Six In The Morning

Iraq conflict: Sunni militant push on Baghdad ‘halted’

 15 June 2014 Last updated at 08:02

 BBC

Iraqi government forces, backed by Shia Muslim and Kurdish militias, are reportedly holding back an advance by Sunni militants north of Baghdad.

A number of towns have been retaken from the rebels, but they still control the key cities of Tikrit and Mosul.

In one town that changed hands, Ishaq, security forces said they had found the incinerated bodies of 12 policemen.

A US aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Gulf in response to the escalating violence.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that American assistance in tackling any Islamist offensive will only succeed if Iraqi leaders are willing to put aside their differences.

Qatar hits back at allegations of bribery over 2022 World Cup

Qatari organisers say leaks to UK media are intended to influence the ongoing Fifa investigation

Owen Gibson

The Observer, Sunday 15 June 2014

The Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers have for the first time hit back in detail at the widespread corruption allegations that put their grip on the event at risk, insisting they are “baseless and riddled with innuendo”.

Going on the attack, the Qatar 2022 organising committee said that the bribery claims were tactical leaks designed to interfere with the independence of an ongoing investigation by former New York attorney Michael Garcia.

Having previously insisted Mohamed bin Hammam, the disgraced Qatari former Fifa executive at the heart of the claims, had no “official or unofficial” role with the bid, organisers have now tried to clarify their relationship.

 Secret state: Trevor Paglen documents the hidden world of governmental surveillance, from drone bases to “black sites”

Secret prisons, drone bases, surveillance stations, offices where extraordinary rendition is planned: Trevor Paglen takes pictures of the places that the American and British governments don’t want you to know even exist

PETER POPHAM  Author Biography   Sunday 15 June 2014

As anyone who has worked there knows, Kabul is a tough place, redeemed by the charm of the people and the abundance of cheap taxis. But Trevor Paglen had trouble finding a taxi driver willing and able to take him where he wanted to go: north-east out of the city along an old back road reputed to be so dangerous – even by Afghan standards – that it had seen no regular traffic for more than 30 years.

Finally he succeeded in digging out an old man who had been driving a cab since before the Soviet invasion. “We started driving and we left the city behind and we’re out in the sticks,” he recalls, “and we end up in a traffic jam – not cars but goats. And we wait for the goats to go by and we see the shepherd, this very old man, traditional Afghan clothes, big beard, exactly what you’d picture in your head. But he’s wearing a baseball hat.

‘This is a war, and Russia is involved’

Pro-Russian separatists shot down a Ukrainian aircraft carrying 49 soldiers near the eastern city of Luhansk. According to Kyryl Savin from the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Kyiv office, there’s no doubt this is a war.

DW

DW: Forty-nine soldiers were killed when a military plane was shot down as it attempted to land at the airport in Luhansk. Has the conflict escalated to a new level?

Kyryl Savin: I think so. This is the biggest misfortune in the Ukraine government’s anti-terrorist operation. On the one hand, there is, of course, grief over the tragic deaths of the soldiers, especially among family members. At the same time, there’s also growing anger aimed at the government, the president, and those responsible, who have allowed something like this to happen. Because everyone is wondering: how could a military aircraft land at an airport that wasn’t secure?

Egypt arrests Sunni scholar sentenced to death

Egyptian police arrested Saturday a fugitive Sunni scholar who had been sentenced to death in absentia in a trial involving the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, state media reported.

Sapa-AFP | 14 June, 2014 14:59

Abdallah Hassan Barakat, a former senior academic at the prestigious Al-Azhar University, was arrested at a checkpoint in Cairo, the official MENA news agency reported.

He was travelling in a car with his son and two of his brothers.

Barakat was among 10 fugitives sentenced to death earlier this month in a case in which Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie and 37 others, all in custody, are awaiting a verdict on July 5.

They are accused of inciting violence in which two people were killed in the Nile Delta city of Qaliub, only days after the military ousted president Mohamed Morsi last July.

Curfew lifted in Bangkok, giving a green light to the red-light district

 A midnight curfew that had been in place in Bangkok since the Thai army staged a coup May 22, was lifted Friday. Bangkok is known for its notorious nightlife, a big draw for tourists.

 By Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press

The generals who seized power in Thailand disrupted one of the country’s most lucrative industries – the go-go bars that were forced to close early because of a curfew.

Now the junta has lifted the curfew, giving a green light for Bangkok’s red-light districts and other evening activities to roar back to life. For the first time in a month, Saturday night freedom returned to the Thai capital.

“This is a party city, that’s why we’re here,” said Dan Moore, a 40-year-old visitor from England who had arrived Saturday morning and planned to stay up all night to celebrate a friend’s bachelor party. He had flown in, just like the 1980s pop song says, for “One Night in Bangkok.”