Six In The Morning Sunday November 9

PATRICK COCKBURN

Sunday 9 November 2014

War with Isis: The militants will remain until the region's Sunnis feel safe

World View: The US plan of strengthening local tribes is no match for the brutality of the jihadis

Islamic State (Isis) has a grisly ritual whereby its victims are compelled to chant "the Islamic State remains" in the moments before they are executed. Unfortunately, the slogan remains all too true: five months after Isis defeated the Iraqi army and captured much of northern and western Iraq, it is still tightening its grip on its territory in Iraq and Syria and nobody has devised a feasible policy to defeat it.

The US announced on Friday that it is to send another 1,500 soldiers to Iraq to advise and train its army, doubling the number it already has in the country. A new development is that the extra troops will be sent to serve in Iraqi army and Kurdish units and no longer be confined to Baghdad and the Kurdish capital, Erbil. The supposed reason for sending them, according to the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, is because "the Iraqis have demonstrated the willingness and the will to go after Isil [Isis]".

Protesters set fire to Mexican palace as anger over missing students grows

Attack on building in Mexico City caps day of protest at the apparent massacre of 43 students

• Reuters
• theguardian.com, Sunday 9 November 2014 07.26 GMT

A group of protesters set fire to the wooden door of Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto’s ceremonial palace in Mexico City’s historic city centre late on Saturday, denouncing the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers.

The group, carrying torches, broke away from what had been a mostly peaceful protest demanding justice for the students, who were abducted six weeks ago and apparently murdered and incinerated by corrupt police in league with drug gang members.

Police put out the flames and enforced fencing designed to keep the protesters away from the National Palace, which was built for Hernan Cortes after the Spanish conquest and now houses Mexico’s finance ministry.

Kissing protest in Delhi brings fury from hard-line Hindus

November 9, 2014 - 3:56PM

Jason Koutsoukis

Delhi: Hundreds of students who joined a "kiss of love" protest in the nation's capital against strict moral codes that effectively ban public displays of affection have been attacked by right-wing Hindu extremists who branded the kissing couples "un-Indian".

Standing for what they called "Indian culture", members of the Hindu Sena, a right-wing nationalist organisation known for its "moral policing", hurled insults at the protest organisers, publicly threatening to rape them.

"They [the Hindu Sena] would bring up their mothers and sisters and in the next minute threaten to f--- me and my family," said Pankhuri Zaheer, a kissing protest organiser from Jawaharlal Nehru University's department of women's studies.

Stop romancing North Korea

By Christian Whiton

November 9, 2014 -- Updated 0321 GMT (1121 HKT)

Securing the release of American prisoners Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller from North Korea was not cost-free. It may also be an omen of the return of recurring efforts by U.S. administrations of both parties to negotiate deals with Pyongyang that inevitably fail.

The United States supposedly does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. After all, the arms proliferating, dollar counterfeiting, nuclear-armed dictatorship, which torpedoed a South Korean ship in 2010, hasn't accounted for all of the foreign nationals it kidnapped abroad to train its spies, and occasionally threatens America and its allies with annihilation.

But that hasn't stopped a string of senior U.S. diplomats from visiting Pyongyang over the past three administrations. The most recent denizen was U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who on Saturday brought home the two Americans imprisoned by the regime for alleged speech and faith-related activities that wouldn't get a second look in the civilized world.

Hong Kong's post-handover leader says China won't change mind on democracy: paper

 

4 hours ago

Hong Kong's first leader after its return to Chinese rule says Communist Party leaders in Beijing will not give in to students' demands for democracy, a newspaper said on Sunday, an apparent response to their suggestion he could act as intermediary.

A leader of Hong Kong's protests, which have blocked city streets for weeks, on Thursday called for a respected go-between, such as former leader Tung Chee-hwa, to help arrange a trip to Beijing.

"Mr Tung points out the central government understands the different views in Hong Kong," his spokesman told the South China Morning Post. "The decision of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on August 31 will not change."

9 November 2014 Last updated at 02:09

Germany marks anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall

Celebrations are being held in Germany to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Concerts and exhibitions are being staged in the city and Chancellor Angela Merkel will later attend a huge open-air party at the Brandenburg Gate.

White balloons marking a stretch of the wall will be released to symbolise its disappearance.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing from Communist East Germany to the West.

Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.

Chancellor Merkel will be joined for the festivities by former Polish trade union leader and president Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.