Six In The Morning

 Charleston shootings: Emanuel AME church to reopen

   

BBC

The African-American church in which nine parishioners were shot dead in South Carolina is to reopen for services on Sunday.

Members of Emanuel AME church met again on Saturday in the room where their friends died on Wednesday.

Many more people are expected to attend the service at 09:00 (13:00 GMT).

Meanwhile, police are investigating an online post, possibly by the gunman, that appears to outline his motivation for the attack.

One of those who attended Saturday’s meeting, Harold Washington, said the church’s doors would be open to all on Sunday.

“We’re gonna have people come by that we’ve never seen before and will probably never see again, and that’s OK,” he said.

 11 myths about the future of gun control, debunked after the Charleston shooting

 Another mass shooting, another round of arguments about why gun reform is doomed to fail. Turns out, most of those arguments don’t hold up to scrutiny

 Dan Roberts and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington

Myth No1: Gun control would never pass Congress

A majority of US senators voted for a package of gun control measures only two years ago. The 54 who backed the bill, which was written by Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin, included three other Republicans.

But when four Democrats got cold feet about their electoral chances in the midterms, the legislation fell short of the 60 votes it needed to prevent a filibuster.

Heading into the 2016 election, however, there are many more moderate Republican seats up for grabs – and a meaningful opportunity for Democrats to take back control of the Senate.

A successful bipartisan Senate bill and more persuasive president could be enough to encourage a future House speaker to allow a vote, too. It might even pass if the House remained in Republican control.

We cannot destroy Isis. We will have to learn to live with it

  The PM should look beyond immediate security concerns to understand – and minimise – the appeal of jihad

 RICHARD BARRETT Sunday 21 June 2015

David Cameron was right to point out, during a speech in Slovakia on Friday, the responsibility that families and communities have to detect and counter the radicalisation of young people by the so-called Islamic State (Isis).

But this is the same responsibility that they have to deter their younger members from joining anti-social gangs or falling into the clutches of cults that offer similar attractions of identity and belonging. The Government also has to do what it can to make it less likely that this will happen. The Prime Minister described Isis as “one of the biggest threats the world has ever faced”, which, although an exaggeration, reinforces the need for all sectors of society to counter its influence.

The New Kingdom: Saudi Arabia’s Contradictory Transformation

  During his reign, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has created a new leadership role for Saudi Arabia. But his changes are filled with contradictions — and may only make the region more unstable.

By Bernhard Zand

Saudi Arabia’s rulers don’t attach great importance to being called “king.” There are many kings in the world. The Saudi rulers prefer to call themselves the “Custodians of the Two Holy Mosques,” a reference to Mecca and Medina. It sounds modest, but it denotes a claim to power that extends well beyond the kingdom.

Mecca and Medina are the two holiest places for Muslims, where people from all continents come together, from Bosnia to North America, Nigeria to Malaysia. In 2010, 12 million people attended the large and small pilgrimages, and the numbers are predicted to rise to 20 million soon. This means that the Grand Mosque requires constant expansion.

‘If the theatre decided to take a step that is political, there is a price’

 June 21, 2015 – 5:15PM

 Diaa Hadid

Haifa: The play had been staged many times for Arabic-speaking audiences in Israel without controversy. But a performance with subtitles for a Hebrew-speaking audience was all it took to touch off a major furore.

The play,  A Parallel Time, explores the personal details of prison life for a Palestinian man convicted of killing an Israeli soldier. Although it is fictional, the story closely resembles a real case.

The family of the murdered Israeli soldier responded to the play by demonstrating angrily outside al-Midan Theatre in Haifa, which produced the show. The city of Haifa froze the theatre’s financing and began an investigation into its activities. The Culture Ministry, which established the theatre in 1994, opened its own investigation. The Education Ministry retracted the play’s eligibility for subsidised performances for students.

8 million mummified animals, mostly dogs, in catacombs at Egypt site

 

By Greg Botelho, CNN

For centuries, dogs have been humans’ loyal, domesticated companions. They’ve been wild animals, doing what’s needed to survive. And in ancient Egypt, they served as bridges to the afterlife, with the hope that they’d intercede with the god Anubis on their owner’s behalf.

But only now is it becoming known the extent to which dogs served this latter role — 8 million times over.

That is the number of dead animals, most of them dogs, estimated to have laid in the catacombs of Anubis around Saqqara, one of Egypt’s most historic and oft-visited sites, according to a group of British researchers. While such mass burials aren’t unprecedented, given the numerous animal cults of ancient Egypt, this one’s scale makes it unique.