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Mitchell resigns as US Middle East envoy

2011-05-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

White House says Obama administration's special envoy has stepped down, following two "tough" years in the position.
George Mitchell,the Obama administration's special Middle East peace envoy, has resigned after more than two years of trying to press Israel and the Palestinians into negotiations, US officials said.

The White House announced on Friday that the former senator and broker of the Northern Ireland peace deal had stepped down for personal reasons.Accepting Mitchell's resignation, Barack Obama, the US president, said in a statement that the veteran mediator "has contributed immeasurably to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security".

"As a nation, we remain committed to peace in the Middle East and to building on George's hard work and progress toward achieving this goal," he said.

David Hale, the deputy Middle East envoy, has been asked to serve as the acting envoy by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.

"I have every confidence in David's ability to continue to make progress in this important effort," Obama said.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said Mitchell's resignation could be "a sign or symbol that the Obama administration is going to refocus its efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian process".

"Mitchell did make a push for peace, but weeks later it fizzled because of Israel's refusal to stop the settlement building. Since then it really has dropped out of the headlines in the US," she said.

Unfruitful efforts

Mitchell, 77, had spent much of the last two years shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to restart long-stalled peace talks.

Direct peace talks resumed briefly last year but broke down over Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.

Faced with deadlock, the US in December scrapped efforts to relaunch direct peace talks and Mitchell
has not visited the region since then.

In recent months, his activity had slowed markedly as the two sides drifted farther apart.

"From the Senate to Northern Ireland to the State Department, his work has brought peace and increasing prosperity to millions of people around the world and made our own country stronger and more secure," Clinton said in a statement on Friday.

Obama has recently made changes to his Middle East policy team and named Daniel Shapiro, a senior adviser who has helped shape the response to the Middle East upheaval, as his nominee to be the new US ambassador to Israel.

"We've been hearing from the White House that president Obama is going to give a big speech where he'll place a new focus on the Middle East peace process," said Culhane.

Deaths as Syrian army storms border town

2011-05-14T09:04:00.001-07:00

At least four people killed after troops open fire near Lebanese border, as thousands attend funeral of shot protester.
At least four people have died after army troops stormed the town of Talkalakh in the restive Homs province in western Syria.

Witnesses said those killed on Saturday were among dozens of people attempting to leave Talkalakh and enter Lebanon, which borders the town, a day after a mass demonstration there against the rule of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"The security forces, who had been encircling Talkalakh since the morning, fired machine guns. At least three people were killed and several were wounded," a witness told the AFP news agency.

A fourth died in hospital in Lebanon from gunshot wounds sustained while fleeing the Syrian town, medical sources said.

Another eyewitness on the border told Al Jazeera that at least 19 people were wounded as the military swooped into the town.

The violence came after more than 8,000 people attended a funeral in the provincial capital of Homs for one of three protesters killed on Friday by Syrian security forces.

Mourners for Fouad al-Rajoub gathered near Bab al-Dreib and began making their way through the city, chanting for an end to the siege on Homs, Baniyas and Deraa, the major flashpoints in the country's uprising.

An eyewitness in the city said that, due to the size of the procession, the military had removed and relocated some of the checkpoints it had established throughout the city since mass anti-regime protests erupted there last month."Everything is peaceful now but we will be passing government buildings and I fear the snipers will open fire on us," he said.

Syrian army personnel were deployed in Talkalakh after officials said troops and tanks were pulled out of Baniyas and Deraa.

Security barriers were set up at the entrances of the Talkalakh and heavy gunfire was heard, according to activists' accounts. Security forces were deployed in surrounding villages as well.

Lebanese security officials said cracks of gunfire could be heard on the Lebanese side of the border.

Officials said scores of Syrians, including at least four injured people, had crossed into Lebanon - fleeing the violence in their country that has left at least 775 people dead since the start of the protest movement in mid-March.

'National dialogue'

Meanwhile, Adnan Mahmoud, the minister of information, announced "a comprehensive national dialogue in all Syrian governorates," Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported on Saturday.

In a press conference on Friday, Mahmoud said that the government was implementing "a comprehensive political, economic and social reform program in the interest of the people".

"There is a correlation between security and stability from one hand, and the reform from the other hand," SANA quote the minister as saying.

Mahmoud said army units had started to leave the coastal city of Baniyas and completed a pullout from Deraa, although residents there reported tanks outside mosques in the morning.

Aref Dalila, an economist who met Shaaban last week, said "the domination of the security apparatus over life in Syria" must end for different opinions to be represented.

"We are long used to these 'dialogues' in Syria, where the regime assembles its loyalists in a conference and the other opinion is either in jail or underground," he said.

According to the Syrian government "police and security forces have been sent to pursue armed groups which perpetrated acts of killing citizens, terrorised people, burned public and private properties, halted social and economic life, threatened schools and public security".

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Bahrain denies mass sackings over protests

2011-04-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

The head of Bahrain's civil service has denied that any employees were sacked after the largely Shia pro-democracy protests that the Gulf Arab kingdom crushed last month with military reinforcements from some of its neighbours.

Bahraini opposition groups and rights organisations say hundreds of public employees were dismissed on the grounds that they took part in protests. The government argues it had taken steps only against those who committed crimes during the protests.

"Up to now, no one has been dismissed for disciplinary reasons," state media quoted Ahmad bin Zayed al-Zayed, the head of the civil service, as saying.

He said further that any disciplinary measures for alleged involvement in the uprising would be for strictly defined administrative and criminal offences.

In comments reported late on Tuesday on Bahrain's state news agency, al-Zayed denied "what has been said about the dismissal of a number of employees ... in positions under the umbrella of the civil service".

Bahrain, which hosts the Fifth Fleet of the US navy, has a free trade pact with the US which the AFL-CIO trade union confederation last week urged the US to pull out of in response to violations of human and labour rights by Bahrain.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), a specialised agency of the UN that deals with labour issues, has sent a team to Bahrain to share its concerns with high-level government officials, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

The representatives were due to meet members of the government, trade unionists and employer representatives on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the dismissals of trade unionists alleged to have participated in recent demonstrations.

They were also expected to raise the issue of judicial actions taken by the government against the General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions.

Bahraini unionists called strikes in solidarity with the Pearl Roundabout protests in February.

Dragged from workplace

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), an opposition group central to the recent Shia-led anti-government protests, put the number of detainees at 817.

The figure included 71 women - in a clear breach of tradition in the conservative Muslim Gulf region, where women embody the honour of a family.

"This is a new phenomenon in Bahrain," Nabil Rajab, the head of the BCHR, said.

One woman who spoke to the AFP news agency said she was threatened with rape if she did not confess to taking part in protests.

"You'd better confess. Otherwise, I'd take you to the other interrogation room where men would make you talk," she said, quoting an officer's threat.The woman said she was dragged from her workplace along with other Shia Muslim colleagues. In the bus to the police station, policewomen slapped their faces and made them chant pro-monarchy slogans, she said.

Bahrain is ruled by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa family.

She asked for details of her job not to be disclosed because police warned those arrested not to talk about their ordeal while in custody.

The woman said she eventually confessed to taking part in demonstrations at Pearl Square, the epicentre of the anti-regime protests, and also to protesting at work.

She said she shared a cell with several doctors, nurses and teachers. While being released, she said she saw teenage female students being dragged into a police station and beaten mercilessly by policewomen.

"They used to punish us psychologically by opening a door leading to the men's section of the police station so we could see them being beaten. We would hear their screams under torture," she said.

Shia targeted

Although security forces showed restraint in driving protesters from Pearl Square, the authorities later unleashed police on Shia dissidents nationwide.

"We can call this now a regime of sectarian separation that is working on a sectarian purge" of Shia, Rajab charged, citing raids on schools and medical centres during which Shia Muslims were ordered to line up separately from Sunnis.

Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, who quit parliament along with 17 other MPs in Wefaq, a Shia opposition group, in February in protest at violence against protesters, also spoke of Shia employees being sacked if they were suspected of having taken part in demonstrations.

"Police raid medical centres and separate employees based on their sects, then order Shias to stand by the wall and put their arms up ... while masked informers point out" those who joined the protests, he said.

More than 1,000 Shia employees had been fired, he said.

The government has admitted to dismissing some workers. On Tuesday, the health ministry said it had referred for prosecution 30 employees among those suspended because of "recent events", after an investigation found that they committed acts that "appeared criminal".

Even sports professionals were targeted. An investigatory committee has suspended 150 players, coaches and staff over their alleged involvement in protests.

Meanwhile, the authorities have demolished many Shia places of prayer and old mosques, saying they were built without authorisation.

"Ten mosques were demolished during one night in the village of Nuwaidrat," Mattar said. He said that some were very old and built before the system of building permits even existed.

Sheikh Khaled bin Ali Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's justice and Islamic affairs minister, has dismissed claims of mosques being demolished, saying in a statement on Friday that only "encroachments" were removed.

"This is being done to appease the Sunni Salafist groups that hate the Shia, and who are allied" with the authorities, Rajab of the BCHR said, alleging that the government aims to turn the pro-democracy uprising into a sectarian conflict.

Nigeria election: Red Cross says many fleeing violence

2011-04-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes because of post-election violence in Nigeria, the Red Cross says.

Riots broke out in the north after Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, emerged as the winner of the presidential poll.

A civil rights group says the unrest has left more than 200 dead, while hundreds of arrests have been made.

The poll runner-up, General Muhammadu Buhari, has appealed for calm.

Nigeria is divided by rivalry between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south - so much so that the presidency has often rotated between people who come from the two halves of the country, in an attempt to keep the peace.

Umar Marigar of the Red Cross told the BBC on Wednesday that the number of displaced had trebled in the last day - from 16,000 to 48,000, mainly in the north.

But he said that, in the southern state of Anambra, 8,400 people had sought refuge at the Onitsha military barracks because they feared reprisal attacks against northerners.

He added: ''The violent protests turn from political into ethno-religious crisis. As such, people might like to engage in retaliatory attacks. This is what we are always afraid of."

Shehu Sani, head of the Civil Rights Congress, told the AFP news agency: "In the whole region, from reports reaching Civil Rights Congress, the death toll is over 200."

He added that more than 1,000 people had been arrested in the city of Kaduna alone.

The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar says it is calm now in Kaduna city, where streets have been left littered with burnt corpses and rioters burned churches, police stations and homes during two days of disturbances.

There are clashes in other parts of the state and more security forces have been deployed to those areas, he says.

'Irregularities'
Gen Buhari told the Voice of America's Hausa-language radio service that his Congress for Progressive Change party had noticed irregularities in the south and south-east of the country.

"I urge people to calm down and be law-abiding as we are pursuing these irregularities with [the electoral commission] with a view to ensure justice for them," he said.

Mr Jonathan was declared winner of Saturday's presidential poll, with the electoral commission saying he received about 57% of the vote with 22.5 million votes to General Buhari's 12.2 million votes.

International observers have said the election was reasonably free and fair.

Mr Jonathan, a Christian from the oil-producing Niger Delta, was appointed to the presidency last year upon the death of incumbent Umaru Yar'Adua, a northern Muslim whom he had served as vice-president.

He staked his reputation on the election, repeatedly promising it would be free and fair.

Burqa-clad suicide bomber kills 41 in Pakistan

2010-12-25T05:50:00.003-08:00

KHAR - A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest killing at least 41 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday while army helicopter gunships and artillery killed a similar number of Islamic militants in neighboring tribal regions near the Afghan border, officials said.

The bombing appeared to be the first suicide attack staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despite ongoing military operations against them.

The bomber struck in the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents. It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a coordinated assault in the adjoining tribal region of Mohmand where the army also has carried out operations.

Top government official in Mohmand, Amjad Ali Khan, said helicopter gunships backed by artillery pounded militants hideouts on Saturday, killing 40 militants.

In Bajur, the bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burqa, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution center in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack through its spokesman, Azam Tariq. He did not give a reason for the attack.

Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at the center to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program and other agencies to conflicted-affected people in the region. The people were displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.

Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.

Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also wounded 60 people, some of them critically, of about 300 who were at the scene.

Officials said most of the people attacked belonged to the Salarzai tribe, which was among the first set up a militia to fight the Taliban in 2008. Other tribes later formed similar militias to resist the militants.

Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security and political analyst, said the suicide bombing appeared to be the first carried out by a woman in Pakistan.

"It is no surprise. They can use a woman, a child or whatever," Rizvi said. "Human life is not important to them, only the objective they are pursuing" of undermining state power, he added.

Male suicide bombers often don the burqa — an Islamic head-to-toe dress that also covers the woman's face — as a disguise. In 2007, officials initially claimed Pakistan's first female suicide bomber had killed 14 people in the northwest town of Bannu but the attacker was later identified as a man.

Akbar Jan, 45, who sustained leg wounds in the bombing, said from his hospital bed that people were lining up for the ration coupons when something exploded with a big bang.

"We thought someone had fired a rocket," he told The Associated Press. He said within seconds he saw the ground strewn with the wounded.

"I realized a little later that I myself have suffered wounds," he said. "Everybody was crying. It was blood and human flesh everywhere."

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are "united against them."

Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called "settled" areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Bajur and other parts of the tribal regions are of major concern to the U.S. because they have been safe havens for militants fighting NATO and American troops across the border in Afghanistan. The U.S. has long pressured Pakistan to clear the tribal belt of the insurgents.

The military first declared victory in Bajur following a six-month operation launched in late 2008. But the army was forced to launch a follow-up operation in late January this year and declared victory again about a month later. Still, violence has persisted in the region.

The army also has taken steps to clear Mohmand, a tribal region next to Bajur that also has witnessed militant activity. On Friday, however, around 150 insurgents attacked five security checkpoints in that region, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding a dozen more in a show of their ongoing strength.

World economy can withstand $100 oil price -Kuwait

2010-12-25T05:48:00.001-08:00

CAIRO - The global economy can withstand an oil price of $100 a barrel, Kuwait's oil minister said on Saturday, as other exporters indicated OPEC may decide against increasing output through 2011 as the market was well supplied.

Analysts have said oil producing countries are likely to raise output after crude rallied more than 30 percent from a low in May because they fear prices could damage economic growth in fuel importing countries.

European benchmark ICE Brent crude for February closed at $93.46 on Friday after hitting $94.74 a barrel, its highest level since Oct. 2008.

Arab oil exporters meeting in Cairo this weekend said they saw no need to supply more crude as stocks were high and prices had been inflated temporarily by cold weather in Europe.

Asked by Reuters if the world economy could stand a $100 oil price, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said: "Yes it can".

Iraq's new oil minister and the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation both told Reuters that $100 was a fair price, while Qatar's Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said he did not expect OPEC to increase production in 2011.

"I do not expect an OPEC meeting before June because oil prices are stable," he said.

Some delegates even called for exporters to comply better with agreed production limits. OPEC members' compliance with promised cutbacks reached 56 percent in November, according to Reuters estimates.

When asked if output could be raised, Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad said: "No. More compliance, more compliance".

MARKET "WELL SUPPLIED"

Housewife saves husband from wolf - paper

2010-12-25T05:47:00.001-08:00

DUBAI - A housewife has saved her husband from the clutches of a wolf in rural Saudi Arabia, local daily Arab News reported on Saturday.

The woman went out to look for her husband after he did not return from tending their goats to find him being attacked by the wolf, according to the newspaper.

The woman ran back to their house and returned with a kitchen knife and stabbed the animal to death, Arab News reported.

The husband, in his 70s, had been fending off the wolf for more than an hour before his wife turned up, according to the newspaper. The report did not give wife's age.

The family have hung the wolf’s body from a tree in front of the house to scare off other wolves, a custom in rural areas, Arab News reported.

Leaks, "Wikileaks" appears critical after U.S. execution of Saddam Hussein

2010-12-08T04:46:00.001-08:00

Show document published site "Wikileaks" Critical U.S. resulting from the circumstances surrounding the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and especially the words of one of the guards: "Go to hell", while the officials took photographsMobile phones.

These actions prompted the then U.S. Ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, to say that supporters of Saddam buttons to push in order to confirm that the trial were not fair.

According to the document dated in January 2007, the Deputy Attorney General savior of Pharaoh, described the behavior of the guard during a meeting with Khalilzad as disgraceful.

The author commented that the document did not reveal his identity on the death penalty, saying, "The Iraqi government lacked a clear plan and coordinated control of witnesses, and carried out the executions hastily amid the chaos."

And raised the execution of Saddam in December 2006, a sensation in international circles after being circulated on websites, in view of the contents before they die.

And Pharaoh said to Khalilzad, said he saw officials took photographs with their mobile phones by their attendance at the execution, even though it was forbidden, according to the document.

He added that when Saddam was performed the last prayer before his execution, witnesses echoed by a loud "Moqtada Moqtada, Moqtada," referring to the Shiite leader.

The footage showed that broadcast networks, the Internet and mobile phones after selling in the streets of Baghdad just days after the execution of Saddam, angry, standing on a platform in a dark room, while his hands were tied and wrapped the noose around his neck.

And clearly heard chanting the name of Moqtada al-before you open the platform on which he stood by Saddam to fall Mpharka life.

The document noted that the list of witnesses the execution has changed "several times and included in one of the times between twenty to thirty people."

The document cited Khalilzad said to Pharaoh, that "Saddam's supporters will take advantage of a pretext to condemn the death penalty trial is fair and equitable."

In response to a question by Khalilzad, the changes in the execution of other operations, "said Pharaoh The only witnesses who will be allowed to attend the law, they are the prosecutor and judge and a man of religion and director of the prison," according to the document.

"The seal of Pharaoh, stressing that this will prevent unacceptable behavior and the controversy is unnecessary."

Source: YAHOO

Delta Has Decided for Jonathan, Says EK Clark

2010-09-05T05:36:00.001-07:00

South-south leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday in Warri, Delta State, said the people of Delta State have decided to back the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election.

Clark, who spoke to THISDAY after a rally in Warri attended by a large crowd of people from all the local government areas in the state, said the gathering in which every local government area sent a minimum of about 400 respresentatives indicated clearly that the state has taken a decision on the 2011 presidential election and that the decision is that Jonathan is their choice candidate.

Clark said supported the rally after going through THISDAY's Political Tren-ding report which indicated that PDP delegates from Delta State are still undecided.
Clark said yesterday's rally was a clear signal from the people of Delta State that they have decided to support Jonathan.
"After this rally attended by thousands of people and in which each local government area has a minimum of 400 people, you people can see that Delta State is not undecided. We have decided to support Jonathan," he said.

The rally planned to mobilise support for the President held at a public field on Refinery road in Warri had in attendance, the two senators from the state who are PDP members- James Manager and Adego Eferekeya, former senator Francis Okpozo, former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former presidential spokesman, Dr. Doyin Okupe, both of whom were present to offer solidarity support, and party leaders from all the local government areas.

In an apparent demonstration of the fact that the rally was aimed at showing how the people would vote in the presidential election, Clark told the people that “you have said it all. I am happy we have all agreed that Jonathan is our candidate.”
He also commended the people for backing Jonathan to run for the presidency in the next election.
Also, speaking at the occasion, the senator representing Delta South District, Senator Manager, said Jonathan’s presidential candidacy was a reality.

Manager, who allayed fears about any rift between Jonathan and Uduaghan, noted that the support for Jonathan “is a must for the people of Delta State”. He said all senators from the state had decided to give the President their full support.
Also speaking at the rally, Ezeife told the people of the Niger Delta that they did not have any reason not to support one of their own for the presidential position of the country. “You must endeavour to support Goodluck Jonathan”, he said.
Manager’s colleague, Senator Eferakeya, representing Delta Central Dis-trict, said the South-south zone should take advantage of the opportunity offered by the 2011 polls to rewrite the history of Nigeria.

Prof Eferekeya said the ascension of President Jonathan into his present position was divine.
The rally also had in attendance, aspirants for different offices like the gubernatorial, state and National Assembly seats who came with their supporters. The supporters wore branded T-shirts, caps and generously displayed banners and posters to spread the message of their candidates for the various offices.

However, the rally was not attended by any Delta State government official. THISDAY gathered that the absence of Delta State government officials at the rally was occasioned by the fact that the organisers did not inform Uduaghan about the gathering.
A source said when the governor heard about the rally just before it started, he directed the police commissioner and other security agencies to ensure the security of the people at the rally.

The governor dismissed the advice from some of his supporters that he should order the cancellation of the rally. He also gave a stern warning to his supporters who were threatening to disrupt the proceeding.
“Governor Uduaghan gave serious support to ensure the success of the rally even though neither he nor any government official was present,” a source said.

100 Northern Politicians Storm Aso Rock, Urge Jonathan to Run

2010-08-22T01:09:00.001-07:00

About 100 politicians representing the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja yesterday night visited Aso Rock. Their mission? To persuade President Goodluck Jonathan to contest in next year’s presidential election.

The group led by Alhaji Hassan Adamu, Wakilin Adamawa arrived the Presidential Villa at about 10pm and were received by President Jonathan.

A source close to the meeting told THISDAY that the deliberation between the President and the Northern politicians who are said to represent the geo-political section of the country which is referred to as the G-20 extended till midnight.

Prof. Jerry Gana was mandated to present the position of the group to the President before spokesmen representing each of the states were mandated to introduce representatives and present the position of their respective states.

Gana, a former information minister under the Obasanjo administration, said the group came to urge the President to contest in the next presidential election as they are sure his candidacy will unite the country and lead her to realise her manifest destiny as a world leader.

The Professor said the people of the North were solidly behind the President based on his ability to deliver on the programmes contained in the manifesto of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the age-long political relationship between the North and the South-south regions.

He added that all indications show that “President Jonathan will receive overwhelming votes from across the country and that we look forward to your swearing-in ceremony on May 29, 2011.”

Adamu who is the leader of the group further said: “We know what we want. We have come here to call you to come out. After 50 years, Nigeria must move forward. We believe in unity and progress of the country, no matter where a person comes from. It is God that brought you and God does not make mistake. The road will be tough and rough but we will succeed.”

In his own speech, Shagari said the call on Jonathan to contest the presidency by a group of top Northern politicians was in fulfilment of the wishes of the founding fathers of Northern politics.

He said: “It was Sardauna and Tafawa Balewa that sat down and said the North should develop a deliberate relationship with the South-south zone. What Sardauna and Tafawa Balewa put together, let no one put asunder.”

Rwanda Holds 2nd Presidential Poll Since Genocide

2010-08-11T09:26:00.001-07:00

For weeks, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has rallied his supporters with thumping pop music and promised to build on his economic and social development record that has won him accolades abroad.

As polls prepare to open today at 6 a.m. (0400GMT) in Rwanda's second presidential election since the 1994 genocide, few doubt Kagame will win.
The lean, professorial leader is expected to easily win the loyalties of the country's 5.2 million voters. But the run-up to the campaign has been marred by a series of recent attacks on outspoken critics of Kagame's government, and some of the more vocal opposition politicians say they've been barred from participating.

During the three-week campaign period, Kagame's image has been everywhere. At rallies he shed his business suit and tie for a shirt and jacket emblazoned with his Rwanda Patriotic Front insignia topped with a baseball cap bearing the party's red, white and blue flag. He has also tried to shed his image as a stiff leader, joining in dances and clapping along as crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands sang and danced at his daily rallies across the tiny, landlocked country.

Those rallies were part of a carefully choreographed campaign, which included a local pop group playing what has become the president's re-election theme song, "Tora Kagame," or Vote Kagame in Kinyarwanda, and live updates on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
His supporters say the huge crowds represent genuine popular support for the leader who transformed this central African nation after the brutal 100-day genocide that left at least 500,000 people dead.

Taye Manzi said he trusts Kagame because he has united the nation of 10 million people.
"He supports the youth, he supports gender, he is the one who can bring us together," said Manzi, who took time off from his job in the capital, Kigali, to travel to his home region to attend one of Kagame's rallies.
Kagame, who was elected president by parliament in 2000 and who voters then elected to the post in 2003, will earn another seven-year term if elected. His three challengers are former partners in a coalition government formed soon after the genocide who have posed no real threat. Their electoral platforms are also similar to Kagame's.

Standing near a rally for a Liberal Party candidate, Kagame supporter Ernest Sugira, 19, said that when the president held a rally earlier in the week, the scene had been different.
"When Kagame was here there were so many people," Sugira said. "Today these people are wearing the colors of the other parties, but they'll all end up voting for Kagame in the end."
More vocal opposition leaders who may have run a more challenging campaign, however, say they've been barred from contesting or worse. And the government-appointed media council has clamped down on independent newspapers publishing dissenting views.

On July 14, Frank Habineza, the president of the unregistered opposition Democratic Green Party, received a phone call he had been dreading. A day after he had been reported missing, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, the party's vice president, had been found dead.

When Habineza saw Rwisereka's corpse, he was shocked. Rwisereka appeared to have been brutally tortured, with his head nearly removed from his body. Habineza said he does not believe police claims that Rwisereka was killed over a business dispute. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has demanded a full investigation into the slaying.
"Before we were talking about democracy, but now we are talking about our lives," Habineza said. "It is a very scary moment."

Rwisereka's gruesome death was just the latest in a series of recent attacks on outspoken critics of Kagame's government. On June 19, former army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was shot and wounded outside his home in South Africa, several months after he fled Rwanda after being linked to a string of deadly grenade attacks in Kigali.

Five days after the shooting in South Africa, Jean-Leonard Rugambage, a journalist at a critical newspaper in the capital, was shot dead outside his home in Kigali hours after publishing an online article linking Rwandan intelligence to the attack. The Rwandan government has denied any involvement in the killings, pointing to the arrest of two men who said they had gunned Rugambage down over a personal vendetta.

"We certainly might not be a model government for a lot of people, but we're not a stupid government, and we will not try to kill three people in a row right before election, an election in which we believe strongly that President Paul Kagame would win," said Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.
Many have hailed Rwanda's positive transformation since the genocide, but analysts have warned that economic progress does not guarantee future stability.

"The material progress is visible — one cannot deny that," said Muzong Kodi, of the London-based Chatham House think tank. "But it has been acquired at a cost of civil liberties and the long-term stability in the country."
Kodi said that while a strongman may have been needed in the wake of the genocide, cementing the achievements made so far will require more openness in the future.
"Without opening up the political space in Rwanda all the material gains that have been made could be put in jeopardy," Kodi said.

Yobe ANPP, PDP Return to the Trenches

2010-08-11T09:25:00.001-07:00

Yobe State Nigeria has always been the stronghold the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), since 1999 when the country returned to democracy. The party has continued to dominate the politics of the state, with little resistance from the opposition.
Though in 2007, ANPP was able to win the governorship and majority of seats in the House of Assembly but it was a pyrrhic victory. ANPP victory was subjected to a protracted legal battle between the late Governor Mamman Ali and Senator Usman Albishir.

Ali’s former deputy, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam is now left to carry on the battle. For now, ANPP has conceded the gubernatorial ticket to Gaidam and has also adopted candidates for the National Assembly seats in the state
This, according to a source, is to allow enough time for reconciliation in the party before the election. The party has also kicked off its campaign with rallies and one is not surprised that the first rally took place in Gashua in the Yobe North senatorial district. This was for obvious reason as the zone is under severe threat of being taken over by the opposition as some ANPP leaders in the zone have defected to PDP. They are include Albishir (who had represented the zone in the Senate twice), Hon. Ya’u Galadima (who won the ticket to represent Jakusko/Bade constituency in the House of Representatives )and Architect Shettima Saleh (who was a governorship aspirant at the last election and also a commissioner in the present administration until recently, when he defected).

With the belief that they are going to be a major threat to the victory of ANPP at the polls, Albishir had boasted that “ANPP is a sinking ship which has lost its bearing,” and that he has to leave before it finally collapses. Accoding to him “ANPP is deceased; we invested so much in the party. I was the founder of the party in Yobe State, in 1999 I was the person who brought the party here, I worked very hard to build the party in the state, I did my best, but, unfortunately some bad elements crept into the party and destroyed everything.”
“Before, ANPP stood for justice; it stood for fairness in the beginning. But unfortunately along the line, there were so many bad people, who are greedy, a group of bad elements who came into the party and destroyed it, even some of the founding fathers of the party, I don’t have to mention names, contributed immensely to the destruction of the party. So I decided that before things become worse, I better move out. So, I have found a lasting and more durable platform for my people in the PDP.”

This sentiment was also expressed by Saleh who was told to forget his senatorial ambition as the the party will favour the incumbent senator, Ahmed Lawal .
Saleh said the signals are there for everyone to see that the time is up for the ANPP which has formed government in the state since 1999. He revealed that he decided to resign from the cabinet of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam when he discovered that the governor was running ANPP in the state as his personal property.
But ANPP organized the rally to send a message to the opposition in the state that it still remains strong in the state. Former governor of the state, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim who was happy about the crowd at the rally “with the crowd I saw in Potiskum and here (Gashua), I have no doubt in my mind that ANPP is going to win the state. I can boast to say that any party I joined since 1983, when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe raised my hand up in Gashua on this ground, has always won in the state and this will continue in 2011 and beyond. As far as I am concerned it was only two persons that left ANPP, Usman Albishir and Tijjani Zannah Zakariyya, the former speaker.”

He added that “PDP is a spent force in Yobe and no one is willing to vote for the party in Yobe. If PDP win just one seat in Yobe, I will retire from politics.”
Gaidam said he was surprise with the massive turn-out of the people at the rally and that it was an indication that the people of the zone are with his administration and the party.
Alhaji Sidi Karasuwa, a former party chairman, and present commissioner for housing who spoke at the rally said:“Those who left for PDP are there just to contest and continue with their usual activities of looting the treasury and we thank God that they are now with us. They are even political liabilities to the ANPP.”
He added that “those who left the ANPP for other parties especially Senator Usman Albishir and his followers when they come back to us, we will turn them back. ANPP will continue to rule the state beyond 2011 and even for another 20 years.”

On his part, Dr. Ahmed Lawal, the senator representing Yobe North said “it is a known fact that this zone is for ANPP and when the election comes, we will show them that it remains ANPP. We are supposed to be three from this zone that are in the National Assembly but the whirlwind of corruption has taken one of us away. We are going to do everything to ensure that the zone is won by the ANPP and that the number of votes are more than what the party got in 1999, 2003 and 2007.”
The senator also said “we will also ensure that the House of Representatives seat in the hands of PDP is taking back. We are going to do everything to make the impact of the party felt in every home.”

Despite the exit of Albishir, Saleh and Galadima, Sidi Karasuwa said that government, after discovering that it is going to be a battle to win back the state, got to work immediately and was able to impact on the lives of the people of the state which was seen in the massive turn-out of people at the rally.
Karasuwa who was a former commissioner for education said the present administration has done enough to improving the school system by providing infrastructure and learning materials, construction of boarding junior secondary schools in all the six local governments in the zone of Nguru, Bade, Karasuwa, Jakusko, Machina and Yusufari.

He further revealed that the government was able to provide township road in Gashua, construction of tarred road in Jajimaji-Karasuwa (18kms) and rehabilitation of Nguru-Gashua road and provision of tarred road from Nguru-Machina (57kms). Complete rehabilitation of Government Hospital, Gashua and provision of drugs and equipment. The award of contract for Gashua-Yusufari road (about 32kms). Nguru township road and drainage.
The former party chairman said the people of the area could not but show appreciation to the government and ANPP for these and the fact that uncountable numbers of water projects have been commissioned which have improved their lives and economic activities.
He said with people like Senator Ahmed Lawal, Engr. Baba Goni Machina, Hon. Baba Machinama, Hon. Adamu Dala Dogo and Alhaji Sani Inuwa Nguru . Yobe North would not queue behind any other party.

Actress to Challenge Campbell Diamonds Testimony

2010-08-11T09:24:00.001-07:00

Supermodel Naomi Campbell's testimony at Charles Taylor's war crimes trial is likely to be challenged today when a Hollywood film star and a modelling agent take the stand.
Both Mia Farrow and Carole White are liable to contradict Campbell when they take the stand at the "blood diamonds" trial of the former Liberian president at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague.

Court documents suggest that White will testify that Campbell knew in advance she would get diamonds from Taylor after a dinner in South Africa in 1997 -- and that she seemed disappointed with the "pebbles" she had received.

White recalled seeing two men at Campbell's room giving her "a scrubby piece of paper" containing about a half-dozen "small, greyish pebbles".
She will also testify that Campbell and Taylor were "mildly flirtatious" at the dinner -- an impression that Campbell denies -- and that she heard Taylor tell the 40-year-old supermodel that he was going to give her some diamonds.

White "heard Taylor tell Ms Campbell that he was going to send her diamonds," according to notes of an interview that prosecutors conducted with White.
"It was arranged that he would send some men back with the gift."

According to White, the court documents added, Campbell "seemed excited about the diamonds and she kept talking about them".
Farrow, who also attended the dinner, has told prosecutors that Campbell had told her and other guests an "unforgettable story" the day after the event.
"She told us that she had been awakened in the night by knocking at her door, she opened the door to find two or three men, I do not recall how many, who presented her with a large diamond which they said was from Charles Taylor," says Farrow's statement.

Taylor, 62, is accused of receiving blood diamonds in return for arming rebels in Sierra Leone who murdered, raped and maimed civilians during a 1991-2001 civil war in the west African nation in which 120,000 died.

Prosecutors had subpoenaed Campbell in hopes of casting doubt on Taylor's credibility and to try to disprove his contention that he never possessed rough diamonds.
Campbell testified on Thursday that two unknown men had delivered to her room.

"dirty-looking stones" after a dinner she attended in South Africa, hosted by then president Nelson Mandela, at which she was seated next to Taylor.
"I saw a few stones in there. Very small, dirty-looking stones ... maybe three, two or three," she told the court.

At breakfast the next morning, she added, she told White -- founder of Premier Model Management in London and her agent at the time -- and Farrow about the gift, both of whom assumed the stones were diamonds.

"One of the two said 'that is obviously Charles Taylor' and I said 'yes I guess it was'," she told the court, adding that she later gave the stones to a representative of a Mandela charity.
Jeremy Ratcliffe, then head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, who Campbell said she gave the "dirty-looking stones" to, announced Friday that he had turned them over to police in South Africa for authentication.

"They are real diamonds, handed back to us now, and the investigation begins," said Musa Zondi, spokesman for the special investigations unit of the South African police on Saturday.
On whether Campbell would be questioned, Zondi said: "It would depend on the information we have and the information we still need. There is no cut and dried (that) this will happen or won't happen."

RE: Outsourcing Justice: Time to Claim Our Profession Back!

2010-07-08T03:03:00.000-07:00

And so, the Federal Government last week banned the not-so-Super Eagles from international competitions for the next two years. Then, the EFCC stormed the offices of the Nigerian Football Federation carting off documents. One hopes the first is not simply a knee-jerk reaction, and the latter will result in questions answered. Questions such as: how was the huge sum earmarked for the team’s preparation disbursed? Is there some truth to the allegation that shortlisted candidates for team coach were asked to inflate their remuneration and by whom? Who bungled the travel and hotel bookings in South Africa and at what cost? Were all those government officials and hangers-on who were in South Africa really necessary and were they there legitimately? Who footed the cost? If the taxpayer, why?

And when those questions are answered, culprits made to face the law.
Here's a question for President Goodluck Jonathan: would the books of the NFF have been looked into if the Super Eagles had progressed in the competition and done us proud?
Meanwhile, there are legal issues concerning government’s ban. Not surprisingly, our cover this week is on that.

Below is a reader’s response to my column of June 15:
I read your column, Outsourcing Justice: Time to Claim Our Profession Back, published in THISDAY LAWYER of Tuesday, 15 June, 2010. It is indeed time to claim back our profession. That was the pith of one of the papers delivered at the recently held IBA Regional Conference in Lagos. However, as much as we need to claim back our profession, there is indeed a bigger need, as it were, to claim back our country from the hoodlums holding Nigeria to ransom. Why do I say this?
We cannot divorce the legal profession or the judiciary from the rest of the country. The judiciary, for example, is a reflection of the larger Nigerian society. Ours is a society without any values whatsoever. We are in a country where right means wrong and wrong means right.

Why do we expect the judicial system to work in Nigeria? That is an unrealistic expectation in the circumstances. The people at the helm of the judicial system are Nigerians and they are not immune to the graft and corruption of the larger society. What about those who make appointments to the bench? Are they not Nigerians? Once a bad appointment is made either in respect of the intellectual capabilities of the appointee or the appointee’s integrity then there is a problem for as long as such a person remains on the bench.

You wrote about your consternation during proceedings at a narcotics smuggling trial. Quite a number of the prosecutors are just going through the motions. There is no zeal or passion for their work. A lot are on the lookout for a big pay day like majority of us. The narcotics smugglers brought to court are a small percentage of those involved in the trade. Majority are never caught. The authorities simply look the other way.

It is also well and good to complain about the image problems brought about by narcotics smuggling. However, those in government cause more damage to the country. When people loot the treasury with impunity and there is no punishment of any sort, then those who do not have the opportunity to loot the treasury will become drug dealers, armed robbers, fraudsters, etc, all in a bid ‘to make it’ in Nigeria.

There is not much difference between the politician and civil servant who loot the treasury, the armed robber, the drug dealer, the judge who takes bribe and the lawyer who gives, etc. The basic difference is in the opportunities available to each of them. The underlying values are basically the same. If the rogue politician did not have the opportunity to rob the treasury he will probably be an armed robber so long as he has the guts to match his sticky fingers.

There was also the point about judges taking control of their courts. At some point in your article, it appeared as if the judges were the victims. I really do not know about judges being traumatised and living under the threat of a petition to NJC. A lot of the judges behave like the Lords of the Manor.

As far as I am concerned, no fairly competent judge with integrity will lose sleep about any petition to NJC. When a judge is in control of his court both lawyers and litigants know and they will not fool around in that particular court.
The problem comes when judges have compromised themselves. The interesting thing is that after a time the word will go round that a particular judge is amenable to bribery. Of course the judge will soon be afraid of his shadow.

Some judges are so lawless and reckless it is unbelievable. Some courts start sitting by 11 am and the lawyers do not complain. It is not enough for us to talk about claiming back our profession, we must back up our speech with action. Just as we need to take our destinies in our hands to rescue Nigeria from the marauding politicians. As lawyers, we need to either boycott courts that sit at their own times or collectively lodge a complaint against such judges.

We must also confront the graft in the system. No one complains or stands up to the court workers who exploit lawyers and litigants alike. The court workers will demand outrageous sums to do the things they are paid to do. In claiming our profession and country back, we must stand up to such civil servants and refuse to be exploited against our will.

There is no doubt that once a judge is in control of his court then things will move considerably faster. The problem appears to be that some people have taken up appointment as judges when they have no business being judges. They do not have the mental capacity or the discipline required for the job.

I am counsel in a matter that has been in court since 2005. The matter is purely on interpretation of an Act. The judge who was handling the case was just not up to it. He just kept finding reasons to adjourn the matter for about five years. Fortunately he got transferred this year and we started afresh before a new judge. The matter has been set down for judgment as I write.
There is another matter that for about six years the judge had only taken two witnesses. He will fail to sit for no apparent reason. He will start seating at about 10.30 am and by 2 pm he will round up. He has been transferred and hopefully the new judge will be more diligent.

I have a personal matter, which I commenced by originating summons. Final addresses were adopted in the matter more than one year ago. But as I write, the judge has failed to deliver judgment to my utter frustration. He has been transferred and the news is that he went with the file and so no one knows what will become of the case. Such a judge has every reason to fear appearing before the NJC.

Even with our challenges and limitations, it is not difficult to speedily resolve disputes. A judge should not skip court except for ill health or for some serious emergency. At the beginning of a legal year all the activities for which a judge should be involved in should be noted in his diary and cases must not be adjourned to such dates. But what do we have? We have a situation where some judges routinely skip court. There are judges in the federal courts in Lagos whose families are outside Lagos. Some of them travel out every Friday, but rather than come back on Sunday, they will come back on Monday, with the attendant consequences to the litigants in their courts.

A judge should only have on his list the number of cases he should be able to take in a day. Why have sixty cases on the cause list if it is not sheer mischief? Once trial is opened in a matter, it should proceed from day to day or in the worst case there should not be more than two weeks adjournment at any time up until the case is concluded. In delivering judgment, same should simply be summarised and copies of the judgment made available to the litigants on the same day. There is really no need for a judge to spend, for instance, two hours of precious judicial time reading a judgment in court.

Being a judge takes common sense. The appellate judges generally behave like gods. Motions with their exorbitant costs are routinely struck out for all sorts of ridiculous reasons. The courts are meant to do justice to the parties and not a classroom where motion papers are scrutinised for typographical errors and for other inconsequential errors.

On the whole it is critical we claim our country back from the hoodlums holding the country hostage. We need a country where the representatives of the people will truly represent the people and not themselves, a country where people will go into public service to serve and not to loot. That way we would have a judicial system we shall be proud of.
•Ikenna Okoli, FCIArb., Legal Practitioner & Notary Public, Surulere, Lagos

Let a Quartet Drive Africa?s Development

2010-07-08T03:02:00.001-07:00

Man was made to improve his environment and that is why on a daily bases, the secrets of nature are being discovered by the intelligent ones leading to the advancement of humanity. These would come in forms of new research discoveries, inventions and innovations.

Stagnancy is not the way of nature and man must abide by this principle or sink to the level of animal where he once was.
The world is progressing faster because of legacies left by intelligent and wise ones like albeit Einstein, Socrates, Michael Faraday and many others but Africa seems to be left out in this progress.

I have devoted much of this column since we were given the go ahead by the Editor-in-Chief of this great media to the cause of Africa because during my earlier days in journalism, a mentoring editor told me to concentrate on Africa as a foreign correspondent because that should be the region bordering us.

This fired my passion and made me to look around me to see whether the continent is truly helpless as often portrayed by the foreign media but in my quest I was elated to learn that the continent has tremendous resources but has an amazing deficit in leadership.

Now, what of the power of its critics within? I discovered that the critics within look at the continent using the same lens as the foreign media they read and one can neither blame the foreign media nor these critics because the mind can only regurgitate what it has sipped.

But oftentimes, the critics do not offer any solution believing that the leaders they lampoon cannot entertain alternative reasoning.
Any person who has been in any type of leadership position must have realized how tasty some leaders are to advice and guidance and how charlatans exploit this lacuna.

To this end I would call on critics of African leaders to be ready to offer solutions as well to make sure that this our great continent comes to realise the God ordained function of leadership it must assume in the years to come.
My suggestion is that rather than three countries as proposed by former foreign affairs minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, four countries, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Angola must come together to form a quartet to map a way to the emancipation of the continent economically.
Of course, that does not mean that other countries would be left behind but their efforts would help to propel other countries like, Equatorial Guinea which often prides itself in a funny way as Spain on Africa and the likes of Egypt which does not wholly identify with the continent into action.

South Africa has an edge because its economy is strong and in 2008 it ranked fourth on the Ibrahim Index of Good Governance and has been acclaimed by various informed categorizers as organized.
By UN classification the country is has abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors, a stock exchange that ranks among the top twenty in the world, and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centres throughout the entire region.

Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent with 150 million people and the sixth supplier of petroleum worldwide. Its major inhibition is bad governance but it has practiced consistence democracy for more than a decade now thereby signaling stability. The economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. It is a hegemon in West African sub-region.
Ghana has demonstrated that it can recover fast from the shock of backwardness that lasted for more than a decade. It is well endowed with natural resources and has twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. It has recently discovered oil in large quantity.

Angola is the only major competitor with Nigeria in oil supply on the continent.The economy is the fastest growing in Africa and one of the fastest in the world. The country pulled back from disarray caused by a quarter century of civil war into a period of transformation in recent years.
Now, with these success stories, who would say that there is no future for a continent where there are surplus natural resources.
Rather than acting solo on their countries, it may work better for these emerging economies to come together and map out a way for the other countries to fall in line and the strategies, I would write on this column in the days to come with consultation from experts.

My week: General Stanley McChrystal

2010-06-26T01:08:00.000-07:00

Monday I am the commander of Isaf forces in Afghanistan, and I am a dignified Special Forces warrior monk. My body is my temple, war is my holy creed. I am at my happiest in my tent, with my aides, where we all eat sand and hit each other in the faces with rifle butts, for fun.
But today I gotta go the city, to speak with a politician from France. It’s f***ing gay.
“Yo, sir,” says one of my aides. “You wanna know more about this French bitch?” Hell no. These civilians are all the same. Especially the Euros. They just don’t understand the enemy we’re facing out here. Fact is, these blue-skinned bastards put up a hell of a fight, and blowing up their holy tree just made ’em come at us all the harder. Some of ’em were riding dragons. I shit you not one bit.
“He’s got issues,” sighs my aide. “They all do. Reckon you’re outta touch, gone loco, too fixated on your own myth, livin’ like some general guy outta some Hollywood movie.
It’s BS.” “Civilian assholes,” I snort. “Wouldn’t even know Unobtanium if they choked on it.” “Um, what?” says my aide.
Tuesday Back in the tent. “Yo, General?” says another aide. “We got the President on the satellite phone. Sounds like he gotta hard-on ’bout somethin’. You wanna take it?”
“Tell him I’m out,” I say, idly scratching my crotch with a bayonet.
“The dumbass.” The aide nods meaningfully towards a corner of the tent. There’s some journalist dude sitting there, who we granted all kinda special access. Forgot all about him.
“And you can quote me on that,” I say. “Where you from again?” Grazia, he says. It’s a British gossip weekly. Apparently I’ve a good chance of getting on the cover. It’s down to either me or Piers Morgan’s wedding.
“Not bad,” I say. “You gettin’ much?” “Not really,” says the journalist. Just me and my boys savagely ridiculing the US Ambassador, the Vice-President, the President, the British, the French, the Canadians, Hamid Karzai, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Benedict XVI, Muslims, vegetarians, English football, ginger hair and anybody who wears spectacles. “Huh,” I say. “Well, sorry to waste your time.”
Source:The Times

10 years after the genome, Africa finally to reap benefits of genetics

2010-06-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

The genetic roots of African diseases are to be investigated in a £25 million initiative to bring the medical benefits of the human genome to the poorest continent.
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa project, or H3 Africa, will fund African scientists to research how genetic factors contribute to infectious diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis, which are the continent’s leading causes of death and ill health. It will also support research into non-communicable conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The programme, launched as scientists celebrate the tenth anniversary of the sequencing of the human genome this week, aims to redress concerns that Africa has missed out on the exciting medical research made possible since.
It is funded by two organisations that made the biggest financial contributions to the original Human Genome Project: the US National Institutes of Health and the Wellcome Trust, the British biomedical research charity.
“Africa has, for the most part, been left out of the boom in genomic science. We have not equally applied the tools of genomics to African disease and we are attempting to rectify that,” said Charles Rotimi, a Nigerian-born scientist at the US National Human Genome Research Institute, a leader of H3 Africa.
In the decade since the genome was sequenced scientists have used it to identify hundreds of genetic variations linked to human disease. Most of these studies, however, have involved European or Asian populations.
H3 Africa will support dozens of studies of the continent’s diseases, exploring how individual DNA variations influence susceptibility. It will also underpin genetic research into African pathogens and the vectors that carry themsuch as the malarial mosquito. The initiative aims to change the colonial approach to medical research in Africa and to increase the continent’s capacity to investigate its health problems for itself.
Bongani Mayosi, of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, who leads H3 Africa’s non-communicable disease steering group, said: “It indicates a very important shift in the way science is done in Africa. Up to nowwe have operated in almost a colonial mode of science. People outside Africa came here to collect samples, but studied them outside Africa to promote the knowledge and careers of people outside Africa. This is promoting science in Africa, by Africans and for Africans.”
As African populations are older and more genetically diverse than those from other continents, some insights from African genomes will be relevant to the health of other ethnicities.
Francis Collins, a leader of the Human Genome Project who is now director of the NIH, said: “Africa is a special place to carry out those kinds of studies. There is more genetic variation in Africa than anywhere; it is the cradle of humanity. Things that we learn in Africa will undoubtedly have broad implications for people in all areas of the planet.”

Britain and Russia to form closer ties

2010-06-26T00:51:00.000-07:00

David Cameron held out the prospect of warmer relations with Russia last night but cautioned that the two countries still had difficulties to work through.
The Prime Minister raised the murder of Alexander Litvinenko at the start of his first face-to-face meeting with President Medvedev and said it was important that the pair were candid with each other.
Mr Cameron said there was an opportunity to improve London-Moscow relations as the pair delivered a largely upbeat report on their first meeting at the G8 summit of world leaders in Canada.
Mr Medvedev said they had agreed to stay in close personal touch and promised to give Downing Street his “personal and intense” attention.
After the 45-minute meeting, Mr Cameron said he would be following Mr Medvedev’s Twitter feed.
But the Prime Minister acknowledged that a full thaw would be difficult while Mr Litvinenko’s killer remained untried.
He said: “I think there is a real opportunity to put the bilateral relations on to a new footing to try (and) make a stronger footing and work through the issues where we have agreement and those we still have things to work through.”
Moscow has refused to comply with Scotland Yard’s request for the extradition of their prime suspect for the 2006 murder in London, Andrei Lugovy.
A diplomatic tit-for-tat over the past few years has seen rows over BP contracts and the closure of British Council offices in Russia.
Mr Medvedev appeared to acknowledge the difficulties, saying: “We agreed that certain changes must be made in our relations... We also agreed we will stay in touch personally.

'Kick-ass' Obama launches personal attack on BP chief Tom Hayward

2010-06-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

BP may have hoped yesterday to boast of its first real progress in containing the leaking well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Instead, it faced a harsh personal attack on its chief executive from President Obama and a devastating new report that called the company a “recurring environmental criminal”.

Even as US government analysts said that the top cap installed over the well last week was finally capturing up to three quarters of the oil rising to the well head, Mr Obama lashed out at Tony Hayward, saying that he would have fired him for a series of remarks that have already made the BP CEO a lightning rod for the growing fury of Gulf Coast residents.

“He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements,” Mr Obama said, when asked for his reaction to Mr Hayward’s claim last month that the environmental impact of the spill would be “very, very modest” and his admission that “I would like to have my life back”.

Mr Hayward will testify before Congress next week for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Mr Obama has frequently answered those who criticise his handling of the crisis by saying that his job is to solve the problem and co-ordinate the clean-up, rather than vent. However, he used an interview broadcast yesterday on NBC to do just that.

In the process, he revealed what appears to be a complete breakdown of trust between the White House and BP’s high command. Asked why he had not yet spoken directly to Mr Hayward, 49 days into the disaster, Mr Obama said: “Here’s the reason: because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s gonna say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.”

Mr Obama also gave the clearest signal yet that his Administration may use evidence of negligence in the days and weeks before the blowout to build a criminal case against BP, potentially adding billions of dollars to the company’s liabilities.

“Initial reports indicate that there may be situations in which not only human error was involved, but you also saw some corner-cutting in terms of safety,” he told NBC’s Today Show.

The claim was supported by Courtney Kemp, the widow of one of the 11 men killed when the rig blew up. Testifying before Congress’s House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mrs Kemp said that her husband had been concerned for weeks before the explosion about the difficulties that engineers were having in controlling the well. “This well was different in the fact that they were having so many problems,” she said. “It was just kind of out of hand.”

The pressure to ensure that heads roll at BP will only mount with the publication of a new report on BP’s record of spills and accidents — the worst of any oil major operating in North America. The company pleaded guilty in 1999 to illegally dumping oil off the north coast of Alaska, failed to update vital equipment and safety systems at its Alaskan base in Prudhoe Bay and allowed a “fundamental culture of mistrust” to fester between workers and management there, according to the report by ProPublica, a non-profit research organisation.

“They are a recurring environmental criminal and they do not follow US health, safety and environmental policy,” Jeanne Pascal, a former lawyer for the US Environmental Protection Agency, told ProPublica.
Source:The Times

UN passes toughest sanctions yet on Iran

2010-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

The UN Security Council today imposed its toughest sanctions yet on Iran in what could be its last chance to prevent a defiant Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

Both China and Russia joined the 12-vote majority in favour of the sanctions in the 15-nation council, but Lebanon abstained and Brazil and Turkey voted against.

The resolution will be the fourth round of UN sanctions since 2006 aimed at curbing Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons ambitions – and it is not clear that the big powers will have time to negotiate another round before Iran achieves “breakout” potential to build a nuclear bomb.

Analysts voiced doubt that the tightened sanctions would dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon that would upend the strategic calculus in the Middle East.

“Iran has been very successful at getting round sanctions to date and continues to find ways to move equipment and other supplies. They use false fronts and change ship names. They understand the legal limits of sanctions and are able to play around with them,” said Dr Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.

“Whatever happens, Iran will continue its nuclear weapons programme. Everyone in this part of the world understands that.”

The new UN sanctions will prohibit the sale of heavy weapons such as tanks, warplanes, attack helicopters and warships to Iran and allow inspection of planes and ships suspected of carrying banned cargoes.

The resolution will also freeze the assets of 41 more Iranian firms, including 15 controlled by the increasingly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

One individual, Javad Rahiqi, the head of Iran’s Esfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, where uranium is processed, will be added to a UN blacklist that subjects him to a travel ban and asset freeze.

Sir Richard Dalton, associate fellow at Chatham House, said: “The measures in this resolution send a strong political message but it has been clear for years that that no economic factors are going to bring about any flexibility in the Iranian position.”

With Iran continued to enrich uranium, the failure of the “dual track” approach of diplomatic sticks and carrots, pursued by the six-power grouping of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States, could make an attack by Israel or the United States the only option left to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear arms.

The resolution also contains language that could trigger non-UN sanctions by major powers, including the European Union, on key “correspondent banking” and insurance services to Iran.

It calls on all UN members “to prevent the provision of financial services... if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that such services... could contribute to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities.” The new package, however, falls short of the “crippling sanctions” threatened last year by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.

Moscow and Beijing won a series of concessions from the United States as negotiations on the new resolution dragged on for six months after President Obama’s year-end deadline for Iran to cooperate with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

As well as dropping a proposal for a ban on new investment in Iran’s energy sector, the United States agreed to water down the text to limit the scope of the new sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

Washington removed four Russian firms from a US blacklist for helping to arm Iran and Syria, and re-wrote the resolution to allow Moscow to go ahead with its much-delayed sale of S-300 air defence missiles to Teheran.

The Obama Administration also promised to try to exempt Russian and Chinese firms from future Congressional sanctions on companies that do business with Iran.

Susan Rice, the US representative at the UN, told the Security Council, however: “These sanctions are as tough as they are smart and precise.” Sir Mark Lyall-Grant, Britain’s UN ambassador, read the council a statement from the foreign ministers of the six powers, also known as the “E3+3”, stressing that the resolution “keeps to door open for continued engagement between the E3+3 and Iran.” “We expect Iran to demonstrate a pragmatic attitude and to respond positively,” the six-power statement said.

Brazil and Turkey voted against the resolution in a display of annoyance that the big powers had ignored a deal they struck with Iran last month to swap low-enriched uranium for higher-grade nuclear fuel for the Teheran Research Reactor.

The United States, Russia and France dismissed the swap deal yesterday in confidential responses to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Glyn Davies, the US chief told the nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation board in Vienna that Iran appeared “determined to defy and to obfuscate’ international attempts to probe its nuclear programme.

“We do not see sanctions as an effective implement in this case,” said Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Brazil’s UN representative, told the Security Council. “Sanctions will most probably lead to the suffering of the people of Iran and will play into the hands of those on both sides who do not want dialogue to prevail.” Ertugrul Apakan, Turkey’s UN envoy, said: “We see no viable alternative to a diplomatic and peaceful solution.”
Source:The Times

Euro plunges as Spain’s debt downgraded

2010-05-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

The euro plunged and US stock markets dived last night after Spain was stripped of its top-level credit rating by a leading rating agency over concerns about its economic growth.

In the latest blow to the eurozone, which is struggling to cope with the fallout from the Greek fiscal crisis, Fitch Ratings downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating — a measure of how easily it can meet the interest payment on its debt — by a notch from the top AAA rating to AA+.

Standard & Poor’s, another ratings agency, downgraded Spain’s rating for the second time to AA last month but Moody’s, the other leading agency, has maintained the rating at AAA.

Any downgrade in a sovereign credit rating will push up the interest that a country must pay on its debts. Brian Coulton, Fitch’s head of EMEA sovereign ratings, said that the process of cutting the country’s debt could slow economic growth.Fitch queried Spain’s forecasts for economic growth, highlighting that the inflexibility of the labour market and the restructuring of regional and local savings banks could act as a drag on growth.

Investors were unnerved by the move, sending the Dow Jones industrial average of leading US shares plummeting by 122.3 points, or nearly 1.19 per cent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index suffered its worst monthly decline since February 2009.

The euro slumped against the dollar after investors abandoned it in favour of the greenback, sliding to $1.2285. It also fell against the pound, dropping to 85.04p, down from 85.40p.

Analysts said that the full effect of Fitch’s announcement, which came after the European markets shut last night, would not be felt until Monday.

John Praveen, the chief investment strategist at Prudential International Investment Advisers, said: “The markets are reacting negatively. If Moody’s also downgrades Spanish debt then we will probably have a very negative reaction because Spain is considered much bigger than Greece.”

Spain’s debt was 40 per cent before the financial crisis in 2007. Britain’s national debt is 62.1 per cent of GDP.

I’ll see you get justice, Obama promises victims of BP oil spill

2010-05-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama came face to face with the reality of America’s biggest oil disaster last night, seeing tar balls on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and promising stricken communities: “Justice will be done.”

As BP struggled for a third day to complete a “top kill” procedure aimed at tapping a leaking well on the seabed, the President flew over the slick, walked Louisiana’s oiled shores and witnessed for the second time the desperate efforts to hold back the tide.

“This is not just a mess we’ve got to mop up. People are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach, parents are worried about their children’s health, everybody has watched this nightmare threaten the dreams they want to build,” he said during a visit to Grand Isle, a barrier island community.

Under mounting political pressure over the disaster, the President said that he had ordered Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Secretary, and Admiral Thad Allen, the US Coast Guard chief, to “triple the manpower in places where oil has hit the shore or is within 24 hours of impact”.BP announced that it has spent $930 million (£640 million) responding to the disaster, but Mr Obama reminded the British oil company that there would be many more bills and that the federal government would be exploring “any and all reasonable contingency plans” if the top-kill plan failed. “Even if the leak was stopped today, it wouldn’t change the fact that these waters are full of oil,” he said.

BP said it would know on Sunday whether the procedure, which now includes a “junk shot” attempt to plug the well with materials such as shredded rubber and golf balls, had worked.

In a message to the people of Grand Isle, which has faced numerous natural disasters, and to others affected in the Gulf region, President Obama said: “I know that you have weathered your fair share of trials and tragedy. I know there are times you have wondered if you have been asked to face them alone . . . you are not alone, you will not be abandoned . . . we are on your side and we will see this through.”

Local residents observed that hours before the President’s arrival on the island, about 300 clean-up workers were brought in and put to work on the beaches. Hired by a contractor for BP, they were paid $12 an hour to pick up debris in what the US Coastguard said was a “pre-cleaning procedure” in preparation for the next wave of oil.

Around Grand Isle it was promising to be one of the busiest weekends of the year, just as it should be for the Memorial Day holiday. But it was the wrong kind of busy: instead of tourists there were squadrons of oil-spill workers clad in protective suits along the shore and helicopters overhead.

“Enjoy the beach by building sandcastles, swimming or sunbathing,” the tourism bureau’s brochure invites visitors. But wooden signs in the dunes now announced: “Beach Closed.” Some residents have erected signs of their own: “BP, we want our beach back”; and “Shame on you BP”. Vicky Lemoine, whose 17-year-old daughter Hannah painted the signs, said: “People are scared. I hope the President will see how precious the land is to the people here.”

Green Isle relies on the tourism, seafood and oil industries. At the Bridgeside Marina, scores of vessels should have been moored for today’s Speckled Trout Rodeo, but the marina is empty and the fishing grounds have been closed on federal orders. The competition was to have raised money for charitable causes, including a family whose home still needs renovation from one of the last disasters here, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Grand Isle has been affected by hurricanes on average every seven years since 1860.

“We bounced back from it all — Katrina, Gustav, Ike. But I just don’t know if we’ll bounce back from this oil,” said Bob Sevin, the event organiser.

Source:The times

Dunkirk veterans recall the ‘blood-soaked sands’ on 70th anniversary of evacuation

2010-05-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

British veterans gathered on the seafront at Dunkirk today to mark the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of more than 300,000 allied troops trapped on the channel port’s beaches by the German Blitzkrieg.

As the 50-strong group joined a multinational ceremony at the town’s Allied Memorial, dozens of the “little ships” which had ferried the soldiers back to England bobbed offshore after many of the skippers who were part of the rescue operation in 1940 returned to join the commemorations.

On the promenade, the flags of Britain, France, Czechoslovakia and Germany flew over the stone memorial as soldiers, veterans and dignitaries including Prince Michael of Kent observed a minute’s silence. A French military band played the national anthems, and a flame of remembrance was lit.

“Seventy years ago these sands were blood-soaked. They were running with blood,” said John Davis, who fought in the rearguard, finally escaping the beach on the third ship he tried to board. The previous two had been blown up.“Each half an hour there was a raid and always there were 30 to 50 wounded or dead and we had to get stretcher bearers and also take the dead off and give them some sort of resting place,” he said.

“We couldn’t bury them. We covered them with tarpaulins to give them some respect. After the fifth day I noticed the stench – the sweet smell of death. It was a glorious summer so we had this stench of death around us.

“I was kept busy but I was all the while aware of this smell and the smoke from the tanks that was drifting over. It was very, very traumatic. I’d only ever seen neighbours laid nicely in coffins. Now I’d seen headless and limbless torsos with stomachs ripped out. It was a shocking sight for a 19 year old.”

Another veteran, Private Ken Blake, said: “All these things are still in your mind. You don’t forget — you can’t forget.”

The six-day evacuation, called Operation Dynamo, began on May 29, 1940. German Panzer divisions pushing through Belgium and the Ardennes had cut off the British Expeditionary Force and beaten it back to Dunkirk, but in what history has noted as one of Germany’s first major tactical errors of the war, Hitler briefly halted the tanks, giving Britain a crucial opportunity to rescue its stranded army.

As the Allies fought a fierce rearguard action, some 800 small boats, including trawlers, lifeboats, paddle steamers, tugs, yachts and barges, many skippered by amateur sailors, responded to the appeal for help. As the Luftwaffe bombed and strafed the men on the beaches, they ferried troops over the shallow coastal waters to bigger ships or took them straight back to English ports.

Winston Churchill called Dunkirk “a colossal military disaster”, stranding “the whole root and core and brain of the British Army”. Their rescue, he said, had been a “miracle of deliverance”.

A total of 338,000 British, French, Belgian and Canadian troops were rescued. Some 11,000 died on the beaches and 40,000 were captured.

Today’s ceremony was one of a series being held in northern France to commemorate the anniversary, although veteran numbers are dwindling. The youngest of those present today were in their late 80s, and advancing age led the Normandy Veterans’ Association to disband 10 years ago following the 60th anniversary.

Yesterday a service was held at Esquelbecq, just outside Dunkirk, to mark the SS massacre of more than 80 British soldiers captured while defending the town. They were herded into a barn by the crack SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler regiment, who blew them apart with grenades and machine-gun fire.

Source:The times

‘Crossbow cannibal’ case: police find more body parts

2010-05-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Police investigating the suspected murders of two prostitutes have found what they believe to be human remains in the River Aire in Shipley, West Yorkshire.

The discovery was made by police divers at around noon, 200 yards from the spot where the dismembered body parts of a third prostitute, Suzanne Blamires, were found on Tuesday.

Stephen Griffiths, a criminology student, appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of Ms Blamires and the two other women. Asked to confirm his name, he described himself as “the Crossbow Cannibal”.

Mr Griffiths, a former public schoolboy, appeared on charges linked to the disappearance of three women from Bradford’s red-light district during the past year.Police officers and forensic science experts searching for the missing two were trawling a fast-flowing industrial stream last night less than 400 yards from Mr Griffiths’s home in a block of flats in the red-light area.

A police spokesman said: “At around midday today, officers from West Yorkshire Police’s Underwater Search Unit recovered from the River Aire what are believed to be human remains.

“The remains will now be forensically examined to identify them, and at this stage it is too early to speculate on who the remains belong to.”

A series of drains running from the flats to the stream, known as Bradford Beck, were dug up by police yesterday.

The beck feeds directly into a river three miles away at a spot where dismembered body parts of Ms Blamires were discovered in bin bags and a rucksack four days ago.

She is said to have been murdered last weekend when a crossbow bolt was fired into her head, an act captured by a CCTV camera.

Detectives are investigating whether her killer ate part of her body after chopping it into pieces inside one of the flats. Mr Griffiths’ PhD research at the University of Bradford included an in-depth study of the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders of prostitutes in the East End of London. The mature student has chosen to be defended by the same Bradford law firm that represented Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.

Relatives of three missing women wept in court yesterday when the alleged serial killer was led into the dock. There were gasps when the court clerk asked him to give his name and he replied: “The Crossbow Cannibal.”

When he was asked for his address, he looked around the court and said: “Here, I guess”.

Hours later the Prime Minister promised to reconsider the laws on prostitution. David Cameron condemned the “truly terrible” killings in Bradford and offered his sympathy to the victims’ families. Asked whether prostitution laws should be reexamined, he said: “I dare say it should be looked at again.”

Prostitution itself is not illegal but there are laws against keeping a brothel, kerb-crawling and soliciting for sex.

Mr Griffiths was remanded in custody until his next appearance in court on June 7.

Source:The times

Google admits its Street View cars spied on wi-fi activity

2010-05-15T01:20:00.000-07:00

Google’s Street View cars have been spying on people’s internet use for three years, the search giant admitted last night. It had been scooping up snippets of people’s online activities broadcast over unprotected home and business wi-fi networks.

Google admitted that the cars’ radio antennae snooped on e-mails and other bits of information when the vehicles trundled through towns and cities. Google said that the data was collected only in short bursts as the vehicles passed by, and was never used.

The cars, which have cameras on a pole, have covered most of the towns and cities in the UK. Street View, launched in the US in 2007, provides real-world images of streets and roads that the user can manipulate, as part of Google’s online mapping products.

Its launch in the UK in April last year provoked a storm of protest, when people claimed that its images would help burglars seek out where to strike and invaded home owners’ privacy.

The Information Commissioner’s Office this year cleared Street View of any breach of the Data Protection Act but privacy regulators have expressed concern about the service. Yesterday’s confession will raise more fears about internet users’ privacy and how much personal information Google collects through its search engine and other services. Google admitted: “Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short.”

Google made the admission after German authorities began to examine why Google was using the cars to collect wi-fi data at all. A month ago Google said it was collecting only the name and location of local wi-fi networks — information, it argued, that was publicly available and was useful to help it improve its location services. Its data collection was much more invasive.

Internet activity such as e-mails, photos and which websites a user was looking at could have been collected by the cars. Google said that activity on secure websites, such as banking websites, could not be accessed and any activity on password-protected networks was also safe.

“We will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car wi-fi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second,” Alan Eustace, senior vice-president of engineering and research for Google wrote in a blog. “It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks.”

Google said it had contacted some privacy authorities in Europe and wanted to delete data. Street View cars would not collect any more wi-fi data. Experts said passwords, as well as general surfing, could have been caught in Google’s dragnet.

Source:The times

Obama denounces ‘big oil blame game’ as experts question information on leak

2010-05-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

President Obama vowed last night to end the oil industry’s “cosy relationship” with federal regulators, castigating industry executives for creating a “ridiculous spectacle” after they attempted to blame one another for the Gulf of Mexico spill.

He admitted that the Government shared responsibility for the disaster but expressed frustration at the industry’s failure to do the same during hearings on Capitol Hill this week. “I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings,” he said last night.

“You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. The American people cannot have been impressed with that, and I certainly wasn’t. I will not tolerate more finger pointing or irresponsibility.

“For a decade or more there’s been a cosy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill. It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies. That cannot, and will not, happen any more.”Oil-spill experts have challenged claims by BP that the slick is relatively tiny and said that the company has blocked scientists from measuring it. The British energy giant was coming under pressure to allow independent access to the site around the broken well, with analysts saying that imagery provided by BP suggested a leak of as much as 2.9 million gallons a day.

Admiral Thad Allen, the commandant of the US Coast Guard who is heading the federal response, said that he was treating the incident as catastrophic. While the crisis had not produced the feared impact on the shoreline, “this is a constantly changing life cycle”, he cautioned. “It’s like when you are engaged in a war looking at the enemy. In this case the enemy is oil.”

BP is trying to set equipment in place on the seabed that, if successful, will divert the oil through a pipe to the surface and into floating tankers. John Amos, a geologist and president of Skytruth, a non-profit group that uses satellite imagery to investigate environmental issues, is among those cynical of the company’s claims that it does not know how much oil is gushing.

“One key parameter for BP is, how much oil are we going to have to handle? Is it 200,000 gallons or is it two million? How big do our pipes need to be to handle it, what connections do we need, what kind of pressures are we going to be encountering? To hear these executives saying that ‘well, the number isn’t really important, it wouldn’t change our response’ raises red flags. It suggests a somewhat cavalier attitude.”

The US Coast Guard reported on April 24 that an estimated 1,000 barrels (42,000 US gallons) a day was pouring into the sea. On April 28 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency, raised the estimate to 5,000 barrels — a figure that BP disputed before its chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, admitted the next day that the figure could be correct. “We’ ll take help from anyone,” he said.

Ian McDonald, a marine geophysicist and expert in oil-slick analysis at Florida State University, said that by that point the slick was 8.9 million gallons, with a daily leak of 26,500 barrels.

Steve Wereley, an expert in fluid mechanics at Purdue University, has also examined BP’s video footage of the leak, assessing the outflow using a method known as particle imaging velocimetry. The results indicated that, if the flow shown on the video remains constant, approximately 70,000 barrels are emptying from the well.

BP has declined to quantify the emission: “We have said all along that there was no way to measure the leak. We are focused on stopping the leak and not measuring it.” Oil-slick experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts had been due to fly to the Gulf of Mexico last week to assess the spill. BP then withdrew the plan and told them not to come.

Douglas Brinkley, a Gulf Coast historian at Rice University, told CNN: “We’ ve got to stop relying on BP, we need transparency not cover-up . . . we need our best oceanographers on the site. BP has been blocking people, saying we’ve got it under control, and as we know they don’t. They’re running a misinformation campaign.”

Source:The times

Polanski sexually assaulted me at 16, claims British actress

2010-05-15T01:16:00.000-07:00

Roman Polanski was accused yesterday of sexually assaulting a British actress when she was 16. The director is currently fighting to avoid extradition to the US on child sex charges in an unrelated case.

Charlotte Lewis, who appeared in Polanski’s 1986 film Pirates, came forward to claim that she was abused by Polanski “in the worst possible way” at his home in Paris in 1982, while he was a fugitive from his 1977 rape trial in the US.

Ms Lewis, who appeared at a press conference in Los Angeles with the celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, said that she was coming forward to make sure that the film director “faced justice” as he fights extradition proceedings from Switzerland.

The actress, who made her screen debut in the television series Grange Hill in 1978 and went on to appear in The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy in 1986 and in a string of other lesser-known films, claimed that the director “forced himself upon me” in his apartment in Paris.Ms Allred said that her client was “ready to testify under oath if and when that is necessary”.

Ms Lewis, who read from a prepared statement, said that she had travelled from London to give a statement to prosecutors in Los Angeles. She wanted them to know that the 1977 alleged rape over which Polanski is fighting extradition was “not an isolated incident” as portrayed by Polanski’s lawyers.

“I am also a victim of Roman Polanski. He sexually abused me in the worst possible way when I was just 16 years old, four years after he fled the United States to avoid sentencing for his crimes,” she said.

“Mr Polanski knew I was only 16 years old when he met me and forced himself upon me in his apartment in Paris. He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behavior ever since it occurred.”

Ms Lewis said that she was coming forward to because she wanted to ensure that the director “gets what he deserves”. She said that the attack on her had similarities with Polanski’s alleged rape of a 13-year-old aspiring model in 1977, but declined to give details. She also declined to say what effect the assault had had on her life.

Ms Allred said she hoped that her client’s testimony would affect sentencing for Polanski, but last night it was not clear what influence an alleged crime committed in France could have on Polanski’s case, should he be extradited.

LA prosecutors confirmed that they had met Ms Lewis on Thursday.

In 1992 Ms Lewis starred opposite James Spader in Storyville.

She also featured on the front page of the July 1993 issue of Playboy magazine, floating in a red bikini.

Her 1995 co-starring role in Men of War alongside Dolph Lundgren is considered her most memorable film.

According to the Internet Movie Database, her last film was Hey DJ in 2003.

Ms Allred said that the attack on her client had had “a major impact on her life”. She did not rule out a law suit against Polanski in the future.

Ms Allred is a leading Hollywood lawyer with a roster of celebrity clients. In the wake of Tiger Woods’s fall from grace, she emerged as the representative of at least two of his mistresses: the nightlife promoter Rachel Uchitel and the porn star Joslyn James.

Asked if Ms Lewis was “shopping for a book deal”, the attorney replied: “Next question.”

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1978 to unlawful sexual intercourse with Samantha Geimer. He was accused of giving her champagne and drugs and raping her at the home of the actor Jack Nicholson back in 1977.

But he fled the country before sentencing, fearing that the judge would renege on a plea agreement limiting his punishment to the 42 days he already had spent behind bars for psychiatric evaluation.

The director of Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby has since lived as a fugitive in Europe, continuing his film career while facing the prospect of being arrested the moment he set foot back on US soil. In 2003 he won an Oscar for best director for the acclaimed Holocaust film The Pianist.

His latest film, Ghost, has received widespread critical acclaim and won him the Best Director Prize at the Berlin film festival in February.

Polanski was taken into custody in Switzerland in September on a US warrant and remains there under house arrest at his home in Gstaad on $4.5 million bail. This week a California state appeals court ruled that Polanski must return before he can be sentenced.

The decision cleared the way for Swiss authorities to extradite the 78-year-old film-maker. His lawyers have fought for years to have the case thrown out on ground that Polanski was himself a victim of judicial misconduct in 1978.

Polanski has argued that the extradition request is politically motivated by a Los Angeles prosecutor who is seeking publicity.

Polanski’s US legal team released a statement saying: “We don’t have any information about statements made at a Gloria Allred press conference today, but we do know that our District Attorney continues to refuse to provide the Swiss government with accurate and complete information relevant to the extradition issue.”

Source:The times

Army brings death and carnage to the streets

2010-05-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

A day of violence on the streets of the Thai capital left at least ten dead and 125 wounded after renewed fighting erupted in the city’s commercial heart yesterday. Soldiers fired bullets and teargas into the fortified encampment held for weeks by anti-government protesters, and street battles erupted in the city centre.

What began in early March as a defiant and proud rally intended to oust the Thai Government peacefully and fight for social justice had, by last night, largely unravelled as the army strengthened its stranglehold around thousands of diehard protesters.

Hemmed into their fortified encampment by troops, the remaining protesters digested the grim information that several of their leaders had quit. As long as the security forces remain loyal to the Government their options appear increasingly limited in the face of the army’s firepower.

From dawn yesterday the protest site centred on Ratchaprasong intersection in central Bangkok was surrounded by armed troops and police officers in armoured vehicles. They fired live rounds and rubber bullets as well as teargas at members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship. The group has spent weeks in the centre of one of Asia’s most cosmopolitan cities demanding the dissolution of the Thai parliament, followed by elections.Known widely as the Red Shirts, the demonstrators responded with petrol bombs and fired home-made rockets into the streets surrounding the upmarket district that they have occupied for nearly six weeks. Several thousand Red Shirts were still behind the high barricades of the site perimeter last night, protected by guards carrying thick bamboo staves.

From the stage in the centre of the demonstration some Red Shirt leaders were still shouting their defiance at the unseen presence of the encircling troops. Sean Boonpracong, a Red Shirt spokesman, confirmed the movement’s leadership had fissured. “Four leaders have decided to leave,” he told The Times. “Veera Musikhapong has resigned from the chairmanship. But there were still 16 leaders meeting here this afternoon.”

Even so, it was becoming apparent that the Red Shirts were losing control. Black smoke billowed from the bamboo and car tyre barricades at the southern end of the site. A bus had been set on fire near Sala Daeng station.

Earlier, sporadic explosions and gunfire had echoed through the area. Red Shirts near Lumpini Park faced shots from troops wedging their weapons through the distant park railings. The protesters hid behind flimsy tents and offered the journalists with them face masks as protection against the expected teargas.

Two hospital gurneys were rattled around the back of the stage, one bearing an apparently wounded protester, the other a dead one. Kannanat Pijitkadipol had seen the pair taken to first one hospital, then raced through the protest site on their way to Bangkok’s Police Hospital. Weeping, she said that she thought that at least one of them was dead. “I saw them at the hospital,” she said. “It’s very bad.”

Three journalists were hit by bullets; two Thai photographers and Nelson Rand, a Canadian working for France24 television, who was seriously wounded by gunshots to the abdomen.

Across Bangkok military and police roadblocks screened traffic and various embassies were closed — including the British compound, which is near to the protest site. The attempted assassination on Thursday of Khattiya Sawasdipol, the renegade general and Red Shirt security leader, who was shot in the head while being interviewed by journalists inside the encampment, appeared to be the catalyst for the Government to take a harder line. Better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red), General Khattiya had been a divisive figure in the movement and one implacably opposed to reconciliation. A doctor yesterday told Thai media that the general’s chances of survival were low.

Despite the Red Shirts’ fear that an all-out military assault was imminent, pushing them to ask for a ceasefire, an army spokesman insisted that no comprehensive military attacks had been planned to retake the site. “We will allow protesters to leave the area today,” Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters, adding that authorities were trying to seal off the encampment, cut off the Red Shirts’ supplies and limit the crowd size. The military cordon around the camp is the result of weeks of brinkmanship, violence and failed negotiation.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, the Government’s official spokesman, appeared on national television to insist that the military’s actions in opening fire had been justified because of the protesters’ “clear intention” to attack. “The soldiers, the police and the civilian officers had no choice but to respond to these attacks by adopting the rules of engagement,” he said, adding that according to the rules, live ammunition could be used only for self-defence, to protect other officers or the public, or to fire into the air. He warned of potential instability in Bangkok but added that it would be dealt with by the security forces. “We hope that in the next few days Thailand will return to normalcy,” he said.

The Government has tried in vain to persuade the protesters, mostly supporters of the deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to return to their homes, predominantly in the poor north and northeast. Mr Thaksin was told by the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro, where he is living, that he was not permitted to use the nation as a base for sending political messages to Thailand.

The protesters have proved remarkably resilient and the thousands-strong protest has maintained momentum with non-stop amplified speeches, free food and shelter, and the promise of a better Thailand.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Prime Minister, recently offered to hold an election this year, 12 months before it is due, but the protesters insisted that they would not disperse until the Deputy Prime Minister was arrested and charged for ordering a previous military crackdown in April that left 25 people dead. Mr Abhisit has withdrawn the offer of an election but he has said that he will still work towards reconciliation.
Source:The times

Moody's warns UK banks 'at risk of Greek contagion’

2010-05-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

UK banks are at serious risk of falling victim to “contagion” from the Greek debt crisis, the credit rating agency Moody’s warned today.

The sheer size and “vulnerability” of the Britain’s banking sector would present a threat to the economy if the UK’s sovereign creditworthiness was called into question after Greece and its banks were downgraded last week, the ratings agency said in a report.

While Portugal is at the forefront of investor concern over the level of its debt, the UK was in greater danger of sovereign contagion from exposure to the Greek banks, Moody’s said.

Banking assets represent the equivalent of more than 400 per cent of GDP in the UK, compared with 150 per cent in Greece.
“Each of the six banking systems Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, the UK... faces different challenges, but the contagion risk could dilute these differences and impose very real, common threats on all of them,” Moody’s said.

The warning fuelled concerns that the Greek crisis might engulf other debt-laden eurozone economies, as the euro slid to a one-year low against the dollar.

The euro fell to $1.2780, with the report from Moody’s arguing that the Greek debt crisis could infect the economies of the UK, the Irish Republic, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

However, markets bounced back as the Greek Government prepared to pass a vote on austerity measures that would enable it to accept a 110 million (£93.3 million) bailout package.

The FTSE 100 rallied to 5,36.51 in mid-morning trading after losing 1.3 per cent at the market’s opening, with investors still jittery over the uncertainty surrounding the general election and suggestions among traders that lending between European banks was tightening.

Other European markets opened down this morning before rallying later, with the Paris CAC 40 index falling by 1.44 per cent before regaining ground to 3,641.42 points, while the Frankfurt DAX 30 climbed 16.71 points to 5,975.16 points.

In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan recorded its biggest one-day loss since March last year, falling 3.3 per cent to a two-month low of 10,695 as the markets opened after a public holiday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 221.47 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 20,106 and in Shanghai the Composite index fell to 2,808.3 points, down 1.7 per cent.

The cost of insuring Portuguese debt rose to a record high yesterday after Moody’s placed Portugal’s credit rating on a three-month review, suggesting an imminent downgrade.

Meanwhile, the mood in Greece was sombre as the banks there closed out of respect for the three bank workers who died in protests yesterday.

The Greek Government is expected to pass a vote today on the austerity measures attached to the financial bailout package.

Greek unions called today for more protests at the public sector cuts.

Ukip's Nigel Farage crashes as millions turn up to vote

2010-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

The outspoken Ukip candidate Nigel Farage managed to upstage an entire general election today when he was injured in a plane crash during an election day stunt.

After a tightly contested month-long campaign, polling booths opened across the country at 7am and there was anecdotal evidence of a high turnout as the main party leaders cast their votes. Polling will end at 10pm.

First to vote was the Tory leader David Cameron, who opinion polls suggest could overturn 13 years of Labour rule and grab the keys to No 10. Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha voted in Witney, Oxfordshire, although their arrival was delayed by more than two hours after pranksters scaled the roof of the polling station and displayed a huge banner mocking the candidate's Eton education.

Gordon Brown voted next in North Queensferry, with his wife Sarah, with the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg then casting his vote in Sheffield, accompanied by his wife Miriam González Durántez — who cannot vote for her husband because she is a Spanish citizen.
The focus of the news crews was already elsewhere, however, after an early morning plane crash involving Mr Farage, the MEP and former Ukip leader.

Mr Farage, who is standing in the Buckingham constituency, was the passenger in a Polish-built light aircraft towing a “Vote for your country — Vote Ukip” banner when it plunged to the ground at an airfield in Northamptonshire during a photo-shoot.

The single-engined PZL-104 Wilga broke up on impact and Mr Farage was dragged from under its wreckage by his media relations man and a passer-by. He was bloodied and dazed but managed to walk away from the scene and was taken to hospital in Banbury.

The extent of his injuries was unclear: Ukip said initially that he had suffered "minor head injuries" but it later emerged that he was drifting in and out of consciousness and could also have broken ribs.

The pilot of the plane was cut from its wreckage and taken for treatment at a trauma unit in Coventry. He is believed to have suffered leg and back injuries but remained conscious throughout.

A series of election-eve opinion polls gave Mr Cameron's Conservatives a clear lead over Labour and the Liberal Democrats but suggested that they could fall tantalisingly short of an overall majority and would have to form some kind of minority administration.

A Populus poll for The Times put the Tories on 37 per cent with Labour on 28 and the Lib Dems on 27, representing a 6-point swing to the Conservatives. Given the number of three-way contests, the pollsters face an almost impossible task projecting final results but the Populus figures point to the Tories winning an extra 91 seats but falling 25 seats short of a majority.

After a frenetic final 48 hours of campaigning, which saw them criss-cross the country in a whirlwind of rallies and constituency visits, all three main party leaders last night issued appeals to activists to help get the vote out today.

Mr Cameron told cheering supporters in Bristol that it was time for the Tories to “win for Britain”, urging them: “Vote for change. Vote Conservative. Vote to give this country the hope, the optimism and the change we need. Together, we can build a better, stronger country.”

Mr Brown returned to Scotland, where he rounded off his campaign at a rally in Dumfries with a plea to wavering voters: “At this moment of risk to our economy, at this moment of decision for our country, I ask you to come home to Labour.”

And Mr Clegg addressed a crowd of hundreds of people on the steps of Sheffield City Hall with an appeal for voters to “aim higher, don’t settle for second best”.

Much will depend on performance in individual constituencies, particularly the 100 or so Labour/Conservative marginals that hold the key to tonight’s result and where the fiercest battles have been fought.

Party strategists believe that an unusually large number of voters will only make their minds up when they get into the polling booths, adding an additional layer of uncertainty to the result.

If the Lib Dems suffer a last-minute “third party squeeze”, with voters gravitating to the two larger parties, it could even have the effect of handing the balance of power to the Welsh and Scottish nationalists or the Northern Irish parties.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, was in typically optimistic mood as he cast his vote in Islington, predicting a "strong Conservative victory".

“If you haven’t voted yet, vote Tory,” he shouted out to reporters as he arrived by bicycle at his polling station.

"Walking around London yesterday and today, I feel very strongly that the swing is on and the public are in the mood for change. I think when people look at the risk of a hung Parliament and the possibility of endless deal-making, and jiggery-pokery between politicians, I think that people in the end are going to want to give the country a new start.”

Source:The Times

Mumbai attacks: Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, sole-surviving terrorist, sentenced to death

2010-05-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

The sole gunman to be taken alive during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack was sentenced to death today for his role in an atrocity that left 166 people dead and shocked the world.

The judge sentenced Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, 22, to death by hanging on four counts: murder, abetting and conspiracy to murder, waging war against the state, and violating India's unlawful activities laws.

Sitting in the dock of a special bomb-proofed courtroom in Mumbai’s highest security prison, the Pakistani national said nothing as the sentence was read out. At two points he appeared to break into tears.

Once he was escorted from the dock, apparently to compose himself, before reappearing.
On Monday he had been found guilty of being one of ten Islamist gunmen who sailed from Pakistan to India’s commercial capital 18 months ago with orders to kill as many people as possible.

The commando-style assault singled out soft targets popular with foreigners: two luxury hotels, a backpacker bar and a Jewish prayer centre.

Kasab helped to conduct the bloodiest episode of the 60-hour siege of south Mumbai: the slaughter of 52 people at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s main train station.

"He should be hanged by the neck until he is dead," the judge, M.L. Tahaliyani, said. "I don't find any case for a lesser punishment than death in the case of waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts."

The judge added that in considering whether the death sentence should be applied he had tried to draw up a "balance sheet" of mitigating and aggravating factors. But he had found nothing to mitigate the crimes that would argue against execution.

He said that the evidence had shown "previous, meticulous and systematic planning" of an atrocity that led India to halt peace talks with Pakistan.

"Brutality was writ large," the judge said, adding that the offences were "of exceptional depravity" and constituted a brazen act of war against India.

“It was not a simple crime of murder or intent to murder.”

Kasab and his colleagues, the judge added, had been trained and equipped by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist faction.

Before announcing the death penalty, he asked Kasab if he had anything to say. Kasab, who wore a traditional white kurta, said nothing and gave a dismissive gesture with his hands.“

The death sentence is likely to lead to a series of appeals and a lengthy wait on death row for Kasab.

The last execution in India was in 2004, when a security guard was hanged in Calcutta for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl 14 years earlier. Since then the last trained hangman in India has reportedly retired, leaving the country with no executioners.

Source:The Times

President Yar’Adua’s death may spark power struggle in oil-rich Nigeria

2010-05-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

President Yar’Adua of Nigeria, whose long sickness plunged Africa’s most populous country into a constitutional crisis, has died, the Office of the Presidency announced last night.

A spokesman said Mr Yar’Adua, 58, passed away at 9pm at Aso Rock presidential villa, with his wife Turai by his side. He will be buried today in accordance with Muslim custom.

The official news of his death will surprise few Nigerians, many of whom believed the President — who was last seen in public half a year ago — died many weeks ago. It is almost certain to renew a vicious power struggle at the heart of Government.

The late President, a Muslim from the north, will be succeeded by his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the oil-rich south, who was nominated Acting President earlier this year.
Mr Yar’Adua’s wife brought her husband back to the country from a clinic in Saudia Arabia, where he had been receiving treatment for heart problems in February in what was seen as an attempt to stop Mr Jonathan cementing his position and becoming the ruling party’s next candidate.

Under an unwritten deal to keep rival religious and geographical groups happy, the Presidency is supposed to alternate between north and south. The northerners fear that southerners will now capitalise on the late President’s death to capture the highest office in the land before their due date.

Mr Yar’Adua was barely half way through his first term when he fell ill. The country faces elections next year and in a country where patronage rules the governing party is more or less certain of victory.

The prospect of Nigeria slipping into a protracted power struggle will ring alarm bells across the continent. Nigeria has recently seen the worst intercommunal violence for decades.

Mr Yar’Adua’s fellow northerners are determined not to let the presidency slip from their grasp before their time is up. Mr Yar’Adua was expected to stand for a second term in 2011. The northern political elite suspect that once Mr Jonathan, a southerner, steps into the presidential mansion he will not leave.

In the background lurk the military — many of whose senior generals are also northerners — which found it hard in them past to resist the temptation to carry out a coup. “The country is in crisis but despite the anarchical nature of the democracy in place, it is still better than military rule,” said Banjo Adewale, a Nigerian analyst. “It is not like the 1970s and 80s. There is no support for the military.”

Mr Yar’Adua took office in 2007 in a country notorious for corruption. He gained the accolades of many for being the first leader to declare publicly his personal assets when taking office — setting up a benchmark for comparison later to see if he misappropriated funds. But enthusiasm for his rule waned as little changed in a country burdened by years of corruption.

However, Mr Yar’Adua sought to end the violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been attacking oil installations, kidnapping oil company employees and fighting Government troops since 2006 in what it called a protest against the unrelenting poverty of the people in the region.

Thailand protests turn violent once more

2010-04-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

Thai soldiers reportedly killed one of their own comrades today in a chaotic confrontation with anti-government Red Shirt protesters which left at least ten people injured and brought further embarrassment to the Government of the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The Associated Press reported that Thai security forces fired on a group of motorbike-riding soldiers, apparently believing them to be demonstrators embarked on a protest procession along a Bangkok highway. After several of the motorbikes crashed, one of the soldiers was taken to hospital with a head injury, where, according to Thai media, he later died.

The incident occurred after about 2,000 Red Shirts, who are demanding that Mr Abhisit resign and call a snap election, left their rallying point in the centre of Bangkok in a convoy of pick-up trucks and motorbikes. The security forces attempted to stop them on a road passing through the city’s northern suburbs, close to the former international airport.

An advance party of about 100 demonstrators was stopped by a line of soldiers who began by firing into the air and attempting to disperse the crowd with shields and truncheons. After the Red Shirts responded with stones and sling shots, they began to fire directly at the crowd.It was not immediately clear whether they were using blank, rubber-tipped, or live rounds. An army spokesman suggested that troops would not be discriminating in choosing between live and non-lethal rounds. “At this point, there is too much chaos for anybody to constantly report what kind bullets they are using,” Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. “We brought force out to stop them. At this point, society finds it unacceptable to have protesters travelling in a motorcade like this. We try our best to prevent losses.”

Twenty-seven people have died in the violence so far, and close to 900 have been injured, most of them on April 10, when soldiers made a disastrously botched attempt to seize one of the Red Shirt strongholds. Since then, they have fallen back to the Ratchaprasong area, a district of five-star hotels, shopping centres and expensive shops, most of which have been closed indefinitely by the protest encampment blocking the streets.

The authorities promise to clear the area under special powers granted under an ongoing state of emergency. The Red Shirts, who have shed their distinctive colours to make themselves less recognisable, live in constant expectation of a second crackdown which, so far, has not come.

Suthep Thuangsuban, Mr Abhisit’s deputy in charge of security, said: “It is clear the protesters are not gathering peacefully. We will not be lenient with these people any more.”

But in an interview with CNN, Mr Abhisit, suggested that they would choose their moment. “We recognise that as every day passes by, the people of Thailand suffer, the country suffers, but we want to make sure that there is rule of law,” he said. “We will try to enforce the law with minimum losses and we will try to find a political resolution, but it takes time, patience and co-operation.”

Spain downgrade sparks European sell-off

2010-04-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Spain's debt has been downgraded in a further widening of Europe’s government debt crisis.

The move follows its reductions yesterday of Portugal and Greece, which sent shock waves through world markets.

Standard & Poor’s said its decision to downgrade Spain’s credit rating by one notch to AA from AA+ is due to its expectation that the country will suffer an “extended" period of subdued economic growth.

“We now believe that the Spanish economy’s shift away from credit-fueled economic growth is likely to result in a more protracted period of sluggish activity than we previously assumed,” S&P credit analyst Marko Mrsnik said.The euro dived to another one-year dollar low of $1.3129 following the announcement, reaching a level last seen in late April 2009.

The FTSE 100 index, which had largely recovered its losses by early afternoon as fears about Greece's debt contagion eased,fell 16.91 points or 0.3 per cent to 5,586.61 following the news. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent. Spain’s IBEX index fell 3 per cent and Portugal’s PSI 20 was down 1.9 per cent.

Spain appealed for market calm, with the deputy prime minister saying the government was cutting the public deficit.

“We have a very serious plan of fiscal consolidation and of deficit reduction. We have adopted an austerity programme, we have put in place a labour market reform,” Maria Teresa de la Vega said.

“We are adopting all the measures needed to meet our commitments. So I want to send a message of confidence to the population and of calm to the markets."

Earlier today the European Commission called on credit rating agencies to act responsibly after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s debt to junk status.

The price of insuring Greece’s debt against default soared to the highest rate in 14 years as the country’s securities regulator banned short-selling in Greek shares in an attempt to halt a crisis of confidence. The Greek securities regulator announced a ban on short-selling in Greek shares on the Athens market until June 28.

The yield on Greek sovereign bonds rose to more than 11 per cent on yesterday’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating.

“It is not up to the Commission to say whether the rating given by any one credit rating agency is correct or not. What we can say is that we have full trust in Greece and action being taken,” Chantal Hughes, the financial services spokeswoman for the EU Commission said.

“We of course expect that credit rating agencies like other financial players, and in particular during this difficult and sensitive period, act in a responsible and rigorous way.”

The International Monetary Fund and Eurozone country leaders were working today to prepare a rescue package of €30 billion (£26 billion) for Greece.

The EU President Herman van Rompuy said that he was “fully confident” that an agreement would be reached in the coming days on a “very strong and ambitious adjustment programme which will set a credible, medium-term strategy for the Greek economy.”

S&P also reduced the sovereign rating for Portugal, and today the Lisbon stock market fell as much as 5.7 per cent as traders feared that a virus of insolvency and bad debts would infect the rest of Europe.

Francois Baroin, the French Budget Minister, attempted to ease investors’ fears over Portugal. “The situation in Portugal is not the same as in Greece. The debt level is important but the Portuguese did not lie [about their finances],” he said.

Greece needs to repay €8.5 billion of maturing bonds on May 19. George Papaconstantinou, the Greek Finance Minister, said yesterday that the country could no longer afford to borrow.

Last night it was reported that the International Monetary Fund was prepared to put in another €10 billion.

Greece faces a formidable obstacle to receiving the rescue cash. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has promised to join the rescue only if Athens makes budget cuts lasting several years.

German public opinion, however, is set against the rescue package, of which Germany would pay €8.5 billion. “People in Germany ... worry that we will have to pay for a long time for Greece,” Klaus Abberger, an economist at the German Ifo Institute, said.

A temporary exit from the eurozone was raised as a solution by the German Free Democratic Party, the liberal coalition partners of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats. This could offer Greece a partial reprieve if a devalued currency boosted the Greek economy and helped to avoid mass unemployment, Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics, said.

“Exiting the euro temporarily is not going to solve all their problems. They need to make structural adjustments that ensure competitiveness isn’t lost when they rejoin,” he said.

Source:The Times

Brown penitent after calling voter 'bigoted woman'

2010-04-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Gordon Brown described himself as a "penitent sinner" today after personally apologising to a widow from Rochdale whom he had branded a bigot on the campaign trail.

The Prime Minister spent a full three-quarters of an hour at Gillian Duffy's terraced home to apologise for unguarded comments caught on a radio microphone that he had forgotten to remove.

Mr Brown was accosted by the 66-year-old after stopping to talk to the voters in the suburbs of Rochdale and was attacked on subjects including welfare payments, student tuition fees and the national debt.

But it was Mrs Duffy's complaint about immigration from Eastern Europe which prompted Mr Brown to criticise her as he got back into his car and blamed a staff member for not preventing the meeting. "She's just a bigoted woman," he told aides in his official car, unaware that his microphone was still live.During the original encounter, Mrs Duffy told the Prime Minister that she was a lifelong Labour supporter. "My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag, but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour," she said.

But she had still intended to back Labour on May 6, until she was told what Mr Brown had said and declared that she would now not bother using her postal vote.

“He’s an educated person, why has he come out with words like that?" she said.

“He’s supposed to lead this country and he’s calling an ordinary woman who’s just come up and asked questions what most people would ask him - he’s not doing anything about the national debt and it’s going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this mess - and he’s calling me a bigot?"

Mr Brown's discomfort was evident when he was played a tape of his remarks during an interview on BBC Radio 2. He claimed that he had spoken in frustration, upset by the fact that he had not been able to give her a clear answer on her question about immigration.

The Radio 2 interview was also broadcast live on television, and a haggard and humiliated-looking Prime Minister can be seen holding his head in his hands as he listens to the extracts.

"Of course I apologise if I've said anything offensive, and I would never want to put myself in a position where I would say anything like that," he said.

In a bid to make amends, Mr Brown first telephoned Mrs Duffy to apologise, then made an unscheduled return trip to Rochdale to say sorry in person. A large group of minders and journalists milled outside as the Prime Minister remained inside for some 45 minutes, the curtains closed.

When he eventually came back out, Mr Brown explained that he had been able to talk to Mrs Duffy. "I'm mortified by what happened. I've given her my sincere apologies," he said. "I misunderstood what she said and she's accepted my apologies.

"If you like, I am a penitent sinner."

It was a surreal end to a bizarre episode which marked the first major gaffe of the campaign and could prove immensely damaging to Mr Brown as he tries to lift his party out of the third place in the polls.

It was not clear as Mr Brown left whether he had persuaded Mrs Duffy to vote Labour after all - Rochdale is currently held by the Liberal Democrats with a small majority - but Labour campaign aides were clearly worried that the incident could feed into negative impressions of the Prime Minister as a bully.

Mrs Duffy herself is not planning to make any more comment, a Labour press officer said as he tried to clear reporters from her drive.

The timing of the incident could hardly have been much worse for Labour. The three party leaders are due to hold their final televised campaign debate tomorrow night, a week before polling day, and Mr Brown will have been hoping finally to impose his authority as the subject turned to the economy.

Lord Mandelson, Labour's election supremo, tried to stem the political damage, giving a series of media interviews as he arrived to give a crucial speech on the economy to the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall, making him late for his address to business leaders.

He told Sky News that Mr Brown was not just a “man of political conviction but a man with a deep sense of moral purpose as well”, and that this was why “it would upset him so greatly that, in the heat of the moment, he has in a sense betrayed those views... and given a completely different impression”.

The Business Secretary added: “I’m sorry but these things happen occasionally when you say things you don’t mean.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said that robust exchanges were normal on the campaign trail but that questions should always be treated with respect.

"I certainly think that saying something that is clearly fairly insulting to the lady in question is not right, it's not right at all."

Sky News defended broadcasting the unscheduled remarks. “Today at a walkabout in Rochdale, Sky News gave Gordon Brown a radio microphone at the request of Labour Party officials. Immediately after his exchange with Gillian Duffy, Mr Brown left in his car before the Sky News microphone could be removed and switched off," the broadcaster said in a statement.

"Audio from the microphone was widely available as part of the pool arrangements between broadcasters covering the election campaign.”
Source:The Times

Gurkhas split over claims that £350,000 is missing from veteran’s fund

2010-04-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of pounds are missing from the accounts of the main Gurkha veterans’ organisation in Nepal that spearheaded a campaign to win equal rights with the rest of the British Army, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

The money is at the centre of a dispute that has split the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GASEO) and cast a pall over the Gurkhas’ victory last year in a campaign — fronted by Joanna Lumley — to win the right to settle in Britain.

Padam Gurung, the GAESO president, told The Times that his organisation had raised £2.3 million from its roughly 40,000 members since it was set up in 1990.

He said it had spent £600,000 on lawyers in Nepal and Britain since 2002, when it launched its first, unsuccessful, legal battle to equalise Gurkhas’ pensions with the rest of the Army. When asked for proof, however, he and other GASEO leaders could produce receipts for £99,978.66 only of bank transfers to their lawyers.

They alleged that the remaining half a million was paid to lawyers in cash “off the books” by their former Nepalese lawyer, Gopal Siwakoti.

They showed The Times what appeared to be 46 invoices worth a total of £499,974.21 from Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), a British solicitor who worked for them from 2001 to 2006 and who hired Cherie Blair as their barrister in 2002 and 2003.

PIL said, however, that they had only sent 21 invoices with a combined total of £141,543.03 to GASEO. “It’s sheer nonsense to talk about half a million pounds,” said Paul McNab, the practice manager at PIL.

A spokeswoman for Mrs Blair said she had received £4,600 for her work for the Gurkhas. That leaves more than £350,000 of Gurkha veterans’ money unaccounted for — a huge sum in one of the world’s poorest countries, where a quarter of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Ex-Gurkhas are better off than most Nepalis, but 24,000 of them who retired before 1997 still receive a basic pension of £190 a month.

When asked to explain the missing funds, Mr Gurung blamed Mr Siwakoti, who worked for GASEO from 2001 to 2008, but is now acting for a splinter group called GASEO-UK.

“We had no knowledge of the British legal system,” Mr Gurung said. “He was the middle man — he was the key. This is a smear campaign conducted by the Ministry of Defence and Siwakoti.”

Mr Siwakoti, however, denied any wrongdoing and blamed Mr Gurung, claiming that the GASEO president handled all payments to lawyers and preferred not to keep receipts. “This is complete rubbish. If they have proof, I’m happy to return the money,” he said, adding that he was seeking £250,000 in unpaid fees from GASEO.

The dispute has left many Gurkha veterans confused about who to trust for advice as they try to decide whether to move to Britain, and whether to continue their pensions battle.

GASEO is under investigation by Nepalese authorities over allegations that it charged veterans £500 each for referrals to Howe & Co, a British law firm providing immigration services for Gurkhas that are fully funded by legal aid.

That issue came to light after Kevan Jones, the Veterans’ Minister, criticised Ms Lumley in March for not speaking out about GASEO and Howe & Co, which was working from GASEO’s headquarters.

Gordon Brown and Mr Jones later apologised to Ms Lumley after a Ministry of Justice investigation cleared Howe & Co of wrongdoing. Ms Lumley was not available to comment last night. But Kieran O’Rourke, a partner at Howe & Co, said: “If there is a problem with GASEO’s accounts, then it must explain that, and if that money has come from our clients, it is unacceptable . . . With hindsight, I wish we’d never worked out of that office.”

Many GASEO members remain loyal to the organisation. “It’s only through them that the Gurkhas have their rights — they really sacrificed a lot,” said Sunita Gurung, whose husband left the Gurkhas after 18 years’ service in 1991. She said her family had given GASEO 9,000 rupees (£83).

Several Gurkhas not affiliated to GASEO, however, expressed outrage at the apparent hole in its accounts, and some called for Nepalese authorities to broaden their investigation.

“They were never that clear about why they were raising funds, and how the money would be spent,” said Bharat Singh Thapa, chairman of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association. “Many Gurkhas have been following them blindly.”

Source:The Times

China earthquake bodies burnt on pyres as death toll soars

2010-04-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Tibetan monks chanted prayers and lit giant funeral pyres to cremate the bodies of hundreds of victims of last week’s earthquake in western China.

With the official death toll reaching 1,144, and the figure expected to rise sharply with hundreds more still unaccounted for, the crimson-clad monks were forced to abandon their traditional funeral tradition of “sky burials”, in which bodies are left to be devoured by vultures.

“There are not enough vultures for all these bodies,” said a monk at the mass cremation on a mountainside outside Jiegu, the hardest hit town.

Rescue workers continued to pick through the rubble from Wednesday’s 7.1 magnitude quake, on the remote fringes of China’s western Qinghai province, but hopes of finding survivors are fading.
The townspeople are living on the streets, huddled beneath piles of blankets and, for a lucky few, tents. Most homes, largely constructed from wood and mud, have been destroyed. Authorities say 70% of the town’s schools have been flattened, leaving more than 100 children dead.

Tragedy can be found on every street corner. Chengli Dorma, 18, and her sister Liangma, 15, were orphaned by the quake. They watched as a young monk prayed over the body of their mother. The sisters, still wearing their blue and white school uniforms, also lost their father and brother in the disaster.

“We have nobody now,” said Chengli, hugging her sister. A policeman who had helped pull their mother’s body from the wreckage of a collapsed hotel, stood by their side, tears in his eyes, as he appealed to a crowd of onlookers “to do everything you can to look after these girls”.

Their parents had spent the night at the hotel, near the town’s main square, for a business meeting. Scores of staff and guests are still missing, trapped beneath the rubble. It was a scene that was repeated across Yushu county.

There is no electricity, little running water and not enough food. With temperatures on the Tibetan plateau dropping well below zero, conditions are harsh.

The government has stepped up relief efforts. Thousands of soldiers and paramilitary rescue teams, armed with mechanical diggers, movement sensors, heavy cutting equipment and sniffer dogs, have set up camp here. Convoys of army trucks fill the rutted road from Xining, the provincial capital. Military helicopters are bringing in supplies and ferrying out the injured.

They are reported to have pulled out 6,800 survivors alive. One of the most poignant rescues came on Friday, two days after the quake, when a dust-caked Tibetan girl, who looked no older than seven, was pulled from the debris. There were cries of joy as she was rushed to a medical centre in the arms of her rescuer.

Hundreds of monks, carrying spades and pickaxes over their shoulders, came from miles around to help dig out the dead and, when the army allowed them, perform the last rites. Others said they felt compelled to come after hearing about the destruction of Jiegu’s Tranga monastery, in which at least 25 of their fellow monks died.

For many others help came too late. We found Tangke Manse sitting in stunned silence outside the pile of brick and stone that was once his home. “My whole family was at home when the quake struck,” he said. “I managed to escape but everyone else died.” He lost both his children, aged two and one, his wife and his parents. “I’m the only one left now,” he said. “I sleep at the cemetery where my family is buried because I have nowhere else to go.”

Criticism of the military-led rescue is growing. Tsering Pedkar, a 28-year-old English teacher at a Yushu school and a former Reading University student, said the army presence masked an urgent need for basic supplies. “Everyone here is in shock,” she said. “There’s not enough water, food or medical supplies.”

With most of Jiegu’s schools lying in ruins, and the bodies of school children still being pulled from the rubble, criticism of shoddy building work has returned to haunt the Chinese authorities, as it did after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

“Look around you,” said Tsering. “All the government buildings are standing, but the schools have collapsed. In my school alone we've pulled out 28 bodies and there are more under there.”

Yi Ji, a 16-year-old middle school student, said: “Some of our friends have died and seven of our teachers are missing.”

As the dead were cremated yesterday, watched by hundreds of grieving survivors with the vultures circling overhead, the living remain huddled on the streets.

“We’ve got nothing,” said Feng Zhiting, 20, as she sat with seven friends and family inside an improvised tent of plastic sheets. “This is where we live now. We have to find our own food, and get our own water. Who knows how long we’ll be here?”

Source:The Times

Poland marks minute of president's plane crash

2010-04-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Poland marked the minute their president, his wife and 94 others were killed in a plane crash, as the country began a weekend of mourning.

Hundreds of thousands of Poles descended on Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square for a massive outdoor memorial to victims of last Saturday’s plane crash in Russia.

At 8.56am (6.56am GMT) this morning the country came to a standstill, while church bells were pealed and sirens sounded.

At the same time a week before, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria died when their plane went down in woodland near Smolensk airport.

There were no survivors of the crash, which also killed key government figures, including the chief of the army and the head of the national bank.

A two-minute silence was held at noon in Pilsudski Square followed by a reading of all 96 victims’ names as the late presidential couple’s only child and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother, looked on.

Former President Lech Walesa, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski and prime minister Donald Tusk were among those present. “Our world went crashing down for the second time at the same place,” Komorowski said of the crash.

The victims had been been en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were executed by the Soviet secret police.

The square and a neighbouring park have been fitted with huge TV screens to relay the services to the crowd and large photos of the all victims have been scattered across the site.

The city authorities have banned alcohol sales today and provided free transport and parking to make it easier for people to attend.

A public mass in memory the president and his wife was held at the city’s St. John’s Cathedral early evening before their coffins were taken to Krakow for an overnight vigil, ahead of tomorrow’s state funeral.

Nearly 100 foreign dignitaries, including US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, are set to attend the ceremony, however a number of world leaders have been forced to cancel because of the flight restrictions over Europe caused by Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.

So far delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan have confirmed they cannot attend. Today all airports in Poland remained closed to flights above 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) because of the ash cloud.

Tomorrow’s state funeral will begin at 2pm (12pm GMT) with a Mass at the 13th-century St. Mary’s Basilica. A funeral procession will then carry first couple the across the Old Town to the historic Wawel Cathedral to be interred.

Their Tupolov U-154M collided with trees after its pilots reportedly ignored warnings not to land in foggy conditions. The chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor, Slawomir Skrzypek, who had been central bank governor since 2007, and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also among the dead.

Prime minister Tusk has described the crash as the “most tragic event in Poland’s post-war history”.

Source:The Times

Gordon Brown: 'immigrants must honour British values'

2010-03-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

Immigrants who refuse to honour British values are unwelcome, Gordon Brown said today as he pledged to do more to meet the concerns of the “mainstream majority”.

Mr Brown said he agreed that it was unfair if newcomers took advantage of Britain’s freedoms without making a fair contribution in return.

But his attempt to meet voter concerns over immigration was undermined when he was criticised by the chairman of the national statistics watchdog for exaggerating the fall in migrant numbers.

Sir Michael Scholar said that the Prime Minister had used details in his weekend podcast that were “not comparable” when claiming a recent big fall in net inward migration.
Mr Brown conceded the point today, but stuck to his theme, saying that migrant numbers had fallen by tens of thousands in the past two years.

He defended Labour’s recent record on immigration as he sought to draw the sting from a potentially inflammatory campaign issue.

Immigration is cited as the No 1 concern by many voters, more important even than the economy, and — especially with the BNP threatening an electoral challenge in some seats — Labour strategists know that they cannot ignore it.

In a speech in East London, Mr Brown called on all parties to treat immigration sensitively during the election and to unite against extremists.

Without mentioning the BNP by name, he urged solidarity against “those who want to end immigration simply because they just don’t like migrants”.

But he used the speech to say that people had a right to talk about the issue, and to sympathise with the concerns of those who may be attracted to the BNP’s message.

He cited the worries of care workers, builders, cleaners, janitors and shop workers — the “hard-pressed, hard-working majority” — and sought to address them.

“I know people think it’s unfair when it feels as though some can take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities we offer in Britain without making a fair contribution or playing by the rules. So do I.”
He added: “To those migrants who think they can get away without making a contribution, without respecting our way of life, without honouring the values that make Britain what it is, I have only one message — you’re not welcome.”

He said that Labour’s points system, which allows immigrants from non-EU countries to fill highly skilled jobs, or semi-skilled jobs that have been advertised in job centres for four weeks, had helped to bring down net inward migration.

Despite his calls for “something of a consensus” among the main parties — “none of us agree with those who would bring down the shutters around Britain entirely” — Mr Brown sought to draw a dividing line with the Conservatives.

His warning against those who “scaremonger with unsubstantiated claims about rising net inward imgration today” appeared to be aimed at the Tories. Within minutes of his speech, Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that net migration had risen threefold since Labour came to power.

Mr Brown said that the Tory plan to cap non-EU migration at an as yet unspecified level was arbitrary and unworkable. It would be bad for business, he said, if employers wanted to hire someone urgently with a special skill, only to find that that year’s quota had already been filled.

“The debate isn’t about who will open all the floodgates and who will shut all doors. Neither of these are responsible options. It’s actually about the flexibility to access the skilled workers we need when we need them, and to exclude the rest,” he said.

“These are the concerns of the mainstream majority and people have a right to talk about what these issues mean for them.”

The Tories claimed credit for the intervention of Sir Michael after they lodged complaints about Mr Brown’s podcast.

In it, Mr Brown said that net inward migration had fallen from 237,000 in 2007 to 163,000 in 2008 and 147,000 last year.

Sir Michael said that the 237,000 figure was incorrect, and should have been 233,000. More seriously, he said Mr Brown had compared different sets of data.

Mr Brown responded in today’s speech by separating the two. By one measure, long-term international migration, the net figure fell from 233,000 to 163,000 between 2007-08.

According to provisional figures from the international passenger survey, the number fell from 170,000 to 147,000 in the two years to June 2009. The survey does not include incoming asylum seekers and migrants who arrive on short-term visas but stay longer.

David Cameron said he was glad that Mr Brown was addressing the issue and promised a calm, rational and sensible campaign debate.

But he said addressing the issue should be linked to welfare reform.

He said: “We need proper control of immigration. I would like to see net migration come down to the level of the 1980s and 1990s.

“But we should be explaining to people that there is a link to our failure to reform welfare with the high levels of immigration into Britain.”

Source:The Times

German bishop accused of beating orphaned girls

2010-03-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

One of the Pope's closest conservative allies in Germany, Bishop Walter Mixa, has been accused of brutally beating and flogging children in his care.

The Bishop of Augsburg, 68, denies the claims by five former pupils at a Catholic-run orphanage and care facility. But they will be a source of deep embarrassment and concern in the Vatican: Bishop Mixa is part of a conservative axis in Pope Benedict XVI's native Bavaria that has always backed the pontiff in his most controversial decisions, from criticising the violence of Islam in Regensburg cathedral, to rehabilitating the Holocaust-sceptic Bishop Richard Williamson.

Although there are no accusations of sexual abuse at the home – where the bishop was a visiting priest in the 1970s and 1980s – it is clear that Mr Mixa is in trouble.

"Once he took a wooden cooking spoon and beat me until it broke," sais Markus Tagwerk, now 41, who was in the Catholic home between 1972 and 1982.
"Then he used his hand. He would shout, 'Take this punishment, child of God!' and 'I'll soon drive Satan out of you!'". The beatings were regular and always brutal.

"At least fifty times Mr Mixa pulled down my trousers and beat me on the bottom with a stick, five or six whacks each time," Mr Tagwerk added.

The name Markus Tagwerk is a pseudonym, because the man making the allegations is a teacher.

But others have decided to give their real names and all five accusers have officially notarised their statements.

"It was a terrible blow for me when I saw that Pope Benedict had promoted Mixa to be the Bishop of Augsburg," Hildegard Sedlmair, 48, said.

"He used to rip me out of bed and beat me on the upper arm with a clenched fist."

She and another former pupil, Monika Bernhard, 47, allege that the then priest, backed up by nuns, introduced a "climate of fear".

The blows were always administered in places where the bruising could be hidden – high up on the arm or on the bottom.

One of the victims, a man who is now 44, reports being flogged with a carpet beater, 35 strokes each time.

Angelika Knopf, the pseudonym of a sales assistant in Augsburg, said she was struck as a young teenager ten times with the future bishop's balled fist. "After every punch I fell on to the bed. Mr Mixa demanded that I stand up immediately and would throw another punch," she said.

The orphanage, in the village of Schrobenhausen, has been under different management since 1999 and no complaints have been made public since Mr Mixa moved on and started to rise in the church hierarchy.

It is a measure of the bishop's standing that he has relatively free licence to make outspoken comments about society in and out of the pulpit.

He has railed against the German Government for making "birth machines" out of women. Its plans to expand the crèche network and allow women to return to work smacked, he said, of East German communist practises.

He compared abortion to the Holocaust – a particularly shocking statement when made by a senior cleric in Germany. He also accused Israel of racism in its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

His view of the latest child abuse scandal sweeping the church was characteristically pugnacious. "The sexual revolution of the 1960s is at least partly to blame for this," he said.

A long-standing member of the child care charity, SOS-Kinderdorf, has come forward to say that at least two of the bishop's accusers relayed their stories to the charity many years ago – long before the current global flood of abuse reports.

"We did not take action then because open criticism can sometimes boomerang against the accusers," a spokeswoman said.

"These are absurd and defamatory statements, " a spokeswoman for the Bishopric of Augsburg said.

The bishop has let it be known that he is considering legal action to defend his reputation.
Source:The Times

Georgia accused over Moscow Metro bombing

2010-03-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

The head of Russia’s Security Council accused Georgia today of backing terrorism in the North Caucasus and said that it could be involved in the Moscow Metro bombing.

As Moscow held the first funerals for victims of the attack, Nikolai Patrushev alleged that members of Georgia’s special services had links with terrorist groups in the region and said that investigators would look for evidence of their involvement in the double suicide-bombing that killed 39 people on the Metro.

Mr Patrushev, the former director of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, singled out Georgia and its pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili after being asked in an interview about possible foreign involvement in the terror attack.

“All theories have to be checked. For example, there is Georgia and the leader of that state, Saakashvili, whose behaviour is unpredictable,” Mr Patrushev told the Kommersant newspaper.
“He has already unleashed war once. It is possible that he may unleash it again. We have had information that individual members of Georgian special forces support contacts with terrorist organisations in the Russian North Caucasus. We must check this also in relation to the acts of terror in Moscow.”

Mr Patrushev headed the FSB for nine years until President Medvedev appointed him Secretary of the Security Council in May 2008, three months before the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Mr Medvedev later recognised South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist region of Abkhazia as independent states, a move that outraged Mr Saakashvili.

Russia has stationed thousands of troops in both territories, which border the North Caucasus, although most of the world continues to recognise them as part of Georgia.

The Security Council is chaired formally by the President and includes Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister, as well as the defence and foreign ministers and the heads of Russia’s various security agencies. Mr Medvedev broke off all contact with Mr Saakashvili after the war and regularly accuses him of being a criminal.

Mr Patrushev’s claim that Georgian officers may be encouraging terrorism in Russia will inflame relations further. The director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, has blamed the Moscow attack on terrorists from the North Caucasus, although no group has claimed responsibility.

The accusation came as two new suicide bomb attacks killed 12 people, including nine policemen, and wounded 23 in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan today.

The local police chief, Vitaly Vedernikov, was among the victims in the town of Kizlyar, close to Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, where Islamist militants have waged a long guerrilla war against Russian forces.

Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Interior Minister, said that one suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car as police tried to stop the vehicle, killing two officers. In remarks broadcast on Russian television, he said: “Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up – at that time the blast hit.”

A second suicide bomber wearing a police uniform struck 20 minutes later after approaching police and local residents who had gathered at the scene of the first blast. A school and police station were damaged in the explosion.

Mr Nurgaliyev suggested that government buildings could have been the target of the attack because the explosions took place 300 metres from the offices of the local Interior Ministry and the FSB. Muslim Dagestan has been plagued by violence for years, though much of it involves rival clans rather than Islamist separatists.

Mr Medvedev recently appointed a presidential envoy to oversee the North Caucasus, saying that separatists had spread “like a cancerous tumour” throughout the region.

Source:The Times

Girl dies in school coach crash on end-of-term trip to Alton Towers

2010-03-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

A teenage girl has died and 44 people were treated in hospital today after a school bus crashed in southwest Scotland in "absolutely atrocious" conditions as it set off on an end-of-term trip to Alton Towers.

Natasha Jade Paton was among 39 pupils and five teachers from Lanark Grammar School, who had travelled just 12 miles when their driver lost control of the coach on a sharp bend at around 5.50am. The bus crashed through a bridge parapet and fell 10ft, partially submerging itself in a river next to the A73.

Ambulances and a rescue helicopter struggled to reach the scene, close to the village of Wiston in South Lanarkshire. They found that some of the passengers, mainly sixth form pupils aged 16 and 17, had managed to get out of the coach and scramble up the embankment, and were sitting in the back of an HGV lorry whose driver had stopped to help. Other passengers were still trapped in the coach which was partly full of icy water, and had to be helped out through a smashed sunroof.

Natasha, who was 17, and lived at Cleghorn in Lanarkshire, was found to be missing when the emergency services conducted a head count.
"Following that we carried out a complete search of the area and in doing so unfortunately found the girl who subsequently lost her life," said Jim Doyle, of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.

"She had been thrown out and swept underneath, but the bus is not lying totally flat... there is a gap underneath so she was located under that." He added that she had apparently been thrown out of a sunroof. Her death was reported shortly before noon.

The dead girl was named this afternoon by Strathclyde Police, as friends left messages of grief and condolence on Facebook.

Vegas Barbie posted: "Rip Natasha youl never be forgoton..cant believe it il always remember the good times we had together..like the time we drew all over our faces with eyeliner al never forget you.. youl be sadly missed my thoughts are with your family."

Three other people were badly hurt, including the driver who suffered cuts and a broken leg and was carried out of the vehicle on a stretcher, and were taken to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire. By lunchtime 25 people had been treated and discharged from local hospitals, and further 16 people were still being treated at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and Hairmyres at East Kilbride.

Superintendant Iain Murray of Strathclyde Police said officers were investigating the reason for the accident, but that the weather was partly to blame.

"Given the conditions it must have had a major part to play in it," he said.

Parents of pupils on the stricken coach were asked to assemble at the school, rather than attempt to reach the scene of the crash, which was sealed off by police. Other pupils were sent home for the day.

Mark Attwood, a local resident who was woken by the sound of the crash, described how an adult came to his door asking for help. “They said a couple of schoolchildren needed heating up. They were obviously shocked and upset and I am as well. It happened so close to my house and my own children use that route. I’m very shaken up.”

Questions were this afternoon being asked about why the school had decided to go ahead with the 250 mile road trip from Scotland to Staffordshire, given the hazardous conditions.

The Met Office had put out its highest level of alert, an Emergency Flash weather warning, for the South Lanarkshire area at 3.37pm yesterday afternoon, warning of danger to life and risk to infrastructure due to extreme weather conditions blocking roads and bringing down power lines.

Its warning stated: "Over upland parts of eastern Lanarkshire 25cm of snow could accumulate with deep drifts. Some roads liable to be impassable and some interruptions to power supplies are possible.
"The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Scotland for further advice on road conditions."

Met Office staff appeared regularly on television and radio bulletins in Scotland yesterday to warn of the bad weather.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said that the first warnings of weather hazards for yesterday and today were put out as early as last Friday. "I would like to hope that (the school) would have been aware," said the spokeswoman.

Susan Thornton told BBC Scotland that she had stopped her son Adam from going on the school trip because of the weather.

"I just said the roads were too treacherous, that they shouldn't make the journey, " she said.

"He said to me he woke up at four anyway because he was desperate to go. He wanted to be with his friends and have a nice time but he said at four he knew he couldn't go."

Alan Purdie, the owner of the Lanarkshire-based company Photoflash which ran the coach, said: “It is a tragedy. We are all deeply concerned for the parents (of the dead girl) this morning. The company is distraught.”

Mr Purdie admitted that the conditions had been treacherous. He told Radio Clyde: “The main roads had snow on them but were not that bad. But there was black ice under the snow on that road. We cannot say any more.”

Carla Ballone, a spokeswoman for the Alton Towers theme park, said that there was no need for the school to have pressed on with the trip through atrocious weather for fear of losing its money on the bookings. "If a refund wasn't available I'm sure that we would have arranged some complimentary tickets on another day," said Ms Ballone.

South Lanarkshire Council, which handles press inquiries on the school's behalf, justifed the excursion, which it said was an annual trip to Alton Towers "as a welcome break for sixth-year students from their exam preparation before the Easter holidays".

Larry Forde, the council's director of education, said: “The headteacher Mark Sherry and everyone connected with the school wish to express their sympathies to all those involved.

“At this moment, our major focus is on the young people, their families and staff within the school. Social work and psychological services have joined staff at the school offering support. Throughout the day, Mr Sherry and colleagues within the school have been working to keep the families of those involved informed.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of one of our senior students at Lanark Grammar who died this morning, and all who were injured.”

Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, declined to criticise the school, saying that it was a very difficult judgment call to decide whether to call off a trip, notifying all the parents who would then have to make alternative arrangements.

"I expect those who criticise the school for running this trip would have criticised the school for closing down for bad weather," said Mr Howard. "It's always easy to criticise after the event."

Supt Murray praised truck drivers at the scene who had stopped to give assistance, and local people who had opened Wiston village hall to give shelter and warmth to the crash survivors. He also said that the winding country road where the coach crashed was the most direct route from the school in Lanark to the southbound M74 motorway.

It was not clear whether the council had gritted the road, but even if it had it might have made little difference, as the grit would not have been effective until a number of vehicles had driven over it, grinding the snow and grit together to create a more stable driving surface, he said.

Gordon Brown said in a speech in London that his thoughts were with the family and friends of crash victims. Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, concurred, adding that the crash was "almost certainly weather-related".

Jim Hood, the Labour MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, said: “This is a terrible and shocking accident and my thoughts and prayers are with the staff and pupils involved, and their families."

The tragedy, four days after the start of British Summer Time, came as blizzards, gale force winds and torrential rain felled power lines and caused transport chaos across northern Britain.

Hours earlier in Northern Ireland, police, mountain rescue and coastguards had to be drafted in to rescue around 300 people, including children on a school bus, from more than 100 vehicles which became stranded when 4ft-high snowdrifts blocked both ends of the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Londonderry.

Source:The Times

North Korean official Pak Nam-ki executed for disastrous currency reform

2010-03-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for the botched currency reform last November which led to runaway inflation and threatened new food shortages, in what is an attempt to contain civil unrest.

Pak Nam-ki, the 77-year-old head of planning and finance, was executed by firing squad in Pyongyang last week according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Mr Pak, who had been purged in January, was executed for "deliberately ruining the national economy" as a "son of a big landowner," Yonhap reported.

However many both in the regime and in the wider population apparently believe that Mr Pak was made a scapegoat for the crisis, which threatened the smooth succession of power from the country's leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son Kim Jonh Un"The mood in the leadership has made Pak Nam-ki a scapegoat," an unnamed source was quoted as saying.

In November, the regime announced a drastic revaluation of the currency - the won - in an apparent effort to curb the burgeoning free-market economy.

All North Koreans were required to swap old notes with new ones at an exchange rate of one to 100, knocking two zeros off their value.

Because of a cap of 100,000 won per family — about £500 at the official exchange rate — anyone with significant holdings of cash had their savings wiped out.

The ensuing food shortages and inflation led to a rare public admission from Mr Kim that his father's Utopian vision of a thriving economy had not materialised. “My heart bleeds for our people who are still eating corn," he said.

Since the revaluation, shops and markets in North Korea have remained closed and all cash transactions have been frozen.

According to the Seoul based DailyNK website, it was alleged that Mr Pak had submitted a report claiming that revaluation would "improve the people’s lives and secure the national budget."

Sources told the website that his promise that people's lives would be bettered had persuaded Mr Kim to revalue the won, until soaring prices proved Mr Pak wrong.

Mr Pak was publicly denounced as a traitor at a Party convention in late January, and arrested on the spot.

In the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies — patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population — were open for business.

All other enterprises and services based on cash, including markets, long-distance bus services, barbers’ shops, saunas and bath houses, were suspended until the revaluation of the won is completed next week.

In the 1990s, North Korea publicly executed a top agricultural official following widespread starvation

Source:The Times

Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatens to expel 100,000 illegal Armenians

2010-03-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

Turkey’s Prime Minister has raised the stakes in an international row over the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey by threatening to expel 100,000 Armenians living in the country.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that action could be taken if foreign parliaments continued to increase the pressure by recognising the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

“In my country there are 170,000 Armenians; 70,000 of them are citizens. We tolerate 100,000 more. So, what am I going to do tomorrow? If necessary I will tell the 100,000: okay, time to go back to your country. Why? They are not my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them in my country,” he said, during a visit to London this week.

He also warned the Armenian diaspora that its campaign to have the genocide recognised by foreign parliaments would jeopardise improved ties between Turkey and Armenia.Mr Erdogan was to have travelled on to Sweden but he cancelled the visit at the last moment and recalled Turkey’s Ambassador to Stockholm. The protest moves were taken after Sweden’s Parliament voted to join the list of nearly 20 countries that accuses Ottoman Turks of genocide over the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War.

Ankara also recalled its ambassador to Washington this month after a US Foreign Affairs Committee passed a genocide resolution . Armenia condemned Mr Erdogan’s comments, saying that it revived memories of the original killings — many of which happened during mass deportations of Armenians accused of supporting the invading Russian army.

“These kinds of statements do not help to improve relations between our two states. When the Turkish Prime Minister allows himself to make such statements it brings up memories of the events of 1915,” Tigran Sarkisian, the Armenian Prime Minister, said.

Turkey rejects the accusations. Ankara insists that hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Muslim Turks died during civil strife in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

Although Mr Erdogan made his remarks in London, the matter was not raised during his meeting with Gordon Brown. Britain has kept out of the row, calling only on the two countries to work to normalise their relationship. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday: “Terrible suffering was inflicted on Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. But the main concern of this Government is not what we call such horrific events but ensuring that the lessons are learnt, and relationships are re-built to ensure a peaceful and secure future for everyone living the region.”

Pressure on Ankaras is, however, mounting. Other countries are expected to pass genocide resolutions before the centenary of the killings in 2015. Many members of the European Union, which Turkey wishes to join, including France, Germany and Italy, already recognise the events as genocide. Even in Britain, which Mr Erdogan’s aides say is “too smart” to get involved, Parliament is expected to debate a genocide Bill next month.

The number of illegal Armenians in Turkey is a matter of debate, with a study conducted last year claiming that the figure could be as low as 10,000. Around half slipped into Turkey in 1988 in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit Armenia. Others are exiles from Armenia’s ailing post-Soviet economy.

Turkish politicians have in the past threatened to throw out these Armenians in retaliation for international recognition of the genocide but this is the first time that the threat has come from the country’s leader.

His outburst probably had more to do with domestic political pressure than foreign policy. Having defied domestic opinion to champion a policy of reconciliation with Armenia Mr Erdogan finds himself accused at home of enfeebling Turkey on the international stage.Elections are due by July 2011 and Mr Erdogan is fighting a rear-guard action against nationalist parties on the left and the right.
Source:The Times

Rickshaw suicide bombing raises fear of more violence

2010-03-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

A suicide bomber driving a rickshaw killed more than a dozen people in Pakistan this morning.

The blast at a security checkpoint in Mingora, the main city in the troubled Swat Valley, is the country’s second attack in less than 24 hours.

On Friday suicide bombers killed 55 people in near simultaneous attacks in Lahore.

Islamic insurgents are believed to be behind both attacks, raising fears of an offensive by the militants after a period of relative calm in the regionThis morning’s bombing injured 52 and killed at least 13, according to officials.

The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, hit a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of Swat.

It is believed his target was the town’s court house but he had detonated the explosives early after being stopped at the checkpoint.

The blast blew out windows and destroyed several vehicles nearby.

One witness told Reuters he saw “five people including some women, who burned to death” in the street.

Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, claimed two soldiers and two policemen were also killed in the blast.

He said: “Such acts cannot demoralize us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated.”

Until last year Swat Valley was a Taliban stronghold however the Pakistan military seized back control after peace talks with their leaders collapsed.

The government operation was seen as fairly effective, forcing many insurgents into hiding.

The attacks slowed early this year and in recent months they have been farther apart and largely confined to the remote regions near Afghanistan.

However the Taliban threatened to deploy thousands of suicide bombers in retaliation for the army offensive and there are now fears this weekend’s blasts may signal a fresh wave of violence.
Source:The Times

Karzai in U-turn over elections panel

2010-03-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

The Afghan president has backed down and agreed to include two foreigners on the elections’ watchdog panel, after concerns were raised over corruption.

Hamid Karzai has reversed a decree which allowed him to appoint all five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission.

Afghanistan’s ECC was responsible for stripping a third of Karzai’s votes over allegations of fraud in last year’s election.

However last month he gave his government and supreme court sole power to appoint its membersThe move was criticised as a bid to control the body ahead of this autumn’s parliamentary elections.

On Saturday, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said the president is now willing to accept some foreigners on the election watchdog body because the country is in a “transitional phase” to democracy.

He said: “The Afghan government has shown its readiness to accept two non-Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission and this has been announced to the United Nations,”

The monitoring body, which is separate from the elections commission that administers the polls, would still be controlled by Afghans, said Omar.

It is not yet clear whether Karzai or the UN would appoint the foreign commission members.

The watchdog previously had three UN appointed experts on its panel.

After last year’s presidential vote, the ECC ruled there had been widespread ballot stuffing forcing Karzai into a potential runoff.

However he was later declared the victor when his remaining challenger Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race.

Tackling the widespread political corruption in Afghanistan is seen as one of key issues for securing the withdrawal of UK and US troops and handing back full control of the country.

The head of the advocacy group Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan, Jandad Spinghar, said the nationalities of the monitoring commission matter less than how independently the watchdog works in the next elections.

Springhar said “It’s good news ... but there are still concerns.”

“If there is no legal guarantee for the independence of the ECC, there will be problems.”
Source:The Times

Jihad Jane: American blonde accused of terror plot

2010-03-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

A blonde American woman who went under the online alias "Jihad Jane" has been accused of plotting to murder a Swedish cartoonist for drawing a picture of the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, it emerged today.

Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania, was said by prosecutors to have used the internet to make contact with jihadists overseas and was persuaded to use the fact that she was a white American to get through security surrounding the artist, Lars Vilks.

A US Justice Department official said last night that the case "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".

Ms LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia in October last year, but her indictment remained sealed until after the arrest in Ireland yesterday of seven people - three women and four men - involved in a suspected plot to murder Mr VilksThe cartoonist has been holed up in a rural hideout since his cartoon appeared in a Swedish newspaper in 2007, a year when the publication of similar cartoons in Denmark sparked violent protests across the Islamic world.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet - even favourable - for fear that it could lead to idolatry, and al-Qaeda put a bounty of $100,000 on Mr Vilks's head.

Three Swedish papers reprinted his image today in a gesture of solidarity. One, Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that "Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes."

A federal indictment charges that Ms LaRose, who also called herself Fatima Rose, agreed to kill Mr Vilks on orders from the unnamed terror contacts and went to Europe to carry out the killing.

It also alleged that Ms LaRose, who has blond hair and blue-green eyes, indicated in her online conversations that she thought her appearance would help her move freely in Sweden to carry out the attack.

The indictment says that Ms LaRose posted a YouTube video as JihadJane in June 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" Muslims.

Within months, she was in contact with jihadists in Europe and Asia and agreed to marry a South Asian man to get him into Europe.

In March last year the same man told her via e-mail to go to Sweden, find Mr Vilks "and kill him".

According to the indictment, Mr LaRose replied: "i will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying."

Ms LaRose is said to have used the name JihadJane to create a MySpace page on which she described herself as a woman who had "reverted to Islam".

"I live in Pennsylvania, originally from Texas. I have recently (a couple months) reverted to Islam and I can safely say that of all the things I have ever done in my lifetime, becoming Muslim is what I am the proudest of," she wrote.

Elsewhere, the user lists her heroes as "Skeikh OBL", an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and "The brothers in... Jihad".

The indictment and material released by SITE, a US group that monitors extremists, suggest that Ms LaRose had an active online presence, despite being repeatedly banned from websites including YouTube and despite her fears that she was under surveillance.

Michael Levy, a US Justice Department attorney, said that the case "demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".

David Kris, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said that the government would have to remain vigilant.

"Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face," he said.
Source:The Times

Hundreds held in pre-emptive Tibet crackdown

2010-03-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of Tibetans were rounded up in Lhasa today and armed paramilitaries patrolled the streets even as Tibetan exiles marked the anniversary of an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

The authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat of anti-Chinese attacks two years ago that left about 20 people dead when Tibetans rampaged through the streets of the Himalayan city setting fire to shops, offices and banks.

March 10 is regarded by Tibetans as the anniversary of the start of the failed uprising that resulted in the Dalai Lama’s flight to India.

The Tibetan spiritual leader has now spent half a century in exile and addressed his followers in Dharamasala today, blasting Chinese authorities for trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in TibetThe armed police patrols that have become routine in the Tibetan heart of Lhasa since anti-Beijing unrest that spilled over into violence in March 14, 2008, have been expanded to include cavalcades of trucks packed with paramilitaries.

One convoy comprised 14 trucks, each containing 14 helmeted men armed with semi-automatic rifles as well as two officers and a driver. The trucks drove slowly through the streets of the city in a show of force clearly intended to intimidate any Tibetans planning to mark the anniversary with renewed protests against Chinese rule.

Patrols of special police – the Chinese equivalent of Swat teams – also roamed the streets. Their distinctive black trucks and armoured vehicles then proceeded towards the Drepung monastery on the edge of the city where the unrest began on March 10, 2008 with a peaceful march by monks towards the city.

In the narrow alleys around the Jokhang temple, the holiest site in Tibetan Buddhism, in central Lhasa, additional police patrols were checking the identity cards of all Tibetans. Members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority were not stopped for identity checks.

Residents said that as many as 500 people were believed to have been detained in the crackdown. That number could not be confirmed and officials declined to comment.

Tibetans were being required to show three documents: their identity card, a temporary residence permit and a letter of introduction allowing them to be in Lhasa. Those lacking the proper paperwork were either detained or sent back to their homes outside Lhasa.

State-run Lhasa Television was running details on an evening show of a new "strike hard" campaign ostensibly directed against drugs, criminals and those lacking the proper papers permitting them to visit Lhasa.

In government offices, and even in schools, everyone is under orders to attend work and to bring their identity card and work permit. Higher-ranking officials are required to remain on duty round the clock.

Tibet was closed to foreign visitors from yesterday and there is a moratorium on the issue of the travel permits that are required by all non-Chinese wanting to visit the area.

Notices have been issued to hotels and families throughout the city banning them from allowing lamas from Tibet’s many monasteries to stay the night.

The riot in 2008 followed several days of small-scale demonstrations by monks who either made their way to the Jokhang temple to shout slogans demanding Tibetan independence or who gathered in their monasteries to demand the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.

Throughout the day, the patrol vehicles blared out Cultural Revolution-era songs from loudspeakers. One ran: "The Communist Party came and suffering bitterness turned to sweetness, liberated serfs happily sing a song of freedom."

Some Tibetans joked this week about the division of the city into ethnic Han-inhabited districts and a Tibetan section. The old Tibetan part of the city has been dubbed "Baghdad" while the Han Chinese area has been nicknamed "the concession" – after the sectors in cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin where "foreign concessions" were allowed under the rule of colonial powers such as Britain, France and Germany.

The Dalai Lama issued a statement to commemorate the March 10, 1959 uprising. He said: "I pay homage to those heroic Tibetan men and women, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet, and pray for an early end to the sufferings of those still oppressed in Tibet.

"Despite the great hardships Tibetans have faced for many decades, they have been able to keep up their courage and determination, preserve their compassionate culture and maintain their unique identity. It is inspiring that today a new generation of Tibetans continues to keep Tibet's just cause alive. I salute the courage of those Tibetans still enduring fear and oppression."

In remarks certain to spark Chinese fury, the exiled Buddhist monk also voiced his support for minority Muslim Uighurs of western Xinjiang who rose up in a violent anti-Chinese riot last year.

Referring to Xinjiang as "East Turkestan" – the name given to it by pro-independence exiles, he said: "I would like to express my solidarity and stand firmly with them."
Source:The Times

British Fritzl escaped for 30 years despite seven incest accusations

2010-03-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

A father who repeatedly raped his two daughters and fathered nine babies with them during a 35-year orgy of physical and sexual abuse escaped detection due to a litany of failings by care professionals, a report revealed today.

Professor Pat Cantrill, author of the independent report, said that action should have been taken to rescue the women at least a decade earlier once a “substantial picture” of the abuses had been drawn up.

She said a culture of “having a quiet word” had contributed to the failure to intervene, despite seven allegations of incest from members of the family.

Public sector agencies in Sheffield and Lincolnshire today issued an unreserved apology to the women, now adults, for failing to protect them from their fatherChris Cook, independent chair of Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We are genuinely sorry. We should have protected you.”

Agencies involved with the family failed to take action against the father even though he was accused of incest on seven separate occasions, with a further 12 reported incidents of violence.

The 57-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his children, received 25 life sentences after his daughters finally told social workers of their lifelong ordeal in 2008.

An independent review of the case, published today, disclosed that more than 100 care professionals from 28 agencies were involved with the family in Sheffield and Lincolnshire over a 35-year period from 1973 to 2008.

The report found that professionals were suspicious that the man was fathering his daughters’ children and there were seven family allegations reported to professionals about incest or sexual abuse.

On 23 separate occasions from 1998 to 2005 the girls were specifically asked about the paternity of their children by various people, it said.

The report said: “Between 1990 and 1996 either Adult M or Adult N was pregnant every year or on some occasions twice a year. On four occasions they were pregnant at the same time.”

No action was taken because professionals felt that there was nothing they could do. It was not until the family returned to Sheffield and the police were given a statement in 2008 that the man was arrestedThe family was on the child protection register from 1978 to 1988 when they moved to Lincolnshire, due to medical reports of non-accidental injuries and poor school attendance, although the report said there was no indication that any agency was aware of factors to suggest the girls were being sexually abused.

Mrs Cantrill said: “By 1997 there was a substantial picture in place which should have reflected in action being taken to help these women.”

During the 35 years, the white British family moved home 67 times as the father, who controlled his wife and children through "violence, intimidation, bullying and emotional control", sought to evade detection.

In total, 16 child protection conferences or strategy meetings were held to discuss concerns about the family, but none led to the children being removed from their fatherThe executive summary of the serious case review reveals that between 1988 and 2002 the two daughters were pregnant 16 times, on four occasions at the same time. Nine babies or pregnancies were lost due to genetic disorders and of the seven surviving children two have severe physical disabilities.

Though suspicions grew that the babies' grandfather was also their father, professionals "considered... there was nothing they could do".

One of the report's main findings is that police, care and medical professionals "failed to listen and consider the situation from the child's perspective". It states: "Too often professionals took the word of parents at face value without considering the effects on the child."

The Safeguarding Children Boards from both counties, which were responsible for the family over the period of abuse, insisted that changes had already been made to better protect families from abuse.

Sue Fiennes, independent chair of Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We want to apologise to the family at the heart of this case. It will be clear that we failed this family.

“This report will not make comfortable reading for any of the organisations concerned with the family.

“We are all committed to working relentlessly to do all we can to minimise the risk of this happening again, and indeed we have taken action. Lessons are being learned by the agencies involved.”

In November, Sheffield Crown Court heard that the man’s campaign of terror and abuse started when the women were aged between eight and 10. If they refused their father’s advances, they were badly beaten.

Both daughters were raped repeatedly during their ordeal, which started in 1981. At the start they were attacked every day, while for long periods they would be raped two or three times a week.

If they refused, they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms.

The court heard the defendant, who called himself the “gaffer” when at the family’s home, took pleasure in fathering children by his daughters and would continue to rape them despite problems with their pregnancies.

He would even rape them while they were pregnant and they would have to take it in turns to babysit their children while the other was forced to have sex with him.

At the time, Judge Alan Goldsack QC told the court that questions would inevitably be asked as to what professionals had “been doing for the last 20 years”.
Source:The Times

Michael Foot, former Labour leader, dies aged 96

2010-03-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Labour veteran Michael Foot was praised as perhaps the finest parliamentarian of his generation today after news of his death this morning at the age of 96.

The socialist with the unruly shock of white hair beat the rightwinger Dennis Healey in a bitter fight for Labour's soul in 1980, arguing that he was best placed to unite the party as leader.

Less than three years later, after presenting a 700-page manifesto dubbed "the longest suicide note in history", he led Labour to its worst election defeat – only just managing to beat the SDP-Liberal alliance in the popular vote.

Mr Foot, who had been ill for some time, died shortly before 7am morning at his home in Hampstead, north London.
His death was confirmed on the floor of the House of Commons by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary. "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole," Mr Straw said. "He was held in very great affection in all sections of the House and across the country."

The tributes poured in from across the political divide.

Gordon Brown praised Mr Foot as "a man of deep principle and passionate idealism". "He was an indomitable figure who always stood up for his beliefs and whether people agreed with him or not they admired his character and his steadfastness," he said.

John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, flashed up his tribute on Twitter: "A great man has died. He was the heart of our movement."

Baroness Thatcher, who faced Mr Foot in many fiery clashes across the Commons despatch box, said in a statement released by her office that she was "very sorry" to hear of his death. "He was a great parliamentarian and a man of high principles," she said.

Also paying tribute was Mr Foot's successor at the helm of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, who lost successive elections to Mrs Thatcher and John Major but laid the groundwork for Labour's later success.

Mr Kinnock said: "He knew - as I knew, which is why I counselled him against doing it - that he was letting himself into purgatory in becoming leader of the Labour Party in its darkest, grimmest hour.

"But if he hadn’t done it, I don’t think Labour would have survived as a political force, simply because of the way in which factionalists and self-indulgent people were ripping the party to pieces. It was Michael’s courage and utter commitment to the cause of the party which enabled the party to continue in recognisable existence and to fight and win another day."

Source:The Times

Iranian 'spies' held in Italian arms trafficking operation

2010-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Italian police have arrested five Italians and two suspected Iranian secret agents on suspicion of illegally trafficking arms and explosives to Iran through Eastern Europe in breach of an international embargo. Reports said two further alleged Iranian agents were on the run and were being sought by police.

Police in Milan said the operation had been conducted with the help of British, Swiss and Romanian authorities. They said in a statement that they had intercepted optical-precision equipment, scuba-diving jackets and oxygen tanks bound for Iran as well as tracer bullets, incendiary bombs and other "explosive materials".

The investigation , dubbed Operation Sniper, was led Armando Spataro, the Milan prosecutor who also investigated the 2003 kidnapping and "extraordinary rendition " of Abu Omar, a Muslim cleric suspected of abetting terrorism, by CIA agents in Milan. Last November an Italian judge convicted 22 CIA agents and an American military official in absentia of the kidnapping. They are appealing.

Police said Operation Sniper had begun in June 2009. One of the Italians arrested was a lawyer from Turin who also ran an "import export business", Mr Spataro told a news conference. He said the other arrested Italians were from Monza, Brescia and Cadeo in the province of Piacenza, and Switzerland.
The arrests come as the Western powers push for tougher United Nations sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme following a report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month that Iran had enriched uranium to 19.8 percent, 0.2 percentage points below the threshold needed to start the chain reaction seen in a nuclear bomb.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, incurred the warth of Tehran last month by comparing President Ahmadinejad to Hitler during a visis to Israel and calling for tougher trade sanctions. State-controlled Iranian radio and television accused Mr Berlusconi of being "a servant of Israel".

Mr Spataro said that the tapping of phones had played a "crucial role" in the Iranian arms smuggling investigation. Mr Berlusconi, who currently faces two trials for alleged bribery and tax fraud and has been repeatedly investigated for alleged corruption, is pushing through Parliament a bill which would restrict the use of phone tapping in criminal investigations.

Police said some of the equipment seized in the operation was military and some was "dual use". The Italian news agency ANSA said the "optical equipment" had been seized at Heathrow airport. The two Iranians arrested were named as Nejad Hamid Masoumi, 51, accredited as a journalist in Italy, who was arrested at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, and Ali Damirchiloo, 55, who was arrested in Turin.

Mr Masoumi is accredited for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (RTV), member of the Foreign Press Association in Rome since 1993.

Source:The Times

2010-03-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

Jack Straw refused to say today why one of the killers of James Bulger has been sent back to jail.

As pressure grew for more information in the case of Jon Venables, the Justice Secretary insisted that it was in the public interest to withhold details of the breach of the terms of his release that prompted the recall.

His stance came as speculation grew on the issue and amid growing calls from those close to the case for greater transparency.

Venables, now 27, was 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted the two-year-old from a shopping centre in Bootle and battered him to death on a railway line in 1993.
The pair were controversially freed with new names, birth certificates and national insurance numbers in 2001, at the age of 18, having spent their jail sentences in separate secure units without setting foot in a young offender institution or an adult jail.

After his release Venables is reported to have been allowed to join the Army. Unconfirmed reports suggested that he was now a born-again Christian, had settled down and had plans to marry. Thompson is said to be living with a gay partner, after attending art school.

Both must stay in regular touch with senior probation officers who are sworn to secrecy about their conduct.

Venables was recalled to prison last week after breaching the terms of his release from prison, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday.

Mr Straw said: "I have no interest in gratuitously or unnecessarily withholding information, but there are good reasons to withhold it at the moment and that is in the public interest.

"So I fully understand the frustration that people feel, but the reassurance for the Bulger family and the public is that this system has worked. He was not at liberty, he was on life licence subject to recall, and he has been recalled."

Detective Albert Kirby, who headed the Bulger investigation, said there “must have been a build-up of incidents” for the action to have been taken and called for the Government to release precise details of why Venables was recalled.

He told Sky News: “I think the statement that came out last night actually raises more questions than it answers. They wouldn’t – using football parlance – have given him a red card and go to prison for one infringement.

“It would help to clarify and put this to rest once and for all if the public did have some indication of what it is he has done. Not where he is, or details like that, but the reason why his probation has been revoked and he is back inside.

“It’s going to be asking the questions why is he there and did the authorities fail in making the assessments of his suitability to come back into society?”

James Bulger's mother said Jon Venables was “where he belongs” in her first reaction to news of his return to custody.

Family members said that Mrs Fergus had not been told how Venables had breached his parole.

Among the conditions placed on Venables and Thompson when they were released were a ban on contacting each other or any member of the Bulger family and a prohibition on returning to Merseyside without written consent from their probation officers.

They were told that they could be sent to an adult prison if their behaviour deteriorated or they started using drugs and that if they were convicted of another crime they could face a life sentence.

Speculation is rife about why Venables has been recalled. Michael Wolkind QC, a barrister in criminal law, said that the Ministry of Justice would not lightly have returned Venables to custody, running the risk that his cover would be blown in prison.

"To go to all the trouble of building him a new identity and a new life, there must be a significant chance it was serious," said Mr Wolkind.

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, backed the public’s right to know the facts of the case but said more details would be released.

He added: “I believe the public do have a right to know and I believe they will know all the facts in due course."

Venables will appear before a hearing of the Parole Board to consider the reason for recall. This is expected to happen within 28 days of his recall last week.

The hearing, before a three-person panel including a judge, will rule whether he should stay in prison or be released.
The outcome of such hearings is not usually made public.

But a spokesman for the Parole Board said it was likely the result would be released because of the high-profile nature of the case.

James Bulger's battered body was found by children playing on a railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre where he was led away by his killers.

Both murderers were given compulsory life sentences for the murder and remain on licence for the rest of their lives.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Venables has been involved in several violent incidents, including in December 2007 when he was allegedly stabbed after he accused another man of chatting up his girlfriend.

Laurence Lee, Venables’s solicitor at the time of the crime, said he was shocked. He said: “If I were a betting man and someone said to me, ‘One of the two killers of Jamie Bulger had been arrested and returned to prison’, I would have put a lot of money on it not being Jon because he was by unanimous agreement the lesser evil.”

FROM BOYHOOD TO JAIL

Feb 13, 1993 James Bulger, 2, goes missing while out with his mother in a shopping precinct in Liverpool

Feb 14 His body is found next to a railway line

Feb 20 Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10, are charged with his murder

Nov 24 Venables and Thompson are sentenced to eight years in prison after trial at Preston Crown Court. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, increases the sentence to ten years but an attempt by Michael Howard, then Home Secretary, to extend it by a further five years is vetoed

March 1999 European Commission on Human Rights decides that the boys were denied a fair trial

Jan 8, 2001 Venables and Thompson are granted lifelong anonymity

June 22, 2001 The Parole Board agrees to release the 18-year-olds on lifelong licences. Their identities are changed

April 2007 It is revealed that the Government has spent £13,000 preventing overseas magazines from revealing the killers’ new identities

March 16, 2008 18 red balloons are released at Kirkdale Cemetery to mark what would have been James Bulger’s 18th birthday

March 2, 2010 Department of Justice says that Venables is back in prison after breaching terms of his release

Source:The Times

Chile earthquake: millions affected as toll rises to 300

2010-02-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

Rescue teams have begun to search for survivors after one of the largest earthquakes on record killed at least 300 people in Chile and sent giant waves roaring across the Pacific Ocean.

In an address to the nation, President Michelle Bachelet said that two million Chileans had been affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. After touring the worst-hit areas by air, however, she said it was hard to quantify the magnitude of the disaster.

"The power of nature has again struck our country," Ms Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile's 15 regions "catastrophe zones" in the aftermath of the earthquake, one of the world's most powerful for a century.

An estimated 1.5 million homes were damaged, highways were sliced to pieces, bridges imploded and buildings collapsed as the earthquake struck the South American nation of 16 million people just before dawn on Saturday about 200 miles southwest of the capital SantiagoWaves more than 7ft high crashed into the Chilean coast after the quake struck at 3.34am (06.34 GMT) and tore out into the Pacific, killing at least five people in the remote Robinson Crusoe islands.

In the Chilean port of Talcahuano, trawlers were swept inland to the town square, where they lay marooned next to abandoned cars.

About 50 countries and territories along an arc stretching from New Zealand to Russia are braced for giant waves, five years after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that killed more than 220,000 people.

More than 70,000 people fled vulnerable coastal areas of Japan as a tsunami hit the country's long Pacific coastline. The first wave hit Nemuro on the northern island of Hokkaido in the early afternoon. However, the Government later downgraded the tsunami warning to "normal".

Alerts in Australia and Russia were also downgraded as the threat passed.

The earthquake has raised a daunting first challenge for Sebastian Pinera, the billionaire who was elected Chile's President in January and who takes office in two weeks.

"We're preparing ourselves for an additional task, a task that wasn't part of our governing plan: assuming responsibility for rebuilding our country," he said yesterday. "It's going to be a very big task and we're going to need resources."

The US Geological Survey said it had recorded more than 51 aftershocks ranging from 4.9 to 6.9 since the quake.

In Concepcion, a city of 670,000 people 70 miles southwest of the quake's epicentre, hundreds of people spent the night outside in tents and makeshift shelters, fearful of the aftershocks.

The city's old houses appeared to have borne the brunt of the damage, but a 15-storey apartment block also collapsed, probably killing or trapping many people inside.

The city was mostly blanketed in darkness, with the only light coming from bonfires and occasional police cars. Crushed cars, downed power lines and shattered glass littered the streets.

The European Union said that it would provide €3 million in immediate assistance. Unlike Haiti, struck by a devastating earthquake last month, Chile is one of Latin America's wealthiest countries.

President Obama said that America “will be there” if Chile asks for rescue and recovery help, but Ms Bachelet said that her Government had not asked for assistance from other countries.
Source:The times

Brown on course to win the election

2010-02-28T06:26:00.000-08:00

GORDON BROWN is on course to remain prime minister after the general election as a new Sunday Times poll reveals that Labour is now just two points behind the Tories.

The YouGov survey places David Cameron’s Conservatives on 37%, as against 35% for Labour — the closest gap between the parties in more than two years.

It means Labour is heading for a total of 317 seats, nine short of an overall majority, with the Tories languishing on a total of just 263 MPs. Such an outcome would mean Brown could stay in office and deny Cameron the keys to No 10.

The poll result presents the Conservative leader with one of the greatest challenges of his leadership today as he makes the keynote speech to his party’s spring forumIn an interview with The Sunday Times, Cameron defied his right-wing critics who believe the party’s modernisation has gone too far. He said: “Some people say to me, ‘Play things safe; try to win by default — the government is in a mess.’ I say, ‘No. This is the Conservative party that is offering radical change. I’m doubling up on change’.”

With the expected May 6 election now just over two months away, Cameron will seek to reconnect with voters through a series of pledges, including a plan to restore discipline in schools. In an echo of the speech that won him the Tory leadership in 2005, he will address the Brighton conference without notes.

“This is very, very clear,” he said. “I’ve made my choice. There is no going back. This election is about change and we will be offering change.”

Cameron insisted he was unconcerned about the collapse in Tory support. “The polls move around a lot,” he said. “The voters tell us that they want change. They want to know the Conservative party itself has changed.”

The narrowing of the Conservative lead has been dramatic and rapid. Until January the Tories held close to a 10-point lead. But a week ago a Sunday Times YouGov poll put the gap at six points, suggesting a hung parliament, with the Tories still on course to become the largest party.

In the last election, in 2005, support for the parties generally held steady in the run-up to polling day. YouGov polling for The Sunday Times showed Labour leads of between two and five points from January through to the June election. Labour’s margin of victory was three points.

In today’s poll, Labour has risen two points on the previous week, from 33%, while the Conservatives have dropped two from 39%. The Liberal Democrats are unchanged on 17%.

The collapse in the Tory poll lead will put pressure on the pound in financial markets tomorrow by adding to fears that a hung parliament will mean insufficient action is taken to cut Britain’s budget deficitThe last time the gap between the two main parties came this close and the Tory support was so low was in autumn 2007. That was before Brown’s honeymoon ended with his failure to call a snap general election. The Conservatives went on to peak in May 2008 with a 26-point lead.

Today’s poll suggests recent claims about Brown’s tantrums and his intimidation of staff may have actually helped him. Just 28% of people believe the prime minister is a bully and 50% agree he has a “strong sense of right and wrong”.

The survey disclosed growing concerns about Cameron’s elite background and lack of empathy with ordinary families. Just 25% think that Cameron understands problems faced by “people like me”, compared with 35% for Brown.

Furthermore, only 28% think the Conservative leader wants to do the best for “all groups in Britain”, against 39% for the prime ministerPeter Kellner, president of YouGov, the Sunday Times pollster, said that while individual polls could throw up unexpected shifts, the recent trend had been for a significant narrowing of the Tory lead.

“Our daily polls should be regarded a bit like the FTSE index: a 100-point rise or fall in a day might be a blip or a trend — often we can’t tell for a few days,” he said.

“I am confident the Tory lead is down this weekend but I can’t promise whether the latest movement will be sustained, increased or reversed in the days ahead. One of the reasons for doing daily polls is to monitor these fluctuations.”

The Tory lead of 6%, which was first reported in The Sunday Times, was maintained in YouGov’s polls in The Sun last week. The increase in support for Labour on Thursday and Friday, as the latest Sunday Times poll was being conducted, came as figures showed a strengthening economic recovery.

Under the British parliamentary system, the prime minister remains in office after a general election until he either tenders his resignation or is defeated in a Commons no confidence vote.

If the election result leaves Labour just short of an overall majority, Brown is likely to battle on, with Labour running the country as a minority government. The party would seek to do deals with minor parties such as Ulster’s Democratic Unionist party or, if necessary, Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, to get its legislation through parliament.

If repeated in a general election on the basis of a uniform swing in all constituencies, today’s poll would leave Labour just nine seats short of the 326 needed for an overall majority in the new 650-seat House of Commons.

The Tories would be well behind on 263 seats, with the Liberal Democrats on 41. Kellner calculated that, even allowing for a larger swing to the Tories in marginal seats, where the party has spent millions of pounds on campaigning, the poll was consistent with Labour being by far the largest party.

He suggested that in such a scenario Labour might win 300 seats, with the Tories on 270 and the Lib Dems on 50.

Labour will believe it is benefiting from the upturn in the economy. For the first time in a YouGov poll since July 2007, before the financial crisis, people trust Labour more than the Tories to run the economy.

YouGov, which began polling after the 2001 election, has developed a reputation for accuracy. Its final Sunday Times poll in 2005 was precisely right, and it accurately predicted Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2008 London mayoral election and the results of last year’s Euro elections.
Source:The Times

Paedophile priests must own up to their sins, says Vatican

2010-02-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

Catholic clergy who have sinned by their acts or by turning a blind eye in Ireland’s paedophile priests scandal must admit blame for their “abominable acts”, a senior Vatican official said yesterday.

“Yes, storms spark fear, even those that rock the boat of the Church because of the sins of its members,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, in a sermon delivered to Ireland’s bishops inside St Peter’s Basilica shortly before they began two days of crisis talks with the Pope.

Cardinal Bertone said that trials that came from within the Church “are naturally harder and more humiliating”, particularly when “men of the Church were involved in such particularly abominable acts”.

However, they formed a challenge that the Church “must face”. He made his comments during a Mass, held for survivors of sexual abuse, attended by Ireland’s 24 bishopsVatican analysts said that the 11 hours of meetings held by Pope Benedict XVI with Irish bishops yesterday, and a further five-hour behind closed doors session today, were unprecedented. However, Irish victims of abuse by priests — which was revealed in two government-ordered reports last year — were unimpressed, calling on the Pope to visit Ireland to meet victims in person.

“We want the Pope to make a proper apology to Ireland, for what happened in Ireland,” Michael O’Brien, an abuse victim, said.

“We don’t want a bland apology, we want an apology to those of us in Ireland who were abused and to the people of Ireland, who are 100 per cent behind us on this.

“This is not an Irish problem. This is a Catholic Church worldwide problem.”

Irish abuse victim support groups have written an open letter to the Pope calling for the resignation of bishops “who engaged in this culture of cover up”.

In December last year the Murphy Tribunal concluded that the Church hierarchy had protected paedophile priests from prosecution, moving them from parish to parish where they could reoffend, in order to safeguard the Church’s reputation.

“The lives of thousands of Irish people have been devastated by sexual abuse by priests,” said the letter, which was also signed by Andrew Madden, a former altar boy, who in 1995 became the first Irish person to take legal action against the Catholic Church in Ireland.

“We ask you to write, not only to Irish Catholics, but to all people of Ireland, accepting fully the harm that has been caused by the acts of omission and commission of the Catholic Church and its priests and bishops in Ireland.”

Four Irish bishops have already tendered their resignations to the Pope while a fifth, Martin Drennan of the Galway Diocese, is the only senior official named in last November’s Murphy report not to have done so. He claims that he did nothing to endanger the wellbeing of children.

The Murphy report outlined in detail a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture in which church officials had placed “protection of their own institution above that of vulnerable children in their care” and failed to inform police when abuse was discovered.

The Pope has said that he is “disturbed and distressed” by the Murphy report and shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame” felt by Irish people.

The bishops, led by Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, will give a press conference today after their final session with the Pope. A pastoral letter from the Pope to the faithful in Ireland on the sex abuse crisis would be issued once he had “digested what the bishops had to say and taken it into account”, Vatican sources said.

Cardinal Brady said the encounter with the Pope was “one step in a process which will lead to a journey of repentance, renewal and reconciliation”. He added that there was “no disunity” over “safeguarding children in Ireland” and he hoped the process of reconciliation “will gain momentum when we get back to Ireland”.

John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse group, said victims wanted the Pope to “restore the true Church to Ireland”, which had been “severely damaged at home and abroad by the atrocities committed”. Representatives of the victims have asked the Pope for compensation and are seeking a meeting with him during his visit to Britain in September.

The Murphy report established that a series of Dublin archbishops had compiled confidential files on more than a hundred parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940, but the files remained in private archives and were not acted on.
Source:The Times

Carriage ‘obliterated’ in rail smash that leaves at least 18 dead

2010-02-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

A commuter train pulled into the path of a late-running express during the morning rush hour in Belgium yesterday after apparently missing a “stop signal”, causing one of the worst rail disasters in Europe.

At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the collision, which happened at Buizingen outside the Flemish town of Halle, 15km (10 miles) southwest of Brussels.

Most of the dead were in the “obliterated” first-class carriage at the front of the express. The force of the crash left the two trains, which were carrying about 300 people, jack-knifed together. Emergency workers toiled for hours in temperatures of minus 3C (27F) to free the injured, carrying out several amputations in the mangled wreckage.

Throughout a snowy afternoon, teams of firefighters carried a procession of covered stretchers to a makeshift mortuary set up in a tent on the far side of the tracksOfficials suggested that while the track had been equipped with an emergency braking system to prevent trains running through red lights, the local train did not yet have the necessary technology fitted to make it work.

“I saw a body that was just a torso with no legs. I saw a man who had lost all his fingers,” said one dazed woman who had been in the third carriage of the fast train from Quiévrain to Liège, which was packed with passengers heading into Brussels. “I was just reading the newspaper and then there was carnage.”

Trains were disrupted across Western Europe, and Eurostar services will remain suspended today between London and Brussels.

Light snow was falling when the 8.28am six-car commuter train from Leuven to Braine-le-Comte pulled out of the tiny Buizingen station at a crawl and on to Line 96 of the Belgian national rail system.

According to Lodewijk De Witte, the Governor of the local province of Flemish Brabant, it was a fatal error. “Apparently it did not heed a stop light,” he said.

The driver, who was thought to be among those killed, would not have been expecting to be held up because the Brussels-bound express hurtling towards him was running about ten minutes late. The faster 12-carriage train had been given the all-clear to head along Line 96 to the capital.

Sebastian Duckers, a passenger in the fourth coach of the express, said: “I was just sitting there like normal when there was this huge bang and I was thrown on to the seat opposite. Then there was a lot of shouting and crying from all over the train.

“There was no braking at all. The windows were broken and a couple of carriages were on their sides. Outside the window was a dismembered body.Railway staff were on hand in minutes but at first ordered passengers to stay inside the carriages because some of the overhead power lines had been brought down as coaches were thrown into the air in the head-on collision.

“The first two carriages were completely squashed,” 37-year-old Hambaoui Mounir said. “I was in the carriage right behind. The train fell to one side, people fell over each other, there was no air and women and children were screaming.”

Patricia Lallemand, 40, who was in the third carriage of the express, added: “When we came out we saw dead bodies lying next to the tracks. Some of them were mutilated.”

Wira Leire, 20, who lives near by, was woken by the loud crash and leapt to his bedroom window to see the collision site directly in front of his home. “There were people lying on the ground next to the train, so I grabbed some blankets and ran into the back garden,” he said. “But I couldn’t climb over the concrete wall, so I just threw the blankets to the rescuers who were already gathering there.The 4m (15ft) concrete safety wall probably prevented the wreckage from crashing into the gardens of nearby houses, although the emergency services retrieved one broken train door from the residential side of the barrier.

A third train on a parallel rail had to hit its emergency brakes and narrowly avoided running into a carriage that was lying across its path.

The official death toll yesterday stood at 18 with another 30 seriously injured. SNCB, the national train operator, refused to comment on the cause of the accident.

Officials said that they expected the death toll to exceed the country’s worst train disaster, when a crash near Leuven in 1954 killed 20 German football fans and seriously injured 40 others. In March 2001 eight people died when a crowded train smashed into an empty train driving on the wrong tracks.

Yves Leterme, the Prime Minister, who cut short a visit to Kosovo to visit the scene, said that he was stunned by the accident, which came less than three weeks after a gas explosion at a residential block in Liège killed 14 people. Albert II, King of the Belgians, also returned from abroad to inspect the crash site.

European rail disasters

May 8, 2003, Hungary Train and German tourist bus collide near Siofok, western Hungary, killing 33

January 23, 2006, Serbia and Montenegro A packed train derails in Montenegro, leaving 47 dead

September 22, 2006, Germany High-speed maglev train crashes and kills 23 near Lathen

June 30, 2009, Italy Train carrying liquid petroleum gas explodes in Viareggio, creating a massive fireball that kills 29

Source: AFP

Top Taleban commander Mullah Baradar captured in Pakistan

2010-02-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Afghan Taleban's top military commander has been captured in Karachi in a secret raid by Pakistani and US intelligence forces.

Pakistan confirmed this morning that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, described as the most significant Taleban figure captured since the start of the Afghanistan war, was arrested in a slum predominantly populated by Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns last week.

Mullah Baradar, who is deputy to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taleban's supreme commander, had regularly visited Karachi, which Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies believe has become a major haven for the Afghan Taleban leadership.

Citing US government officials, The New York Times said that Baradar had been in Pakistani custody for several days and was being interrogated by Pakistani and US intelligence officers. Pakistani officials would not say where he was being detainedThe White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the report.

The newspaper reported that officials said the operation to capture Mr Baradar was conducted by Pakistan's military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, accompanied by CIA agents.

US officials believe that Baradar is second in influence in the Taleban only to Omar and was a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the attacks on the US in 2001, it added.

The newspaper said it was not clear if Baradar was talking to authorities, but it quoted officials as saying his capture could lead to other senior Taleban officials. The officials said he might even take them to Omar.

A spokesman for the Taleban in Afghanistan told the Associated Press that Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.

“We totally deny this rumour. He has not been arrested,” Zabiullah Mujahid told the AP by telephone. “The Taleban are having success with our jihad. It is to try to demoralise the Taleban who are on jihad in Marjah and all of Afghanistan.”

Baradar was born in 1968 in Weetmak, a village in the Oruzgan Province of Afghanistan. Terrorism experts describe him as a skilled military leader who runs many high-level meetings of the Taleban’s top commanders in Afghanistan.

He has had a leading role in the Taleban's day-to-day military and financial operations, allocating funds, appointing military commanders and deciding military tactics.

Baradar is said to be responsible for the Taleban tactic of planting "flowers" — improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — along roadsides.

His capture is seen as indication that the current Pakistani military leadership under General Ashfaq Kayani, the Chief of Army Staff, is convinced that there are close links between the Afghan and Pakistani Taleban, an alliance that presents the biggest threat to the country’s national security.

The arrest comes at the start of Operation Moshtarak, one of Nato's biggest offensives against Taleban Islamic militants in Afghanistan. The offensive in Marjah involves 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops. It is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taleban. The troops are fighting over an area of less than 100 square miles, with a population of 80,000.

The assault is the first test of President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taleban has made a steady comeback since the invasion.

The New York Times said it learnt of the operation last Thursday, but delayed reporting it after a request by the White House.

The paper said it was now publishing the report because White House officials acknowledged that news of the capture was becoming broadly known in the region.

US officials were quoted as saying that in addition to the Taleban's military operations, Baradar ran the group's leadership council, often called the Quetta Shura.

Pakistani and intelligence agencies said most of the members of the Quetta Shura had moved to Karachi in recent months after reports that the Obama Administration might target Taleban sanctuaries in Baluchistan.
Source:The Times

Ray Gosling refuses to talk to police after confessing he 'killed lover'

2010-02-16T08:44:00.000-08:00

The veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling says he will not co-operate with the police investigating his on-air confession to having smothered his lover dying of Aids.

The 70-year-old presenter made the admission on the BBC East Midlands weekly programme Inside Out, broadcast at 7.30pm last night.

Nottinghamshire Police said this morning that it had launched an investigation, after learning of Mr Gosling's admission for the first time as the show was aired.

Anti-euthanasia groups criticised the BBC for failing to report the confession to the police, but the corporation denied that it had had any legal obligation to do so. Assisted suicide is a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in jail"I'm not going to tell (the police) anything," Mr Gosling told interviewers today, when asked whether he had considered that he might go to jail over his admission.

"There are different kinds of law, you know. There's a law that's written in law books and there's a law in your heart... Different laws carry different weights at different times.

"(Going to jail) is what has to happen maybe. I will have to see what happens."

In the Inside Out programme Mr Gosling was shown weeping as he walked through a graveyard. He does not name his lover, who it is understood was not his long-term partner Bryn.

“I killed someone once... He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids," he told the viewers, in a feature on end-of-life decisions.

“In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain.

“I said to the doctor, ’Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.

“The doctor came back and I said, ’He’s gone’. Nothing more was ever said.”
In an interview today, Mr Gosling said that the doctor on duty that afternoon had effectively invited him to do something, by deliberately leaving him alone with the dying man.

"Yes, of course the doctor knew (what I had done)," he said.

"There was this moment and the doctor said to me something like: 'I will pop out and have a fag now' or 'go to the canteen' or 'go to another ward – and will you still be here when I get back, Ray?' And I said, 'Ye-es'.

"It was an invitation. Why do doctors leave extra morphine for people who are in extreme pain? 'It's in the drawer, just in case you need it' ... Doctors are doing this every day.The Director of Public Prosecutions is about to announce new guidelines for prosecutors on applying the law on assisted dying, after a string of high profile cases led to calls for clarification and reform.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said that the case showed that the law was out of step with what society needed and wanted.

“Crucially, Ray Gosling’s loved one was terminally ill and clearly asked for help to die when he was suffering unbearably at the end of his life," said Ms Wootton.

“This illustrates a need for formal assisted dying legislation to help those who want choice at the end of life, as well as protect people who may be vulnerable to coercion.”

But Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, said that the story that Mr Gosling had described was not one of helping someone to die but of murder.

"On the basis of the testimony given, legally speaking, this is not a case of assisted suicide – helping someone to kill himself – but of murder –actively ending the life of another person," said Dr Saunders.

He added that it was a myth that patients needed to die in terrible pain, and it would be a tragedy if Mr Gosling's story fuelled that myth.

"The clinical details which have been revealed are very sketchy and it is not at all clear why this man was in pain or why his pain was not being more adequately controlled," he said.

"The case, if anything, should fuel calls to make the very best palliative care, already available to many, much more widely accessible."

Care Not Killing is now considering lodging a complaint with the BBC.

Dr Saunders said that the BBC's behaviour had been "bizarre and highly irresponsible", failing to refer the confession to the police, not airing the footage for two months, and then choosing to broadcast it just as the DPP was about to release his new guidelines.

"This will fuel concerns that the BBC is not covering this issue in an even-handed manner," Dr Saunders said. "It may even be trying to put pressure on both the DPP and Parliament by giving hugely disproportionate coverage to emotive cases in which the facts are selectively presented to an uninformed audience."

The Crown Prosecution Service said today that there is no legal obligation to report a crime.

The nearest offence is Obstructing a Police Officer (Police Act 1996) which applies only if one does something to prevent an officer carrying out his duty, so is not applicable in this case.

A CPS spokeswoman said: "Generally the advice is if you think that an offence might have been committed to contact the police as soon as possible." The CPS said suspects are not required to cooperate with the police, and many interviews are "no comment".

Source:The Times

India puts GM food farming on hold

2010-02-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

India delayed approval of its first genetically modified food crop today after environmentalists and scientists warned that it had been passed by a government safety body despite not being properly tested.

Jairam Ramesh, the Environment Minister, said that the decision to delay permission for the cultivation of Bt brinjal – a variety of aubergine into which a toxic gene that poisons insect pests has been inserted – reflected “a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach”.

Further independent safety tests will be conducted.

The moratorium comes despite the crop being approved by India’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, a panel of government-appointed scientists charged with determining the safety of GM cropsIt also follows a series of meetings called by Mr Ramesh to canvass public opinion, many of which were disrupted by GM opponents.

Pushpa Bhargava, a scientist who sat on the committee, told The Times that the safety data on Bt brinjal presented to the GEAC had been “unacceptable and incomplete” – partly because most of it was supplied by Mahyco, the company that developed the new vegetable.

He was outvoted when the committee, which included several scientists with ties to Mahyco, gave its approval in October.

Opponents had warned that not enough was known about the effects of the new variety on humans and the environment. Long-term toxicity and the risk of dangerous mutations had not been ruled out, they argued.

Leaders of farmers' unions had reacted angrily at the prospect of relying on overseas suppliers for expensive new seeds.
Source:The Times

Sri Lanka opposition leader held for 'plotting coup'

2010-02-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

The former Sri Lankan army chief hailed last year as a national hero for defeating the Tamil Tigers was in jail last night facing possible execution.

General Sarath Fonseka, 58, was forcibly arrested on charges of plotting a coup against President Rajapaksa, whom he challenged in an election last month.

Military police dragged the retired general away after storming into his campaign office in the historic centre of Colombo as he met opposition leaders to discuss how to challenge the results of the January 26 election.

The fear now is that General Fonseka’s supporters in the army, who are still thought to be many, could rebel against the Government, undermining a fragile peace that took almost three decades to achieve. “He has been arrested with his personal assistant,” one of the general’s spokesmen, now in hiding, told The Times. “We are shocked, because we thought the dust was starting to settle.Rauff Hakeem, one of his allies in the opposition, said that General Fonseka and his secretary were dragged out by their hands and legs. “He was humiliated and disgraced in the way he was handled,” he said. “We were just flabbergasted.”

It was a savage irony for the man whom many of the island’s ethnic Tamil minority hold jointly responsible with Mr Rajapaksa for committing war crimes, including the shelling of civilians, in the last stages of the conflict.

Keheliya Rambukwella, a government minister and spokesman, confirmed that General Fonseka would be tried in a military court on charges of conspiring against the President and planning a coup. “He has been plotting against the President while in the military ... with the idea of overthrowing the Government,” he said.

General Fonseka’s arrest is the latest twist in an extraordinary political melodrama that has consolidated Mr Rajapaksa’s grip on power, but raised concerns about the state of South Asia’s oldest democracy.

Mr Rajapaksa and General Fonseka were both lauded for their roles in ending the 26-year civil war, but they fell out after Mr Rajapaksa switched the general to the ceremonial post of Chief of Defence Staff in July in an apparent attempt to curb the military’s almost unlimited powers.

The general, who also felt that he was not given due credit for the Tigers’ defeat, resigned from the army in November and declared his candidacy in the election a month later. Campaigning was brutal as the rivals appeared to have split the Sinhalese vote and both tried to reach out to the Tamils as potential kingmakers.

Mr Rajapaksa won easily, but the general refused to accept the results, accusing the Government of monopolising the state media and tampering with ballot counting. Since then the Government has cracked down on the media, closing two newspapers, arresting one editor and detaining dozens of journalists. It has also carried out a purge of the army.

The US voiced concern about the arrest. Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said: “There is a tremendous need for the Government of Sri Lanka to work to overcome the fissures that exist within its society.”
Source:The times

Iran starts processing nuclear fuel towards weapons-grade strength

2010-02-09T09:26:00.000-08:00

Iran began manufacturing a higher grade of enriched uranium today in defiance of the international community, raising fears that it was heading towards nuclear breakout.

The development, which comes less than 24 hours after Iran officially notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), caused international alarm and gave impetus to Western calls for new sanctions against Tehran despite continued opposition from China.

"Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of IAEA inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told Iran's Arabic-language state television station, al Alam.

Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, confirmed that "preparatory work" had started at 9.30am (0600 GMT) and that production would formally get under way at about 1pm local timeIran claims the upgrade of its low-enriched uranium from 3.5 per cent to 20 per cent is to supply fuel for a medical research reactor. But Western governments fear Tehran is readying for the production of weapons-grade fuel, noting that it lacks the technology required for the declared medical purposes.

Russia, traditionally resistant to tough actions against Iran, voiced some of its strongest doubts to date about the nature of the nuclear programme.

“Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s security council, was quoted as saying. “But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 per cent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well grounded.”

Today’s development appears to mark the end of the line for the United Nations-backed uranium swap deal by which the international community had hoped to stop Iran from acquiring the fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

Under the proposed deal Iran was required to ship out three quarters of its low-enriched uranium stocks in return for an equivalent amount of 20 per cent enriched uranium in the form of French-made fuel rods to be used in a research reactor to produce medical isotopes.

Iran in effect pronounced the deal dead today when it began the process of making the 20 per cent enriched uranium itself.

But because it lacks the technology to make the fuel rods, Iran cannot use the enriched material for medical purposes, raising suspicions that it is seeking to produce weapons-grade fuel.

Although weapons-grade uranium is 90 per cent enriched, the first stages of the process are the hardest and most time-consuming. The leap from 20 to 90 per cent is more rapidly bridged.
France and Argentina are the only countries capable of making the rods and Argentina has refused to help while France would do so only under the conditions of the UN-backed deal.

Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, denounced Iran’s warning as blackmail to force a deal on Tehran’s terms. In the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office called the Iranian decision worrying.

The battle now moves to the UN Security Council, where Western powers hope to lure Russia and China on board for sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank and other financial institutions, as well as companies controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guard.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, “thinks this is a matter of weeks, not months", a Pentagon spokesman said“He thinks that we need it and that we can do it in that time,” Geoff Morrell told reporters in Paris, where Mr Gates was meeting with President Sarkozy to discuss a draft resolution on sanctions.

France holds the rotating chair of the Security Council until the end of February and hopes to be able to tabled a vote on sanctions before then.

“In all his meetings [Mr Gates] discussed this sense of urgency,” Mr Morrell added.

Later Mr Gates told Fox News that a new resolution would provide “a legal platform for the EU and individual countries to perhaps take even more far-reaching steps” against Iran.

Washington is sounding out allies to see which would be willing to join a coalition of states imposing even harsher sanctions.

China remains the biggest obstacle to Security Council sanctions and yesterday Mr Kouchner warned publicly that Beijing could vote down a resolution.

Today China renewed its calls for revived talks on the uranium deal, insisting it still offered a way out of the impasse.

“We hope the relevant parties will exchange views on the draft deal on the Tehran research reactor and reach common ground at an early date which will help solve the issue,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“I hope relevant parties will step up efforts to push forward dialogue on this question."

Source:The times

Man 'buried under rubble for four weeks' found alive in Haiti

2010-02-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

A man who has been pulled alive from the rubble of a marketplace in Port-au-Prince may have been trapped there since the devastating earthquake struck the Haitian capital 28 days ago.

The 28-year-old, identified as Evans Muncie, was found under the remains of the Croix Bossal market where he sold rice. He had not been seen since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the city on January 12, killing over 200,000 people.

Mr Muncie was discovered by people who had been digging at the marketplace. He was taken to an American field hospital in Port-au-Prince where he was treated for severe dehydration and malnutrition.

Doctors said Mr Muncie was very disorientated and at times thought he was still under the rubble while he was being treated at the tent hospitalIt could not be confirmed exactly how long Mr Muncie was trapped but his family said he had been missing since January 12.

His mother said: "I thought he was dead, but God kept him from dying."

Dr Mike Connelly told CNN, the American news network: "He was emaciated. He hadn't had anything in quite some time. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet."

According to CNN, Mr Muncie told doctors that somebody in a white coat had occasionally brought him water, however it is not known whether he had been hallucinating.

He also said he could hear bulldozers around him working to demolish damaged buildings while he lay underneath the rubble near by.

Dr Connelly said Mr Muncie must have had access to water to have survived the entire four weeks trapped under a building.

"Initially, I'm sure he had his senses with him, so maybe he was able to find some kind of resources," Dr Connelly told CNN.

The US network showed photographs of Mr Muncie being treated by doctors.

Despite the Haitian Government calling for an end to search and rescue operations on January 23, survivors continued to be pulled from the rubble in the following days.

On January 27, 16-year-old Daline Etienne was rescued from beneath the debris of her house, 15 days after the earthquake had forced the building to collapse on top of her.

The rescue of the teenager, who appeared in relatively good health, was deemed a miracle.
Source:The times

Rowan Williams issues 'profound apology' to gay Christians

2010-02-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Archbishop of Canterbury today issued a "profound apology" to the lesbian and gay Christian community.

In a powerful address to General Synod Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the church would represent of a "betrayal" of God's mission.

But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church.

The Archbishop is from the Church's liberal Catholic wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of Church unityToday he said: "There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them.

"I have been criticised for doing just this and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."

Addressing the even more contentious debate over gay ordinations - something which threatens to split the Church further with the expected consecration in May of lesbian Canon Mary Glasspool as a bishop in Los Angeles - Dr Williams said it had not been helped by those who ignored the fact that many regular worshippers are gay, as well as many "sacrificial and exemplary priests".

He made it clear there was blame on all sides of the argument that has brought the Church to the brink of splitting. He pleaded for Anglicans battling over gays and women bishops to cease fighting, admitting that he and other bishops might have to settle for a two-tier communion if it is to survive at all.

In his wide-ranging address at Church house Westminster, Dr Williams made clear that the ordination of women bishops should not go ahead at the expense of the Church's Anglican Catholic wing, which is currently assessing an offer from the Pope to move over to Rome into a new Anglican Ordinariate.

Dr Williams admitted: "Most hold that the ordination of women as bishops as good, something that will enhance our faithfulness to Christ and our integrity in mission."

But he said that this good was "jeopardised" by the potential loss of both traditionalists and some evangelicals who oppose women bishops.

Referring to proposals to give women bishops a lesser level of authority, he said the reform should not happen at all if it is done in such a way that "that will corrupt it or compromise it fatally".

And while the Anglican Covenant, a new unity document intended to find a way to keep the 38 provinces under one umbrella, has been attacked as being too punitive, Dr Williams said this was mistaken.

"There is no supreme court envisaged and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded. But the difficult issue that we cannot simply ignore is this."

Referring to tomorrow's debate tabled by a lay member from the Chichester diocese calling for the Church of England to recognise the breakaway new traditionalist church in the US, he said: "Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed. The present effect of this is chaos - local schisms, outside interventions, all the unedifying stuff you will be hearing about, from both sides, in the debate on Lorna Ashworth's motion."

Outlining a possible way forward to a two-tier communion, he admitted: "It may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican. I don't at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves."
Source:The times

Chilcot inquiry member Sir Martin Gilbert praises Gordon Brown

2010-01-28T08:07:00.000-08:00

A member of the official inquiry into the Iraq war has praised Gordon Brown just weeks before the Prime Minister gives evidence about his role in the conflict.

Sir Martin Gilbert said he was aware of the hard work undertaken by Mr Brown when he was asked to accompany him on an official visit to Israel last year.

The distinguished historian made the comments in an interview in which he condemned “anti-Semitic” criticism that two of the five Chilcot committee members are Jews.

He said more senior people should speak out against the “terrifying” rise anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli opinion in Britain.Sir Martin praised Mr Brown - who agreed last week to give evidence to the inquiry before the general election - for his support for Israel and Jews.

“One of the curious things about Britain today is that we have had this terrifying sort of rise in crude anti-Israel anti-Semitic feeling on the one hand, often fuelled by one or two newspapers,” he said.

“On the other hand we have a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who is totally committed to Israel and feels very close to Jewish people.

“He asked me to come with him last year when he came to the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and I watched in the period before his visit just how carefully he worked on the visit... I was impressed he was spending so much time and effort to get it right.”

The comments in an interview to an Israeli radio station are likely to be seized upon by critics of Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry who have claimed that politicians, their advisors and senior civil servants have not faced tough enough questions from the committee.

The Prime Minister is expected to be questioned by the Iraq Inquiry about suggestions that Tony Blair told the United States that Britain would participate in the war a year before the invasion.

Mr Brown, who was Chancellor at the time of the war, will be asked to explain the budget for the Armed Forces after complaints from some commanders that soldiers had been left without sufficient body armour, helicopters and armoured vehicles.

Sir Martin said during the interview that he was delighted that being Jewish was not a bar to being a senior figure in public service in Britain but added that there should be more effort to challenge anti-Semitic hostility.

He said it was “appalling” that two national newspapers carried articles which said Jews should not be on the inquiry panel after he and the military historian Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman were appointed last year.

“When it was announced there as a really unpleasant series of newspaper articles in just two newspapers and also on the blogosphere pointing out that two of the five members of this commission of inquiry were Jews and saying that this would make us unsuitable because as Jews we would support Israel,” he said.

Sir Martin said: “I couldn't see what this had to do with Iraq except that they said that as Israel supported the war in Iraq and America supported it and America is of course controlled by the Zionist lobby therefore we would not be impartial in our inquiry because we would favour the war because Israel favoured the war.

“Well, apart from the fact, that as far as I can see, at that time Israel regarded Iran as a greater danger in March 2003, it is just appalling.”

“I mean, what were the religions or characteristics or ethnic backgrounds of the other three members? They were of no interest to these anti-Semites. So that was very unpleasant.”

Sir Martin, who describes himself as a proud practising Jew and Zionist, urged other senior figures to speak out during an hour-long interview with an online radio station which broadcasts from a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

“I think the crude popular anti-Israel attitude here (in Britain) is something that I would like to see more senior figures speak out against,” he said. “It does happen but I think it has become serious enough now for more figures to do it.”

Sir Martin added: “I certainly don’t despair but it is not pleasant. People follow the trends and newspapers.... the two that are particularly hostile to Israel, have a tremendous influence.”

The articles criticised by Sir Martin were by Richard Ingrams in The Independent and by Sir Oliver Miles, a former British Ambassador to Libya, Greece and Luxembourg, in the Independent on Sunday.

Source:The Times

Massive Toyota recall spreads to China and Europe

2010-01-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

Toyota’s massive recall of more than seven million vehicles in the United States — sparked by reliability problems with accelerator pedals — is to be extended to Europe and China, the company revealed today.

The announcements came hours after the company added a further 1.09 million vehicles to the tally of cars involved in its US recall. It is thought that at least 75,000 vehicles will be recalled in China.

Toyota drivers in the UK were none the wiser by lunchtime today as to whether their cars will be part of the global recall.

A spokesman for the company in London said: "We want to get the message out that there will be a recall but data is still being collated as to which exact models and exact number of cars."nitial speculation suggests American-built Toyota RAV4's imported into the UK could be among those in the recall.

The spokesman declined to comment on that or on whether faulty mechanisms form part of the UK-built Toyota model, the Avensis and the Auris.

In a statement Toyota GB said: "There is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.

"This is caused because the accelerator pedal mechanisms concerned may become worn. This progressive wear, combined with certain operating and environmental conditions, can cause friction in the mechanism to increase and intermittently result in the accelerator pedal being harder to depress, slow to return or, in the worst case, stick in a partially open position.

"In case of occurrence, the driver may notice that the accelerator pedal is progressively harder to depress or is slower to return. A rough or chattered feeling may also be experienced when depressing/releasing the accelerator pedal.

"Toyota will implement a recall in Europe for this matter. The details of corrective action and implementation will be communicated directly to customers with vehicles potentially affected. The models and exact number of potentially affected vehicles is under investigation.

"A running change in production using different parts has already been implemented model-by-model in the European production. Therefore there is no need or intention to stop production in Europe.

"Whilst this condition is rare we advise customers who have concerns to contact Toyota GB Customer Relations (0800 1388744) for assistance ahead of the recall instructions being issued."As further information becomes available it will be posted at www.toyota.co.uk."

Motoring groups are telling Toyota owners and drivers to get in touch with their local dealer or garage.

"If you are unsure, our advice if you are a Toyota customer is to get in touch with your Toyota dealer," said a spokesman for the RAC motoring organisation.

"If your car is developing any worrying signs you should get in touch with your local garage or dealer."We are currently still attempting to get details on the extent of the recall and how far this extends to Toyota's European operations."

The company said that it had “no need or intention” of halting vehicle production at its European factories.

American owners of the affected vehicles are being asked to bring them in for inspection after a series of incidents in which the accelerator pedals became stuck in the depressed position, causing accidents in some cases.

The latest US recall covers a range of models, including the Highlander and Corolla.

Toyota took the rare step yesterday of suspending production and sales of eight Toyota models built at its factories in the US.

The models affected by the suspension represent 70 per cent of those sold in the US in December, and include the popular Camry.

If the recall does affect a large number of vehicles in Europe, analysts said, it may suggest that the problem relates more to fundamental design than to specific production issues.

The three recalls in the US — 4.2 million vehicles in November, 2.3 million vehicles last week and 1.09 million today — are designed to check for two possible faults.

One problem appears to centre on the floor mats, which can come unstuck and cause the pedals to catch.

The second, more serious, problem is mechanical.

Toyota has said that the accelerator pedal can, in a worst case, stick in a “partially depressed position” when the mechanism becomes worn.

On its US website, the company recommends that drivers “step on the brake pedal with both feet using firm and steady pressure.”

The recalls, which are being treated as a rare opportunity by Toyota’s rivals to seize market share, could not come at a worse time for the Japanese company.

It is battling to restore the company to profit after fiscal 2008 saw Toyota’s first full-year loss since it switched from making looms to building cars 60 years ago.

The announcements sent Toyota’s shares tumbling heavily, adding a further 4.3 per cent fall to a rout that began last week.

Fitch, the credit ratings agency, said that Toyota's A+ credit rating, once the pride of Japanese industry, had been placed on watch for a possible downgrade.

“The recalls and sales and production suspension cast a negative light on Toyota's reputation for quality, just as the company emerges from an unprecedented downturn in the auto industry,” Fitch said.

Source:The Times

Barack Obama: I don't quit - let's start again

2010-01-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

A week after the worst political setback of his presidency Barack Obama used his first State of the Union address to rally his party, talk up the struggling American economy and challenge Republicans to stop “just saying no”.

Cheered on by Democrats who were yearning for a glimpse of the magic they saw in their President-elect a year ago, Mr Obama mounted a populist attack on Wall Street excess and responded to public anxiety over unemployment by demanding a new jobs Bill “on my desk without delay”.

He vowed to veto spending that would increase the deficit that has so enraged American voters, but at the same time refused to abandon his cherished – and expensive – goals for reforming US healthcare and investing in clean energy.

With his party still reeling from the loss of a crucial Massachusetts Senate seat Mr Obama was forced to restate the soaring themes of his election victory in the language of a fighter. “We have finished a difficult year,” he said. “We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment to start anew.”
As expected Mr Obama had harsh words for the lobbyists who he accuses of trying to sabotage his signature reforms of US healthcare and financial regulation. Demanding that they be forced to disclose all contacts with the White House or Congress, he attacked a recent Supreme Court ruling that ends limits on what special interests can spend on political campaigns.

“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities,” he said. “They should be decided by the American people.”

He also lashed out at Republicans even as he appealed yet again for a new era of bipartisanship. In a reference to the Massachusetts seat and the need for a “supermajority” to pass any legislation, he said: “If the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”

Occasionally both sides rose to applaud. They did so when Mr Obama demanded a tax on bankers’ bonuses and again for his unexpected expression of support for increased offshore oil and gas drilling – a concession to Republicans that could unblock opposition to a climate change Bill at a time when most of the Administration’s domestic agenda is paralysed.

Minutes into the address Mr Obama defied expectations by declaring that “our union is strong”. He used the line – familiar from past State of the Union speeches – despite sagging poll numbers and anger among voters over a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion (£864 billion) and counting.

Invoking an American spirit of “great decency and great strength”, he said: “I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight. Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We don’t allow fear or division to break our spirit.”

Mr Obama was still working on the address with his chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, 28, late yesterday. He used it to urge both main parties to overcome “the numbing weight of our politics” and find the common ground that has eluded them for the past year.

In a gesture to his liberal base, the President said that he would seek the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy instituted by President Clinton on gays in the military. He also admitted that he and his team had made mistakes in their first year. Most were unspecified but he owned up to a failure to communicate his aims for health reform more clearly.

No detailed strategy was expected for saving the healthcare Bill that dominated Mr Obama’s first year in office, and none was offered. Mr Obama restricted himself to a plea “to come together and finish the job for the American people”. Earlier, Senator Harry Reid, who led round-the-clock negotiations on the Bill until the Democrats lost their Senate supermajority last week, said that there was “no rush” to get it passed.

Elsewhere in the 70-minute speech Mr Obama listed modest initiatives to ease the burden of recession on hard-pressed middle class families. These included a $4 billion funding increase for schools and renewed promises of tax credits for small businesses and childcare in the budget next week. The President also announced a bipartisan commission on deficit reduction and a symbolic pay freeze for senior White House staff.

He rallied his rank and file with the words: “I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”

Eager Democrats were reserving aisle seats by 8am to ensure that they had a chance to shake Mr Obama’s hand when he made his way to the podium for his biggest set-piece political speech of the year, but polls published yesterday showed that three quarters of Americans believe that their federal government is not working and 58 per cent feel that their country is heading in the wrong direction.

At least 30 million viewers were expected to tune in for the speech.

Source:The Times

Haiti miracle: Daline Etienne, 16, survives earthquake for 15 days

2010-01-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of Haitians cheered, wept and gave thanks to God last night as a 16-year-old girl was pulled from beneath the rubble of her house, 15 days after the earthquake.

Daline Etienne was barely alive with very low blood pressure, but medics with the French rescue team that saved her were confident that she would pull through. Her rescuers thought that she might have survived on Coca-Cola.

“It’s a joy, it’s a miracle. Everyone is rejoicing,” said Bertony Daudier, one of the huge crowd that gathered to watch the drama unfold in the San Gérard district of Port-au-Prince.

The incredible story began at around midday when four men searching for possessions in the ruins of a house heard a noise in the wreckage beneath them. “We shouted, ‘Is anyone there? Is someone there?’,” Rousvelt Luc said. “We heard a voice saying, ‘Yes, yes’.”
The French rescue team arrived at about 5pm and embarked on a race to extract Daline before nightfall. She was trapped beneath a huge concrete slab in her pancaked house, with the stench of decomposing bodies permeating the air.

Claude Fuilla, the chief medic on the French rescue team, said that when they arrived at the site he climbed down into a hole. “At first all I could see was her hair,” he said.

They widened the tunnel for better access to examine her. “We tried to stabilise her before we did anything else because she couldn’t hold on for many more hours if we took too long to get her out,” Mr Fuilla said. Her rescuers managed to put her on a drip.

At about 5.45pm, as the sun was setting, they pulled her out to the elation of a crowd that has known nothing but misery for the past fortnight. As they cheered and applauded, she was carried over the rubble on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

She did not move and she was covered in dust and looked almost lifeless. Commander Samuel Bernes, of the rescue team, said: “She just said, ‘Thank you’. She’s very weak, which suggests that she’s been there for 15 days.”

“It’s a miracle. God has watched over her and Jesus got her out,” Mr Fuilla said.

Daline was rushed to the Hôpital Lycée Français where doctors opted to fly her by helicopter to a French naval ship off the coast of Haiti for treatment. Michel Orcel, a doctor at the hospital, said: “We can’t explain how she survived all that time. She is going to live. There is no doubt.” He said that she appeared to have no more than a few cuts on her legs.

Mr Fuilla said that there were three reasons why Daline might have survived: she was young and in good health; she seemed to have been protected in a cavity by a wall on each side; and she seemed to have had access to liquid. Mr Fuilla said that she had mumbled the word “Coca” — French for Coca-Cola.

Within minutes of an ambulance rushing Daline off to hospital, darkness fell but the crowd lingered, anxious to savour a rare moment of joy that will boost the spirits of a city where more than 150,000 people have died, 1.5 million are homeless and an estimated 50 per cent of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

Source:The Times

Karzai says Afghans will need '15 years of help'

2010-01-28T07:25:00.000-08:00

President Karzai of Afghanistan warned today that his country's security forces would require another 15 years of Western support before they are able to sustain themselves.

Ahead of the opening of the London Conference on Afghanistan, Mr Karzai told the BBC that he foresaw a gradual reduction in support over a lengthy timeframe.

“With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years will be enough,” he said. “With regard to sustaining them until Afghanistan is financially able to provide for our forces, the time will be extended to 10 to 15 years.”

His comments were at odds with the tone of Gordon Brown’s opening address to the conference, which sought to stress a timeframe of less than a year until Western forces begin a transition of responsibility to their Afghan counterparts.The Communique that will end the conference, a document already leaked to The Times, forsees a gradual transfer starting late this year or early next in the more benign provinces. Afghan forces will be in the lead of the majority of provinces within three years and overall control will pass to Afghan forces within five years.

Concurrent with the military surge, led by 30,000 new US troops, the Prime Minister set out details to leaders from more than 60 countries of a complementary “civilian and political surge” that will include a drive to reconcile and reintegrate Taliban fighters.

After a bloody year for Nato forces in Afghanistan, during which 520 troops died including 108 from Britain, Mr Brown told delegates: “By the middle of next year, we have to turn the tide in the fight against the insurgency.”

Standing alongside Mr Karzai, the Prime Minister went on to detail plans that Western leaders hope will lead to the reintegration of what the Afghan President called the “disenchanted brothers” of the Taleban.

The Prime Minister detailed a new £500million fund that is to offer inducements to Taleban fighters who promise to lay down their arms and sever their ties with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

The exact nature of the proposed engagement remains unclear, with Afghan officials and some British officials appearing to push a more conciliatory line than is coming from Washington.

Speaking at the start of the conference President Karzai told leaders that he wished to “reach out to all” and asked that the Saudi leader King Abdullah act as an intermediary in a process of engagement with the Taleban leadership. Saudi Arabia, one of only three countries to recognise the original Taleban government, has played a discreet role in previous unofficial talks between the Karzai government and representatives of the Taleban

The Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday that any reconciliation with the Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was "probably a bridge too far" after he gave safe haven to al-Qaeda to launch the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

"He has the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands," he told reporters in Washington.

But Mark Sedwill, the former British Ambassador and newly appointed Nato civilian representative in Afghanistan, suggested that talks with the Taleban would inevitably lead to engagement with “unsavoury characters.”

"If we are going to bring conflicts like Afghanistan, civil conflicts, to an end, that means some pretty unsavoury characters have to be brought within the system," he said.

The Taleban has been dismissive of suggestions that fighters can be “bought” by the new plan and today restated on its website that the withdrawal of Western forces is a precondition to any negotiation with the leadership. However, the insurgent movement has been careful in recent months to distance itself from Al-Qaeda’s agenda stressing that it poses “no threat to the West”.

Among the measures that are to accompany the reconciliation drive as part of a concurrent “civilian surge” in Afghanistan are plans for a new training programme for some 12,000 Afghan bureaucrats, a key deficiency in a country beset by both literacy rates of less than 30 per cent and endemic corruption. Agriculture, the mainstay of the Afghan economy, is to receive another £72 million from the British taxpayer.

As the West tries to accelerate a transition to Afghan control that will provide an ultimate exit strategy, Mr Brown said that the proportion of development money channelled through the Afghan government is to be increased to 50 per cent of the total, a move matched by Afghan government commitments to clamp down on endemic corruption. The International Monitory Fund and the World Bank are to announce further debt relief for Afghanistan totalling $1.6 billion.

British police training and mentoring teams are to be doubled from April, Mr Brown said, as part of an international effort to build Afghan forces that will see the Afghan Army expanded from 134,000 this October to 171,600 by October 2011. The Afghan police are to grow in number from 109,000 in October to 134,000 by October 2011.

Source:The Times

Venezuelan cable television channel taken off air

2010-01-24T04:36:00.000-08:00

A Venezuelan cable television channel critical of President Hugo Chavez has been taken off the air after refusing to broadcast footage of the president's speeches.

Radio Caracas Television, an anti-Chavez channel known as RCTV disappeared from the airwaves shortly after midnight over its failure to comply with new regulations requiring that Mr Chavez's speeches be televised on cable as well as terrestrial television.

Diosdado Cabello, the director of Venezuela's state-run telecommunications agency, warned cable operaters on Saturday evening that they could find themselves in jeopardy if they kept channels that broke the new regulations, which came into force last month.

"They must comply with the law, and they cannot have a single channel that violates Venezuelan laws as part of their programming," he said.
RCTV did not broadcast a speech by the president to his political supporters during a rally early on Saturday.

The station's removal from cable and satellite television prompted a cacophony of protests in Caracas neighborhoods as Mr Chavez's opponents leaned out apartment windows to bang on pots and pans. Others shouted epithets and drivers joined in, honking car horns.

"They want to silence RCTV's voice," said Miguel Angel Rodriguez, the channel's most popular talk show host. "But they won't be able to because RCTV is embedded in the hearts of all Venezuelans," he said.

The US Embassy in Caracas expressed concern about the decision.

"Access to information is a cornerstone of democracy and provides a foundation for global progress. By restricting yet again the Venezuelan people's access to RCTV broadcasts, the Venezuelan government continues to erode this cornerstone," a spokeswoman, Robin Holzhauer, said.

Venezuela's telecommunications agency has said in the past week that under new rules, two dozen local cable channels including RCTV must carry government programming when officials deemed it necessary.

Channels on the open airwaves are already subject to the measure, which Mr Chavez often uses to force all the country's TV channels and radio stations to broadcast his speeches.

Mr Cabello that other violations committed by cable channels included failing to warn viewers of sexual and violent content as well as broadcasting more than two hours of soap operas during the afternoon, instead of dedicating it to children's programmes..

He did not specify which TV channels had purportedly violated the law, but RCTV said it was the target. It accused the agency of pressuring cable providers to drop channels that were critical of the government.

When he denied RCTV a renewal of its over-the-air broadcast licence, Mr Chavez accused the station of plotting against his government and supporting a failed 2002 coup.

In August, the government forced 32 radio stations and two small TV stations off the air, saying some owners had failed to renew their broadcast licenses while other licences were no longer valid because they had been granted long ago to owners who were now dead. Officials said they planned to take more stations off the air.

Source:The Times

Desperate Haitians learn to tackle earthquake aftermath alone

2010-01-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

Every day, the relief trucks roar past the high pink walls of the New Hope Ministry in Mariani, on the coast road west of Port-au-Prince.

Every day, people shriek and wave in the hope of persuading them to stop. Some drivers slow down and shout that they will come back tomorrow.

Yet by Friday morning, 10 days after Haiti’s earthquake struck, nobody from the government or any relief agency had walked through the heavy metal gates of the American-owned missionary compound to confront the mayhem within.

Public frustration with the slowness of the aid effort and the government’s declaration that the search and rescue operation had been terminated increased yesterday with the freeing of a young man who had been trapped for the 11 days since the earthquake struck Port-au-PrinceA 24-year-old man was freed from beneath the collapsed Napoli Inn. The record for surviving an earthquake is 14 days set by a man trapped beneath a gym in the 1990 earthquake in the Philippines who had access to rain water.

On Friday I had paid my second visit to the New Hope Ministry, hoping that the misery I had witnessed earlier in the week would have been brought under control: that the aid supplies spreading through the fast-rotting shantytowns at the centre of Port-au-Prince would have reached this forlorn outpost only a few miles out of town.

Instead, I found Father Emil Samedi sitting at a small desk just inside his gate, exhaustion etched on his face, his words filled with despair.

“I’ve been up and down this country and every door is closed,” the priest said. “We are running out of food; our children are throwing up water.

“They keep saying that the government is having a meeting and that soon someone will come. But no one comes and I no longer know what I should do.”

To pass time as he waited for assistance, he decided to conduct a census. Living rough in less than an acre of space around the mission church are 2,027 people.

The plight of New Hope’s forgotten refugees — and countless earthquake survivors like them — highlights both the challenge and the daunting obstacles confronting relief co-ordinators.

Aid is flowing at last. But there is no visible mechanism in place to ensure that it reaches those most in need.

I had found New Hope by chance. Driving around Port-au-Prince earlier in the week, I had absent-mindedly switched on the car radio. There was mostly crackle and hum, but suddenly the dial fell on a strong, clear signal broadcasting a discussion in French and Creole from a hilltop station in Pétionville, a well-to-do suburb that emerged from the earthquake comparatively unscathed.

The station, Signal-FM, was broadcasting from offices a few blocks from my hotel. When I arrived, there was a crowd at the door, and as I squeezed past, a woman pressed a piece of paper into my hand.

“Please give this to them,” she said. “Please tell them we need help.” Inside the studio I found Mario Viau and his wife, Sheyla, presiding over what turned out to be the only radio station in the capital that had broadcast through the earthquake without interruption.

“When the building started shaking, we put on some music and went outside and waited,” said Viau. “When we realised the building was still standing, we went back indoors.”

I handed over my piece of paper, and Sheyla Viau winced. “We’ve had 5,000 of these,” she said. “So many people desperate for help.”

She handed me a sheaf of notes that were being read out on air, all heart-rending pleas for aid or information.

“Emmanuelle is looking for her father, Eric Leconte,” read one. “Jacques Arsène, if you’re alive, contact your daughter Farah,” read another.

One particularly elaborate note prompted me to write down the details. There was a church at Carrefour, a sprawling slum on the western edge of the city, and it housed 3,000 refugees.

“We have pregnant women, new-born handicapped, injured. Need food medicine water tent.” The church’s name was the Eglise du Dieu Vivant — the Church of the Living God.

Early the next morning I headed west. It didn’t take long to realise how difficult the distribution of aid would be along that blighted so-called highway. At every junction there were colossal traffic jams as buses and trucks laden with Haitians tried to make their escape from the city.

Quite apart from the heaps of earthquake rubble, overturned vehicles and unfilled axle-breaking potholes, long stretches of the road are flooded from a tidal surge and broken water pipes.

It passes the capital’s main petrol storage terminal, where a long line of tankers in both directions routinely blocks all lanes as they manoeuvre into position for loading. The average speed is less than 5mph.

I never found the Eglise du Dieu Vivant. A couple of false starts led to hour-long detours through streets choked with people. Houses that had crumbled into the street forced us to turn down rock-strewn alleys that were little wider than goat paths. We got more and more lost. If I could not reach the church in a small rented car, how on earth would an international relief agency deliver aid by truck?

Finally we stopped at the New Hope Ministry in search of directions home. And that was how I walked into yet another of Haiti’s infinite warrens of refugee hell.

Father Emil was out that day, scouring the city for help, and I was greeted by Robinson Decembre, a 33-year-old Haitian recently returned from Miami.

He was so astounded to see a foreigner coming through his gate that he could barely get his complaints out fast enough.

“The pastor is running back and forth trying to get aid, we’re receiving nothing, it’s terrible, it’s terrible, we have no water, no kind of medical attention, we have so many babies, you’re the first [outsider] we’ve seen, we need Red Cross here, we need everything.”

Sprawled over the lawn behind him was the chaotic jumble of mattresses, tarpaulins and blankets that has become a familiar sight in every open space across the region.

“We’ve searched for the mayor but the mayor is nowhere,” said Decembre. “We asked the government and two services but no one will help us.”

Nearby I noticed a woman holding a child with what seemed to be a white crease in its head. I took a closer look, and established that the boy, Adson Jr, aged two, had been hit by a chunk of falling concrete that had actually dented his skull. There was no sign of blood, but the uncovered, untreated wound seemed to have oozed a white substance.

The mother had already taken him to a clinic in Carrefour, only to find hundreds of patients waiting outside. With nowhere to stay, she returned to New Hope.

On Monday I had driven south over the mountains to Jacmel, a seaside resort on a perfect horseshoe bay. Radio reports had spoken of mass devastation. The mountain road was said to be cut off by landslides. No aid was getting through.

The road not only proved to be open — to small four-wheel-drive vehicles only — but a visit to the tiny port yielded a triumph of British ingenuity. There stood Stuart Coles of Plan International, a charity based in Woking, Surrey, supervising the unloading from Dominican coastguard vessels of 4,000 family tents, crates of water, sugar and tea and piles of plastic tarpaulins.

The charity’s staff in the neighbouring Dominican Republic had talked local officials into finding them boats, and had sailed for six hours around the coast, long before the US, the United Nations, the World Food Programme or anyone else was bringing in relief.

“We’ve been working in Haiti since 1973,” said Coles. “We were in a position to move fast, so we did.”

By the end of Monday, hundreds of families who had lost their homes six days earlier had moved into British tents.

There was no such luck for the New Hope Ministry, where Jules Damus, a local community organiser, pulled me away to see the first-aid clinic he was trying to establish in the ruins of another church nearby.

Helped by Odette Pierre, a former nurse who would dispense basic health advice, he had painted a small sign that he proudly hung on the broken gate of the ruined church. “Sant Santé,” it read in Creole — health centre.

But what about medicine, bandages, doctors, I asked him. His “clinic” didn’t have a single sticking plaster, let alone morphine, electricity or water.

Damus shrugged. “We cannot wait for others to help us,” he said. “We have to start helping ourselves.”
Source:The Times

'Bin Laden' claims Christmas Day bomb plot

2010-01-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

A new audio tape said to be from Osama Bin Laden that claims responsibility for the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt in Detroit has warned of further attacks against America.

The short recording purporting to be from the al-Qaeda leader, which was aired on Al Jazeera television, said: “The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the September 11.”

On Christmas Day, Mr Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, allegedly attempted to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight he was sitting on as it approached Detroit Metro Airport. But the bomb he was said to have been hiding in his underwear failed to explode.

He told police shortly afterward he had been trained and instructed in the plot by al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

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More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s number two, and their allies since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The tape was aired after MI5 raised the terrorist threat level in Britain from "substantial" to "severe" — meaning that counter-terrorism agencies believe that an attack is "highly likely".

It is believed that intelligence whispers from America that an al-Qaeda affiliated group is close to finalising another atrocity coupled with a conference on Yemen and Afghanistan in London this week led to the decision.

The measure was approved by the Government's Cobra emergency committee and announced by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who said he wanted to stress that “there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent.”

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said today that it would “very stupid” of him to comment on the intelligence behind the change in threat level.

“The fact is though that these people will stop at nothing; they will try every trick in the book, they will use advanced technology, they will use all the mechanisms of open society that we depend on for their own terrible purposes.

“And they will try to strike Christians, Muslims, Jews randomly.”

The Government had a responsibility to keep the terrorist threat to the UK “under very careful scrutiny”, he added.

“We think it’s right to keep the public informed about the general threat level.”

Mr Miliband said the Christmas Day attack demonstrated “the links that can exist between different terrorist groups”.

But he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that he would wait to see whether the tape was authentic.

“Let’s wait to see what he actually says; we know that the al-Qaeda senior leadership are in the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border, probably on the Pakistan side,” he said.

“We know too that the Detroit attack was the first time that al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, which is a sub-group of the al-Qaeda franchise ... represents an attack on the West rather than an attack within the Middle East.

“Let’s see what he says but it obviously demonstrates both the dangers that exist but also the links that can exist between different terrorist groups.”

Mr Miliband said that there was an important meeting about Yemen on Wednesday. The meeting in London, called by Gordon Brown, will be attended by representatives of the Yemeni government, regional powers and Britain’s allies, probably including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It will come one day before a key conference in London on the future strategy of allied forces in Afghanistan, to be attended by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Source:The Times

Alastair Campbell: Blair pledged UK to war in notes to Bush

2010-01-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

Tony Blair sent President Bush a series of secret notes in the run-up to the Iraq war in which he promised that Britain would "be there" if it came to military action against Saddam Hussein, it emerged today.

The existence of the letters, sent from Downing Street in 2002, was revealed by Mr Blair's chief spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell, as he gave evidence to an independent inquiry into the origins of the Iraq war.

The former director of communications at No 10 was the biggest name yet to testify before Sir John Chilcot's panel, where he was questioned for almost five hours – two hours more than originally scheduled.

Mr Blair will appear before the panel at a later date, as will Gordon Brown, who Mr Campbell said today had been part of Mr Blair's "inner circle" on Iraq.Mr Campbell stubbornly defended his old boss, insisting that Mr Blair had done his best to resolve the stand-off over Iraqi chemical and biological weapons "without a shot being fired".

He pointed out that that it was Mr Blair who insisted that the Americans turn to the UN Security Council for a diplomatic solution to the row.

He also dismissed as misguided earlier testimony from Sir Christopher Meyer, the then British Ambassador in Washington, that Mr Blair had undergone a major change of heart during a summit at Mr Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April, 2002.

Sir Christopher told the panel last year that a deal had been "signed in blood" at Crawford to oust Saddam by force.

But under persistent questioning from Sir Roderic Lyne, who was British Ambassador in Moscow at the time, Mr Campbell was forced to admit that Mr Blair had made it clear to the White House that the US would not be left to go it alone in an eventual invasion.

Asked whether Mr Blair had ever written to Mr Bush as the crisis gathered pace in 2002 and, if so, what he had said, Mr Campbell replied, "the Prime Minister wrote quite a lot of notes to the President".

"I would say the tenor of them was that... we share the analysis, we share the concern, we are going to be with you in making sure that Saddam Hussein is faced up to his obligations and that Iraq is disarmed," Mr Campbell added.

"If that cannot be done diplomatically and it is to be done militarily, Britain will be there. That would be the tenor of the communication to the President."

Sir Roderic was quick to jump on the existence of the notes, prodding the veteran spin-doctor as to who would have seen them. Mr Campbell said that he himself had done so, as had the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and several others.

He said that the Chilcot panel must also have seen them, adding: "They were very frank and advisory."

The main thrust of Mr Campbell's testimony was to insist that Mr Blair had hoped for a peaceful resolution right until the eve of the invasion, even if his "instinct" had been that Britain should stand by its ally.

He said that right up to the Commons vote on March 18, 2003, authorising military action, Mr Blair had held out the hope that President Saddam could be disarmed through the United Nations."His instinct was that we should be with the Americans. Does that mean that you tailor your policy to suit theirs? No," Mr Campbell said.

"The Prime Minister made clear throughout this was disarmament of Saddam Hussein through the United Nations."

Questioned about his own role, Mr Campbell denied that he had sought to "beef up" the Government’s now notorious dossier on Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, insisting that he had given only "presentational" advice on the drawing up of the document published in September 2002.

He said that he never sought to override the intelligence judgments of the report’s author — Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

"At no time did I ever ask him to beef up, to override, any of the judgments that he had," he said. "At no point did anybody from the Prime Minister down say to anybody within the intelligence services ’You have got to tailor it to fit this judgment or that judgment’. It just never happened.

"The whole way through, it could not have been made clearer to everybody that nothing would override the intelligence judgments and that John Scarlett was the person who, if you like, had the single pen."

Mr Campbell said Sir John insisted throughout that he was "100 per cent in charge" of the process of compiling the dossier. But, early in September 2002, Mr Campbell confirmed that he chaired two meetings in No 10 to discuss the publication of the report.

"John Scarlett said to me, ’This is a document the Prime Minister is going to present to Parliament, there are massive global expectations around it, and I need a bit of presentational support’, and that is what I gave him," Mr Campbell said."I think it entirely not just appropriate but absolutely necessary that I should have done that. I was the person who was charged by the Prime Minister to advise him on all the presentational aspects to do with the dossier."

Mr Campbell insisted that the dossier had never been intended to make the case for war against Saddam, but was simply meant to show why Mr Blair was becoming increasingly concerned about his WMD programme.

Mr Campbell said he drafted Mr Blair’s foreword to the dossier, in which he said that intelligence showed "beyond doubt" that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, although the Prime Minister at the time had "almost certainly" re-written it.

He rejected Sir John’s earlier evidence to the inquiry that he did not believe that he could have changed the foreword as it was a "political statement" by Mr Blair.If John Scarlett or any of his team had had any concerns of real substance about the foreword, then they know they could have raised those directly with the Prime Minister," he said.

"I don’t believe that if any of the JIC thought that the foreword in any sense over-stated the case to a degree that would impact the work that they had done — hit its credibility — they didn’t feel they had the opportunity to say something."

But Mr Campbell admitted that a second intelligence dossier published in February 2003, which also included material taken from an academic journal on the Middle East, had been a "mistake".

He said the intention had been to expose Saddam’s efforts to undermine the UN weapons inspections process in the light of new intelligence from MI6. However when it became known how it was put together — leading it to be dubbed the "dodgy dossier" — he acknowledged that it was damaging to public trust.

"That did not help, let’s put it that way," he said. "That was a really difficult episode."

Mr Campbell said that Mr Blair always shared the American analysis that Saddam led an "awful, brutal, dictatorial" regime that posed a threat to the stability of the region.

He insisted that even at the Crawford meeting Mr Bush had not been talking about military action, although he disclosed that there was a small planning team at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, that was looking at the military options.

"The context that I am trying to give you is not that George Bush is saying to Tony Blair, ’We have got to go to war’. It was not like that at all," he said.
Source: The times

Auschwitz sign 'stolen to fund Swedish terror attacks'

2009-12-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

The Nazi gang that ordered the theft of the infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign from the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland planned to sell it to fund violent attacks against the Swedish Prime Minister and Parliament, it was claimed today.

A spokesman for the Swedish security police confirmed that the authorities were taking seriously a threat by a militant Nazi group to disrupt national elections next year.

"We are aware of the information about the alleged attack plans," said Patrik Peter, the security police spokesman.

“We have taken actions. We view this seriously.”
The wrought-iron sign, whose inscription – translated as 'Work sets you free' – was viewed by hundreds of thousands of Jews as they entered the Nazi death camp where they met their deaths during the Second World War. It was stolen from the camp – now a museum – last Friday, provoking worldwide expressions of dismay and revulsion.

It was recovered on Monday, hacked into three pieces and wrapped in cloth. Police suspect that it was initially hidden in woodland before being transferred to a builder’s yard where it was found.

Allegations concerning who ordered the theft, and why, have surfaced today in Swedish newspaper reports after the former leader of a Swedish Nazi group claimed that it had been stolen to order for a collector in England, France or the United States.

"We had a person who was ready to pay millions for the sign," the unnamed source told Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest-selling daily newspaper.

The Nazi source said that the money would pay for an attack on the home of Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister who has held the rotating presidency of the European Union for the last six months, and on the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the paper reported.

A third attack allegedly involved plans to bombard Swedish MPs from the public seats of the parliament.

"The sign was to be delivered to Sweden, since it was here the deal should be made," the source said. "My role was to find a buyer. We had a person who was willing to pay millions but he had no political agenda. These things have a huge collector value... The biggest collectors are from England, the United States and France."

The source allegedly said that five men were to be paid for carrying out the theft. He reportedly insisted that he personally was not guilty of any crime as the deal had not been completed. Aftonbladet reported that he had been convicted several times in connection with his Nazi affiliation, and that he had made repeated visits to Poland.

Polish television has reported that police were investigation a Swedish connection in the theft of the Auschwitz sign. Mr Peter said that no arrests had yet been made.

"A prosecutor has been informed and the Government offices have been informed," said Mr Peter. He declined to discuss any details of the attack plans.

Five men, aged between 20 and 39, from the Torun area of northern Poland, have been arrested for the theft of the sign. The decisive tip-off came in one of 120 calls to a police hotline over the weekend. The museum had offered a £23,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the sign. The caller gave enough information for all five suspects to be rounded up within three hours.

Andrzej Rokita, the deputy commander of Cracow police, described them as non-political. All had previous convictions for theft or assault.

They are being interrogated in Cracow, the city responsible for the nearby Auschwitz camp museum. If charges are pressed, they could face up to ten years in jail for the “theft of a cultural treasure of particular significance”.

Museum authorities are urging the police to release the three portions of the sign so that they can be re-erected before the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp next month. In the meantime, a replica has been placed over the entrance.

Source: The times

Jail for parents who transfixed America with 'balloon boy' hoax

2009-12-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

The parents who fabricated a story that their young son had been carried away across the skies in a home-made balloon — triggering a huge police rescue mission and captivating television audiences — were given prison sentences yesterday for the hoax.

Richard Heene, 49, who orchestrated the elaborate lie because he and his wife wanted to become reality TV stars, apologised to the court as he was sentenced to 90 days in jail. “I want to apologise to all the rescue workers and the people that got involved in the community,” he said.

Heene was also given four years’ probation and forbidden from profiting from the balloon stunt during that time. His wife, Muyumi Heene, 48, was sentenced to 20 days in jail, although the judge ruled that she may serve her term flexibly to ensure that the couple’s children were cared for.

Judge Stephen Schapanski, in Denver, heeded a demand by prosecutors that Heene should receive the maximum 90-day sentence to deter copycat stunts. He will begin his term on January 11, with Mrs Heene ordered to start her sentence after her husband completes his.
Heene was also ordered to write a letter of apology to the community and the police and aviation agencies who scrambled to “rescue” the boy from the silver balloon as it hurtled though Denver airspace on October 15, unaware that Falcon, 6, was hiding in his parents’ garage.

Authorities will also seek at least $43,000 (£27,000) from the Heenes in reimbursement for the rescue mission, which involved local and state police, the US Forest Service, the National Guard and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).

At one point, as the empty balloon flew high above the Colorado landscape, flights at Denver international airport were grounded. The FAA says that the Heenes will also be subject to a $11,000 fine.

Last month Mr Heene pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant. His wife admitted false reporting. One reason that the couple accepted a plea deal is that Mrs Heene, a Japanese citizen, could have faced deportation if found guilty at a fully contested trial.

The couple sparked a nationwide panic when they called emergency services to report that Falcon had climbed into the saucer-shaped balloon. They claimed that the craft had became untethered, carrying him high into the sky. Authorities, joined by millions of television viewers across the world, tracked the balloon for nearly an hour as it flew through the sky, believing that Falcon was on board.

In fact, under his parents’ instructions, Falcon was hiding at home. The Heenes claimed that they had truly believed that he had been in the balloon.

Suspicions were raised, however, during an interview on CNN when Falcon said: “We did this for a show.” A former business partner told reporters that Mr Heene had been in talks to create his own reality programme and had likely launched the balloon as a publicity stunt.

Bob Heffernan, a lead investigator in the case, said in a letter to the judge that there should be limits on how the Heenes might profit from the hoax, such as through book or TV deals.

“This would hopefully stop the Heenes from being able to exploit their criminal behaviour or their children any more than they already have,” Mr Heffernan wrote in the letter.

“All the while the Heenes were playing us all in hopes of making themselves more marketable.”

No joke

— Education officials in southern India warned teachers in July not to allow stunts that put pupils’ lives at risk after a show at a school in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, culminated in a motorcyclist laying a wooden plank on top of a young girl and driving over her

— Yaroslav Kudrinsky, a pilot for Aeroflot, allowed his 15-year-old son, Eldar, to take control of an Airbus A310-304 on a flight from Moscow to Hong Kong in 1994. Voice and flight data recorders revealed that the aircraft crashed into a hillside in Siberia, killing all 75 passengers and crew, after the boy disabled the autopilot

Source:The times

US Senate passes sweeping healthcare reform Bill - but tough talks lie ahead

2009-12-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

The US Senate has approved landmark legislation today that would extend healthcare for tens of millions of uninsured Americans.

After weeks of partisan bickering, horse-trading and tense negotiation, senators voted for the Bill along party lines - 60-39 - ensuring passage for the upper chamber's version of the historic reform.

President Obama hailed the Bill, describing it as the most important piece of social legislation for the country since the 1930s.

"We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health insurance reform," he said. "With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country."
The unusual timing on the vote - the first on Christmas Eve since 1895 - reflected its importance.

As senators called out "aye" or "no" to register their vote, Robert C. Byrd, the 92-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, deviated from the protocol with a short speech.

“This is for my friend Ted Kennedy,” Mr Byrd said, referring to the Democratic patriarch who died earlier this year, and was a champion of healthcare reform. “Aye!”

Once the legislation passed, after a vitriolic debate, representatives of both parties gave their differing reactions. "This is a victory for the American people," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

The man who ushered the bill through its final stages almost fluffed his lines when he called on to vote for the Bill. Mr Reid said: "No. I mean, aye. Yes!", then shaking his read and giving a palms-up shrug. The chamber erupted in laughter.

"This fight is long from over," warned Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. "My colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law."

Many expressed regret at the partisan nature of the vote, as not a single Republican supported the Bill. Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican who has worked for years with Democrat colleagues on developing healthcare legislation, said that she was "disappointed".

She said the atmosphere in the house had not encouraged collaboration. "There was zero opportunity to amend the Bill or modify it, and Democrats had no incentive to reach across the aisle," she said.
Significant hurdles await the legislation. Work will begin in the new year to reconcile the Senate legislation with a House of Representatives Bill that was passed last month. Potentially tough negotiations are expected throughout January as the two Bills have significant differences.

The Senate Bill does not include the "public option" - a government-backed insurance programme - which is a key part of the House legislation. The provision is expected to be hard fought for by liberals in the House, but any public option risks losing the key votes of moderate Democrats in both the House and Senate.

Another dividing line between the two bodies is how the reforms will be financed. The House Bill would impose a surtax on high-earning individuals and couples, whereas the Senate Bill applies a 40 per cent tax to be paid by insurance companies on so-called "Cadillac plans" - health insurance premiums that cost more than $8,500 a year for individuals and $23,000 for families.

White House officials said yesterday it is unlikely that Mr Obama will be able to sign a final Bill before his State of the Union address, which is expected to be on January 26 or February 2.
Mr Obama and senators delayed their Christmas holidays for the vote today, defying snowstorms to travel to Capitol Hill. The President is due to fly to Hawaii now the vote has passed.

The new Senate Bill would extend health coverage to more than 30 million people who have no health insurance - covering 94 per cent of all Americans - and halt industry practices such as refusing insurance to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Yesterday, Democrats gathered the 60 votes needed to keep the Bill on track for approval, over the unified opposition of Senate Republicans. Today’s vote requires a simple majority of the 100-member upper chamber.

Mr Obama's support for the legislation has angered his own supporters. Some Democrats believe that every last American should be covered and the “public option" should be included in both Bills.

Buying the Bill:

One section is thought to solely benefit Louisiana - and may have won the vote of the State’s Democratic senator Mary Landrieu. Estimates suggest the provision will cost the American taxpayers anything between $100-$300 million in additional aid for Medicaid recipients in her state.

Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, won a provision exempting his state from paying part of the cost of expanding the Medicaid programme. The measure would cost the federal government an estimated $100 million over 10 years.

Mr Nelson also obtained a compromise that will allow individual states to choose whether to ban abortion coverage in certain health plans that receive government subsidies.

Senator Bernie Sanders, from Vermont, was given $10 billion to increase community health centres across America. Critics pointed out the provision will benefit two such facilities in his state, with Vermont also in line to receive additional Medicaid funding as well.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, from Connecticut, an independent that votes with the Democratic caucus, demanded the removal of the “public option” from the Senate Bill. Other moderate Democrats are also believed to have helped kill the measure.

Source: The times

Silvio Berlusconi will need weeks of treatment after Milan attack

2009-12-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

Silvio Berlusconi will need weeks of treatment for the physical injuries and mental trauma suffered when he was assaulted by a mentally ill man in Milan on Sunday, his doctors have said.

The Italian Prime Minister’s nose was broken and he lost two teeth and half a litre of blood in the attack, at the end of a political rally. He said it was a “miracle” he had not been blinded when a chunky souvenir made of marble and metal was thrown at his face.

His assailant, Massimo Tartaglia, an electronics engineer and video games inventor with no criminal record, is said to have told police that he hated Mr Berlusconi. He has been charged with aggravated assault.

Video footage shows Mr Tartaglia, 42, waving a replica of Milan cathedral in the air several times before hurling it at the Prime Minister’s head as he greeted wellwishers and signed autographs.
Mr Berlusconi’s doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said the injuries were more serious than initially thought, and he was able to eat only with great difficulty. “I found him shaken, embittered, as if he had been woken from a bad dream — really disheartened,” he said.

The Prime Minister has been kept in hospital for another day, and will not be attending the Copenhagen climate change summit this week.

Mr Berlusconi was telephoned by President Napolitano and visited by close aides and four of his children yesterday. Mr Tartaglia’s father, Alessandro, said the family voted centre-left, but nursed no hatred for Mr Berlusconi. “Massimo has psychiatric problems, but he has never done anyone any harm. He has never had any political involvement,” he said.

However, he added: “This episode has been brewing in the negative climate which has taken hold in Italy recently.”

Police suspect Mr Tartaglia’s attack was premeditated, because his pockets contained a pepper spray and a crucifix. A spokesman said Mr Berlusconi was still experiencing “terrible headaches” and was on painkillers and antibiotics. His nose will have to be reset, and he has been given stitches, though it is not clear if he will need surgery.

Mr Berlusconi is reported to have told Paolo Bonaiuti, his spokesman, on the way to the rally that he feared “something might happen”. Mariastella Gelmini, the Education Minister, who was near Mr Berlusconi at the time, said the impact of the object as it struck him was so loud she thought he had been killed.

Right-wing politicians blamed the Left for a “campaign of hate” and portrayed Mr Berlusconi as the victim of a conspiracy, even though Mr Tartaglia apparently acted alone. Hospital officials quoted Mr Berlusconi as asking: “Why do they hate me so much?”

Leaders of the Centre Left said the Prime Minister had created the “climate of hate” through his attacks on the President, the judiciary and the press, who are accused of frustrating his increasingly desperate attempts to change the law to halt legal action against him for alleged corruption.

Rosy Bindi, of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Mr Berlusconi was adept at “playing the victim”. Antonio Di Pietro, the former anti-corruption magistrate and leader of the centre-left Italy of Values party, condemned violence, but said Mr Berlusconi had himself “instigated” the attack. However, Pier Luigi Bersani, the Democratic Party leader who visited Mr Berlusconi in hospital, said he condemned the attack “with no ifs or buts as an unspeakable gesture”.

Amid increasing questions over how the assailant could get so close to the Prime Minister, Roberto Maroni, the Interior Minister, insisted that the rally had been “correctly policed”. The Corriere della Sera newspaper, however, outlined successive security breaches as Mr Berlusconi’s bodyguards failed to shield him from the projectile, and then neglected to drive him away at speed. Instead, he stood on the frame of his car door, continuing to wave to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. “What if there had been an accomplice with a gun?” the paper asked.

Ignazio La Russa, the Defence Minister, complained that police had done nothing to stop protesters who jeered. He said he had run to help police to arrest Mr Tartaglia “to save him from a lynching”, and that he was appalled by comments on the web praising the attacker.

Mr Berlusconi was visited in hospital by Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of the ruling People of Liberty party and his heir apparent. “This is truly a bad day for Italy, and it’s the duty of all the political forces to ensure that Italy does not go back to the years of violence,” he said, in a reference to the “Years of Lead” in the 1970s and 1980s.
Source: The times

Tough sanctions against Iran are needed urgently, Washington says

2009-12-15T01:55:00.000-08:00

Revelations that Iran has been working secretly on a trigger for a nuclear bomb urgently underscore the case for tough new sanctions against Tehran, the Obama Administration said.

Referring to a report in The Times yesterday, which suggested that Iran has been working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb, a senior US official said: “Now that work may have been done on a trigger mechanism, this certainly gives urgency, in the absence of any meaningful response from Tehran . . . in terms of additional pressure on sanctions.”

The official added: “The revelations that work has been done [on a nuclear trigger] do add a sense of urgency and these revelations certainly don’t hurt.”

The reaction from Washington comes as the US begins a push to get China and Russia to back a tough new set of sanctions against Iran after a year in which Tehran has snubbed President Obama’s overtures to open a diplomatic dialogue over its nuclear programme. Calls for a united front came as China backed out of a crucial meeting of the six powers involved in negotiations with Tehran.
Meanwhile, Israel — described by a Saudi source as a “huge obstacle” in freeing the region of nuclear weapons — used increasingly aggressive rhetoric over the threat from Iran. Making clear that Israel reserves the right to launch a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, warned “all players not to remove any options from the table”, adding: “We do not remove it.”

Mr Barak said: “There is a need for tough sanctions, something that is well and coherently co-ordinated to include Americans, the EU, the Chinese, the Russians [and] the Indians.”

At the same time, Middle Eastern diplomats warned of a regional nuclear arms race and demanded greater involvement in diplomatic efforts to force an Iranian climbdown.

A Saudi diplomatic source, describing the fears of a nuclear arms race in the region, said: “We want the region free of nuclear weapons, including Israel.” He called Israel a “huge obstacle in this process.”

The revelations about work on the nuclear trigger, contained in confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times and which foreign intelligence agencies date to early 2007, come as the Obama Administration enters a new phase over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. After months of largely fruitless efforts to establish a dialogue with Tehran, the Administration now hopes to get meaningful sanctions out of the UN, something that requires the co-operation of Russia and China.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said on Friday that world powers would soon impose “significant additional sanctions” on Iran.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, conceded yesterday that “I don’t think anyone can doubt that our outreach had produced very little in terms of any kind of positive responses from the Iranians”.

At a news conference with the Spanish Foreign Minister, she signalled that a push for sanctions may be coming soon. While she refused to comment on the Times report — she said that she never commented on intelligence — Mrs Clinton said that US concerns “have been heightened already” in recent months, with the exposure of the secret nuclear facility at Qom and Tehran's reluctance to ship low-enriched uranium out of the country.

The secret documents reveal that Iran has worked on a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.

Source: The times

Eight killed in Kabul suicide bomb blast in diplomatic quarter

2009-12-15T01:46:00.000-08:00

A massive suicide car bomb ripped through the Afghan capital this morning – at the gates of an upmarket hotel – killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more.

The explosion sent a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the sky above Kabul’s diplomatic district, close to the British and Danish embassies.

Eyewitness Ahmad Jawad said that he saw six bodies on the unmade road, in the immediate aftermath of the blast. Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior said later that eight people were killed; four men and four women. Another 40 people were wounded.

“I was in my car when the bomb exploded in front of me,” said Mr Jawad, 21. “The force of the blast turned my car around. When I got out I saw six bodies in front of the hotel.”
The blast came as President Hamid Karzai was due to attend a conference on how to tackle government corruption at the Foreign Ministry, in a separate part of the city.

Khalilullah Dastyar, the deputy police chief in Kabul, said: “One car was thrown over in the air by the explosion and ten others were destroyed by the blast.”

The gates of the heavily fortified Heetal Hotel Plaza, which is popular with westerners, suffered some damage, but neighbouring houses took the brunt of the blast.

Sidiqullah, 21, who worked in a private guesthouse opposite the hotel said at least five of their staff were seriously wounded, including two Indian cooks.

Eyewitnesses said windows were blown out and a nearby roof had partially collapsed.

Nearby residents fled their homes in the immediate aftermath of the blast.

A former vice president also lived nearby. The home of Ahmad Zia Massoud, brother of late anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, was heavily damaged.

A police source said the former vice president may have been the intended target.

The Wazir Akbar Khan district – built on the land where British were first based in the 1840s – is one of Kabul’s most expensive neighbourhoods.

Most of the multi-storey homes are owned by wealthy Afghans, including government officials, who lease them to western companies and foreign governments.

The Heetal Hotel, where suites cost up to $250 a night, was one of only a handful of hotels in Kabul deemed safe enough for visiting foreign dignitaries.

Source:The times

Blair ‘would have gone to war without Iraqi WMD’

2009-12-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

Tony Blair would still have led the country to war in Iraq even if he had known that it had no weapons of mass destruction.

The former Prime Minister has confessed that he would have had to use different arguments to justify toppling Saddam Hussein. But he says in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow morning that he would still have taken steps to remove the Iraqi dictator from power.

He also put the decision to go to war in Iraq in the context of a wider battle over Islam. He said: “I happen to think that there is a major struggle going on all over the world, really, which is about Islam and what is happening within Islam.” He said that this struggle had a “long way to go”.

At the time of the conflict Mr Blair, who is to be questioned by the Iraq inquiry early next year, based his decision to go to war on evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He gives an indication of his motives in an interview with the former daytime host Fern Britton, to be screened on BBC One. Mr Blair, who converted to Roman Catholicism when he left office two and a half years ago, denied that his religious faith played a direct part in his decision to go to war. But his faith gave him the strength to hold to the decision and supported him during “the loneliness of decision-maker”.

He said it was the “threat” that Saddam presented to the region that was uppermost in his mind. The development of weapons of mass destruction was one aspect of that threat.

Mr Blair said that there had been 12 years of the United Nations going “to and fro” on the subject, and he noted that Saddam had used chemical weapons on his own people.

Asked by Britton if he would still have gone on had he known there were no weapons of mass destruction, he said: “I would still have thought it right to remove him.”

Parents of some of the servicemen who have died have refused to shake his hand and accused him of being a war criminal with blood on his hands.

Mr Blair said that he was prepared to carry that responsibility. “There’s no point in going into a situation of conflict and not understanding there is going to be a price paid.”

The former Prime Minister, who now spends much of his time in the Middle East, working as an envoy for the Quartet of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU, said that it was difficult to judge yet whether the decision to go to war had been helpful or not.

This week the head of MI6 said that Saddam’s Iraq was one of a number of countries where Britain would have liked regime change. Sir John Sawers, who was at the time Mr Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, told the Iraq inquiry that discussions had taken place in 2001 — two years before the invasion — on “political” actions that could help to undermine the Baathist regime.

However, Sir John insisted that there had been no talk at that stage in Whitehall of military action in Iraq. He said that the approach adopted was based on the methods that had led to the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia. Among the proposals considered was support for opposition groups and indicting Saddam for war crimes that he had committed during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

“I think there are a lot of countries around the world where we would like to see a change of regime. That doesn’t mean one pursues active policies in that direction,” he said.

It was claimed last night that Mr Blair misled MPs by insisting that Britain was at risk from Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction before ordering the invasion. A senior Conservative MP said that evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war this week proved that the former Prime Minister was aware that new intelligence had established Saddam had no workable WMD missiles.

Sir John Scarlett, the head of the committee that oversaw intelligence in the build-up to the invasion in March 2003, told the inquiry that reports that Saddam did not have warheads capable of dispersing chemical weapons started at the end of 2002.

An intelligence update on March 10 — eight days before the crucial vote by MPs in favour of the war — reported that Iraq had “no missiles which could reach Israel and none which could carry germ or biological weapons”. All the intelligence reports went directly to the Prime Minister, Sir John said.

Richard Ottaway, a member of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, said that the evidence revealed that Mr Blair had repeatedly misled MPs. Mr Blair had described in detail the scale of Iraq’s armoury and said that Britain could not afford to back down in the face of the “clear and present danger” to national security posed by development of weapons of mass destruction. Inspections after the war revealed no evidence of workable chemical or biological weapons.

Sir John is due to be questioned again by the inquiry in private to avoid damaging national security.

Mr Blair is expected to give evidence next month or in early February.

Fern Britton

Age: 52

Education: Dr Challoner’s High School, Buckinghamshire; Central School of Speech and Drama

Career: After breakfast news with both BBC and GMTV found a niche presenting Ready Steady Cook. Spent ten years as Phillip Schofield's screen “wife” on ITV’s This Morning

The big interviews: Gordon Brown and Kerry Katona

Interview style: Like a doting mother asking if you are lying, and believing whatever you say, then apologising for questioning your judgment

Source:The times

Paul and Rachel Chandler: we could be dead within a week

2009-11-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates have appealed directly to the British Government to open talks for their release, fearing that they may be killed within a week.

Paul and Rachel Chandler appeared in a video broadcast on television tonight. It was the first time that they have been seen since they disappeared while sailing in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa last month. In the two-minute video the pair were surrounded by armed men and looked thin, tired and stressed.

One of their kidnappers had a rocket-propelled grenade on his shoulder and the others all carried heavy machineguns and wore bullet belts.

Mr Chandler, 59, urged the Government to start negotiating over a ransom. His wife Rachel, 55, said: “We are very concerned about the future. Our captors are very impatient.” They also said their kidnappers had told them a terrorist cell was hunting them.
The pair were filmed by a Channel 4 News camera crew on Wednesday.

Mr Chandler, a retired quantity surveyor from Tunbridge Wells, and his wife, an economist, disappeared on October 23 while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania in their 38ft yacht Lynn Rival.

Four days later a news agency was contacted by a pirate called Hassan who said that he had the pair captive and ransom demands would follow.

They have been allowed to speak to journalists on the phone, and in one conversation Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, made a direct appeal to the pirates to release them.

Later, the BBC received a ransom demand of $7 million but the Foreign Office said that it would not make concessions to hostage takers.

Today, the couple were shown on land, looking subdued. Mr Chandler said: “This is our 27th day in captivity. So far we have been provided with adequate food and water and facilities and so we are unharmed and in reasonable physical health. Mentally we are under great stress and threatened. Our kidnappers are losing patience. They are concerned that there has been no response at all to their demands for money.

“We ask the Government and the people of Britain and our families to do whatever you can to at least open negotiations with these people about money so that perhaps our lives can be bought back.

“They will not hesitate to kill us, perhaps within a week or so of now if there is no response. So please, somebody get in touch, otherwise we just sleepwalk to a tragic end.”

Mohamed Shakir, the pirates’ commander, told The Times tonight: “We are holding them in a nice bush place near Haradheere.

“We are telling the British Government and people that we will no longer tolerate for their silence of paying the ransom. They should not make their people slaves for us. We did not harm them but we may have another sudden decision.

“We have been preventing other groups from kidnapping them but if we don’t get respect soon, our decision may be harder.

“The old man is talented and jokes with us without feeling any fear. The old woman was rather sick the first days but she is well now.

“If we don’t get an answer from Britain, the decision will not be delightful for the British people.”
Source:The times

David Headley: quiet American with alleged links to Mumbai massacre

2009-11-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

In almost every way, David Headley was the perfect neighbour. When the 49-year-old American citizen began renting an apartment in Mumbai last year he charmed his landlord, treated his laundry boy with respect, and befriended Bollywood figures at a local gym.

He told them that he was Jewish, and running an immigration agency from a respectable part of town. “Sweet and charming,” said his landlady. “Down to earth,” said his personal trainer.

Not until the past few days did they learn of his alleged other identity — and of quite how close security figures claim India may have come to a repeat of the militant attacks on Mumbai a year ago next week.

Apparently, Mr Headley’s original name was Daood Gilani. He was born in Pakistan, and is suspected of helping the terrorists who carried out last year’s Mumbai attack, and of planning another atrocity this year.
The details emerged when the FBI arrested Mr Headley in his home city of Chicago on October 3, and filed an affidavit in a US court, which has since been made public.

It alleges that he worked with Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji), a Pakistan militant group, and Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan group blamed for last year’s Mumbai attacks. The document also outlines claims that he was involved in the “Mickey Mouse Project” — a plan to attack Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper whose cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 infuriated Muslims across the world.

It also allegedly shows that he and an apparent accomplice visited India several times between 2006 and 2009, and appear to have discussed attacking Indian targets as recently as September this year.

Indian investigators are now examining whether Mr Headley may be the “missing link” in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people between November 26 and 29 last year. They are also investigating claims that he may have planned attacks this year on targets including the National Defence College in Delhi, the private Doon School in Dehradun, northern India, or even a nuclear facility.

In the process, they are shedding light on the evolving threat from LeT and its allies, and on India’s haphazard — but so far successful — efforts to respond. “This is yet another wake-up call for India,” said B. Raman, a former counter-terrorism chief in the Indian external intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing.

“This shows LeT is as determined as ever to attack India, and they are now using Western territory and foreign Muslims to do it.”

The most striking aspect of the Headley case is his profile: unlike other militant suspects, he is middle-aged, speaks fluent English, and lives in Chicago.

The son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American woman, he went to cadet college in Pakistan before moving to the US when he was 16.

In 1997, he was jailed for 15 months for trying to smuggle heroin into the US, according to court documents.

Yet by simply changing his name in 2006, he stayed under the radar on at least nine visits to India over the past three years.

The FBI says that in the alleged activities he was helped by Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin who studied at the same cadet college, and was also arrested in the US last month.

Mr Rana’s immigration agency, which has offices in Chicago, helped to arrange Mr Headley’s trips and provided his cover story, according to the FBI.

To burnish his fake Jewish credentials, Mr Headley even carried a book called How to Pray like a Jew, the FBI says. The FBI appears to have placed him under surveillance after noticing his frequent movements between India, Pakistan, the Gulf and Europe.

It alerted Indian authorities after intercepting an e-mail in which Mr Headley’s alleged handler appears to give him a coded message suggesting an attack on India.

“I need to see you for some new investment plans,” the affidavit quotes the handler as saying.

When Mr Headley asks where, the handler suggests that he should “say hi to Rahul” in what the FBI says is a reference to a prominent Indian actor.

The actor has since been identified as Rahul Bhatt, a minor Bollywood star, who has admitted befriending Mr Headley in Mumbai.

In a telephone intercept in September, Mr Headley and Mr Rana are heard discussing five alleged targets and mentioning “Defence College”, according to the affidavit.

Mr Headley and Mr Rana have yet to respond to the affidavit.

But Indian and Western officials and analysts agree that the evidence presented so far appears to underline the global reach and ambitions of Huji and LeT. It also confirms India’s long-held fears that such groups might use foreigners of Pakistani or Indian origin, forcing it to tighten visa procedures.

Western governments had already adapted to that threat, but are worried that Mr Headley and Mr Rana may have used their immigration agency to move militants around the globe.

They are also increasingly aware of the threat to their own citizens in India — particularly during next year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

“Prior to Mumbai, LeT was largely seen as a regional threat,” said one Western diplomat.

“Mumbai brought home that attacking India could directly impact Western interests, by killing their nationals, and also their indirect interests by destabilising the region.”

There is less agreement, however, on what the case says about India’s domestic security.

Some say that LeT and its allies are becoming more desperate as the Pakistan Army — which once sponsored them — has become distracted by its own campaign against the Taleban.

India has also taken a number of steps to improve its security apparatus. It has, for example, now established the National Investigation Agency, and it is amending legislation to give increased powers to the security services.

P. Chidambaram, the new Home Minister, has now started chairing a meeting of the heads of all the country’s important security agencies every morning.

The National Security Guard — whose commandos took eight hours to get to Mumbai from their Delhi headquarters last year during the attacks — has expanded its numbers and set up hubs in four more cities, including Mumbai.

“What about the past, almost 365, days?” said J. K. Dutt, the former NSG chief who led last year’s Mumbai operation. “There haven’t been any terrorist attacks since Mumbai. Doesn’t that also speak of the fact that there are steps the country has taken?”

Critics, however, say that India had a lucky escape thanks only to the FBI. Others question whether the US should have informed India earlier that it was watching Mr Headley.

Yet the biggest concern of all is still the underfunded and short-staffed police, a force which under India’s Constitution is the responsibility of state governments.

“When are we going to improve the training, consciousness and capability of local police?” asked Arun Bhagat, a former head of the Indian Intelligence Bureau. “Central agencies can only do so much.”
Source:The times

Gordon Brown visits flood-stricken Cumbria

2009-11-21T05:20:00.000-08:00

Gordon Brown today visited flood-stricken communities in Cumbria hit by the heaviest rainfall since records began.

The torrential downpour has destroyed homes, businesses and claimed the life of a policeman, swept away as he helped motorists off a bridge.

The prime minister arrived in Penrith, Cumbria, this morning with environment minister Hilary Benn to survey the damage and meet with members of the emergency services and pledged an extra £1m of government money to help.

The region is bracing itself for more rain this afternoon as rescue teams continue to search for those still trapped in their flooded homes. The emergency services have also warned those flooded out not to try and return to their homes.Yesterday’s downpour was the heaviest since records began, with 314mm, more than one foot, of rain falling in Cumbria in the space of 24 hours.

Forecasters predict there will be a further 20mm to 40mm of rain fall in the region today.

There are currently 22 flood warnings in place across the North West of England, parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Eleven bridges have been closed in Cumbria, after four were brought down by the swelling rivers, while walkers have advised to keep away from the fells and waterways.

PC Bill Barker was helping motorists on a bridge over the River Derwent, near Workington when the crossing caved-in, yesterday morning.

The father-of-four’s body was later found on a beach in Allonby, ten miles away.

The prime minister joined PC Barker’s family and colleagues in paying tribute to the policeman and his ‘heroic’ final actions.

Addressing officers at Cumbria Police headquarters in Penrith, Brown said: "What you've done in the last few days is tackle one of the greatest rainfalls we've seen in our country and you've done it with such superb organisation, that I want to tell you on behalf of the whole country how proud we are of you."Emergency services are being aided by RAF and RNLI search and rescue teams in the worst hit communities.

In Cockermouth more than 200 people had to be rescued by RAF helicopters, when floodwaters rose to eight feet.

Last night hundreds of people were forced to stay in emergency shelters after fleeing their homes, others have been advised to stay with relatives.

It was estimated that 1,100 homes across the Cumbria were affected by flooding. About 1,060 homes have lost power and 22 houses in the Low Lawton area were being provided with bottled water after supplies were affected.
Although waters are stating to recede, the centre of Cockermouth remains flooded and strewn with debris washed from homes and businesses.

Community leaders and insurers are already counting the costs of the damage and the Association of British Insurers estimates the flooding will result in payouts totalling between £50million and £100million.

Cumbria County Council leader Jim Buchanan said: “I’m pleased the Prime Minister is here and showing continued support but we need to start getting the county back to normal as quickly as possible and we need some certainty about the resources which might be available to us so that we can plan accordingly."

Cllr Buchanan warned full recovery from the crisis would be a measured in “months and years, not days”.

The county council has pledged £50,000 to a flood recovery welfare fund, matching the £50,000 already confirmed from the North West Development Agency.

Police said a brief respite in the downfall this morning had provided emergency services with the chance to plan operations for the weekend.

A spokesman said: “Priorities will include protecting the people of Cumbria, checking the structural integrity of bridges and continuing to check affected properties as flood waters recede, as well as responding to specific calls for service.

“Cumbria Police have mobilised their entire work force in shift patterns and are in a state of readiness to deal with situations as they arise.”
Source:The times

Herman Van Rompuy, front-runner for presidency, wants EU-wide tax

2009-11-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

The man tipped to be Europe’s first president is already considering new EU taxes to fund the rising cost of Brussels and the welfare state.

Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, broke his silence before Thursday’s summit to choose the president — but only at a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen.

Mr Van Rompuy’s contentious remarks were aired privately amid the grand surroundings of the Castle of the Valley of the Duchess near Brussels. The château hosted the talks on the Treaty of Rome in 1957 that launched the European Union.

His office released parts of his speech in which he talked of funding social welfare from new green taxes and went on to discuss “financing levies at European level”, which his spokesman said later was similar to Gordon Brown’s call for an international tax on financial transactions.
The funding of the EU was discussed further after his speech, according to Flemish newspapers, but his office refused to give more details. Mr Van Rompuy remains the favourite for the position of president of the European Council — other contenders include Tony Blair — to be chosen when the 27 EU leaders meet in Brussels in two days’ time.

Mr Van Rompuy’s Bilderberg intervention will alarm non-federalist countries such as Britain and Denmark, which have long opposed giving the EU tax-raising powers and breaking the link with national funding.

Newer member states, already angry at the opaque process of choosing a president, are unlikely to be impressed at the secretive forum used by Mr Van Rompuy to talk about his European vision.

“The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,” Mr Van Rompuy told European and American guests, who included Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State is cited as the inspiration for an EU president following his reported remark: “Who do I call when I want to call Europe?”

Mr Van Rompuy added: “The green fiscal instrument is one possibility although an ambiguous one: this type of regulatory tax should eventually become redundant. But the possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed and for the first time ever, the big countries in the Union are open to this.”

EU federalists were delighted to hear Mr Van Rompuy talk of European taxes.

Andrew Duff, the Liberal Democrat MEP and president of the Union of European Federalists, said: “He is a federalist and federalists believe in that approach. We have got to have a reform of the financial system. We have also got to grow the size of the EU budget to reflect the growth of competences that are in the Lisbon treaty, such as foreign and security policy, a common energy policy and climate change measures.” Britain is traditionally opposed to EU-wide tax proposals, despite Mr Brown’s recently proposed “Tobin tax” – an international levy on financial transactions as proposed by James Tobin.

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: “Britain would not be the only EU country that would find a proposal to give the EU tax-raising powers totally unacceptable. Advocacy of such a policy is not a fruitful use of anyone’s time.”

Source:The times

UN nuclear chief in secret talks with Iran over deal to end sanctions

2009-11-17T02:40:00.000-08:00

United Nations and Iranian officials have been secretly negotiating a deal to persuade world powers to lift sanctions and allow Tehran to retain the bulk of its nuclear programme in return for co-operation with UN inspectors.

According to a draft document seen by The Times, the 13-point agreement was drawn up in September by Mohamed ElBaradei, the directorgeneral of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an effort to break the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear programme before he stands down at the end of this month.

The IAEA denied the existence of the document, which was leaked to The Times by one of the parties alarmed at the contents. Its disclosure was made as the agency warned that Iran could be hiding multiple secret nuclear sites.

Despite the assessment, diplomats believed that Mr ElBaradei was hoping to agree the outline of a deal with Tehran that he could present to the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany as a solution to the impasse.

It was thought that Mr ElBaradei was anxious to secure his legacy after infighting over his perceived weakness in dealing with Iran.

The plan would require the UN Security Council to revoke the three existing sanctions and five resolutions ordering Iran to halt its uranium enrichment — an unthinkable development at a time when the West is focused on how to impose more, not fewer, sanctions on Iran.

Russia and China, who have commercial ties with Iran and have been pressing for a compromise, may see merit in the plan, however.

Hopes of reaching a consensus rose in September with the discovery of a second uranium enrichment plant under construction near Qom, which inspectors were allowed to visit finally last month.

Mr ElBaradei’s draft agreement envisaged allowing Iran to maintain and even expand its uranium enrichment programme, albeit under closer IAEA scrutiny, as part of a globally managed nuclear fuel bank. “The sides are to set up an international consortium for uranium enrichment, both in Iran and outside Iran,” the document said.

Section ten of the document proposed that if Iran complied with the arrangements, the signatories would report positively to the UN Security Council, where Iran would be rewarded with the lifting of sanctions.

“At first, the sanctions prohibiting the movement of scientists and technicians are to be lifted immediately, as are the sanctions connected to the supply of spare parts for aircraft and other essential activities,” it said.

The disclosure coincides with leaks from the report by IAEA inspectors warning of the dangers of taking Iran at its word over its nuclear programme.

The report, to be discussed at Mr ElBaradei’s final board of governors meeting next week, warned that Iran may be concealing multiple nuclear plants.

Iran claims that the Qom site was a fallback to preserve its declared peaceful enrichment programme if the Natanz complex was bombed. Inspectors said that Tehran had failed to convince them of its use and had even lied when it was being built. Nuclear experts said that the size of the plant suggested a military use.

Tehran belatedly informed the IAEA of the existence of the plant in September, reportedly after realising that it had been discovered and was being monitored by Western intelligence agencies.

“The agency has indicated that its declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities not declared to the agency,” the report said.

Iran’s failure to inform the IAEA of its decision to build or authorise construction of a nuclear facility as soon as the decision was made was inconsistent with its transparency obligations to the UN watchdog, the report by the inspectors said. “Moreover, Iran’s delay in submitting such information to the agency does not contribute to the building of confidence.”

The report said that Tehran lied when it told the agency that construction began in 2007, when evidence showed that the project had started in 2002 before pausing in 2004 and resuming in 2006.

Inspectors found the Qom site in an advanced state of construction but without centrifuges or nuclear materials. They said that Iran had told the agency it would be started up in 2011.

Western diplomats and nuclear experts said that the planned capacity of the Qom site, 3,000 centrifuges, made little sense as a peaceful enrichment centre because it would be too small to fuel a nuclear power station. It could, however, yield fissile material for one or two atom bombs per year.
Source:The times

Army tells its soldiers to 'bribe' the Taleban

2009-11-17T02:38:00.000-08:00

British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday.

Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and Nato forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date.

The new instructions came on the day that Gordon Brown went farther than before in setting out Britain’s exit strategy from Afghanistan. The Prime Minister stated explicitly last night that he wanted troops to begin handing over districts to Afghan authorities during next year — a general election year in Britain.

ddressing the issue of paying off the locals, the new manual states that army commanders should give away enough money to dissuade them from joining the enemy. The Taleban is known to pay about $10 (£5.95) a day to recruit local fighters.

Major-General Paul Newton said: “The best weapons to counter insurgents don’t shoot. In other words, use bags of gold in the short term to change the security dynamics. But you don’t just chuck gold at them, this has to be done wisely.”

British commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq have complained that their access to money on the battlefield — cash rather than literal gold — compares poorly with their US counterparts.

Adam Holloway, a former army officer and the Tory MP for Gravesham in Kent, said that the idea was a matter of “shutting the door after the horse has bolted”. He added: “I know that a number of generals thought in 2006 that, rather than send a British brigade to Helmand, they should buy off people in the tribal areas. Now it’s too late.”

Mr Brown told the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at Guildhall in the City last night that a summit of Nato allies would be held in London in January, which could set a timetable for the transfer of security control to the Afghans starting in 2010. Military sources said that the first areas to be involved would probably be in the north and west of Afghanistan — not in Helmand in the south, where British troops are based.

The counter-insurgency field manual also highlights the importance of talking to the enemy. “There’s no point in talking to people who don’t have blood on their hands,” General Newton said, launching the document in London.

Britain’s early experience of handing out cash in Afghanistan proved abortive. About £16 million in cash was given to farmers to stop them growing poppy crops for the heroin trade, which helps to fund the Taleban. The money is believed to have had little impact on the opium yields.

The manual says that money can be the answer, if it is prudently distributed. “Properly spent within a context of longer-term planning, money offers a cost-effective means for pulling community support away from the insurgents and provides the military with a much-needed economy of force

measure,” it says. “Unemployed and under-employed military-aged males typically provide the richest vein from which insurgents recruit ‘foot soldiers’. Short-term, labour-intensive projects are therefore the best way to disrupt such recruiting.”

“The counter-insurgent should be careful not to be over-generous since this will distort local economic and social activity and may lead to unproductive dependency.”

The positive impact of military units going into battle with bags of cash at their disposal is underlined in the manual by the experience of a top British commander who served in Iraq. “The hoops that I had to jump through to get the very few UK pounds that were available were . . . amazing; the American divisional commanders were resourced and empowered in ways that we could only dream of,” he says.

“UK commanders on recent operations have not had quick access to the same levels of cash as . . . their US counterparts,” the manual says. “Where possible, mission command should apply to money as much as any other weapon or enabling system.”

It is more than eight years since the Army last published a counter-insurgency doctrine, when the main lessons contained in it arose from operations in Northern Ireland and the Balkans.

General Newton, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff Development Concepts and Doctrine, said that new ideas were needed to cope with the media-savvy insurgents who are fighting in Afghanistan and that there was no place for arrogance on the part of the British military hierarchy, relying on their experience of past campaigns.

The Americans complained in Iraq that the British in Basra too often referred to the lessons of Northern Ireland in dictating how the insurgency should be handled.

A bomb disposal specialist from 33 Regiment Royal Engineers was killed by an explosion near Gereshk in central Helmand province on Sunday, the Ministryof Defence said yesterday. He was part of the Counter-IED (improvised explosive device) Task Force and the 97th member of the Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan this year.
Source:The times

Gordon Brown accused over one in five young out of work

2009-11-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

David Cameron today accused Gordon Brown of failing Britain's youth after figures were released showing one in five young people is now out of work.

The pair clashed at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons with youth unemployment now at an unprecedented level.

Among those aged 16 to 24 the number looking for work, has reached almost 19.8 per cent — almost one million — for the first time.

Mr Cameron said: “You once promised to abolish youth unemployment. Do you accept that you’ve failed?The Conservative leader said the Government planned cuts across Whitehall departments that would hamper measures to reduce youth unemployment including apprenticeships and development loans.

“The state of the public finances is so bad that the Government plans deep cuts in every department including those that help the unemployed,” he said.

Gordon Brown rejected figures showing that 943,000 young people were unemployed.

“I have to say about the figures you quote on youth unemployment, 250,000 of the number you quote are full-time students looking for part-time work and they are not fully unemployed,” Mr Brown told MPs.

“No government in Europe is doing more to help young people out of work.”

The figures came as Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, today announced plans to make apprenticeships equivalent to A levels by attaching Ucas points to them. The work based placements will become a passport to university and each year the 1,000 top apprentices in England will be handed one-off “golden hello” bursaries of up to £1,000 when they enter higher education, through an Apprenticeship Scholarships Fund.

The plans are part of the National Skills Strategy and will come into force in 2011.

According to recent figures, while the numbers of people taking up apprenticeships has risen slightly, take-up amongst 16 to 18-year-olds has fallen.
Official figures released today, from the Office for National Statistics, showed that unemployment climbed by just 30,000 in the quarter to September — the smallest quarterly rise since spring last year.

There had been expectations that total unemployment would reach 2.5 million.

But predictions of a ‘lost generation’ of graduates unable to get a toe-hold on the employment ladder appear to have held true.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, said: “Today’s unemployment figures are a major disappointment.
“We know that there are far fewer graduate vacancies this year and that the situation for graduates is tough.”

It is too early to say whether conditions will improve in the graduate job market next year, he added, and said: “There is optimism amongst graduate recruiters that the situation should start to ease somewhat.”

One in four graduate vacancies was scrapped this year as employers attempted to reduce their staffing costs without having to cut existing jobs. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds classed as not employed, in education or in training - or Neets - went up by 15,000.

Amongst young adults — aged 18 to 24 — unemployment rose by 24,000 over the three months between June and September to 746,000, a rate of 18 per cent, the highest since 1992.

Theresa May, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “These are yet more grim figures for Britain. Labour has written off a generation of young people with one in five now unable to find a job.

“Labour need to wake up and adopt our plans to get Britain working as a matter of urgency.

“In particular they need to offer more support to young people by taking up our proposals to create hundreds of thousands of additional apprenticeships and training places to prevent a generation being cast adrift because of Gordon Brown’s recession.”

Yvette Cooper, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said more people in work was welcome news.

"The fact that unemployment is significantly lower than everyone forecast at the beginning of the year shows the support for the economy is making a real difference,” she said.

“But we know things are still tough for a lot of families, and unemployment is expected to increase further next year.

“That’s why we’re determined to do more with an extra 35,000 youth jobs, more apprenticeships and education places so we can guarantee no young person gets stuck in long term unemployment.”
Source:The times

Barack Obama's peace prize starts a fight

2009-10-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

Gasps echoed through the Nobel Hall in Oslo yesterday as Barack Obama was unveiled as the winner of the 2009 Peace Prize, sparking a global outpouring of incredulity and praise in unequal measure.

Mr Obama was sound asleep in the White House when the Norwegian Nobel Committee made the shock announcement. It said that he was being honoured for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples”.

In a clear swipe at his predecessor, George W. Bush, the committee praised the “change in the international climate” that the President had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future,” it added.

International reaction ranged from delight to disbelief. The former winners Kofi Annan and Desmond Tutu voiced praise, the latter lauding the Nobel Committee’s “surprising but imaginative choice”.

But Lech Walesa, the dissident turned Polish President, who won the Peace Prize in 1983, spoke for many, declaring: “So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far.”

Mr Obama’s domestic critics leapt on the award as evidence of foreigners fawning over an untested “celebrity” leader. Rush Limbaugh, the US right-wing commentator, said: “This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama."

Speaking later, Mr Obama said that he was “surprised and deeply humbled” by the unexpected decision and announced that he would donate the £880,000 prize, due to be awarded in December, to charity.

“Let me be clear. I do not view it as recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he said.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a notoriously difficult award to predict, but yesterday's decision was clearly a political choice, with three of the past six peace awards going to Bush adversaries.

In 2002 the prize went to Jimmy Carter as an explicit rejection of the Bush presidency in the build-up to the Iraq war. In 2005 Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN atomic agency chief who had clashed with Washington over the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was honoured. In 2007 Al Gore received the prize for his warnings on climate change, denounced by President Bush as a liberal myth.

The award is also an example of what Nobel scholars call the growing aspirational trend of Nobel committees over the past three decades, by which awards are given not for what has been achieved but in support of the cause being fought for.

Thorbjørn Jagland, the committee chairman, made clear that this year’s prize fell in that category. “If you look at the history of the Peace Prize, we have on many occasions given it to try to enhance what many personalities were trying to do,” he said. “It could be too late to respond three years from now.”

But Bobby Muller, who won the Nobel Prize as co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, told The Times: "I don't have the highest regard for the thinking or process of the Nobel committee. Maybe Norway should give it to Sweden so they can more properly handle the Peace Prize along with all the other Nobel prizes."

Source:The times

Territorial Army told to stop training for six months to save money

2009-10-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

The Territorial Army has been told to stop training for six months to save millions of pounds from the Army’s budget because of growing financial pressure on the Ministry of Defence.

Drill-hall instruction, weekend exercises and all other training associated with the TA will stop, cutting costs by about £20 million.

The Land Force budget of the Army has been cut by £54 million, and the TA is the first to be affected. The huge cut in TA spending will mean that the weekend warriors will not be paid. “They are paid to go training, and if there is no training, they won’t get paid,” a Ministry of Defence official said.

A spokesman insisted that the savings and the ban on training would not affect the TA’s operational contribution to Afghanistan, where about 500 Territorial soldiers are serving. There are also ten TA soldiers in Iraq.

The spokesman said that TA training for Afghanistan would carry on as normal. TA soldiers train with their regular army counterparts, before deployment to Helmand province. The MoD’s pledge to keep the operational TA safe from cuts was, however, greeted with scepticism by senior officers in the volunteer reserve force. “This is dangerous. When you cancel training at one end, it is bound to have an impact through the TA, especially if this goes on longer than six months,” one senior TA officer told The Times. “If the MoD shuts the whole place down and says, ‘Come back in April’, there will be a number of TA members who will just go off and find something else to do, and all the skills they have learnt will fatigue.”

That would have repercussions throughout the TA, and could eventually affect the availability of volunteers for Afghanistan and other operations, he said.

One MoD official said that care would have to be taken to ensure that the temporary suspension of training did not undermine the TA’s role in Afghanistan. The official also said that, given the budget restrictions, the training suspension could last longer. The annual budget for the TA is about £143 million. The TA officer said: “This decision means that people’s advancement and promotion within the TA will be arrested, and the MoD will find it cannot get recruits to join the TA if the whole thing is being put in mothballs. You cannot suspend training and expect people to come back as normal six months later.

“The decision is tragic and dangerous, especially when you look at the contributions made by the TA to both Iraq and Afghanistan in the last six years. The regular Army could not have done these operations without the TA. People will feel undervalued and not properly respected and they’ll just go off.”

Another former senior officer in the TA said: “Here we go again, cutting back the TA.”

The size of the TA has fallen rapidly since Labour came to power in 1997. The following year there were 57,620 in the TA. Today the Territorials, trained and untrained, should be about 39,000-strong, but the trained strength is only 19,300, according to the latest MoD figures.

The senior TA officer told The Times that the downward spiral in numbers was shocking and reflected the dangerous neglect of this part of the services. In 2003, 9,500 reservists, the vast majority from the TA, were mobilised to take part in Operation Telic, the campaign in Iraq. About 1,200 members of the TA continue to be deployed annually on tours of duty.

The trend in recent years has been to pare down the TA and integrate them more into the regular Army, preparing them for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. An MoD spokesman said: “These are challenging times and, like all government departments, we have to live within our means. We routinely review spending to balance priorities, focusing on the highest priorities, including on our operations, particularly in Afghanistan.”

• Yesterday a soldier from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards was killed in an explosion near Camp Bastion in Helmand province. His death takes the number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan since 2001 to 221.

Source:The times

Expenses bills return to haunt up to 100 MPs

2009-10-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

The expenses scandal is set to engulf the House of Commons again on Monday when MPs will be sent an auditor’s letter about the claims they made over the past five years.

The Times has learnt that up to 100 MPs will be asked to repay expenses, or prove that their claims were legitimate. About a dozen are likely to face demands to hand back significant sums, in some cases “tens of thousands of pounds”.

Investigators working for Sir Thomas Legg, a former civil servant appointed by the Commons to audit MPs’ expenses, are understood to have focused on big mortgage claims, as well as extravagant charges for household services.

Sir Thomas is also said to have widened the net of his investigation to include MPs who exploited loopholes to make claims that were in breach of the spirit, if not the letter, of the fees system.

“If I was an MP getting a letter suggesting I repay sums, then in the current climate it would be foolish not to do so, even if the claims were within the rules,” said a Commons official close to the inquiry.

Some MPs have already had to pay back four-figure sums after being found to have claimed the full cost of their mortgages, rather than merely the interest that they are allowed under the rules.

The letters being sent out on Monday are expected to ask dozens more to provide details of complex mortgage loan agreements so that it can be determined whether wrongful claims have been made, either deliberately or by mistake.

Others, who have charged thousands of pounds for gardening or cleaning costs, will be asked to make immediate repayment.

Sir Thomas’s audit this summer was ordered after a meeting between Commons authorities and party leaders and is said to have cost upwards of £1 million.

MPs who receive what are being described as “challenging letters” from Sir Thomas will get three weeks to provide evidence clearing their name before being referred to a committee chaired by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker.

A Times/Populus focus group this week confirmed that there is intense voter suspicion towards all politicians and both main parties. According to one well-placed source yesterday, the Legg inquiry is likely “to catch fish of different political colours”.

The report will be published in December together with full details of expenses claims from 2008-09. Unlike last summer’s official disclosure of such information, when huge sections were blacked out, these will be uncensored except for details such as bank account numbers.

Source:The times