Six In The Morning

It’s a go: Spillway to inundate Cajun country

25,000 people hurriedly pack their things and worry that their way of life might soon be drowned

Associated Press  

BUTTE LAROSE, La. – In an agonizing trade-off, Army engineers said they will open a key spillway along the bulging Mississippi River as early as Saturday and inundate thousands of homes and farms in Louisiana’s Cajun country to avert a potentially bigger disaster in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm’s way when the gates on the Morganza spillway are unlocked for the first time in 38 years.

“Protecting lives is the No. 1 priority,” Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh said aboard a boat from the river at Vicksburg, Miss., hours before the decision was made to open the spillway.

US archive told to hand over confidential Troubles tapes



By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent Saturday, 14 May 2011

The British authorities have demanded that American academics hand over confidential testimony from paramilitary fighters who accused the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams of running a secret cell within the IRA that carried out the kidnappings and disappearance, according to the Boston institution where the archived accounts are being held.

Boston College said that the materials have been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors acting at the behest of British officials. The news has caused a stir in that it appears to indicate legal authorities in the UK are actively investigating IRA activities, including at least one 1970s murder.

What next for Brand Bin Laden?

The Al Qaeda leader’s heir apparent, Hamza, dubbed the ‘Crown Prince of Terror’ escaped US bullets. So will he take over, asks Michael Burleigh.

By Michael Burleigh 7:00AM BST 14 May 2011

Osama bin Laden made his will on December 14 2001 while US B-52s pulverized al-Qaeda’s Tora Bora cave complex. He urged the five wives accompanying him on “the road full of thorns and mines” not to remarry and to look after his 22 children.

As for counselling the latter, he did not recommend al-Qaeda as a future career. He wrote: “Forgive me because I have given you only a little of my time since I answered the jihad call. I have shouldered the Muslims’ concerns and their hardships, embitterment, betrayal and treachery.” This was typical Osama-speak: grandiose, plangent and self-romanticising.

Libya: White House dashes rebel hopes of recognition

The US has stopped short of recognising Libya’s National Transitional Council as the country’s legitimate government.  

The BBC 14 May 2011  

The statement comes after the first visit to the White House by a senior member of the rebel council, which is pushing for international support.

Earlier, Col Muammar Gaddafi taunted Nato troops in an audio message on state TV, saying he was in a place where they “cannot reach” him.

State media says 11 Muslim clerics have been killed in a Nato air strike.

Mahmoud Jibril, deputy leader of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council (NTC), met officials at the White House on Friday, including National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.

Gaza welcomes Egypt’s move to ease suffering



Jason Koutsoukis

May 14, 2011  

When Fawzi Alhelou, 16, heard the news that Egypt would soon open its border with the Gaza Strip, the first thing that came to mind was the Swiss Alps.

”Ice and snow are the most faraway things from Gaza I can imagine,” Alhelou said from his home in Gaza City this week.

”I won’t be going to Switzerland next week, but I like to know that if I really want to leave Gaza, even if it’s just for the day, then I can.” After the militant Palestinian faction Hamas won control of Gaza in 2007 in a showdown with its secular rival Fatah, Egypt’s then president, Hosni Mubarak, joined with Israel to seal Gaza’s borders to try to weaken Hamas.

Uganda shelves anti-gay Bill



KAMPALA, UGANDA – May 14 2011 07:24  

Lawmakers had been due to debate the legislation calling for capital punishment for anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for the second time and for consensual gay sex where one partner has the HIV virus.

The United States, a major aid donor to Uganda, said on Thursday that nothing could justify passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Parliament speaker Edward Ssekandi said he was “adjourning this house”, effectively killing off the debate over the controversial legislation for this Parliament.