Six In The Morning

Elaborate surveillance operation raises concerns about broader Hezbollah attacks

By Joby Warrick, Wednesday, February 27, 9:53 AM

The Israeli tourists on Arkia Airlines Flight 161 from Tel Aviv could not have known it, but their arrival in Cyprus July 6 was watched closely. A pair of trained eyes counted each passenger as the group exited the plane and boarded a shuttle, headed for resorts that had also been carefully studied and mapped.

The bearded foreigner who silently tracked the Israelis had done his work well. He knew where the visitors would sleep, shop and eat. He knew how many security guards patrolled their hotel parking lots and how long it would take police to arrive from the station down the street.

But the watcher was being watched. When Cypriot police picked him up, the Hezbollah operative quickly acknowledged what he was doing, although he claimed not to know why.

“I was just collecting information about the Jews,” he told police, according to a sworn deposition. “This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world.”

The Irish Times - Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Berlusconi vote signals servile democracy

Paddy Agnew

Analysis: There was a palpable sense of disbelief yesterday prompted by the results of Italy’s general election which has thrown up three principal, and not entirely unexpected results, leading to a hung parliament.

First, a protest party, featuring candidates whose only claim to fame is that they proudly concede to having no previous political experience or affiliations, lifted a massive 25.5 per cent or 108 seats of lower house votes. The Five Star Movement of ex-comedian Beppe Grillo is now the largest single party in the lower house.

Second, the centre-left proved once again that when it comes to pompous, arrogant and self-satisfied complacency, they have no masters. No one so brilliantly snatches defeat from the jaws of victory as the PD Democratic Party, ex-PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano).

Nobel Laureate Mo Yan: 'I Am Guilty'

For the first time since receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, controversial Chinese author Mo Yan has consented to an interview. Many have accused him of being too close to the regime. But he rejects the charge and finds sharp words for his detractors.

The man wore a Mao suit with a red emblem pinned to the breast pocket. It looked like a party emblem, but only his name appeared on it. He was holding a lecture in Stockholm, the Nobel Lecture that all authors are required to give when they receive the Nobel Prize in literature, the world's most important literary award.

It was Dec. 7, 2012, and the Chinese man, whose soft words almost felt like a song as he delivered his speech, had been considered a disappointment. He had written wonderful books, no question. They include "The Garlic Ballads" and "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out," family novels that are broad, lush and colorfully told. They always have a historic element to them, with reporting on China's development in the past decades, from the poverty of the early years, through the hardships of the Cultural Revolution and on to the economic rise. Yet despite all the criticism of the Communist Party and its leaders, which is clear in his books, the author is still considered to be a regime loyalist.

Mo Yan, 58, has been a member of the Communist Party (CP) since 1979. He had a career in the army and is today the deputy chairman of the party-aligned China Writer's Association.

Kenya's presidential candidates in final debates

26 FEB 2013 10:56 - SAPA-AFP

Kenya's eight presidential candidates were challenged on tough issues like land reform and corruption in the final round of debates ahead of the poll.

Next week's elections come five years after the last vote in 2007 – 2008 ended in bloody violence that claimed at least 1 100 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

While two main candidates – Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga – dominate the race for the March 4 election, all the hopefuls have potential influence, especially if voting goes to a second round run-off.

Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister and son of Kenya's founding president, faces trial with his running mate William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their alleged roles in orchestrating murder, rape and violence after the 2007 poll.

Inflation plays role in Argentine teacher strike

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s refusal to accurately report Argentina's soaring inflation rate has led to a strike by teachers in 17 provinces - granting more than five million children a few extra days of summer vacation.

By Jonathan Gilbert, Correspondent / February 26, 2013

BUENOS AIRES

Following a demand this month from the International Monetary Fund to improve her government's data, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s refusal to acknowledge the soaring inflation rate has now led to a strike by teachers unions – and all this in an election year.

More than five million school children who were supposed to start classes yesterday after the summer break stayed home, as teachers in 17 provinces went on strike this week.

Union wage-bargaining season is kicking off here, and President Kirchner’s administration is facing its first confrontation: It won’t budge from a 22 percent minimum rise, while teachers want 30 percent.

Greater China

INTERVIEW Pyongyang tests Xi's populist credentials By Sunny Lee  BEIJING - A long-expected visit to China by North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun will likely be put off indefinitely following Pyongyang's third nuclear test, say Chinese security expert Sun Zhe. "China's leadership won't allow a visit by Kim now. It won't happen, at least not in the near future," Sun Zhe, an international relations professor at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Asia Times Online during an interview. A visit to Beijing by Kim was expected to serve as his "debut" on the international political scene, with a meeting with China's top new leader, Xi Jinping the perfect accompanying photo-op. But the nuclear test has even prompted rare open debate in China on whether current policy towards the country's long-time communist ally squares with present-day China's national interest.