Six In The Morning

Assad’s response to Syria unrest leaves his own sect divided

　 Some Alawites want him to crush opposition; others say he’s risking their future

 By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

After Jaber Abboud, a baker from Baniyas, Syria, first lashed out publicly at President Bashar al-Assad for failing to promote real change, his neighbors ignored it.

But Mr. Abboud and most of his community are Alawites, the same religious sect as the president. When the popular uprising broke out, many believed that if the Assad family fell, they were doomed. They closed ranks and turned on Mr. Abboud, boycotting his pastry shop and ultimately forcing him to leave town.

“The neighborhood is split – half are dejected and subservient, the rest are beasts,” he said in a telephone interview from nearby Latakia. “It is depressing to go there, it’s like a town full of ghosts, divided, security everywhere.”

Iran’s nuclear program: 4 things you probably didn’t know

Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, which some in Israel and the US say is meant to produce nuclear weapons, continue to run high in the West.

 Arthur Bright, Correspondent

1. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never said that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”

One frequently proffered explanation for why a war with Iran is needed is because President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants Israel “wiped off the map,” and that with a nuclear weapon, he could.  But some argue that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement was mistranslated from less incidiary language.

Ahmadinejad’s alleged condemnation of Israel came at a “World Without Zionism” conference in Tehran in Oct. 2005, in which he was quoted by an English-language Iranian news site as saying “Israel must be wiped off the map.”  But as several analyses of the original Farsi statement show, this appears to be a mistranslation.

The state of Gaza: Five years after Hamas took power in the city, how has life changed for its citizens?

 

Sunday 10 June 2012

The front office of Kamal Ashour’s small family clothing factory in Gaza City opens on to Izzedine al-Qassam Street, named, like Hamas’s military wing, in honour of the Islamist mujahid who led the anti-Zionist, anti-Mandate, Black Hand gang and was shot dead by British police in 1935.

Which makes it serendipitous to see the mannequins on one of its shelves triumphantly displaying four samples of the 2,000 acrylic cardigans and polo sweaters Ashour has just shipped off to the UK firm of JD Williams in the first clothing exports to leave Gaza for five years. And a lot more so to be talking on Ashour’s landline to a Jewish-Israeli clothier in Tel Aviv about how fast, if he had half a chance, he would revert to buying his goods from here, as he once did.

Egypt to have second go at constitution assembly

Egypt will try again to set up an assembly to write a new constitution, the parliament speaker says

 Reuters

This is after the previous such body was dissolved for failing to represent all interests following the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s government.  

The make-up of the constitutional committee has been in deadlock since April after a court ordered a previous body dissolved for being dominated by Islamists and failing to fairly represent Egypt’s diverse society. Islamists control around 70% of parliament.  

“We have invited the elected parliament members to a joint meeting at 11 am on Tuesday…to elect a 100-member assembly to prepare a new constitution for the state,” Parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni said.  

 The battle for peace in the slums

At the mention of Brazil, do you imagine the slums of City of God or the rich flamboyance of The Girl from Ipanema? As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, it is working to ‘pacify’ its anarchic, crime-ridden neighbourhoods. Andrew Purcell reports from the underbelly of the world’s sixth-largest economy.

 June 10, 2012

There’s a military police car parked at the entrance to Santa Marta, right where the asphalt ends and the favela begins. The men carry assault rifles but appear bored. ”Look around,” Gilson says. ”There are pigeons everywhere.” Before, birds were scared off by the flares that lookouts lit when cops showed up, and by the shoot-outs when gang members returned fire. Now that the police are here to stay, it’s just another place to search for crumbs.

Gilson was raised on the hillside and has stayed into adulthood. ”My son walks around alone, he’s not worried about anything,” he says.

 Strict Singapore divided by arrest of its own Banksy

Online wave of support for artist Samantha Lo forces the city to confront its puritan image

   Peter Beaumont

The Observer, Sunday 10 June 2012

In Hoxton or New York, it might be regarded as commonplace – witty stencils and stickers posted by an artist around public spaces. In Singapore, however, a city obsessed with order and where “vandals” can be flogged, 27-year-old Samantha Lo – the so-called “Sticker Lady” – has inspired a massive online campaign after being arrested for posting stickers.

Lo, founder of an online arts magazine, has been arrested for sticking messages on traffic signal buttons, including “Press to Time Travel” or “Press to Stop Time”, as well as on suspicion of painting messages on roads reading “My Grandfather Road” – a Singaporean pun on bad driving and, some believe, the out-of-touch government of Singapore.