SIx In The Morning Saturday May 16

Egypt's Morsi sentenced to death

• 5 minutes ago
 
• From the sectionMiddle East

Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi sentenced to death over 2011 prison break

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War with Isis: The brides brainwashed into becoming suicide bombers

In part one of this special series of dispatches, Patrick Cockburn hears the harrowing stories of women who have escaped from the jihadist state

PATRICK COCKBURN 

 

IRBIL

 

Saturday 16 May 2015

It was when Isis issued a fatwa saying a wife should obey her husband in all matters, including becoming a suicide bomber, that Aysha, a 32-year-old mother of two children, decided to flee her home in Mosul. She recalls that her husband did not ask her directly to be a suicide bomber, but gradually started talking about it. “He was coming home once a week,” she told The Independent, “but recently he came home every day, and finally asked me to attend a new course showing how a Muslim woman could support Muslim society with her soul and body”.

Aysha, which is not her real name, attended the course for two days along with many other women. She was appalled by what she heard. She says “the course was a sort of brainwashing, teaching women to sacrifice cheap worldly things – blood, flesh, soul – for the victory of more precious things – religion, Allah, the Prophet, and, most importantly, the eternal afterlife”.

Serbs and Croats clash over allegations of Nazi pasts

Belgrade court rules Draza Mihailovic did not receive fair trial for treason in 1946

Serbia and Croatia have accused each other of trying to burnish the reputation of wartime Nazi collaborators, increasing the strain on Balkan relations as crisis-hit Macedonia braces for potentially explosive street protests.

A Belgrade court ruled that Draza Mihailovic, who led royalist “Chetniks” against the Nazi invasion of Serbia before forming a loose alliance with the Germans to fight communist guerrillas, did not receive a fair trial for treason in 1946.

Hotly debated history

Communist Yugoslavia executed Mihailovic and portrayed the Chetniks as brutal fascists but, since the federation’s collapse in the early 1990s, wartime history has been hotly debated and Mihailovic is a hero for Serb nationalists.

Shooting of Xu Chunhe exposes class angst in China

May 16, 2015 - 1:18PM

Philip Wen

China correspondent for Fairfax Media

Investigation that cleared policeman who shot and killed unarmed man fails to convince critics of arbitrary police actions.

For a country largely unaccustomed to gun violence, the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man in front of his elderly mother and three young children has captivated much of China for the past fortnight.

That the May 2 shooting, in the north-eastern town of Qing'an, happened in broad daylight at a crowded train station made it resonate even more. A smattering of mass knifings and home-made bomb attacks targeting train stations last year resulted in tightened security across China's major transport hubs – and in many police carrying firearms for the first time.

In the prolonged absence of clarity and transparency, the death of Xu Chunhe, 45, prompted public outcry amid concerns that the policeman, Li Lebin, had used excessive force or had otherwise mismanaged a situation which led to an avoidable death.

At once-zooming BMW garage in Libyan capital, a game of survival

'Before the revolution, Libya was one of the best places to make money,' says an entrepreneur. Now he works 16-hour days to keep his garage afloat and cruises the streets of Tripoli to clear his head. 

By Dominique Soguel, Correspondent

TRIPOLI, LIBYA — When Haitham Ahmed wants to let off steam, he hops in a BMW M5 and “drifts” at high speed, contagious laughter drowning out the roar of his engine, panicked drivers scrambling to get out of his way as he tears through the back streets of Tripoli.

This is one variation of the water-cooler break in Libya, a war-torn nation at risk of economic collapse. Drifting – the art of maintaining control of your car while oversteering between sharp turns – has become a popular pastime for men in the absence of other sources of entertainment.

Business “has been disgustingly tough,” says Mr. Ahmed, a tall, slender entrepreneur donning the signature blue coveralls of a mechanic. “We have a big drop in the economy. Most of the businesses here are just trying to survive. If the business covers its own expenses, without the owner’s salary, he is very happy.”

We're about to find out what Brazil is made of

By Linette Lopez17 hours ago

Brazil is in the middle of a dangerous confidence game.

On Friday, Petrobras, the $65 billion quasi-state-oil company that was once the crown jewel of Brazil's now struggling economy, will report its delayed first-quarter earnings. Wall Street expects losses. The question is whether the number (a large one) will be believable, whether Brazil is putting all its cards on the table.

If investors believe it isn't, Brazil will lose the game. See, confidence in this company is very fragile thing.

Here's why: Petrobras stock fell almost 50% when authorities uncovered a corruption scandal that has reached the highest levels of the country's government, exposing mismanagement and bribery at a scale unseen in Brazilian history. This year, in hopes the country can recover, the stock has rallied over 30%.

That's how fast Wall Street can turn on you.