incident." Zuma, who cut short his SADC meeting in Maputo to visit the site on Friday afternoon, offered his condolences to the families of those killed. "We offer our sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones. Our thoughts are also with those who are recovering in hospitals and clinics. Our thoughts are also with the police service who are at times called upon to intervene in difficult situations

Drug cartel violence drives Mexico's troops to once tranquil towns
The Mexican government has dispatched 15,000 troops, and some are headed to places that used to be considered a refuge from the drug-related violence wracking much of the country.

By Lauren Villagran, Correspondent
It’s hard to imagine military convoys rolling over the cobblestone colonial streets of Guanajuato, a tranquil town in the Bajío region best known as a destination for university studies and tourism But this week, reacting to a spate of violence that has apparently spilled over from neighboring Michoacán state, Mexico’s federal government dispatched troops and federal police to Guanajuato – part of a dispatch of some 15,000 federal forces to seven states. That includes troops to Mexico's long volatile north, apparently due to infighting in the brutal Zetas organization. After six years of drug-related violence in Mexico, fewer and fewer regions can claim to be "unaffected" by the violence.

Japanese boy band SMAP's 20 years at the top
On Saturday the leader of one of Japan's most popular boy bands passes a key milestone - SMAP's Masahiro Nakai is turning 40.

By Mariko Oi BBC News, Tokyo
To be fair Mr Nakai, who has been on Japan's screens and airwaves for two decades, doesn't look his age. But he has certainly moved from the ranks of pop idol into all-round entertainment stalwart and icon. His acting career includes appearances in more than two dozen soap operas and six movies. He was also the main newscaster for the Olympic Games for Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS), not only in London, but for the last four summer and winter games.