Six In The Morning

Occupy Chicago: At least 100 anti-Wall Street protesters arrested in Grant Park

 Some demonstrators waiting to be taken into custody shout ‘take me next!’ to police officers

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

CHICAGO – At least 100 anti-Wall Street demonstrators were arrested early Sunday after defying police orders to clear out of a downtown Chicago park, authorities said.

Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert vowed after the arrests that the demonstrators would be coming back.

“We’re not going anywhere. There are still plenty of us,” Kaunert told The Associated Press after police carried out the arrests for more than hour.

 Tunisians go to the polls still in the shadow of the old regime

 Hope for the first elections of the Arab spring is mingled with frustration at continuing corruption and police brutality

طالع المقال بالعربي

 Angelique Chrisafis, Katharine Viner and Becky Gardiner in Tunis The Observer

Tunisia votes on Sunday in its first ever free elections, the first vote of the Arab spring. But the mood of optimism is tempered with deep unease that, nine months after the revolution which ousted the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country is still dominated by the corrupt and brutal vestiges of the old regime.

Voting is to elect an assembly with one specific mission: to draw up a new constitution before parliamentary elections scheduled to take place within 12 months. The Islamist party An-Nadha, which was outlawed and brutally repressed by the Ben Ali regime, is expected to take the biggest share of the vote, and says it will defend democracy and women’s rights. But the complex proportional representation system means that, no matter how the votes are cast, no one party will have a majority or be able to dominate.

UN close to ban on West’s toxic waste exports

Deal is struck to stop poor nations becoming global dump

By Sarah Morrison and Paul Carsten Sunday, 23 October 2011

One of the most persistent and insidious pollution problems visited by the West on the developing world has taken a huge step towards a permanent solution this weekend.

A UN environmental conference in Cartagena, Colombia, attended by more than 170 countries, has agreed to accelerate a global ban on the export of hazardous waste, including old electronics and discarded computers and mobile phones, from developed to developing countries.

Libya’s Mahmoud Jibril ‘wanted Muammar Gaddafi alive’

Libya’s acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has told the BBC he wished ex-leader Muammar Gaddafi was alive

The BBC   23 October 2011

“I want to know why he did this to the Libyan people,” he told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme. “I wish I were his prosecutor in his trial.”

Mr Jibril added that he would welcome a full investigation into the colonel’s death – as the UN has urged.

The statement comes as Libya’s new leaders prepare to declare the country’s liberation later on Sunday.

Indonesia, Papua and the prisoners of history

 

Richard Chauvel

October 23, 2011

LAST Wednesday the Papuan People’s Congress was closed down by the violent intervention of Indonesian police and military.

At least six people were killed, more than 300 were taken into custody, the leaders accused of treason, and many others were beaten by police and soldiers.

This has been traumatic for Papuan society and a terrible assault on Indonesia’s democratic aspirations.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s comeback president?

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was hugely unpopular among Argentines in 2009. But she is set to easily win reelection Sunday due to Argentina’s economic rebound and weak opposition.

By Ed Stocker, Contributor, Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer

Soon after taking office in 2007 in a first-round victory, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner began butting heads: first with grain exporters, then with the news media. Critics called her arrogant, stubborn, and a puppet of her husband.

That sentiment was reflected in midterm elections in 2009, during which her Peronist Party lost its absolute majority in both houses of Congress.

But now, two years later, Ms. Kirchner appears poised to once again easily regain the presidency when Argentines head to the polls on Sunday.