Six In The Morning

             

New York Times blocked by China after report on wealth of Wen Jiabao's family

Authorities censor publication after revelations that the premier's relatives have accumulated billions during his leadership

• Tania Branigan in Beijing
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 October 2012 10.43 BST

China's foreign ministry has accused the New York Times of smearing the country by reporting that premier Wen Jiabao's extended family hascontrolled assets worth at least $2.7bn (£1.67bn).

Spokesman Hong Lei said the report "blackens China's name and has ulterior motives". Authorities have also blocked the news organisation's main and Chinese-language websites and banned searches for "New York Times" in English and Chinese on microblogs.

"China manages the internet in accordance with laws and rules," Hong told reporters at a daily briefing when asked why the sites were inaccessible.

Hezbollah crosses Syrian border with bloody assault on Assad's enemies

Special report: Shia fighters coming to the regime's aid have tipped the balance of power. Loveday Morris meets beleaguered rebels taking sanctuary a few kilometres from the border

LOVEDAY MORRIS

FRIDAY 26 OCTOBER 2012

It is a fortnight since Amr Al Ali was smuggled unconscious over the border to Lebanon, with a graze to his lips from a ricocheting bullet and deep wounds in his legs and hands after an exploding rocket turned a breeze-block wall in front of him into concrete shrapnel.

Yet the Free Syrian Army fighter says his enemy was not President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers, but militants from the armed wing of the Shia movement Hezbollah, a long-standing ally of Iran and the Syrian regime.

Rebel fighters and fleeing residents have told The Independent that Hezbollah began a major assault on the Syrian side of the border in mid-October, after the FSA tried but failed to take control of border villages and crossing points. 

IMMIGRATION

Asylum abuse rampant, EU ministers say

Politicians from Germany and other EU members called on Brussels to revoke visa-free travel to the bloc from Serbia and Macedonia. They say there is no reason for the increase in asylum applications from the Balkans.

Citizens from Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro haven't needed a visa for trips to the European Union since 2009. That has also applied to passport holders from Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina since 2010. Many of them have used their ability to travel freely in the EU to apply for asylum, according to the European Commission, mainly in Germany, Sweden and Belgium. A large number of the applicants are Roma and Sinti.

Governments in the countries that have seen an increase in asylum application have said this development is not what they intended when they decided to open their borders. German Deputy Interior Minister Ole Schröder said there have been clear abuses of the visa-free travel policy.

"People are not being persecuted against in their home countries," he said when arriving for a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday (25.10.2012). "We have an acceptance rate that is practically zero."

Piracy takes a dive in Somalia

26 OCT 2012 00:00 - DAVID SMITH, CLAR NI CHONGHAILE

Somali piracy has fallen to a three-year low because of co-ordinated action by international navies and the enlistment of armed security guards.

This is according to the International Maritime Bureau said.

From July to September only one ship reported an attempted attack by pirates, compared with 36 attacks in the same three months last year.

Pottengal Mukundan, director of the bureau, said: "We welcome the successful robust targeting of pirate groups by international navies in the high-risk waters off Somalia, ensuring these criminals are removed before they can threaten ships.

"It's good news that hijackings are down, but there can be no room for complacency. These waters are still extremely high-risk and the naval presence must be maintained."

Gaza flares as Qatar, Egypt take peace reins By Victor Kotsev  After several days of violence on the Gaza-Israel border saw at least seven Palestinian militants dead and over a dozen wounded on both sides, a tense calm started to set in on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. If the Egyptian-mediated truce continues to hold, this will attest, among other things, both to the increased regional influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Gulf Arab allies and to Hamas's desire to shore up its diplomatic and political achievements of the past week.  A very public visit by the Emir of Qatar, hailed by the Palestinians as the breaking of "the political and economic blockade of the Gaza Strip," is one such victory for the dominant Gaza militant movement. A municipal election in the West Bank where its rival, the Palestinian Authority, took a beating, presented Hamas (which did not participate) with another.  It is not completely clear what set off the current round of violence - gun battles, rocket and air strikes erupted on Monday, both sides pointing a finger at the other - but in contrast to previous episodes, Pakistani girl shot by Taliban reunited with family By NBC News staff and wire reports The family of Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out for the right to an education, arrived at a hospital in Britain Thursday to be reunited with her, NBC News has learned. Meanwhile, Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik announced that Yousufzai was able to speak and had talked to her parents by telephone, The Associated Press reported.  On Oct. 15, Yousufzai was transferred to a hospital in the English city of Birmingham to receive specialized treatment for the injuries she suffered earlier in the month. Her father, mother and two younger brothers were making the trip to Britain, Pakistani and British sources told NBC News. Pakistan's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, accompanied them.