Six In The Morning

The Square That Is The Center Of Their Universe  

CAIRO, Egypt – Dozens of Egyptian women spilled out of a mosque in the Dokki neighborhood Friday, only their eyes visible from black veils that flapped in the breeze.

Marching in formation, they set off for downtown Cairo, where they hoped to join hundreds of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square who were calling for the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

When pro-Mubarak youths jeered at them from a balcony overhead, the women raised their voices louder. “Go home!” the youths yelled at the women, who replied by chanting, “He’s leaving! We’re not leaving!”

The Past Comes Back To Haiti

Ex-leader writes in the Guardian that his seven-year exile is at an end

Haiti’s former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide vows to return

The former president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, today gives his firmest indication yet that he will return to the country in a move that could further shake up the already febrile political climate.

Writing in the Guardian, Aristide says that his seven-year exile, most recently in South Africa, is at an end. “I will return to Haiti,” he writes.

His statement of intent comes just days after the ruling Haitian government removed the major impediment to his return by promising to grant him a passport. Calls within Haiti and around the world for the former president to be allowed back have grown steadily in recent weeks

The City That’s No Longer Its Self

The city’s population has plummeted and is whiter, according to long-awaited figures

Census reveals devastating effect of Katrina on New Orleans

The shrinking of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has hardly been a secret, but now the evidence is there for all to see. According to newly released data from last year’s National Census, it lost a staggering 29 per cent of its population between 2000 and 2010, more than anyone has hitherto been willing to admit.

While some may contest their accuracy, the numbers are the most reliable snapshot of what has happened in New Orleans since the great storm of 2005. Not only is it smaller by almost a third – for the first time dropping out of the top 50 US cities – but it is also whiter, more affluent and a bit older.

The Truth Must Be Hidden  

For decades, Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics have waged a bitter battle against pagan faiths, idol worship, heresy, alcohol – and archaeology.  

Analysis: Saudi Arabia’s war between god and archaeology  

News that David Kennedy an Australian scholar, has succeeded in identifying almost 2,000 unexplored archaeological sites using Google Earth has focused attention on the wages of that battle: the destruction of Saudi Arabia’s own heritage More than 90 per cent of the archaeological treasures of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, experts estimate, have been demolished to make way for hotels, apartment blocks and parking facilities.

The $13 billion project that led to a wave of demolitions in the middle of the last decade was part of an effort to modernise infrastructure in the ancient cities, where millions of pilgrims gather for the Hajj each year.

We’re Just Like You So Don’t Notice The Differences  

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader, addressed Egypt’s protesters in Arabic on Friday, calling President Mubarak a ‘traitor dictator’ who has betrayed Egyptians.

Iran’s Khamenei praises Egyptian protesters, declares ‘Islamic awakening’

Istanbul, Turkey

Iran’s supreme religious leader spoke out about Egypt’s antiregime protests Friday, declaring an “Islamic awakening” across the region that is resulting in the “irreparable defeat” of American and Israeli influence.

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, addressing Egyptians in Arabic after delivering the Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, portrayed himself as “your brother in religion,” while praising the “explosion of sacred anger” and warning against any US role in the outcome.

Describing close US ally President Hosni Mubarak as a “traitor dictator” who is working for Israel and guilty of “great betrayal” of Egyptians, Ayatollah Khamenei said the regime-changing events in Tunisia and now Egypt were natural extensions of Iran’s own Islamic revolution in 1979.

Every Once in Awhile Those Pesky Facts Just Cause Problems



Assange’s extradition may turn on a crayfish party

Will the most high-profile rape case in the world hinge on the events at a beer and lobster night? It certainly looks that way. On Monday the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will appear in Belmarsh Magistrates Court, London, as the Swedish prosecution service attempts to extradite him for further questioning on four sex crime accusations. He is yet to be charged with anything.

A summary legal defence paper made public by his lawyers in January says Assange will oppose the request on just about all grounds – arguing not only that the accusations against him do not amount to a crime in Britain, but that the extradition is politically motivated.