Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault
4 February 2012 - In a barrage of mortar shells, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said Saturday. Telephone calls to Homs were not going through, but residents of nearby areas described a hellish night of shelling. Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll in Homs was more than 200 people and included women and children in mortar shelling that began late Friday. More than half of the killings -- about 140 -- were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood. It was not immediately clear what precipitated the attack, but there have been reports that army defectors set up checkpoints in the area and were trying to consolidate control. (more)

Heavy weapons rattle northern Mali town, thousands flee
4 February 2012 - Sporadic heavy weapons fire rang out in the northern Malian town of Kidal overnight and on Saturday, in a sign that a Tuareg-led rebellion was nearing its most significant target to date after two weeks of fighting. Rebels combining veteran Tuareg insurgents and returnees from Libya's war last year are fighting to create an independent state in north Mali. They have gained ground in a three-pronged advance, scattering thousands across Mali's desert north and beyond its borders, but Kidal is the most significant town yet to be threatened. Hama Ag Sid'Ahmed, a Europe-based spokesman for the rebels, said the attack had already begun. 'We will take the two military camps and occupy the town.' Civilians fearing an attack have been fleeing Kidal by bus in recent days. Some Tuareg say many of their community have also fled Bamako, in the south, fearing reprisals after violent demonstrations this week. (more)

Civilian deaths in Afghan war up for fifth straight year - UN
4 February 2012 - More than 3,000 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2011, the fifth year in a row the number has risen, the United Nations said on Saturday in a report likely to revive tension between the Afghan government and its Western backers. Civilian deaths undermine support both in Afghanistan and the United States for the US-led war, and are one of the biggest causes of friction between President Hamid Karzai and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Bombs planted on roads, and increasingly deadly suicide attacks that targeted civilians, killed more people than any other type of attack, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Forces fighting Karzai's government and its ISAF allies killed 2,332 civilians in 2011, 14 per cent more than in 2010, while security forces battling the militants killed 410 civilians, down four per cent from the previous year, UNAMA said. (more)

A failed province: Cautionary tale for South Africa
4 February 2012 - One of the nine provinces created for a democratic South Africa following the end of apartheid in 1994, Limpopo was carved out of what used to be the sprawling Transvaal province. Once a beacon of hope, the province and its many unfinished projects are becoming a symbol of government greed and failure in South Africa's impoverished north. Government-built homes for the poor have leaking roofs and crumbling brickwork. Residents say windows were so poorly installed that thieves just pull out the whole frame to break in. Potholed roads are said to have started crumbling within months of tar being put down. That contrasts with the extravagant homes said to have been built by friends, relatives, and business partners of important politicians. Observers say the governing ANC party needs to pay more attention to the plight of the poor and to voters' concerns about corruption. Otherwise, they say the party credited with ending racist white rule also will be remembered as the party that oversaw the failure of yet another African state. (more)

Sudan's Bashir says tensions with South could spark war
3 February 2012 - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Friday tensions with South Sudan over oil transit payments could lead to war, stepping up the rhetoric in a row over crude reserves between the two countries. Asked in an interview with state television whether war could break out with South Sudan, Bashir said: 'There is a possibility.' Bashir said the economic situation was difficult for Sudan this year but the country would boost current oil production of 115,000 bpd by 75,000 bpd. Sudan's current output serves only domestic consumption. Sudan would also export gold worth $2.5 billion this year and expand the agricultural sector to compensate for the loss of oil, he said. Experts have expressed doubts rising gold exports and other measures to diversify the economy will offset the loss of oil revenues of $5 billion booked in 2010. They say economic diversification has been hampered for years by corruption, misplanning, and a US trade embargo. (more)

Egypt protesters besiege Cairo ministry
3 February 2012 - Protesters laid siege to Egypt's Interior Ministry on Friday, extending a rally against the military-led government into a second day in a show of anger triggered by the deaths of 74 people in the country's worst soccer disaster. In separate clashes in the city of Suez, two protesters were killed as police used live rounds to hold back crowds trying to break into a police station, witnesses said. Demonstrations erupted in Egypt this week following deaths at a soccer stadium in Port Said as the football incident turned quickly into a political crisis. Protesters hold the military-led authorities responsible for the bloodshed. The soccer stadium deaths have heaped new criticism on the military council, which has governed Egypt since Mubarak stepped down a year ago in the face of mass protests. Critics regard them as part of his administration and an obstacle to change. (more)

6 dead, 20 wounded in new attack on Colombia cops
3 February 2012 - Assailants in pickup trucks fired homemade mortars at a police station in this western town Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding more than 20, the regional police chief said. President Juan Manuel Santos and his defence minister both said they had no doubt the authors were the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's main insurgency. The FARC numbers about 9,000 combatants. Although it has suffered major setbacks in recent years, analysts say its hit-and-run attacks have been rising. In January alone, it staged 133 attacks on police and military targets, according to the independent think tank Nuevo Arco Iris. (more)

Insight - Deficits, the US election, and politics of fear
3 February 2012 - The top contenders in the US presidential race seem to have a simple plan for the gaping budget deficit: use it to strike fear into the hearts of voters. Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama is such a big spender that he would trigger a Greece-style crisis if re-elected in November. Democrat Obama says Republican candidates would balance the budget by slashing social programs older Americans rely on to pay their medical bills. Romney is trying to connect with voters with a prop -- a giant electronic debt clock that shows the nation's total debt and the debt per taxpayer. The figures tick up while he is speaking. But with the public shaken by high unemployment, some voters worry aggressive measures to shrink deficits could leave people in the cold. Obama frequently paints the Republican vision of government as 'you're-on-your-own' economics. To punch his point home, Obama has brought up his own grandmother, who he says depended on Medicare as she lay on her deathbed in 2008. It remains unclear if Obama's allusions to ailing grandmothers can neutralize Republican prophesies of doom and joblessness. (more)