Robert Fisk: Inside Daraya - how a failed prisoner swap turned into a massacre
Exclusive: The first Western journalist to enter the town that felt Assad's fury hears witness accounts of Syria's bloodiest episode
The massacre town of Daraya is a place of ghosts and questions. It echoed with the roar of mortar explosions and the crackle of gunfire yesterday, its few returning citizens talking of death, assault, foreign "terrorists", and its cemetery of slaughter haunted by snipers.
The men and women to whom we could talk, two of whom had lost loved ones on Daraya's day of infamy four days ago, told a story different from the version that has been repeated around the world: theirs was a tale of hostage-taking by the Free Syria Army and desperate prisoner-exchange negotiations between the armed opponents of the regime and the Syrian army, before President Bashar al-Assad's government forces stormed into the town to seize it back from rebel control.
Tymoshenko is counting on Strasbourg
Is Yulia Tymoshenko a political prisoner? She believes so, but Ukraine disagrees. Now the European Court of Human Rights is to consider the matter.
"You are the only hope." Lawyer Sergiy Vlasenko conveys his message to the eight Strasbourg judges with an earnest expression and a determined voice. His appearance is the emotional climax in a two-hour hearing of an extremely politically-charged case: Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian opposition leader and former prime minister, is turning to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from her jail cell in Kharkiv.
"We cannot hope for justice in Ukrainian courts," Tymoshenko's daughter Yevgenia told Deutsche Welle.
Families storm mortuary after Gambia confirms executions
By BABOUCARR CEESAY, NATION Correspondent in BANJUL and TAMBA MATTHEW in DAKAR
Posted Wednesday, August 29 2012 at 02:53
Posted Wednesday, August 29 2012 at 02:53
The Gambia Government has confirmed the execution of nine death row inmates, despite previous description of reports as “rumours and speculation and irresponsible spreading of information.’’
The ministry said it wishes to inform the general public that the convicts were “executed by firing squad on Sunday August, 26, 2012 following the convictions and pronouncements of death sentences by the Gambian Courts of competent jurisdiction and further to the exhaustion of their appeals.’’
It added: “The general public is hereby warned that the rule of law as regards the peace and stability and the protection of lives, property and liberty will not be compromised for whatever reason. That all acts of violence, criminal activities and indiscipline resulting to murder, treason, arson, trafficking in drugs and humans and the likes of such offences attracting death sentences shall not be tolerated. Therefore, all sentences as prescribed by law will be carried out to the letter including the death penalty,” the release said.
Southeast Asia
Aug 29, 2012
Nationalism runs high in Asian disputes
By Elliot Brennan
Tensions in Asia's territorial disputes continue to escalate. A dangerous mix of nationalist sentiments and domestic politics in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, have exacerbated long simmering disputes over several island clusters throughout the region.
One such dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands had the US Secretary of Defense discussing unmanned aerial vehicle patrols with his Japanese counterpart. A flotilla of 20 Japanese activist boats dispatched there caused further headaches for politicians in Beijing and Tokyo.
Protests against "Japanese aggression" were held in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha and Hong Kong following postings on the social network site Weibo, which were quickly censored and removed.
Australia and the European Union plan to link their "cap-and-trade" systems to create the biggest emissions trading market on the globe, energy and climate change officials announced Tuesday.
Under a cap-and-trade system, countries cap the amount of pollution they are willing to allow, then issue permits for how much each business or entity can pollute. Businesses or entities that pollute more than their share can buy credits from others that pollute less than allowed.
Although the idea has struggled to gain traction nationally in the United States, it has taken off elsewhere in the world, most recently in South Korea, and was adopted last year in California.
Hurricane Isaac wobbles back out to Gulf, sends storm surge ashore
By Miguel Llanos, NBC News
Hurricane Isaac produced a dangerous storm surge along the northern Gulf coast Tuesday night after wobbling back out to sea two hours after its initial landfall on southeastern Louisiana, according to aircraft and radar data from the National Hurricane Center.
Flooding from rainfall was expected to follow, the center said.
The storm surge combined with a high tide will cause normally dry areas near the Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coast to be flooded by peaks of 6 to 12 feet, the center said. Alabama could see a up to 8 feet; the Florida panhandle, 6 feet.
A 10-foot surge was reported at Shell Beach, La., the center said.
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