Six In The Morning

China government's hand seen in anti-Japan protests
Police guided marchers, and farmers' trip to Beijing appeared to have been organized. But then some protests went out of control.

By Barbara Demick and Julie Makinen, Los Angeles Times
The last week's anti-Japan demonstrations in China have been a spectacular display of just how easily the ruling Communist Party can harness the power of protest. In the aftermath of nationwide protests, in which mobs trashed Japanese-owned businesses and set fire to Japanese model cars, critics are questioning the degree to which the Chinese government fanned the flames as part of its dispute with Japan over an island chain both nations claim. "It is obvious that this was planned," said Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist, who videotaped some of the protests. The 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square were "the last time that the people themselves organized a real protest and then the government sent in tanks to crush them," he said.

Last of Obama 'surge' troops leave Afghanistan
The last of 33,000 extra US soldiers sent to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama more than three years ago have left the country, the Pentagon says.

The BBC 21 September 2012
They were deployed with the aim of pushing back the Taliban and allowing Afghan government forces time to take over the security of their own country. Some 68,000 US service personnel remain as so-called insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police increase. In the latest violence, a bomb killed five members of the same Afghan family. Two women, two girls under the age of eight and a man died after a roadside device exploded under their car in the Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province, Afghan officials said.

How Burma's burgeoning democracy is based on old episodes of 'The West Wing'


GUY ADAMS LOS ANGELES FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2012
To most of the developed world, democracy is a birth right. To the military junta, which has presided over Burma for the past five decades, it's a strange and complex form of government which can only be understood by watching DVDs of The West Wing. The United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has revealed that the country's autocratic rulers – who are in the protest of loosening their grip on power – have been using old episodes of Aaron Sorkin's hit series to teach themselves how parliamentary systems work.

Irish developers plan to build Cold War museum at Checkpoint Charlie
The Irish Times - Friday, September 21, 2012

DEREK SCALLY in Berlin
AFTER A TENSE six-month standoff, the Irish developers who control Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie have launched de-escalation measures at the notorious Cold War site. Mayo brothers Michael and Cathal Cannon have controlled the two vacant lots on Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse with Dundalk developer Owen Kirk since 2007. The only sign of life on the historic site came last April when a series of fast-food kiosks popped up, earning the ire of Berliners and city authorities. The kiosks were a regrettable misunderstanding, the investors said in Berlin yesterday. They were in town for the opening of a temporary “BlackBox” museum that puts Checkpoint Charlie in its Cold War context.

Timbuktu Islamists crack down on women without veils
Islamists controlling Mali's northern city of Timbuktu have begun arresting women not wearing a veil and have ordered any women caught out in the street late at night jailed, residents reported.

Sapa-AFP | 21 9月, 2012 08:55
"The Islamists are today criss-crossing the town's market and arresting girls not wearing a veil," El Mehdi Cisse, a resident of the Djinguerey Ber neighbourhood, told AFP by phone. Any woman seen on the street after 11pm would be taken to prison and must pay a fine, he added, citing an edict from the Ansar Dine Islamists, who have ties with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. "Since last night, they've visited imams to tell them that from now on all girls must be decently dressed," said another resident Boubacar Yattara.

Peru: As Shining Path's political arm grows, government clamps down
The Shining Path terrorized Peru in the 1980s and '90s. But the recent growth of its political wing has prompted Peru's government to introduce a muzzle law that some say goes too far.

By Miriam Wells, Contributor / September 20, 2012
The Shining Path, a Maoist group that terrorized Peru during the country’s civil war in the 1980s and ‘90s, is putting the government on the defensive once again. The recent growth of the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights (Movadef), the group’s political arm, has prompted President Ollanta Humala’s government to draft a draconian law proposing to jail anyone who “denies or minimizes” the terrorist acts that took place during the conflict. Aside from automatically making membership of Movadef illegal, the law will penalize anyone who sympathizes with them, prompting fears that the government will exploit the law to silence legitimate protest and dissent.