Six In The Morning

Egyptian revolution’s unsung heroes languish in hospitals

An estimated 11,000 people were injured in protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak. But months later, as many still undergo costly treatment, officials have done little to compensate their families or prosecute their attackers.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times

June 17, 2011

Reporting from Cairo– When Rahma Mohamed steps out of her son’s line of sight, he begins to tremble. She rushes to cradle the 23-year-old’s thin frame, kissing his stubbly cheek.

“Relax,” she murmurs. “I’m here next to you; you’re all right. Don’t cry.”

Since Jan. 28, when security forces beat him and ran him over during the protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Mohamed has been unable to speak, walk, eat or use the bathroom on his own. His head is a tapestry of scars and bandages, tubes sprout from his neck, and his palsied hands are clasped in front of a now-bony chest.

He was trying to protect two friends. His mother says both were shot to death by security forces.

Tunisia woos tourists with controversial advertising campaign

Commercial messages mock country’s post-revolution reputation in attempt to win back important source of income

  Angelique Chrisafis

The Guardian, Friday 17 June 2011

With tourism in crisis since the revolution, Tunisia is trying to woo back British and other European holidaymakers with a controversial advertising campaign mocking its post-revolution reputation.

Fresh to London buses after gracing the Paris metro, the ads include a woman being massaged and the line “They say that in Tunisia some people receive heavy-handed treatment”. Another shows an archaeological site captioned: “They say Tunisia is nothing but ruins”.

Ad executives said they were playing on misplaced fears. Tunisia’s tourism minister has argued that despite Tunisia’s state of emergency, tourists are not in danger and the country is a safer than South Africa.

Athens on ‘political suicide mission’ to pass cuts after €12bn loan deal



By John Lichfield and Nathalie Savaricas in Athens Friday, 17 June 2011

Fears that the Greek debt crisis could generate another banking meltdown and global economic crash persisted yesterday despite a short-term fix by the EU and IMF.

The European Union agreed terms with the International Monetary Fund to release a €12bn (£10.5bn) tranche of loans to prevent Greece becoming the first developed economy to default since the 1950s. But the loans are conditional on an increasingly fragile Greek government pushing through new spending cuts and tax rises against street and parliamentary opposition in the next two weeks.

Syria crisis: Troops move into towns in north

Syrian troops travelling on tanks, armoured personnel carriers and buses have moved into two northern towns.

The BBC  

Security forces were gathering in Khan Sheikhun and Maarat al-Numan, a town of 90,000 between Damascus and Aleppo.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Syria to halt the bloodshed and “stop killing people”.

The UN says that at least 1,100 people have died as the government has violently sought to quash protests over the past three months.

Nato pounds Tripoli as rebels reject election offer



NICK CAREY TRIPOLI, LIBYA – Jun 17 2011

Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, told an Italian newspaper that the elections could be held within three months and transparency could be guaranteed through international observers.

He said his father would be ready to cede power if he lost the election, though he would not go into exile.

But Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi appeared to throw the potential concession into question, saying on Thursday that the leader of the revolution was not concerned by “any referendum”.

Vietnam-China Spratly Islands dispute threatens to escalate

Tensions between China and Vietnam have risen in recent weeks, with Vietnam expressing alarm at what it says are increasingly aggressive actions by China in disputed waters.

By Helen Clark, Contributor  

Hanoi, Vietnam

Tensions between Vietnam and China over disputed claims to the resource-rich Spratly Islands in the South China Sea are threatening peace in the region.

China sent its largest patrol ship Thursday on what it claimed was a routine trip through the area, but the deployment comes after a spate of other moves, including Vietnam’s staging of a live-fire exercise in the area and China’s denouncement of it.

Neither country is likely to back down easily, and if they did, neither population would see it in a favorable light. Because of this, some worry tensions could escalate to the point of exchange of fire.