Six In The Morning

In Saudi Arabia, Royal Funds Buy Peace for Now



By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – As one nation after another has battled uprisings across the Arab world, the one major country spared is also its richest – Saudi Arabia, where a fresh infusion of money has so far bought order.

The kingdom is spending $130 billion to pump up salaries, build housing and finance religious organizations, among other outlays, effectively neutralizing most opposition. King Abdullah began wielding his checkbook right after leaders in Tunisia and Egypt fell, seeking to placate the public and reward a loyal religious establishment. The king’s reserves, swollen by more than $214 billion in oil revenue last year, have insulated the royal family from widespread demands for change even while some discontent simmers.

Gaddafi faces new ICC charges for using rape as weapon in conflict

Chief prosecutor investigates evidence of sexual attacks on women as Britain tells Nato: you must do more

Ed Pilkington, Xan Rice, Chris Stephen, Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian, Thursday 9 June 2011  

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) is likely to add rape to the war crimes charges against Muammar Gaddafi on the back of mounting evidence that sexual attacks on women are being used as a weapon in the Libyan conflict.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters at the UN in New York last night there were strong indications that hundreds of women had been raped in the Libyan government clampdown on the popular uprising and that Gaddafi had ordered the violations as a form of punishment.

Civilians flee for border as Assad forces advance on rebel town

Britain leads push for UN resolution as witnesses describe fear of Syrian regime

By Khalid Ali Thursday, 9 June 2011

Hundreds of Syrian refugees were stranded in the mountainous woodland bordering Turkey last night as they fled convoys of tanks and troops which were reportedly heading north towards the town of Jisr al-Shughour.

Families carrying bundles of clothes and other belongings arrived at the border fence after travelling on foot or in convoys of pick-up trucks and cars.

They were fleeing the area after the government vowed a tough response to the deaths of 120 members of the security forces at the hands of so-called “armed groups”, reported by state television earlier this week.

Chinese execution a warning to newly rich who abuse position

The Irish Times – Thursday, June 9, 2011

CLIFFORD COONAN in Singapore

IN OCTOBER last year Yao Jiaxin, a talented young music student at the prestigious Xi’an Conservatory of Music, knocked down Zhang Miao, a 26-year-old waitress, in his Chevrolet Cruze as she cycled home from work.

Worried that the mother of one would remember his number plate and report him to the police, the student stabbed her eight times.

The case has horrified China, and prompted outpourings of anger about abuse of power by the country’s growing ranks of newly rich. This week Yao (21) was executed for the murder of Ms Zhang in the capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi province.

Drone sorties continue to rain down death

 

Published: June 09, 2011  

PESHAWAR – As many as 24 suspected militants were killed in a US drone attack in Shawal tehsil of North Waziristan on Wednesday.

Sources said that a US unmanned aircraft fired at last five missiles on a house situated und in the Zawai Narai area, close to the Pak-Afghan border. The house was reportedly being used as a camp by fighters of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists attack Nato and Isaaf forces in Afghanistan.

How Estonians became pioneering cyberdefenders

Three hundred cybersecurity experts are in Estonia this week for an international conference on cyberconflict. They want to know what Estonians know.

By Isabelle de Pommereau, Correspondent

Tallinn, Estonia

Ahead of spring elections, Agu Kivimägi was tasked with trying to ensure that online voting in Estonia wasn’t vulnerable to attack. Its pioneering system of casting national ballots via the Internet would be a hacker’s prize target.

After the ballots were counted, returning Estonia’s center-right government to power, e-voting escaped assault – or any technical difficulties, for that matter.

Mr. Kivimägi, who oversees computer security for Estonia’s Interior department, is part of the world’s first volunteer cyberarmy, deployed this year to help ward off hacker strikes and defend against online warfare.