Six In The Morning

NATO put on defensive over Libya attacks

‘This is another night of murder, terror and horror in Tripoli caused by NATO,’ Gadhafi aide says; NATO denies targeting civilians

msnbc.com news services  

TRIPOLI, Libya – The Libyan government accused NATO of bombing a residential neighborhood in the capital and killing civilians early Sunday, adding to charges that the alliance is striking nonmilitary targets.

Journalists based in the Libyan capital were rushed by government officials to a neighborhood where rescue efforts were under way at a destroyed building, which appeared to have been partially under construction.

Yelena Bonner, Russian rights activist, dies at 88

Yelena Bonner was the widow of Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov and a tireless human rights campaigner

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 June 2011    

Yelena Bonner, the Russian rights activist and widow of the Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov, has died aged 88.

Bonner died of heart failure on Saturday afternoon in Boston, according to her daughter, Tatiana Yankelevich. She had been in hospital since February, Yankelevich said.

Bonner grew famous through her marriage to Sakharov, the Soviet Union’s leading dissident, but she carved out her own reputation as a tireless human rights campaigner in the face of relentless hostility from Soviet authorities.

Revolting! Jamie wins battle of Los Angeles

Schools ban junk foods after chef’s TV campaign

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles Sunday, 19 June 2011

They can take away his television series, but they’ll never take Jamie Oliver’s freedom to do what he does best: attempting to cajole and shame the world’s fattest nation into slowing the flow of junk-food into the stomachs of its schoolchildren.

After a rocky few months, in which the Los Angeles version of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution was temporarily pulled from the airwaves due to falling viewership, the British chef (pictured left) has achieved one of his key aims: persuading America’s largest school board to remove chocolate and strawberry-flavoured milk from its canteen menus.

Emmerson Mnangagwa vs Morgan Tsvangirai: the two opposing faces of Zimbabwe

Power-sharing brought Zimbabwe back from the brink of anarchy, but now fears are growing for what follows when Robert Mugabe finally departs

By Colin Freeman, Harare7:30AM BST 19 Jun 2011  

His enemies call him “The Crocodile”, but even that does scant justice to the long list of charges levelled against Emmerson Mnangagwa, the one person in Zimbabwe more feared than Robert Mugabe.

The former head of Zimbabwe’s ruthless central intelligence organisation, his name gets a dishonourable mention in many of the most sinister episodes of Mr Mugabe’s rule, from the massacre of thousands of political opponents during the 1980s, through to the violence of the disputed 2008 election, in which Mr Mugabe is widely accused of stealing victory from Morgan Tsvangirai.

Missing Iraq cash ‘as high as $18 billion’

Iraq’s parliament speaker tells Al Jazeera unaccounted reconstruction money is three times the reported $6.6bn.

Last Modified: 19 Jun 2011  

Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn – three times more than the reported $6.6bn.

Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Nujaifi said that he has received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund from Iraqi oil proceeds, but unaccounted for, is much more than the $6.6bn reported missing last week.

“There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation

Little lizard could cause big disruptions for Texas drillers



BY ANNA M. TINSLEY

[email protected]

Deep in the West Texas sand dunes is something that some say could threaten the state’s oil and gas production:

A tiny lizard.

But it’s not just any lizard: It’s a dunes sagebrush lizard, also known as the sand dune lizard.

This little brown reptile is a concern for state officials, who hope that federal officials don’t designate it an endangered species. That, they say, could disrupt oil and gas exploration in the heart of Texas’ oil country, leading to higher gas prices and shrinking dollars for schools.