Six In The Morning

Sudan: the new battlefield in Iran and Israel's covert conflict

Warships from Tehran dock in Port Sudan as tensions between the two Middle East powers escalate

DANIEL HOWDEN 

 

 

WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2012

Iranian warships have arrived in Port Sudan in an apparent show of support for the government in Khartoum, one week after it accused Israel of bombing an arms factory in the Sudanese capital.

Iran's state news agency confirmed yesterday that two vessels, a destroyer and a helicopter carrier have docked in Sudan's main port on the Red Sea and their commanders will be meeting Sudanese officials.

While Iran said the mission was related to anti-piracy efforts, the move represents a possible escalation of a proxy war between Iran and Israel that has been playing out in the conflict between the Sudans.

DEMOCRACY

Audit slams effectiveness of EU's Kosovo mission

An EU audit has leveled criticism against the European rule of law mission in Kosovo alleging that crime and corruption are still rampant. Hoping for progress, the European Commission wants to negotiate.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) issued a sobering assessment that the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) is not efficient enough. The report, issued on Tuesday (30.10.2012)), asserted that a high level of crime and corruption are still present in the transitional country.

Court of Auditors member Gijs de Vries, who was responsible for the report, said the ECA found police are "not yet capable of dealings with serious financial crimes such as money laundering." In an interview published by the European Commission, de Vries added that "there is a lot of political interference with the judiciary and with the police."

Member states of the EU have contributed more than 4.7 billion euros ($6.1 billion) to support the mission since 1999.

Lawyers renew International Criminal Court bid to free Gbagbo

Sapa-AFP | 31 10月, 2012 10:36

Hundreds of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo’s supporters demonstrated outside the International Criminal Court where his lawyers argued anew for his release from detention.

Wearing their customary orange dress and wrapped in their country’s orange-white-and-green flag, around 600 supporters played the drums and sang while chanting: “Give back our president!” and ”ICC, president thief!”  Inside the courtroom at the fortress-like building surrounded by barbed wire and electrical fencing in a southern Hague suburb, Gbagbo’s lawyer Emmanuel Altit argued that his client was not a flight risk.

Gbagbo’s lawyers on May 1 filed a request for his “interim release”.

But last Friday, the court turned down an appeal by his lawyers against a decision in July to continue keeping the former strongman behind bars.

Middle East

THE GULF'S BLACK TREASURE
Oil rulers toy with Armageddon

By Hossein Askari 

The Persian Gulf has every ingredient imaginable for stoking conflicts, revolutions and wars for all eternity. Just recall the long, though still highly partial, list of conflicts that are the region's inheritance (see Conflict without end, Asia Times Online, October 19, 2012). And don't forget that hardly any of these conflicts are ever reconciled, with the result that about eight out of 10 conflicts are resurrected. 

Why is the Persian Gulf so cursed? Although it is the birthplace of Islam, a religion that preaches peace, justice and the unity of

humankind, the Persian Gulf has sectarian, tribal and ethnic divides and conflicts that appear timeless and likely to linger until the end of time. 

But to our mind what stand out in the region as the fuels for conflicts to come, including Armageddon, are the vast oil and gas wealth under the ground, its highly skewed regional distribution (per capita) and the unimaginable human greed within the region and from much farther afield.

Brazil laying down the law

Recent corruption and police misconduct cases in Brazil seem to signal impunity is giving way to justice, but the country has yet to confront its history of dictatorship-era human rights violations.

By Joe Bateman, WOLA / October 30, 2012

There have recently been a number of high-profile criminal cases in Brazil that have caused some to proclaim that a culture of impunity is finally giving way to a culture of accountability where criminals face justice. These cases include the current trials coming to a close associated with the Mensalão scandal, in which around 40 elected and appointed officials are being tried for their involvement in an elaborate Congressional vote-buying scheme that funneled public funds for political gain during the first Lula administration, and the recent conviction of two police officers for the 1996 massacre of 19 landless activists. Historically, few people have faced serious prison time for involvement in political corruption scandals in Brazil, but the Mensalão trials have shown that this trend may be coming to an end. Similarly, killings by the police in Brazil are much higher than in other countries; it is rare that officers who kill civilians while on duty are charged or convicted of wrong-doing, so the conviction against the two police officers for the 1996 massacre is a welcome change.

Sandy leaves trail of destruction, disbelief in its path

By NBC News staff and wire reports

From the devastated New Jersey shore to eerily empty lower Manhattan, tens of millions of Americans lived through Sandy's fury and were trying to come to grips with its destruction as the storm waters slowly receded.

The impact of the storm was virtually without parallel in the densely populated tristate region of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with its destructive winds, heavy flooding and raging fires. Farther afield, powerful gusts felled trees and knocked out power for up to 8.2 million residents across the eastern United States, while heavy snow made travel treacherous at higher elevations. Nationwide at least 46 were confirmed dead of storm-related causes.

"This was literally the storm of our lifetime," said Longport, N.J., Mayor Nick Russo, as he surveyed the damage on debris-littered streets of his Atlantic coast town Tuesday. "No one has seen this type of damage, not even in the 1962 storm. The amount of sand, wood and concrete that has actually come up from the streets — it's not a good scene."

Izzeldin Abuelaiesh: 'Armed with love`

The Palestinian doctor whose three daughters were killed by Israeli shells explains why hatred is not an option for him.

Events in the Middle East often seem caught up in a never ending spiral of conflict, recriminations and finger pointing. 

But is there a way out?

One man says yes. And he should know.

More than three years ago, Izzeldin Abuelaish experienced a tragedy. 

During the war on Gaza, Israeli tank shells hit his home. His three daughters - Aya, Bessan and Mayar - were killed. 

They were looking for a better future, as was their father who says: "They were girls armed with love ... they were fighters for humanity."

The Palestinian doctor, who was working in an Israeli hospital when his daughters were killed, has now left his childhood home and lives and works in Canada.

He is still pursuing an Israeli apology for what happened. But despite all of this, he says that hatred and resignation was not an option for him. 

Six In The Morning

13 killed, New York flooded and in darkness and 6 million without power as superstorm Sandy throws a 4-metre wall of water at US

ERIN MCCLAM

 

 

TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2012

At least 13 people have been killed in the US and millions are without 
power after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline and 
hurled a record-breaking 13ft surge of seawater at New York City.

Click here to see the latest location of Hurricane Sandy

Sandy knocked out power to at least 5.7 million people across the east of the country and New York's main utility said large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with 250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island from three sides.

The 13 deaths were reported in New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

The Irish Times - Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Germany takes no-nonsense approach to tax evaders

Germany has no problem going after evasion – even buying up stolen data to do so, writes DEREK SCALLY in Berlin

THE CASE of Kostas Vaxevanis is unlikely to improve the dim view many Germans hold of their Greek neighbours in matters of fiscal honesty.

The Greek journalist’s court appearance for publishing the details of more than 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts made news here, in particular because two former Greek finance ministers failed to initiate tax-evasion investigations into the account holders.

Germany, on the other hand, has no problems going after its own tax evaders – even buying up stolen information to do so.

In the past five years, the German authorities have bought six sets of bank account details of German citizens, mostly in Swiss banks

A Trip Through HellDaily Life in Islamist Northern Mali

By Paul Hyacinthe Mben

For months, an Islamist regime has been terrorizing northern Mali. Hundreds of thousands have already fled the region, and those who have stayed behind are experiencing new forms of cruelty with each passing day. A SPIEGEL reporter documents a two-week journey through a region Europe fears will become the next Somalia.

Northern Mali is virtually inaccessible to journalists at present. Sharia law has been in effect there since last spring, when fundamentalists took control of a large part of the country, which had been considered a model nation until then. The fundamentalists stone adulturers, amputate limbs and squelch all opposition. They have destroyed tombs in Timbuktu that were recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. Despite the risks, Paul Hyacinthe Mben, 39, a SPIEGEL employee and journalist in the capitalBamako , which is not yet under Islamist control, ventured into northern Mali . Before the trip, he spent weeks negotiating with Islamist leaders for safe passage. In return, he was forced to accept certain conditions. During his almost three-week stay in the north, he had to conform to the Islamists' dress code, as well as submit to a number of searches and interrogations. But he never revealed to the Islamists where he was staying overnight, and he never stayed in the same place for more than a day. He lived in constant fear of being kidnapped. He had hardly returned to Bamako before learning that seven armed men had been following him in the north, with the aim of taking him captive.

Southeast Asia      Oct 30, 2012 US's lost moral compass in Myanmar

By Tim Heinemann

Americans have fought at home and on many a distant shore with resolve in truths that they hold to be self-evident, "that all men are created equal". Under the Barack Obama administration, America appears to have abandoned this principle through its recent engagement policy with until recently military-run Myanmar. 

To be sure, Myanmar matters. The country has emerged as China's main gateway to the Indian Ocean, with massive natural resource wealth at home and important international markets beyond. Myanmar has thus emerged as a key state in the US's "pivot" policy towards Asia. 

The flaws in the US approach are threefold, including: (1) failing to understand the unambiguous, enduring power of ethnic

populations; (2) failing to engage them fully as equal stakeholders in the country's future; and (3) forgetting that many have been faithful American allies going all the way back to World War II.

Chile drops mandatory vote – and a few incumbent mayors

Chileans replaced pro-government mayors in many of its biggest municipalities yesterday in an election that saw only a fraction of eligible voters cast ballots.

By Steven Bodzin, Correspondent / October 29, 2012

Chileans replaced pro-government mayors in many of its most important municipalities yesterday, in the country's first election without mandatory voting. It marked a reverse for the administration ofPresident Sebastian Piñera, who three years ago became the first elected conservative president in Chile in decades.

The incumbent mayors of several boroughs of the capital, Santiago, were rejected by voters in an election marked by historically low turnout. Santiago center, as well as the nearby boroughs of Providencia, Ñuñoa, and Recoleta, all shifted from mayors aligned with President Piñera to outsiders ranging from an independent to a communist.

"If you look at opinion polls and the issues of policy, Chileans are sort of center-left," says Robert Funk, a professor of public affairs at the University of Chile. The vote was a “rejection of the government,” he says, while stressing that the issues at stake were generally local, rather than national.

30 October 2012 Last updated at 01:52 GMT

Week in China: Extending 'soft power'

As China prepares for a new generation of leaders to take power, the BBC is spending a week on the road looking at both the challenges ahead for the world's most populous nation and the advances it has made.

On day two, the BBC's John Sudworth reports from Shanghai on China's ever-expanding film industry.

Much has been written about China's rising economic and political power.

But China is flexing its cultural muscles too, setting up language institutes in dozens of countries and ramping up the global reach of its state-run news service in a bid to compete with the BBC and CNN.

In its efforts to extend its so called "soft power" there is one area, however, where it really should be doing better than it is, and that's cinema.

The potential is certainly there.

Forget drafty village halls showing worthy propaganda films, China is now the world's fastest-growing cinema market.

The ongoing construction boom saw more than 3,000 new screens open across the country last year.

At around $2bn (£1.2bn), ticket sales may still be only a fifth of America's total box office revenue, but the point is that China's middle class has still got a lot of growing to do.

Live Stream of Hurricane Sandy

Mayor of Osaka Toru Hashimoto is an Egoistical A$$

In light of his now infamous article for Shukan Asahi about Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, former Yomiuri Shimbun reporter Shinichi Sano seems to aspire to membership in this club. Sano makes no attempt to hide his enmity toward Hashimoto, whom he characterizes as a small-hearted opportunist, a lawyer who spun a backstory of up-from-poverty success into a career as a shameless self-promoter and demagogue. He likens TV's fascination with Hashimoto to that of a cult in thrall to some charismatic charlatan, and in the tradition of the misanthropic press implies that the masses are stupid for showing anything but contempt for the mayor. He compares Hashimoto to another recent populist, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but whereas Koizumi's statements and actions revealed "an antic belief system," Hashimoto's reveal nothing except "an animal compulsion" to be liked. As for his political supporters, Sano calls them "scavengers, scum."

 What Hashimoto's accomplishment produced is "an intolerant personality" that "doesn't acknowledge opposition." For that reason alone, he is unfit for politics, because he cannot accept any criticism or inquiry into his personal life. Sano is telling the reader that the article itself is meant as an affront to Hashimoto, a test of his ability to stand up to the kind of scrutiny that people in the public eye have to address constantly. But rather than engage such scrutiny, Sano says, Hashimoto usually retires to Twitter and rants against his detractors "like a petulant child."

This guy is nothing more than an immature child masquerading as an adult who longs to be the Grand Pooba  of Japan.  He's one of those people who if given the power he seeks would be corrupted by it thereby becoming the authoritarian ruler he longs to be.

Six In The Morning

Land deals in Africa have led to a wild west – bring on the sheriff, says FAO

Food and Agriculture Organisation chief José Graziano da Silva demands high noon on land grabs that jeopardise food security

• Mark Tran
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 October 2012 07.00 GMT

Amid warnings that land deals are undermining food security, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has compared "land grabs" in Africa to the "wild west", saying a "sheriff" is needed to restore the rule of law.

José Graziano da Silva, the FAO's director general, conceded it was not possible to stop large investors buying land, but said deals in poor countries needed to be brought under control.

"I don't see that it's possible to stop it. They are private investors," said Graziano da Silva in a telephone interview. "We do not have the tools and instruments to stop big companies buying land. Land acquisitions are a reality. We can't wish them away, but we have to find a proper way of limiting them. It appears to be like the wild west and we need a sheriff and law in place."

Whichever of Obama or Romney wins, US dealings with the Arab world will change

The Long View: Every reader of this article will be dead or of old age before the Arab "revolution" is complete

After last week's Obama-Romney love-fest for Israel, the Arabs have been slowly deciding which of the two men would be best for the Middle East. It looks like Barack Obama is their man; but the problem – as always – is the sad, pathetic and outrageously obvious fact that it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

George Bush invaded Iraq after giving Ariel Sharon permission to go on colonising the occupied West Bank. Obama got out of Iraq, increased drone strikes on the Pakistan-Afghan border and then behaved like a dog when Benjamin Netanyahu told him there would be no discussion about Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. Instead of saying, "Oh yes there will", like a strong and independent president, Obama sat cowed in his White House seat 

CIVIL RIGHTS

Brazil's indigenous fight for their land

In an open letter, the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowa tribe of Brazil has asked for their collective death in order to avoid expulsion from their land. They are up against the agriculture lobby and facing an uphill battle.

Members of the Guarani-Kaiowa, Brazil's second largest indigenous group, wrote an to the government, stating they would rather be killed and buried with their ancestors than expelled from ancestral lands.

"We ask of the government and federal justice system not to make an order for our eviction, but instead we request that they decree our mass death and to bury all of us here," members wrote.

The agricultural industry has claimed right to the territory of the Guarani-Kaiowa's ancestral lands and the letter was written in response to a preliminary injunction by the courts calling for the indigenous community to leave the territory until the ownership question is settled. The injunctions calls for fines of some 500 real (200 euros, $259) per day if the Guarani-Kaiowa stay.

HRW: Israel turns back dozens of African asylum seekers

29 OCT 2012 08:27 - SAPA-AFP

Human Rights Watch and other NGOs says Israel has turned back dozens of African asylum seekers, mostly Eritreans, trying to enter from Egypt.

"Since June, Israeli forces patrolling Israel's newly constructed ... border fence with Egypt's Sinai region have denied entry to dozens of Africans, mostly Eritreans," HRW and Israeli NGOs the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights said in a joint statement.

"Thousands of [Eritrean asylum seekers] flee persecution in their country every year.

"In forcing asylum seekers and refugees to remain in Egypt and in deporting others, Israel is putting them at risk of prolonged detention in Egyptian prisons and police stations where they cannot claim asylum," it added.

Yemen's 'Death to America' rebels bring calm to northern Yemen

The Houthis, a Shiite rebel group that battled the government in northern Yemen for years, has brought stability and investment to its territory. Its rise could threaten US-Yemen cooperation.

By Adam Baron, Correspondent / October 28, 2012

Barely a decade ago, the Old City of Saada was tentatively placed on the list to become aUNESCO World Heritage Site. Once an impeccably preserved relic of medieval Arabia, the ancient settlement is now largely in ruins. Centuries-old homes lie wrecked, their mud brick construction crumbling. Bullet holes pock-mark the walls of ancient mosques. 

For many here, the irreplaceable loss of one ofYemen’s most prominent historical sites exemplifies the senseless destruction wrought upon the region during years of clashes between government forces and the Houthis, a Zaydi Shi’a rebel group that has battled Yemeni troops and allied tribal fighters since 2004.

While a tentative calm has been restored in recent months, the violence continues to cast a pall over this rugged mountain town, which now lies under the effective control of the rebels. 

29 October 2012 Last updated at 00:11 GMT

Kandahar: Assassination capital of Afghanistan

By Dawood AzamiBBC World Service, Kandahar

The southern Afghan city of Kandahar is accustomed to violence. It is, after all, the birthplace of the Taliban. But a recent wave of assassinations targeting the city's political elite has stunned even the most hardened observers.

History shows that whoever secures Kandahar, Afghanistan's historic capital, controls the rest of the country.

It is the home province of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and most of the Taliban leadership, including Mullah Mohamad Omar, is from southern Afghanistan. It is seen as the heart of Pashtun civilisation.

But southern Afghanistan is also the country's main theatre of war, where the Taliban insurgency has been at its fiercest.

Generation eliminated

In Kandahar, more than 500 killings of high profile political leaders and influential tribal elders have taken place over the past 10 years, according to figures from various sources including the author's own records.

How to save humanity from a giant asteroid? Shoot paintballs at it, of course

Why? Because it makes pretty colors?

Paintballs are not the weapons that immediately spring to mind when considering how to defend the earth from a potentially catastrophic hit from a giant asteroid.

However, according to Sung Wook Paek, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics it could be the answer.

If Paek's calculations are correct then the staple of office bonding outings may be the way to change the course of an asteroid before it collides with the earth.

The MIT graduate has proposed his theory as a submission to the 2012 'Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition', sponsored by the UN’s Space Generation Advisory Council.

The purpose of the contest, as the title suggests, is to find the best plausible solution to deflecting asteroids, or other near-earth objects.

Mapping Iran's factionalised meida

The president's chief media guru is behind bars and Ahmadinejad is barred from visiting him, so what is afoot in Iran?

When a president's chief media guru is locked behind bars - and the president is barred from visiting him - something must be afoot. Ali Akbar Javanfekr is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top media strategist and the head of the IRNA, a news agency loyal to him. He was jailed recently after criticising the policies of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last week, Ahmadinejad tried to visit Javanfekr in prison but was stopped in his tracks by the courts. It may not have got much coverage outside Iran - but it was big news there because his imprisonment and the legal case against him speaks volumes about the power struggle taking place behind the scenes in Iranian politics.

Our contributors this week speak from different positions in this highly politicised media story: Mohammed Marandi, a professor of politics at Tehran University; Pooneh Ghoddoosi, a presenter at BBC Persian in London; Ali Alfoneh, the founder of Iran Tracker at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC; and Ali Asghar Ramezanpoor, the director at the newly launched Iranian TV outlet Raha in London.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

More Jews praying on site also sacred to Muslims
Israeli police and Muslim officials say the prayers at the Temple Mount-Al Aqsa mosque site are a provocation. Others call them a basic human right.

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times October 28, 2012
A simple, ancient ritual is threatening the delicate security balance atop Jerusalem's most sacred plaza: Jews are praying. On most days, dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Jewish worshipers ascend to the disputed 36-acre platform that Muslims venerate as Al Aqsa mosque and Jews revere as the Temple Mount with an Israeli police escort to protect them and a Muslim security guard to monitor their movements. Then, they recite a quick prayer, sometimes quietly to themselves, other times out loud. Jewish activists call the prayers harmless acts of faith. Police and Muslim officials see them as dangerous provocations, especially given the deep religious sensitivities of the site and its history of violence. Twelve years ago, the presence of Jews on the plaza was so controversial that a brief tour by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that lasted more than four years.

Wen Jiabao's family deny 'hidden riches' report
Lawyers for Chinese premier's family dispute New York Times article which said they have accumulated wealth of $2.7bn

Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 October 2012 04.30 GMT
Lawyers for Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's family have denied reports of their "hidden riches" saying they are untrue, according to Hong Kong media. The New York Times said on Friday that relatives of the premier had controlled assets worth at least $2.7bn, citing detailed analysis of corporate and regulatory records. The Chinese foreign ministry said the story "blackens China's name and has ulterior motives". Authorities also blocked the media organisation's Chinese language and main websites and banned microblog searches for its name and a wide variety of terms related to the article.

Call me Kuchu: The life and death of a gay rights campaigner
Film out this week shows final year of Ugandan victim of homophobia

SARAH MORRISON SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER 2012
When a newspaper published the names and addresses of prominent Ugandan gay rights activists two years ago, under a banner suggesting they be hanged, it was only a matter of time before David Kato was attacked in his house. And so, in January last year, twelve months into filming the life of the Ugandan gay rights campaigner, a documentary became an obituary. The film's two directors transformed their attempt to document the gay community in one of the most homophobic countries in the world into an exclusive insight into the final 12 months of Kato's life.

Ukraine votes under watchful eyes
Parliamentary elections are underway in Ukraine, with world boxing superstar Vitaly Klitschko running for an opposition party. But polls indicate the party of President Viktor Yanukovych is likely to win.

DW-DE
Heading into Sunday's elections, Yanukovych's Regions Party appeared to be in a position to maintain a slim lead in parliament despite a likely strong showing from opposition parties. The party of jailed opposition leader, Yulia Tymoschenko, looks set to stay right on the heels of the Regions Party, and could benefit from teaming up with Klitschko, shown on the posters above, and his UDAR party to form a stronger opposition in parliament.

Iran is being set up to fail, just like Iraq
October 28, 2012

Paul McGeough Chief foreign correspondent
If you were in Baghdad for the shock and awe of March-April 2003, any image of the inferno on the banks of the Tigris has the power to stop you in your tracks. There was another this week, illustrating a cautionary tale on how the West is repeating the same mistakes that led to a disastrous war in Iraq, as it now flexes more muscle than imagination over what's going down in Tehran. That the piece, in Foreign Affairs, is co-authored by Rolf Ekeus should stop us all in our tracks. After his years in the squeeze between Washington and Baghdad, the silver-haired former Swedish diplomat's ''been there, done that'' savvy is instructive as, almost a decade after the invasion of Iraq, he detects an eerie similarity in the policy web in which Tehran is mired

The doormen policing Egypt's morals
Residents of Cairo cannot simply live as they please - they must always take into account the judgement that will be made of them by the man who sits at the front door of their building.

By Tom Dinham Cairo
One of the many things any fresh-faced arrival in Cairo is likely to notice - when lugging bags and suitcases to a new abode - is that there will be somebody sitting in front of it, sternly looking into space with a stare so stoical that it can only have resulted from a lifetime of gazing, sitting and waiting. In Cairo's hectic maelstrom of activity, there is one person who can take things relatively easy - the doorman, or bewab. Security guard, porter, enforcer of social mores and general snoop, all rolled into one, the bewab is a quintessentially Egyptian figure, and can be found sitting in f

Thousands flee renewed Myanmar violence

Satellite images show huge swath of coastal town destroyed in a wave of violence that has left dozens dead

The pictures, acquired by Human Rights Watch, show destruction to the town of Kyaukpyu on the country's west coast. They reveal 14.4 hectares (35 acres) of destruction, in which some 811 buildings and houseboats have been destroyed.

The images confirm reports of massive violence in the town over 24 hours around 24 October, three days after the first wave of attacks. The incidents in Arakan province – also known as Rakhine – have displaced thousands of people in what appears to have been a wave of ethnic cleansing pitting Arakan Buddhists against Muslims. "There have been incidents of whole villages and parts of the towns being burned down," Thein Sein's spokesman said. A government official initially put the death toll at 112 but later revised it to 67.

America's Republican's view on:

Six In The Morning

Exclusive: How Syria's rebel fighters were sold exploding rifles – by a mystery Briton named ‘Emile’

Opponents of Bashar al-Assad suspect they have been duped by a double agent posing as an arms dealer

KIM SENGUPTA 

 

 

FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER 2012

To the Syrian rebels, the offer was enticing: Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles and ammunition at below-market price, with supplies plentiful. The dealers were convincing: two of them had European passports, one a British passport, and they claimed to have been involved in supplying arms during the Bosnia war.

Three meetings took place in Istanbul between representatives of the rebels and the dealers, including the Briton, calling himself Emile, to organise shipments. An initial payment of around $40,000 was made.

The delivery was on time, as had been a previous shipment. But it soon became apparent that something was wrong.

Cutting CarbonIs Europe's Emissions Trading System Broken?

By Joel Stonington

Emitting CO2 into the atmosphere is dirt cheap in Europe these days. At just 8 euros per ton, the low price is undermining the European Union's effort to establish an effective cap and trade system. Implementing necessary fixes to the system, however, won't be easy in the face of industry opposition.

Europe's carbon market is in deep trouble and it's not just environmentalists sounding the alarm. Back in April, the CEO of Shell said that the European Union's system for trading allowances for the emission of greenhouse gases was "in danger." But that's about as direct as anyone will get in this world of bureaucratese. Most simply talk of "price weakness" (meaning that emission credits are absurdly cheap), a desire for "long-term policy certainty" (the system needs a fix!), and the need to "restore confidence" (and the fix has to come fast!).

The simple fact is that the most important tool in Europe's fight against climate change needs a major fix. When it was introduced in 2005, the idea was to make pollution expensive. And in the summer of 2008, the price for emitting a ton of carbon peaked at a price of around €30.

Long path to peace in Myanmar

October 27, 2012 - 7:36PM

Natalie Bochenski

It’s hard to imagine any Burmese person being violent. As a recent visitor to the country, I was greeted with nothing but grace and hospitality. Women called me beautiful, a chief monk told me I had good teeth, and children held my hand with so much excitement I almost felt like Angelina Jolie.

But my ethnicity was just a curiosity and an intrigue in a country still opening up to tourists.  In the country’s western Rakhine state, close to Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, deep-rooted conflict between two groups with different skin tone, language and religion is causing only terror and death.

The United Nations says sectarian violence between the Buddhist Burmese and Muslim Rohingya minority this week has cost at least 88 lives, with 70,000 displaced.

Amnesty: More than 200 held and tortured in Cote d'Ivoire

27 OCT 2012 07:21 - SAPA-AFP

A rights group says more than 200 people have been detained and tortured in Cte d'Ivoire, urging President Alassane Ouattara to respect human rights.

The victims included members of former president Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) who "have faced illegal detention and torture with many still languishing behind bars", Amnesty International said after a month-long mission to the West African country.

"We were able to meet dozens of detainees who told us how they have been tortured by electricity or had molten plastic poured on their bodies. Two of them have been sexually abused," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's researcher on West Africa.

"Some have been held for many months [and] denied contact with their families and access to lawyers."

In a first reaction, Human Rights Minister Gnenema Coulibaly said the president was "committed to fighting impunity".

Cuba to welcome back many who left

In order to normalize relations with Cubans abroad, Cuba's most recent policy is expected to allow the return of many now banned from the island, estimated any anywhere from 70,000 to 300,000.

By Juan O. Tamayo, McClatchy / October 26, 2012

Cuba said Thursday it will welcome back tens of thousands of its citizens who left illegally – including rafters, doctors, and baseball players – in the second round of a migration reform it claims will help normalize relations with Cubans abroad.

Havana has barred the return of rafters since its 1994 migration accord with the US government in order to deter risky escapes across the Florida Straits. But the ban is not part of the accord and is not expected to affect the agreement or US policy.

"We will normalize the temporary entry to the island of those who emigrated illegally after the 1994 migration accords," Homero Acosta, secretary of the ruling Council of State, announced in a television appearance late Wednesday.

The West Bank's most impressive Yasser Arafat lookalike

By Jon DonnisonBBC News, Ramallah

Eight years after the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died, he still remains a towering figure in Palestinian society. And he hasn't completely disappeared.

Picture the scene: You have popped down your local fruit and veg market to pick up a packet of potatoes, possibly a pepper, a couple of onions.

You are beginning to daydream about the corned beef hash you are planning to rustle up later.

When who should emerge from behind a pile of peaches, but Yasser Arafat.

Decked out in green military fatigues and his trademark chequered black and white headscarf, Chairman Arafat saunters through the crowds pausing occasionally to admire the cherry tomatoes or a nice looking melon.

"Two for a fiver, Abu Ammar," shouts a trader, in what I assume must be something akin to cockney Arabic.