Six In The Morning

Did Pakistani intelligence help plan and finance Mumbai attacks?

Chicago trial will hear from businessman accused of identifying targets for militants

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Two and a half years after armed militants stormed ashore in Mumbai and launched an assault that left more than 160 people dead, court proceedings have begun in the US which could expose disturbing allegations that elements within Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency helped plot and finance the operation.

Amid tight security at the Dirksen federal courthouse in Chicago, the jury selection process has started in the trial of the Chicago-based businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of helping an old school friend scout targets in India for the Pakistani militants. Among the targets identified by David Coleman Headley were the locations in Mumbai that the 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba militants laid siege to for up to three days.

Eurozone talks in Brussels to focus on Greece

Eurozone financial ministers are to continue their talks in Brussels, with discussions now expected to focus on the dire state of the Greek economy.



Greece got a 110bn euro ($136bn; £94bn) bail-out in 2010, but there is growing acceptance that it was not enough.

On Monday, the ministers approved a 78bn euro bail-out for Portugal.

The talks have been overshadowed by the arrest of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York, on charges of the sexual assault of a hotel maid.

Nasty dilemma

The IMF has also approved 1.58bn euros in new assistance to the Irish Republic.

The Complicated Hunt for Gadhafi’s Billions

Frozen Funds

By Alexander Neubacher, Jörg Schmitt and Thomas Schulz

The German bank Commerzbank received an unusual transfer order in late February. The amount was €1.9 million ($2.7 million) and the bank was instructed to immediately transfer the funds from a Commerzbank account to a foreign account with another bank.

The holder of the Commerzbank account was Saif al-Arab al-Gadhafi, born in 1982, the presumed youngest son of Libyan autocrat Moammar Gadhafi. The dictator’s son, who had been living in a villa in Munich’s Waldperlach neighborhood, suddenly left Germany and returned to Tripoli — a sad loss for those members of Munich’s jet set that had become accustomed to attending the younger Gadhafi’s wild parties.

Botswana closes strike-hit schools amid clashes



GABARONE, BOTSWANA – May 17 2011  

The violence began last week at a secondary school in Molepolole, a village some 60km southeast of the capital Gaborone, and spread to schools across the country Monday, prompting Education Minister Pelonomu Venson Moitoi to close schools indefinitely.

“We have a number of students in police custody who were arrested for violence and vandalism. They were arrested this afternoon after they turned violent during their protest,” said police spokesperson Dipheko Motube.

The education minister said in a statement the closure was needed to “safeguard the security of students, staff and government property”.

Bill Drayton sees a world where ‘everyone is a changemaker’

Bill Drayton founded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, which now has put about 3,000 social entrepreneurs into the field all over the world, three decades ago. A college professor once described him as having “the determination of Job and the brains of a Nobel laureate.” Says Drayton: “The life purpose of the true social entrepreneur is to change the world.”

 By Gregory M. Lamb, Staff Writer

If you want to find out what’s happening in the world of social entrepreneurs, you can’t do better than ask Bill Drayton: especially since he’s the person who first coined the term “social entrepreneur” and is an acknowledged pioneer in the field.

Mr. Drayton is well-known as the founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, which now has about 3,000 social entrepreneurs in the field all over the world. This year marks 30 years since the first Ashoka fellows began their work. He has won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellowship. In 2006, Harvard University named him one of its 100 “Most Influential Alumni.” In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from New York University and the Essl Social Prize, for his work creating and building the field of social entrepreneurship.