Six In The Morning

 Palestinian’s Trial Shines Light on Military Justice

 

    By ISABEL KERSHNER

NABI SALEH, West Bank – A year ago, Islam Dar Ayyoub was a sociable ninth grader and a good student, according to his father, Saleh, a Palestinian laborer in this small village near Ramallah.

Then, one night in January 2011, about 20 Israeli soldiers surrounded the dilapidated Dar Ayyoub home and pounded vigorously on the door. Islam, who was 14 at the time, said he thought they had come for his older brother. Instead, they had come for him. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and whisked away in a jeep.

 As Libya celebrates a year of freedom, evidence grows of its disintegration

First anniversary of the Libyan revolution highlights the fear and suspicion threatening a divided country with further conflict

Chris Stephen in Tripoli

The Observer, Sunday 19 February 2012

One thing was missing from the highly charged celebrations that erupted in Tripoli’s Martyrs Square at the weekend to mark the anniversary of last year’s revolution.

There were fireworks, marching bands and bouncy castles for the children, a hooting phalanx of tugboats on the seafront and thousands of flickering Chinese lanterns sent into the night sky. But there was no sign of the government. The balcony on the Red Castle overlooking the square was empty, with the leadership of the National Transitional Council perhaps sensing that an appearance would see the cheers turn to jeers.

 Inside the torture chamber of Assad’s inquisition squads  

Charlotte McDonald-Gibson in Damascus talks to an activist who survived 21 weeks’ interrogation by Syria’s security forces

Sunday 19 February 2012

It was a single egg that made Jolan, a 28-year-old activist, realise he was going survive Syria’s notorious torture chambers. He was blindfolded and locked in what he describes as a metal coffin, and each morning his tormentors would push a small piece of bread and a hard-boiled egg through a narrow opening by his head. But his cramped box – so short he could not straighten his legs – was tilted and his hands were bound, so for five days the egg would simply roll away and drop to the floor through a hole by his feet.

Knives out over bid to bar Mugabe  

A new draft constitution provision which bars Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from standing in the next election, which is expected to take place this year or next

 JAMA MAJOLA | 19 February, 2012 00:57

The situation has increased the stakes in the constitution-making process and shed light on the intensifying succession battle now playing out on the ongoing reform agenda.

The draft constitution clause which has caused a political storm states: “A person is disqualified for election as president if he or she has already held office for one or more periods, whether continuous or not, amounting to 10 years”.

 Nuke crisis caused by Japan, not quake: Kan

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan has admitted that Japan was woefully unprepared for last year’s nuclear disaster

In an exclusive interview, Kan acknowledged flaws in the authorities’ handling of the crisis, including poor communication and coordination among nuclear regulators, Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s management and the government Kan was heading at the time.

But he said the disaster – the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 – laid bare a host of even bigger vulnerabilities in the nuclear power industry and its regulations, ranging from inadequate safety guidelines to crisis management, all of which he said need to be overhauled.

Mexico female presidential candidate Mota Vazquez embraces role

Josefina Vazquez Mota, candidate of the ruling PAN, doesn’t hesitate to play the so-called gender card at chosen times. She trails the leader by a wide margin.

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

February 19, 2012

Reporting from Mexico City-

“I will be the first woman president of Mexico.”

Thus declared Josefina Vazquez Mota on the night this month when she was officially crowned the incumbent party’s candidate in upcoming national elections.

A former congresswoman and education minister, Vazquez Mota, 51, has eagerly embraced her historic position as Mexico’s first female presidential candidate for a major political party. In a contest where she trails the leader by a wide margin, she does not hesitate to play the so-called gender card at chosen moments.