|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice-presidential candidate rouses otherwise listless audience in Tampa, arguing moral case to oust Obama The Republican vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, won a series of standing ovations during a primetime keynote address to the party's national convention in which he set out the case for small government and prepared the ground for Mitt Romney's big speech on Thursday night. Although Ryan failed to generate the same level of excitement as Sarah Palin at the 2008 convention, he did enough in Tampa to fire up what had been a listless event, dogged by bad weather and lack of enthusiasm over Romney. He set out an alternative economic strategy to the Obama adminstration, promising to create millions of new jobs over the next four years and won loud applause for saying a Romney administration would protect Medicare. But some of his rhetorical assertions were immediately challenged by fact checkers, including erroneous claims on healthcare reform and the closure of a GM factory in Ryan's home state of Wisconsin, which actually happened before Obama came to power. Ryan secured some of the loudest bursts of applause for his attacks on Obama. One image that resonated with the tens of thousands crowded into the convention centre was when Ryan spoke about students. "College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life," he said. "Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: you have not failed, your leaders have failed you." The immediate reaction from senior Republicans, however, was positive. "He did all he had to do. He introduced himself personally to the American people," said the former House Speaker and one-time Romney rival Newt Gingrich. Gingrich told the Guardian: "Paul Ryan knows more than Joe Biden has remembered or confused." Addressing concern about his lack of experience, Gingrich pointed out that Ryan, 42, is only four years younger than Obama was when elected to the presidency and already has much more political experience than the then Democratic candidate. Ryan's was a measured speech that began nervously but got stronger as it progressed. He had two difficult acts to follow after former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and the governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, delivered powerful addresses. He couched his speech in moral terms. "We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves," he said. He added: "Our rights come from nature and God, not from government." The focus now shifts to Romney, who now has to deliver the speech of his life to the convention, one that could determine whether he or Obama will be the next president. He has to win over not only conservatives at the convention, to ensure they turn out as volunteers and on election day, but more importantly an estimated television audience of more than 30 million. The convention in the early evening had been flat, lacking in energy, with delegates milling around, not listening to the speakers. Rice fired them up, accusing Obama of leading from the back in foreign policy. She brought the convention to its feet again towards the end of her speech when she spoke about how a girl who had been banned under the Jim Crow laws from eating a hamburger in her local Woolworth's store in her hometown, Alabama, and rose to become secretary of state. There was a brief protest when a small group of women unfurled a banner saying "Vagina", making their point about Republican policies on abortion and other issues related to women. To shouts of "USA, USA" from the delegates they left the hall. The divisions and tensions in the Republican party were exposed again when hundreds of supporters of the libertarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul – who accumulated a lot of delegates during his bid for the presidential nomination – walked out over rules changes they see as limiting grassroots rights.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A fortnight after the end of the Olympics, a Games that will do more than simply extend our enjoyment of sporting spectacle A nation that suffered a petit mort at the end of the Olympic Games less than a fortnight ago took the opportunity to come back to life on Wednesday night and pick up exactly where it left off as the Paralympic Games opened with another opening ceremony taking its text from The Tempest while surveying the sweep of British history. Prefacing 11 days of competition, the theme of the gala was enlightenment. That turned out to involve anything from Handel's Eternal Source of Light Divine to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and from the apple falling in Isaac Newton's Lincolnshire garden to Stephen Hawking's celebration of the Higgs particle. The great astrophysicist and Sir Ian McKellen, in the guise of Prospero, shared the MC duties, with Nicola Miles-Wildin, as Miranda, intoning Shakespeare's key lines: "O wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" This time all the Queen had to do was turn up and make a short speech. Nobody invited her to follow her scene-stealing role alongside James Bond by joining Pan's People or singing a duet with Beverley Knight. Like the rest of the 80,000 in the Stratford stadium, she sat and watched a Paralympic opening ceremony that cast the spotlight on the role of science in helping to change social attitudes and culminated in the lighting of the 205 new petals of Thomas Heatherwick's long-stemmed cauldron, the flame swooping down from the top of Anish Kapoor's adjacent tower, carried on the last stage of its journey by an athlete attached to a zip wire. "Prepare to be inspired, prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be moved," Sebastian Coe told the spectators. He was talking about the 503 events in which medals will be won, but he could have been describing the uncompromising climax of a four-hour gala, which came with a performance of Ian Dury's Spasticus Autisticus by members of the Graeae Theatre Company and the appearance of a giant version of Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper Pregnant, the sculpture of the limbless woman that once looked down from the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. They left no doubt about why we were here – and about how far we have come since Ludwig Guttmann, the Silesian neurosurgeon who arrived in England as a refugee from Hitler, identified the possibility of using sport to aid the recovery of paralysed servicemen and women who had previously been considered beyond salvation. Facing the world's media this week, the South African runner Oscar Pistorius, whose legs were amputated in infancy, made the point that Paralympic athletes want to be judged not on disability but on ability. In other words, the 4,200 competitors from 164 countries would rather you enjoyed their skills than felt pity for their missing limbs. The fact remains, however, that this bunch of inhabitants of the London 2012 athletes' village come with more voluminous baggage than the former occupants. They simply have more gripping stories. If they didn't, they wouldn't be here. It is thanks to them that we now know something about the implications of being born without a fibula in either leg (Pistorius), with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (Lee Pearson, the flamboyant holder of nine equestrian gold medals from Sydney, Athens and Beijing), or without hands or feet (the Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias). We have learned to recognise the possibilities for achievement that remain despite jumping into a swimming pool and breaking your neck (female wheelchair rugby player Kylie Grimes), losing a leg to infantile meningitis (teenage 100m prodigy Jonnie Peacock), or losing both legs under a railway train (javelin thrower Nathan Stephens) or on a Circle Line train on 7/7 (sitting volleyball player Martine Wright). We have been nudged, most of all, towards a deeper understanding of the word "transformation", as employed so tellingly by Guttmann, whose intention in founding the Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralysed, he said, was "to transform a severely disabled patient into a taxpayer". There was no sentimentality about Guttmann. A black-and-white film clip shows him responding to a bedridden patient who confesses to a loss of belief in his recovery. "Now cut that out, will you," the doctor snaps, the crispness of his delivery perhaps only marginally exaggerated for the camera. His reward, before his death in 1980, was to see the start of the transformation of his modest concept into the Paralympics, and thereby a transformation in the public perception not just of disabled athletes but of disability in general. Pistorius talked this week of his personal experience of that process. In supermarkets, he said, parents still sometimes turned their children away from the sight of his prosthetic legs. But once he gets a chance to talk to the children, perhaps telling them that his original legs dropped off because he failed to eat his vegetables, the sense of shock and otherness disappears quickly and for good. He noted with approval that the young people who turned up for the Paralympic day in Trafalgar Square a year ago "didn't have the normal reactions that people show to disabled athletes – they were friendly and excited." The United Kingdom, he added, had dealt with disabled people "in a very amazing way – a lot of people around the world will be forced to see the Paralympics through the eyes of people in the UK, and that's a fantastic thing." These Games are the real thing, all right, mirroring the Olympics in all sorts of ways. They have their own rows over illegal performance enhancement, in the form of blood-boosting achieved through various methods of self-torture unsuitable for description in a family newspaper. A Paralympics sponsor – Atos, which tests the fitness for work of disabled people on behalf of the government – is accused of using its association with the event to launder its image. And there is a dispute over the ability of the Paralympics to create a meaningful legacy at a time when disabled people in the UK are suffering from severe cuts to the employment and support allowance. Part of the real world, indeed, sharing and sometimes highlighting its real and intractable problems. But, for the next 11 days, as we learn the rules of boccia and sitting volleyball, enjoy the visceral thrill of the wheelchair races and watch blind people playing football by ear and touch, we too will be playing a full part in squeezing the last drops of enjoyment from a £9.3bn investment that seems to have delivered the goods.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice-presidential candidate rouses otherwise listless audience in Tampa, arguing moral case to oust Obama The Republican vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, won a series of standing ovations during a primetime keynote address to the party's national convention in which he set out the case for small government and prepared the ground for Mitt Romney's big speech on Thursday night. Although Ryan failed to generate the same level of excitement as Sarah Palin at the 2008 convention, he did enough in Tampa to fire up what had been a listless event, dogged by bad weather and lack of enthusiasm over Romney. He set out an alternative economic strategy to the Obama adminstration, promising to create millions of new jobs over the next four years and won loud applause for saying a Romney administration would protect Medicare. Ryan secured some of the loudest bursts of applause for his attacks on Obama. One image that resonated with the tens of thousands crowded into the convention centre was when Ryan spoke about students. "College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life," he said. "Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: you have not failed, your leaders have failed you." But some of his rhetorical assertions were immediately challenged by fact checkers, including erroneous claims on healthcare reform and the closure of a GM factory in Ryan's home state of Wisconsin, which actually happened before Obama came to power. The immediate reaction from senior Republicans, however, was positive. "He did all he had to do. He introduced himself personally to the American people," said the former House Speaker and one-time Romney rival Newt Gingrich. Gingrich told the Guardian: "Paul Ryan knows more than Joe Biden has remembered or confused." Addressing concern about his lack of experience, Gingrich pointed out that Ryan, 42, is only four years younger than Obama was when elected to the presidency and already has much more political experience than the then Democratic candidate. Ryan's was a measured speech that began nervously but got stronger as it progressed. He had two difficult acts to follow after former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and the governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, delivered powerful addresses. Ryan couched his speech in moral terms, making a case for community – unusual for a conservative Republican. "We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves," he said. He added: "Our rights come from nature and God, not from government." The focus now shifts to Romney, who now has to deliver the speech of his life to the convention, one that could determine whether he or Obama will be the next president. He has to win over not only conservatives at the convention, to ensure they turn out as volunteers and on election day, but more importantly an estimated television audience of more than 30 million. The convention in the early evening had been flat, lacking in energy, with delegates milling around, not listening to the speakers. Rice fired them up, accusing Obama of leading from the back in foreign policy. She brought the convention to its feet again towards the end of her speech when she spoke about how a girl who had been banned under the Jim Crow laws from eating a hamburger in her local Woolworth's store in her hometown, Alabama, and rose to become secretary of state. There was a brief protest when a small group of women unfurled a banner saying "Vagina", making their point about Republican policies on abortion and other issues related to women. To shouts of "USA, USA" from the delegates they left the hall. The divisions and tensions in the Republican party were exposed again when hundreds of supporters of the libertarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul – who accumulated a lot of delegates during his bid for the presidential nomination – walked out over rules changes they see as limiting grassroots rights.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Major legal victory as defence lawyer Mark O'Mara's motion approved to remove second judge in Trayvon Martin case George Zimmerman scored a significant legal victory on Wednesday night when a Florida appeals court ruled that the judge overseeing his case for the murder of Trayvon Martin must be removed. A panel of senior judges ruled two to one to side with Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara, who argued that circuit court judge Kenneth Lester was biased against his client for scathing comments he made at an earlier bail hearing. Lester had accused the neighbourhood watch captain of "manipulating the system to his own benefit" by failing to declare his wealth from donations to a personal website in order to secure a lower bail amount, then refused to disqualify himself when O'Mara protested. "While this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find that the allegations, taken together, meet the threshold test of legal sufficiency," judges Alan Lawson and Jay Cohen, of the fifth district court of appeals, Daytona Beach, wrote in their majority decision granting O'Mara's motion. "We direct the trial judge to enter an order of disqualification which requests the chief circuit judge to appoint a successor judge." It is the second time that Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder for the shooting of unarmed black teenager Martin in a February confrontation in Sanford, has been granted a new judge. Soon after his arrest in April, judge Jessica Recksiedler stood aside because her husband's legal partner Mark NeJame, a prominent Orlando attorney, was hired by news channel CNN as an expert analyst on the high-profile case. Zimmerman, 28, denies murdering Martin on the grounds of self-defence, and O'Mara has said he will seek a hearing under Florida's stand-your-ground law for the charge to be dismissed. Martin, 17, was the aggressor in the encounter, O'Mara maintains, and broke Zimmerman's nose and slammed his head on to concrete before the defendant drew his gun and shot the teenager once in the torso. The spat with Lester came in June, when prosecutors alleged that Zimmerman hid more than $135,000 in donations to a website he set up to pay for his defence. Zimmerman's wife Shellie, 25, told Lester at a bail hearing that the couple was virtually penniless, convincing the judge to grant bail at $150,000. When Lester was informed of the amount of the donations, he revoked Zimmerman's bail then lambasted him in a written decision that raised the bail amount to $1m. "Under any definition, the defendant has flaunted the system," Lester wrote. "The evidence is clear the defendant and his wife acted in concert, but primarily at the defendant's direction, to conceal their cash holdings." State attorney Bernie de la Rionda told Lester that the Zimmermans frequently transferred large amounts of money between their accounts and that George Zimmerman kept a secret second passport hidden in a bank safety deposit box, making him a flight risk. Shellie Zimmerman was later charged with perjury, and she and her husband remain free on bond. O'Mara, who claims the defence fund is now virtually exhausted, accused Lester of making "gratuitous, disparaging remarks about Mr Zimmerman" in documents to the appeals court seeking a writ of prohibition. "The court has created a reasonable fear in Mr Zimmerman that the trial court is biased against him, and as a result of this prejudice cannot receive a fair and impartial trial," he said. Special prosecutor Angela Corey, who charged Zimmerman in April after Sanford police originally set him free in February, had no immediate comment on the appeals court decision. Judge Kerry Evander was the dissenting member of the appeals court panel, arguing that Lester was within his rights to criticise Zimmerman for his conduct. "Although [Lester] clearly manifested an exceedingly strong belief that Zimmerman had flouted and tried to manipulate the system, I do not believe the order crossed the line so as to require the granting of his motion," he wrote. Zimmerman's next court appearance is scheduled for October, although no trial is expected before next year. He faces at least 30 years in jail if convicted.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Village of 80 people was firebombed from the air, say activists, by illegal gold miners based in neighbouring Brazil A massacre of up to 80 Yanomami Indians has taken place in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, according to claims emerging from the region, prompting the government to send in investigators. Blame is being placed on illegal garimpeiro miners who cross the border from Brazil to prospect for gold and have clashed violently with Amazon tribes before. According to local testimonies an armed group flew over in a helicopter, opening fire with guns and launching explosives into Irotatheri settlement in the High Ocamo area. The village was home to about 80 people and only three had been accounted for as survivors, according to people from a neighbouring village and indigenous rights activists. The claims were presented to local authorities in Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas state on Monday, asking for an immediate investigation of the site where the alleged killing took place, and for the expulsion of the garimpeiros. The event would have taken place during the first two weeks of July but due to the remoteness of the village it is only now been made public. A spokeswoman at the public prosecutor's office said the government could not yet confirm the attack nor how many people may have been killed. Luis Shatiwe, a leader of the Yanomami group, told a Venezuelan newspaper that the survivors were hunters who had been out of the village at the time of the alleged attack. The hunters, he said, heard a helicopter and gunfire and said a communal hut in the village was destroyed by fire. Survival International, a London-based organisation that seeks to protect native peoples, said in a statement that another Yanomami told the group that tribespeople had found bones and charred bodies in the village. A member of the team that collected the testimony said: "When we heard the first accounts we flew into Parima-B [the closest town] by helicopter with a contingent of military. In Parima we spoke to Yanomami who had walked six days to get to Parima-B to talk to us. In places this remote that is how people communicate." The man asked not to be identified. Luis Bello, a lawyer in Puerto Ayacucho who defends indigenous rights, said the allegations were the latest in a series of reports of abuse as garimpeiro activities in the region have increased. "Reports of garimpeiros attacking different communities are becoming more and more frequent, and now we also hear of rivers being poisoned with mercury. We've reported to the authorities but we are so far away that is it all easily forgotten," Bello said. Bello said a combination of high gold prices and pressure from the Brazilian federal police in their own territory had led to the influx of garimpeiros. "They have also become more sophisticated. They used to fly in and land in clandestine strips, now they come in helicopters and use huge extracting machinery that is decimating the jungle," Bello said. In 1993, 16 Yanomamis were killed by garimpeiros in what became known as the Haximu massacre. But there have been cases that turn out to be fake. Aime Thilet, a member of Wataniba, an NGO that defends indigenous rights, said that when the latest alleged attack was reported "we were in the Alto Siapo, also on the border with Brazil, because we got radio a very detailed and what seemed credible report of another massacre, which turned out to be false".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Andy Murray takes on Ivan Dodig in the second round of the US Open at Flushing Meadow in New York. Martin Pengelly is watching
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Andy Murray has beaten Ivan Dodig in straight sets in the second round of the US Open at Flushing Meadow in New York. Martin Pengelly was watching
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A fortnight after the end of the Olympics, a Games that will do more than simply extend our enjoyment of sporting spectacle A nation that suffered a petit mort at the end of the Olympic Games less than a fortnight ago took the opportunity to come back to life on Wednesday night and pick up exactly where it left off as the Paralympic Games opened with another opening ceremony taking its text from The Tempest while surveying the sweep of British history. Prefacing 11 days of competition, the theme of the gala was enlightenment. That turned out to involve anything from Handel's Eternal Source of Light Divine to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and from the apple falling in Isaac Newton's Lincolnshire garden to Stephen Hawking's celebration of the Higgs particle. The great astrophysicist and Sir Ian McKellen, in the guise of Prospero, shared the MC duties, with Nicola Miles-Wildin, as Miranda, intoning Shakespeare's key lines: "O wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" This time all the Queen had to do was turn up and make a short speech. Nobody invited her to follow her scene-stealing role alongside James Bond by joining Pan's People or singing a duet with Beverley Knight. Like the rest of the 80,000 in the Stratford stadium, she sat and watched a Paralympic opening ceremony that cast the spotlight on the role of science in helping to change social attitudes and culminated in the lighting of the 205 new petals of Thomas Heatherwick's long-stemmed cauldron, the flame swooping down from the top of Anish Kapoor's adjacent tower, carried on the last stage of its journey by an athlete attached to a zip wire. "Prepare to be inspired, prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be moved," Sebastian Coe told the spectators. He was talking about the 503 events in which medals will be won, but he could have been describing the uncompromising climax of a four-hour gala, which came with a performance of Ian Dury's Spasticus Autisticus by members of the Graeae Theatre Company and the appearance of a giant version of Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper Pregnant, the sculpture of the limbless woman that once looked down from the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. They left no doubt about why we were here – and about how far we have come since Ludwig Guttmann, the Silesian neurosurgeon who arrived in England as a refugee from Hitler, identified the possibility of using sport to aid the recovery of paralysed servicemen and women who had previously been considered beyond salvation. Facing the world's media this week, the South African runner Oscar Pistorius, whose legs were amputated in infancy, made the point that Paralympic athletes want to be judged not on disability but on ability. In other words, the 4,200 competitors from 164 countries would rather you enjoyed their skills than felt pity for their missing limbs. The fact remains, however, that this bunch of inhabitants of the London 2012 athletes' village come with more voluminous baggage than the former occupants. They simply have more gripping stories. If they didn't, they wouldn't be here. It is thanks to them that we now know something about the implications of being born without a fibula in either leg (Pistorius), with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (Lee Pearson, the flamboyant holder of nine equestrian gold medals from Sydney, Athens and Beijing), or without hands or feet (the Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias). We have learned to recognise the possibilities for achievement that remain despite jumping into a swimming pool and breaking your neck (female wheelchair rugby player Kylie Grimes), losing a leg to infantile meningitis (teenage 100m prodigy Jonnie Peacock), or losing both legs under a railway train (javelin thrower Nathan Stephens) or on a Circle Line train on 7/7 (sitting volleyball player Martine Wright). We have been nudged, most of all, towards a deeper understanding of the word "transformation", as employed so tellingly by Guttmann, whose intention in founding the Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralysed, he said, was "to transform a severely disabled patient into a taxpayer". There was no sentimentality about Guttmann. A black-and-white film clip shows him responding to a bedridden patient who confesses to a loss of belief in his recovery. "Now cut that out, will you," the doctor snaps, the crispness of his delivery perhaps only marginally exaggerated for the camera. His reward, before his death in 1980, was to see the start of the transformation of his modest concept into the Paralympics, and thereby a transformation in the public perception not just of disabled athletes but of disability in general. Pistorius talked this week of his personal experience of that process. In supermarkets, he said, parents still sometimes turned their children away from the sight of his prosthetic legs. But once he gets a chance to talk to the children, perhaps telling them that his original legs dropped off because he failed to eat his vegetables, the sense of shock and otherness disappears quickly and for good. He noted with approval that the young people who turned up for the Paralympic day in Trafalgar Square a year ago "didn't have the normal reactions that people show to disabled athletes – they were friendly and excited." The United Kingdom, he added, had dealt with disabled people "in a very amazing way – a lot of people around the world will be forced to see the Paralympics through the eyes of people in the UK, and that's a fantastic thing." These Games are the real thing, all right, mirroring the Olympics in all sorts of ways. They have their own rows over illegal performance enhancement, in the form of blood-boosting achieved through various methods of self-torture unsuitable for description in a family newspaper. A Paralympics sponsor – Atos, which tests the fitness for work of disabled people on behalf of the government – is accused of using its association with the event to launder its image. And there is a dispute over the ability of the Paralympics to create a meaningful legacy at a time when disabled people in the UK are suffering from severe cuts to the employment and support allowance. Part of the real world, indeed, sharing and sometimes highlighting its real and intractable problems. But, for the next 11 days, as we learn the rules of boccia and sitting volleyball, enjoy the visceral thrill of the wheelchair races and watch blind people playing football by ear and touch, we too will be playing a full part in squeezing the last drops of enjoyment from a £9.3bn investment that seems to have delivered the goods.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Presidential hopeful's running-mate draws distinctions with Obama on economic policy and criticises healthcare reforms Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running-mate, will embark on the biggest challenge of his political career on Wednesday night, trying to sell his boss to the Republican convention and to millions more watching at home. Ryan, one of the great hopes of the Republican party, will deliver a primetime keynote speech designed to both bolster Romney and land punches on Barack Obama. He will focus on drawing sharp distinctions with Obama on economic policy, according to excerpts released in advance of the speech. Contrasting his joint Romney-Ryan economic plan to cut taxes and spending with what he described as the failure of Barack Obama's economic policies, he will say: "We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years." Ryan will not make the mistake of the keynote speaker on Tuesday night, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who failed in his task of building up Romney. Christie was 17 minutes into his speech before mentioning Romney's name. "Our nominee is sure ready," he will say of Romney. "His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is governor Mitt Romney." The Wisconsin congressman will also attack Obama's healthcare reforms, which have received little mention from the convention platform so far this week. "Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country," he will say. "The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare." Much of the rest of Ryan's speech consists of warm but largely empty rhetoric. He will say the final months of the campaign for the White House would present a clear choice between the Romney-Ryan spending cuts plan and what he portrays as Obama's failed stimulus package. Delegates were looking to Ryan replicate the excitement created by the 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin – while avoiding the later pitfalls of her disastrous media appearances. Ryan, in the speech, will focus on presenting himself, as he has done throughout his political career, as a small-town, ordinary Joe, turning again, as he has in the past, to folksy language. "My Dad used to say to me: 'Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution'," Ryan said. He will be followed on Thursday night by Romney, who faces the most important speech of his political career when he addresses the convention. It is one of the last major opportunities for Romney, speaking to an estimated 50,000 in the hall and potentially more than 30 million at home, to break free from Obama after months in which the two have been tied in the polls. In the speech, Ryan criticises Obama's healthcare reforms, an economic plan to create 12 million new jobs over the next four years. The Obama campaign launched a pre-emptive strike before Ryan's convention speech, releasing a new video using black-and-white footage to highlight their contention that he is a throwback to a bygone era. The Obama campaign said: "Paul Ryan has made it clear that he'll take the nation back to a very different era – including the same failed policies that crashed our economy in the first place." In the video, mocked up to look like newsreel from the 1940s and 1950s, the Obama campaign accuses him of supporting a budget that will hurt the working class, end the Medicare health scheme, and cut programmes for students. It also accuses him of being anti-women and anti-abortion. A Ryan spokesman, Brendan Buck, responding to claims in the video that Ryan would be disastrous for the working-class, accused Obama of "tired and misleading attacks in an attempt to divert attention away from his failed record". Romney, after arriving in Tampa on Tuesday, earlier than planned, flew on Wednesday to Indiana to address army veterans before returning to Florida. He said that he would rather address the veterans than polish his speech. His main thrust was to denounce planned cuts by Obama in the military budget. "We are now just months away from an arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would weaken the military with a trillion dollars in cuts, severely shrink our force structure, and impair our ability to meet and deter threats," Romney said. In spite of Republican efforts, the prospect of defence cuts has failed to take off as an election issue, in the main because the top concern of voters is unemployment. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state in the Bush administration, was the warm-up for Ryan. In a CBS interview on Wednesday, Rice said that Romney – unlike Obama – would lead from the front in world affairs, although Romney has had little to say about foreign policy so far. While Rice insisted she was not advocating intervention in Syria, she said: "When the United States's voice is muted, the world is a more dangerous place … just look at the situation in Syria, for instance. We have a circumstance in which [Syrian president Bashar] Assad is butchering his people, the Iranians are helping him to do so, the United States seems to be mired in the security council, the Russians and the Chinese say, 'No, no, no,' and we don't seem to have an answer." Rice was adamant she would not take a role in a Romney cabinet, saying she intended to remain in the academic world. One of the biggest obstacles to Romney winning the presidency, in spite of widespread and deep dissatisfaction with Obama's handling of the economy, is the alienation of Latinos through his anti-immigration rhetoric. The Democrats enjoy a two-to-one advantage over the Republicans among Latinos, one of the fastest-growing groups. The former Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, George's brother, and who is married to a Latino, expressed his frustration with his own party at a Hispanic outreach meeting in Tampa on Tuesday. He predicted the party will not close the gap with Latino voters until they "stop acting stupid". The Republican national committee also risked alienating floating voters by publishing as part of the convention its official programme a platform document setting out various policy goals such as a ban on all abortions, a ban on gay marriage, turning Medicare into a voucher scheme and introducing more tax cuts. Romney is not bound by the platform programme. His campaign, while saying it supports the Medicare reform and more tax cuts, favours exemptions from the abortion ban in cases of rape, incest and where there is risk to women's health.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In Reddit chat, president bypasses media to answer wide-ranging questions put forth by surprised internet users Barack Obama has said he wants to launch a nationwide campaign to try to over turn Citizens United, the controversial 2010 supreme court ruling that allowed massive sums of corporate cash to flood the electoral process. The president made his remarks in the middle of a chat with the internet community Reddit. He told the site's users: "Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United (assuming the Supreme Court doesn't revisit it)." Obama's suggestion that he might confront the issue of corporate money in politics head on is a reflection of how seriously Democrats are taking the huge surge in private funding in the 2012 election cycle. A handful of conservative billionaires have been pumping in tens of millions of dollars to saturate media markets in vital swing states. The idea of overturning Citizens United through a constitutional amendment has been gaining steam in recent months. Such a move would be virtually impossible to achieve, as it would require ratification by two-thirds of the country's 50 states. Obama acknowledged the difficulties, but argued that a push for an amendment would be valuable in itself. "Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change." The Citizens United comments were the most pointed of his remarks on Reddit. The web chat last about an hour, and was so popular with the community's millions of devotees that it brought the whole site crashing down. "I Am Barack Obama, President of the United States," he began, following the protocol of Reddit's "AMA" chats almost laughably to the letter. For those lucky enough to be able to fight their way through the technical glitches, they were treated to a stream of Obama commentary on questions from the future of the web itself, to space travel and to the recipe of the newly brewed White House beer. Lest anyone doubtrf that it was the real president tapping away at the keyboard, Reddit released a photo of Obama sitting at a computer, jacketless and with his top button undone. "Internet freedom is something I know you all care passionately about; I do too," he wrote. "We will fight hard to make sure that the internet remains the open forum for everybody." He said that his hardest decision in office had been to surge US forces in Afghanistan. "Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you know that not everyone will come home safely, and that necessarily weighs heavily on you." And he pledged to make sure "we stay at the forefront of space exploration... The passing of Neil Armstrong this week is a reminder of the inspiration and wonder that our space program has provided." Obama's forthright comments on Citizens United were not replicated in other policy areas, however. He incurred the wrath of some Reddit members by choosing to ignore their questions about his use of drones to assassinate terrorist suspects abroad, as well as other hot-button Reddit issues such as the on-going war on drugs or Guantanamo. He also incurred the wrath of those desperate to find out the recipe of the White House home-brewed Honey Ale. "It will be out soon!" was all he would say, though he did add: "I can tell from first hand experience, it is tasty."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New Orleans issues curfew as torrential rain and harsh winds remain serious threat as storm weakens with little relief in sight Heavy rain, high winds and floodwaters swept over Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday, as Isaac was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm and a fortified levee system appeared to have saved New Orleans from disaster. Rescuers picked up dozens of residents who had ignored warnings to leave low-lying areas, seven years to the day after hurricane Katrina devastated the city. Power lines were cut and debris littered the streets, prompting authorities in New Orleans to declare a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Louisiana officials said they would intentionally breach a levee in Placquemines parish, south of New Orleans, as Isaac lumbered inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Authorities feared many residents would need help after a night of torrential rain and harsh winds knocked out power to more than 700,000 households and businesses. Isaac has top sustained winds of 70mph (112kph), just below the hurricane threshold of 74mph (119kph). Army Corps spokeswoman Rachel Rodi said the city's bigger, stronger levees were withstanding the assault. "The system is performing as intended, as we expected," she said. "We don't see any issues with the hurricane system at this point." New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu issued a curfew for the city. Police cars had been patrolling the nearly empty streets since Isaac began bringing fierce winds and heavy rains to the city Tuesday night. Rescuers in boats and trucks plucked a handful of people who became stranded by floodwaters in thinly populated areas of south-east Louisiana. Emergency officials in Plaquemines Parish said floodwaters had flowed over an 8ft levee between the Braithwaite and White Ditch districts. Authorities evacuated hundreds of families from Plaquemines on Wednesday afternoon amid fears of fresh flooding. Convoys of people clutching children, pets and bags streamed in driving rain down state highway 23 while a fleet of ambulances with blaring sirens headed in the opposite direction towards the Mississippi to aid people still in danger. A YMCA centre in Belle Chase, just south of New Orleans, became an improvised refugee station for 125 people after two other nearby shelters filled up. "The waters had reached the seventh step of my porch and the lawmen told us we had to evacuate the premises," said Veraldine Garrison, 72, who arrived with four adult children. "All we had was the wind and the rain. The wind and the rain." Like others, she feared for her home. "There ain't nothing you can do with mother nature. You can't control that water." Beside her, huddled in a blanket, sat a woman rescued from her rooftop, too exhausted or traumatized to speak. Some evacuees complained they were forced to leave pets and valuables behind. "My chihuahuas, Tiki and Tutu, are still in my trailer home," said Thomas Wyman, 80, slumped in a plastic chair. "And my money, my medicine, it's all there." Jim Gabour, who lives in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, just next to the French Quarter, said that with electricity knocked out, trees downed and the wind still up, residents were in survivalist mode – and did not expect relief until the weekend. "No electricity, no running water and 80mph gusts," Gabour wrote in an email on Wednesday. "Right now, cutting trees off house in high winds and stinging rains. Cell batteries gone soon. Land lines not working." He added later: "Generator too erratic for computer. No electricity, cable or land lines until weekend. Will have to turn off generator soon, and be in dark again, as we have to ration gas and no stations open. And it is suffocatingly hot."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Foreign secretary meets Ecuadorean vice-president in attempt to find diplomatic solution to case of WikiLeaks founder William Hague, the foreign secretary, has held talks with Ecuador's vice-president Lenin Moreno as the deadlock over the status of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange continued. Ecuador has granted political asylum to Assange, who is staying at the London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual offence allegations. The Australian activist will be arrested and extradited if he steps outside the building after jumping bail. A Foreign Office spokesman said the UK and Ecuador would continue attempts to find a "diplomatic solution" to the stand-off. Ecuador claims that Britain has threatened to enter the embassy and detain 41-year-old Assange in a move that would violate diplomatic conventions. Britain has warned that it can legally enter the embassy and arrest Assange under the 1987 Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act, but Hague has said there is no intention to "storm" the building. Hague met Moreno in the Foreign Office as the vice-president visited the UK for the Paralympics and the pair talked about the Games and the rights of those with disabilities. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "They also discussed the situation regarding Mr Julian Assange's presence in the embassy of Ecuador in London. They confirmed the UK and Ecuador's commitment to dialogue to find a diplomatic solution to the matter."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn rewarded for involvement with programme which helped ex-Soviet states get rid of weapons US senator Richard Lugar and former senator Sam Nunn were honoured on Wednesday for their role in helping ex-Soviet states secure and dismantle huge stocks of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The pair became the first recipients of a new prize, to be awarded every two years, to people or groups whose work prevents the proliferation of nuclear weapons and cuts the risk of their use. The prize was awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York philanthropic foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace thinktank at a ceremony in the Peace Palace in The Hague. It will now carry the Americans' names – the Nunn-Lugar award for promoting nuclear security. The two authored the Nunn-Lugar Act in 1991 which set up the Co-operative Threat Reduction Programme that is credited with helping former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan rid their territories of nuclear weapons. Under the program, the US provided reinforced rail cars to carry nuclear warheads, high-tech security systems for storage sites and help in dismantling mothballed nuclear subs. Lugar is a Republican from Indiana who lost his re-election bid in May, ending a 36-year career in the Senate. Nunn is a Democrat who represented Georgia for 24 years until 1997. In a statement, the Carnegie Corporation said the programme the pair helped set up had "contributed to the deactivation of more than 7,500 nuclear warheads, neutralised chemical weapons, safeguarded fissile materials, converted weapons facilities for peaceful use, mitigated bio-threats, and redirected the work of former weapons scientists and engineers, among other efforts." Lugar called the programme "a triumph measured in more than the hundreds of missiles, thousands of warheads, tons of chemical weapons, and scores of biological pathogens now under lock and key or destroyed. It has been the basis upon which the United States has found constructive means to engage former adversaries and new partners, united by a common vision and desire to detect and defeat new threats."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pro-life activists fall short by 4,000 signatures to qualify for November vote to give fertilised eggs the same rights as people The so-called "personhood" movement was dealt a significant blow on Wednesday, after it failed to get enough support for a ballot measure in Colorado. The measure, which would define a fertilised egg as a person under the state constitution, thus banning abortions in the state, fell short by 4,000 of the 86,105 signatures it needed to qualify for the ballot in November, according to Scott Gessler, Colorado's secretary of state. This year, Personhood USA, the group behind the country-wide push for laws which would give fertilised eggs the same rights as people, has tried and failed in seven different states to secure enough signatures to make it a ballot measure for voters or to make the deadline required. It has failed in Oregon, Ohio, Nevada, Montana, Florida and California. The measure has been voted against in every state where it has appeared on the ballot, including the conservative state of Mississippi, which is currently trying to close its remaining abortion clinic, in 2011. The amendment aims to ban abortion, but medical experts and pro-choice campaigners have argued that it will also restrict access to birth control and fertility treatment. Infertility groups have urged members to vote against personhood amendments and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has condemned personhood laws or amendments as a "grave threat to women's health" by introducing measures that would ban some forms of contraception and life-saving treatment for ectopic and molar pregnancies, and restrict IVF treatment. The latest failure in Colorado marks the third attempt by pro-lifers to get it on the ballot there. The measure has steadily lost momentum in the state since 2008. Similar proposals then and in 2010, which made the ballot, failed after Coloradans voted against it by three to one. A spokeswoman for Personhood USA said the secretary of state's count was wrong and vowed to challenge it. Jennifer Mason, a spokeswoman for Personhood USA told the Guardian it would demand a recount and try again to place it on the ballot. She said: "We believe we have enough to place it on the ballot. We believe a number of ballot signatures were thrown out by the secretary of state." She said that if there were notary errors, a whole petition of signatures could be discarded erroneously. Mason said she had hired an attorney and had 30 days to challenge the count. Despite repeated setbacks, Mason said that Personhood USA will continue its efforts to get the amendment on the ballot next year or the year after in Ohio, Florida and Oregon, depending on their election agendas. She accused Planned Parenthood or running a "campaign of misinformation" about the measure but said they were determined to persevere. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) said that women all over Colorado were "signing with relief", describing the news as a victory for women's health. Cathy Alderman, the vice-president of public affairs at PPRM said: "What this means in Colorado is a significant erosion of support for this measure. It goes too far, and people are afraid of the consequences which are detailed in the measure itself." "The personhood movement believes it has a lot of momentum. But when people realise how restrictive this measure is they are always going to vote against it. It could allow politicians and government to make private health decisions for women and voters are not OK with that." "If you go back to some of the comments made by proponents of this measure, they don't know if it will have an effect on birth control or IVF. That's far too risky for us to accept and we believe it will limit access to birth control and IVF and that is bad. If personhood respected the voters it would discontinue its efforts." Colorado has one of the lowest thresholds for the number of signatures needed to get a measure on the ballot, requiring 86,000 compared to 385,000 in Ohio.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is the highlight of the second day of the RNC in Tampa
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is the highlight of the second day of the RNC in Tampa
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is the highlight of the second day of the RNC in Tampa - live
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is the highlight of the second day of the RNC in Tampa
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Brandon Raub calls experience 'extremely alarming' after he was taken for psychiatric evaluation – but not charged with any crime A former US marine who was taken from his home and involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting controversial song lyrics and conspiracy theories on Facebook is to file a civil lawsuit against the FBI and police. Speaking for the first time since his release, after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to detain him, Brandon Raub said his experience was frightening and that it sent a "extremely alarming" message to Americans. His case has sparked vigorous online debate over First Amendment rights versus concerns over security. On Wednesday, a group called Revolution PAC, in support of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, called on Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to apologise to Raub and to make public all communications related to the incident. Raub, 26, a former combat engineer who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was taken forcibly from his home in Chesterfield County, Virginia, by two FBI agents and police on 16 August. He was not charged with any crime. After talking with FBI agents, he was handcuffed and detained in a psychiatric hospital for seven days before a judge ruled on 23 August that there was not sufficient evidence to keep him there. In an interview posted on a conservative civil liberties website, Raub said: "I'm really tough so I roll with the punches. But it made me scared for my country. The idea that a man can be snatched off his property without being read his rights I think should be extremely alarming to all Americans." One posting said to be of concern was Raub's Facebook post on 13 August, which said: "Sharpen up my axe: I'm here to sever heads", a quote from a song called Bring Me Down by Swollen Members, a Canadian hip-hop band. Other posts focus on conspiracy theories related to 9/11 and talk of an upcoming revolution. A YouTube video of his arrest in which he was dressed only in shorts and looked frightened went viral, and support for Raub has grown online. One of several Facebook groups set up by supporters, "Support Brandon Raub Group" has 11,204 members and a change.org petition has been signed by thousands, including marines who served with him. In his interview with John Whitehead, constitutional attorney and president of the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, which represented Raub in court and helped secure his release, Raub said the lyrics were meant as a metaphor for the power of truth. "What I meant was … the truth is very powerful and has the ability to cut," Raub said. "The truth is not always nice. Sometimes it can be very specific." Other Facebook postings, alleged to have been "terrorist in nature", were part of a private game he was playing online with his brother and sister, he said. Raub said that the FBI agents were "very vague" about what they wanted to talk to him about. He said he was not read his rights as required by law and was not charged with any crime. He said that Americans needed to educate themselves about government intrusions into the lives of citizens, and he urged people to do so, especially regarding the government's ability to seize private property and industry. Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas, told reporters that her son has no history of mental illness or violence, but was a patriot in a family of patriots. He is "concerned about all the wars we've experienced" and believes the US government was complicit in the September 11 terrorist attacks. One of his Facebook posts, she said, pictured the gaping hole in the Pentagon and asked "where's the plane?" "I want the country to know who he is – that he's not crazy, he's a staunch patriot," Thomas told AP. She said she has posted similar things herself, questioning the government and its role in the 9/11 attacks. Virginia law allows police to detain people for mental evaluation under emergency circumstances. Four days after Raub was taken into custody, he was ordered by a special justice to be involuntarily committed at the veterans affairs medical centre in Salem, around 200 miles form his home, after the special justice concluded he was mentally ill and presented a danger to others. But on 23 August, a Prince George County circuit judge ruled that involuntary commitment order was flawed and and ordered Raub's release. "The petition is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy," the order from W Allan Sharrett said. Whitehead told the Guardian he would file a federal civil suit against the FBI and local authorities for violation of Raub's First Amendment rights. He plans to challenge what he said is the misuse of Virginia's civil commitment laws, which determine a person can be involuntarily committed upon evidence that he or she has a mental illness and they may cause harm to themselves or others. "They over-reacted," Whitehead said. "There was no specific threats here. They knew that – they didn't search the property. If the police had done their homework, they would know this guy doesn't even own a weapon." Whitehead said some of the postings were made by Raub's brother and that the surveillance of a private Facebook group without a search warrant was also illegal. He dismissed Raub's psychiatric evaluation, during which mental health professionals said they found signs of psychosis. "Or course they did – he's a 9/11 truther," said Whitehead. "Psychiatrists think that's crazy, but do you know how many people believe that in the US? About a million. You have a right to say what you believe. There were no specific threats to anyone." Whitehead said he had been "besieged" by legal requests from veterans alleging similar treatment at the hands of the authorities since taking on the case. An FBI spokesman said it took action against Raub after receiving public complaints over his posts. "He was never arrested, he was taken into custody by the local authorities for a mental evaluation," he said. "He was never charged with any criminal action. Many times we get complaints from the public about individuals that may post a a violent threat. What we are doing is trying to determine if that individual poses a threat or not." He said he understood the Facebook postings of concern were "limited" but said he had no details of them. In a statement released after Raub's arrest, Chesterfield police said they had assisted federal agents in their attempts to interview him and that, after the interview, officers believed he needed further evaluation. He was handcuffed after resisting officers' attempts to place him custody, it said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The theme of tonight's Paralympics opening ceremony is Enlightenment and features Stephen Hawking. Join us as we cover all the action from Stratford as it happens
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The theme of tonight's Paralympics opening ceremony is Enlightenment and features Stephen Hawking. Join us as we cover all the action from Stratford as it happens
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Torrential rain and winds of 75mph strike Louisiana and Mississippi, knocking out power and threatening severe flooding Hurricane Isaac howled through Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday, sending floodwaters surging over a rural levee and straining New Orleans' defences on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The category 1 hurricane unleashed sustained deluges and winds of 75mph as it moved slowly towards New Orleans, knocking out power to 500,000 people and stoking concern of flooding in the city overnight. Families in Plaquemines parish, a low-lying district just south of New Orleans, were evacuated from rooftops and attics after water poured over an 8ft levee and smashed its way into homes. The Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, said the levee may have to be "intentionally breached" to drain the rising waters. Rachel Rodi, an army corps spokeswoman, said the city's levees, fortified after the 2005 catastrophe, were withstanding Isaac's battering. "The system is performing as intended, as we expected. We don't see any issues with the hurricane system at this point." However Isaac's crawl – it wobbled inland at 6mph – dumped torrent after torrent of rain onto the same areas, in some more than 20in. Tidal swells in some places rose by more than two feet. "We're down to a differential of 7ft between the levee and the tide," said Windell Curole, manager of the levees and flood gates in Lafourche, just south of New Orleans. "If the storm continues moving so slowly we could be down to a differential of two or three feet and that's way too close for comfort, that's when all sorts of bad things can happen." The problem was not so much Isaac's ferocity – weaker than Katrina's – but its dawdling pace, said Curole. "Because it's stalled it's become more of a problem than we anticipated." David Zelinsky, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, cautioned that Isaac was not going away anytime soon. "We expect it generally to continue moving very slowly through Louisiana today, even into tomorrow," he told Reuters. "Beyond that, as it begins to weaken we expect it to move into northern Louisiana late Thursday into Friday and then north into Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma – that region – after that." The oil industry breathed a sigh of relief that only 12% of the Gulf coast's refining capacity went offline. Isaac was crueller to the fishing community of Plaquemines, where the storm flooded an 18-mile stretch of one levee – not part of the New Orleans system – triggering the rescue of about two dozen people who had defied a mandatory evacuation order. The US national guard mobilised to rescue hundreds more as water levels rose. "If that's a category 1 storm, I don't want to go through anything stronger," the parish president, Bill Nungesser, told a press conference. "We've had a breach, 12-14ft of water in homes and businesses over there and there's a lot of people that need to be rescued. There's over 25 people that have called into the fire department that are in their attic, on their roof, waiting to be rescued. No one thought this storm was going to do what it did to Plaquemines parish. "I myself have more damage from this storm than Katrina. The water piled up on east ends … that we used to brag about because they never got water before. Areas that didn't flood for Katrina were flooded for this event." Caitlin Campbell, a spokesperson for the parish, said there were no initial reports of deaths. "Rescue efforts are now in progress. Local residents are rescuing other residents at this time," she said. Two police officers trapped in a car were among those rescued. When the Guardian visited Plaquemines on Tuesday it was clear many inhabitants were ignoring the evacuation order. Jindal said the authorities believed about 3,000 residents stayed behind. Highway 23, which winds its way south east along the banks of the Mississippi river, was closed by police at Port Sulphur, around 30 miles from the end of the road, but police were allowing residents to bypass the barrier and take their chances. One, Joseph Buras, said a few hours before Isaac hit that he had decided to stay because he feared looters would ransack his home if it was unguarded. But he was critical of the calibre of the new flood defences. "I'm very unimpressed. The levees down there are not up to code. Just a few months back I was on a bicycle on top of the levee and half of it gave way. It's just mud." However, the levees in New Orleans, part of a $14.5bn flood defence system erected after Katrina, the worst engineering disaster in US history, were withstanding the onslaught which began after Isaac made landfall on Tuesday night near the mouth of the Mississippi. "Where we are, they are holding up," said Kevin McCaffrey, a documentary maker who lives just off the lakefront. "When you get up close to the water and see the swirl you get new respect for the storm. But we don't expect too much flooding." He echoed widespread praise for coordination – at local, state and federal level – in contrast to the chaos during and after Katrina. "The difference is night and day." New Orleans remained deserted, save for police patrol cars and national guard Humvees which splashed through streets responding to emergency calls. Trees cracked, billboards toppled and heavy bins skidded down alleys. With everyone hunkered inside it was left to church bells, including those from St Louis cathedral overlooking Jackson Square, to toll in honour of the estimated 1,800 who died during Katrina. A homeless population which usually sleeps in doorways and under highway overpasses was brought to shelters by police and National Guard patrols. The St Jude community centre on the edge of the French Quarter was full to its 50-bed capacity when Isaac arrived. "We're just waiting till Mother Nature goes," said Tyrone Drayton, a worker at the shelter. "Before the storm kicked off everything was nice and pleasant. Later on, the rain started coming down, about 9.30. And all of a sudden, whoosh. And the doors were shaking like they were about to go off their hinges. I was trying to sleep and it wasn't doing no good. Then part of the city started losing lights. We lost power in the morning for fifteen minutes." Drayton said that the timing brought back terrible memories of Katrina. "Sometimes it brings a little tear out – friends I lost, family members. It brings a little sadness but in life you've just got to keep on going," he said. The emergency prompted a rare non-partisan note amid election campaigning. "When disaster strikes, we're not Democrats or Republicans first, we are Americans first," President Barack Obama said at a campaign rally at Iowa State University. "We're one family. We help our neighbors in need." His Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, whose formal nomination this week has been overshadowed by Isaac, urged supporters to help the response effort with donations to the Red Cross.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Syrian president shrugs off high-profile defections and says regime forces need more time to wipe out opposition Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has said there is no immediate prospect of an end to the country's 17-month-old civil war, adding that more time is needed for his "heroic" armed forces to wipe out the opposition. In an interview with Syria's pro-government Addounia TV channel, Assad shrugged off recent damaging defections by senior regime figures, and suggested the situation for ordinary Syrians was now gradually improving. Events on the ground on Wednesday, however, suggested otherwise, with heavy shelling near the capital Damascus and a major rebel attack on a strategic northern airbase. "We are moving forward, the situation is practically getting better, but the victory needs more time," Assad said. He continued: "We're fighting a regional and global battle and must have more time to resolve [it]." The interview marks a rare public appearance for Assad, and follows a devastating explosion last month at his Damascus military-security command, which killed four of his top advisers. Assad laughed off claims that he had fled the capital, or escaped abroad, telling his interviewer: "I'm here with you in Damascus inside the republican palace." The president also praised his country's embattled armed forces. Opposition activists and human rights groups accuse Assad's troops and pro-government shabiha militias of staging a series of massacres, most recently in the town of Daraya. Up to 400 people were reportedly killed there over the weekend. "The army are doing their job. They are performing heroic acts in every sense of the word," Assad said. Assad also suggested outside diplomatic pressure to end the conflict made little difference, and said he did not think a no-fly zone over Syria would ever happen. "The truth is that Syria doesn't need a green light when dealing with its internal affairs, neither from our allies or our enemies," he told the channel, owned by his cousin Rami Makhlouf, one of Syria's wealthiest men. Assad's remarks, showing him to be relaxed and calm, came as his new prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, arrived in Tehran for a two-day summit. Iran, Assad's principal regional backer, proposed a three-month ceasefire inside Syria. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also attended the non-aligned summit, with Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, due to drop in on Thursday. But the Iranian initiative has little prospect of success and came amid another day of carnage across Syria. Residents in Ghouta, three miles (5km) east of Damascus, said they had been under bombardment from government tanks and warplanes for two days. "A lot of people are fleeing Ghouta to escape the random shooting, but they don't know where to go," one resident, Abu Omer, told the Guardian via Skype. Omer said the regime had punished the area – home to two million people – after fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) shot down a warplane. He said the Syrian army was now converging in nearby Ain Terma and al-Miliha, and was attempting to storm the town. "There are conveys of tanks and armoured vehicles full of soldiers on the highway that divides Damascus and eastern Ghouta. The snipers are shooting anyone in sight," he said. The regime had forced local bakeries to close, with food and medicines now in short supply, and was shooting civilians sheltering in their houses. The victims included two children in Juber aged seven and eight, and three women, he said. Omer's claims are impossible to verify. But video footage posted on YouTube on Wednesday appears to show heavy bombardment of Ghouta, with residential buildings targeted next to a minaret and smoke billowing across the skyline. More than 40 people have been killed by pro-regime militias in outlying areas, activists said. In northern Syria, an armed Islamist rebel group claimed it had carried out a major attack on the Taftanaz airbase near the town of Idlib. At least five helicopters were destroyed, it said, with the rebels assaulting the airbase using tanks captured from a Syrian military checkpoint and rocket-propelled grenades. "The operation lasted for 40 minutes," one rebel commander, Tamiem al-Shami, told the Guardian via Skype. "We were able to take out most of the defences at the base. We used a lot of fire against the helicopters and could see with our own eyes how the helicopters were burning." Shami said he was a member of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade in Idlib, an Islamic religious unit which was separate from the FSA but co-operated with it. Shami said three of his men were killed during the operation and one injured. The rebels withdrew when Syrian warplanes attacked their positions, he added. The Syrian state news agency Sana said forces loyal to the government had successfully repulsed the assault. Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, meanwhile, said he would press the UN security council to set up a safe haven inside Syria to protect thousands of people fleeing the violence. Turkey has long been floating the idea of a no-fly zone, or buffer zone, to protect displaced Syrians from attacks by Assad's forces, but the issue has become more pressing now the number of refugees in Turkey has exceeded 80,000 – a number it says approaches its limits. "We expect the UN to step in and protect the refugees inside Syria, and if possible, to shelter them in camps there," Davutoglu told reporters before leaving for New York to attend Thursday's high-level UN security council meeting on Syria.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eastern Mediterranean regions at front of queue for €18bn bailout to cover deficit spending and refinancing of existing debt Spain's regional governments have long made it clear that they cannot make it through the year without the help of a central government bailout. Much of the €18bn (£14.2bn) on offer will end up on Spain's eastern Mediterranean coast, with Catalonia, Valencia and Murcia at the front of the queue. They jointly need €9bn to cover deficit spending and the refinancing of existing debt this year. They may need a similar sum to tide them through 2013 and 2014. But several other regions may follow suit, with Castilla La Mancha – which posted the worst regional deficit of all last year – the most likely to need help. A political price must be paid. Regions that take bailout money but fail to meet a strict central government deficit target of 1.5% this year can have their finances taken over by the so-called "men in black" – finance ministry officials from Madrid. That would provoke outrage in Catalonia – a fiercely independent-minded region that already claims it pays too much into Spain's communal tax pot and that the bailout is simply a case of it getting its money back.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | National Theatre of Uganda refuses to stage The River and the Mountain, which tells the story of a young gay businessman A play that highlights the difficulties of being gay in Uganda has been forced to abandon its run in the capital, Kampala. The River and the Mountain, which tells the story of a young businessman coming to terms with being gay in a climate of homophobia, was due to be performed at the National Theatre of Uganda last week before regulators intervened. Some shows went ahead at two smaller venues, but the National Theatre refused to stage the scheduled performances. "We are all disappointed but not surprised that we could not perform at the National Theatre," said the actor Okuyo Joel Atiku Prynce, who plays the gay character at the centre of the story. "What is surprising is the fact that we have received no clear reason. No one is taking responsibility for this decision." He said the play was not intended to promote a specific agenda, but rather to add to public debate. "We're actors, not activists," he said. "The play is there to inspire discussion in the community and to get a reaction from people. We want it to open up a dialogue." Uganda has a reputation as a deeply homophobic society, largely based on the anti-homosexuality bill introduced to parliament in October 2009. The bill, which has not yet been voted on, proposes severe penalties, including death, for those found guilty of having same-sex relationships. In January 2011 the gay rights activist David Kato was murdered shortly after a local newspaper published images of him and other gay people under a headline urging readers: "Hang them." The River and the Mountain has provoked controversy not only for its sympathetic portrayal of gay people, but also because it suggests that much of the anger and hatred has been whipped up by politicians and religious leaders for their own purposes. Its British playwright, Beau Hopkins, said he had hoped the play would promote discussion about homosexuality. "The aim of the play was for it to be discussed by those who saw it and in the local media," Hopkins said. "The local media seem to have agreed not to talk about it, which is disappointing. We're also particularly disappointed that it won't be staged at the National Theatre, as there it would have reached more Ugandans." The production was stopped by the regulating Media Council, which told producers a day before it was to open that the script needed to be cleared by authorities – not normally a requirement for theatrical productions. But the council's Pius Mwinganisa told the Guardian this was standard practice and not politically motivated. He said authorisation for The River and the Mountain remained "under consideration". Christopher Senyonjo, a bishop who was thrown out of the Church of Uganda in March 2006 in part because of his vocal support for the gay community, criticised the decision. "This play helps people understand that gay people should be understood rather than rejected out of hand," he said. "My church wanted me to condemn homosexuals but I cannot condemn people who are just the way they were born."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | No Easy Day, to be published next week, raises questions over whether Osama bin Laden presented a clear threat to US forces A first-hand account of the US Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions over whether he presented a clear threat when he was first fired upon. Bin Laden apparently was hit in the head when he looked out of his bedroom door into the top-floor hallway of his compound as Seals rushed up a narrow stairwell in his direction, according to a former Navy Seal writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen in No Easy Day. The book is to be published next week by Penguin's Dutton imprint. The Seal says he was directly behind a "point man" going up the stairs. "Less than five steps" from the top of the stairs, he heard "suppressed" gunfire: "Bop. Bop." The point man had seen a "man peeking out of the door" on the right side of the hallway. Owen writes that Bin Laden ducked back into his bedroom and the Seals followed, only to find the terrorist crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body. He says the point man pulled the two women out of the way and shoved them into a corner, and he and the other Seals trained their guns' laser sites on Bin Laden's still-twitching body, shooting him several times until he lay motionless. The Seals later found two weapons stored by the doorway, untouched, the author said. In the account related by administration officials after the raid in Pakistan, the Seals shot Bin Laden only after he ducked back into the bedroom because they assumed he might be reaching for a weapon. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor would not comment on the apparent contradiction late Tuesday. But he said in an email: "As President Obama said on the night that justice was brought to Osama bin Laden, 'We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country.'" No Easy Day was due out on 11 September, but Dutton announced the book would be available a week early on 4 September because of a surge of orders due to advance publicity that drove the book to the top of the Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-seller lists. The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book Tuesday. The account is sure to again raise questions as to whether the raid was intended to capture or simply to kill Bin Laden. Owen writes that during a pre-raid briefing, a lawyer from "either" the White House or department of defense told them that they were not on an assassination mission. According to Owen, the lawyer said that if bin Laden was "naked with his hands up," they should not "engage" him. If bin Laden did not pose a threat, they should "detain him." In another possibly uncomfortable revelation for US officials who say Bin Laden's body was treated with dignity before being given a full Muslim burial at sea, the author reveals that in the cramped helicopter flight out of the compound, one of the Seals called Walt – one of the pseudonyms the author used for his fellow Seals – was sitting on Bin Laden's chest as the body lay at the author's feet in the middle of the cabin. This is common practice, as troops sometimes must sit on their own war dead in packed helicopters. Space was cramped because one helicopter had crashed in the initial assault, leaving little space for the roughly two dozen commandos in the two aircraft that remained. When the commandos reached the third aircraft, bin Laden's body was moved to it. Owen also writes disparagingly that none of the Seals were fans of President Barack Obama and knew that his administration would take credit for ordering the May 2011 raid. One of the Seals said after the mission that they had just gotten Obama re-elected by carrying out the raid. But he says they respected him as commander in chief and for giving the operation the go-ahead. US officials fear the book may include classified information, as it did not undergo the formal review required by the Pentagon for works published by former or current Defense Department employees. Officials from the Pentagon and the CIA, which commanded the mission, are examining the manuscript for possible disclosure of classified information and could take legal action against the author. In a statement provided to the Associated Press, the author says he did "not disclose confidential or sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way." Jihadists on al-Qaida websites have posted purported photos of the author, whose name has been disclosed by some media outlets, calling for his murder.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Isaac breaks through levees, trapping some residents, with more than half a million homes and businesses without power
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Isaac breaks through levees, trapping some residents, with up to half a million homes and businesses without power. Follow developments here
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A second member of the LulzSec hacking collective has been arrested by US authorities in connection with attacks on Sony Pictures Europe US police have arrested Raynaldo Rivera, 20, an alleged member of the hacking group LulzSec, on charges that he took part in an extensive breach of the computer systems belonging to Sony Pictures Europe. Rivera, of Tempe, Arizona – who allegedly used the online nicknames of "neuron", "royal" and "wildciv" – surrendered to police in Phoenix six days after a federal grand jury in Los Angeles produced an indictment charging him with conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. If convicted, he could face 15 years in prison. The indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday, accuses Rivera and co-conspirators of stealing information from Sony Pictures Europe's computer systems in May and June 2011 using an SQL injection attack – which exploits flaws in the handing of data input for databases to take control of a system – against the studio's website. SQL injection, or SQLi, is an increasingly common technique used by hackers to break into systems. The indictment says Rivera then helped to post the confidential information onto LulzSec's website and announced the intrusion via the hacking group's Twitter account. While Rivera was the only person named in the indictment, the FBI said his co-conspirators included Cody Kretsinger, 24, a confessed LulzSec member who pleaded guilty in April to charges stemming from his role in the Sony attack. Yet the indictment and the arrest still leaves open one of the most puzzling questions left by the hacking spree seen in the first half of 2011, when the hacking collective Anonymous – and LulzSec, which grew out of it, were coming to public attention. That is the question of who hacked into Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) system in April. The attack, which may have leaked credit card details for millions of users, has never been traced to any group – although Sony suggested not long afterwards that Anonymous might have been involved. Since then it has given no further details about who it suspects of carrying out the attack, and no data from the attack has ever been posted publicly. By contrast the Sony Pictures Europe hack of which Rivera is accused saw the data leaked on 2 June, and LulzSec's activities are generally reckoned to have begun on 30 May with the posting of a fake story about Tupac Shakur to the PBS website. Following the Sony Pictures Europe breach, LulzSec published the names, birth dates, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of people who had entered contests promoted by Sony, and publicly boasted of its exploits. "From a single injection we accessed EVERYTHING," the hackers said in a statement at the time. "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?" Authorities have said the Sony breach ultimately cost the company more than $600,000 (£378,000). LulzSec, an underground group also known as Lulz Security, is an offshoot of the international hacking collective Anonymous and took credit for attacks on a number of government and private sector websites, including the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, the US Congressional website, and the Sun and News International sites. The latest indictment says Rivera is suspected of using a proxy server in a bid to conceal his IP address to avoid detection. Court documents revealed in March that a former Anonymous member known as Sabu, whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, had pleaded guilty to hacking-related charges and had been providing information on his cohorts to the FBI since June 2011, after he was identified as he logged into a public bulletin board from his home address. That same month, five other suspected leaders of Anonymous, all them alleged to be LulzSec members as well, were charged by US authorities with computer hacking and other offences. A number of arrests followed in the UK, where six people have been charged with various offences linked to LulzSec's activities. An accused British hacker, Ryan Cleary, 20, was indicted by a US grand jury in June on charges related to LulzSec attacks on several media companies, including Sony Pictures. Kretsinger, who pleaded guilty to the same two charges now facing Rivera, is due to be sentenced on 25 October. A prosecutor said he was likely to receive substantially less than the 15-year maximum prison term carried by those offenses. Monsegur, 28, a Puerto Rican living in New York, has pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including three of conspiracy to hack into computers, five of hacking, one of hacking for fraudulent purposes, one of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and one of aggravated identity theft. Those charges would attract a total of 124 years' jail, but it is thought he has arranged a plea bargain with the US government. Monsegur received a six-month reprieve from sentencing earlier in August in light of his cooperation with the government. Anonymous and its offshoots focused initially on fighting attempts at internet regulation and the blocking of free illegal downloads but have since taken aim at the Church of Scientology, global banking and other targets. Anonymous, and LulzSec in particular, became notorious in late 2010 when they launched what they called the first cyberwar in retaliation for attempts to shut down WikiLeaks. The rise of LulzSec saw a burst of similar "crews" aiming to hack sites, but since then Anonymous has focussed on providing an outlet for documents released by WikiLeaks.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Analysis of stock market returns under every president since 1900 shows Democrats do almost twice as well as Republicans As ever, the economy will be the key issue in the US presidential race. Mitt Romney's aim will be to brand Barack Obama a failure for his stewardship and to argue that Americans would be better off electing a Republican who knows something about business. The team at CMC Markets set out to test this assumption by analysing stock market returns under every president since 1900. A YouTube presentation of the report shows that as far as Wall Street is concerned, it is better to vote Democrat. The average monthly return on the stock market has been 0.73% under Democrat presidents, almost double the 0.38% under Republicans. Returns were highest under Calvin Coolidge, a Republican president during the Roaring 20s, when the stock market boomed ahead of the Wall Street Crash. But the next two presidents in the league table were Democrats – Bill Clinton and Franklin Roosevelt. Obama's performance, using this yardstick of economic health, has been above average – only slightly below that of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Normally higher stock market returns would be associated with higher levels of risk. But when adjusted for volatility, Democrat presidents still come out comfortably on top. The good news for Obama is that incumbent presidents who have presided over strong stock market returns in their first term usually get re-elected. This was true of FDR, Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton. The bad news is that the pattern does not always hold true. Wall Street did well under George Bush senior but that didn't stop him being a one-term president. It did badly under his son but George Bush junior still held off John Kerry in 2004. Studies of this sort inevitably only provide a partial impression of presidential economic records. A more comprehensive study would include unemployment, inflation, living standards and the distribution of the spoils of growth. It can also be said that, in some cases, a president can bequeath problems to his successor. Herbert Hoover was the worst president for Wall Street in the past 112 years, but he followed Coolidge. Similarly, it could be argued that the poor returns under George Bush junior reflected the unsustainable nature of the dotcom bubble under Clinton. Even so, the evidence is that Democrats are good for Wall Street. Whether that is something Obama wants to boast about between now and early November remains to be seen.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Officials search streets for residents who remained after evacuation order as storm pushes on towards New Orleans Low-lying areas in south-east Louisiana faced serious flooding on Wednesday as Hurricane Isaac began to slowly move inland and towards New Orleans. After making landfall on Tuesday night in extreme south-eastern Louisiana, Isaac remained stationary for several hours, unleashing 80mph winds on a sparsely populated neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico. Early on Wednesday it started moving towards New Orleans at around eight miles per hour – exactly seven years after the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Floodwater has already lapped over an 18-mile stretch of the levee along the Mississippi river in Plaquemines Parish, south-east of the city, threatening serious flooding. There were reports of four-to-nine feet of water in the streets, houses flooded and perilous attempts to flee. Sheriff's deputies made house-to-house visits looking for residents who'd remained after an evacuation order. "Say prayers: Plaquemines Parish has decided to attempt a roof rescue despite conditions that should prohibit it. #ToughChoices," tweeted local reporter Jen Hales. Billy Nungesser, the president of the coastal Plaquemines Parish, said that the 9ft levees had not yet collapsed, but warned that roads in the area were already impassable, hindering the evacuation of the few remaining residents. "As that water flows over the top, it eventually will eat out portions of that levee, which then it washes away. Either that or the inside of the levee will fill up. One or the other will happen. Either way that area's going to be totally inundated with water," he told CNN. Gene Oddo, trapped by floodwaters in his attic with his family in Braithwaite, part of Plaquemines parish, said that the water appeared to have stopped rising. "I'm not scared. I ain't scared of anything. It looks like it's stabilising," he told local TV channel 4WWL. Oddo said at least three other neighbouring families were also trapped. Weather experts said the storm was slowly move westwards from Plaqumeines. Ryan Bernie, a spokesman for the city of New Orleans, said the storm had caused only some minor street flooding before dawn and felled trees but had left roughly 125,000 people in the city without power. The National Hurricane Center had warned in its 5pm ET update that Isaac was getting better organised as it neared south-east Louisiana. Isaac had picked up force, with maximum sustained winds measured at 80mph. President Barack Obama signed emergency declarations for Louisiana and parts of Mississippi and warned against overconfidence. "We're dealing with a big storm and there could be significant flooding and other damage across a large area. Now is not the time to tempt fate. Now is not the time to dismiss warnings," he said. Speaking in Mississippi, Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned that the storm was slow moving and that heavy rains could cause inland flooding. "This is not just a storm for the coastal counties," Fugate said. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said the storm's slow speed of 10mph meant some areas of New Orleans would experience six to 10 hours of hurricane-force winds and that storm surges could top 10ft. He said 41 parishes had declared emergencies, and seven were at least partially evacuated. Seven years, almost to the day, after Katrina hit, New Orleans was hoping that $14.5bn worth of civil works – a 133-mile chain of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps – would avert another catastrophe. Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, did not order an evacuation of the city, but those living outside the levee system were strongly encouraged to leave. "We don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a category 1 storm that can kill you," Landrieu said. In the lower ninth ward, a sprawl of largely ramshackle one- and two-storey homes, which were hit hard by Katrina, appeared abandoned at first glance. St Claude Avenue, the main drag, was empty. But as the sky turned an ominous metallic grey, you could find those who had stayed behind. "You need money to leave," said Scott McMorris, 47, a mechanic. "A lot of people can't afford to run. You either pay your bills or you run. Can't do both." Further up the street, bunkered in his home, was Gregory Richardson, 56, a retired oil rig worker with rheumatism. He had stocked up on water, ice, batteries and tinned food. He would have evacuated, he said, but didn't have the cash. "My social welfare comes on the third of the month. If it came this week I wouldn't be here talking to you now." He narrowly survived Katrina, which killed 1,800 people after the levees broke in the storm surges that followed the 2005 hurricane. "It was madness. I was rescued after four days by the army" – and prayed Isaac would be more merciful. As he spoke the wind opened and slammed shut his front door. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for St Charles Parish and parts of Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish: low-lying regions outside the city's defenses. About 7,000 Plaquemines residents out of the population of 23,000 were ordered to evacuate, and many of those who could not or would not skip town were holed up in a well-preserved old hall with gold-painted chandeliers and ceiling fans. Folding beds were arranged in neat rows and seats face a flat-screen television and a kitchen; naval officers and police looked on "This building holds 80, next building 200, the backup location which we've overflowed to we have a capacity of 200. We're already pretty full. We're at 340," Gina Meyer, the superintendent of emergency medical services, said on Tuesday. One resident, 21-year-old Joseph Buras, was sanguine about the risks. "The worst it's probably going to get is 90mph winds, so people aren't in so much of a panic as they normally would. Then again the fear of Katrina is still in a lot of people's hearts. So when they heard a hurricane was coming they just hauled it," he said. "We've survived the worst, this isn't the worst. Back in the lower ninth, others stayed because they trusted the repaired and fortified levees would withstand whatever Isaac threw at them. The bolder ones intended to enjoy nature's show. Darrel Walters, 48, and Kerwin Brown, 50, watched an exodus of neighbours with nonchalance, perching on chairs in their yard, bare-chested, smoking and sipping Budweiser. "We got some medicine right here," said Walters, tapping his beer.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | American vehicles will get 54.5 miles to the gallon in the new standard that will require car makers to double fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency of US cars and light trucks will nearly double by 2025 under a standard finalised by the Obama administration on Tuesday. American vehicles will get 54.5 miles to the gallon in the new standard that aims to save consumers at the fuel pump, while cutting dependency on foreign oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions. The rule, strongly opposed by Republicans and some car makers, builds on the standard for vehicles for model years 2011-2016, which requires automakers to raise average fuel efficiency to 35.5 mpg. The standards finalised on Tuesday cover vehicles with model years 2017 to 2025. The rules are the result of more than a year of negotiations between the administration, automakers and environmental groups. "These fuel standards represent the single most important step we've ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Barack Obama said in a statement. The new fuel efficiency standards will save consumers $1.7 trillion (£1tn) in gasoline costs and reduce US oil consumption by 12bn barrels over the period, according to the White House. Obama's challenger in the presidential race, Mitt Romney, sharply criticised the rule on Tuesday. "Governor Romney opposes the extreme standards that President Obama has imposed, which will limit the choices available to American families," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Safety Administration will conduct a mid-term evaluation of the standards to determine if they are effective and whether they need adjustment. Obama initially proposed the standard last July, with the support of car manufacturers including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, BMW and Honda, as well as the United Auto Workers union. The standard is based on one set by California, which played an "integral" role in developing the national program, the White House said. Automakers and labour were largely supportive of the announcement, saying it brings greater regulatory certainty. "The standards will ... provide certainty for manufacturers in planning their investments and creating jobs in the auto industry as they add more fuel-saving technology to their vehicles," said Bob King, president of the UAW. GM said it will work to produce cars that meet the standards but said the mid-term review will ensure that the adminstration-set goals are "realistic". "While the requirements are aggressive, we intend to pursue them vigorously by utilising our strong history of innovation and technology development," GM said in a statement. The US transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, said the new standards would raise the average cost of buying a car by $1,800 by 2025 but said the fuel savings "far outweigh the increase in the cost of an automobile." Fuel savings will be $8,000 over the life of a car, according to the administration. But critics say those savings would not be achieved easily. Cars will have to reach 211,000 miles before such a figure can be realised, said Michael Harrington of the National Automobile Dealers Association. He also said the Transportation Department's estimate that the average new vehicle will cost only $1,800 more, once all the rules are in place, is too low. Harrington put the figure at $2,840, once previously announced fuel economy rulings are considered. Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have been critical of the administration's tactics in developing the rule and of California's role in shaping the standards. They released a report this month that said the fuel economy standards were based on an "overly optimistic" view that Americans were willing to buy hybrid or electric cars. The Obama administration has made fuel efficiency an environmental and energy priority since cars and trucks account for 20% of carbon emissions and more than 40% of US oil consumption. The EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, said the efficiency standards will be the most effective domestic policy in place to curb greenhouse gas emissions, cutting as much as 6bn metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2025. The reduction would be greater than the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the United States in 2010, according to the EPA. Jackson said that working with the automobile industry has been easier than working with other industries, such as utilities, which have pushed back strongly against EPA rules. "I think one of the things great about dealing with the industry is that they are not trying to make regulations go away," she told reporters on a conference call. "What they have asked for all along is one nationwide standard." An environmental group welcomed the announcement. "Today's news also is a welcomed antidote to the public perception of a gridlocked Washington utterly incapable of producing a positive result for the good of our country," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Appeal by jailed former prime minister against her conviction for abuse of office thrown out as president refuses to intervene
A Ukrainian high court has turned down an appeal by the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, against her conviction for abuse of office, an outcome likely to complicate Ukraine's already poor relations with the west. "The judges of the court have reached the conclusion that the appeal cannot be satisfied," judge Olexander Yelfimov said, delivering an unexpectedly speedy ruling. Western leaders condemned the seven-year prison term handed to the 51-year-old opposition leader in October as political persecution, and blocked strategic agreements with the European Union on political association and a free-trade zone. But despite months of pressure by the EU and the US, which regard Tymoshenko as a victim of selective justice, President Viktor Yanukovich has refused to act to secure her release. No one had expected her to be freed on Wednesday. Tymoshenko, known for her peasant-style hair braid and fiery rhetoric, was not present in court because of persistent back trouble that has kept her confined to a state-run hospital in eastern Ukraine. About 300 of her supporters gathered outside the courtroom, chanting slogans such as "Yulia - Freedom!" and "Keep convicts inside and get Yulia out!" In tough remarks last Friday, Yanukovich said he would not negotiate integration with the EU at the price of allowing it to interfere in the case. The release of Tymoshenko – by far the most vibrant opposition figure on Ukraine's political landscape – had seemed even more unlikely given the approach of legislative elections on 28 October. Yanukovich's Party of the Regions goes into the election with the government highly unpopular over reforms that have increased taxes on small businesses and raised retirement ages, and it will have to work hard to retain its majority. The abuse of office conviction relates to a gas deal Tymoshenko brokered with Russia in 2009. The Yanukovich government says the agreement was reckless and saddled Ukraine with an enormous price for strategic supplies of gas, which is taking a toll on its economy. Ukrainian state prosecutors had urged the court to uphold her conviction, saying Tymoshenko's guilt was clearly established at her trial in Kiev last year. She has denied betraying the national interest. Her defence lawyers had argued that negotiating the gas agreement with Russia was a political act that did not amount to criminal action. In Wednesday's judgment, the three-member panel said: "The judges believe that the previous courts reached correct decisions on the crimes of Tymoshenko." Her daughter Yevgenia, who has been active in seeking international support for her mother's cause, and Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former foreign minister who has joined forces with Tymoshenko, both attended the hearing. The authorities have ignored western criticism and piled up fresh charges against Tymoshenko for alleged past misdeeds. In a separate trial, which has been adjourned several times because of Tymoshenko's health, she is accused of embezzlement and tax evasion going back to alleged offences when she was in business in the 1990s. Lawyers for Tymoshenko pressed her case at the European court of human rights in Strasbourg on Tuesday, arguing that her pre-trial detention had been unlawful and that she had been subjected to degrading treatment in prison. "The only reason for her detention was to exclude her from Ukrainian political life and to prevent her running in the parliamentary elections," her defence counsel, Serhiy Vlasenko, told judges. Tymoshenko's lawyers claimed she had been held in inhumane conditions – in permanently lit, unheated cells and tracked by surveillance cameras. The former prime minister was a leader of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" protests against sleaze and cronyism in Ukraine that derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency. She served two terms as prime minister under President Viktor Yushchenko, but the two fell out and their partnership dissolved into bickering and infighting. She narrowly lost to Yanukovich in a runoff for the presidency in February 2010 after a bitter campaign in which Tymoshenko heaped abuse on her opponent.
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