Six In The Morning

Devastating storms swirl into Georgia as death toll rises  

Alabama sees the most damage yet from a massive tornado

msnbc.com news services

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A wave of tornado-spawning storms that ravaged Mississippi and Alabama, having splintered buildings in its path and leaving scores dead in its wake, is now in Georgia.

Authorities said early Thursday that nine people had been killed in that state,increases the death toll to 82 across four states in the South. Alabama is by far the hardest-hit, with at least 61 deaths, including 16 in Tuscaloosa, according to the city’s mayor. The death toll was expected to rise.

The university town of Tuscaloosa was obliterated, a nuclear power plant had to use backup generators and even a weather service office had to be evacuated because of the storms. The mayor said the city’s infrastructure was devastated.

Jimmy Carter leaves North Korea after peace mission

North Korea wants US guarantees in return for abandoning nuclear programme, says Jimmy Carter as he prepares to leave

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 April 2011 08.40 BST

North Korea has demanded US security guarantees in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons programmes, former US president Jimmy Carter has said.

As he prepared to leave North Korea on Thursday, a meeting with leader Kim Jong-il still uncertain, Carter said that throughout his three-day trip he had heard that North Korea wants to improve relations with the US and is willing to talk with Washington and Seoul without preconditions.

“The sticking point and it’s a big one is that they won’t give up their nuclear programme without some kind of security guarantee from the US,” he wrote in an online message on Wednesday night.

Lawyers called to clarify rules of conflict in Libya



By Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent Thursday, 28 April 2011

The United Nations resolution under which Britain and Nato allies have intervened in Libya does not allow the training of rebel forces or helping them to plan military missions against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, according to government lawyers in London.

In echoes of the controversy surrounding the legal justification for the Iraq invasion presented by the Blair administration, senior British military officers have privately stated that they would like clarification on the standing of their forces under international law as pressure grows for greater involvement of UK forces.

Syria: Baath party officials ‘quit in protest’



Some 200 members of Syria’s ruling Baath party are reported to have resigned over the violent crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations.

The BBC  28 April 2011

The resignations were centred on the southern city of Deraa, a focal point of violence that has allegedly killed 450 people in six weeks.

Shooting was heard in Deraa overnight, where the government this week sent tanks and troops to regain control.

Meanwhile, the UN failed to agree on a statement condemning the crackdown.

A draft proposed by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal was opposed by several within the 15-member Security Council, with Russia insisting events in Syria were not a threat to international peace.

The Guantanamo File on Germany’s Murat Kurnaz

An Innocent in the Terror Prison  

By John Goetz and Britta Sandberg

The “Detainee Assessment” for Murat Kurnaz, prisoner US9TU-000061DP, is nine pages long and dated May 19, 2006. The cover page includes a photo, but all you can see are his eyes and forehead, the rest of his face is ominously drowned in darkness.

Number 61 in the identifier indicates that the prisoner arrived at Guantanamo during its very early days. Kurnaz, a Turkish national who was born in Germany, was prisoner No. 61 out of an eventual total of 779 inmates held here.

At the time he landed at Guantanamo on a US Defense Department aircraft on Feb. 13, 2002, the camp had only existed for a few weeks, and the world was seeing the first images of prisoners there wearing orange overalls and being held in cages

Ugandan opposition leader detained for fourth time



BARRY MALONE KAMPALA, UGANDA – Apr 28 2011  

This is the fourth time in three weeks that Besigye, runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a disputed February election, has been detained by police over the protests that have killed at least five.

Museveni, in power since 1986, blames drought for high food costs and soaring oil prices for surging local fuel costs, and has warned Besigye that his protests will not be tolerated.

Besigye had initially tried to walk to work again in protest at rising living costs, but was stopped by police at his gate. He decided to drive, tailed by police and supporters, before being blocked at a junction by security forces.