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.
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Saturday, December 25, 2010
World economy can withstand $100 oil price -Kuwait
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"
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Leaks, "Wikileaks" appears critical after U.S. execution of Saddam Hussein
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
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
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Delta Has Decided for Jonathan, Says EK Clark
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.
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.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
100 Northern Politicians Storm Aso Rock, Urge Jonathan to Run
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.”
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.”
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Rwanda Holds 2nd Presidential Poll Since Genocide
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.
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
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.
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
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."
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."
Thursday, July 8, 2010
RE: Outsourcing Justice: Time to Claim Our Profession Back!
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
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
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.
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.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
My week: General Stanley McChrystal
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
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
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.”
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
'Kick-ass' Obama launches personal attack on BP chief Tom Hayward
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
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
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
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
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Euro plunges as Spain’s debt downgraded
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Google admits its Street View cars spied on wi-fi activity
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Moody's warns UK banks 'at risk of Greek contagion’
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.
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
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
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
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