SIx In The Morning Thursday November 28

Ten years after the invasion: Iraq helpless under rain of terror

Saddam Hussein may have gone but, for many poor Iraqis, little has improved. Now a devastating flood has left villagers homeless and there is precious little government support

PATRICK COCKBURN   NAJAF

 Thursday 28 November 2013

“A wall of water came at us as if a dam had broken,” lamented Razaq Madloul, as he looked at the ruined houses standing in a muddy swamp where he and dozens of other farmers had lived until a devastating flood last week.

“Even our fathers had not seen such rain,” he said of the four-day downpour that hit southern and central Iraq and northern Saudi Arabia, washing away roads and villages in places that seldom see any rain. Villagers outside Najaf, the Shia holy city 100 miles south-west of Baghdad, stood little chance.

“Government officials came at three in the morning last Friday and told us to get out,” said Sami Abdullah, who worked as a brick-maker in a district dominated by the tall smoke-blackened chimneys of brick factories west of Najaf. He said most of the brick-makers escaped, though a woman and three of her children were drowned as houses, built from poor quality bricks, collapsed under the impact of the water.

Pope criticises ‘throwaway culture’ that discards youth

Pontiff uses interview to link high European unemployment to neglect of older people

Pope Francis took on the issue of high youth unemployment in his first interview aired exclusively in his home country of Argentina yesterday, warning today’s “throwaway culture” had discarded a generation of young Europeans.

A day after issuing an 84-page platform for his eight-month-old papacy that blasted unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny”, the pontiff used the interview aired on the TN TV channel to link high European unemployment to its twin problem of neglecting older people who are past their earning prime.

“Today we are living in an unjust international system in which ‘King Money’ is at the centre,” he said in the interview.

Land Grab: Foreign Firms Drive Cambodians from Farms

By Andreas Lorenz

Each year, foreign agricultural corporations deprive thousands of Cambodian farmers of their fields -- with the government's help. Human rights groups claim German taxpayer money is used to fund a program that benefits land grabbers.

Everyone in the Cambodian village of Chouk remembers what happened on the morning of May 19, 2006, when bulldozers appeared on National Route 48, which cuts through the town. Men from a Thai company, Khon Kaen Sugar Industry PCL, presented the Cambodian villagers with documents and said: "This land now belongs to us."

Dozens of farmers tried to stop the bulldozers when they began leveling their rice fields. The police arrived at the scene, shots were fired and a female protester was injured. A barbed-wire fence now surrounds the fields, which have since become a sugarcane plantation. Farmer Teng Kao, 53, winds his way through fences, jumps across ditches and finally points to a spot in the distance. "Back there," he says. "That was where my fields were."

Two hundred families from Chouk lost their livelihood that day. "We aren't poor - we're very poor," says farmer Chea Sok. "I can no longer afford three meals a day." Many young people have left Chouk, with some becoming migrant workers in Thailand and Malaysia.

China asserts air rights despite US flight

November 28, 2013 - 7:43AM

Beijing, China: China has insisted it has the ability to enforce its newly-declared air zone over islands disputed with Japan, despite Beijing's reluctance to intervene after American B-52 bombers entered the area.

The flight of the giant long-range US Stratofortress planes was a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance.

While US defence chief Chuck Hagel praised Tokyo's restraint, officials indicated Vice President Joe Biden would personally convey America's "concerns" about the matter during a visit to the Chinese capital next week.

A trip to hell and back, on foot

Stephan Hofstatter | 28 November, 2013 10:22

THE rickety twin prop flown by a wizened pair of Russian pilots shudders past Nyiragongo volcano, over the M23 battlefields, landing on a gravel airstrip at Butembo, a dusty town in the heart of rebel-held territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

I spend the night at Hotel Butembo, a phantasmagoric huddle of pokey rooms with statues of reindeer, gorillas and elephants outside, that is owned by a suspected gun runner.

Early on Sunday morning, I set off in an SUV for the rebel headquarters at Bunyatenge village, which lies deep in the bush a six-hour drive away. The roads are atrocious. After an hour we cross the equator. At Alimbungu village, a goat is strung up on a wooden frame, its throat gaping red, dripping blood.

On Monday morning photographer James Oatway joins me and we set off for Musia mine, walking down the dusty main road of Bunyatenge, watched by curious onlookers.

Egyptian women get jail terms over protests

Group of 21 women, including minors, face 11 years in jail for rally, as interim PM defends state response to protests. Gregg Carlstrom Last updated: 28 Nov 2013 08:05

 A group of women have been jailed for 11 years for a peaceful protest in Alexandria, as Egypt's interim prime minister gave a strong defence of a law further restricting public demonstrations.

The women, supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi, received 11-year jail sentences on Wednesday for forming a human chain and passing out flyers earlier this month. Seven minors among the group were remanded to juvenile detention until they reach legal age. The youngest in the group is 15 years old.

Six men, described by prosecutors as Muslim Brotherhood leaders, were sentenced to 15-year terms, accused of being members of a "terrorist organisation".

In a news conference also on Wednesday, Hazem el-Beblawi, the interim prime minister, defended a new law requires which citizens to apply for permission before marching as a "necessary step".