Six In The Morning

The Nerve Center of the Libyan Revolution



A Courthouse in Benghazi

 

By Clemens Höges in Benghazi, Libya  

The old general is crying, his cheeks trembling. His eyes are red from weeping. Then he buries his face in his hands. Brigadier General Abdulhadi Arafa is one of the most powerful men in Benghazi, in the entire rebel-held eastern part of Libya, in fact. The 64-year-old officer commands 2,000 members of a special-forces unit. And he did everything right a week and a half ago when, after 41 years of service, he decided to refuse to obey Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

When the revolt began, he ordered his officers to stay in their barracks, lock the gates and not take any action against the protesters. Their men were not to shoot at anyone unless they were shot at themselves.

Marine Le Pen more popular than President Sarkozy, says French poll

Far-right leader could gain a first-round election victory if the country were to go to the ballot box today

Kim WIllsher The Observer, Sunday 6 March 2011  

The leader of France’s far-right National Front party is more popular with voters than president Nicolas Sarkozy, an opinion poll has revealed.

Marine Le Pen would gain an unprecedented first-round election victory if the French were asked to vote for a new president today. France will go to the polls to elect a new president in May next year, but the results of the survey, published in Sunday’s Le Parisien newspaper and based on an opinion poll by the Harris Institute, come at a time when Sarkozy’s popularity continues to plummet.

The findings have revived the spectre of 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen- Marine’s father – knocked socialist candidate Lionel Jospin from the country’s opposition out of the presidential race in the first round before losing to Jacques Chirac.

Good news! The nations where women are on the march



To mark International Women’s Day, an IoS survey shows progress is being made  

By Susie Mesure Sunday, 6 March 2011

Women are capturing an increasing number of seats in parliaments around the world, anIndependent on Sunday survey to mark International Women’s Day has found. In places such as South Africa and Iceland, they are approaching parity with men, and in one country, Rwanda, they are actually in the majority.

While much remains to be done, not least in the UK where barely one in four MPs are women, governance experts this weekend hailed the advances that many countries have made, including some of the world’s least developed nations. Not that progress has been easy: even in the Nordic countries, where female representation in politics is at least twice as high as elsewhere, victory has been a long time coming.

‘Huda the executioner’ – Libya’s devil in female form



How pulling on a hanging man’s legs made Huda Ben Amer one of Colonel Gaddafi’s most trusted elite.

By Nick Meo, Benghazi 6:00AM GMT 06 Mar 2011

When Colonel Gaddafi hanged his first political opponent in Benghazi’s basketball stadium, thousands of schoolchildren and students were rounded up to watch a carefully choreographed, sadistic display of the regime’s version of justice.

They had been told they would see the trial of one of the Colonel’s enemies.

But instead a gallows was dramatically produced as the condemned man knelt in the middle of the basketball court, weeping and asking for his mother, hands bound behind his back.

Gold smuggling a way of life in east DRC

The tip-off led intelligence agents to an US jet loaded with half a tonne of gold, a Houston diamond merchant and a car chase that produced $6,8-million.



MICHELLE FAUL BUKAVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Mar 06 2011 07:36  

But since the February 5 bust on gold smuggling in the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than $5-million and 90kg of the gold have disappeared, according to official and banking sources who would not speak on the record for fear of reprisals.

The latest report about alleged gold smuggling stands out only because it has been made public, because of the huge amounts of gold and money involved, and because foreigners are being held. DRC’s Ministry of Mines estimates that about 80% of the country’s mineral production is smuggled out of the country, on planes, by road and by barge.

Young Mexican police chief Marisol Valles Garcia may seek US asylum

There are reports that the young female police chief is leaving Mexico to seek asylum in the US. The area has been marked by drug violence, including the murder of her predecessor.



By Garfield Miller / March 5, 2011  

. Crime-ridden Northern Mexico may have lost another resident to drug related activities. This loss could be more significant, however: Marisol Valles Garcia, the 20 year old single mother and police chief is rumored to have fled the city of Praxedis G. Guerrero amid mounting threats to her life

The  AFP is reporting relatives of Ms. Valles Garcia have said that the young police chief has left Mexico for the US to seek asylum. She has purportedly been receiving death threats from criminal gangs who wanted her to work for them.

. However, town officials are denying reports that Valles Garcia has fled her post. CBS is reporting that town Secretary Andres Morales told the El Paso Times that the police chief was taking personal leave to be with her child and would return on Monday.