Six In The Morning

India strike over supermarket reforms
Opposition parties and trade unions in India are joining in a day-long strike over the government's plan to open the retail sector to global supermarket chains and other reforms.

BBC's Yogita Limaye 20 September 2012
Early reports said that opposition workers had blocked railway tracks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states. A key ally of the ruling coalition has pulled out of the government in protest at the plan. Observers say the coalition's majority in parliament is not at immediate risk. Thursday's nationwide strike, called by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its allies and Communist parties, has shut down schools, businesses and public transport in many cities. TV channels showed protests taking place in the cities of Patna, Allahabad and Varanasi in northern India. Most businesses were shut in the eastern city of Calcutta and public transport was disrupted, reports said.

Italy upholds rendition convictions for 23 Americans
Ruling is world's first judicial review of CIA practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries

Andrea Vogt and agencies Rome The Guardian, Thursday 20 September 2012
Italy's highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans found guilty of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from a Milanese street and transferring him to a country where torture was permitted. The court of cassation's ruling is the final appeal in the world's first judicial review of the CIA practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries, a practice also known as extraordinary rendition. The 23 Americans were all convicted in absentia following a trial that lasted over three years. The verdict paves the way for the Italian government to seek redress and could put the Americans at risk of arrest if they travel to Europe.

Palestinians' deepening financial crisis 'threatening Oslo Accords'
World Bank urges donors to act urgently and calls on Israel to remove trade barriers in the West Bank

CATRINA STEWART JERUSALEM THURSDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2012
The Palestinian economy is in a deepening crisis because of a shortfall in donor funding and Israeli obstacles to Palestinian investment in the most fertile parts of the occupied West Bank, the World Bank warned yesterday. The stark depiction of the Palestinians' economic woes is likely to revive fears in the West of further unrest in the Occupied Territories amid a stagnating peace process and a week of protests against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

UN split over investigations into children in conflict
Four UN Security Council members have refused to back a German-drafted resolution condemning the abuse of children in conflict. It came as a UN envoy decried the Syrian regime and rebels for attacks targeting children.

DW.DE.
China, Russia, Pakistan and Azerbaijan abstained from the normally routine UN Security Council vote on children and armed conflict on Wednesday in an apparent effort to restrict investigations conducted by the newly appointed UN special envoy to children. The resolution set out a mandate for Leila Zerrougui, which the four nations said would allow her to investigate conflicts which are not listed on the Security Council agenda. "The sphere of activities [of the special envoy] does not cover all issues of protecting children in armed conflict, but only those situations that are on UN Security Council's agenda," said Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Sergey Karev.

Overflowing S Sudan refugee camps on the brink
Tens of thousands of people have already swarmed to a refugee camp in South Sudan and a new wave will soon begin the trek from the Nuba Mountains.

20 SEP 2012 07:57 - MICHAEL ONYIEGO
Humanitarian workers warn the influx could become a catastrophe. As many as 15 000 more refugees could stream across the border from Sudan by the end of the year, straining a camp that has been hit by malaria and diarrhoea with many people arriving malnourished, said the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. "We are already stretched to the breaking point here, and any surge or increase in the population will make it nearly impossible to cope with the situation," UNHCR's Kathryn Mahoney told the Associated Press. Yida sits near the northern tip of South Sudan's Unity State near the border with Sudan. It is a remote region in one of the world's least developed countries.

Brazil may increase auto trade quota for Mexico
After booming sales of Mexican cars in Brazil, the Brazilian government is considering raising the auto trade pact quota it agreed to with Mexico.

By Ana Isabel Martinez, Reuters / September 19, 2012
Brazil is considering raising a three-year bilateral auto trade pact quota it agreed to with Mexico in March, potentially allowing Mexican exporters to sell around $350 million worth of additional vehicles to the Brazilian market annually. A Mexican government source familiar with the matter and a Brazilian official said the two sides had raised the possibility of increasing the quota after booming sales of Mexican cars to Brazil this year. Companies in Brazil that import and sell cars are pressuring the Brazilian government over the trade quota, which was used up in the first six months of the modified pact, which took effect in March.