Six In The Morning

Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world’s most controversial prison  

• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts

• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held

• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release

David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke

The Guardian, Monday 25 April 2011

More than 700 leaked secret files on the Guantánamo detainees lay bare the inner workings of America’s controversial prison camp in Cuba.

The US military dossiers, obtained by the New York Times and the Guardian, reveal how, alongside the so-called “worst of the worst”, many prisoners were flown to the Guantánamo cages and held captive for years on the flimsiest grounds, or on the basis of lurid confessions extracted by maltreatment.

The 759 Guantánamo files, classified “secret”, cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in 2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still held there

Angry protests over Saleh’s immunity deal to stand down



By Patrick Cockburn Monday, 25 April 2011

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of cities throughout Yemen yesterday to denounce the granting of immunity to President Ali Abdullah Saleh as part of a deal under which he would leave office after 30 days.

The demonstrators chanted: “No negotiations, no dialogue – resign or flee.” Their rejection of the terms of the peace plan stems from their distrust of Mr Saleh and a belief that he is offering to resign only in order to gain time and stay in office.

The plan is the latest attempt to defuse the crisis over the future of Mr Saleh who has been in office for 32 years.

Nigeria’s gay church is reborn amid a climate of fear



Apr 25 2011 06:20

“The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to kneel down, holding candles in my hands,” recalls Ade, now 25, as he sits in a café in Lagos. He does not wish to reveal his full name. “He kept shouting ‘Come out! Come out! Come out!’ in a fevered voice … I was allowed to go back to church after that but I had to pretend to be straight.”

In a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, it is no surprise that many of Ade’s friends — those who, like him, are both gay and religious — stay away from church altogether for fear of being outed.

Tsunami spared few at elementary school in Ishinomaki



Japan Times

Lessons learned from the tsunami spawned by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake showed that even schools once thought to be safe havens were vulnerable, and some parents who could get their children to higher ground saved them.

In Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Okawa Elementary stands along a prefectural road near Shin-Kitakamiohashi bridge, about five kilometers from the mouth of the Kitakamigawa river. The two-story school building, where 108 students were enrolled, was a modern structure and supposedly safe from tsunamis.

Devotees flock Puttaparthi to pay last respect to Sai Baba

 

 Apr 25, 2011 | PTI | PUTTAPARTHI

 Lakhs of devotees from home and abroad on Monday poured into this town to have a last glimpse of Sathya Sai Baba whose body has been kept in a hall here even as police tightened security for crowd control.

With grief writ large on their faces, the devotees, both young and old, made their way to the Sai Kulwant Hall at Prashanti Nilayam Ashram to have a darshan of the 85-year-old Sai Baba’s mortal remains.

Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Praful Patel and cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar along with wife Anjali were among those who paid their last respects to the Sai Baba who died on Sunday after battling serious illness for nearly a month.

Europeans shift long-held view that social benefits are untouchable



By Edward Cod

PARIS – From blanket health insurance to long vacations and early retirement, the cozy social benefits that have been a way of life in Western Europe since World War II increasingly appear to be luxuries the continent can no longer afford.

Particularly since the global economic crisis erupted in 2008, benefits have begun to stagnate or shrink in the face of exploding government deficits. In effect, the continent has reversed a half-century history of continual improvements that made Western Europe the envy of many and attracted millions of immigrants from less fortunate societies.

In the new reality, workers have been forced to accept salary freezes, decreased hours, postponed retirements and health-care reductions.