Six In The Morning

 They Took The Money And Ran  

Following Egypt’s request to freeze assets of Hosni Mubarak and his cabinet, Soca will investigate UK-based bank accounts

Egyptian officials’ assets to be traced by Serious Organised Crime Agency

Officers from Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency are expected to begin tracing the bank accounts of Hosni Mubarak’s cabinet after the Egyptian government made a formal request for a freeze on the assets of the ousted president and his former colleagues.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said Soca would take charge of the hunt for accounts in London, although the timing and extent of the investigation would be decided by EU finance ministers following discussions in Brussels. Hague said UK rules prevented the police from freezing bank accounts without “evidence of illegality or misuse of state assets”. He said if evidence became available, the government would take “firm and prompt action”.

 He Lives In A Cone Of Silence  

Supreme Court justice defends his five-year vow of silence

As Justice Clarence Thomas approaches the 20th anniversary in October of his ascent to the US Supreme Court after fending off the still famous sexual harassment charges from Anita Hill, he finds himself under fire for a different milestone in his controversial career: five years of staying mum.

It might serve Justice Thomas well to break into song or perhaps a one-man poetry jam when the Court resumes its winter session to ponder new intractable cases and deliver weighty verdicts next Tuesday. That’s because it will also be the fifth anniversary of his having

 Aung San Suu Kyi threatened with ‘tragic end’ over stance on sanctions  

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy leader, and her party will “meet their tragic ends” if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions, state media has warned in a commentary.

7:00AM GMT 15 Feb 2011

The threat follows a recent statement by Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy of Burma, also known as Myanmar, significantly.

It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release after seven years of house arrest in November, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.

“If Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD keep going to the wrong way, ignoring the fact that today’s Myanmar is marching to a new era, new system and new political platforms paving the way for democracy, they will meet their tragic ends,” said a weekend commentary in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which is run by the ruling junta.

 They’ve Come But They’re Unwanted  

The Italian government has formally requested aid from the European Union to help it cope with thousands of Tunisians arriving on its shores.

Tunisia migrants: Italy seeks EU cash over Lampedusa



Some 5,000 migrants have landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent days, following Tunisia’s uprising in January.

Italy’s interior minister said the country was seeking some 100m euros ($134m; £84m) to tackle the influx.

The mayor of Lampedusa has declared a state of emergency.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told EU President Herman Van Rompuy in a telephone conversation that the situation “is urgent and concerns all of the European Union”, according to a government statement quoted by AFP news agency.

 The Past Caught Up To Him  

Hungary charges former police captain with massacre in 1942

HUNGARY HAS charged a former police captain with war crimes for his alleged role in a 1942 massacre of more than 1,000 Jews, Serbs and Roma in northern Serbia.

Sandor Kepiro (96) was named at the top of a list of wanted war criminals by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre – an organisation founded by Holocaust survivors to hunt down Nazi fugitives – which has strongly criticised Budapest for its past failure to prosecute him. Hungarian prosecutors say they recently found documents relating to Kepiro’s case in Serbia’s archives and have charged him with complicity in the murder of four people.

 I’m Not A Liar I Just Played One At The Newspaper  

About-face fails to save pro-Mubarak editor from scrutiny

For now, Osama Saraya is still editor in chief of al-Ahram, the state-run Egyptian newspaper that has long been a deferential mouthpiece for the president and his ruling party.

But his preoccupation seems to be reinvention. Portraits of Hosni Mubarak no longer adorn his walls (one is stashed under the TV, others behind a curtain). Photos of Saraya with officials have been turned upside down.

It was only last week that he was denouncing the chaos caused by pro-democracy demonstrators. His editorial on Sunday carried a different tune