| |  | | | | | SHUTTING DOWN Feed My Inbox will be shutting down on January 10, 2013. To find an alternative service for email updates, visit this page. | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Disaster and civil war will follow if all US forces leave after 2014, leaders warn, as Obama and Karzai prepare to hold talks Afghan politicians have reacted with alarm to a White House announcement that it is considering a complete withdrawal of US troops after 2014, warning that disaster and civil war would follow. The Obama administration has said it is considering the so-called "zero option" of a complete pullout despite earlier recommendations from the top military commander in Afghanistan to keep soldiers there to help the government. That option and the angry reaction from Afghan officials are likely to dominate talks between President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, in Washington on Friday. The meeting was already likely to be tense given ongoing strains in their relationship over the war. "If Americans pull out all of their troops without a plan the civil war of the 1990s would repeat itself," said Naeem Lalai, a lawmaker from volatile Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban. "It [full withdrawal] will pave the way for the Taliban to take over militarily," Lalai told the Reuters news agency. When the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade-long war, financial aid dried up and the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to infighting between warlords. A civil war paved the way for the Taliban's rise to power. The United States has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan and that number is expected to reduce sharply ahead of 31 December 2014, the official end of the Nato-led combat mission in the country. Nato and its partners are trying to train Afghanistan's 350,000 security personnel but questions remain over how their effectiveness against insurgents and leading Afghan officials had assumed some US troops would stay. "If American forces leave Afghanistan without properly training the Afghan security forces and equipping them it would be a disaster," said member of parliament Mirwais Yasini. Shukria Barekzai, another MP, said a total withdrawal after 2014 would be equivalent to the United States "accepting defeat". The Taliban said the US "zero option" was speculative and it had no comment for the moment. The US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Tuesday that the complete withdrawal was "an option that we would consider". He made clear that a decision on post-2014 troop levels was not expected for months and would be made based on two US security objectives in Afghanistan: denying a safe haven to al-Qaida and ensuring Afghan forces were trained and equipped so that they, not foreign forces, could secure the nation. Washington officials have privately said the White House is seeking a post-2014 presence of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops, which is significantly less than the 6,000 to 15,000 number given by the top commander, US General John Allen.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Inuit people call for Canadian government to send icebreaker and free pod of mammals that are struggling to surface for air Canadian Inuit people and authorities are grappling with how to help a pod of killer whales that are trapped and at times panicking in the sea ice of Hudson Bay, A local mayor is calling on the government to send an icebreaker to save the mammals. The whales are taking turns breathing through a hole in the ice about the size of a pick-up truck in the frigid waters near the remote Inuit community of Inukjuak, Quebec. "They are trapped," the community's mayor, Peter Inukpuk, told CBC radio on Wednesday. "It appears from time to time that they panic. Other times they are gone for a long time, probably looking for another open space, which they are not able to find at the moment." He said a hunter first spotted the whales on Tuesday. There were 11 whales, including several small ones, which could mean they are all from the same family, the mayor said. Inukpuk said it was unusual to see the killer whales in the area in January but he noted that the waters were late to freeze this year. Inukpuk said he had asked the Canadian government to send an icebreaker as their community of 1,800 people was not equipped to save the whales. The Canadian government's fisheries and oceans department is sending specialists to the site to determine what, if anything, can be done, according to Frank Stanek, a spokesman for the department. He said the department was "assessing the situation and exploring every possible option".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama spokesman defends number of women and minorities serving in second term as Department of Labor chief resigns The labor secretary Hilda Solis, the first Latina to head a major US federal agency, announced plans to resign on Wednesday, just as President Barack Obama faces questions about a lack of women in his second-term leadership team. Solis, who had grappled with trying to bolster the US workforce at a time of fiscal crisis and recovery from recession, said in a statement she had submitted her resignation to Obama. "There is still much to do, but we are well on the road to recovery, and middle-class Americans know the president is on their side," she said. Obama, in a statement, called her a "tireless champion for working families".
So far, Obama has picked white males for the three biggest cabinet positions – senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and former senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. He was due to announce Jack Lew as treasury secretary on Thursday, a source said. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of Obama, withdrew her name last month from consideration for the secretary of state post in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle.
Rice had drawn heavy fire from Republicans for remarks she made in the aftermath of a 11 September attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including ambassador Christopher Stevens. The appointments only of men are leading to some questions as to whether Obama is losing diversity from his senior leadership team. White House spokesman Jay Carney urged critics to render a judgment after Obama has filled out his team. "Women are well represented in the president's senior staff here," he said, noting that two of the president's deputy chiefs of staff are women, as is the White House counsel. At the same time as the Solis announcement, the White House said that attorney general Eric Holder would be among first-term cabinet members who will stay as Obama begins his second term. Holder, the first black US attorney general, has been a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives. Republicans tried to oust him after a botched department operation called Fast and Furious that targeted gun trafficking along the US-Mexico border.
Two other cabinet members plan to remain as well: health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and veteran affairs secretary Eric Shinseki, a White House official said. There appeared to be no plans for homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano to leave.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tehran says it is ready to resume negotiations but silence over time and date suggests internal wrangling The much-awaited new round of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear programme will have to be awaited a while longer. Tehran has declared itself ready for talks this month, but the office of the EU foreign affairs chief, Cathy Ashton, whose job it is to arrange the negotiations, has yet to get a clear Iranian response to its suggestion of a mid-January meeting in Istanbul. That timetable, diplomats say, is now likely to be pushed back. Ashton's spokesman, Michael Mann, issued a statement saying only: Contacts are still ongoing. No decision has been taken. We have offered dates and venue in January and are still expecting an Iranian reaction to it.
Western diplomats point to disagreements at the top of the Tehran leadership over the wisdom of entering new talks as the most likely reason for the delay and mixed messages. It is not hard, however, to imagine reasons for Iranian ambivalence. The Obama administration has only recently announced its new picks for secretaries of state and defence, and they have yet to be confirmed by the Senate. It will clearly take some time for the remodeled Obama cabinet to reformulate its negotiating stance and the sounds emanating from Washington suggest that there will be limited change to what was on the table last year, which did not include significant sanctions relief. So it may make sense for Iran to bide its time until Washington makes up its mind on what it wants to offer. By then of course, the Iranians will be gearing up for their own elections
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If approved by the Senate, Obama's current chief of staff will have to contend with the debt ceiling – and then budget cuts President Barack Obama is set to name his current chief of staff, Jack Lew, to the most thankless job in American politics: treasury secretary. With Timothy Geithner leaving the post after four years, Lew is to take over the unenviable task of wrestling with America's lacklustre economy and sclerotic banking system. An official announcement of Lew's nomination is to be made by Obama on Thursday. The 57-year old Lew is a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, and regarded as a policy wonk even within a White House filled with policy wonks. His credentials will be tested as soon as his appointment has been confirmed by the Senate, with a trio of crises arriving before Lew has time to warm his new seat at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue. The first problem facing Lew is also the most byzantine, with the US government due to hit the so-called "debt ceiling" of $16.4tn in borrowing allowed under current law by the end of next month. The Republicans who control the House of Representatives have vowed to extract concessions in the form of spending cuts from the White House in return for raising the debt ceiling – but President Obama has said he will not negotiate. In doing so Obama hopes to avoid a repeat of the damaging 2011 fight over the same ground, even if a failure to raise the debt ceiling could force the US to default on some debt repayments, an event that would send shockwaves through international capital markets. If Lew survives that, then the start of March is scheduled to see the start of deep budget cuts triggered by the sequester deal of 2011 and subsequently delayed by the New Year's Eve deal in Congress. The end of the same month sees the end of funding for the US government as another fudged congressional deal expires. The succession of fiscal deadlines is part of the explanation why president Obama decided to shift Lew from his West Wing office as White House chief of staff into the Treasury, since Lew's career is studded with the sort of experience that will be in demand during the negotiations ahead. Lew's record includes a period as the White House budget director under Bill Clinton and again as head of the Office of Management and Budget during Obama's first term, where his grasp of the complexity of federal spending and taxation policy made him a formidable opponent to congressional Republicans in 2011. Yet towards the start of his career, back in 1983, Lew was an aide to the then speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, during the groundbreaking deal between O'Neill and President Ronald Reagan over social security. Lew was also a member of the Clinton-era team that engineered bipartisan pacts and enjoyed a federal budget surplus in the late 1990s. Lew's confirmation hearings in the Senate are likely to include a look at his three years working at Citi Group from 2006, where his roles included chief operating officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments, a $54bn proprietary trading and private equity unit at the heart of what would become Wall Street's sub-prime mortgage disaster. His time at Citigroup aside, Lew's long career in government makes him an unusual figure compared with recent treasury secretaries, who have been drawn from banking, industry or – in the case of Clinton appointee Larry Summers – academia. Lew follows in the footsteps of James Baker, who Ronald Reagan promoted from White House chief of staff to treasury secretary. Unlike Baker, a courtly Texan, Lew is a low-key figure, an observant Orthodox Jew and native New Yorker, of whom the New York Times once revealed: "He brings his own lunch (a cheese sandwich and an apple) and eats at his desk."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Officials said Wall Street vessel missed one slip on the pier and crashed into the second, flinging passengers across the boat More than 50 passengers on a New York commuter ferry were injured on Wednesday when they were flung across the boat as it slammed into a pier in lower Manhattan. There were harrowing scenes at Pier 11, near the heart of New York's financial district, as 20 passengers with head and neck injuries were carried off on stretchers and rushed to local hospitals. Officials said the vessel, Wall Street, a two-hulled craft carrying 326 passengers and operated by Seastreak, missed one slip on the pier and crashed into a second, causing a large hole on the front starboard side. The boat was moving at between 10 and 12 knots at the time of the accident. The official tally of injured was 57, including two described as being in a critical condition, and nine serious. The more serious cases were taken to Manhattan hospitals, while passengers with non-serious injuries were taken to Brooklyn, on the other side of the East river, to avoid overloading local services. Michael Bloom, the CEO of the Guardian in the US, was on board the 8am ferry that set off from Highlands in New Jersey and was scheduled to arrive at Pier 11 at 8.43am. He said that the vessel was still 40 or 50m away from shore, and still travelling at a fair speed, when it suddenly felt as though it hit a brick wall. By then, many of the commuters on board had already stood up, in preparation for disembarking, and were gathering towards the front of the boat, Bloom among them. "Everyone on the boat flew forward. It was like being in a car accident," he said. Bloom estimates that he was thrown between eight and 10 feet across the boat. His fall was cushioned because he landed on top of other passengers, and he was relatively unhurt. When he came to, he found himself lying on a pile of people. "I looked around and realised this was bad. There were bodies on the ground everywhere, broken glass, blood. "At first everyone was silent. Then people started calling out: 'Is there a doctor on board? Is there a medic?' There were several older folks on board, and it was clear there were a lot of injuries." Bloom began moving around the floor of the boat, a double-deck vessel. There were people with injuries everywhere. A friend, trained in emergency health, was tending to one man who was bleeding heavily from the head. Other passengers appeared to have suffered head and neck injuries after they were propelled into walls, seats, glass windows and each other. Bloom praised the quick actions of the Wall Street crew, who scrambled to help the most seriously injured.
Emergency crews form the police, fire services and US coast guard were all involved in the rescue mission. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, visited the scene soon after the accident. An investigation will be carried out by the coast guard and the National Transportation Safety Board. One witness on the shore said a ferry company employee had told her how the boat's crew members had recently complained about its maneuverability. "He was telling me that none of these guys like this boat," Wertz told the Associated Press. "It was coming in a little wobbly. It hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb." The ferry, built in 2003, was recently the subject of an upgrade. As part of the overhaul, it received new engines and a new propulsion system. The Associated Press noted that the Seastreak Wall Street has been in accidents before. Coast guard records said the ferry hit a cluster of fender piles while docking in 2010, punching a hole in the ship's hull. In 2009, it suffered another tear on the bow after another minor docking collision. No one was injured in either incident. Seastreak said in a statement that it would work with investigators to determine the cause of the accident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those that were injured," the company said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Intense speculation that US cyclist will admit doping
• Interview will be streamed on chatshow star's website It took years of defiant rejection of his critics, recovery from cancer, seven now-discredited Tour de France victories and a position at the heart of the "most sophisticated doping programme sport has ever seen". But as for so many other tarnished public figures, the journey of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong will next week end opposite Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey has confirmed that Armstrong, who in October was stripped of all his titles and labelled a "serial drug cheat" by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), will seek redemption on her show. In a 90-minute interview from his home in Austin, Texas, he will speak publicly for the first time about the doping revelations that led to a lifetime ban from sport. It will be streamed live around the world on Oprah.com next Thursday as well as broadcast in the US at 2am UK time. It is the first time Armstrong has given an interview since he lost his titles, was dropped by sponsors and pilloried by the public for his part in a doping conspiracy that spanned more than a decade and was described in excoriating detail in a 202-page report by Usada. Within hours, bookmakers were offering odds on which words Armstrong would use in the interview, with Ladbrokes quoting 1-4 on "apologise" and evens on "confess". They were offering 8-11 on Armstrong breaking down in tears. Travis Tygart, the Usada chief executive, told the Guardian in an interview last month that he hoped an Armstrong confession could yet act as a powerful symbol for drug-free sport. But others, including another former cycling drug cheat who has since become a respected anti-doping campaigner, immediately voiced concerns that a stage-managed talkshow was not the right forum to discuss claims that as recently as October Armstrong's lawyer was dismissing as a "one-sided hatchet job". "Only Lance would get to have his moment of truth, if that's what it will be, in front of Oprah Winfrey," said British cyclist David Millar, who was banned for two years in 2004 for injecting EPO at a time when doping was rife in the professional peloton. "It is not sitting in front of a judge or a disciplinary hearing being properly questioned about the things he has done wrong. I doubt very much it will be a proper interrogation," added Millar, who is a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's athletes commission. "My biggest concern is that it will be completely stage-managed, that he will just be 'given the ball', and that it will all be about his emotions rather that concentrating on exactly what he did wrong." A spokeswoman for the Oprah show said Armstrong was not being paid to appear and that Winfrey was free to ask any question she wanted. "No payment for the interview. No editorial control, no question is off limits," the spokeswoman said in an email. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which will show the programme, is a joint venture between Winfrey's Harpo Productions and Discovery Channel. Discovery was the headline sponsor of Armstrong's team between 2004 and 2007. It was that network's logo that was emblazoned on his shirt when he won his seventh Tour in 2005 and claimed it as a victory over "the people that don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics". Discovery was a vocal supporter of Armstrong and one of the last sponsors to distance itself from the Texan once Usada's damning evidence was published. Former colleagues and rivals immediately began speculating on whether Armstrong would use the programme as a platform for contrition or an attempt to shift the blame. Armstrong had previously told a US tribunal that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, opening up the possibility that he could perjure himself if he now admitted doping. The Texan is at the centre of several ongoing legal disputes, while the Sunday Times is suing him for the repayment of a libel settlement the newspaper was forced to pay him over doping allegations. Many fear Winfrey will give Armstrong an easy ride, recalling her interview with Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones, in which the weeping American sprinter claimed she took performance-enhancing drugs unintentionally. Kathy LeMond, wife of the US Tour de France winner Greg, tweeted: "@Oprah I hope you get educated before the interview. I know people that can help you." Since Usada published its "reasoned decision" in October, ratified some weeks later by cycling's much criticised global governing body, the UCI, Armstrong has been deserted by a succession of high-profile supporters and sponsors, including Nike, and lost millions of pounds' worth of endorsements. He has also stepped down from his position as chairman of Livestrong, the charity he established to help fellow sufferers after winning his battle with testicular cancer. Reports in the US at the weekend suggested he was considering making a confession and wanted to negotiate with the World Anti-Doping Agency over his ability to compete in the field of triathlon and running events.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Vice-president promises swift action from administration at inaugural meeting of national task force on gun control President Barack Obama is considering the use of an executive order to restrict access to guns or ammunition in the wake of nationwide revulsion in the US over the Connecticut school shootings, vice-president Joe Biden said Wednesday. Such a move would be deeply controversial in the gun lobby, but Biden said the president was determined to explore every legislative avenue. "The president is going to act," Biden said, in a briefing to reporters before the inaugural meeting of a new national task force on gun control. "Executive order, executive action that can be taken, we haven't decided what that is yet. But we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action, we believe, is required." Biden did not specify what kind of action the president might take. In the past the Obama administration has used executive orders, which have the force of law, to require gun dealers to report when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles and to increase penalties for violating gun laws. A new order, nearly certain to face legal challenges, could seek to tighten enforcement of laws governing private sales of guns or to beef up background checks. "We are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything we're going to do nothing," Biden said. "It's critically important that we act." Any unilateral action by the president seemed sure to inflame gun advocates, who argue that gun sales are protected under the second amendment and who equate gun control with tyranny. Gun-rights groups are organising a "Gun Appreciation Day" on the weekend of the president's second inauguration. The influential conservative website, the Drudge Report, illustrated the story covering Biden's remarks with pictures of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Biden said that the 14 December massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, in which 20 first-graders were shot dead in their classrooms by a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle, had mobilised the nation to act. "Every once in a while there's something that awakens the conscience of the country, and that tragic event did it in a way like nothing I've seen in my career," Biden said. The national task force includes the victims of mass shootings and gun control advocates. The group plans to meet Thursday with representatives of the National Rifle Association and gun retailers including Wal-Mart. The task force was to deliver recommendations to the president as early as mid-month. New York could become the first state to pass gun control laws after the Connecticut massacre, aides to Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in advance of his annual address planned for Wednesday afternoon. Lawmakers in Albany worked late into the night Tuesday to settle on new rules to further restrict the sales of assault rifles and large-capacity magazines, and to require the regular renewal of gun permits, among other measures. The NRA has vocally opposed calls for new gun control legislation, saying that more guns are needed to improve public safety. "If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," NRA head Wayne LaPierre said a week after the Connecticut shooting. "I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe." Deaths from guns are on pace to surpass traffic deaths in the United States by 2015, according to a Bloomberg News study. In 2011, the latest year for which detailed statistics are available, there were 12,664 murders in the US. Of those, 8,583 were caused by firearms, down 3% from a year earlier. The Biden task force is part of new wave of gun control activity across the country. Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in a 2011 massacre in Tucson that killed six, announced on Tuesday the formation of a political action committee to fight the NRA. "Special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission," she wrote in an editorial with husband Mark Kelly, an astronaut. "Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties." New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is heading up a campaign called Demand a Plan that has produced dozens of videos in which family members of victims of gun violence call for new gun laws. Advocates have proposed a coalition of mothers against gun violence that would be modeled after MADD, the anti-drunken driving group that succeeded in lowering the legal blood-alcohol content for drivers nationally.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Assad regime frees more than 2,000 people believed to have opposition links in exchange for 48 detained Iranians Syria has released 2,130 opposition prisoners in exchange for 48 Iranians who were abducted while apparently on a pilgrimage in Damascus five months ago. The first big prisoner swap of the 21-month war, brokered by a Turkish humanitarian group and the Qatari government, was a reminder of the sheer scale of the Syrian crisis, and of its complex geopolitical ramifications. Syrian state media made no mention of the mass exchange but it was confirmed by the Iranian government and officials of the Turkish humanitarian aid group IHH. "This is the result of months of civil diplomacy carried out by our organisation," said an IHH spokesman, Serkan Nergis. Iran's deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said the freed prisoners would return home shortly. Syrian government forces have struck deals with rebel groups to swap prisoners but the mass release is the first time any non-Syrians have been freed. The detainees included a number of Turks. Assad is likely to have come under heavy pressure from Iran, his staunchest regional supporter, to do a deal to free the captives. Syrian rebel fighters accused the 48 of being members of the Iranian revolutionary guards corps, which was helping the Assad regime crush the uprising. Iran denied this but said some of them were retired guards. Officials at the Iranian Pilgrimage and Travel Organisation said they included students and civil servants. Last October the rebels threatened to kill the Iranians unless the Syrian government released captured fighters and halted military operations. Turkish media reported that a group of people, including women and children, held in the interior ministry building in Damascus had been released and escorted on to buses. Releases also took place in Latakia, Homs, Idlib and Aleppo. Iran's English-language state television, Press TV, broadcast footage of a group of elderly men arriving at a Damascus hotel, with Iranian officials giving them white flowers. Iran has made no secret of its backing for Assad but usually denies providing the military or security support claimed by the Syrian opposition and western governments. Last summer, however, a senior revolutionary guard commander admitted that Iran was helping, though the statement was retracted afterwards. In other developments, it was announced that the UN mediator for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is to meet senior US and Russian diplomats in Geneva on Friday. News of the meeting follows a speech from Assad on Sunday that the Syrian opposition and western governments said failed to offer a way out of the crisis. Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, told the BBC the speech had been a lost opportunity because it repeated previous, failed initiatives, and because it had been sectarian and one-sided. In it, Assad called on Syrians to fight "murderous criminals" and "puppets of the west", whom he blamed for the violence. He gave no sign he was ready to stand down, as the opposition is demanding. Brahimi said: "What you need is reaching out and recognising that there is … a very serious problem between Syrians, and that Syrians have got to talk to one another to solve it." The Syrian opposition said it welcomed his remarks. Russia and the US support Brahimi's efforts to forge a peace deal based on an agreement reached in Geneva last June, which called for the creation of a transitional governing body, but they are at odds over Assad's fate, with Russia insisting his departure cannot be a precondition. Opposition sources reported 27 people killed across Syria on Wednesday. Iran's foreign minster, Ali Akbar Salehi, is due to discuss the Syrian crisis and the latest Assad peace initiative with the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, during a coming visit to Cairo, a senior Iranian diplomat revealed. Salehi will also see Brahimi. In Sunday's speech, Assad called for an end to support for the rebels. The most active backers and financiers of the armed and unarmed Syrian opposition are Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But the US, Britain and other western countries also say Assad has lost legitimacy, and must go.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Intervention from senior US official comes as UK position on EU membership is criticised in Brussels and Dublin The Obama administration issued a direct challenge to David Cameron over Europe, on Wednesday when it warned of the dangers of holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. A senior US official questioned the merits of holding a referendum as the prime minister's campaign to reset the terms of Britain's EU membership also came under assault from Brussels and Dublin. With just weeks to go until Cameron delivers a landmark speech in which he is expected to promise to hold a referendum on a "new settlement" for Britain in the EU, the US assistant secretary for European affairs warned that "referendums have often turned countries inwards". "We welcome an outward-looking European Union with Britain in it. We benefit when the EU is unified, speaking with a single voice, and focused on our shared interests around the world and in Europe," Philip Gordon said during a visit to London, adding: "We want to see a strong British voice in that European Union. That is in the American interest." Gordon stressed that it was it was up to Britain to determine its European role but, in what appeared to be a clear reference to attempts to renegotiate UK membership with the EU, he said: "It would be fair to say that every hour at an EU summit spent debating the institutional makeup of the European Union is one less hour spent talking about how we can solve our common challenges of jobs, growth, and international peace around the world." The intervention by Gordon, who was in London to meet the Europe minister, David Lidington, highlights the alarm in Washington as opinion polls show a rise in support for British withdrawal from the EU and the prime minister prepares to set out how he will repatriate powers from the EU. Cameron is expected to say in his speech that, if elected with a majority in 2015, he will use an EU treaty revision to underpin new eurozone governance arrangements to repatriate some powers. The new terms of British membership would be put to the UK public in a referendum. It has been the US position for several years that close British engagement in Europe was in American interests. But Gordon's remarks appeared to be a clear message to the government that the "special relationship" would be devalued in the eyes of the Obama administration if Britain left the EU, or got bogged down in drawn-out negotiations on the details of its membership. A Downing Street spokesman said: "The US wants an outward looking EU with Britain in it, and so do we." The forthright American intervention came as Cameron's plans also came under concerted attack from Brussels and the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, whose country holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU. At an event in Dublin marking Ireland's assumption of the presidency, Kenny described the prospect of Britain quitting the EU as a "disaster", while Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, called on the UK to remain an "active, full, and leading" EU member. Van Rompuy also cast doubt on whether a major revision of the treaty – essential to Cameron's strategy – would actually take place. He said EU states could not agree on what they wanted to change in the treaty, so the prospect of a renegotiation was remote. "At this stage of the debate we don't need as much treaty change as people think," said Van Rompuy. "For those ideas for where treaty change is needed there is simply no consensus. So the possibility of having treaty changes in the near future or present are not very high." He said he would wait to hear what Cameron said about Britain in Europe, although there is much confusion in EU capitals about when and where the prime minister will deliver a speech that has been given high billing for some months. Cameron's stated strategy of securing a looser UK-EU relationship hinges on 27 governments re-opening the Lisbon Treaty, enabling Britain to push changes "repatriating" powers from Brussels. In fact, the other EU leaders want to avoid treaty change as it could result in years of gruelling negotiations and open a pandora's box of competing claims. Senior Irish politicians said other European governments were privately urging Cameron to desist. Kenny warned that the EU's "floodgates" would be opened if the Lisbon Treaty was revisited to suit an individual country. "We would see it as being disastrous were a country like Britain to leave the union. Clearly the British government will form their own view," he said. Van Rompuy said: "Britain is a highly appreciated, highly valued and very important member of the EU. I believe it is in British interests to stay, not only a member of the EU but a very active and full member, a leading nation in the EU. Of course it is for the British people to decide on their future."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Intervention from senior US official comes as UK position on EU membership is criticised in Brussels and Dublin The US has issued a blunt warning to the UK not to leave the European Union, saying Britain would undermine its influence in Washington by trying to renegotiate membership. The forthright American intervention in the European debate, from a senior US official, came on a day David Cameron's campaign to reset the terms of Britain's EU membership also came under concerted assault from Brussels and Dublin, with senior figures warning the prime minister against renegotiating the European treaties to secure a new deal and signalling bluntly that this was not on the agenda. "We have a growing relationship with the EU as an institution, which has an increasing voice in the world, and we want to see a strong British voice in that EU," Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for Europe, said on a visit to London "That is in America's interests. We welcome an outward-looking EU with Britain in it." Gordon stressed that it was up to the UK define its own interests, but in what appeared a clear reference to the government's proposal to renegotiate membership and repatriate some powers from Brussels, he stressed that an inward-looking EU, preoccupied with its own internal procedures would be seen as a lesser ally by Washington. "Every hour at a summit spent debating the institutional make-up of the European Union is one hour less spent on how to deal with the common issues of jobs, growth and international peace around the world," he said, in remarks first reported by the Financial Times. Meanwhile, at an event in Dublin marking Ireland's assumption of the EU's six-month rotating presidency, Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, described the prospect of Britain quitting the EU as a "disaster", while Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European council, called on the UK to remain an "active, full, and leading" member of the union. It has been US position for several years that it regards close British engagement in Europe as being in American interests. But Gordon's remarks – delivered on a day he met David Lidington, the Europe minister, and shortly before David Cameron is due to deliver a landmark speech setting out his plan to renegotiate Britain's ties with the EU – appeared to be a clear message to the government that the "special relationship" would be devalued in the eyes of the Obama administration if Britain left the EU, or got bogged down in drawn-out negotiations on the details of its membership. Cameron's stated strategy on securing a looser UK-EU relationship, to be laid out in a major speech within weeks, hinges on 27 governments reopening the EU's Lisbon treaty, enabling Britain to push changes "repatriating" powers from Brussels to London. Senior Irish politicians said other European governments were privately urging Cameron to desist. Van Rompuy said EU governments could not agree on what they wanted to change in the treaty, so the prospect of a renegotiation was remote. "At this stage of the debate we don't need as much treaty change as people think," said Van Rompuy. "For those ideas for where treaty change is needed there is simply no consensus. So the possibility of having treaty changes in the next future or present are not very high." He added that he would wait to hear what Cameron said in his keenly awaited speech on Britain in Europe, although there is much confusion in EU capitals about when and where the prime minister will deliver a speech that has been given a high billing for months. Kenny warned that the EU's "floodgates" would be opened if the Lisbon treaty was revisited to suit an individual country. "We would see it as being disastrous were a country like Britain to leave the union. Clearly the British government will form their own view." The Irish see British membership as a vital national interest for themselves because of the close economic and financial ties as well as a common history. Senior government figures in Dublin appeared thoroughly bemused as to what Downing Street actually hopes to achieve. Cameron has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that other European leaders want to re-open the Lisbon treaty because of the euro currency crisis and to engineer a closer fiscal and political union at least among the 17 countries sharing the currency. In fact, the other EU leaders are seeking to avoid treaty change since it could result in years of gruelling negotiations and open a Pandora's box of competing claims. "Britain is a highly appreciated, highly valued and very important member of the EU. I believe it is in British interests to stay not only a member of the EU but a very active and full member, a leading nation in the EU. Of course it is for the British people to decide on their future," said Van Rompuy.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Photograph likely to become one of the defining images of a disaster that has seen wildfires sweep south-eastern Australia The tornadoes of fire came from two directions. They quickly engulfed the small Tasmanian fishing town of Dunally, and swept towards the home where Tim and Tammy Holmes were babysitting their five grandchildren. There was no escape. No way out. And so the family did the only thing left open to them: they ran for the water. This extraordinary photograph shows Tammy Holmes, second from left, clutching her two small grandchildren, two-year-old Charlotte Walker, left, and four-year-old Esther Walker. Clinging precariously to a wooden jetty are Liam Walker, nine, Matilda, 11, second from right, and six-year-old Caleb Walker. Behind them are walls of flame, the sky a lurid and demonic orange. "We saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us and the next thing we knew everything was on fire, everywhere all around us," Tim Holmes told Australia's ABC News. "We lost three houses and by that time I had sent Tammy … with the children to get down to the jetty because there was no other escape. We couldn't get off. "I ended up having to run down through a wooded area on my own, where there was so much smoke and fire, I didn't know where I was. So I just kept running. There was a moment of fear that this could be very, very dangerous. But I managed to run through and get to the water's edge, which was a kind of a sanctuary." The photograph – taken with remarkable composure by Tim Holmes – is likely to become one of the defining images of a disaster that has seen wildfires sweep south-eastern Australia. The blazes are the result of a record-breaking heatwave and strong winds. Since last week they have destroyed thousands of hectares of land and numerous properties. Among them are the pottery, craft gallery and B&B where Holmes, born in Wales, had lived on Tasmania's picturesque eastern coast since 1988. Remarkably, nobody has been killed. Other photographs taken by Holmes show his grandchildren perched on the edge of the jetty. They are about to plunge in. He explained: "We were relying on the jetty really. And the difficulty was, there was so much smoke and embers and there was only about probably 200 to 300 millimetres of air above the water. So we were all just heads, water up to our chins just trying to breathe. The atmosphere was so incredibly toxic." The fire raged for three hours. "Everything was on fire and it was just exploding all over the place," Holmes said. The children – three of them non-swimmers – clung on in the chilly sea. Eventually, Holmes managed to return to the shore and grab a small dinghy. He loaded in the children and his wife and then took the boat 200m out from the coast, where the air was more breathable. The fire rolled into Dunalley last Friday. It destroyed the local church, the school, the old hall and around 90 houses. The children's mother, Bonnie Walker, set off for a funeral just before the flames appeared. By the time she reached the highway the blaze had engulfed the entire area. "The road closed behind me," she told ABC News. "We just waited by the phone. We received a message at 3.30pm to say that mum and dad had evacuated, that they were surrounded by fire, and could we pray. So I braced myself to lose my children and my parents." She described the photo of her family holding on beneath the jetty as upsetting. "It's all of my, our, five children underneath the jetty huddled up to neck-deep seawater, which is cold. We swam the day before and it was cold. So I knew that that would be a challenge, to keep three non-swimmers above water." Her husband, David, had been hiking elsewhere. The family were eventually reunited in the Tasmanian capital, Hobart. Record temperatures across southern Australia cooled on Wednesday, reducing the danger from scores of raging wildfires, but probably bringing only a brief reprieve from the summer's extreme heat and fire risk. Australia had its hottest day on record on Monday with a nationwide average of 40.33C (104.59 F), narrowly breaking a 1972 record of 40.17C (104.31 F). Tuesday was the third hottest day at 40.11C (104.2F). Four of Australia's hottest 10 days on record have been in 2013. "There's little doubt that this is a very, very extreme heatwave event," said David Jones, manager of climate monitoring and prediction at the Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. "If you look at its extent, its duration, its intensity, it is arguably the most significant in Australia's history." The risk from fire is expected to increase later in the week as temperatures rise again.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Judge reschedules former US soldier's trial to give more time for review of classified information related to WikiLeaks case A military judge has pushed back the trial of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of being behind the WikiLeaks publication of state secrets. Colonel Denise Lind, the judge presiding over Manning's court martial, has rescheduled the trial for June to allow extra time to deal with classified information. Manning had been due to be tried in March. The private faces 22 charges, including "aiding the enemy" – which carries a possible maximum sentence of life in military custody without any chance of parole. On Tuesday Lind had awarded Manning a 112-day reduction in any eventual sentence, on the grounds that he was subjected to excessively harsh treatment in military detention. The judge granted the reduction as a form of recompense for the unduly long period in which he was held on suicide watch and prevention of injury status while at the brig at Quantico marine base in Virginia. Manning was detained there from 29 July 2010 to 20 April 2011. Manning has offered to plead guilty to some of the lesser charges in exchange for a reduced sentence. The most serious accusation levied against the soldier is that by passing information to WikiLeaks, he effectively made it available to al-Qaida and its affiliate terrorist organisations – the "aiding the enemy" charge which carries the punitive life sentence. Manning was held under constant surveillance while at Quantico. He had his possessions removed from his cell and at times even his clothes, often in contravention to the professional medical opinion of psychiatrists. Lind's ruling that Manning should receive a reduction in sentence was made under Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which protects prisoners awaiting trial from punishment on grounds that they are innocent until proven guilty. The recognition that some degree of pre-trial punishment did occur during the nine months that the soldier was held in Quantico marks a legal victory for the defence in that it supports Manning's long-held complaint that he was singled out by the US government for excessively harsh treatment. However, the ruling falls far short of the hopes of Manning's defence team. At best, the soldier's lawyers had pressed for a dismissal of all 22 counts that he is currently facing relating to the transfer of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables and war logs to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. Dismissal of all charges is listed as a possible remedy for an Article 13 violation. But Lind said it should be used only under the most egregious circumstances where the US government has engaged in outrageous conduct. "The charges are serious in this case and there was no intent to punish. There is no argument to dismiss the charges," the judge said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lew, who also worked in the Office of Management and Budget and for CitiGroup, is strong favourite to replace Tim Geithner White House chief of staff Jack Lew is Barack Obama's expected pick to lead the treasury department, with an announcement possible before the end of the week, as the administration moves to fill the most critical jobs in the cabinet. White House officials would not confirm that a final decision had been made. But aides did not dispute that Lew is emerging as the consensus choice. Lew would bring to the treasury department a wide range of experiences in both the public and private sector. He has spent much of his career mastering the mechanics of the federal budget, including two stints at the helm of the Office of Management and Budget, once under Obama and also under former President Bill Clinton. That background could help shape the Obama administration's strategy in its forthcoming talks with congressional Republicans over the federal debt ceiling. Republicans are expected to demand deep budget cuts as the price of agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. The federal debt limit is expected to be tapped out sometime in February. Obama is about to begin his second term in office with new secretaries of state, defense and treasury. He has nominated John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton at state, and former senator Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon. He also has proposed John Brennan as the new CIA director. The 57-year-old Lew would also bring private sector and international experience to treasury department. He has held top jobs at Citigroup's wealth management branch and at the state department, where he oversaw international economic issues in his first job for Obama. A person familiar with the selection process said that experience was particularly important to the president, given the treasury secretary's key role in coordinating with European allies on the continent's debt crisis, among other global financial matters. Lew, whose observance of his Jewish faith means he does not work on Saturdays, is well-liked in Washington by both Democrats and Republicans, and well-respected by staffers at the White House, where he has served as chief of staff since January 2012. A pragmatic liberal, Lew has also been a key player in several negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill, including the recent talks to avert a fiscal crisis. If confirmed by the Senate, Lew would replace current treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, who plans to leave around Obama's January 21 inauguration. He is expected to be easily confirmed by the Democratic-led Senate. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the expected nomination ahead of the president. A fresh series of economic deadlines would await Lew at the Treasury Department. The first will be the need, around the end of February, to raise the $16.4tn federal borrowing limit to avert a first-ever default by the government. That deadline will likely trigger a confrontation with congressional Republicans over spending cuts. At the beginning of March, $110bn in cuts to military and domestic programs will automatically kick in if no congressional budget deal has been reached by then. Congress and the administration postponed that issue in the fiscal cliff agreement that received final congressional passage on January 1. The third pressing deadline will occur March 27, when a congressional resolution that is keeping the government operating without a budget will expire. Without a new bill, the government would shut down. Lew's immersion in the minutiae of federal budgets contrasts with the experience of most previous Treasury secretaries. Many arrived from high-level posts on Wall Street, where they presided over securities trading and investment banking. Obama's choice of Lew is seen as a signal of the president's determination to control record-breaking budget deficits during his second term. "I think Wall Street would have preferred someone with more financial market specialization, but Lew is being brought in because he knows the budget," said David Wyss, a former chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "Clearly, Obama has decided that his priority in a second term will be the budget." Lew's nomination would also signal Obama's intent to keep treasury close to the White House sphere as Obama engages with Congress on fiscal issues and as the administration continues to implement key aspects of the financial regulation overhaul that Geithner helped shepherd into law in 2010.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Milan judges reject former prime minister's 'persecution' claim over €36m alimony settlement to ex-wife Veronica Lario Senior judges in Milan issued a stern rebuke to Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday after the former Italian prime minister tried to blame his huge alimony payments on the biased views of "feminist, communist" magistrates. In the latest skirmish between the billionaire media magnate and the judiciary, the heads of the Milan tribunal and court of appeal issued a curt statement saying they "firmly rejected any insinuation of partiality" on the part of the magistrates who drew up the three-time premier's divorce settlement, which he claims amounts to €200,000 (£163,000) a day. Livia Pomodoro and Giovanni Canzio added that their colleagues were "diligent professionals", and called on politicians to avoid making "any expression of derision" that could cause the public to think otherwise. The retort followed the latest in a succession of lengthy television interviews with Berlusconi, 76, which have become a fixture of Italian politics in the run-up to next month's elections. Questioned on the La7 private television network about his divorce from his second wife, former actor Veronica Lario, Berlusconi said the settlement amounted to €36m a year with €72m in arrears. He also said it meant paying Lario €200,000 a day, although it was unclear how he had calculated that figure. He added: "These are three women judges, feminists and communists, OK? These are the Milan judges who have persecuted me since 1994." The claim that he is the victim of a vindictive, leftwing judiciary has been a key part of Berlusconi's political persona ever since he first came to power in the mid-1990s. When he was found guilty of tax fraud by a Milan court last year and sentenced to four years in prison, he retorted that the decision was "a political sentence, the way so many other trials invented against me have been political". He is appealing against the verdict. Berlusconi faces another ruling next month in a case in which he stands accused of paying an underage Moroccan girl, Karima El Mahroug, for sex and abusing his office by intervening to have her released from police custody when she was arrested for theft – allegedly claiming that she was a niece of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi denies the accusations. Lario filed for divorce in 2009, when reports of his socialising with younger women emerged in the press. He is now in a serious relationship with a 27-year-old former television show dancer, Francesca Pascale.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Both countries claim drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn of future skirmishes in region's airspace Drones have taken centre stage in an escalating arms race between China and Japan as they struggle to assert their dominance over disputed islands in the East China Sea. China is rapidly expanding its nascent drone programme, while Japan has begun preparations to purchase an advanced model from the US. Both sides claim the drones will be used for surveillance, but experts warn the possibility of future drone skirmishes in the region's airspace is "very high". Tensions over the islands – called the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan – have ratcheted up in past weeks. Chinese surveillance planes flew near the islands four times in the second half of December, according to Chinese state media, but were chased away each time by Japanese F-15 fighter jets. Neither side has shown any signs of backing down. Japan's new conservative administration of Shinzo Abe has placed a priority on countering the perceived Chinese threat to the Senkakus since it won a landslide victory in last month's general election. Soon after becoming prime minister, Abe ordered a review of Japan's 2011-16 mid-term defence programme, apparently to speed up the acquisition of between one and three US drones. Under Abe, a nationalist who wants a bigger international role for the armed forces, Japan is expected to increase defence spending for the first time in 11 years in 2013. The extra cash will be used to increase the number of military personnel and upgrade equipment. The country's deputy foreign minister, Akitaka Saiki, summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan on Tuesday to discuss recent "incursions" of Chinese ships into the disputed territory. China appears unbowed. "Japan has continued to ignore our warnings that their vessels and aircraft have infringed our sovereignty," top-level marine surveillance official Sun Shuxian said in an interview posted to the State Oceanic Administration's website, according to Reuters. "This behaviour may result in the further escalation of the situation at sea and has prompted China to pay great attention and vigilance." China announced late last month that the People's Liberation Army was preparing to test-fly a domestically developed drone, which analysts say is likely a clone of the US's carrier-based X-47B. "Key attack technologies will be tested," reported the state-owned China Daily, without disclosing further details. Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canadian-based Kanwa Defence Review, said China might be attempting to develop drones that can perform reconnaissance missions as far away as Guam, where the US is building a military presence as part of its "Asia Pivot" strategy. China unveiled eight new models in November at an annual air show on the southern coastal city Zhuhai, photographs of which appeared prominently in the state-owned press. Yet the images may better indicate China's ambitions than its abilities, according to Chang: "We've seen these planes on the ground only — if they work or not, that's difficult to explain." Japanese media reports said the defence ministry hopes to introduce Global Hawk unmanned aircraft near the disputed islands by 2015 at the earliest in an attempt to counter Beijing's increasingly assertive naval activity in the area. Chinese surveillance vessels have made repeated intrusions into Japanese waters since the government in Tokyo in effect nationalised the Senkakus in the summer, sparking riots in Chinese cities and damaging trade ties between Asia's two biggest economies. The need for Japan to improve its surveillance capability was underlined late last year when Japanese radar failed to pick up a low-flying Chinese aircraft as it flew over the islands. The Kyodo news agency quoted an unnamed defence ministry official as saying the drones would be used "to counter China's growing assertiveness at sea, especially when it comes to the Senkaku islands". China's defence budget has exploded over the past decade, from about £12.4bn in 2002 to almost £75bn in 2011, and its military spending could surpass the US's by 2035. The country's first aircraft carrier, a refurbished Soviet model called the Liaoning, completed its first sea trials in August. A 2012 report by the Pentagon acknowledged long-standing rumours that China was developing a new generation of stealth drones, called Anjian, or Dark Sword, whose capabilities could surpass those of the US's fleet. China's state media reported in October that the country would build 11 drone bases along the coastline by 2015. "Over disputed islands, such as the Diaoyu Islands, we do not lag behind in terms of the number of patrol vessels or the frequency of patrolling," said Senior Colonel Du Wenlong, according to China Radio International. "The problem lies in our surveillance capabilities." China's military is notoriously opaque, and analysts' understanding of its drone programme is limited. "They certainly get a lot of mileage out of the fact that nobody knows what the hell they're up to, and they'd take great care to protect that image," said Ron Huisken, an expert on east Asian security at Australian National University. He said the likelihood of a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese drones in coming years was "very high". US drones have also attracted the interest of the South Korean government as it seeks to beef up its ability to monitor North Korea, after last month's successful launch of a rocket that many believe was a cover for a ballistic-missile test. The US's Global Hawk is piloted remotely by a crew of three and can fly continuously for up to 30 hours at a maximum height of about 60,000 ft. It has no attack capability. The US deployed the advanced reconnaissance drone to monitor damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami on Japan's north-east coast.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Support from military and supreme court for postponement after president's cancer surgery sparks fears of power vacuum The Venezuelan military and the supreme court have followed legislators in backing the postponement of the inauguration of the country's ailing president, Hugo Chávez, despite warnings from the opposition of a destabilising "constitutional coup". The president was due to be sworn in on Thursday but the government said on Tuesday that the event would be postponed to allow him more time to recover from the "respiratory insufficiency" he has suffered since undergoing emergency cancer surgery on 11 December. The move prompted a furious debate in the national assembly and dire predictions of "anarchy" by the opposition, but the ruling party has planned a mass rally on Thursday to demonstrate popular and regional support. Venezuela's armed forces expressed support for the postponement. In a televised video conference with the vice-president, Nicolás Maduro, the minister of defence, Admiral Diego Molero, said he was in full agreement with a delay. Chávez's aides have described the inauguration ceremony as a "mere formality". As a serving president with a fresh electoral mandate and legislative permission to travel to Cuba for treatment, Chávez offers continuity of rule, and a delay that will allow him to recover enjoys popular support, they say. The constitution covers this because it allows for a president-elect to be sworn in by the supreme court if he is unable to attend the inauguration, the aides add. But the constitution fails to specify when this should happen, and the government gave no indication of timing. With no word from the president for almost a month, and scant information about his current health condition, the opposition and the Catholic church have expressed fears that the delay could become indefinite, leaving Venezuela with an open-ended power vacuum. The opposition demands the judiciary approve a medical panel to travel to Havana to assess whether Chávez's absence is temporary or absolute. In a passionate debate in the national assembly on Tuesday, it said Diosdado Cabello, as national assembly president and head of the legislature, should officially take the reins. "Who is governing Venezuela?" asked Julio Borges, head of the opposition Justice First party, prompting chants of "Chávez, Chávez, Chávez!" by ruling party legislators waving copies of the constitution. The former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said the government was violating Venezuela's constitution. "This isn't a monarchy and we aren't in Cuba," Capriles told a press conference, warning of the prospect of anarchy or a military uprising if the constitution were breached. He said he had talked to generals, but none have publicly backed his claims. "The nation's political and social stability is at serious risk," said Bishop Diego Padrón, the conference's president, reading a statement from the Venezuelan bishops' conference. The opposition asked the supreme court to rule that Chávez's current term expire on 10 January; after that, they say, Maduro has no constitutional right to run the government on his behalf. But the ruling party holds sway. The judiciary, which is packed with judges appointed by Chávez, rejected the opposition's proposal. The vote on a postponement was approved by the assembly, which is dominated by the ruling party. The opposition has sent a complaint to the Organisation of American States, but there is little sign that regional powers such as Brazil and the United States will condemn the actions of the government, as Capriles has urged them to do. The US weighed in to the debate on Tuesday with a call for transparency and inclusiveness in the decision-making process, but it stopped short of directly criticising the postponement. A state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said: "This is an issue for Venezuelans to decide, and they need to do it in a manner that includes all the voices in the discussion. So it needs to be a broad-based discussion, and it needs to be decided in a manner that is free, fair, transparent [and] … seen as ensuring a level political playing field in Venezuela." Earlier this week, Brazil showed its support by declaring that the constitution of Venezuela allowed for a gap of up to 180 days, should Chávez not be sworn in at the scheduled date. Uruguay's president, José Mujica, and Evo Morales of Bolivia will join the rally on Thursday to show the support of the Latin American left; Argentina's Cristina Kirchner will fly to Havana to see Chávez the same day. Cabello told legislators Chávez could be away for as long as he wants. "There is no power vacuum," he said. "In Venezuela, there is a vacuum of the opposition." The military's position is likely to be crucial. While the prospect of large-scale unrest on Thursday is slim, in the longer term the security forces will play an important role, not just because of their arms but also because of their influence. Representatives of the armed forces have three seats in the cabinet, hold top office in almost half of the 23 provinces, and play a key role in the oil industry and in social programmes. As a former army officer, Cabello is thought to retain close ties to the military, because most of the generals graduated from the military academy at around the same time as him. Cabello has sworn unity with Maduro, whom Chávez chose as his successor, and is likely to support him in the event of an election. Whether the army is united is another matter, though. Although packed with Chávistas, their loyalty to Molero, who was sworn in to office only hours before the president flew to Havana for surgery, has yet to be proved. The anti-Chávez coup in 2002 saw a split in the ranks. Chávez himself rose to prominence in a failed coup in 1992.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone ministers reportedly want Cyprus's communist president to leave office before signing its bailout deal, as Angela Merkel insists the country must accept privatisations
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone ministers reportedly want Cyprus's communist president to leave office before signing its bailout deal, as Angela Merkel insists the country must accept privatisations
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Italian fashion executive's plane went missing between Los Roques and Caracas last week, but family remains hopeful The eldest son of Vittorio Missoni, the Italian fashion executive whose plane went missing on a flight in Venezuela last week, has said he and his family have not given up hope of finding the group of holidaymakers alive. Ottavio Missoni Jr, 28, said he remained sceptical of suggestions that the twin-engined aircraft was most likely to have crashed into the sea, saying such a theory was the "least plausible" of all scenarios. "My father will come back; we are waiting for him," he told the Corriere della Sera. "I am not speaking with my head but with my heart. A plane cannot vanish in this way, on a short route, without leaving any trace." Venezuelan military aircraft, ships and scuba divers have been involved in an intensive search for the missing plane since it disappeared on Friday while carrying Missoni, 58, his partner Maurizia Castiglioni, two of their friends and two pilots. The group had been flying from the Caribbean archipelago of Los Roques to the Venezuelan capital Caracas when the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers, sparking an alert and, as of Saturday, a search involving the Venezuelan armed forces and civilian volunteers. A team of experts from the Italian civil protection agency, reportedly including a key figure involved in the rescue operation of the Costa Concordia cruiseliner, is due to arrive in Caracas on Wednesday. Luca Missoni, Vittorio's brother, who is a pilot, has also been helping with the search. Ottavio Missoni Jr, who was named after his grandfather, co-founder of the Missoni fashion house, said the family had discussed several possible scenarios, including that of a hijacking. "I have been thinking of so many possible scenarios," he said. "But I remain convinced that the least plausible reason is that they crashed into the water. My uncle Luca, in Venezuela, has also confirmed that these planes are capable of sea landings in case of emergency." Others, however, have said stormy conditions could have been to blame for the plane's disappearance. Enrique Rada, a pilot, spoke earlier this week of seeing it "swallowed up by a huge cumulus cloud". Speaking to Italian television, an unidentified fisherman said he saw the aircraft "nosedive" towards the sea.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Campaign groups say US president could use bipartisan summit to launch a national climate strategy Barack Obama may intervene directly on climate change by hosting a summit at the White House early in his second term, environmental groups say. They say the White House has given encouraging signals to a proposal for Obama to use the broad-based and bipartisan summit to launch a national climate action strategy. "What we talked about with the White House is using it as catalyst not just for the development of a national strategy but for mobilising people all over the country at every level," said Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Resource Innovation Group, the Oregon-based thinktank that has been pushing for the high-level meeting. He said it would not be a one-off event. "What I think has excited the White House is that it does put the president in a leadership role, but it is not aimed at what Congress can do, or what he can do per se, so much as it is aimed at apprising the American public about how they can act." Campaign groups and major donors have been pushing Obama to outline a strategy on climate change, in the wake of his re-election and superstorm Sandy. Jeremy Symons, senior vice-president for conservation and education at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), said Obama needed to give a clear indication early on of what he intended to do on climate change – ideally before the State of the Union address when presidents typically outline their agenda. "The clock is ticking. The threat is urgent, and we would like to see a commitment in time for the president to address it in the State of the Union address," Symons said. "That would be the window I see. We can't wait forever." The proposed summit, as envisaged by Doppelt, would be centred on Washington but would be linked up with similar events occurring in communities across the country on the same day. It would take place within the first few months of Obama's second term. Doppelt said he has had a number of exchanges with White House staff about the summit, and he believed the proposal was under "very serious consideration". The White House would not respond to requests for comment. Obama listed climate change among the top three priorities of his second term. He gave private assurances to donors at a White House event in early December the issue remains on his agenda. But there is growing concern among campaign groups and fellow Democrats that Obama has yet to come up with a clear plan for deploying government agencies to protect against future events like Sandy, or for rallying the public behind a strategy to cut emissions. The political opportunity created by Sandy could be slipping away, said Betsy Taylor, an environmental consultant in Washington DC. "We are disappointed that he hasn't talked or used his bully pulpit. When he went to New York after Sandy he said almost nothing about climate change," she said. "In the very short-term there was an opportunity post-Sandy but I don't think it has been seized." Unlike Obama's first term, when the larger campaign groups in particular seemed reluctant to force the climate issue, environmental leaders say they intend to keep up the pressure on the White House. Democrats in Congress are also moving more forcefully to keep climate change on the public radar. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate environment and public works committee, said this month she was reviving efforts to pass climate change legislation, focused on strengthening coastal communities against future superstorms. "People are coming up to me. They really want to get into this. I think Sandy changed a lot of minds," Boxer told reporters, announcing the launch of a climate change caucus to push for legislation. "I think you're going to see a lot of bills on climate change," she said. Meanwhile, Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, committed to delivering weekly speeches on climate change from the Senate floor. The senator said in a statement he wanted to counteract "a concerted rearguard action to manufacture doubt about scientific concepts that happen to be economically inconvenient to the biggest polluting industries". But environmental groups say Obama still needs to come up with a plan. "What NWF members are asking for is a clear commitment and a plan from the president to make tackling climate change a priority in his second term, with concrete steps forward. A summit can be an important part of bringing that together, but it's not the end goal," said Symons. "First and foremost President Obama needs a plan."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Court in Nghe An province finds 14 people guilty of subversion due to links with US-based dissident group Viet Tan A Vietnamese court has been criticised by the US after it found 14 pro-democracy activists guilty of subversion and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from three to 13 years. The long prison terms suggest the country's Communist government is intent on stepping up its crackdown on dissenters to its authoritarian, one-party rule – particularly online. The defendants are linked to Viet Tan, a Vietnamese dissident group based in the US. Vietnam has labelled it a terrorist group, but the US government says it has seen no evidence it advocates violence. The court in central Nghe An province sentenced three defendants to 13 years during the two-day trial, which ended on Wednesday, according to defence lawyer Nguyen Thi Hue. She said 11 others received jail terms ranging from three to eight years. One of the three-year terms was suspended. The defendants, who include 12 Catholics, were arrested in late 2011. Another defence lawyer, Tran Thu Nam, said they were found guilty of attending Viet Tan's overseas training courses on nonviolent struggle and computer and online security. Some also protested against China's territorial claims in the disputed South China sea, a sensitive issue for Vietnam because of the nationalist passion the issue provokes and Hanoi's ideological ties with Beijing. The US wants closer ties with Vietnam because it sees it as a foil against China's power, but Hanoi's human rights record is a barrier. In December, human rights lawyer and blogger Le Quoc Quan was arrested. Last year, more than a dozen activists were sentenced to lengthy jail terms. The US embassy said Wednesday's verdicts were "part of a disturbing human rights trend in Vietnam". "We call on the government to release these individuals and all other prisoners of conscience immediately," it said in a statement. Viet Tan said citizen journalists had been restricted by police to their hotel rooms during the trial. "These activists have tirelessly advocated for social justice, engaged in citizen journalism and participated in peaceful demonstrations against Chinese territorial encroachment," it said in a statement. "The Hanoi regime has shown once again its fear of civil society."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US officials now believe the Iranian government may be responsible for the abduction of Robert Levinson The family of a retired FBI agent who has been held hostage for almost six years after travelling to Iran have released new pictures of him, bound in chains and wearing a Guantánamo-style orange jumpsuit. The pictures were sent directly to the family of the former agent turned private investigator in early 2011 but have only now been released publicly to promote his search. It follows the release of a video of the hostage, Robert Levinson, by his family in December 2011. Levinson, an expert in Russian organised crime, was understood to be investigating cigarette smuggling when he travelled in 2007 to the Iranian island resort of Kish, where he was last seen. The video and photographs raised the possibility that the missing detective was being held by terrorists but US officials now believe the Iranian government may be responsible for the abduction, intelligence officials told Associated Press (AP). The extraordinary photographs, which Levinson's family received in late 2010 and April 2011, show him with wild grey hair and a long unkempt beard and dressed up in an orange jumpsuit like those worn by detainees at the US prison at Guantánamo Bay. In each photograph, he holds a sign bearing a different message. "I am here in Guantánamo," one says. "Do you know where it is?" Another reads: "This is the result of 30 years serving for USA." The Iranian government has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Levinson's disappearance, and in March 2011, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said Levinson was being held somewhere in south Asia. The implication was that Levinson might be in the hands of a terrorist group or criminal organisation in Pakistan or Afghanistan. The statement was a goodwill gesture to Iran, one the US hoped would nudge Tehran towards helping bring him home. With the investigation stalled, the consensus among some US officials involved in the case is that Iran's intelligence service was almost certainly behind the 54-second video and five photographs of Levinson emailed anonymously to his family. The techniques used to send those items was too good, indicating professional spies were behind them, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly, AP reported. US operatives in Afghanistan managed to trace the mobile phone used to send the photographs, officials said. But the owner had nothing to do with the photographs, and the trail went cold. The video, also sent by email, depicts a haggard Levinson, who says he is being held by a "group". In the background, Pashtun wedding music can be heard. In March last year, the FBI offered a reward of up to $1m for information leading to Levinson's discovery. Levinson's wife, Christine, gave the photographs to AP because she felt the government was not giving her husband's disappearance the attention it deserved. "There isn't any pressure on Iran to resolve this," she said. "It's been much too long." She said she had met Barack Obama and John Brennan, Obama's counter-terrorism tsar and nominee to run the CIA, and that both men pledged to do everything they could to free her husband. Now, nearly six years after his disappearance, she thinks Iran is being let off the hook. "It needs to come front and centre again," Christine Levinson said. "There needs to be a lot more public outcry." "He's a good man," she said. "He just doesn't deserve this." In a statement released late on Tuesday, Alireza Miryusefi, a spokesman for Iran's UN mission, said the Iranian government had been assisting the Levinson family to find him. "Even his family travelled to Iran and were accommodated by the government," he said. "Further investigation proved that Levinson is not in Iran and there is no single evidence that he is in Iran." The spokesman added: "It is very important to find an FBI agent who had travelled to a free zone of Iran, which, if he is found, then the US should explain why the said agent has been sent to Iran and what was his mission." FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire said: "As we near the sixth anniversary of his disappearance, the FBI remains committed to bringing Bob home safely to his family."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • First interview since former cyclist stripped of titles
• 'Armstrong will address the alleged doping scandal'
• William Fotheringham: 10 questions Oprah should ask The Lance Armstrong interview in which the disgraced former cyclist will deal with the doping revelations that led to a lifetime ban from sport and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles will be streamed live around the world as well as broadcast on television in the United States. The 90-minute special will air next Thursday at 9pm eastern time in the US, or 2am in the UK, and will be streamed on Oprah.com at the same time. It is the first time Armstrong has given an interview since he lost his titles, was dropped by sponsors and pilloried by the public for his part in what the US Anti-Doping Agency called the "most sophisticated doping programme that sport has ever seen". According to reports, he also came under pressure from the board of Livestrong – the charity he founded to support cancer sufferers and from which he stood down as chairman in October – to speak publicly. The Oprah Winfrey Network, which will show the programme, is a joint venture between Winfrey's Harpo Productions and Discovery Channel. Discovery Channel was the headline sponsor of Armstrong's team between 2004 and 2007. It was the network's logo that was displayed on his shirt when he won his seventh Tour in 2005, when rumours had been swirling around his team for at least three years, and said it was a victory over "the people that don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics". Discovery was a vocal supporter of Armstrong and one of the last sponsors to distance itself from the Texan once damning evidence emerged. Usada revealed how Armstrong was accused by a string of witnesses and former team-mates of systematic doping throughout his career and banned him for life, a decision later ratified by the World Anti-Doping Agency and world cycling's governing body, the UCI. In a statement announcing the programme, Winfrey's network said she would "speak exclusively with Lance Armstrong in his first no-holds-barred interview" at his home in Austin, Texas. "Armstrong will address the alleged doping scandal, years of accusations of cheating, and charges of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his storied cycling career," it said. Social media networks immediately began speculating on whether Armstrong would use the programme as a platform to come clean or to further defend himself in the face of all available evidence. Armstrong had previously told a US court tribunal that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, opening up the possibility that he could perjure himself if he now admitted doping. Many believe that Winfrey will give Armstrong an easy ride, recalling her interview with Marion Jones in which the disgraced American sprinter claimed she took performance-enhancing drugs unintentionally in the wake of the Balco scandal. Kathy LeMond, wife of the American Tour de France winner Greg, tweeted: "@Oprah I hope you get educated before the interview. I know people that can help you." A spokeswoman for the Oprah show said Armstrong was not being paid to appear and that Winfrey was free to ask him any question she wanted. She said in an email: "No payment for the interview. No editorial control, no question is off limits." The producers are unlikely to release the transcript of the show before it is screened. Earlier on Tuesday, the US current affairs programme 60 Minutes featured an interview with the Usada chief executive, Travis Tygart, in which he claimed that Armstrong offered the agency a donation of $250,000 in 2004, which it turned down. Tygart also repeated his view that it was "totally inappropriate" that Armstrong made donations totalling more than $100,000 to the UCI around the same period.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minister accuses loyalists of holding Northern Ireland to ransom after police attacked with petrol bombs on sixth night of violence The union flag was back atop Belfast city hall on Wednesday to mark the Duchess of Cambridge's birthday as the secretary of state accused loyalists of holding Northern Ireland to ransom. Unionist politicians involved in trying to defuse the dispute that has resulted in riots and disturbances since December hope that the reappearance of the flag will halt the protests. There was a sixth consecutive night of violence in east Belfast on Tuesday with petrol bombs and bricks thrown at police riot squad officers following further demonstrations against the council's decision to restrict the number of days that union flag is flown at city hall to 17 days in the year. Among the other days the union flag will fly will be on St Patrick's Day, which has become a major celebration of nationalist culture in Belfast over the past 20 years. In response to a month of disorder that has resulted in more than 1,000 people arrested and dozens of police officers injured, the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, has said the province was being "held to ransom by protesters" and called for an end to all street demonstrations over flags. Her Labour shadow, Vernon Coaker, said the disturbances had become a matter of "national security" after the police said senior loyalist paramilitaries had been involved in the rioting. Meanwhile the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned that jobs could be lost if a solution to the flag issue was not found quickly, as many businesses including restaurants continued to suffer. The CBI Northern Ireland director, Nigel Smyth, said: "We are already aware of investors who have lost interest because of these disruptions." Although Wednesday marks a respite in the dispute, further street protests are planned by loyalists for the end of this week, including a demonstration outside the Irish parliament in Dublin on Saturday.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded as Syrian rebels released 48 Iranians in exchange for 2,130 political prisoners in Syria
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Order had been imposed by magistrates court, amid protests by media organisations, after chaotic scenes at earlier hearing The trial of five men accused of the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student last month will be held behind closed doors, a judge in Delhi said on Wednesday, upholding an order imposed by a magistrate after chaotic scenes at a hearing earlier this week. Media organisations had protested against the decision, and a lawyer representing the victim's male friend – who was also injured in the attack – submitted an application for the order to be overturned, arguing "the whole nation is interested in knowing the proceedings of the case". The case has caused anger and outrage in India and highlighted the problem of sexual violence towards women in the country, triggering widespread protests and continuing calls for major legal and policing reforms. Public faith in the courts is already weak and the police are widely distrusted in India. Saikat Datta, a senior Indian journalist, said the decision to hold the trial in camera was "a disturbing move" that would mean "citizens cannot see how their justice system functions". "The judiciary, like the legislature and the executive, is a key pillar that ensures the good health of a democracy. They must be seen to work and, therefore, must work in a transparent manner," Datta said. The five accused appeared in a magistrates court earlier this week and were given details of the charges against them, which include rape, murder, banditry and abduction. The men, who include a bus driver, a cleaner and a part-time gym instructor, are accused of luring the two victims on to a bus on 16 December. After being repeatedly assaulted, the pair were dumped on the roadside. The woman, who has not been named in local media, died two weeks later, on 28 December, in a Singapore hospital from internal injuries sustained during the attack. A teenager who is also accused is likely to face separate proceedings in a juvenile court, but there is growing support in India for legal changes to allow the suspect – believed to be 17 years old – to face a harsher sentence than the maximum of three years' imprisonment the court could hand out. Three of the accused will plead not guilty at their forthcoming trial, their lawyer has said. Mohan Lal Sharma, an advocate, said he had been formally appointed by three of the accused as their defence lawyer. "They will plead not guilty to the charges levelled against them in the charge sheet. They want to face the trial," he told the Indian Express. Police have rejected an offer by two of the defendants to become state witnesses. The case is being heard by a newly created fast-track court, set up to allow speedy justice. Legal proceedings in India, particularly for offences such as rape, often involve years, even decades, of delay. The country's chief justice, Altamas Kabir, has said the huge delays may be one reason contributing to the surge in violence towards women in recent years. Some Indian judges have tens of thousands of cases pending. A further hearing is scheduled on Thursday. Amid an unprecedented debate over cultural attitudes to women, authorities, heavily criticised for their slow response to the incident, have proposed a range of measures aiming to make the country safer for women. These range from more CCTV cameras in city centres to gender sensitisation lessons for schoolchildren. Continuing reports of other attacks on women around the country – few of which would have received much attention even a month ago – underline the scale of the problem. Official data shows one rape is reported on average every 20 minutes in India. A government panel is considering suggestions to make the death penalty mandatory for rape and introducing forms of chemical castration for the guilty. It is due to make its recommendations by 23 January.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seven-time Tour de France winner who was stripped of his titles for doping will talk about his downfall, says TV network Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who was stripped of his cycling championships for doping, is to break his silence in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey. The Oprah Winfrey Network announced on Tuesday it will broadcast the interview on Thursday 17 January. It will be Armstrong's first formal interview since he was banned from racing for life. "Armstrong will address the alleged doping scandal, years of accusations of cheating and charges of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his storied cycling career," Winfrey's network said in a statement. On Saturday, reports emerged that Armstrong, 41, had told associates and anti-doping officials he was considering an admission of using banned drugs. It said Armstrong hoped to persuade anti-doping officials to allow him to resume competition in athletic events that adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code, under which the Texan is subject to a lifetime ban. However, Armstrong's lawyer, Tim Herman, later denied there had been talks with anti-doping bodies about any admission. Armstrong has always vehemently denied charges of doping and has never been proven to have tested positive. A 10 October 2012 report from the US anti-doping body Usada cited Armstrong's involvement in what it characterised as the "most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" involving anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, blood transfusions and other doping. Less than two weeks later, Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories were nullified and he was banned from competitive cycling for life after the International Cycling Union ratified Usada's sanctions against him. In November, Armstrong, a survivor of testicular cancer, stepped down as a board member of Livestrong, the cancer-support charity he founded in 1997.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Newspaper reaches agreement with authorities accused of tampering with editorial but media censorship debate continues A dispute between China's propaganda authorities and a liberal southern newspaper has taken a fresh twist, as reports of a tentative deal have been offset by claims of an official whitewash and the resignation of a prominent newspaper publisher in Beijing. Editorial workers at the Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Weekly, some of whom have been on strike since Sunday, reached a deal on Tuesday, according to Associated Press, with provincial officials whom they accused of tampering with an outspoken New Year's Day editorial. According to the agreement, censorship controls over the paper will be relaxed and the paper will resume its normal publishing schedule on Thursday. Anti-censorship protests outside the paper's headquarters have reportedly died down. Yet other online accounts suggest a broader debate over media censorship stirred up by the dispute is far from over. Dai Zigeng, the editor-in-chief of the Beijing News, resigned on Tuesday night after refusing to published a government-penned editorial playing down the controversy. Some Beijing News reporters' microblog accounts have been blocked, according to online accounts that could not be verified. "Chinese media people are starting to realise that winter is coming, really winter is coming," said Michael Anti, a prominent blogger and media commentator in Beijing. "There is no spring of the new administration." Authorities issued an "urgent memo" to newspapers this week blaming hostile "foreign forces" for the ongoing conflict and requiring them to run a pro-censorship editorial under the headline: "Southern Weekly's Message to Readers Is Food for Thought Indeed." "The party has absolute control of China's media," said the memo, which was leaked to the online magazine China Digital Times. "This basic principle is unshakeable." Beijing News and Southern Weekly are owned by the same publishing company, Nanfang Media Group. According to Associated Press, Hu Chunhua, the top Communist party official in Guangdong province and a possible successor to incoming president Xi Jinping in 2022, personally brokered the negotiations between Southern Weekly's editorial staff and its party overseers. Southern Weekly has said censorship of the paper had stepped up in recent years. Propaganda officials' wholesale rewriting of the editorial, it said, disturbed a nuanced status quo that allowed its reporters to accept party oversight while leaving their journalistic integrity intact. The newspaper said more than 1,000 of its articles had been censored or spiked under the direction of the province's top propaganda official, Tuo Zhen, a former journalist who was transferred to Guangdong last spring. The newspaper called for Tuo Zhen to resign for meddling with the editorial, yet the recent propaganda department memo disputed his role in the interference, indicating he is unlikely to face punishment.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Adviser says Obama is willing to consider all options on troop levels as he meets with Afghan president in Washington US officials have raised the possibility of a complete military withdrawal from Afghanistan for the first time, as President Hamid Karzai arrived in Washington for three days of discussions over military and economic ties. In a briefing for journalists in advance of Karzai's visit, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said the White House is prepared to consider all options for US troop levels after 2014, including a so-called "zero option" if conditions allowed. On Friday Karzai holds his first face-to-face talks with President Barack Obama since last year's Nato summit in Chicago, shortly after the pair had signed a long-term strategic framework agreement. The Obama administration is committed to withdrawing the majority of its 68,000-strong military stationed there by the end of next year –
with the size of the remaining force still to be decided, as well as the key question of legal immunity for US military operating in the country post-2014. The talks between the two governments were "not aiming to keep a certain number of US troops in Afghanistan", said Doug Lute, deputy assistant to Obama and White House coordinator for South Asia. The final number would be "significantly lower" than the 68,000 troops currently on the ground, Lute said. "They are going to be talking about missions and authorities, not numbers," Rhodes said. Asked if the troop level options included zero, Rhodes replied: "That would be an option we would consider." Later he added: "We wouldn't rule out any option … we're not guided by keeping any [specific] number of troops in the country." The White House warned that no agreements or decisions are expected to result from this week's visit by Karzai, describing it as "a good time for the two presidents to sit down and consult" ahead of the US military draw-down and the Afghan elections scheduled for April 2014. Under the strategic framework agreement signed last year, some US troops may remain to train Afghan forces and continue to fight al-Qaida cells. General John Allen, the Nato commander and top US general in Afghanistan, has recommended keeping between 6,000 and 15,000 troops in the country after 2014. An unnamed US official told Reuters the White House has asked for scenarios for between 3,000 and 9,000 troops to remain. But the Afghan leader is said to want an end to US military operations in villages, as well as protection from militants based across the border with Pakistan. The final number of any US forces in Afghanistan after 2014 would depend on the perceived strength of al-Qaida and its affiliates in the country, the progression of Afghan security forces, and the legal protection granted to US forces by the Afghan government – the last a sticking point in the bilateral security agreement being negotiated between the two governments with a deadline of November this year. "I think they will have very candid discussions about the sorts of immunities that the bilateral security agreement might have," Lute said. Karzai also wants the US to provide helicopters, heavy weapons and other advanced military equipment for Afghanistan's army as well as warplanes for the Afghan air force, and for humanitarian and reconstruction aid to be channelled through Afghan government ministries rather than via western aid agencies. Kabul has accused the US of fostering corruption by giving funding directly to warlords. Officials are also to broach the on-again, off-again peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The prospects for talks has been helped by Pakistan's recent release of groups of imprisoned Taliban commanders, including eight people on New Year's Eve, following an improvement in the Afghan-Pakistan relations that are crucial to any hopes of a peaceful settlement. Hopes have been further raised by a meeting in France between the Taliban and the Afghan high peace council last month, which US officials have described as "promising". Direct talks with the Karzai government have been ruled out by the Taliban, which wants to negotiate with the American government, while the US says that the Taliban should speak directly to the Afghan government. "We have a clearer path toward Afghan-led peace talks than we have had in the past, and I think that is what will be discussed," Lute said. The Afghan leader will also meet secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday – who is back at work after hospitalisation from a blood clot and concussion – as well as outgoing defense secretary Leon Panetta. Karzai also plans to give a high-profile speech at Washington's Georgetown University. Karzai is to visit his ally Asadullah Khalid, the head of Afghanistan's homeland security agency, who is in the US receiving medical treatment after being injured in a Taliban assassination attempt in Kabul last month.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | India says two soldiers killed in gunfight; Pakistan denies allegations of unprovoked firing across the line of control India accused Pakistan of sending troops across the line dividing the disputed region of Kashmir on Tuesday, and said two of its soldiers were killed and one wounded in a half-hour exchange of fire. Military experts in Delhi said that if the reports were reliable – particularly the charge by one Indian military official that the mutilated body of a dead soldier was found in a forested area of the Himalayan territory – then escalation was possible unless the Indian government made a deliberate decision to "calm things down". Policymakers in Washington will be concerned at any sign of possible conflict between Delhi and Islamabad, which would hugely complicate the already delicate task of withdrawing tens of thousands of troops from Afghanistan without destabilising the region. A Pakistani army spokesman denied what it said were Indian allegations of "unprovoked firing" across the heavily militarised line of control between the two states. Unconfirmed reports by Indian media that one of the soldiers was decapitated will inflame public opinion in India and increase the pressure on politicians to order a significant response. "Regrettably, there is almost certain to be a major retaliation from the Indian side. I can't say what form it will take but this won't just be passed over," Arun Singh, a retired Indian army brigadier, told the Guardian. However, Ajai Shukla, a military analyst and retired officer who served in Kashmir, said that although "in normal circumstances the Indians would now retaliate", he did not think Delhi would allow the situation to escalate. Relations between the two countries, which have fought three wars, have improved in recent years as tensions caused by a terrorist attack by Pakistan-based extremists on the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai in 2008 have gradually eased. "The peace process is going the way India wants it to. Pakistan is engaged on its western frontier, trade is increasing, agreements are being signed, there are no talks on Kashmir … Delhi will want things to calm down and go back to business as usual," Shukla said. The incident came two days after a clash in which Pakistan said one of its soldiers was killed after an Indian incursion. India denied that its troops crossed the line. Rajesh Kalia, spokesman for the Indian army's northern command, said Tuesday's "intrusion" was "a significant escalation … of ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts supported by [the] Pakistan army". "Pakistan army troops, having taken advantage of thick fog and mist in the forested area, were moving towards [their] own posts when a … patrol spotted and engaged the intruders," he said. "The firefight between Pakistan and our troops continued for approximately half an hour, after which the intruders retreated back towards their side of line of control." In 1999 Pakistan-backed Islamist infiltrators occupied the Kargil heights in northern Indian Kashmir in a surprise operation. India lost hundreds of troops before re-occupying the mountains after bitter fighting that almost triggered a fourth war. Indian military officials said the frequency of cross-border clashes has increased in recent weeks, with at least half a dozen ceasefire violations in the past week alone. Officials in Delhi claim that Pakistan provokes such incidents to distract their troops to allow militants to cross the heavily defended de facto frontier. Intelligence services in India have said they are puzzled by what appears to have been a large number of such infiltrations in recent months and the lack of resulting violence. The insurgency that led to tens of thousands of casualties and widespread human rights abuses in the 1990s and early part of the last decade has faded and the bombings, shootings and suicide attacks once common in Indian Kashmir are now extremely rare. The Pakistani army recently said that it had reorientated its key strategic and tactical doctrines away from conflict with India – as had been the case for decades – and towards internal threats to the country's security. However, despite the slowly improving ties and relative calm, firing and small skirmishes between the two countries along the line of control are frequently reported. The Indian army says eight of its soldiers were killed in 2012. While deaths are now relatively rare, a number of Pakistani civilians were wounded by Indian shelling in November. In October the Indian army said Pakistani troops killed three civilians when they fired across the frontier. Singh said three factors might have led to the latest flare-up: local tensions between individual commanders, infiltration of militants along routes that are snow-free at this time of year, and the Pakistani army's desire to stir up trouble on the country's eastern frontier to shore up its position domestically and internationally. Another possibility is a desire among Pakistani senior officers to send a strong signal to India that the recent doctrinal shift does not signify a new weakness in the 65-year face-off across the frontier. The earlier incident created no signs of escalating tensions and received relatively little media attention in either country.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cooler conditions offer brief respite but firefighters continue to battle bushfires and temperatures expected to rise again Temperatures across southern Australia have dropped from record levels, reducing the danger from scores of bushfires but likely to bring only a brief respite from the summer's extreme heat. No deaths have been reported from the bushfires in the south-east of the country, although about 100 people have not been accounted for since last week when a fire destroyed around 90 homes in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital Hobart. On Wednesday, police spokeswoman Lisa Stingel said it was likely most of those unaccounted for simply have not checked in with officials. "There are no reports of missing persons in circumstances that cause us to have grave fears for their safety at this time," Tasmania police acting commissioner Scott Tilyard said. Thousands of cattle and sheep are suspected to have been killed, as well as a great deal of wildlife. In Victoria state, north of Tasmania, a fire injured six people, destroyed four homes and caused the evacuation of the farming community of Carngham, Country Fire Authority operations officer Ian Morley said. Cooler conditions on Wednesday brought relief to firefighters who had been working through the day to build earth breaks to contain the fire ahead of warmer temperatures forecast for Friday, he said. "We have had very mild, cool conditions overnight, which is a great help to the fire suppression effort," he added. North of Victoria in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, firefighters were battling 141 fires, including 31 that had not yet been contained. Fires have burnt through more than 131,000 hectares (324,000 acres) of forest and farmland since Tuesday. Fires burning out of control near the towns of Cooma, Yass and Shoalhaven were causing the most concern in that state. Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers of the Rural Fire Service said the reprieve was expected to be short-lived, with temperatures forecast to climb again by the end of the week. "We don't need new fires today," he said. The fires have been most devastating in Tasmania, where at least 128 homes have been destroyed since Friday. Hundreds of people remain at two evacuation centres in the south of the state. "People have lost everything. We can't comprehend that devastation unless we are in their shoes," said the Tasmanian premier, Lara Giddings. The fires have consumed over 80,000 hectares (198,000 acres) in Tasmania since last week. Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Fires in February 2009 killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Victoria. Australia had its hottest day on record on Monday and the country's weather bureau has forecast above average temperatures for the remainder of the summer, compounding the fire risk created by a lack of rain across central and southern Australia over the past six months.
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