Thai soldiers reportedly killed one of their own comrades today in a chaotic confrontation with anti-government Red Shirt protesters which left at least ten people injured and brought further embarrassment to the Government of the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The Associated Press reported that Thai security forces fired on a group of motorbike-riding soldiers, apparently believing them to be demonstrators embarked on a protest procession along a Bangkok highway. After several of the motorbikes crashed, one of the soldiers was taken to hospital with a head injury, where, according to Thai media, he later died.
The incident occurred after about 2,000 Red Shirts, who are demanding that Mr Abhisit resign and call a snap election, left their rallying point in the centre of Bangkok in a convoy of pick-up trucks and motorbikes. The security forces attempted to stop them on a road passing through the city’s northern suburbs, close to the former international airport.
An advance party of about 100 demonstrators was stopped by a line of soldiers who began by firing into the air and attempting to disperse the crowd with shields and truncheons. After the Red Shirts responded with stones and sling shots, they began to fire directly at the crowd.It was not immediately clear whether they were using blank, rubber-tipped, or live rounds. An army spokesman suggested that troops would not be discriminating in choosing between live and non-lethal rounds. “At this point, there is too much chaos for anybody to constantly report what kind bullets they are using,” Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. “We brought force out to stop them. At this point, society finds it unacceptable to have protesters travelling in a motorcade like this. We try our best to prevent losses.”
Twenty-seven people have died in the violence so far, and close to 900 have been injured, most of them on April 10, when soldiers made a disastrously botched attempt to seize one of the Red Shirt strongholds. Since then, they have fallen back to the Ratchaprasong area, a district of five-star hotels, shopping centres and expensive shops, most of which have been closed indefinitely by the protest encampment blocking the streets.
The authorities promise to clear the area under special powers granted under an ongoing state of emergency. The Red Shirts, who have shed their distinctive colours to make themselves less recognisable, live in constant expectation of a second crackdown which, so far, has not come.
Suthep Thuangsuban, Mr Abhisit’s deputy in charge of security, said: “It is clear the protesters are not gathering peacefully. We will not be lenient with these people any more.”
But in an interview with CNN, Mr Abhisit, suggested that they would choose their moment. “We recognise that as every day passes by, the people of Thailand suffer, the country suffers, but we want to make sure that there is rule of law,” he said. “We will try to enforce the law with minimum losses and we will try to find a political resolution, but it takes time, patience and co-operation.”
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Spain downgrade sparks European sell-off
Spain's debt has been downgraded in a further widening of Europe’s government debt crisis.
The move follows its reductions yesterday of Portugal and Greece, which sent shock waves through world markets.
Standard & Poor’s said its decision to downgrade Spain’s credit rating by one notch to AA from AA+ is due to its expectation that the country will suffer an “extended" period of subdued economic growth.
“We now believe that the Spanish economy’s shift away from credit-fueled economic growth is likely to result in a more protracted period of sluggish activity than we previously assumed,” S&P credit analyst Marko Mrsnik said.The euro dived to another one-year dollar low of $1.3129 following the announcement, reaching a level last seen in late April 2009.
The FTSE 100 index, which had largely recovered its losses by early afternoon as fears about Greece's debt contagion eased,fell 16.91 points or 0.3 per cent to 5,586.61 following the news. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent. Spain’s IBEX index fell 3 per cent and Portugal’s PSI 20 was down 1.9 per cent.
Spain appealed for market calm, with the deputy prime minister saying the government was cutting the public deficit.
“We have a very serious plan of fiscal consolidation and of deficit reduction. We have adopted an austerity programme, we have put in place a labour market reform,” Maria Teresa de la Vega said.
“We are adopting all the measures needed to meet our commitments. So I want to send a message of confidence to the population and of calm to the markets."
Earlier today the European Commission called on credit rating agencies to act responsibly after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s debt to junk status.
The price of insuring Greece’s debt against default soared to the highest rate in 14 years as the country’s securities regulator banned short-selling in Greek shares in an attempt to halt a crisis of confidence. The Greek securities regulator announced a ban on short-selling in Greek shares on the Athens market until June 28.
The yield on Greek sovereign bonds rose to more than 11 per cent on yesterday’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating.
“It is not up to the Commission to say whether the rating given by any one credit rating agency is correct or not. What we can say is that we have full trust in Greece and action being taken,” Chantal Hughes, the financial services spokeswoman for the EU Commission said.
“We of course expect that credit rating agencies like other financial players, and in particular during this difficult and sensitive period, act in a responsible and rigorous way.”
The International Monetary Fund and Eurozone country leaders were working today to prepare a rescue package of €30 billion (£26 billion) for Greece.
The EU President Herman van Rompuy said that he was “fully confident” that an agreement would be reached in the coming days on a “very strong and ambitious adjustment programme which will set a credible, medium-term strategy for the Greek economy.”
S&P also reduced the sovereign rating for Portugal, and today the Lisbon stock market fell as much as 5.7 per cent as traders feared that a virus of insolvency and bad debts would infect the rest of Europe.
Francois Baroin, the French Budget Minister, attempted to ease investors’ fears over Portugal. “The situation in Portugal is not the same as in Greece. The debt level is important but the Portuguese did not lie [about their finances],” he said.
Greece needs to repay €8.5 billion of maturing bonds on May 19. George Papaconstantinou, the Greek Finance Minister, said yesterday that the country could no longer afford to borrow.
Last night it was reported that the International Monetary Fund was prepared to put in another €10 billion.
Greece faces a formidable obstacle to receiving the rescue cash. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has promised to join the rescue only if Athens makes budget cuts lasting several years.
German public opinion, however, is set against the rescue package, of which Germany would pay €8.5 billion. “People in Germany ... worry that we will have to pay for a long time for Greece,” Klaus Abberger, an economist at the German Ifo Institute, said.
A temporary exit from the eurozone was raised as a solution by the German Free Democratic Party, the liberal coalition partners of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats. This could offer Greece a partial reprieve if a devalued currency boosted the Greek economy and helped to avoid mass unemployment, Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
“Exiting the euro temporarily is not going to solve all their problems. They need to make structural adjustments that ensure competitiveness isn’t lost when they rejoin,” he said.
Source:The Times
The move follows its reductions yesterday of Portugal and Greece, which sent shock waves through world markets.
Standard & Poor’s said its decision to downgrade Spain’s credit rating by one notch to AA from AA+ is due to its expectation that the country will suffer an “extended" period of subdued economic growth.
“We now believe that the Spanish economy’s shift away from credit-fueled economic growth is likely to result in a more protracted period of sluggish activity than we previously assumed,” S&P credit analyst Marko Mrsnik said.The euro dived to another one-year dollar low of $1.3129 following the announcement, reaching a level last seen in late April 2009.
The FTSE 100 index, which had largely recovered its losses by early afternoon as fears about Greece's debt contagion eased,fell 16.91 points or 0.3 per cent to 5,586.61 following the news. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell between 0.3 and 1.5 per cent. Spain’s IBEX index fell 3 per cent and Portugal’s PSI 20 was down 1.9 per cent.
Spain appealed for market calm, with the deputy prime minister saying the government was cutting the public deficit.
“We have a very serious plan of fiscal consolidation and of deficit reduction. We have adopted an austerity programme, we have put in place a labour market reform,” Maria Teresa de la Vega said.
“We are adopting all the measures needed to meet our commitments. So I want to send a message of confidence to the population and of calm to the markets."
Earlier today the European Commission called on credit rating agencies to act responsibly after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s debt to junk status.
The price of insuring Greece’s debt against default soared to the highest rate in 14 years as the country’s securities regulator banned short-selling in Greek shares in an attempt to halt a crisis of confidence. The Greek securities regulator announced a ban on short-selling in Greek shares on the Athens market until June 28.
The yield on Greek sovereign bonds rose to more than 11 per cent on yesterday’s downgrade of the country’s credit rating.
“It is not up to the Commission to say whether the rating given by any one credit rating agency is correct or not. What we can say is that we have full trust in Greece and action being taken,” Chantal Hughes, the financial services spokeswoman for the EU Commission said.
“We of course expect that credit rating agencies like other financial players, and in particular during this difficult and sensitive period, act in a responsible and rigorous way.”
The International Monetary Fund and Eurozone country leaders were working today to prepare a rescue package of €30 billion (£26 billion) for Greece.
The EU President Herman van Rompuy said that he was “fully confident” that an agreement would be reached in the coming days on a “very strong and ambitious adjustment programme which will set a credible, medium-term strategy for the Greek economy.”
S&P also reduced the sovereign rating for Portugal, and today the Lisbon stock market fell as much as 5.7 per cent as traders feared that a virus of insolvency and bad debts would infect the rest of Europe.
Francois Baroin, the French Budget Minister, attempted to ease investors’ fears over Portugal. “The situation in Portugal is not the same as in Greece. The debt level is important but the Portuguese did not lie [about their finances],” he said.
Greece needs to repay €8.5 billion of maturing bonds on May 19. George Papaconstantinou, the Greek Finance Minister, said yesterday that the country could no longer afford to borrow.
Last night it was reported that the International Monetary Fund was prepared to put in another €10 billion.
Greece faces a formidable obstacle to receiving the rescue cash. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has promised to join the rescue only if Athens makes budget cuts lasting several years.
German public opinion, however, is set against the rescue package, of which Germany would pay €8.5 billion. “People in Germany ... worry that we will have to pay for a long time for Greece,” Klaus Abberger, an economist at the German Ifo Institute, said.
A temporary exit from the eurozone was raised as a solution by the German Free Democratic Party, the liberal coalition partners of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats. This could offer Greece a partial reprieve if a devalued currency boosted the Greek economy and helped to avoid mass unemployment, Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
“Exiting the euro temporarily is not going to solve all their problems. They need to make structural adjustments that ensure competitiveness isn’t lost when they rejoin,” he said.
Source:The Times
Brown penitent after calling voter 'bigoted woman'
Gordon Brown described himself as a "penitent sinner" today after personally apologising to a widow from Rochdale whom he had branded a bigot on the campaign trail.
The Prime Minister spent a full three-quarters of an hour at Gillian Duffy's terraced home to apologise for unguarded comments caught on a radio microphone that he had forgotten to remove.
Mr Brown was accosted by the 66-year-old after stopping to talk to the voters in the suburbs of Rochdale and was attacked on subjects including welfare payments, student tuition fees and the national debt.
But it was Mrs Duffy's complaint about immigration from Eastern Europe which prompted Mr Brown to criticise her as he got back into his car and blamed a staff member for not preventing the meeting. "She's just a bigoted woman," he told aides in his official car, unaware that his microphone was still live.During the original encounter, Mrs Duffy told the Prime Minister that she was a lifelong Labour supporter. "My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag, but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour," she said.
But she had still intended to back Labour on May 6, until she was told what Mr Brown had said and declared that she would now not bother using her postal vote.
“He’s an educated person, why has he come out with words like that?" she said.
“He’s supposed to lead this country and he’s calling an ordinary woman who’s just come up and asked questions what most people would ask him - he’s not doing anything about the national debt and it’s going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this mess - and he’s calling me a bigot?"
Mr Brown's discomfort was evident when he was played a tape of his remarks during an interview on BBC Radio 2. He claimed that he had spoken in frustration, upset by the fact that he had not been able to give her a clear answer on her question about immigration.
The Radio 2 interview was also broadcast live on television, and a haggard and humiliated-looking Prime Minister can be seen holding his head in his hands as he listens to the extracts.
"Of course I apologise if I've said anything offensive, and I would never want to put myself in a position where I would say anything like that," he said.
In a bid to make amends, Mr Brown first telephoned Mrs Duffy to apologise, then made an unscheduled return trip to Rochdale to say sorry in person. A large group of minders and journalists milled outside as the Prime Minister remained inside for some 45 minutes, the curtains closed.
When he eventually came back out, Mr Brown explained that he had been able to talk to Mrs Duffy. "I'm mortified by what happened. I've given her my sincere apologies," he said. "I misunderstood what she said and she's accepted my apologies.
"If you like, I am a penitent sinner."
It was a surreal end to a bizarre episode which marked the first major gaffe of the campaign and could prove immensely damaging to Mr Brown as he tries to lift his party out of the third place in the polls.
It was not clear as Mr Brown left whether he had persuaded Mrs Duffy to vote Labour after all - Rochdale is currently held by the Liberal Democrats with a small majority - but Labour campaign aides were clearly worried that the incident could feed into negative impressions of the Prime Minister as a bully.
Mrs Duffy herself is not planning to make any more comment, a Labour press officer said as he tried to clear reporters from her drive.
The timing of the incident could hardly have been much worse for Labour. The three party leaders are due to hold their final televised campaign debate tomorrow night, a week before polling day, and Mr Brown will have been hoping finally to impose his authority as the subject turned to the economy.
Lord Mandelson, Labour's election supremo, tried to stem the political damage, giving a series of media interviews as he arrived to give a crucial speech on the economy to the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall, making him late for his address to business leaders.
He told Sky News that Mr Brown was not just a “man of political conviction but a man with a deep sense of moral purpose as well”, and that this was why “it would upset him so greatly that, in the heat of the moment, he has in a sense betrayed those views... and given a completely different impression”.
The Business Secretary added: “I’m sorry but these things happen occasionally when you say things you don’t mean.”
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said that robust exchanges were normal on the campaign trail but that questions should always be treated with respect.
"I certainly think that saying something that is clearly fairly insulting to the lady in question is not right, it's not right at all."
Sky News defended broadcasting the unscheduled remarks. “Today at a walkabout in Rochdale, Sky News gave Gordon Brown a radio microphone at the request of Labour Party officials. Immediately after his exchange with Gillian Duffy, Mr Brown left in his car before the Sky News microphone could be removed and switched off," the broadcaster said in a statement.
"Audio from the microphone was widely available as part of the pool arrangements between broadcasters covering the election campaign.”
Source:The Times
The Prime Minister spent a full three-quarters of an hour at Gillian Duffy's terraced home to apologise for unguarded comments caught on a radio microphone that he had forgotten to remove.
Mr Brown was accosted by the 66-year-old after stopping to talk to the voters in the suburbs of Rochdale and was attacked on subjects including welfare payments, student tuition fees and the national debt.
But it was Mrs Duffy's complaint about immigration from Eastern Europe which prompted Mr Brown to criticise her as he got back into his car and blamed a staff member for not preventing the meeting. "She's just a bigoted woman," he told aides in his official car, unaware that his microphone was still live.During the original encounter, Mrs Duffy told the Prime Minister that she was a lifelong Labour supporter. "My family have voted Labour all their lives - my father even sung Red Flag, but now I am ashamed of saying I'm Labour," she said.
But she had still intended to back Labour on May 6, until she was told what Mr Brown had said and declared that she would now not bother using her postal vote.
“He’s an educated person, why has he come out with words like that?" she said.
“He’s supposed to lead this country and he’s calling an ordinary woman who’s just come up and asked questions what most people would ask him - he’s not doing anything about the national debt and it’s going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this mess - and he’s calling me a bigot?"
Mr Brown's discomfort was evident when he was played a tape of his remarks during an interview on BBC Radio 2. He claimed that he had spoken in frustration, upset by the fact that he had not been able to give her a clear answer on her question about immigration.
The Radio 2 interview was also broadcast live on television, and a haggard and humiliated-looking Prime Minister can be seen holding his head in his hands as he listens to the extracts.
"Of course I apologise if I've said anything offensive, and I would never want to put myself in a position where I would say anything like that," he said.
In a bid to make amends, Mr Brown first telephoned Mrs Duffy to apologise, then made an unscheduled return trip to Rochdale to say sorry in person. A large group of minders and journalists milled outside as the Prime Minister remained inside for some 45 minutes, the curtains closed.
When he eventually came back out, Mr Brown explained that he had been able to talk to Mrs Duffy. "I'm mortified by what happened. I've given her my sincere apologies," he said. "I misunderstood what she said and she's accepted my apologies.
"If you like, I am a penitent sinner."
It was a surreal end to a bizarre episode which marked the first major gaffe of the campaign and could prove immensely damaging to Mr Brown as he tries to lift his party out of the third place in the polls.
It was not clear as Mr Brown left whether he had persuaded Mrs Duffy to vote Labour after all - Rochdale is currently held by the Liberal Democrats with a small majority - but Labour campaign aides were clearly worried that the incident could feed into negative impressions of the Prime Minister as a bully.
Mrs Duffy herself is not planning to make any more comment, a Labour press officer said as he tried to clear reporters from her drive.
The timing of the incident could hardly have been much worse for Labour. The three party leaders are due to hold their final televised campaign debate tomorrow night, a week before polling day, and Mr Brown will have been hoping finally to impose his authority as the subject turned to the economy.
Lord Mandelson, Labour's election supremo, tried to stem the political damage, giving a series of media interviews as he arrived to give a crucial speech on the economy to the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall, making him late for his address to business leaders.
He told Sky News that Mr Brown was not just a “man of political conviction but a man with a deep sense of moral purpose as well”, and that this was why “it would upset him so greatly that, in the heat of the moment, he has in a sense betrayed those views... and given a completely different impression”.
The Business Secretary added: “I’m sorry but these things happen occasionally when you say things you don’t mean.”
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said that robust exchanges were normal on the campaign trail but that questions should always be treated with respect.
"I certainly think that saying something that is clearly fairly insulting to the lady in question is not right, it's not right at all."
Sky News defended broadcasting the unscheduled remarks. “Today at a walkabout in Rochdale, Sky News gave Gordon Brown a radio microphone at the request of Labour Party officials. Immediately after his exchange with Gillian Duffy, Mr Brown left in his car before the Sky News microphone could be removed and switched off," the broadcaster said in a statement.
"Audio from the microphone was widely available as part of the pool arrangements between broadcasters covering the election campaign.”
Source:The Times
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Gurkhas split over claims that £350,000 is missing from veteran’s fund
Hundreds of thousands of pounds are missing from the accounts of the main Gurkha veterans’ organisation in Nepal that spearheaded a campaign to win equal rights with the rest of the British Army, an investigation by The Times has revealed.
The money is at the centre of a dispute that has split the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GASEO) and cast a pall over the Gurkhas’ victory last year in a campaign — fronted by Joanna Lumley — to win the right to settle in Britain.
Padam Gurung, the GAESO president, told The Times that his organisation had raised £2.3 million from its roughly 40,000 members since it was set up in 1990.
He said it had spent £600,000 on lawyers in Nepal and Britain since 2002, when it launched its first, unsuccessful, legal battle to equalise Gurkhas’ pensions with the rest of the Army. When asked for proof, however, he and other GASEO leaders could produce receipts for £99,978.66 only of bank transfers to their lawyers.
They alleged that the remaining half a million was paid to lawyers in cash “off the books” by their former Nepalese lawyer, Gopal Siwakoti.
They showed The Times what appeared to be 46 invoices worth a total of £499,974.21 from Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), a British solicitor who worked for them from 2001 to 2006 and who hired Cherie Blair as their barrister in 2002 and 2003.
PIL said, however, that they had only sent 21 invoices with a combined total of £141,543.03 to GASEO. “It’s sheer nonsense to talk about half a million pounds,” said Paul McNab, the practice manager at PIL.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Blair said she had received £4,600 for her work for the Gurkhas. That leaves more than £350,000 of Gurkha veterans’ money unaccounted for — a huge sum in one of the world’s poorest countries, where a quarter of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Ex-Gurkhas are better off than most Nepalis, but 24,000 of them who retired before 1997 still receive a basic pension of £190 a month.
When asked to explain the missing funds, Mr Gurung blamed Mr Siwakoti, who worked for GASEO from 2001 to 2008, but is now acting for a splinter group called GASEO-UK.
“We had no knowledge of the British legal system,” Mr Gurung said. “He was the middle man — he was the key. This is a smear campaign conducted by the Ministry of Defence and Siwakoti.”
Mr Siwakoti, however, denied any wrongdoing and blamed Mr Gurung, claiming that the GASEO president handled all payments to lawyers and preferred not to keep receipts. “This is complete rubbish. If they have proof, I’m happy to return the money,” he said, adding that he was seeking £250,000 in unpaid fees from GASEO.
The dispute has left many Gurkha veterans confused about who to trust for advice as they try to decide whether to move to Britain, and whether to continue their pensions battle.
GASEO is under investigation by Nepalese authorities over allegations that it charged veterans £500 each for referrals to Howe & Co, a British law firm providing immigration services for Gurkhas that are fully funded by legal aid.
That issue came to light after Kevan Jones, the Veterans’ Minister, criticised Ms Lumley in March for not speaking out about GASEO and Howe & Co, which was working from GASEO’s headquarters.
Gordon Brown and Mr Jones later apologised to Ms Lumley after a Ministry of Justice investigation cleared Howe & Co of wrongdoing. Ms Lumley was not available to comment last night. But Kieran O’Rourke, a partner at Howe & Co, said: “If there is a problem with GASEO’s accounts, then it must explain that, and if that money has come from our clients, it is unacceptable . . . With hindsight, I wish we’d never worked out of that office.”
Many GASEO members remain loyal to the organisation. “It’s only through them that the Gurkhas have their rights — they really sacrificed a lot,” said Sunita Gurung, whose husband left the Gurkhas after 18 years’ service in 1991. She said her family had given GASEO 9,000 rupees (£83).
Several Gurkhas not affiliated to GASEO, however, expressed outrage at the apparent hole in its accounts, and some called for Nepalese authorities to broaden their investigation.
“They were never that clear about why they were raising funds, and how the money would be spent,” said Bharat Singh Thapa, chairman of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association. “Many Gurkhas have been following them blindly.”
Source:The Times
The money is at the centre of a dispute that has split the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GASEO) and cast a pall over the Gurkhas’ victory last year in a campaign — fronted by Joanna Lumley — to win the right to settle in Britain.
Padam Gurung, the GAESO president, told The Times that his organisation had raised £2.3 million from its roughly 40,000 members since it was set up in 1990.
He said it had spent £600,000 on lawyers in Nepal and Britain since 2002, when it launched its first, unsuccessful, legal battle to equalise Gurkhas’ pensions with the rest of the Army. When asked for proof, however, he and other GASEO leaders could produce receipts for £99,978.66 only of bank transfers to their lawyers.
They alleged that the remaining half a million was paid to lawyers in cash “off the books” by their former Nepalese lawyer, Gopal Siwakoti.
They showed The Times what appeared to be 46 invoices worth a total of £499,974.21 from Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), a British solicitor who worked for them from 2001 to 2006 and who hired Cherie Blair as their barrister in 2002 and 2003.
PIL said, however, that they had only sent 21 invoices with a combined total of £141,543.03 to GASEO. “It’s sheer nonsense to talk about half a million pounds,” said Paul McNab, the practice manager at PIL.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Blair said she had received £4,600 for her work for the Gurkhas. That leaves more than £350,000 of Gurkha veterans’ money unaccounted for — a huge sum in one of the world’s poorest countries, where a quarter of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Ex-Gurkhas are better off than most Nepalis, but 24,000 of them who retired before 1997 still receive a basic pension of £190 a month.
When asked to explain the missing funds, Mr Gurung blamed Mr Siwakoti, who worked for GASEO from 2001 to 2008, but is now acting for a splinter group called GASEO-UK.
“We had no knowledge of the British legal system,” Mr Gurung said. “He was the middle man — he was the key. This is a smear campaign conducted by the Ministry of Defence and Siwakoti.”
Mr Siwakoti, however, denied any wrongdoing and blamed Mr Gurung, claiming that the GASEO president handled all payments to lawyers and preferred not to keep receipts. “This is complete rubbish. If they have proof, I’m happy to return the money,” he said, adding that he was seeking £250,000 in unpaid fees from GASEO.
The dispute has left many Gurkha veterans confused about who to trust for advice as they try to decide whether to move to Britain, and whether to continue their pensions battle.
GASEO is under investigation by Nepalese authorities over allegations that it charged veterans £500 each for referrals to Howe & Co, a British law firm providing immigration services for Gurkhas that are fully funded by legal aid.
That issue came to light after Kevan Jones, the Veterans’ Minister, criticised Ms Lumley in March for not speaking out about GASEO and Howe & Co, which was working from GASEO’s headquarters.
Gordon Brown and Mr Jones later apologised to Ms Lumley after a Ministry of Justice investigation cleared Howe & Co of wrongdoing. Ms Lumley was not available to comment last night. But Kieran O’Rourke, a partner at Howe & Co, said: “If there is a problem with GASEO’s accounts, then it must explain that, and if that money has come from our clients, it is unacceptable . . . With hindsight, I wish we’d never worked out of that office.”
Many GASEO members remain loyal to the organisation. “It’s only through them that the Gurkhas have their rights — they really sacrificed a lot,” said Sunita Gurung, whose husband left the Gurkhas after 18 years’ service in 1991. She said her family had given GASEO 9,000 rupees (£83).
Several Gurkhas not affiliated to GASEO, however, expressed outrage at the apparent hole in its accounts, and some called for Nepalese authorities to broaden their investigation.
“They were never that clear about why they were raising funds, and how the money would be spent,” said Bharat Singh Thapa, chairman of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association. “Many Gurkhas have been following them blindly.”
Source:The Times
China earthquake bodies burnt on pyres as death toll soars
Tibetan monks chanted prayers and lit giant funeral pyres to cremate the bodies of hundreds of victims of last week’s earthquake in western China.
With the official death toll reaching 1,144, and the figure expected to rise sharply with hundreds more still unaccounted for, the crimson-clad monks were forced to abandon their traditional funeral tradition of “sky burials”, in which bodies are left to be devoured by vultures.
“There are not enough vultures for all these bodies,” said a monk at the mass cremation on a mountainside outside Jiegu, the hardest hit town.
Rescue workers continued to pick through the rubble from Wednesday’s 7.1 magnitude quake, on the remote fringes of China’s western Qinghai province, but hopes of finding survivors are fading.
The townspeople are living on the streets, huddled beneath piles of blankets and, for a lucky few, tents. Most homes, largely constructed from wood and mud, have been destroyed. Authorities say 70% of the town’s schools have been flattened, leaving more than 100 children dead.
Tragedy can be found on every street corner. Chengli Dorma, 18, and her sister Liangma, 15, were orphaned by the quake. They watched as a young monk prayed over the body of their mother. The sisters, still wearing their blue and white school uniforms, also lost their father and brother in the disaster.
“We have nobody now,” said Chengli, hugging her sister. A policeman who had helped pull their mother’s body from the wreckage of a collapsed hotel, stood by their side, tears in his eyes, as he appealed to a crowd of onlookers “to do everything you can to look after these girls”.
Their parents had spent the night at the hotel, near the town’s main square, for a business meeting. Scores of staff and guests are still missing, trapped beneath the rubble. It was a scene that was repeated across Yushu county.
There is no electricity, little running water and not enough food. With temperatures on the Tibetan plateau dropping well below zero, conditions are harsh.
The government has stepped up relief efforts. Thousands of soldiers and paramilitary rescue teams, armed with mechanical diggers, movement sensors, heavy cutting equipment and sniffer dogs, have set up camp here. Convoys of army trucks fill the rutted road from Xining, the provincial capital. Military helicopters are bringing in supplies and ferrying out the injured.
They are reported to have pulled out 6,800 survivors alive. One of the most poignant rescues came on Friday, two days after the quake, when a dust-caked Tibetan girl, who looked no older than seven, was pulled from the debris. There were cries of joy as she was rushed to a medical centre in the arms of her rescuer.
Hundreds of monks, carrying spades and pickaxes over their shoulders, came from miles around to help dig out the dead and, when the army allowed them, perform the last rites. Others said they felt compelled to come after hearing about the destruction of Jiegu’s Tranga monastery, in which at least 25 of their fellow monks died.
For many others help came too late. We found Tangke Manse sitting in stunned silence outside the pile of brick and stone that was once his home. “My whole family was at home when the quake struck,” he said. “I managed to escape but everyone else died.” He lost both his children, aged two and one, his wife and his parents. “I’m the only one left now,” he said. “I sleep at the cemetery where my family is buried because I have nowhere else to go.”
Criticism of the military-led rescue is growing. Tsering Pedkar, a 28-year-old English teacher at a Yushu school and a former Reading University student, said the army presence masked an urgent need for basic supplies. “Everyone here is in shock,” she said. “There’s not enough water, food or medical supplies.”
With most of Jiegu’s schools lying in ruins, and the bodies of school children still being pulled from the rubble, criticism of shoddy building work has returned to haunt the Chinese authorities, as it did after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.
“Look around you,” said Tsering. “All the government buildings are standing, but the schools have collapsed. In my school alone we've pulled out 28 bodies and there are more under there.”
Yi Ji, a 16-year-old middle school student, said: “Some of our friends have died and seven of our teachers are missing.”
As the dead were cremated yesterday, watched by hundreds of grieving survivors with the vultures circling overhead, the living remain huddled on the streets.
“We’ve got nothing,” said Feng Zhiting, 20, as she sat with seven friends and family inside an improvised tent of plastic sheets. “This is where we live now. We have to find our own food, and get our own water. Who knows how long we’ll be here?”
Source:The Times
With the official death toll reaching 1,144, and the figure expected to rise sharply with hundreds more still unaccounted for, the crimson-clad monks were forced to abandon their traditional funeral tradition of “sky burials”, in which bodies are left to be devoured by vultures.
“There are not enough vultures for all these bodies,” said a monk at the mass cremation on a mountainside outside Jiegu, the hardest hit town.
Rescue workers continued to pick through the rubble from Wednesday’s 7.1 magnitude quake, on the remote fringes of China’s western Qinghai province, but hopes of finding survivors are fading.
The townspeople are living on the streets, huddled beneath piles of blankets and, for a lucky few, tents. Most homes, largely constructed from wood and mud, have been destroyed. Authorities say 70% of the town’s schools have been flattened, leaving more than 100 children dead.
Tragedy can be found on every street corner. Chengli Dorma, 18, and her sister Liangma, 15, were orphaned by the quake. They watched as a young monk prayed over the body of their mother. The sisters, still wearing their blue and white school uniforms, also lost their father and brother in the disaster.
“We have nobody now,” said Chengli, hugging her sister. A policeman who had helped pull their mother’s body from the wreckage of a collapsed hotel, stood by their side, tears in his eyes, as he appealed to a crowd of onlookers “to do everything you can to look after these girls”.
Their parents had spent the night at the hotel, near the town’s main square, for a business meeting. Scores of staff and guests are still missing, trapped beneath the rubble. It was a scene that was repeated across Yushu county.
There is no electricity, little running water and not enough food. With temperatures on the Tibetan plateau dropping well below zero, conditions are harsh.
The government has stepped up relief efforts. Thousands of soldiers and paramilitary rescue teams, armed with mechanical diggers, movement sensors, heavy cutting equipment and sniffer dogs, have set up camp here. Convoys of army trucks fill the rutted road from Xining, the provincial capital. Military helicopters are bringing in supplies and ferrying out the injured.
They are reported to have pulled out 6,800 survivors alive. One of the most poignant rescues came on Friday, two days after the quake, when a dust-caked Tibetan girl, who looked no older than seven, was pulled from the debris. There were cries of joy as she was rushed to a medical centre in the arms of her rescuer.
Hundreds of monks, carrying spades and pickaxes over their shoulders, came from miles around to help dig out the dead and, when the army allowed them, perform the last rites. Others said they felt compelled to come after hearing about the destruction of Jiegu’s Tranga monastery, in which at least 25 of their fellow monks died.
For many others help came too late. We found Tangke Manse sitting in stunned silence outside the pile of brick and stone that was once his home. “My whole family was at home when the quake struck,” he said. “I managed to escape but everyone else died.” He lost both his children, aged two and one, his wife and his parents. “I’m the only one left now,” he said. “I sleep at the cemetery where my family is buried because I have nowhere else to go.”
Criticism of the military-led rescue is growing. Tsering Pedkar, a 28-year-old English teacher at a Yushu school and a former Reading University student, said the army presence masked an urgent need for basic supplies. “Everyone here is in shock,” she said. “There’s not enough water, food or medical supplies.”
With most of Jiegu’s schools lying in ruins, and the bodies of school children still being pulled from the rubble, criticism of shoddy building work has returned to haunt the Chinese authorities, as it did after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.
“Look around you,” said Tsering. “All the government buildings are standing, but the schools have collapsed. In my school alone we've pulled out 28 bodies and there are more under there.”
Yi Ji, a 16-year-old middle school student, said: “Some of our friends have died and seven of our teachers are missing.”
As the dead were cremated yesterday, watched by hundreds of grieving survivors with the vultures circling overhead, the living remain huddled on the streets.
“We’ve got nothing,” said Feng Zhiting, 20, as she sat with seven friends and family inside an improvised tent of plastic sheets. “This is where we live now. We have to find our own food, and get our own water. Who knows how long we’ll be here?”
Source:The Times
Poland marks minute of president's plane crash
Poland marked the minute their president, his wife and 94 others were killed in a plane crash, as the country began a weekend of mourning.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles descended on Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square for a massive outdoor memorial to victims of last Saturday’s plane crash in Russia.
At 8.56am (6.56am GMT) this morning the country came to a standstill, while church bells were pealed and sirens sounded.
At the same time a week before, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria died when their plane went down in woodland near Smolensk airport.
There were no survivors of the crash, which also killed key government figures, including the chief of the army and the head of the national bank.
A two-minute silence was held at noon in Pilsudski Square followed by a reading of all 96 victims’ names as the late presidential couple’s only child and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother, looked on.
Former President Lech Walesa, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski and prime minister Donald Tusk were among those present. “Our world went crashing down for the second time at the same place,” Komorowski said of the crash.
The victims had been been en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were executed by the Soviet secret police.
The square and a neighbouring park have been fitted with huge TV screens to relay the services to the crowd and large photos of the all victims have been scattered across the site.
The city authorities have banned alcohol sales today and provided free transport and parking to make it easier for people to attend.
A public mass in memory the president and his wife was held at the city’s St. John’s Cathedral early evening before their coffins were taken to Krakow for an overnight vigil, ahead of tomorrow’s state funeral.
Nearly 100 foreign dignitaries, including US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, are set to attend the ceremony, however a number of world leaders have been forced to cancel because of the flight restrictions over Europe caused by Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.
So far delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan have confirmed they cannot attend. Today all airports in Poland remained closed to flights above 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) because of the ash cloud.
Tomorrow’s state funeral will begin at 2pm (12pm GMT) with a Mass at the 13th-century St. Mary’s Basilica. A funeral procession will then carry first couple the across the Old Town to the historic Wawel Cathedral to be interred.
Their Tupolov U-154M collided with trees after its pilots reportedly ignored warnings not to land in foggy conditions. The chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor, Slawomir Skrzypek, who had been central bank governor since 2007, and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also among the dead.
Prime minister Tusk has described the crash as the “most tragic event in Poland’s post-war history”.
Source:The Times
Hundreds of thousands of Poles descended on Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square for a massive outdoor memorial to victims of last Saturday’s plane crash in Russia.
At 8.56am (6.56am GMT) this morning the country came to a standstill, while church bells were pealed and sirens sounded.
At the same time a week before, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria died when their plane went down in woodland near Smolensk airport.
There were no survivors of the crash, which also killed key government figures, including the chief of the army and the head of the national bank.
A two-minute silence was held at noon in Pilsudski Square followed by a reading of all 96 victims’ names as the late presidential couple’s only child and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother, looked on.
Former President Lech Walesa, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski and prime minister Donald Tusk were among those present. “Our world went crashing down for the second time at the same place,” Komorowski said of the crash.
The victims had been been en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were executed by the Soviet secret police.
The square and a neighbouring park have been fitted with huge TV screens to relay the services to the crowd and large photos of the all victims have been scattered across the site.
The city authorities have banned alcohol sales today and provided free transport and parking to make it easier for people to attend.
A public mass in memory the president and his wife was held at the city’s St. John’s Cathedral early evening before their coffins were taken to Krakow for an overnight vigil, ahead of tomorrow’s state funeral.
Nearly 100 foreign dignitaries, including US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, are set to attend the ceremony, however a number of world leaders have been forced to cancel because of the flight restrictions over Europe caused by Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.
So far delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan have confirmed they cannot attend. Today all airports in Poland remained closed to flights above 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) because of the ash cloud.
Tomorrow’s state funeral will begin at 2pm (12pm GMT) with a Mass at the 13th-century St. Mary’s Basilica. A funeral procession will then carry first couple the across the Old Town to the historic Wawel Cathedral to be interred.
Their Tupolov U-154M collided with trees after its pilots reportedly ignored warnings not to land in foggy conditions. The chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor, Slawomir Skrzypek, who had been central bank governor since 2007, and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also among the dead.
Prime minister Tusk has described the crash as the “most tragic event in Poland’s post-war history”.
Source:The Times
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