Six In The Morning

Official: British director Tony Scott dead after jumping from California bridge

　

By Chelsea J. Carter and JD Cargill, CNN August 20, 2012 -- Updated 0805 GMT (1605 HKT)
Director Tony Scott, best known for the films "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," died in an apparent suicide Sunday when he jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California, an official with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office told CNN. "There's nothing to indicate it is anything else at this time," said Lt. Joe Bale of the coroner's office. Scott, 68, jumped from the bridge at about 12:30 p.m., Bale said. The bridge spans the Los Angeles Harbor, connecting San Pedro and Terminal Island. A passerby who saw Scott jump from the bridge called 911, according to a statement released by the coroner's office late Sunday.

Gu Kailai given suspended death sentence over Neil Heywood murder
Wife of politician Bo Xilal has been handed a suspended death sentence which is usually commuted to life imprisonment

Tania Branigan in Hefei guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 August 2012 07.23 BST
Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, has escaped the death penalty for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, a Chinese court announced on Monday. A spokesman for Hefei intermediate court said that although the "despicable" crime deserved the death sentence, it would be suspended for two years because the Briton had verbally threatened her son and because Gu suffered mental impairments. This had weakened her self-control, although she had the ability to understand her actions and their result. Suspended death sentences are almost always commuted to life imprisonment.

US 'should hand over footage of drone strikes or face UN inquiry'
The UN special rapporteur on human rights to urge establishing a mechanism to investigate such killings

TERRI JUDD MONDAY 20 AUGUST 2012
The US must open itself to an independent investigation into its use of drone strikes or the United Nations will be forced to step in, Ben Emmerson QC said yesterday. His comments came as Pakistani officials said that a US drone strike had killed at least four militants after targeting their vehicles in North Waziristan on Sunday. Attacks by American unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are deeply unpopular in the country, which claims they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment.

Exit from Kabul puts women back in the firing line
Rights groups fear a return to habitual abuse when the West leaves Afghanistan, writes Graham Bowley.

August 20, 2012
When Sahar Gul refused to prostitute herself or have sex with the man she was forced to marry when she was about 13, her in-laws tortured her and threw her into a windowless cellar for months, until the police discovered her lying in hay and animal dung. In July, an appeal court upheld prison sentences of 10 years each for three of her in-laws, a decision heralded as a legal triumph underscoring the advances for women's rights in Afghanistan in the past decade. But to many rights advocates, Sahar's case, which drew attention from the President, Hamid Karzai, and the international media, is an exception: a small victory masking a picture of widespread abuse of women.

Lonmin tensions continue to boil
Tensions look set to reignite at Lonmin's platinum mine as striking workers vow to defy demands by the company to return to work or face dismissal.

20 AUG 2012 06:38 - NICKOLAUS BAUER AND PHILLIP DE WET
"Its better to die than to work for that shit. People are coming back here tomorrow [Monday]. I am not going to stop striking," Thandubuntu Simelane*, one of the company's rock drill operators told the Mail & Guardian on Sunday. Last week 34 people were killed and 78 were wounded in a shootout between police and miners in Marikana, Rustenburg. The majority of those killed are understood to have been involved in illegal industrial action at the mine after rock drillers affiliated to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) demanded their monthly salary of R4 000 be increased to R12 500.

What do Yemenis want from the West? Whitening strips, for one thing.
Correspondent Adam Baron becomes a sort of Santa Claus upon return from the United States to his new home in Sanaa, Yemen.

By Adam Baron, Correspondent
My life has taken a number of unexpected turns since I moved to Yemen last year, but I never expected it to lead me to a Brooks Brothers in downtown Washington, DC. But there I was two weeks ago, picking up an umbrella for one of my neighbors in Sanaa’s old city. For whatever reason, my neighbor Hussein, an area elder and former world-class ping-pong player, took an almost immediate liking to me. Within months of my arrival in the Yemeni capital, the 60-something father of 10 had me calling him uncle, rarely allowing me to pass by without summoning me by enthusiastically screaming “Texas” – an odd choice for a nickname, since I’ve never set foot in the state. He also took a liking to my black and white-checkered Brooks Brothers umbrella.