Six In The Morning

Iraq, a decade after U.S. invasion, torn between progress and chaos

By Ernesto Londoño, Tuesday, March 19, 5:13 AM

BAGHDAD — Ten years after the United States barreled into Iraq with extraordinary force and a perilous lack of foresight, the country is neither the failed state that seemed all but inevitable during the darkest days of the war nor the model democracy that the Americans set out to build.

Haunted by the ghosts of its brutal past, Iraq is teetering between progress and chaos, a country threatened by local and regional conflicts that could drag it back into the sustained bloodshed its citizens know so well.

The nation is no longer defined or notably influenced by its relationship with the United States, despite an investment of about $1.7 trillion and the loss of 4,487 American troops. In the end, Washington failed to carve out a role as an honest broker in postwar Iraq, an aspiration born out of the recognition that the country’s future may again have explosive implications for the region.

Cyprus deal concessions will protect smaller depositors

Kenny says no risk to Ireland as contagion fears push euro to three-year low

Suzanne Lynch, Michael Jansen

Angry Cypriot bank depositors appeared to have won concessions on the terms of the Cypriot bailout deal last night, after euro zone finance ministers urged Cyprus to protect depositors with savings of less than €100,000.

In a statement following an evening teleconference, euro zone finance ministers said that “small depositors should be treated differently from large depositors”. While it was unclear if Cyprus would agree to the proposal, such a move would push the burden of the deposit tax onto larger deposit holders, many of whom are Russia n investors.

Speaking in Washington, Taoiseach Enda Kenny downplayed suggestions that reaction to the Cyprus bailout could have negative implications for Irish banks.

The untouchable: a new breed of warlord

March 19, 2013 - 2:05PM

Paul McGeough

Chief foreign correspondent

Preaching his anti-Taliban credentials, Hakim Shujoyi has enlisted the protection of US forces. But locals say he is a brutal killer whose men rape and rob their way through parts of Oruzgan.

TARIN KOWT: In the twilight that passes for reality in Afghanistan, the story of Hakim Shujoyi does not add up neatly – but there's enough in its different parts to suggest that a monster is stalking the eastern flank of Oruzgan province.

Personal detail is opaque, but not the contradictions from which Shujoyi draws inordinate power in Khas Oruzgan, a wild and mountainous swath of the province in which the Kabul government is yet to assert its authority beyond the confines of the Khas Oruzgan bazaar.

The Americans give Shujoyi a position, so he goes and kills 18 people in the one family ... He rapes, he kills the old and the young. His men steal money, cars and motorbikes. Shujoyi participates in gang rape and robbery. 

Haji Obaidullah Barakzai, head of the national parliament's complaints commission

Lawyers urge ICC to drop charges against Kenyatta

18 MAR 2013 13:15 - AFP

Lawyers for Kenya's president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta are to argue that the ICC should dismiss charges against him.

At a hearing scheduled for Monday at the Hague-based court, a three-judge bench will notably hear defence lawyer Steven Kay's request to scrap his client's July trial date and send the case back to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) pre-trial chambers.

The case is being closely watched in Kenya and around the world after ICC prosecutors a week ago asked to drop all charges against Kenyatta's co-accused, top civil servant Francis Muthaura.

Should the five crimes against humanity charges – related to Kenya's post-2007 election violence – against Kenyatta stand, he will become the first-ever president to have to fly off to the Hague to face a trial that could last at least two years shortly after taking office.

Thomas Friedman, Iraq war booster

The New York Times columnist broke down what the Iraq was really about for Charlie Rose on May 29, 2003.

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer 

At the end of May 2003, America was on the verge of one of its longest-running, most expensive wars in Iraq. Yet Iraq war boosters were feeling vindicated by the swift march on Baghdad, which had fallen within weeks, and the swift collapse of the regime.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a fan of the Iraq war, appeared on Charlie Rose to crow about this rousing success on May 29 2003. The brief clip below from that interview (the full interview can be found here) is a fascinating glimpse into the id of Washington insiders like Friedman before the invasion in March of that year and for the first few months, at least, of what was to prove a long occupation.

19 March 2013 Last updated at 00:13 GMT

Aging well: Can dance and art keep the mind and body young

By Jane O'BrienBBC News, Washington

Proponents of the arts have long argued that creative therapy can help aging patients. Now, scientists have begun investigating that claim.

Shula Strassfeld holds back the emotion as she describes dancing with her 92-year-old father, a wheelchair-bound victim of dementia.

"I went to visit him for his birthday and we danced. We put on some music and I moved his wheelchair around. The look on his face was absolutely priceless," she says.

"Even though the next day he didn't remember it had happened, his soul remembered. His body remembered. There was something in him that had changed because of that experience. He was more alert, he was more active - and I just wish I could do that every day."