|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pundits are arguing over Biden's use of 'chains' and 'ya'll': racially insensitive or allusive to GOP financial rhetoric? A prominent Republican has accused Vice President Joe Biden of "playing the race card" over remarks suggesting Mitt Romney's plans to loosen bank regulation would put people "back in chains". Rick Santorum, a conservative who ran against Romney in the primaries but has since fallen behind his party's nomination, led the renewed attack on Sunday by describing the comments as further evidence of dirty tactics by the Obama campaign aimed at pitting Americans against each other. On Tuesday, Biden told an audience in Virginia, which included African Americans, that less bank deregulation would harm ordinary people.
"They're going to put y'all back in chains," he said. Santorum said that Biden's use of "y'all" was an inappropriate attempt "to develop an affinity with the group that you are speaking in front of" – taken to mean African Americans, most of whom are descendants of slaves. "Y'all?" he said. "He tried to develop the affinity and he did it in a horrendous way, and he should apologise for it." Santorum said that Biden's remarks were indicative of the "divisive" tone of the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney. "It is one thing to attack him on his record and fair game. Go for it. But to go out and do what he is doing as far as dividing the country, and he is, it is class warfare at its worst," he said. Rudolf Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, said Biden's comments, on top of a series of other gaffes over recent years, suggested he is not up to the vice presidency and therefore, implicitly, the presidency as the man who would take over the White House if Obama could not serve. "I mean, there's a real fear is . . . whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it," he said. "I mean, this guy just isn't bright." The Obama campaign dismissed the attacks as "faux outrage". The president's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, told ABC's This Week that Biden's comments were a direct response to Republican proposals to "unshackle" businesses from government regulation which they blame for a poorly performing economy. "Let's look at what the vice president actually said. Speaker [John] Boehner, even [Romney's running mate] Paul Ryan have been travelling this country talking about the need to unshackle the private sector, unshackle the financial industry and the vice president was just taking that metaphor a step further and talking about wanting to put other people in shackles," Cutter said the issue was not Biden's use of language but the broader point he was making about Romney's call for deregulation of Wall Street and the private sector which would encourage more of the "reckless behaviour" that led to the recent recession. "They're using that one word as a distraction, but the larger point is an important point," she said. "The president absolutely believes in the free-enterprise system, but we also believe that everybody should play by the same set of rules." Obama has already defended Biden. "The truth is that during the course of these campaigns, folks like to get obsessed with how something was phrased even if everybody personally understands that's not how it was meant," he told People magazine. "That's sort of the nature of modern campaigns and modern coverage of campaigns. But I tell you, when I'm traveling around Iowa, that's not what's on people's minds." But there was also criticism from some Democrats including Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley who said Biden could have chosen his words more carefully. "I think it was an indelicate play on the Republican words of shackling the economy with regulations and shackling small businesses," he said on NBC's Meet the Press. "It was certainly an indelicate choice of words." The Boston Globe newspaper called on Biden to apologise for the comments, saying that if Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, had made similar comments he "would be pilloried for racial insensitivity — and so would Romney". "In the fight for civility and substance over pointless hyperbole, Biden may not be the worst offender. But he's an offender nonetheless, and he should apologize," the Globe said in an editorial. Obama's former spokesman and now campaign adviser, Robert Gibbs, denied that Biden is a "drag on the ticket". "I'm happy to have Joe Biden out campaigning and telling his story to the American people, putting in front of people the choice that's going to happen in this election," he said. "I'm happy and proud of Joe Biden and I'm happy and proud to have him on the trail every day."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tensions rise between Muslim and Christian communities amid claims that 11-year-old desecrated text An 11-year-old Christian Pakistani girl said to suffer from a mental disorder could face the death penalty under the country's notorious blasphemy laws, after she was accused by her neighbours of deliberately burning sacred Islamic texts. Rifta Masih was arrested on Thursday, after complaints against her prompted angry demonstrations, and Asif Ali Zardari, the president, has ordered the interior ministry to investigate the case. As communal tensions continued to rise, around 900 Christians living on the outskirts of Islamabad have been ordered to leave a neighbourhood where they have lived for almost two decades. On Sunday houses on the backstreets of Mehrabadi, an area 20 minutes drive from western embassies and government ministries, were locked with padlocks, their occupants having fled to already overcrowded Christian slums in and around the capital. One of the senior members of the dominant Muslim community told the Christians to remove all their belongings from their houses by September 1. "I don't think anyone will dare go back after this," said one Christian, Arif Masih. "The area is not safe for us now." A few brave souls have stayed behind, but shopkeepers have refused to serve their Christian neighbours or supply them with water. Locals say only about 10% of families in the area are Christian, renting cramped houses from Muslim landlords. They tend to do dirty, menial jobs such as sewer maintenance. Relations between the communities had been simmering for months after complaints were made about the noise coming from three churches in the area during religious services. Two of the landlords who owned the buildings had already ordered an end to worship and some services had been forcibly broken up. But there was no indication that all the Christians would be forced out so suddenly until Rifta was accused of the provocative act of burning the sacred words of Islam. It sparked immediate demonstrations by crowds estimated at between 600 and 1,000 people, some of whom blocked the nearby Kashmir highway, the major road running west out of the capital. The police, initially unwilling to take action, eventually charged the girl with blasphemy and took her into custody. The rest of the community, including her parents, fled. As with many other aspects of the incident, there is disagreement about exactly what was burned. Some say it was a small pocket book of Qur'anic verses. Others claim it was pages of the Qur'an. Either it was a relatively small quantity of ash carried in an earthenware dish, or it was around half a kilogram of refuse that filled a small plastic shopping bag. Hammad Malik, a 23-year-old with a shaven head and bushy beard who is deemed a "scoundrel" by the Christian community, said he saw Rifta walking out of the tiny, single-room dwelling where she lived with her parents and sister at some time after 6pm. He said it was pure chance that he noticed her bundle. "I looked at it but did not know exactly what it was but I could see it had words written in Arabic," he said. He concedes that no one actually saw her burning anything as the offence allegedly happened inside the house, and she was caught while finding somewhere to throw away the remains. However the local mullah claims there was a witness: another young girl who caught her in the act and then ran to the mosque to raise the alarm. One thing the Muslim community does agree on is that claims in the local media, sourced to the police, that the girl has Down's syndrome are false. "She is a completely normal girl," said Kamran Khan, cousin of the Masih family's landlord. As the largely male and grownup crowd gathered outside the house last night all nodded in agreement, a young girl who said she knew Rifta said that, actually, she did behave oddly – she talked to herself and walked in a peculiar way. The other point of general agreement is that "the law should be followed". Unfortunately, the law in question is Pakistan's blasphemy law, which has a proven track record of ensnaring people on the flimsiest of evidence and being cynically used to intimidate communities or settle quarrels over money and property. Even though no one has yet been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, long prison terms are common – one Christian couple was sentenced to 25 years in 2010 after being accused of touching the Qur'an with unwashed hands. There have also been cases of people killed by lynch mobs demanding instant punishment. Daring to criticise the law is incredibly risky and few do it. In 2011 Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab province, was gunned down by his own bodyguard after he had spoken out against the case of Aasia Bibi, another Christian woman accused of blasphemy. The Christian community of Mehrabadi say the whole thing is a plot. They too have conflicting accounts of what happened. In one version, according to local priest Boota Masih, a Muslim neighbour asked the girl to throw out the ash into which the desecrated pages had been placed. Either way, one hotly contested incident involving a very young girl looks set to change the complexion of the neighbourhood for ever. "They have done this to provoke the Muslims, like they have with their noisy banging and singing from their churches," said a local mullah, who would not give his name. "We are not upset the Christians have left and we will be pleased if they don't come back."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Speech from balcony of Ecuador's London embassy calls on Barack Obama to abandon 'witch-hunt' against WikiLeaks The diplomatic standoff between Britain and Ecuador deepened on Sunday after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange used an extraordinary appearance on the first-floor balcony of Ecuador's London embassy to berate the United States. With Metropolitan police officers watching from metres away, Assange called on President Obama to abandon what he called a "witch-hunt" against WikiLeaks. He said an alleged "FBI investigation" against his whistleblowing website should be "dissolved" and that the US should go back to its original "revolutionary" values. "As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of our societies," Assange said, standing on a white balcony just above the pavement, and flanked by Ecuador's yellow, blue and red flag. He added: "I ask President Obama to do the right thing: the United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks." Assange also thanked Ecuador's social democrat president, Rafael Correa, for granting him political asylum. Correa's decision, announced last Thursday, has set off a growing international row. Assange also thanked several other Latin American countries for their support – implicitly warning Britain that any dispute with Ecuador could rapidly snowball into a conflict with the entire region. More than 50 police officers surrounded the embassy in Knightsbridge, south-west London, on Sunday, with a police helicopter in the skies above, but they were clearly under orders not to try to arrest the WikiLeaks founder. Assange addressed around 100 well-wishers, with supporters including Tariq Ali and former British ambassador Craig Murray making speeches from the street. Assange spoke for 10 minutes. He appeared cheerful, if unsurprisingly pale. This was his first public appearance since he slipped into the embassy two months ago and the latest surreal episode in a soap opera that has seen him go from the High Court to house arrest in Norfolk and now to an embassy camp-bed in genteel Kensington and Chelsea, less than 50m from Harrods. The 41-year-old Australian took refuge in the embassy after the supreme court ordered his extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of serious sexual misconduct. Assange pointedly did not mention those allegations on Sunday, instead casting his predicament as a universal one of free speech struggling to survive in a "dangerous and oppressive world". Britain says it is obliged to implement EU extradition law and will arrest Assange the second he leaves the building. Speaking from the balcony in SW1, Assange claimed that the Met had come close to storming the embassy late last Wednesday. Britain sent a letter to Ecuador last week stating that it believes it is entitled to arrest Assange inside the building under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. The claim has enraged the government in Quito, which says the 1961 Vienna convention protects its – and others' – diplomatic territory. Assange said: "Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up inside the building through its internal fire escape." He said the only reason the UK "did not throw away the Vienna convention the other night" was because "the world is watching". He also thanked embassy staff, "who have shown me hospitality and kindness, despite the threats we all received". Despite the heavy police presence on Sunday, the Foreign Office is clearly trying to find a diplomatic solution to the row with Ecuador. Foreign secretary William Hague has made it clear there is no suggestion that police would "storm" the embassy. But Assange's provocative balcony appearance, in which he praised "courageous Ecuador" while disparaging Britain, his long-suffering host country, will have won him few new friends in Downing Street. Assange's supporters claim that if he is sent to Sweden he is in danger of being extradited to the US to be charged with espionage. Sweden has vehemently denied this. On Sunday Assange said: "Will it [the US] return to and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world?" He said there should be no "foolish talk" about prosecuting media organisations, mentioning not only WikiLeaks but also the New York Times, a paper Assange has previously bitterly criticised. He also called on the US to end its "war on whistleblowers", and demanded that Bradley Manning, the US army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking information, be released. Manning has been charged with transferring classified data and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source. He faces up to 52 years in jail. Assange called him a hero and "an example to all of us" – drawing cheers from WikiLeaks fans packing the Knightsbridge pavement. "On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial," Assange said. "The legal maximum is 120 days." Assange also made a rare mention of his children, "who have been denied their father". He said he hoped soon to be back with them and the rest of his family, adding: "Forgive me, we will be reunited soon."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lonmin tells workers at platinum mine, where 34 colleagues were shot dead, they have a final opportunity to return to work Lonmin is threatening to sack its striking staff unless they go back to work on Monday despite the deaths of 34 miners shot by the South African police last week. The London-listed platinum miner said it would stick to an ultimatum issued before Thursday and the worst incident of police violence since the end of apartheid at its Marikana mine. "The final ultimatum provides RDOs [rock drill operators] with a last opportunity to return to work or face possible dismissal," the company said in a statement on Sunday. "Employees could therefore be dismissed if they fail to heed the final ultimatum." The company issued the ultimatum to striking workers last week and extended the deadline to Monday after the police opened fire on protesters on Thursday. Workers at the mine, near Johannesburg, said threatening them with dismissal just three days after the deaths insulted the memories of their fallen colleagues. "Expecting us to go back is like an insult. Many of our friends and colleagues are dead, then they expect us to resume work. Never," miner Zachariah Mbewu told South Africa's Mail & Guardian. "Some are in prison and hospitals. Tomorrow we are going back to the mountain [protest site], not underground, unless management gives us what we want." Fezile Magxaba, an underground supervisor at the mine, said: "We are waiting for a word from the management. Tomorrow we won't return to work unless they listen to our demands of salary increases. "People have died, we are angry. If we return it will be like they died in vain." The 3,000 striking rockdrillers are demanding a trebling of their wages from 4,000 rand a month (£306) to 12,500 rand a month. Lonmin said a further 26,000 miners are not striking, but are too afraid to go back to work. The previous weekend 10 people, including two police officers, were shot dead as some non-striking miners tried to go back to work. Lonmin said its ultimatum will distinguish between striking miners and those too afraid to cross the picket line. The company said it is reassessing the situation every hour with the police and would extend the date of the call back to work on their advice. The Marikana mine, which is Lonmin's only operating asset, has halted production since the strike started nine days ago. The company said it has already lost 15,000 troy ounces of production and is likely to miss its full year target of 750,000 ounces. The company's shares, which have lost a third of their value so far this year, dropped 15% last week in response to the violence. Its first-half profits had already fallen by 90% due to the collapse in the platinum price, and the company is reportedly close to breaching its debt covenants. At the end of March it reported $356m in net debt, up from $296m at the same time last year. A source close to the company dismissed suggestions at the weekend that the world's third largest platinum producer is considering launching an emergency $1bn rights issue. South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, has declared a week of national mourning for the dead miners, saying the nation was in "shock and pain. We must this week reflect on the sanctity of human life and the right to life," he said in a statement. On Saturday, the former youth leader of the ruling ANC party called for Zuma to resign in wake of the deaths. "President Zuma decided over the massacre of our people, he must step down," Julius Malema told a crowd gathered at the mine on Saturday. "It has never happened before that so many people were killed in a single day and it became normal." At least 78 people were injured in the violence and 250 were arrested.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Muslims start to celebrate the three-day festival of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Internal documents reveal oil company spent $383m over three years protecting staff and installations in Niger delta region Shell is paying Nigerian security forces tens of millions of dollars a year to guard their installations and staff in the Niger delta, according to leaked internal financial data seen by the Guardian. The oil giant also maintains a 1,200-strong internal police force in Nigeria, plus a network of plainclothes informants. According to the data, the world's largest company by revenue spent nearly $1bn on worldwide security between 2007-2009: if it were a country Shell would have the third highest security budget in Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria itself. The documents show that nearly 40% of Shell's total security expenditure over the three year period – $383m (£244m) – was spent on protecting its staff and installations in Nigeria's volatile Niger delta region. In 2009, $65m was spent on Nigerian government forces and $75m on "other" security costs – believed to be a mixture of private security firms and payments to individuals. Activists expressed concern that the escalating cost of Shell's security operation in the delta was further destabilising the oil rich region and helping to fuel rampant corruption and criminality. "The scale of Shell's global security expenditure is colossal," said Ben Amunwa of London-based oil watchdog Platform. "It is staggering that Shell transferred $65m of company funds and resources into the hands of soldiers and police known for routine human rights abuses." The financial documents, passed to Platform, suggest Shell's worldwide security costs almost doubled between 2007-2009, coinciding with the rise of armed insurgency in the Niger delta. In 2008, 62 Shell employees or contractors were kidnapped and three killed, many Shell-operated pipelines, well heads and offshore oil platforms were attacked and the company was forced to halt oil exports for several weeks after attacks by groups including the Movement for the emancipation of the Niger delta. Nearly a third of Shell's global security budget in 2008, or $99m, was spent on "third parties". This was double what the company spent on its own security staff and is believed to include the services of 600 Nigerian government police and 700 members of the controversial state "joint task force" (JTF) comprised of army, navy and police. Shell denies having any direct control over JTF forces, amid numerous accusations of human rights abuses, including a large-scale military attack in 2009 which the US state department said led to the displacement and loss of livelihood of tens of thousands of residents. But in the past Shell has supplied government forces with gunboats, helicopters, vehicles and satellite phones to better patrol the myriad creeks and waterways of the delta. "This proves what we in the Niger delta have known for years – that the air force, the army, the police, they are paid for with Shell money and they are all at the disposal of the company for it to use it any how it likes," said Celestine Nkabari at the Niger delta campaign group Social Action. According to Platform, a significant amount of Shell funding is channelled via senior military officials which provides "ample opportunities for corruption". US cables, released by WikiLeaks in 2010, alleged that the company paid hundreds of thousands of pounds towards the deployment of 350 soldiers in the delta in 2003. But Shell International said that any allegations of corruption should be addressed to the Nigerian authorities, and that its spending is necessary to protect its staff and operations. Although armed insurgency in the oil producing regions of the delta has declined since a 2009 amnesty, the company says it faces widespread criminality, organised crime and massive oil theft. It has stated that 15%-20% of its output is stolen by international gangs. "Protecting our people and our assets is Shell's highest priority," it said. "Our spending on security is carefully judged to meet this objective, wherever we operate in the world. We have always acknowledged the difficulties of working in countries like Nigeria. In the period that this report refers to, the armed militancy in the Niger delta was at its height, requiring a relatively high level of security spending there. "All our staff and contractors are expected to adhere to the highest levels of personal and corporate ethics, as set out in our code of conduct. We support the Voluntary principles on security and human rights (VPSHR), and we recognise that these principles help maintain the safety and security of our operations in a manner consistent with upholding human rights. We also investigate grievances under the VPSHR." The company declined to comment on whether worldwide costs for security were increasing because of the Arab Spring. The company has recently left Syria and has interests throughout the Middle East. But the scale of Shell's spending, revealed by the data for the first time, raises questions about the effectiveness of its security policies. "What is striking about the amount being spent in Nigeria is its ineffectiveness," said Amunwa. "Shell spent many millions of dollars each year on government forces who failed to provide the company with adequate security." Nkabari said: "Shell cannot call this spending 'security'. If it was really providing security, then why do we continue to have vandalisation, why do we have bunkering [theft of oil], why do we have the security mess that we have in the Niger delta? They give protection to the oil workers but they are not providing the region with 'security'." "These figures are alarming – it is a scandal that so much money is spent on security instead of on the local communities whose livelihoods are destroyed as a result of the oil exploitation," said Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo of Relufa, which campaigns for environmental justice in west Africa. "Across Africa oil, mining and agro-industry companies regularly pay for the services of local security forces that have deplorable human rights records; sometimes as a contractual obligation," said Bamenjo. "This is an extremely unethical practice held over from the colonial era which must end immediately. Not only is it bad for local communities who are the primary victims of police and military predation, but as Shell well knows, it exposes foreign companies to lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bookmark this page and come back at 18:30 on Sunday 19 August to watch this Ravel double bill streamed live from Glyndebourne
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Japanese cars and businesses attacked by protesters across China as territorial spat over Senkaku/Diaoyu islands escalates Thousands of protesters took to the streets across China, attacking Japanese-made cars and smashing windows of Japanese-owned businesses, after activists from Japan landed on a disputed island at the centre of an escalating territorial spat between Beijing and Tokyo. The Chinese foreign ministry rebuked Tokyo after campaigners arrived on the East China Sea islet, waving Japanese flags. Activists from Hong Kong visited the islands last week to press China's claim, but were arrested and deported by Japan. Japan controls the archipelago, which it calls the Senkaku, but the islands are also claimed by China and Taiwan, which know them as the Diaoyu. The East China Sea contains valuable energy reserves and fisheries and the row is complicated by long-running historical tensions. Many in China complain that Japan has failed to fully acknowledge or atone for wartime atrocities, while in Japan there is growing anxiety over China's increasing military might. Up to 2,000 people with Chinese flags and banners protested in the southern city of Shenzhen, overturning Japanese cars, attacking Japanese restaurants and burning images of Japanese flags. Qingdao, Taiyuan and Hangzhou also saw major protests, while smaller ones took place in several more cities across China, from far northern Harbin to south-western Chengdu. In Guangzhou and Shenyang protestors gathered at the Japanese consulates. There were similar protests two years ago after Japan detained a Chinese captain when his fishing boat hit one of its patrol vessels. But Sunday's appeared to be the largest since 2005, when tens of thousands marched over several weekends. Chinese authorities have been markedly more tolerant of nationalist protest than of other activism in the past. The protests came as around 10 Japanese nationalists from a 100-strong flotilla swam ashore at Uotsori, one of the islands, and waved Japanese flags. "Four days ago there was an illegal landing of Chinese people on the island and as such we need to solidly reaffirm our own territory," Koichi Mukoyama, a conservative MP aboard one of the boats, told AP. "This is a way of saying to not mess around," Toshio Tamogami, one of the group's leaders, told Reuters. The Japanese government had denied the group permission to land on the islands. Coast Guard vessels were nearby and officials later questioned the activists. The territorial dispute heated up after the nationalist governor of Tokyo proposed that the city buy the islands, which are privately owned. The central government then said it would buy them itself. China's foreign ministry said it had strongly protested to the Japanese ambassador about the landing. "The illegal behaviour of Japanese rightwingers has violated China's territorial sovereignty," it added. In a commentary, state news agency Xinhua warned: "Sunday's landing, along with a barrage of other provocations, has poisoned the atmosphere of the Sino-Japanese relations and constituted another setback for both countries' efforts to further their political and economic ties." Taiwan also summoned Japan's representative in Taipei to lodge a protest over the "provocative" act, it said. Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, is under pressure to take a tough stand in the row and a similar dispute with South Korea over islands in the Sea of Japan known as the Takeshima or Dokdo. The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, visited one of them earlier this month, in what many saw as a bid for nationalist support ahead of elections later this year, and 30 of his compatriots held a ceremony on Sunday to unveil a monument there.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | French police detain Pussy Riot protesters for wearing balaclavas amid crackdown on face-coverings Several people protesting peacefully in Marseille against the trial of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were detained by police for wearing balaclavas, under France's controversial law that bans Muslim niqabs and all face-coverings from public places. About 30 demonstrators gathered outside the Russian consulate in the southern French city on Friday to protest against the trial of members of the feminist group famous for wearing bright dresses and colourful balaclavas. But police swooped on about seven wearing multicoloured face-masks in solidarity with the band, reported La Provence. Asked why the police had stopped the demonstrators who had been standing peacefully behind a banner about the power of poetry, a senior officer told the newspaper: "They are wearing balaclavas in a public space. It's illegal." He said the demonstrators would be questioned and a report written. In April 2011, Nicolas Sarkozy's government introduced a law banning women from wearing the niqab, or full face-veil, in public places. To circumvent accusations that the law singled out Muslims, the bill was officially called the law against covering one's face in public places. Special exemptions were created for motorcycle helmets or sports equipment such as fencing masks. There are also exemptions for people appearing in parades, celebrations or places of worship. The Marseille protesters – including poets, a book editor, and a former culture official – who had removed their masks at police request, were put in a riot van and driven to the nearest police station amid cries of "Absurd!" and "Ridiculous!". They were released that afternoon. Under the law, the case can be referred to a local judge who can hand down a €150 fine, a citizenship course or both. "We came here to defend freedom of expression in Russia and we find ourselves stopped by French police," one pensioner at the rally told the paper. When three members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison for hooliganism on Friday, France said the sentence was "disproportionate".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Conditions of Greek aid programme must be adhered to, insists Germany's Volker Kauder ahead of eurozone talks As Greece's leftwing prime minister Antonis Samaras prepared to meet eurozone leaders this week for the first time since taking office, a senior ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted there is no room for concessions to Greece on the conditions of its aid programme and no appetite for a third rescue package. "The Greeks must stick to what they agreed to," Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative bloc told the weekly Der Spiegel. "There is no more latitude, either on the timeframe or the matter itself, because that would again be a breach of agreements. It is just that which led to this crisis." He said Greek bankruptcy would be expensive for Germany "but agreements must be kept to". With Greece in its fifth consecutive year of recession and social and political discontent rising, Samaras is keen to soften the impact of budget cuts imposed by its lenders and is expected to float a proposal for a two-year extension to debt-reduction targets. Having recovered from eye surgery that has prevented him travelling since June, Samaras will fly to Berlin and Paris to meet Merkel and the French president, François Hollande. Earlier in the week, he will meet the eurozone chief, Jean-Claude Juncker. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said on Saturday there were limits to the aid that could be granted to Greece and the crisis-stricken country should not expect a third bailout. "It is not responsible to throw money into a bottomless pit," he added. But Greece found some support from Juncker, who insisted Greece would not leave the euro unless it "totally refused" to fulfil any of its reform targets. "It will not happen, unless Greece were to violate all requirements and not to stick to any agreement," he told Austria's Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. Juncker, who has said a Greek exit from the eurozone would be manageable, added: "Yes, I did say an exit would be manageable. What I meant is that it is technically manageable, but politically it is not manageable and it would be linked to unforeseeable risks." Asked what technically manageable meant, he said: "It means that the Greeks would have to reintroduce their own currency. It would take extreme preparation. But the longer we talk about this, the more people get the hypothesis in their heads that work is being done on this. We are not working on this." There is a clause in Greece's €130bn (£102.3bn) bailout deal that says the deficit-adjustment period could be extended if its recession is deeper than expected. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said his government would not consider easing the reforms agreed with Athens "in their substance" and called on the Greeks to "take the German government's position very seriously", according to the Sunday paper Tagesspiegel am Sonntag. Meanwhile the head of Germany's main industry group told Germany's Wirtschaftswoche on Saturday that if Greece did not stick to the conditions imposed upon it by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, "there would no longer be a place for Greece in the euro zone". Hans-Peter Keitel, president of the BDI, which had previously insisted Greece remain in the euro zone at all costs, told the business magazine: "The country lacks substantial requisites such as a functioning administration and the express will to get itself out of the crisis."But European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the euro zone should keep Greece on board if at all possible and warned against the unforeseeable consequences of a Greek exit"If we can't keep a country with 3 percent of Europe's total debt in the euro zone, nobody will trust us to be able to solve the big problems," he was quoted as saying in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer also warned against a Greek exit: "If Italy and Spain were to get infected, that would be the end of the euro. Politicians would lose control because the markets would decide on that," he told Bild am Sonntag.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Conditions of Greek aid programme must be adhered to, insists Germany's Volker Kauder ahead of eurozone talks As Greece's leftwing prime minister, Antonis Samaras, prepared to meet eurozone leaders this week for the first time since taking office, a senior ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted there is no room for concessions to Greece on the conditions of its aid programme and no appetite for a third rescue package. "The Greeks must stick to what they agreed to," Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative bloc, told the weekly Der Spiegel. "There is no more latitude, either on the timeframe or the matter itself, because that would again be a breach of agreements. It is just that which led to this crisis." He said Greek bankruptcy would be expensive for Germany, "but agreements must be kept to". With Greece in its fifth consecutive year of recession, and social and political discontent rising, Samaras is keen to soften the impact of budget cuts imposed by its lenders and is expected to propose a two-year extension to debt-reduction targets. Having recovered from eye surgery that has prevented him travelling since June, Samaras will fly to Berlin and Paris to meet Merkel and the French president, François Hollande. Earlier in the week, he will meet the eurozone chief, Jean-Claude Juncker. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said on Saturday there were limits to the aid that could be granted to Greece and the crisis-stricken country should not expect a third bailout. "It is not responsible to throw money into a bottomless pit," he said. But Greece found some support from Juncker, who insisted Greece would not leave the euro unless it "totally refused" to fulfil any of its reform targets. "It will not happen, unless Greece were to violate all requirements and not to stick to any agreement," he told Austria's Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. "In case of such total refusal by Greece with regards to budget consolidation and structural reform, one would have to look into the question." Juncker said he expected Greece to double its efforts to fulfil its reform targets. Juncker, who has said a Greek exit from the eurozone would be manageable, added: "Yes, I did say an exit would be manageable. What I meant is that it is technically manageable, but politically it is not manageable and it would be linked to unforeseeable risks." Asked what technically manageable meant, he said: "It means that the Greeks would have to reintroduce their own currency. It would take extreme preparation. But the longer we talk about this, the more people get the hypothesis in their heads that work is being done on this. We are not working on this." There is a clause in Greece's €130bn (£102.3bn) bailout deal that says the deficit adjustment period could be extended if its recession is deeper than expected. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said his government would not consider easing the reforms agreed with Athens "in their substance" and called on the Greeks to "take the German government's position very seriously", according to the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag newspaper. Meanwhile the head of Germany's main industry group told Germany's Wirtschaftswoche on Saturday that if Greece did not stick to the conditions imposed upon it by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, "there would no longer be a place for Greece in the euro zone". Hans-Peter Keitel, president of the BDI, which had previously insisted Greece remain in the euro zone at all costs, told the business magazine: "The country lacks substantial requisites such as a functioning administration and the express will to get itself out of the crisis."But European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the euro zone should keep Greece on board if at all possible and warned against the unforeseeable consequences of a Greek exit"If we can't keep a country with 3 percent of Europe's total debt in the euro zone, nobody will trust us to be able to solve the big problems," he was quoted as saying in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer also warned against a Greek exit: "If Italy and Spain were to get infected, that would be the end of the euro. Politicians would lose control because the markets would decide on that," he told Bild am Sonntag.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Conditions of Greek aid programme must be adhered to, insists Germany's Volker Kauder ahead of eurozone talks As Greece's leftwing prime minister, Antonis Samaras, prepared to meet eurozone leaders this week for the first time since taking office, a senior ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted there is no room for concessions to Greece on the conditions of its aid programme and no appetite for a third rescue package. "The Greeks must stick to what they agreed to," Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative bloc, told the weekly Der Spiegel. "There is no more latitude, either on the timeframe or the matter itself, because that would again be a breach of agreements. It is just that which led to this crisis." He said Greek bankruptcy would be expensive for Germany, "but agreements must be kept to". With Greece in its fifth consecutive year of recession, and social and political discontent rising, Samaras is keen to soften the impact of budget cuts imposed by its lenders and is expected to propose a two-year extension to debt-reduction targets. Having recovered from eye surgery that has prevented him travelling since June, Samaras will fly to Berlin and Paris to meet Merkel and the French president, François Hollande. Earlier in the week, he will meet the eurozone chief, Jean-Claude Juncker. The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said on Saturday there were limits to the aid that could be granted to Greece and the crisis-stricken country should not expect a third bailout. "It is not responsible to throw money into a bottomless pit," he said. But Greece found some support from Juncker, who insisted Greece would not leave the euro unless it "totally refused" to fulfil any of its reform targets. "It will not happen, unless Greece were to violate all requirements and not to stick to any agreement," he told Austria's Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper. "In case of such total refusal by Greece with regards to budget consolidation and structural reform, one would have to look into the question." Juncker said he expected Greece to double its efforts to fulfil its reform targets. Juncker, who has said a Greek exit from the eurozone would be manageable, added: "Yes, I did say an exit would be manageable. What I meant is that it is technically manageable, but politically it is not manageable and it would be linked to unforeseeable risks." Asked what technically manageable meant, he said: "It means that the Greeks would have to reintroduce their own currency. It would take extreme preparation. But the longer we talk about this, the more people get the hypothesis in their heads that work is being done on this. We are not working on this." There is a clause in Greece's €130bn (£102.3bn) bailout deal that says the deficit adjustment period could be extended if its recession is deeper than expected. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said his government would not consider easing the reforms agreed with Athens "in their substance" and called on the Greeks to "take the German government's position very seriously", according to the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag newspaper. Meanwhile the head of Germany's main industry group told Germany's Wirtschaftswoche on Saturday that if Greece did not stick to the conditions imposed upon it by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, "there would no longer be a place for Greece in the euro zone". Hans-Peter Keitel, president of the BDI, which had previously insisted Greece remain in the euro zone at all costs, told the business magazine: "The country lacks substantial requisites such as a functioning administration and the express will to get itself out of the crisis."But European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the euro zone should keep Greece on board if at all possible and warned against the unforeseeable consequences of a Greek exit"If we can't keep a country with 3 percent of Europe's total debt in the euro zone, nobody will trust us to be able to solve the big problems," he was quoted as saying in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer also warned against a Greek exit: "If Italy and Spain were to get infected, that would be the end of the euro. Politicians would lose control because the markets would decide on that," he told Bild am Sonntag.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From London's Ecuadorian embassy, WikiLeaks founder thanks supporters and asks Obama to 'do the right thing' Julian Assange has challenged the US to end its "witch-hunt" of WikiLeaks and release the army private accused of feeding a trove of classified information to the whistleblowing website. In a defiant message delivered from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange, who Swedish prosecutors want extradited over claims of sexual assault, said America must dissolve its investigation into his organisation. Urging President Barack Obama to "do the right thing", he also called for the immediate release of Bradley Manning, the young soldier accused of being behind the biggest leak of state secrets in US history. The 24-year-old is currently being detained at an army base awaiting military trial. He has been indicted on 22 counts relating to the leaks, including charges of aiding the enemy. The crime carries a maximum penalty of death, although prosecutors have indicated that they will not seek the ultimate punishment. In his address on Sunday, Assange noted that Manning has now spent more than 800 days behind bars without trial. For a large chunk of that time Manning was kept in conditions that the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, has described as cruel and inhuman. The young soldier's lawyers are current seeking to have the charges against Manning dismissed, citing the US army's "flagrant violation" of his right not to be punished prior to trial. His civilian lawyer David Coombs has lodged legal documents detailing his treatment at the Quantico marine base in Virginia, where Manning was kept before being transferred to a softer prison under huge pressure from human rights activists. The so-called Article 13 motion revealed that for months after his arrest in May 2010, the soldier was held in a 6 foot by 8 foot cell for 23 or 24 hours a day. In addition, when not sleeping, the suspect was banned from lying down, or even using a wall to support him. It also claimed that Manning was punished through "degradation and humiliation", notably by forcing him to stand outside his cell naked during a morning inspection. This, his lawyer claims, was "retaliatory punishment" for speaking out over his treatment. It has been suggested that the harsh treatment was used to intimidate Manning into a plea deal with US prosecutors, under which he would testify against Assange at a future date. At a lengthy pre-trial hearing in December, Coombs said: "If the department of justice got their way, they would get a plea in this case, and get my client to be named as one of the witnesses to go after Julian Assange and WikiLeaks." In Sunday's statement, Assange made an impassioned appeal for Manning to be freed. "Bradley Manning must be released. If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero, an example to all of us and one of the world's foremost political prisoners," he said. The US must also "renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks", Assange demanded from the Ecuadorian embassy. It is thought that a grand jury in Virginia has been investigating the Australian citizen with a view to conducting a criminal prosecution based on FBI evidence against him. Assange called on President Obama to "dissolve" that federal probe on Saturday, adding: "The US must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters." He continued: "The US must pledge before the world that it will not prosecute journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful." As such, there must be no more "foolish talk" about seeking a to put on trial organisations such as WikiLeaks and the New York Times, Assange said. The newspaper – along with the Guardian – was one of the media outlets that first published documents put out by the whistleblowing website.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Israeli leaders condemn recent extremist violence, the growth of which human rights groups blame on lack of law enforcement Violence by Jewish settlers has been cited for the first time in a US state department list of "terrorist incidents", as Israeli political leaders condemned a string of recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The inclusion of assaults on Palestinian targets in the annual report on terrorism reflects growing concern in Israel and internationally that violence by a minority of Jewish extremists could trigger a new cycle of conflict and further damage the prospects of a peace agreement between the two sides. "Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents, property and places of worship in the West Bank continued," said the Country Reports on Terrorism 2011. It referred to "price tag" operations, meaning violence committed by radical settlers against Palestinians in retribution for actions by the Israeli government or army deemed to be "anti-settler". US and European officials have become more vocal in criticising settler violence amid fears that the actions of a minority of Jewish extremists could provoke a militant response from Palestinians. According to the UN, violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property, mosques and farmland has increased by almost 150% since 2009. On Friday, the US state department condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the firebombing of a Palestinian taxi near Bethlehem, in which six people – including four-year-old twins – were injured. It urged expeditious action by Israel to bring the perpetrators to justice and for "all parties to avoid any actions that could lead to an escalation of violence". The attack was widely blamed on settlers, with military sources suggesting "Israeli civilians were responsible". A second firebomb was found near the scene. No arrests had been made by Sunday afternoon. Israeli politicians were also swift in their condemnation. The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said it was a "very serious incident", and on Sunday, Moshe Ya'alon, minister for strategic affairs, described it as "a terrorist attack". He linked the firebombing to a separate incident in Jerusalem at the weekend, in which a Palestinian youth was severely beaten by dozens of Jewish teenagers, who witnesses said were searching for Arabs to attack. "The hate crimes committed over the weekend against Arabs in Judea and Samaria [the biblical terms for the West Bank] and Jerusalem are intolerable, outrageous and must be firmly dealt with," Ya'alon said. "These are terrorist attacks. They run contrary to Jewish morality and values, and constitute first and foremost an educational and moral failure." Jamal Julani, 17, from East Jerusalem, was admitted to hospital in a critical condition and placed on a respirator in the intensive care unit. A 19-year-old Jewish man was arrested, and further arrests were expected. A police spokesman described the incident as a brawl, and said it had no connection to settlers. The Country Reports on Terrorism cited several incidents of settler violence during 2011, including attacks on Israeli military personnel and a base. Over the year 10 mosques in the West Bank and one in an Israeli-Arab town were attacked, it said. Human rights groups which monitor settler violence say it routinely includes assaults against individuals and groups of Palestinians, harassment, uprooting trees, burning fields, attacks on livestock and damage to cars and houses. It usually peaks during the autumn olive harvesting season. According to the UN office for humanitarian affairs, the number of settler attacks causing casualties or damage to Palestinian property has increased by 144% between 2009 and 2011(pdf). Three Palestinians were killed and 183 injured by settlers last year; about 10,000 trees were damaged or destroyed; and more than 90% of complaints filed with Israeli police were closed without charges being brought. "One of the key factors in the growth of settler violence is the lack of effective law enforcement," said Sarit Michaeli of human rights group B'Tselem. "The Israelis have been calling settler violence 'terrorism' for a while now, but that in itself is not a guarantee that they will fulfil their obligations to protect Palestinians." According to B'Tselem, Israeli security forces often fail to intervene to stop settler violence when alerted to it or already present at the scene. In May, a video posted by B'Tselem on Youtube showed settlers shooting at a group of Palestinian protesters while soldiers and police officers stood by. A recent article published by Foreign Affairs last week, The Rise of Settler Terrorism, attributed the increase in attacks to "the growth of a small but significant fringe of young extremists, known as the 'hilltop youth', who show little, if any, deference to the Israeli government or even to the settler leadership … These settlers – likely no more than a couple of thousand, a small but dangerous minority within the broader community – are the ones leading the 'price tag' attacks against Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers." The US state department report also said that in 2011: "Israel faced terrorist threats from Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, particularly from Gaza but also from the West Bank, and from Hezbollah in Lebanon." Among the terrorist incidents it listed for 2011 were the murder of five members of the Fogel family at their home in a West Bank settlement, the death of a British national and the injury of 50 other people in a bomb explosion at Jerusalem's central bus station, and the killing of a resident of the Israeli city of Ashkelon by a rocket fired from Gaza.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WikiLeaks founder makes speech from balcony of Ecuadorean embassy thanking supporters and asking US to end 'witch-hunt' The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has urged the United States to end its "war on whistleblowers" as he used a dramatic appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorean embassy to thank supporters for backing his fight against extradition. Assange thanked the nation of Ecuador for taking a "stand for justice" in giving him political asylum, while warning that the United States risked shunting the world into an era of journalistic oppression. He appeared on the balcony of the South American country's embassy in London, where he has been taking refuge for two months as he seeks to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning on sexual assault allegations. Assange thanked the leaders and people of Ecuador for supporting him and also staff at the London embassy "who have shown me hospitality and kindness, despite the threats we all received". He thanked the governments and people of Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries who defended the right to asylum and people in the US, UK, Sweden and Australia who supported him in strength even when their governments did not. "As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies. We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America," he said. "Will it return to and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark? "I say it must turn back. I ask President Obama to do the right thing: the United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks." There must be no "foolish talk" of prosecuting media organisations, be it WikiLeaks or be it the New York Times newspaper. Assange also called on the US to end its "war on whistleblowers", and demanded that Bradley Manning, the US army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information, be released. He has been charged with transferring classified data and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source and faces up to 52 years in jail. Assange described Manning as a hero and "an example to all of us", which drew cheers from scores of supporters. "On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial," said Assange. "The legal maximum is 120 days." Assange referred to recent jailings of people for exercising their freedom of speech and called for enthusiastic opposition to such oppressive actions. "There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response." The Australian also thanked other helpful South American nations and supporters around the world, plus his family, including his children, "who have been denied their father". He said: "Forgive me, we will be reunited soon." Assange emerged at the balcony at the embassy in Knightsbridge to loud cheers from his supporters. He told them: "I am here today because I cannot be there with you today. But thankyou for coming, thankyou for your resolve, your generosity of spirit. "On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy, the police descended on this building. You came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the world's eyes with you. "Inside this embassy in the dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up inside the building through its internal fire escape. "But I knew there would be witnesses, and that is because of you. "If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching. And the world was watching because you were watching. "So the next time that somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the embassy of Ecuador. Remind them how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice." Earlier Assange's legal adviser, Baltasar Garzón, said Assange had instructed his lawyers "to carry out a legal action" to protect his rights. He told media representatives outside the embassy: "Julian Assange has always fought for truth and justice and has defended human rights and continues to do so. "He demands that WikiLeaks and his own rights be respected. "Julian Assange has instructed his lawyers to carry out a legal action in order to protect the rights of WikiLeaks, Julian himself and all those currently being investigated." Assange entered the building seeking asylum on 19 June and has been inside since. Last week it was announced he had been granted political asylum, prompting a major diplomatic row between Ecuador, Sweden and the British government, which insists it is legally obliged to hand him over. The foreign secretary, William Hague, has made it clear that Assange will not be allowed safe passage out of the country. Assange denies the allegations he faces in Sweden and fears being transferred to America if he travels to contest them. He enraged the US government in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published tranches of secret US diplomatic cables.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eden Hazard shone on his Premier League debut as Chelsea enjoyed a routine victory at the DW Stadium Afternoon. There aren't many clubs at which a manager could win the Champions League and hear talk of him being sacked before the following season has even started. Such is the life of the manager at Chelsea. Such is life working for Roman Abramovich. You never know what's round the corner. It could be a new £30m superstar. It could be a boot up your backside and a P45. It must be thrilling. Life lived on the edge. It is difficult to know what to expect from Roberto Di Matteo this season. Of course, we must marvel at the outstanding way he salvaged the wreckage of Andre Villas-Boas's curious man-management, uniting the side and winning the Champions League and FA Cup. Yet this is an entirely different job. With expectations low last season, Di Matteo was able to revert to the Mourinho template. Now he has to introduce the fantasy. And sometimes there's no pleasing a fantasist. In come Eden Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin, then, with the possibility of Victor Moses, Hulk and Edinson Cavani still to come. Fernando Torres is expected to live up to his £50m reputation, supposedly liberated by stepping out of the shadow of Didier Drogba - who, lest we forget, was a huge part of everything Chelsea achieved last season. How they cope without his influence will perhaps define their season. So Chelsea are not the finished article and may need time to gel. That certainly looked to be the case against Manchester City last week, when the midfield of John Obi Mikel and Frank Lampard was made to look rather ponderous. The defence, too, looked a tad creaky, Sideshow Dave still on the verge of calamity throughout. Given the way that Wigan finished last season, it will not be a massive surprise if Chelsea struggle today. It's now seven years since Jose Mourinho's champions came to the DAVE WHELAN STADIUM, the visitors for Wigan's first ever top flight match. They weren't expected to last long and were beaten 1-0 by Hernan Crespo's brilliant late goal. Seven years later, they're still here, defying logic time and time again. Their escape last season was one of the more improbable of the modern era, as they beat both Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle to survive. Actually, scratch that: they outplayed Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle to survive. There has arguably never been a classier, more cerebral fight against relegation, Roberto Martinez's innovative 3-4-3 formation flummoxing loftier opponents. Wigan do tend to start slowly but for once have not been disrupted in the transfer market. It bodes well. Team news: Chelsea target Victor Moses starts for Wigan. Otherwise they are as expected, with their new striker Arouna Kone on the bench. Chelsea give Eden Hazard a first league start, while the impressive Ryan Bertrand replaces Ramires, who is ill. Oscar is on the bench. Wigan: Al Habsi; Boyce, Alcaraz, Caldwell, Figueroa; Maloney, McArthur, McCarthy, Ramis, Moses; Di Santo. Subs: Pollitt, Kone, Jones, Crusat, Watson, Gomez, Boselli. Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, A.Cole; Lampard, Mikel; Hazard, Mata, Bertrand; Torres. Subs: Turnbull, Cahill, Ferreira, Essien, Meireles, Oscar, Sturridge. Referee: Mike Jones.
Kick-off: 1.30pm. New season, new haircut. For Gary Neville. He's got a trendy new haircut. He's really joined the media now. He'll be getting a geek pie soon. The first email. "Great to see that Brendan Rodgers' move has not stopped his teams delighting the neutrals," says schadenfreude's Gary Naylor. Here come the teams. Wigan are wearing blue tracksuits, Chelsea are in their black and yellow away kits. The menace of the tracksuit top must be eradicated from the game. What purpose do they serve? Hang on, where was the countdown to kick-off? How did we know the game's started? I miss Euro 2012. It's Wigan, kicking from right to left, who manage to overcome the lack of Countdown Man, though. They keep the ball for 10 seconds, allowing their fans to boo John Terry whenever he gets a touch. That's not very Olympic and will no doubt lead to a spate of tedious think pieces from bored columnists. GOAL! Wigan 0-1 Chelsea (Ivanovic, 2 min): What a start for Chelsea and what a sublime piece of skill from Eden Hazard to create the goal. There was seemingly no danger as the Belgian received a pass with his back to goal on the halfway line, only for a wonderful turn to make his marker, Ramis, look like a mug. With the entire left side of the Wigan defence going missing, he slipped a lovely pass through to the marauding Ivanovic of all people. He romped forward and then stroked a cool finish past Al-Habsi and into the bottom-right corner. 4 min: Does this mean Chelsea are going to win the league? 5 min: "Sorry, Gary, but there are no neutrals where Liverpool are concerned. There are Liverpool fans, and those who wish they were Liverpool fans," says Matt Dony. "As far as this game goes, I'm hoping to see Wigan continue their attractively attacking/bonkers approach, and buckle the swashes all the way to a 5 goal win. Seems to be the trend." It would seem unlikely at the moment. They're all over the shop here. 6 min: PENALTY TO CHELSEA! A tale of two debuts. On the right side of the area, Hazard diddles past Figueroa and then past Ramis, who clearly clips the Belgian in the area. Hazard is causing havoc, but Ramis is having the mother of all stinkers. GOAL! Wigan 0-2 Chelsea (Lampard pen, 7 min): Lampard hammers a firm penalty straight down the middle, beating the dive of Al-Habsi, who was a bit unlucky. This is the stuff European champions are made of. Didier who? 8 min: This wouldn't be the first time Wigan have been hammered at home on the opening day. Two years ago, they lost 4-0 to Blackpool. And, indeed, were beaten 6-0 by Chelsea a week later. 11 min: Caldwell steams into the back of Hazard and picks up a booking. That's a moronic challenge, presumably done in a bid to rough up Hazard. Welcome to English football, etc. Well done, Gary. "For a moment I thought you had written that Gary Naylor had really joined the media, then I realised that I had the wrong Gary N," parps Prateek Chadha. "My poor reading skills aside, given how often the man contributes to MBMs and that the transfer window is still open, let me be the first to suggest that the Guardian signs him up!" 13 min: Wigan have improved slightly, but have managed to do nothing more than swing a few harmless crosses into the Chelsea box.
"Do you think anyone out there can explain why we have bought 14 attacking midfielders but not one defensive midfielder?" says Carl Whinder. "I would like to argue that John Obi Mikel is a tryer but he's not even that." I'm amazed that Mikel is still at Chelsea. 15 min: The big issues, covered in detail by your Guardian: should James McCarthy and James McArthur be allowed to play in the same midfield, let alone the same team? If only for the sake of football writers. 17 min: There is a feeling that those two early Chelsea games have killed the game. The crowd are subdued and so are the Wigan players. They weren't expecting this. I suppose that's the difference between early season Wigan and late season Wigan. 18 min: Torres, who's been quiet so far, speeds past Alcaraz on the left and is bumped over by the defender rather aggressively, but Mike Jones rules there was nothing in it. I beg to differ, but Chelsea can afford to be phlegmatic about it given that they lead 2-0. 19 min: The game nearly gets the Wigan goal it needs as Di Santo, under pressure from Terry and Luiz, heads just over the angle of post and bar from eight yards out. "That's a pretty terrible challenge there," says Andrew Enloe. "Since the intent is to hurt Hazard and clearly not to get the ball, why isn't it a red card? I'm not saying tackling needs to be phased out of the game, but those are the kinds of challenges that can ruin a player's career if you get it wrong. Stupid and needless." I suppose the argument would be that it wasn't high or two-footed. 23 min: Mata slides a low cross from the left into the six-yard box but Al-Habsi plunges on the ball before it can reach Torres. "Blame Manchester City for the tracksuit thing," says Fraser Thomas. Manchester City, responsible for so many of the game's evils. 25 min: Wigan win a corner on the left. They take it short. And make a mess of it. 26 min: Early impressions of Hazard are that he is very quick and direct, but also very unselfish. He's beaten his man with ease every time. He needs to work on his backheels though. 27 min: Chelsea get away with one as Cech races to collect a loose ball, but seemed to grab it as it just veered outside the area on the left. It probably wouldn't have been a red card - at the ground where Cech picked up his only ever red card for Chelsea in a 3-1 defeat in 2009 - but it would have been a free-kick. It was one of those that was arguably too tight to give, however. Wigan protest, but Chelsea play on and counter, with Torres threatening on the edge of the area. He eventually overruns the ball and is tackled. 29 min: It's not clear what's up with him, but Terry seems to be carrying some sort of injury. If pushed, Dr Steinberg diagnoses a problem with his knee. 31 min: Wigan have dominated possession. Chelsea lead 2-0. 32 min: Wigan's players are taking it in turns to foul Hazard, reflecting the threat the Belgian carries. McCarthy is the latest to foul him, but escapes a booking after a long chat with Mike Jones. 34 min: Now the yellow card is out - but for David Luiz, who clipped Maloney. 38 min: Moses runs at Cole and then fizzes in a cross-shot that Cech palms behind for a corner on the left. That was flying into the top corner. 42 min: There's not much happening. I miss dressage. 43 min: Moses adds another couple of million to his price tag by controlling a long ball on his chest, before flicking it over Cole, driving down the right flank and, er, driving a cross out of play. That sums up Wigan's attacking in the first half. There's been plenty of attractive approach play, but ultimately Chelsea are comfortable. 45 min+1: Franco Di Santo wastes a glorious chance to get Wigan back into the game on the stroke of half time. He was played in behind the Chelsea defence by a brilliantly curved pass from left to right from Figueroa that took out both Luiz and Terry. Di Santo was clean through on goal, but a dreadfully heavy first touch allowed Cech to come off his line and close the angle. Di Santo tried to dink it over him but Cech took the pace off his effort and Luiz was on hand to mop up before the ball could cross the line. 45 min+2: With the last kick of the half, Maloney curls a free-kick straight at Cech. Half time: Wigan 0-2 Chelsea. Who needs Pep Guardiola? 46 min: Off we go again. Wigan will be hoping for a better start to this half than they managed in the first half. "As a Chelsea fan, Mikel can be a big waste sometimes, but he does step up when needed," says Joe Balfour. "Since Essien got injured, we've needed the 'Makelele role' filled. In the Champions League Final, I think Mikel was our best player, stepping up and making tackles and breaking up attacks. I do miss Maka though." Forget Maka - there are strong rumours linking Kaka with Manchester United. I say strong rumours. I mean people chatting hot air on Tw*tter. 47 min: Maloney swings a free-kick into the area from the left. Cech punches it as clear as Alcaraz on the edge of the area. His cross drops to Di Santo in the six-yard box, but his touch takes him wide and Lampard clears his ball in. 48 min: Terry is down after a nasty challenge from Di Santo, who left a foot in. Somehow he's not booked. 49 min: Wigan make their first change, Jordi Gomez on for Shaun Maloney. "To your question: Liverpool fans, who seem to labour under the impression Pep can turn Jay Spearing into Iniesta," says Philip Podolsky. "Now I'm not necessarily saying he can't, I just don't share the sense of certainty." 53 min: Torres scampers down the right flank and pulls a cross back to Cole, all alone on the edge of the area. It sits up invitingly for the volley but he gets it all wrong and slices his effort high and wide. 54 min: Bertrand leaves a Wigan defender in his wake with an electric burst down the left. He finds Lampard, who should shoot first time but is instead robbed by Caldwell. 57 min: McArthur is booked for a tackle from behind on Lampard. The match is getting scrappy and fragmented. There's no flow to it at all. Which suits Chelsa more than Wigan. 61 min: "It wasn't just Bertrand's pace that electrified, but the turn as well," says Nate Elliott. "He looks better and better. Finally something useful from the Chelsea academy. But why the interest in Moses? He just doesn't look very good. And it's not as if RdM needs any more wide players; he's already been busy loaning out the ones he's got! A right back seems more in order." And a midfielder. 63 min: Ramis atones for his earlier errors by clearing off the line from Torres. He was played through by an errant header and though he was struggling to keep his balance, he poked the ball past Al-Habsi only for Ramis to refuse to give in and deny Chelsea a third. From which ... 64 min: Wigan stream forward on the counter-attack and a win a corner on the right as Luiz clears Moses's dangerous ball across the face of goal behind. Before the corner's taken, Oscar comes on to make his Chelsea debut. Off goes Hazard. When the corner's taken, nothing happens. 67 min: Arouna Kone comes on to make his debut for Wigan, replacing the hapless Franco Di Santo. 68 min: The first glimpse of Oscar. He runs on to a flick on from Torres and despite Ramis having a few yards on him, the Brazilian steams past the Spaniard before dragging a low shot just wide of the left post from the right. 70 min: A horrible miss from Jordi Gomez. He was found by a lovely chipped pass from Figueroa, but put a dismal free header well wide. The flag went up, but he was well onside. "He's cleared that," says Sky's Alan Smith. Quite. 73 min: Lampard fouls Gomez 25 yards from goal, giving Wigan a free-kick in a promising position. Though given their finishing today, I'm not sure what qualifies as promising for Wigan. 74 min: Three Wigan players, Gomez, Ramis and Figueroa, stand over the ball. And Gomez hammers a low effort straight at Cech, who did well not to spill it. 76 min: Nuri Sahin is close to signing for Arsenal. There are so many playmakers in the Premier League this season, Lee Cattermole isn't going to know what to do with himself. He's spoilt for choice. 80 min: Wigan make their final change, Ben Watson coming on for James McArthur. They've not been poor today, but really the game was over after five minutes. They've never recovered from that terrible start and Chelsea have only had to keep their concentration since then. 83 min: Chelsea bring on Raul Meireles, complete with silly haircut, for Juan Mata. 84 min: Kone misses a great chance to make it an uncomfortable finish for Chelsea, putting a free header wide from Gomez's corner from close range. He should have scored but got too much on the header to send it off target. 85 min: Wigan are finishing this strongly, Chelsea having gone to sleep. Moses reaches the byline on the left and finds Kone in the six-yard box. His instinctive prod is blocked smartly by Cech but the ball spoons up for Gomez, who puts the rebound inches wide with an acrobatic overhead kick. Frank Lampard has been booked for something or other by the way. 87 min: Torres is brought down just outside the area by a flailing leg from Watson on the right. From the resulting free-kick, Luiz's header is well saved by Al-Habsi. 89 min: Oscar's chip finds Dani Alves Ivanovic in the area, but this time he's too unselfish, opting to try and set up Torres instead of score his second goal. He gets the pass wrong and the chance is gone. 90 min: From Kone's pass, Gomez bends one a few yards wide of the right post. Wigan's finishing has been shoddy. 90 min+1: There will be three minutes of stoppage time. Full time: Wigan 0-2 Chelsea. A routine victory for Chelsea ensures Roberto Di Matteo avoids talk of the sack for at least another week. Well done to him. The European champions barely had to get out of second gear today and fully deserved their victory, the architect of which was Eden Hazard. He'll dominate the headlines after an excellent Premier League debut, setting up Branislav Ivanovic's goal, winning Frank Lampard's penalty and generally impressing with his all-round play. Oscar also sparkled when he came on. Wigan weren't bad, but were stunted by a dozy start. After that, Chelsea switched off and let them back into the game - but there was never any real prospect of them salvaging anything from it. Thanks for reading. Bye.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A hearing has been set for this week in which Mark Chapman will appeal for parole over murder of singer 32 years ago Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon 32 years ago, will have his seventh parole hearing this week, New York state's department of corrections has confirmed. A decision on whether to release him will likely be made public by the end of the week, said department spokeswoman Linda Foglia. Chapman's interviews with the parole board will take place at Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Alden, New York, where he is being held, she said. Chapman, 57, is serving a prison sentence of 20 years to life for shooting Lennon four times in the back outside the musician's New York City apartment building on 8 December, 1980. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He has come up for parole every two years since 2000 and has been turned down each time. After his last hearing in 2010, the three-member parole board cited in written comments to Chapman, the "disregard you displayed for the norms of our society and the sanctity of human life." Ahead of that hearing, the parole division received dozens of letters arguing against Chapman's release, including one from Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, who said she believed Chapman posed a risk to her, Lennon's two sons, the public and himself. Chapman was transferred in May to Wende from Attica Correctional Facility, where he had been held for 31 years. A corrections spokesman said at the time that Chapman was placed in protective custody at Wende but the reason was not made public. Wende is located in western New York state, east of Buffalo.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Several deadly strikes executed as Pakistanis celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan with the festival of Eid al-Fitr A flurry of US drone attacks pounded northern Pakistan over the weekend, killing 13 people in three separate attacks, officials and witnesses said on Sunday. The attacks came as Pakistanis celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan with the festival of Eid al-Fitr. A drone killed five people and injured two in North Waziristan early on Sunday morning, an intelligence official said. He said the death toll was based on intercepted conversations between the militants. Later on Sunday, another drone attack killed two people and injured two others near the site of the previous attack, said two intelligence officials. On Saturday, a drone attack killed six people and injured two. The dead were local Taliban and fighters from the southern province of Punjab, said security officials and a tribal source. Drone strikes are controversial in Pakistan, where many politicians condemn them as a violation of sovereignty. But the United States sees them as a key tool in the fight against terrorism.
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• Rob Smyth's covering the cricket here. 4 min: Does this mean Chelsea are going to win the league? GOAL! Wigan 0-1 Chelsea (Ivanovic, 2 min): What a start for Chelsea and what a sublime piece of skill from Eden Hazard to create the goal. There was seemingly no danger as the Belgian received a pass with his back to goal on the halfway line, only for a wonderful turn to make his marker, Ramis, look like a mug. With the entire left side of the Wigan defence going missing, he slipped a lovely pass through to the marauding Ivanovic of all people. He romped forward and then stroked a cool finish past Al-Habsi and into the bottom-right corner. Hang on, where was the countdown to kick-off? How did we know the game's started? I miss Euro 2012. It's Wigan, kicking from right to left, who manage to overcome the lack of Countdown Man, though. They keep the ball for 10 seconds, allowing their fans to boo John Terry whenever he gets a touch. That's not very Olympic and will no doubt lead to a spate of tedious think pieces from bored columnists. Here come the teams. Wigan are wearing blue tracksuits, Chelsea are in their black and yellow away kits. The menace of the tracksuit top must be eradicated from the game. What purpose do they serve? The first email. "Great to see that Brendan Rodgers' move has not stopped his teams delighting the neutrals," says schadenfreude's Gary Naylor. New season, new haircut. For Gary Neville. He's got a trendy new haircut. He's really joined the media now. He'll be getting a geek pie soon. Afternoon. There aren't many clubs at which a manager could win the Champions League and hear talk of him being sacked before the following season has even started. Such is the life of the manager at Chelsea. Such is life working for Roman Abramovich. You never know what's round the corner. It could be a new £30m superstar. It could be a boot up your backside and a P45. It must be thrilling. Life lived on the edge. It is difficult to know what to expect from Roberto Di Matteo this season. Of course, we must marvel at the outstanding way he salvaged the wreckage of Andre Villas-Boas's curious man-management, uniting the side and winning the Champions League and FA Cup. Yet this is an entirely different job. With expectations low last season, Di Matteo was able to revert to the Mourinho template. Now he has to introduce the fantasy. And sometimes there's no pleasing a fantasist. In come Eden Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin, then, with the possibility of Victor Moses, Hulk and Edinson Cavani still to come. Fernando Torres is expected to live up to his £50m reputation, supposedly liberated by stepping out of the shadow of Didier Drogba - who, lest we forget, was a huge part of everything Chelsea achieved last season. How they cope without his influence will perhaps define their season. So Chelsea are not the finished article and may need time to gel. That certainly looked to be the case against Manchester City last week, when the midfield of John Obi Mikel and Frank Lampard was made to look rather ponderous. The defence, too, looked a tad creaky, Sideshow Dave still on the verge of calamity throughout. Given the way that Wigan finished last season, it will not be a massive surprise if Chelsea struggle today. It's now seven years since Jose Mourinho's champions came to the DAVE WHELAN STADIUM, the visitors for Wigan's first ever top flight match. They weren't expected to last long and were beaten 1-0 by Hernan Crespo's brilliant late goal. Seven years later, they're still here, defying logic time and time again. Their escape last season was one of the more improbable of the modern era, as they beat both Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle to survive. Actually, scratch that: they outplayed Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle to survive. There has arguably never been a classier, more cerebral fight against relegation, Roberto Martinez's innovative 3-4-3 formation flummoxing loftier opponents. Wigan do tend to start slowly but for once have not been disrupted in the transfer market. It bodes well. Team news: Chelsea target Victor Moses starts for Wigan. Otherwise they are as expected, with their new striker Arouna Kone on the bench. Chelsea give Eden Hazard a first league start, while the impressive Ryan Bertrand replaces Ramires, who is ill. Oscar is on the bench. Wigan: Al Habsi; Boyce, Alcaraz, Caldwell, Figueroa; Maloney, McArthur, McCarthy, Ramis, Moses; Di Santo. Subs: Pollitt, Kone, Jones, Crusat, Watson, Gomez, Boselli. Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, A.Cole; Lampard, Mikel; Hazard, Mata, Bertrand; Torres. Subs: Turnbull, Cahill, Ferreira, Essien, Meireles, Oscar, Sturridge. Referee: Mike Jones.
Kick-off: 1.30pm.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Islamic militants target victims at wake of murdered colleague hours after gunmen attack Dagestan mosque A suicide bomber has killed seven police officers at the funeral of a colleague in Ingushetia in Russia's north Caucasus region, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in Dagestan, wounding eight people. The officers were killed and 10 others wounded when the bomber attacked a wake being held on Sunday for a colleague shot a day earlier in the Malgobek district of Ingushetia, news agencies reported. "A suicide bomber went into the courtyard of a private home, where police officers had come to offer condolences to their late colleague, and activated a bomb device attached to a belt," detectives told the Interfax news agency. The blast came hours after masked assailants opened fire in a mosque in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, wounding eight Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan. A man who was injured in the attack said about 50 people were in the building at the time. "We were sitting, just finished our prayer and wanted to break our fast," said Rukhit Samedov, wearing a blood-stained T-shirt and cradling a bandaged hand. "People just sat down, started eating, and the door opened and there was shooting from automatic guns. They wore masks and some sort of camouflage." Police said they were working to deactivate bombs left by the attackers at the mosque. "Eight people have been admitted to the hospital. Five of them are in the trauma unit, three are in intensive care. Two of those are in a very grave condition," the Khasavyurt hospital said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Syrian president attends Eid prayers in a Damascus mosque as thousands hold anti-government protests across country Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has attended Eid prayers in a mosque in Damascus, his first appearance in public after a bombing in the Syrian capital last month that killed the defence minister and three other top security officials. Elsewhere across Syria on Sunday, thousands held anti-government protests in mosques and cemeteries to mark Eid al-Fitr, a holiday when pious Muslims traditionally visit graves and pray for the dead. The three-day holiday marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which was particularly deadly in Syria as the 18-month-old uprising reached the country's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Amateur video posted by activists on the internet showed a large group of worshippers in a mosque at al-Zahera district in Damascus shouting: "There is no God but Allah and Assad is the enemy of God," while clapping their hands over their heads. "May God protect the Free Syrian Army!" they also cried, referring to the main rebel group fighting to topple Assad. Syrians also protested in many other parts of the country, demanding freedom and calling for Assad to go. Opposition groups reported fierce artillery shelling that targeted a main cemetery in the rebel-held town of Rastan, north of the central city of Homs, as people visited the graves of dead relatives, but the reports could not be independently confirmed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one woman was killed in the shelling on Rastan. Meanwhile, Syrian state TV broadcast footage showing Assad praying at the city's Rihab al-Hamad mosque, a relatively small mosque in al-Muhajireen district only a few hundred metres from the presidential palace, to mark the start of Eid. Residents of Damascus said security forces blocked streets and encircled several central mosques in the capital on Saturday evening, possibly to confuse people about where Assad would attend the traditional holiday prayers. Unlike previous years, Assad was not shown arriving or leaving in his convoy – only seated on the mosque floor, wearing a suit and tie, and later, standing and briefly shaking hands with officials. "All this points to a state of confusion and lack of confidence at the leadership level," said Syria-based activist Mohammad Saeed. "It shows they don't have security in the capital under control." The last time Assad appeared in public was on 4 July, when he gave a speech in parliament. Since then, there has been a sharp escalation in the civil war with almost daily fighting in some districts of the capital between security forces and rebels seeking to topple Assad. The Syrian regime has suffered a series of setbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on the country. The 18 July rebel bombing of the state security headquarters in the capital was a major blow to Assad. His brother-in-law was among the four officials killed. There has also been a steady stream of high-level defections by government officials, diplomats and generals, though Assad's inner-circle and military have largely kept their cohesive stance behind him. And the regime has been unable to fully subdue rebel challenges in the two major cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Assad's appearance comes amid much speculation on the whereabouts of Syria's vice president, Farouk al-Sharaa, who was said by some members of the Free Syrian Army to have defected to the opposition. On Saturday, his office denied the reports and said Sharaa "did not think, at any moment, of leaving the country". Sharaa did not appear in the footage at the mosque with Assad, but observers note the two rarely attend the same functions for security reasons.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Up to 31 people including at least one Sudanese minister killed as plane crashes in south of the country Up to 31 people including at least one Sudanese minister were killed when a plane taking them to an Islamic festival crashed in the south of the country. The plane went down into mountains around Talodi, a town in the border state of South Kordofan, while bringing a government delegation there to celebrate the festival marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the state news agency Suna said. Twenty-six passengers were killed, it added, and the dead included ministers but did not name them. Abdel Hafiz Abdel Rahim, a civil aviation spokesman, told Reuters 31 people were killed including the crew, but had no details about their identities. The Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya said the plane was carrying the guidance and endowments minister, Khalil Abdalla. Al Jazeera reported two ministers had been on board, but did not name them. Citing Sudanese authorities, Al Jazeera reported that security personnel and a media team were also killed in the crash. It did not say whether the plane involved belonged to the state-owned Sudan Airways or another carrier. There have been several crashes in recent years involving Sudan Airways, which has been worn down by years of US sanctions and other issues. A cargo plane crashed when it was taking off in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and another cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Khartoum in 2008. Oil-producing South Kordofan borders South Sudan, which seceded more than a year ago. The border state has been at the centre of an insurgency since shortly before South Sudan's independence. Sudan's government accused rebels of killing a state official and seven other people there in July. A spokesman for the main rebel group in the area, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, said it had nothing to do with the plane crash on Sunday.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Islamic militants target victims at wake of murdered colleague a day after gunmen attack Dagestan mosque A suicide bomber killed seven police officers at the funeral of a colleague in Ingushetia in Russia's north Caucasus region, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in Dagestan, wounding eight people. The seven policemen were killed and 10 others wounded when the suicide bomber attacked a wake being held on Sunday for a fellow officer shot a day earlier in the Malgobek district of Ingushetia, news agencies reported. "A suicide bomber went into the courtyard of a private home, where police officers had come to offer condolences to their late colleague and activated a bomb device attached to a belt," local investigators told the Interfax news agency. The bombing came hours after masked assailants opened fire in a mosque in Khasavyurt, in Dagestan, wounding eight Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan. A man who was injured in the attack said around 50 people were in the mosque at the time. "We were sitting, just finished our prayer and wanted to break our fast," said Rukhit Samedov, wearing a blood stained T-shirt and cradling a bandaged hand. "People just sat down, started eating, and the door opened and there was shooting from automatic guns," he said. "They wore masks and some sort of camouflage." Police said they were working to deactivate bombs left by the attackers at the mosque. "Eight people have been admitted to the hospital. Five of them are in the trauma unit, three are in intensive care. Two of those are in a very grave condition," the Khasavyurt hospital said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Join Ben Quinn for all the latest developments and reaction as the diplomatic impasse between Britain and Ecuador over the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder continues
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three car bombings close to security buildings in Tripoli are the first deadly attacks since Muammar Gaddafi's fall last year At least two people were killed when three car bombs exploded near interior ministry and security buildings in the Libyan capital on Sunday, the first lethal attack of its kind since Muammar Gaddafi's fall last year, security sources said.
Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scenes of the blasts and large numbers of police cordoned off the sites before starting to remove the damaged vehicles. The first bomb blew up near the interior ministry's administrative offices in Tripoli but caused no casualties, the sources said. On arriving at the site of the explosion, police found another car bomb that had not blown up. Minutes later, two car bombs exploded near the former headquarters of a women's police academy, which the defence ministry has been using for interrogations and detentions, the sources said, killing two people, both civilians, and wounding two. The buildings targeted by the bombers are in residential areas at the heart of the capital, Tripoli. The blasts took place early in the morning as worshippers prepared for mass morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim celebration that marks the end of the fasting month Ramadan. Sporadic violence has remained a problem in Libya despite the peaceful transfer of power to the new government after elections in July, the first in decades following the overthrow last year of Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years in power. The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it was suspending its activities in Benghazi, Libya's second biggest city, and Misrata after one of its compounds in Misrata was attacked with grenades and rockets. The fate of seven Iranian relief workers, official guests of the Libyan Red Crescent Association, remains unknown almost three weeks after they were kidnapped by gunmen in the heart of Benghazi.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Activists make an unauthorised landing on Uotsuri Island as diplomatic row over the territory escalates with China Japanese activists have swum ashore and raised flags on one of a group of islands at the centre of an escalating territorial dispute with China.
The coast guard in southern Japan's Okinawa prefecture said nine or 10 activists had made an unauthorised landing on Uotsuri Island, part of the small archipelago known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu. The uninhabited islands surrounded by rich fishing grounds are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. Plans for Sunday's visit drew a protest from China's foreign ministry. "Any unilateral action taken by Japan on the islands is illegal and invalid," it said in a statement issued Saturday. Days earlier, a group of 14 Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese had travelled by boat to the islands, and some swam ashore. Japan arrested them on Wednesday for landing without authorisation, and sought to quiet the regional spat by quickly deporting the group Friday. Plans for further visits by activists on both sides appear likely to further inflame the territorial tensions. The coast guard did not identify by name those who landed on Uotsuri Island on Sunday. They were members of a group of ultra-conservative parliamentarians and local politicians who were visiting waters off the disputed islands over the weekend to mourn for the victims of a boat accident near there at the end of World War II. "Four days ago there was an illegal landing of Chinese people on the island as such we need to solidly reaffirm our own territory," said Koichi Mukoyama, a lawmaker who was among seven conservative parliamentarians aboard a boat in the flotilla of some 20 vessels that travelled to the islands. Photos from Japan's Kyodo News Agency showed several men and a woman, in street clothes still wet from swimming ashore, brandishing the Japanese flag atop rocks on the shore of the uninhabited island. Last week's visit by the Chinese activists raised calls by critics of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government to take stronger action to protect the islands. Protesters in Beijing, Hong Kong and other cities praised the activists as heroes and burned Japanese flags. Japan says it has controlled the five main islands for more than 100 years. It has been trying to place four that are privately held under state ownership to bolster its territorial claim.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrical accident aged 26, said the swim was the hardest he has ever done A French swimmer without legs and arms has successfully swum the freezing waters separating Alaska and Russia with the aid of paddle-like prosthetics. Philippe Croizon, whose limbs were amputated after a 1994 electrical accident at age 26, completed his swim late on Friday from Alaska's Little Diomede Island to the Russian maritime border near Big Diomede Island. Croizon's website said the expected direct distance of the swim was to be about 2.5 miles (4km). Croizon had intended to swim all the way to the shoreline of Big Diomede, but regional Russian authorities denied him permission to enter the territory, expedition representatives said. His swim to Russian waters took about an hour and 15 minutes, Marc Gaviard, coordinator for the expedition, said in a telephone interview from Little Diomede. Croizon uses paddle-like prosthetics to swim, and has completed crossings of the English Channel, the Red Sea and other major waterways. His Bering Strait swim was the last in a series of expeditions across waterways that separate continents, according to Handicap International, the nonprofit organisation that helped organise Croizon's Alaska undertaking. Even though the swim was shorter than originally intended, it turned out to be extremely challenging, Gaviard said. "Philippe said it was the hardest thing he ever did, even harder than crossing the English Channel," Gaviard said. When he had finished, "He was totally out of energy," Gaviard said. The water was very cold, about 4 degrees Celsius, or 39 degrees Fahrenheit, he said. "He basically put on a couple of wetsuits instead of just one," Gaviard said. The water was very choppy, with swells of 6 to 8 feet (1.8-2.4m), Gaviard said, and heavy fog made navigation difficult for Croizon, his swimming partner and the four vessels escorting them. "You could see that we were going in a zigzag," Gaviard said Expedition members used GPS technology to determine when they had reached the maritime border between Alaska and Russia, Gaviard said. After that, Croizon boarded one of the vessels and rode back to Little Diomede, he said. The expedition members remained on the rocky Alaska island but planned to fly to Anchorage when weather allowed, Gaviard said. After that, Croizon plans to travel to London to work as a radio and television commentator during the Paralympics, he said. Croizon, who was seeking to raise awareness of the abilities of handicapped people, is the second person to swim the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russian territory. In 1987, American long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox accomplished that feat for the first time.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fifty years ago, a book by Thomas Kuhn altered the way we look at the philosophy behind science, as well as introducing the much abused phrase 'paradigm shift' Fifty years ago this month, one of the most influential books of the 20th century was published by the University of Chicago Press. Many if not most lay people have probably never heard of its author, Thomas Kuhn, or of his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, but their thinking has almost certainly been influenced by his ideas. The litmus test is whether you've ever heard or used the term "paradigm shift", which is probably the most used – and abused – term in contemporary discussions of organisational change and intellectual progress. A Google search for it returns more than 10 million hits, for example. And it currently turns up inside no fewer than 18,300 of the books marketed by Amazon. It is also one of the most cited academic books of all time. So if ever a big idea went viral, this is it. The real measure of Kuhn's importance, however, lies not in the infectiousness of one of his concepts but in the fact that he singlehandedly changed the way we think about mankind's most organised attempt to understand the world. Before Kuhn, our view of science was dominated by philosophical ideas about how it ought to develop ("the scientific method"), together with a heroic narrative of scientific progress as "the addition of new truths to the stock of old truths, or the increasing approximation of theories to the truth, and in the odd case, the correction of past errors", as the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy puts it. Before Kuhn, in other words, we had what amounted to the Whig interpretation of scientific history, in which past researchers, theorists and experimenters had engaged in a long march, if not towards "truth", then at least towards greater and greater understanding of the natural world. Kuhn's version of how science develops differed dramatically from the Whig version. Where the standard account saw steady, cumulative "progress", he saw discontinuities – a set of alternating "normal" and "revolutionary" phases in which communities of specialists in particular fields are plunged into periods of turmoil, uncertainty and angst. These revolutionary phases – for example the transition from Newtonian mechanics to quantum physics – correspond to great conceptual breakthroughs and lay the basis for a succeeding phase of business as usual. The fact that his version seems unremarkable now is, in a way, the greatest measure of his success. But in 1962 almost everything about it was controversial because of the challenge it posed to powerful, entrenched philosophical assumptions about how science did – and should – work. What made it worse for philosophers of science was that Kuhn wasn't even a philosopher: he was a physicist, dammit. Born in 1922 in Cincinnati, he studied physics at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude in 1943, after which he was swept up by the war effort to work on radar. He returned to Harvard after the war to do a PhD – again in physics – which he obtained in 1949. He was then elected into the university's elite Society of Fellows and might have continued to work on quantum physics until the end of his days had he not been commissioned to teach a course on science for humanities students as part of the General Education in Science curriculum. This was the brainchild of Harvard's reforming president, James Conant, who believed that every educated person should know something about science. The course was centred around historical case studies and teaching it forced Kuhn to study old scientific texts in detail for the first time. (Physicists, then as now, don't go in much for history.) Kuhn's encounter with the scientific work of Aristotle turned out to be a life- and career-changing epiphany. "The question I hoped to answer," he recalled later, "was how much mechanics Aristotle had known, how much he had left for people such as Galileo and Newton to discover. Given that formulation, I rapidly discovered that Aristotle had known almost no mechanics at all… that conclusion was standard and it might in principle have been right. But I found it bothersome because, as I was reading him, Aristotle appeared not only ignorant of mechanics, but a dreadfully bad physical scientist as well. About motion, in particular, his writings seemed to me full of egregious errors, both of logic and of observation." What Kuhn had run up against was the central weakness of the Whig interpretation of history. By the standards of present-day physics, Aristotle looks like an idiot. And yet we know he wasn't. Kuhn's blinding insight came from the sudden realisation that if one is to understand Aristotelian science, one must know about the intellectual tradition within which Aristotle worked. One must understand, for example, that for him the term "motion" meant change in general – not just the change in position of a physical body, which is how we think of it. Or, to put it in more general terms, to understand scientific development one must understand the intellectual frameworks within which scientists work. That insight is the engine that drives Kuhn's great book. Kuhn remained at Harvard until 1956 and, having failed to get tenure, moved to the University of California at Berkeley where he wrote Structure… and was promoted to a professorship in 1961. The following year, the book was published by the University of Chicago Press. Despite the 172 pages of the first edition, Kuhn – in his characteristic, old-world scholarly style – always referred to it as a mere "sketch". He would doubtless have preferred to have written an 800-page doorstop. But in the event, the readability and relative brevity of the "sketch" was a key factor in its eventual success. Although the book was a slow starter, selling only 919 copies in 1962-3, by mid-1987 it had sold 650,000 copies and sales to date now stand at 1.4 million copies. For a cerebral work of this calibre, these are Harry Potter-scale numbers. Kuhn's central claim is that a careful study of the history of science reveals that development in any scientific field happens via a series of phases. The first he christened "normal science" – business as usual, if you like. In this phase, a community of researchers who share a common intellectual framework – called a paradigm or a "disciplinary matrix" – engage in solving puzzles thrown up by discrepancies (anomalies) between what the paradigm predicts and what is revealed by observation or experiment. Most of the time, the anomalies are resolved either by incremental changes to the paradigm or by uncovering observational or experimental error. As philosopher Ian Hacking puts it in his terrific preface to the new edition of Structure: "Normal science does not aim at novelty but at clearing up the status quo. It tends to discover what it expects to discover." The trouble is that over longer periods unresolved anomalies accumulate and eventually get to the point where some scientists begin to question the paradigm itself. At this point, the discipline enters a period of crisis characterised by, in Kuhn's words, "a proliferation of compelling articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals". In the end, the crisis is resolved by a revolutionary change in world-view in which the now-deficient paradigm is replaced by a newer one. This is the paradigm shift of modern parlance and after it has happened the scientific field returns to normal science, based on the new framework. And so it goes on. This brutal summary of the revolutionary process does not do justice to the complexity and subtlety of Kuhn's thinking. To appreciate these, you have to read his book. But it does perhaps indicate why Structure… came as such a bombshell to the philosophers and historians who had pieced together the Whig interpretation of scientific progress. As an illustration, take Kuhn's portrayal of "normal" science. The most influential philosopher of science in 1962 was Karl Popper, described by Hacking as "the most widely read, and to some extent believed, by practising scientists". Popper summed up the essence of "the" scientific method in the title of one of his books: Conjectures and Refutations. According to Popper, real scientists (as opposed to, say, psychoanalysts) were distinguished by the fact that they tried to refute rather than confirm their theories. And yet Kuhn's version suggested that the last thing normal scientists seek to do is to refute the theories embedded in their paradigm! Many people were also enraged by Kuhn's description of most scientific activity as mere "puzzle-solving" – as if mankind's most earnest quest for knowledge was akin to doing the Times crossword. But in fact these critics were over-sensitive. A puzzle is something to which there is a solution. That doesn't mean that finding it is easy or that it will not require great ingenuity and sustained effort. The unconscionably expensive quest for the Higgs boson that has recently come to fruition at Cern, for example, is a prime example of puzzle-solving because the existence of the particle was predicted by the prevailing paradigm, the so-called "standard model" of particle physics. But what really set the cat among the philosophical pigeons was one implication of Kuhn's account of the process of paradigm change. He argued that competing paradigms are "incommensurable": that is to say, there exists no objective way of assessing their relative merits. There's no way, for example, that one could make a checklist comparing the merits of Newtonian mechanics (which applies to snooker balls and planets but not to anything that goes on inside the atom) and quantum mechanics (which deals with what happens at the sub-atomic level). But if rival paradigms are really incommensurable, then doesn't that imply that scientific revolutions must be based – at least in part – on irrational grounds? In which case, are not the paradigm shifts that we celebrate as great intellectual breakthroughs merely the result of outbreaks of mob psychology? Kuhn's book spawned a whole industry of commentary, interpretation and exegesis. His emphasis on the importance of communities of scientists clustered round a shared paradigm essentially triggered the growth of a new academic discipline – the sociology of science – in which researchers began to examine scientific disciplines much as anthropologists studied exotic tribes, and in which science was regarded not as a sacred, untouchable product of the Enlightenment but as just another subculture. As for his big idea – that of a "paradigm" as an intellectual framework that makes research possible –well, it quickly escaped into the wild and took on a life of its own. Hucksters, marketers and business school professors adopted it as a way of explaining the need for radical changes of world-view in their clients. And social scientists saw the adoption of a paradigm as a route to respectability and research funding, which in due course led to the emergence of pathological paradigms in fields such as economics, which came to esteem mastery of mathematics over an understanding of how banking actually works, with the consequences that we now have to endure. The most intriguing idea, however, is to use Kuhn's thinking to interpret his own achievement. In his quiet way, he brought about a conceptual revolution by triggering a shift in our understanding of science from a Whiggish paradigm to a Kuhnian one, and much of what is now done in the history and philosophy of science might be regarded as "normal" science within the new paradigm. But already the anomalies are beginning to accumulate. Kuhn, like Popper, thought that science was mainly about theory, but an increasing amount of cutting-edge scientific research is data- rather than theory-driven. And while physics was undoubtedly the Queen of the Sciences when Structure… was being written, that role has now passed to molecular genetics and biotechnology. Does Kuhn's analysis hold good for these new areas of science? And if not, isn't it time for a paradigm shift? In the meantime, if you're making a list of books to read before you die, Kuhn's masterwork is one.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A lot has changed in the four years since we heard from brooding singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. She's spending a lot less time on the dark side, she says, over tequila shots at her Miami condo, and her new album proves it For an artist renowned for her madness and sadness, it's surprising just how downright saucy Chan Marshall is. "You're using your teeth!" she crows when I suck a wedge of post-tequila shot lime. "I'm jus' kiddin' – you're suckin' – I'm just kiddin'." It's late and we're in a fabulously tacky Miami Beach bar, the kind where the umbrella-bedecked drinks are wearing more clothes than the clientele. This night began when, hours after I had interviewed Marshall in her beachside condo, I answered my phone to a hammy cockney voice talking nonsense. When I asked who it was she'd answered: "Your worst nightmare – get your dancing shoes on." As far as drinking companions go, Marshall is the opposite of a nightmare – she buys rounds, proffers cigarettes and charms and disarms a swelling crowd of strangers with her irrepressible shimmying around the dancefloor. Tonight, she's the life and soul, but the more common image of her is as tortured singer-songwriter Cat Power, an emotionally intense, psychologically fragile artist who for the past 17 years has bewitched fans with a voice that prompted the New Yorker, in 2007, to deem her "a conjurer" worthy of comparison with Patti Smith and Nina Simone. Back in 2005, at university, I walked into a stairwell flooded with the sound of 1998's Moon Pix, Marshall's fourth album and the one that ensnared a legion of ardent fans. Her voice stopped me in my tracks. The body of that album was written during one night spent alone, hallucinating in a South Carolina farmhouse, and it sounds like it – a keening, sad, dark, confused nightmare of a record, as gorgeous as it is unsettling. The friend playing it at full volume was, like seemingly every other boy in my year, hopelessly in love with her. But it's a fallacy that the best music always comes out of anguish. Six years after her last collection of original material, Marshall is finally about to release a new album, and the shock is not just that Sun is her best yet, but that it is also the most jubilant. When we first meet, we sit on the roof terrace of her Miami Beach condo. Or, rather, I sit, while, like a little girl arranging a play house, she fusses happily with a rug and table for our drinks, narrating all the while in a breathless logorrhoea. She seems childlike now, but on the album, which she produced and on which she plays every note of every instrument, she sounds like an artist in supreme control of her gifts. Finally settled with tequila and cigarettes, I tell her this. She takes a drag and slowly, grimly shakes her head. "Thank God," she exhales. "It was very trying. It was totally a challenge." But she admits that she's done much less "shaking hands with the dark side" on this one. Marshall has always used the word "triumphant" to describe her music, which, hearing the raw sorrow of her first three albums, seemed ridiculous. Now she's made an album that fits the description. Even the most plaintively titled track, Always On My Own, has at its heart an affirmative "I want to live my way of living" attitude. That sentiment is magnified on the album's penultimate song, a joyfully unspooling 11 minutes titled Nothing But Time, on which she exults: "It's up to you/ To be a superhero/ It's up to you/ To be like nobody." There are shouts of "they wanna live!" in the background before Iggy Pop joins her in the refrain: "The world is just beginning." When she talks about her triumphs, her words come in staccato, elliptical bursts, and it can be a struggle to keep up. "[I have been] empowering myself to realise that no other human, no matter who it is, can invalidate my way of thinking. I'm triumphing over all the different ways in my life I've been invalidated and I can still smile and laugh and know that in my heart I'm making the right choices for myself. Maybe somebody else doesn't agree but that's not my problem." And then she stops and a child-like smile creeps on to her face. Why is she laughing? "Because I don't know what I'm saying! We're born and we die alone, I guess. So you have to take care of yourself." Is she better at doing that now? "I'm better at understanding that I have to. I always thought I was going to pass away or whatever. I used to wish I had a lobotomy. But I don't want to pass away any more. I want to keep [she drops her head and claps her hands twice above her in the air, smartly, like she's sealing a spell] living." She once said that all creativity comes from a place where we don't have love and she's standing by that. "Because," she says, upping her southern twang, "if we had love we'd be busy fucken'!" I wonder whether not having love is a perverse sort of blessing, in terms of yielding songs such as these. She frowns. "You crazy? Love is much better than creativity!" So if she had to choose between never writing a song again and… "Love!" she cries before I can finish. "You kiddin' me?" Most of Sun was made while Marshall was with actor Giovanni Ribisi. He ended their relationship of three years in March this year with a phone call. Four months later, he married model Agyness Deyn. At one point, she says "my boyfriend" and corrects herself to "my ex". Later, she begins: "Since the break-up…", but is characteristically derailed by another thought. Marshall had moved to LA in 2009 to be with him and his teenage daughter, with whom she's particularly close, and in interviews conducted during this time she'd talked about how much she was enjoying being a mother. Her relationship with her own mother has been volatile. Charlyn Marie Marshall was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1972 to Myra Lee and Charlie Marshall, a blues musician. She and her younger sister, Miranda, had an unstable and itinerant childhood, suffering their parents' alcoholism, mental health problems and divorce. Marshall finally settled back in Atlanta, where she worked in a pizza parlour called Fellini's for three years and gained local fame as the hottie behind the counter. In 1992, she moved to New York with her friend, the late musician Glen Thrasher, through whom she experienced the more avant garde edges of the city's rock scene. Two years later, she recorded 20 songs in a single day, and they formed her first two albums, 1995's Dear Sir and 1996's Myra Lee. Later in 1996 she signed to Matador and released the acclaimed What Would the Community Think. From there on her stardom was assured, even if her feelings about it were anything but. "First interview," she explains. "Bam. I didn't want to do it. Didn't know where I was, what was going on. Losing my mind. Thoughts of Satan and all that shit. Control and oppression. Secrets, lies, blah blah blah." She remembers hiding in a hotel room bed while a 17-year-old fanzine editor waited anxiously to talk to her. "Eventually, I just say [to the fan], 'I just wanna fucking kill myself!' And then she turns to me, and she's full of anger and sobbing, and she says, 'If you give up, then I give up'. When she told me that, it was a transference of self… I just had to help her." She hasn't always dealt with her fans' emotional hunger so simply. Her notoriously irregular live shows reached their nadir in a well-documented performance at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom in 1999. Prostrate and foetal on the floor of the auditorium, she sang the dirge-like Cross Bones Style with her nose pressed into the ground, while fans gathered round her awkwardly, stroking her and murmuring consolations. She admits that it's taken her years even to believe in her fans' existence, let alone their love for her. "It's out of fear of rejection. Because I went to so many different schools and I was always the outsider. You know, the new kid who doesn't have friends." The song I Don't Blame You, from 2003's You Are Free, has been taken as a rejection of fans' demands, specifically the lines: "They never owned it/ And you never owed it to them anyway." Online message boards have been filled with speculation over who it's about – Marshall herself or some other fame-troubled singer? "I've never told anybody this," she says, "but that is about Kurt Cobain. It's about him blowing his head off." That song is not her only moment of Cobain kinship. Hate takes the title of a Nirvana track for its refrain – "I hate myself and I want to die" – and it's the bleakest moment on 2006's The Greatest, her soul-soaked and languorous seventh album. Recorded with the feted Memphis Rhythm Band, it brims with a resigned, hard-won peace. And yet weeks before the record's release, and with her label preparing for her stardom to go stratospheric, she suffered a psychotic breakdown and was hospitalised. She's been on medication for bipolar disorder since then. All of which somehow makes improbable her confession that she would like to be a comedian, specifically a performer on Saturday Night Live. "I've been trying for years," she says. "Kristen Wiig's gone now so… I'll just have to lose a bunch of weight. She got so skinny." The next night, I get a text message: "Shelborne Hotel NOW!!! KARAOKE!!!!" Once again, Marshall orders rounds and rounds of tequila and sodas, pushing them up and down the bar towards people while chain-smoking from a packet stashed in a cowboyish black leather holster. Hours later, the party moves to beside her pool and some of that southern hospitality kicks in as she bustles around lending swimsuits and assembling a tray of drinks and snacks. At some point – bottles of tequila drunk, joints smoked – her iPod speakers are casting Nina Simone's Wild is the Wind, a song that Marshall has covered, out into the sultry Miami night. "For we're creatures of the wind," Simone sings, "and wild is the wind," and then, by some uncanny magic, the palm trees begin to stir and the night erupts into a rainstorm. Rods of water begin hammering the surface of the pool, but Marshall can't be persuaded indoors. She remains sitting between those palm trees in the turquoise pool light, cross-legged, rocking back and forth, smoking in the rain.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jacob Zuma is criticised as former ANC youth leader says the president sided with mine owner when 34 were killed They were there in their thousands, leaning against tin shacks or sitting in the dusty veld: miners and their wives still looking for answers after a massacre by South African police that left 34 striking workers dead. A red T-shirt worn by a rally organiser seemed to offer one, stating: "Fuck capitalism." The huge crowd erupted as a charismatic young politician, Julius Malema, took the microphone. He is seen by some as a dangerous demagogue, but to the grieving, angry community at the Lonmin mine in Marikana he came as a messiah offering a radical future. "The British are owning this mine," he said. "The British are making money out of this mine ... It is not the British who were killed. It is our black brothers. But it is not these brothers who are mourned by the president. Instead he goes to meet capitalists in air-conditioned offices." Malema was expelled this year as president of the youth wing of the governing African National Congress after falling out with President Jacob Zuma, whom he accuses of failing to challenge "white monopoly capital". He has since been in the political wilderness; once contemptuous of the media, he now courts it. As the Marikana tragedy lays bare discontent over inequalities 18 years after apartheid, he senses his moment. "President Zuma said to the police they must act with maximum force. He did not say act with restraint. He presided over the murder of our people and therefore he must step down. Not even apartheid government killed so many people ... From today, when you are asked 'Who is your president', you must say 'I don't have a president'." There were cheers from people whose votes the ANC can no longer take for granted after 18 years in government. It was the promises of a militant union that stirred violence at Marikana, where the ANC-aligned National Union of Mineworkers has been losing support. Malema hopes this will be mirrored on the national stage, where he accuses the ANC of failing to pursue economic freedom as it did political freedom, leaving millions of black people poor and disenfranchised. He wants mines to be seized from private companies and nationalised. The call appears to be gaining traction in Marikana, where workers are demanding from Lonmin, whose HQ is in London, a wage increase from 4,000 rand (£300) to 12,500 rand a month. "Lonmin treat us like dogs," said Thembelani Khonto, 24. "When you're underground, it's like you're a slave and they don't know you. But on the surface people who don't do anything in offices are earning more than us." Siphiwo Gqala, 25, said he sometimes spends up to 14 hours a day underground but does not receive overtime pay. "It's dangerous work," he said. "Sometimes you go down there and a rock falls and you die. Big vehicles can come and kill you." Recalling Thursday's massacre, he said: "I've never seen something like that: people killed like chickens. One of my friends is still missing. I don't know if he's in the hospital or the mortuary." The impact on the community will be far-reaching, added Gqala, who lives in a shack because house rentals are too high. "Women come here from Eastern Cape with their husbands, who are the breadwinners. If someone has five children, how will they live? I have two young brothers depending on me. What if I die? Who's going to look after them?" The conditions leave people like Gqala looking for radical solutions. "The mine must be nationalised. We support Julius Malema and the youth league for saying the mines must be nationalised. Now they're starting to shoot us. If we die today, all of us must die: we no longer want to work here." Two days after the shooting, in which 34 people died and 78 were injured, many families are still waiting to learn the miners' fate. A casualty list has still not been published and there is little information on who is dead, injured or under arrest. Wives have been turned away from local clinics and hospitals. A 22-year-old woman, who did not wish to be named, had lost a loved one in the shooting. "He was shot in cold blood," she said. "My tears have not dried; I cried all day. I'm worried about things like who's going to feed the kids he left behind. No one is going to give the love to his children like their father." Elizabeth Makana, 48, a widow whose brother-in-law was wounded, said: "They treat the miners like dogs. The miners take the risk to dig platinum, but the people who sit in offices make the money." Lonmin defended its treatment of mine workers. A community development brochure published by the company describes extensive health, education, infrastructure and economic projects in the area. Spokesman James Clark said: "We absolutely recognise the hugely positive relationship we have with communities living in the area and doing the best we can for them and their families goes to the heart of our business. It's why we do so much around health and education, but we're not complacent. We do the best we can and try to do better every time." That will not satisfy Malema and his constituency, however, who argue that the ANC has been too moderate for too long, bending the knee to western corporations. Flashpoints like Marikana expose the fissures in a party that contains capitalists and communists. Aubrey Matshiqi, a research fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation, said: "I think the people of Marikana, particularly the miners, see themselves as the manifestation of the gap between mineral wealth and socioeconomic conditions. The death of so many miners has amplified the extent to which Julius Malema's views on mine nationalisation resonate with the people in the area." He added: "You have the ANC that some people believe has been too pragmatic and sold out and bent over backwards for foreign capital at the expense of the people. Julius Malema suggests that a better life for all would be possible under someone like him. If he is wrong, you will have populism and disappointment that will lead to conflict."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | MLS: Live minute-by-minute coverage as Seattle Sounders take on Vancouver Whitecaps in a clash of Western play-off contenders
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Several global banks are facing scrutiny from New York and federal regulators for alleged business with sanctioned Iran US prosecutors are investigating Deutsche Bank and several other global banks over business linked to Iran, Sudan and other nations currently under international sanctions, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The US justice department and the Manhattan district attorney's office are investigating the banks for allegedly using US branches to move billions of dollars in Iran-linked transactions, according to the report, citing unnamed law enforcement officials. The investigation into Deutsche Bank is at an early stage and so far there is no suspicion the Germany-based institution moved money on behalf of Iranian clients through American operations after 2008, when a policy loophole allowing such maneuvering closed, the Times reported. Deutsche Bank decided in 2007 it would "not engage in new business with counterparties in countries such as Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea and to exit existing business to the extent legally possible," a spokesman told Reuters on Saturday. He declined to comment further. The Manhattan district attorney's office and US justice department declined to comment. The US Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report of the Deutsche Bank probe came days after a settlement for $340m with New York's banking regulator and Britain's Standard Chartered Plc. The Manhattan district attorney and federal authorities have not yet settled their probes of the bank. That deal with New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky was done without agreement with the Manhattan district attorney's office and federal authorities. Reuters has learned that Lawsky ignored the entreaties of federal regulators to drop his own action in favor of a single, global settlement. Although winning a larger settlement than many thought possible, others say Lawsky's tactics have alienated federal officials and could make it tougher for him to partner with them on future cases. Since 2009 the Manhattan district attorney, treasury department, justice department and other agencies have entered into settlements with a handful of foreign banks including Credit Suisse, Lloyds and most recently ING, totaling roughly $1.8 billion. Authorities have said in the past that other foreign banks are under investigation.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Additional video reveals some circumstances surrounding the shooting death of a handcuffed suspect, but questions remain Police footage taken from the night officers say a suspect in Arkansas managed to fatally shoot himself in the head – despite having his hands cuffed behind his back – has failed to remove questions over the incident. Chavis Carter died in the back of a patrol car on 28 July after being picked up in a traffic stop in Jonesboro during which drugs were discovered in the vehicle. The 21-year-old black man had been searched twice by officers, but a handgun that officers say the suspect later used to shoot himself was not found. Questions have also been raised as to how the left-handed Carter was able to deliver a fatal shot to his right temple while in restraints. On Friday, following a Freedom of Information Act request by multiple news organizations, police released footage of the immediate aftermath of Carter's death. They had earlier handed over a video taken before the suspect's body was discovered. But that first video failed to provide any answers to the dead man's family, who claim that he was killed by police. Chavis died from a single gunshot wound to the head. He had earlier been detained – alongside two other suspects – by officers searching for drugs in the back of a truck they had noticed parked on the street with its lights on. Having found a set of scales giving off a strong smell of marijuana, and a bag containing a white substance, a check was run on Carter revealing an outstanding warrant for the Mississippi resident, according to copy of the police report posted online. The suspect was then handcuffed with his hands behind his back and led to the back seat of a patrol car. It was while in restraints and in the rear of the police car that Carter is alleged to have shot himself. In an apparent copy of the official incident report posted online by TheGrio.com, an officer states that he heard a "loud thump and a metallic sound" while speaking to the two other suspects. But he said he dismissed it as the sound of a car driving over a piece of metal on the roadway. It was only after the two other suspects were sent away that Carter's body was discovered, one officer recorded. "We went to the rear passenger side door, opened it and I observed Carter in a sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap. "There was a large amount of blood on the front oh his shirt, pants, seats and floor. His hands were cuffed behind his back." The incident has raised questions, not least over how officers apparently failed to find the gun on Carter during an initial search. It has also been considered suspicious that the suspect died as a result of a gunshot wound to the right temple, as Carter was left handed and handcuffed at the time. The dead man's mother, Teresa Carter, has accused police of a cover up. Amid growing media interest in the case, police agreed to release footage from a dashboard camera that captured events leading up to Carter's death. It shows the suspect being led to a patrol car. But it failed to provide any clues as to what happened after he was put in the vehicle. "There's still nothing in there about what actually happened with Chavis," Benjamin Irwin, a lawyer for the Carter family, said. A second batch of video clips was released Friday. It contains an audio exchange between two unseen men – thought to be officers – shortly after the suspect's body is discovered. "He was breathing a second ago," says one, while another is heard stating: "I patted him down. I don't know where he had it hidden." The Jonesboro police department has asked the FBI to assist in its investigation into the incident Special agent Kimberly Brunell told the Guardian earlier this month: "We are monitoring the situation and we have received certain information, investigative information has been shared with us."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Quito insists embassy is inviolable as Hague says WikiLeaks founder will not be allowed safe passage out of country The international diplomatic row over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – who is avoiding extradition to Sweden by taking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London – was escalating as Ecuador continued to push for the support of its South American neighbours. Having secured an emergency meeting of the Organisation of American States over what Ecuador says is Britain's threat to invade its embassy in London to arrest Assange, Quito is pushing for similar meetings of the Union of South American Nations, the left-leaning Alba association of Bolivarian states and the UN. On the agenda for the OAS meeting will be both Ecuador's claims that the UK has threatened the principle of "inviolable" status of its embassy in the UK and demands that the UK grant "safe passage" for Assange out of the UK. As Assange prepared to give a statement on his situation – reportedly outside the embassy, where he could face arrest for breach of his bail conditions – the row over Britain's veiled threat that it could enter the embassy to arrest him appeared to escalate. On Friday the OAS voted to hold a meeting next Friday following Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to Assange. Assange has described the move as a "historic victory" but the foreign secretary, William Hague, made it clear that the Australian would not be allowed safe passage out of the country. The latest developments came as the Australian government released redacted logs under a Freedom of Information request detailing its deliberations over the Assange case. Included in the documents is the Australian government's legal view that any US attempt to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act – which Assange says he fears – would face "serious obstacles". The released cables also appear to directly contradict Assange's claims that he had sought asylum with Ecuador because Australia had "abandoned" him by refusing to intervene in his planned extradition. Officials claim he has been contacted eight times by consular officials while in the embassy. The sources added that far from refusing Assange help, it was Assange who had declined Australian assistance. Assange has been in the embassy for two months after facing extradition to Sweden to be questioned on claims of sexual assault. He denies the claims and says he fears being sent to the US if he goes to Sweden. The decision by the OAS to debate the affair follows a letter from the Foreign Office to Ecuadorean authorities, warning it believed it had a legal basis to arrest Assange in the embassy, interpreted by Ecuador as a threat to raid the building – although this has been denied by the UK which says it prefers a "negotiated outcome". The US, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago opposed the resolution, but 23 members voted in favour of the meeting. There were five abstentions and three members were absent. OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza said the meeting would be about "the problem posed by the threat or warning made to Ecuador by the possibility of an intervention into its embassy". He added: "What is being proposed is that the foreign ministers of our organisation address this subject and not the subject of asylum nor whether it should be granted to Mr Julian Assange. That will be discussed between Great Britain and Ecuador. The issue that concerns us is the inviolability of diplomatic missions of all members of this organisation." Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said in a radio interview on Friday that his nation was not trying to undermine Sweden's attempts to question Assange. He said: "The main reason why Julian Assange was given diplomatic asylum was because his extradition to a third country was not guaranteed; in no way was it done to interrupt the investigations of Swedish justice over an alleged crime. In no way." Hague has said that diplomatic immunity should not be used to harbour alleged criminals. He said it is a "matter of regret" that the Ecuadorean government granted the WikiLeaks founder political asylum but warned that it "does not change the fundamentals" of the case. The case could go on for some "considerable" time, Hague said, adding: "We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so." Ecuadorean ministers have accused the UK of threatening to attack the embassy to seize Assange, after it emerged that the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 could allow revocation of a building's diplomatic status if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post". Under international law, diplomatic posts are considered the territory of the foreign nation. But Hague said: "There is no threat here to storm an embassy. We are talking about an Act of Parliament in this country which stresses that it must be used in full conformity with international law." The Swedish foreign ministry said it has summoned Ecuador's ambassador over the Latin American country's "unacceptable" decision to grant asylum.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Even some of Putin's supporters are aghast at the penal term handed out to the feminist punks. Amid a global storm of protest, signs have emerged that they might be released early – but a deep national rift remains A storm of criticism against Russia was unleashed in western capitals and by human rights groups following the harsh sentencing of three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot for protesting against the government in a Moscow cathedral. The US state department said it was concerned by the ruling and urged the Kremlin to review the case. Alastair Burt, a British junior foreign minister, said the verdict "calls into question Russia's commitment to protect… fundamental rights and freedoms". Three members of the punk collective – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 – were sentenced to serve two years in a penal colony on Friday after being found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". A Moscow judge rejected the defence's argument that the band's performance of an anti-Vladimir Putin "punk prayer" was a form of political protest and found that it was motivated by hatred for Russian Orthodoxy. Amnesty International called the verdict a "travesty". "[It] shows that the Russian authorities will stop at no end to suppress dissent and stifle civil society," Michelle Ringuette, of Amnesty, said in a statement. "Each step in the case has been an affront to human rights," she said, calling the verdict "a bitter blow to freedom in Russia". Criticism inside Russia was also widespread. Alexey Kudrin, a former finance minister who remains a close ally of Putin, said: "The verdict in the case against the Pussy Riot punk band isn't only a fact in the lives of three young women; it is also yet another blow to the justice system and, above all, Russian citizens' belief in it." Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, another member of the country's minority liberal elite, also attacked the verdict, calling it a "strategic error that terribly damages the authority of the justice system". He voiced the widespread belief that the court case was politically orchestrated: "We don't know who took the final decision – the Kremlin, the patriarch? Probably not the court itself." Opposition activists have accused Putin of orchestrating the campaign against Pussy Riot. The trio were arrested after a brief performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of a song calling for the Virgin Mary to "chase Putin out". The band formed in response to Putin's decision to return to the presidency, and have gone from being a radical fringe group to becoming the figureheads of a protest movement numbering tens of thousands. The case against Pussy Riot was widely seen as serving as a warning to other protesters, as well as a means of appealing to Putin's deeply conservative base. A poll released on Friday by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found that 44% of Russians believed the case against the band was conducted in a just manner. Most of those polled also believed the case was initiated by groups linked to the Russian Orthodox church. In a sign that the women might be released early in a bid to ease tensions and boost Russia's international image, the church released a statement late on Friday calling on the authorities to show mercy. "Without putting the correctness of the court's decision into any doubt, we call on the state authorities to show mercy to the convicts, within the framework of the law, in the hope that they will refrain from repeating blasphemous actions," the statement said. Andrei Isayev, a high-ranking member of the ruling United Russia party, also spoke out against the verdict. "The verdict is harsh. The president still might take a decision. But nonetheless this verdict which, probably, will be taken negatively by some of our liberal intelligentsia, will be taken as just by a significant number of people." Lawyers for the Pussy Riot trio have said they will appeal. A request for a pardon would require an admission of guilt, which the women have said they will not give. Even some of Putin's loudest supporters called the verdict a mistake. Tina Kandelaki, a prominent media personality and Putin cheerleader, called the verdict and sentence "information suicide" and "wrong at its very roots". "For some reason, from the very beginning, Putin's advisers gave the president a new 'Khodorkovsky'," she said, referring to jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose arrest in 2003 signalled Putin's willingness to jail political critics, say critics. "The millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent in the last few years on fixing the image of our country abroad have been thrown to the wind," she said. "Our image in the eyes of the world is getting closer to a medieval dictatorship, although in reality we are not that." The Pussy Riot case became a global phenomenon after stars including Madonna, Björk, Stephen Fry and Sir Paul McCartney spoke out in support of the women. The case has deepened the rift that emerged in Russian society following the unexpected appearance of a mass protest movement against Putin's return to the presidency. Some in the opposition movement gave dire predictions of what lay ahead. Referring to the performance art collective Voina ("War"), from which Pussy Riot emerged, opposition Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov tweeted after the verdict: "So, there was the art group War, and now there will be real war. Idiots."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The VP hopeful took to the offensive, seeking to reassure a large senior population about Republican plans for Medicare reform Republican vice presidential pick Paul Ryan sought to reassure Floridians over his controversial plans for senior healthcare on Saturday, relying on his 78-year-old mother to lend a hand. "Mom" Betty was introduced to a cheering partisan crowd at The Villages, a gated retirement cluster in the state, as her son looked to counter claims that his budget proposals would see America's cherished Medicare provisions turned into a stripped-down voucher system. Going on the offensive over the issue, Mitt Romney's running mate said President Obama's healthcare reforms would see "one in six" hospitals go out of business and force 4 million seniors to lose their current Medicare advantage plans, which are provided by private insurers. Moreover, a Romney-Ryan administration would not allow a "board of bureaucrats" to "mess with my mom's healthcare, or your mom's healthcare", the VP hopeful said. His comments got a parental nod of approval from Betty, who sat beside him as he campaigned in Florida, a key swing state. "My mom is a snowbird ... she comes down here or the winter just like so many families around the country," Ryan added in a further bid to win over an already partisan crowd. The speech came a week after the Wisconsin House representative was named as a surprise pick by Romney as his White House running mate. That decision put the focus back on Ryan's controversial budget-slashing proposals, which Democrats say would gut healthcare provisions for older citizens. It has resulted in a push by the Republican White House ticket to mount a defence of their deficit reduction plan and healthcare blueprint. Polling has consistently shown that voters trust Democrats more than the GOP on the issue of Medicare – a much cherished safety net for seniors. Florida has the highest concentration of citizens aged 65 and over in the country – some 17% of the state's population fall into that group. Hence, the decision to use mom Betty as a prop while on the stump. The Ryan matriarch spends part of her year in the state, and has been a registered Florida voter since 1997. Having endeared himself to seniors at The Village, he turned to the broader election campaign, the economy, and attacks on the president. "It is clear that President Obama inherited a difficult situation, the problem is he made matters worse," he said, adding, "This is why the president has run out of ideas, this is why the president isn't running on hope and change anymore. "He is running on anger and frustration, fear and smear. We are not going to do that." The reference to "smears" likely relates to ongoing pressure by Obama's campaign team on the issue of Romney's personal tax returns. Under the belief that the Republican candidate may be hiding something that could damage him in the eyes of voters, Democrats have demanded that Romney release at least five years' worth of returns. So far, Romney has doggedly refused to do so.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A White House report finds 300,000 teaching positions have been lost since 2009, sending student-to-teacher ratios up 4.6% President Barack Obama has called on Congress to release billions of dollars in funds to counter the damaging impact of teacher layoffs on America's education system. A report released Saturday by the White House found that more than 300,000 teaching positions had been lost since the end of the recession in 2009, resulting in a 4.6% bump in student-to-teacher ratios. In his weekly address, Obama struck out at obstructionists in Congress for blocking provisions that would support states in preventing further job cuts and help them rehire out-of-work teachers. He also took a swipe at Republicans for putting forward a budget that he claimed would further impact teacher numbers. The president said the financial blueprint put forward by his opponents would lead to "fewer teachers in the classroom, and fewer college students with access to financial aid, all to pay for a massive new tax cut for millionaires and billionaires". "That's backwards, that's wrong. That plan doesn't invest in our future, it undercuts our future." The White House claimed that the proposed Republican budget could strip close to $3bn from education grants. They contrast this with the president's job plan that was put forward a year ago, but has only been passed in part. That employment blueprint includes provisions for some $25bn in educational aid. The money is needed, the administration says, to prevent further teacher layoffs. According to the report released Saturday, average class sizes have climbed as a result of an uptick in student-to-teacher rations from a low of 15.3 to one in 2008 to 16 to one in 2010. "If we want America to lead in the 21st century, nothing is more important than giving everyone the best education possible – from the day they start preschool to the day they start their career," Obama said in his radio address. Meanwhile, in the weekly Republican address, House representative Vicky Hartzler attacked Democrats for failing to restore disaster programmes for farmers in the mid-west suffering from the worst drought in a generation. The upper house refused to carry the legislation before breaking for the summer, citing that Republicans in the House had stripped from the bill provisions related to the extension of food stamps. "A lot was riding on this bill, but the Senate – a body controlled by the president's party – left Washington for the month of August without bringing it to a vote," the Missouri politician said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Departure of last 100 monitors under way as humanitarian situation worsens and regime denies Assad deputy has defected United Nations observers have begun to leave Damascus as their mission in Syria comes to an end. The last 100 out of 300 observers have been departing throughout Saturday – their mandate expires after midnight on Sunday – as their commander spoke of his frustration at being unable to minimise the violence. General Babacar Gaye said both rebels and government forces were failing to carry out their duty to protect civilians. "Initially the ceasefire was respected, violence decreased and we were able to do our work throughout the country," he said. "By the middle of June it was clear that the parties were no longer committed to the ceasefire and the result has been an escalation in violence." The departure of the UN observers came as the UN appointed a new mediator to replace Kofi Annan. Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, has said he does not know how he will carry out his role, although he believes it is too early to say whether President Bashar al-Assad should step down. Brahimi said he was aware of the divisions in the security council which hastened Annan's departure and would discuss his objectives this week in New York. "When I go to New York I will be asking for lots of things. How to organise ourselves, whom we are going to talk to, what kind of plan we are going to put together," he told Reuters. Turkey has begun handing out food and other humanitarian aid to Syrians on their shared border, Turkey's disaster and emergency body said on Saturday. "The distribution of humanitarian aid by our country right on the border with Syria has begun," Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said in a statement. Turkey has told the United Nations of the new practice and has opened a centre in its south-eastern town of Gaziantep to receive international aid, AFAD said, adding that it needed dried, tinned and baby food, bedding and personal hygiene items. According to aid agencies, the humanitarian situation in Syria has deteriorated as fighting escalates, cutting off civilians from food supplies, healthcare and other assistance. The UN refugee agency says that more than 170,000 Syrians have been registered as refugees in neighbouring countries – Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Meanwhile, the Syrian government denied reports on Saturday that President Bashar al-Assad's deputy Farouq al-Sharaa had tried to defect to Jordan. The vice-president's office said he "never thought for a moment about leaving the country", as government forces pressed an offensive against rebels, bombarding parts of Aleppo in the north and hitting an insurgent-held town in the oil-producing east.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Paterno was reluctant to read grand jury report, and didn't understand some of its graphic terms, says new biography Joe Paterno had to be prodded by his family to read the grand jury report regarding Jerry Sandusky and did not understand some of its graphic terminology, according to a new book. The book, "Paterno" by Joe Posnanski, was purchased by the Associated Press in advance of its release next week. In the book, Posnanski describes a scene at Paterno's home, two days after Sandusky had been charged with child sex abuse last November. Paterno's family and a close adviser were trying to explain to the Penn State coach that there was a growing sentiment Paterno must have known for years about the accusations against Sandusky. The book quotes Paterno as shouting "I'm not omniscient!" Paterno did not want to read the report, but family members and Penn State football communications and marketing assistant Guido D'Elia insisted that he must. The book also indicates Paterno didn't comprehend all the terms in the report, asking his son what sodomy meant. According to the book, later that night Paterno's son, Scott, told his mother that she should brace herself for the possibility that Joe could be fired. Sue Paterno responded, "Scotty, that will kill him." Paterno was fired by school trustees two days later, on 9 November. He died in January at age 85 of cancer. Sandusky, Paterno's longtime defensive coordinator, is jailed and awaiting sentencing after being convicted in June on 45 criminal counts involving ten boys. Former athletic director Tim Curley and now-retired school administrator Gary Schultz are awaiting trial on charges of lying to a grand jury and failing to report the abuse allegations against Sandusky. Paterno was not charged, though the NCAA last month slammed his beloved football program with a range of tough sanctions. Among them, the Nittany Lions were forced to vacate 112 wins from 1998-2011, meaning Paterno no longer has the most coaching victories in major college football. The penalty seemed to grow from a report commissioned by the school from former FBI director Louis Freeh. It said Paterno, Curley, Schultz and former school president Graham Spanier concealed allegations against Sandusky dating back to 1998. Paterno's family and the three officials have all vehemently denied the conclusions. Paterno had granted access to Posnanski to write a biography in 2011, well before Sandusky was charged. "Nobody would argue - and certainly my book does not argue - that the good Joe Paterno did in his life should shield him from the horrors of his mistakes," Posnanski wrote in a column for USA Today earlier this week. "Some would argue, especially in the white-hot emotion sparked by the latest revelations, that Paterno's role in the Jerry Sandusky crimes invalidates whatever good he might have done. My book does not argue that either. My book, I believe, lets the reader make up his or her own mind." The book also details the long and frosty relationship Paterno had with Sandusky while they worked together at Penn State. According to the book, the two were never friendly and late in Sandusky's tenure, Paterno felt the defense was not performing well and neither was Sandusky. Paterno did not want to fire Sandusky because he was so popular in the community and with fans, according to the book. The book indicates that Sandusky showed interest in taking an early retirement in 1999, and Paterno encouraged him to do so and let his assistant know he would not be the next head coach at Penn State. Sandusky and Curley negotiated a retirement package, and among Sandusky's demands was to stay on through the 1999 season. The book indicates Paterno reluctantly agreed, and then regretted the decision when the team, which was considered one of the national championship favorites going into the season and reached number two in the nation, lost three games late in the year with an underperforming defense. Sandusky's early retirement at age 55 has led to speculation that a 1998 allegation by a boy against Sandusky that was never prosecuted by authorities led to Penn State quietly pushing Sandusky out. Paterno told a grand jury he was unaware of that allegation, but evidence uncovered by Freeh report investigators suggest that he did. According to the book, Paterno, who obsessively took and kept handwritten notes, had no notes in his files that mentioned the investigation.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney doesn't want his religion to become a political issue – but there's no stopping a growing curiosity about it. All sides agree this presidential election brings a vital moment for a once-persecuted faith They are calling it the "Mormon moment". As Mitt Romney, a former Mormon bishop as well as a former governor of Massachusetts, runs for the White House, the transformation of Mormonism from persecuted and obscure frontier faith to significant world religion seems complete. If Romney were to become president of the United States it would turn a practising and devout Mormon into the most powerful man in the world. The mere fact of his nomination run in the Republican party has already shone an intense media spotlight on the faith and its spiritual home amid the valleys and high desert mountains of Utah. That spotlight is uncovering a complex set of sensitivities and affiliations. Many Mormons, while welcoming a chance to spread their beliefs, are deeply nervous about all the attention. Their faith, founded in the 1830s in upstate New York, was, after all, forced west by persecution and hatred. "I am torn. I love that people are talking about my religion," said Craig Janis, a young Mormon professional sitting in a trendy coffee shop in downtown Salt Lake City. "That's good for the church. But a lot of Mormons can be very defensive. There is a persecution complex." Whatever the wishes of some, there is no stopping the conversation now. Mormonism is one of the world's fastest growing religions and now has 14.4 million members. It requires young members to serve abroad, giving it a 55,000-strong worldwide missionary force at any one time. With its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Mormonism is rapidly becoming part of the US mainstream. Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid is a Mormon. So is rightwing firebrand Glenn Beck. The main hit show on Broadway is The Book of Mormon. In some ways, a Romney presidency would just be the cherry on the cake. Many compare it to John F Kennedy's 1960 presidential win, which marked a breakthrough for Roman Catholics. For Janis, however, that would not be a welcome development. The young lawyer and technology entrepreneur does not want to see a Romney presidency. Defying the stereotype of Mormons as a politically homogenous group , Janis is both a practising Mormon and a fervent Democrat. He has no time for Romney. "He bends so far to the right," Janis said. Nor is Janis alone. Mormonism generally, with its keen focus on the family, is a Republican stronghold: one recent survey showed 74% of Mormons are Republican-leaning. But it is not a straightforward issue. "You are going to get a much higher percentage of black Americans voting for Barack Obama than you will Mormons voting for Romney," said Jeremy Lott, editor of the website Real Clear Religion. In Utah last year, a state organisation was formed called LDS Democrats – the LDS referring to the faith's full name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – and it has grown to 2,000 members. This year they will for the first time travel to the Democratic party's national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Obama will be nominated for re-election. Members of the LDS Democrats are a broad political church. Social issues such as abortion and gay marriage are part of the debate, but opposing them is not the disqualifier that it might be in more liberal parts of America. "We want people who are socially conservative and who are socially liberal," said LDS Democrats' vice-chair Crystal Young-Otterstrom. With her young daughter on her lap, she laughed as she described the group's mission in the heart of Mormon country: "We are making converts, so to speak." Democratic Mormons like Janis and Young-Otterstrom are as religious as their Republican counterparts. But they have drawn a different lesson from Mormonism's past and theology. They look at its history of persecution – inspired largely by its early members' embracing of polygamy – and its long, hard trek across the continent. In the settlement and cultivation of the hard desert soil of Utah into a flourishing state, they see the triumph of communal values. In the bustling modern metropolis of Salt Lake City, and its many quiet, prosperous suburbs, they see the fulfilment of Democratic values. After all it is a Mormon's religious duty to relieve poverty. "It is a misnomer to believe that this valley was settled with rugged individualism," said Steve Olsen, a former Mormon bishop, like Romney, and author of a book aimed at Mormons, Why You May Be a Liberal (And That's Okay). "It was settled with community spirit, unselfishness and people working together." Of course, other Mormons disagree. Rather than opposing Romney from the left, they attack him from the right. Examining the same Mormon history and theology, some see Mormonism as a natural home for conservative libertarianism. The one thing these groups agree on is that Romney would be a disaster. "I think Obama is driving this country off a cliff at 100 mph. Romney would slow us down to maybe 95," said Connor Boyack, who recently founded his own libertarian thinktank in Utah. He too has a book out, Latter Day Liberty, in which he uses Mormon scripture to espouse anti-big government beliefs. Sitting in Starbucks in the Utah city of Orem – and, as a devout Mormon, scrupulously avoiding the coffee – Boyack can't disguise his contempt for Romney. "I think he's horrible. I say that without hesitation. As a person I am sure that he is a good husband and father and a shrewd businessman. That's not a statement on his character. It's a statement on his public policies. They are horrible," he said. Would he vote for Romney? "Certainly not," he replied. But perhaps no one should be surprised that a more nuanced picture of the faith is emerging as Mormonism emerges into the mainstream alongside Romney's presidential campaign. After all, no community of millions of people can be a homogenous bloc backing a co-religionist. Especially when it comes to Romney, who – fearful of angering the Republican evangelical right – makes little reference to his faith. Yet Mormonism has deep abiding characteristics that does unite members. Nearly all Mormons have an overwhelming focus on family, believing the family unit to be sacred and eternal. They believe it extends after death, hence the controversial practice of baptising the dead. Salt Lake City and other Mormon-heavy communities seem full to bursting with young couples with large broods of children settled into suburban life. "About the one sort of cult that the Mormons don't mind being called is a cult of the family," said Lott. This, perhaps coupled with religious restrictions on caffeine and alcohol, appears to have created a highly productive work ethic that has meant Utah has emerged as an attractive place for companies to relocate. The centre of Salt Lake City has sprouted new skyscrapers that tower over the delicate spires of the city's Temple, the true spiritual home of the faith. It is also a tight-knit community in which the church plays a huge role. Tithing – where a percentage of income is given to church charities – is very common. Mormons are supported by an activist church, generous in its welfare programmes and which provides a cheap higher education at Salt Lake City's Brigham Young University: something debt-laden non-Mormon college students in America are intensely envious of. All of that, coupled with its history of persecution, has sometimes led to accusations of an insular culture whose self-reliance can be seen as defensiveness. "Sometimes there is not a lot of love for Mormons in the world," said Young-Otterstrom. The rest of America is certainly curious but not always kindly. The Mormon habit of wearing sacred undergarments, which look a little like old-fashioned long-johns, has become the butt of "magic underpants" jokes. The teachings of Mormonism are also likely to raise a few eyebrows as they become better known. Mormonism describes a history in which Christ visits America and in which Native Americans are the descendants of a lost tribe of Israel. Added to that is the controversial history of the church, which saw founder Joseph Smith murdered by a mob and which once discriminated against black people. In the face of this, it is perhaps no surprise that Romney has rarely spoken of his beliefs in terms of Mormonism, but rather in terms of devotion to Jesus. In 2007, before his first run for the Republican nomination, Romney sought to kill the issue. He gave a heavily touted speech in which he said: "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavour to live by it." But that was the only moment in the speech he said the word "Mormon". And the 2012 campaign has shown there is a huge difference between Romney's no-doubt-sincere private commitment to Mormonism and his public one. Despite Romney's reticence, Mormonism is clearly growing in the collective consciousness of an America that once sought bloodily to exterminate it. And the church knows that the Romney run is an opportunity. "Mormonism is the most ambitious religion that I have ever encountered. I think that the view of the church when it comes to Romney's run is that it will be worth it, win or lose," said Lott. The church has been assiduously preparing for the spotlight. Since 2010 it has spent millions of dollars on a publicity campaign called "I am a Mormon" that is aimed at highlighting the ordinary Americanness of its members. Websites have been set up to counter myths – especially related to polygamy, which the church banned more than a century ago. Some local congregations have been organising outreach sessions with non-Mormons, often in states far away from Utah. And all the time the church is insisting that it does not want to get involved in the rough and tumble world of US presidential politics. "We hope our members will take the time to be informed on issues and candidates and will participate in the political process," said Eric Hawkins, a senior church spokesman. "However, how they choose to do this is a completely private matter, and will not be directed by the church." There is a good reason for that. Mormonism's focus on the family led it to get involved in the fight over gay marriage in California. That stance led gay activists to picket and protest outside Mormon temples across America. Suddenly people who are often known simply for being unnaturally nice and polite were being called hate-mongers. It was a lesson in how mixing religion and politics can backfire rapidly. No wonder the church refuses in 2012 to get involved even on behalf of one of its own. "The church is strictly politically neutral and does not participate in partisan politics by endorsing political candidates," Hawkins said. Those conspiracy theorists who fear Romney is some sort of Mormon Manchurian candidate have little supporting evidence. As the church grows it is likely to become more politically diverse. That is already being shown by the recent successes of Mormon writer Joanna Brooks, whose 2012 autobiography The Book of Mormon Girl has been a huge critical success. Brooks's story of her faith and avowed feminism has seen her appear on everything from The Daily Show to Fox Business to NPR and the BBC. Brooks has shown that it is possible to be a religious Mormon and a feminist, just as Boyack can mix his faith with libertarianism and Olsen can combine his with being leftwing. Mormonism, despite its old image of bearded prophets leading multiple wives through the wilderness, has always been flexible. Indeed its supreme adaptiveness is often cited as a reason for its position as America's homegrown faith. When polygamy proved a political hurdle, the practice was dumped. When civil rights arose and society changed, so too did the Mormon attitude to race. Like so many American social movements, it ignored its past, embraced the future and moved on. Many suspect it will eventually do that with gay rights, its current millstone. Janis hopes so: "Gay rights is a very important thing to me. As a religious minority myself, any threat to another minority and their ability to act according to their conscience is a real problem for me." Indeed, when contemplating the prospect of a Mormon president in the shape of Romney, Janis does not really see the future of the faith. Instead, he sees a throwback: a conservative white male with rightwing opinions on everything from attacking Iran to tax breaks for the rich to gay rights. "I remember the last time we had a Republican president in the shape of George W Bush. He was the most unpopular person in the world. Having a Mormon as the new most unpopular person in the world would worry me," he said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US presses Pakistan for offensive against tribal region militants amid tensions over continuing unmanned aircraft strikes A missile launched from a US drone struck a suspected militant hideout in a tribal region in northern Pakistan where allies of a powerful warlord were gathered Saturday, killing five of his supporters, Pakistani officials said. The strike in North Waziristan against allies of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant commander whose forces frequently target US and other Nato troops in neighboring Afghanistan, comes amid speculation over whether Pakistan will launch an operation against militants in the tribal region. The US has pushed Pakistan repeatedly to take such a step, and earlier this week US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the Associated Press that Pakistan was preparing an operation targeting the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan. Pakistan has been reluctant to undertake an offensive there, saying its military is already overtaxed by fighting in other tribal areas. But many in the US believe Pakistan does not want to upset the many militant groups there, such as the Haqqani network, that could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces leave. On Thursday, the top US commander in the region, General James Mattis, met with Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. During the meeting, the Pakistani general repeated his government's stance that it would undertake an operation in North Waziristan only if it coincides with Pakistan's interests and not in response to outside pressure, according to a military press release. Drone attacks like Saturday's are very unpopular in Pakistan, where they are seen as a violation of the country's sovereignty and as responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians. The US maintains the targeted strikes are directed against militants and necessary to combat groups like al-Qaida. Some Uzbek foreign fighters were among the dead in Saturday's strike, according to two Pakistan intelligence officials. Three people were also wounded, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. Meanwhile, five security officials died during a suicide bombing at a checkpoint in southern Pakistan. Spokesman Murtaza Baig said the attacker detonated his explosives early on Saturday after he was stopped at the checkpoint in a Quetta suburb. The killed troops were members of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps. Baluchistan province and its capital, Quetta, have been the scene of an insurgency by Baluch nationalists who are demanding greater rights and shares from the income generated from gas and minerals extracted from the province. Various Baluch groups are blamed for attacks on the province's security forces and are suspected of targeting other ethnic groups in the region. Islamist Taliban militants and the extremist group Lashker-e-Jhangvi are also active in the province.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Organisation of American States to hold meeting next week following Ecuador's decision to grant asylum to Assange The diplomatic row between Britain and Ecuador over the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is to be discussed by foreign ministers from across the Americas next week. The Organisation of American States (OAS) has voted to hold a meeting next Friday following Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to Assange, who is currently taking refuge in the country's embassy in London. Assange has described the move as a "historic victory" but the British foreign secretary, William Hague, made it clear that the Australian would not be allowed safe passage out of the country. The permanent council of the OAS decided that a meeting would be held in Washington DC after members voted on the issue. The US, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago opposed the resolution, but 23 members voted in favour of the meeting. There were five abstentions and three members were absent. The OAS secretary general, José Miguel Insulza, said the meeting would not be about Assange but the "the problem posed by the threat or warning made to Ecuador by the possibility of an intervention into its embassy in London. The issue that concerns us is the inviolability of diplomatic missions of all members of this organisation, something that is of interest to all of us." Assange has been in the Ecuadorean embassy for the past two months after facing extradition to Sweden accused of sexual assault. He denies the claims and fears being sent to the United States if he goes to Sweden. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said in a radio interview on Friday that his nation was not trying to undermine Sweden's attempts to question Assange. He said: "The main reason why Julian Assange was given diplomatic asylum was because his extradition to a third country was not guaranteed, in no way was it done to interrupt the investigations of Swedish justice over an alleged crime. In no way." Hague has said that diplomatic immunity should not be used to harbour alleged criminals. Hague said it is a "matter of regret" that the Ecuadorean government granted the WikiLeaks founder political asylum. "We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so," he said. Ecuadorean ministers have accused the UK of threatening to attack the embassy to seize Assange, after it emerged that the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 could allow revocation of a building's diplomatic status if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post". Under international law, diplomatic posts are considered the territory of the foreign nation. The foreign secretary said there was no threat to storm the embassy. "We are talking about an act of parliament in this country which stresses that it must be used in full conformity with international law," he said. The Swedish foreign ministry said it has summoned Ecuador's ambassador over the South American country's "unacceptable" decision to grant asylum.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Report also criticises Bank of England and regulator for being slow to notice events leading up to Barclays' £290m fine MPs have attacked the former Barclays boss Bob Diamond for being "highly selective" in the evidence he gave to their emergency hearings on rigging key Libor interest rates, in the first comprehensive report on the way bankers and regulators handled the scandal. The Treasury select committee also criticised the Bank of England and the chief City regulator for being slow to notice the events that led to the £290m fine for Barclays in June. "It doesn't look good," said Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, pointing out that neither spotted the problems with Libor. Speaking about Diamond's appearance before the committee last month, he said: "Select committees are entitled to expect candour and frankness from witnesses before them. Mr Diamond's evidence, at times highly selective, fell well short of the standard that parliament expects, particularly from such an experienced and senior witness." The "poor state" of the culture at Barclays was also criticised, as was its board. In response, Diamond made a strong defence of his 16-year tenure at the bank, arguing that Barclays had not needed a taxpayer bailout. He insisted he had answered "truthfully, candidly and based on information available to me" and that the image being created of Barclays "could not be further from the truth". Tyrie said the episode had damaged the City. "The sustained rigging of a crucial benchmark rate has done great damage to the UK's reputation. Public trust in banks is at an all-time low. Urgent improvements, both to the way banks are run and the way they are regulated, [are] needed if public and market confidence is to be restored," he said. The MPs took evidence from Diamond barely 48 hours after he resigned as chief executive of Barclays, and were frustrated by his refusal to acknowledge that the City regulator, the Financial Services Authority, had expressed concerns about the culture of the bank to the Barclays board in the runup to the Libor fine. But the committee's 122-page report entitled "fixing Libor: some preliminary findings" also shows that the MPs believe the FSA and the Bank of England took the steps that led to Diamond's departure only after digesting public and media reaction to the Libor fine. "Regulators should not decide the composition of boards in response to headlines. Many will agree with the removal of Mr Diamond. However, many will wonder why the regulators did not intervene earlier, for example, at the time of the publication of the [fine]," Tyrie said. The committee describes the Libor fine – the first of many expected to be imposed on big financial firms – as a "reputational disaster for Barclays". It forced the chairman, Marcus Agius, to quit, only to be reinstated 24 hours later after Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, told him that regulators had lost confidence in Diamond. Correspondence published for the first time today between Agius and Tyrie appears to support Diamond's evidence to the committee, as Agius admits that Diamond had not seen some of the documents in advance when he was asked about them last month. The committee said the Barclays fine should be seen in the context that other banks were being investigated for rigging the rate and that investigations should be accelerated, particularly at banks owned by taxpayers – a possible reference to Royal Bank of Scotland. Diamond's appearance before MPs was followed by those of Agius and Jerry del Missier, the top Barclays banker who quit after issuing an instruction to cut the bank's Libor submissions in October 2008, as well as those of King and his deputy, Paul Tucker. The hearings also put candidates to replace King as Bank of England governor next year on the back foot, as Tucker and Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, were forced to defend their actions during the period. The MPs said one question the inquiry became focused on may have been a "smokescreen" to distract from more serious issues underlying the scandal. At one point there was confusion about whether a Bank of England official had instructed Barclays to cut its Libor submissions in an attempt to avoid any impression that the bank was in difficulty during the financial crisis. Del Missier admitted he had instructed Barclays staff to reduce submissions after a conversation with Diamond, who was relaying a conversation with Tucker at the Bank. At the time, October 2008, a higher submission to Libor would have given the impression Barclays was finding it more difficult to borrow from other banks. Del Missier, Diamond and Tucker were cleared of "deliberate wrongdoing". "If they are all to be believed, an extraordinary, but conceivably plausible, series of miscommunications occurred," Tyrie said. The Bank of England is accused of "naivety" in not realising there was "dishonesty" taking place in setting Libor. The FSA's shortcomings are "more serious", the MPs said, revealing the regulator was conducting an internal review into what it should have done better. The MPs said the so-called Tucker-Diamond dialogue "may have been a smokescreen put up to distract our attention... from the most serious issues underlying this scandal". This is a reference to the two stages of the Libor rigging - the period 2005 to 2008 when Barclays treaders were manipulating rates to make potential profits and the period 2007 to 2009 when Barclays was lowing its submissions through "low balling" to avoid negative publicity.
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