Six In The Morning

Searchers comb twister debris for victims; death toll nears 300

‘Neighborhoods … basically removed from the map,’ Tuscaloosa mayor says

NBC, msnbc.com and news services

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Survivors and rescuers combed through destroyed towns and neighborhoods on Thursday, looking for belongings and victims after dozens of tornadoes ripped through the South overnight.

The death toll continued to climb in Alabama, and at least 298 people in six states perished in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years.

People in hard-hit Alabama, where at least 210 deaths occurred, walked through flattened, debris-strewn neighborhoods and told of pulling bodies from rubble after the storms passed.

“We have neighborhoods that have been basically removed from the map,” Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said after surveying his city.

Robert Fisk: Out of Syria’s darkness come tales of terror

 Witnesses who fled across the Lebanon border tell our writer what they saw

Friday, 29 April 2011

In Damascus, the posters – in their tens of thousands around the streets – read: “Anxious or calm, you must obey the law.” But pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez have been taken down, by the security police no less, in case they inflame Syrians.

There are thieves with steel-tipped rubber coshes on the Damascus airport road at night, and in the terminal the cops ask arriving passengers to declare iPods and laptops. In the village of Hala outside Deraa, Muslim inhabitants told their Christian neighbours to join the demonstrations against the regime – or leave.

Tunisia angered by border clashes



irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Friday, April 29, 2011

Libya’s two-month civil war spilled over the border into Tunisia last night, provoking outrage in the western neighbour.

Fighting between forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy and rebels trying to end his of rule spilled over Libya’s land frontier yesterday, when Gadafy troops battled rebels on Tunisian territory for control of the Dehiba-Wazin frontier crossing.

The incursion was brief and limited, and Gadafy’s troops even apologised locally. But the response was nevertheless furious from Tunisia, where the Arab world’s wave of uprisings began late last year, leading to the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.

Palestinian deal rings alarm bells in Israel



Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner Jerusalem

April 29, 2011

THE two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, say they are putting aside years of bitter rivalry to create an interim unity government and hold elections within a year.

The surprise deal, brokered in secret talks by the caretaker Egyptian government, was announced at a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday where the two negotiators referred to each side as brothers and declared a new chapter in the Palestinian struggle for independence. That struggle has been hobbled in recent years by the split between the Fatah-run West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Bob’s ‘Lazarus moment’

 

JASON MOYO HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Apr 29 2011

The trick was obvious, and it worked; weary Zimbabweans picked up the papers and fantasised it was another name on the page.

Rumours about his health have never been this feverish, murmurs of dissent within the party continue, and the patience of his regional allies wears thin.

Yet it may be some time yet before local papers carry news of Mugabe’s fall.

Over the two years that he has been in coalition with Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe has carefully plotted a path towards what one of his top fixers, Jonathan Moyo, has described as Zanu-PF’s “Lazarus moment”.

South Africa’s new Internet cable link could bring economic boom

A new $650 million cable system connecting southern Africa with West Africa and Europe will double the capacity of South Africa’s mobile phone and Internet networks.

By Savious Kwinika, Correspondent, Scott Baldauf, Staff writer  

Johannesburg, South Africa

When the $650 million West Africa Cable System landed in South Africa last week, it was a major step forward for a region that remains the one of the least-connected in the world.

With one East African sea cable connecting South Africa with high-speed Internet systems in Asia and the Middle East, and now a second sea cable connecting southern Africa with West Africa and Europe, South Africa’s capacity of mobile phone networks and Internet networks will double. When the two systems are fully operational, South Africans will be able to send and receive up to 500 gigabytes per second.