|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 'Philippe D' describes how seven-year-old who was shot and left for dead in attack near Lake Annecy showed no sign of life A French cyclist who was one of the first to reach the forest clearing where a British family was murdered, has described how the seven-year-old girl who was shot, badly beaten and left for dead at the scene showed no sign of life. The witness, named only as Philippe D, said: "She wasn't responding to our calls. I tapped her hands but she did not respond. I even spoke a few in English, because I saw the car was registered in Great Britain. But there was nothing. To me, she was dead." He then went back down the hill leading to the Alpine beauty spot near Lake Annecy to call the emergency services, who discovered Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother, dead from bullet wounds – including two to the head – in the car. The body of a French cyclist who had been shot seven times – including twice in the head – was found nearby. The first to discover the bloodshed was a British former Royal Air Force pilot who was cycling up La Route de Combe d'Ire, near the village of Chevaline, last Wednesday. He has given no public account of what he saw. Police have described him as "traumatised" by the events. As the Briton, who has a house in the area, arrived at the car park at the top of the hill, he saw a British-registered BMW with its windows shot out and the motor still running. The Hillis' eldest daughter, Zainab, staggered towards him covered in blood and collapsed at his feet. Philippe D, 41, told Le Parisien he was cycling up the Combe d'Ire with two friends when he noticed the British cyclist coming down at speed. "He was in a panic and was coming down the route. He explained to me with difficulty in bad French that there had been a drama a little higher up. He wanted to alert the emergency services," the Frenchman told the paper. "I wasn't sure whether he didn't have a mobile telephone or that he couldn't get a signal up there." He said he then followed the British cyclist for "a few metres" before arriving at the hillside car park where the four victims had been killed. "I approached the car. I didn't touch anything, but I saw at once that there was nothing more to be done. There was no sign of life." He added that he had heard no shooting and "seen nobody passing … not a car or motorbike". He said police had taken statements from all four cyclists – including the RAF officer – and driven them back up the Combe d'Ire at the weekend to determine exactly where they were when the killers struck. Philippe D added: "A few minutes earlier and it could have been us in place of the murdered cyclist." He added: "We didn't know … if we were in danger or not; if those who had done all that were still there or not. It felt like we were taking a risk." Separately, it emerged on Tuesday that French investigators were looking at claims Saad al-Hilli unexpectedly moved from one campsite to another two days before the attack. A Dutch couple who had a neighbouring caravan said they believed the family was planning to spend a week at the three-star Village Camping Europa site in Saint-Jorioz, but that they left after just two nights. The campers said Saad al-Hilli acted "strangely" during that time, going off and leaving his family alone several time a day. There were also reports of an "Eastern-European looking man" wearing a smart jacket visiting the Hillis. The family moved to Le Solitaire du Lac campsite on the banks of Lake Annecy, where investigators said they had stayed in previous years. A member of staff at the Village Camping Europe denied the family had left suddenly. She said: "They came to stay with us on Saturday evening and left on Monday. That was pre-planned." She dismissed suggestions that Hilli behaved oddly during his stay, adding: "There was nothing strange. All families leave the campsite at all sorts of times to run errands, go to the shop, organise activities, that sort of thing." She added that comments about a mysterious man described as appearing "to come from the Balkans" were "ridiculous". She said: "That was an Italian man who was here. He left and got on his plane as was planned." Zainab al-Hilli – who was shot and so brutally beaten that doctors placed her in a medically induced coma – is conscious but heavily sedated. She is said to have indicated to relatives at her bedside that she is aware of what happened, but has not yet been questioned by French investigators, who are waiting for doctors to declare her well enough to speak of her ordeal. She is under armed guard as a key witness. Her four-year-old sister, Zeena, escaped unhurt by huddling in the footwell of the rear of the car under her dead mother's legs, where she lay terrified for eight hours before being discovered. French police are examining two mobile phones found in the car and are understood to be examining a hard disk of a laptop. British police officers are working with their French counterparts to try to unravel the mystery surrounding the four deaths.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Service out for several hours on Monday afternoon, hitting 10.5m customers, but Anonymous tweet seems to deny responsibility Thousands and possibly millions of websites hosted by GoDaddy.com went down for several hours on Monday, causing trouble for the mainly small businesses that rely on the service. A Twitter feed that claimed to be affiliated with the Anonymous hacker group said it was behind the outage, but that couldn't be confirmed. Another Twitter account, known to be associated with Anonymous, suggested the first one was just taking advantage of an outage it had nothing to do with. GoDaddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll said the outage began at around 6.25pm BST. By around 10.43pm, BST, the GoDaddy.com website was back up and service was restored for the bulk of its mainly US customers. GoDaddy.com hosts more than 5m websites, mostly for small businesses. Websites that were complaining on Twitter about outages included MixForSale.com, which sells accessories with Japanese animation themes, and YouWatch.org, a video-sharing site. Catherine Grison, an interior designer in San Francisco who operates YourFrenchAccent.com, said she had to stop sending emails containing her website link during the outage. The site is where she displays her portfolio of work. "If I have no visuals I have nothing left except the accent," said Grison, a native of Paris. She said she was already shopping around for another site host because she was unhappy with GoDaddy's customer service. Earlier, Kenneth Borg, who works in a Long Beach, California, screen printing business, said fresnodogprints.com and two other sites were down. Their email addresses were also not working. "We run our entire business through websites and emails," Borg said. Borg said he could empathise to some extent with a potential hacker. GoDaddy was a target for "hacktivists" early this year, when it supported a copyright bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Movie and music studios had backed the changes, but critics said they would result in censorship and discourage internet innovation. "I'm definitely one for upsetting the establishment in some cases, and I understand that if he's going after GoDaddy, he may have had many reasons for doing that," Borg said. "But I don't think he realised that he was affecting so many small businesses, and not just a major company."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bailiffs forcibly remove last of anti-capitalist activists from site in heart of city's financial district One of the global Occupy movement's longest-running encampments has come to an end in Hong Kong, as bailiffs cleared out anti-capitalist activists and their belongings from a site underneath HSBC's Asian headquarters. The last of the protesters was removed from the site by late afternoon on Monday. They had spent the day in scuffles with bailiffs, who were carrying out a court order to clear the campsite in a large public passageway in the heart of the city's financial district. The bailiffs pushed and shoved activists, who had ignored the order requiring them to leave the site by 27 August. Some were carried away forcibly and taken outside a perimeter, where they were released. As nightfall neared, a handful of demonstrators clung to two sofas, all that was left of a camp that had included a dozen tents, tables, bookcases, gas cookers and lamps. They were surrounded by black-clad bailiffs who dragged them away one by one after earlier cataloguing and packing up their belongings. Hong Kong's Occupy movement started camping out under the HSBC building on 15 October, when protesters joined others around the world in a day of demonstrations against corporate excess and economic inequality. The group, which according to media reports numbered more than 100 at its peak but dwindled to less than a dozen, has outlasted other Occupy encampments around the world that have been shut down by authorities in New York, London and Frankfurt. The land under the HSBC building where the Occupy activists were living is owned by the bank but legally designated a public passageway. A judge ruled that the activists' occupation of the space went beyond its designated use. The global Occupy movement is generally thought to have begun on 17 September 2011, when tents sprang up at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Xi, who is due to take over the presidency next year, has skipped several meetings with visiting foreign leaders due to 'back injury' China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, who has set off a storm of rumours after not showing up at scheduled public events for more than a week, is nursing an ailment, possibly a back injury sustained while swimming, sources have said. Xi, who is due to take over the presidency of the world's second-largest economy in March next year, has skipped several meetings with visiting foreign leaders and dignitaries over the past week, including the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the prime ministers of Singapore and Denmark. However, China's government has declined to spell out what is ailing Xi – in keeping with decades of official secrecy over the health of senior leaders. "Xi injured his back when he went for his daily swim," a source close to the Beijing leadership said on Tuesday after the 59-year-old's absence from the public stage was first noticed last week. At that stage, he had failed to keep scheduled meetings with Clinton and Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong. The source declined to give further details on the injury, including exactly when and where the incident happened. Another source, citing people close to Xi, said: "He's unwell, but it's not a big problem." Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity. The lack of an official explanation has fuelled internet speculation surrounding Xi's condition, and brought some pointed questions at briefings by China's foreign ministry. On Tuesday, the ministry spokesman Hong Lei was asked whether Xi was in good health. Sticking to his government's usual reticence, Hong said he had no information to give, and declined to answer further questions on the matter. China's popular microblogging site Sina Weibo blocked searches for Xi's name, as is common with top leaders, but users found ways to skirt the restrictions, referring to Xi as "the crown prince". "What's up with the crown prince? He's vanished for the last 10 days or so and the whole world is wondering where he is," wrote one user. Xi had been scheduled to meet Denmark's Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Monday afternoon for a photo opportunity, according to a media advisory that had been circulated on 5 September. But the event did not take place. Thorning-Schmidt said in an interview that a meeting with Xi had never been on her programme, which was released on Friday. "I think there has been a slight misunderstanding," she said. "I would, of course, very much like to see him [Xi] and I think I will see him at some stage, perhaps on my next visit to China, but he was never in my programme which we released on Friday, so there shouldn't be anything new in my not seeing him." The foreign ministry's website shows Xi's most recent public appearance was at a ceremony at the ruling Communist party's Central Party school in Beijing on 1 September. The rumours come at a tempestuous time in Chinese politics. The 18th Communist party congress, at which China's next top leaders including Xi are likely to be unveiled, is set to take place in October. Earlier this year the senior politician Bo Xilai, once seen as a candidate for the top rung of party leadership, was suspended from the politburo and his wife convicted of murdering a British businessman. The wife, Gu Kailai, was given a suspended death sentence last month. In another scandal this month, a senior ally of President Hu Jintao was demoted after sources said the ally's son was involved in a fatal crash involving a luxury sports car. China has been engulfed by rumours about senior leaders in the past. Last year, the official Xinhua news agency was forced to come out with a one-line statement in English denying that the former president Jiang Zemin had died, following feverish online speculation and a report from a Hong Kong television station.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow the day's developments in Syria and the Middle East
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gottfrid Svartholm Warg had been living in Phnom Penh to avoid Swedish jail sentence for breaching copyright laws Cambodia has deported a Swedish co-founder of Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, who was convicted and sentenced to prison in Sweden for breaching copyright laws. Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who had been living in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, for four years to avoid a jail sentence for internet piracy, was arrested at Sweden's request. The 27-year-old was put on a plane to Bangkok late on Monday and was due to take a flight from there to Stockholm early on Tuesday, said Chhuor Kimny, head of police at Phnom Penh airport. Police were investigating allegations by Warg's supporters that they had hacked into some government websites in protest at his detention, Cambodian national police chief Kirth Chantharith said on Monday. Warg's arrest in late August was followed by Sweden's signing of an agreement for nearly $60m (£37m) in development aid for Cambodia. An appeal court in Sweden sentenced three others behind the Pirate Bay site to between four and 10 months in prison plus fines in 2010. Warg failed to attend that hearing due to illness and his sentencing was deferred. Peter Sunde, another co-founder of Pirate Bay, said last week on Twitter that Warg's arrest was related to the website's hosting of WikiLeaks. Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, provides links to music and movie files that are stored on other users' computers. Swedish subsidiaries of prominent music and film companies had taken the company to court claiming damages for lost revenue. Mainstream media firms have also taken steps to have it blocked in other countries, including the Netherlands and Finland, as they struggle to combat illegal downloads. Pirate Bay says no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there so it cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Beijing summons Japanese ambassador to complain after Tokyo signs deal to nationalise islands in East China Sea Japan has formally announced it will purchase a number of disputed islands also claimed by China, in a move Beijing said would bring "serious consequences" The chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, told reporters Japan will buy the three uninhabited islands in the East China Sea from a private Japanese family it recognises as the owner, and has budgeted 2.05bn yen ($26m) for the purchase. China and Taiwan also claim the islands, which are part of what Japan calls the Senkakus and China the Diaoyu group. Fujimura said the decision to nationalise the islands was "to maintain the Senkakus peacefully and stably". The deal was signed with the family on Tuesday morning, public broadcaster NHK said. The dispute has long been a flashpoint in Japan-China relations, and has been heating up in recent months. Fujimura repeated that the islands were part of Japan's territory and should not cause any friction with other countries or regions. "We certainly do not wish the issue to affect our diplomatic relations with China and it is important to avoid any misunderstanding or an unexpected event," he said. Tuesday's formal cabinet approval came the day after Fujimura announced the decision, prompting a swift response from China's foreign ministry, which said Beijing would not "sit back and watch its territorial sovereignty violated". "China strongly urges Japan to immediately stop all action to undermine China's territorial sovereignty and return to a negotiated settlement to the dispute. If Japan insists on going its own way, it will bear all the serious consequences that follow," the ministry said in a statement. State-run China Central Television reported that the foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, summoned the Japanese ambassador to complain about the purchase. All major state newspapers in China ran the ministry statement on their front pages on Tuesday, along with comments from Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao. "The Diaoyu Islands are an inalienable part of China's territory, and the Chinese government and its people will absolutely make no concession on issues concerning its sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wen said at an inauguration ceremony for a statue of late Chinese leaders Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. Japanese supporters think having the government own the islands will strengthen Japan's claim over them and send a tougher message to China. Experts in Japan said the government's move was also meant to block a plan by Tokyo's nationalistic governor to buy the islands and develop them – a move that would have inflamed ties with China even more. The islands would not be developed under the deal approved on Tuesday. Earlier this month, the city of Tokyo sent a team of experts to waters around the islands to survey fishing grounds and possible sites for development, a move that was strongly criticised by China. Activists from Japan and Hong Kong briefly set foot on the islands last month, and there have been protests in various Chinese cities in recent weeks. The dispute over the islands boiled over into a major diplomatic tiff between the two neighbours after an incident on 7 September 2010 in which a Chinese fishing boat collided with Japanese coastguard ships near the islands. The fishing boat captain was arrested and later released.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Service out for several hours on Monday afternoon, hitting 10.5m customers, but Anonymous tweet seems to deny responsibility Thousands and possibly millions of websites hosted by GoDaddy.com went down for several hours on Monday, causing trouble for the mainly small businesses that rely on the service. A Twitter feed that claimed to be affiliated with the Anonymous hacker group said it was behind the outage, but that couldn't be confirmed. Another Twitter account, known to be associated with Anonymous, suggested the first one was just taking advantage of an outage it had nothing to do with. GoDaddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll said the outage began at around 6.25pm BST. By around 10.43pm BST, the GoDaddy.com website was back up and service was restored for the bulk of its mainly US customers. GoDaddy.com hosts more than 5 million websites, mostly for small businesses. Websites that were complaining on Twitter about outages included MixForSale.com, which sells accessories with Japanese animation themes, and YouWatch.org, a video-sharing site. Catherine Grison, an interior designer in San Francisco who operates the site YourFrenchAccent.com, said she had to stop sending emails with her website link in them while the outage was ongoing. The site is where she displays her portfolio of work. "If I have no visuals I have nothing left except the accent," said Grison, a native of Paris. She said she was already shopping around for another site host because she was unhappy with GoDaddy's customer service. Earlier, Kenneth Borg, who works in a Long Beach, California, screen printing business, said fresnodogprints.com and two other sites were down. Their email addresses weren't working either. "We run our entire business through websites and emails," Borg said. Borg said he could empathise to some extent with the hacker, if one was involved. GoDaddy was a target for "hacktivists" early this year, when it supported a copyright bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Movie and music studios had backed the changes, but critics said they would result in censorship and discourage internet innovation. "I'm definitely one for upsetting the establishment in some cases, and I understand that if he's going after GoDaddy, he may have had many reasons for doing that," Borg said. "But I don't think he realised that he was affecting so many small businesses, and not just a major company."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mayor Bloomberg announces deal to resume construction of museum on eve of 11th anniversary of attack on twin towers A deal has been reached to resume construction on a National September 11 Museum in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre towers. A dispute between the foundation that controls the museum and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is building the ambitious subterranean structure, has halted construction of the project for months. Diverging estimates from each side of the cost of the project, which had been scheduled to open this week prior to the delays, range from $700m to more than $1bn. "I'm very gratified that on the eve of this important anniversary we are able to announce an agreement that will ensure the completion of the 9/11 museum," Bloomberg said in a statement. "My goal during this period has been to get construction of the museum restarted. This agreement ensures that it will be restarted very soon and will not stop until the museum is completed," he added. The museum is designed to extend seven levels underground and will include artefacts from the day of the attacks, from firefighters' helmets to pieces of rubble to models of the site before the attacks, in which 2,605 people in New York died. Bloomberg chairs the National September 11th Memorial and Museum foundation. The Port Authority is controlled by governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey. Under the agreement, representatives for all three will participate in a committee that oversees annual events, including Tuesday's September 11 ceremony. The foundation had said in July that politicians would be excluded this year from speaking roles at the ceremony to focus on victims' families, who traditionally read the names of the dead. In the future, that decision will be made by committee, not just the foundation. Under the deal, the Port Authority's cost obligations will be reduced by more than $150m. Construction is expected to take more than a year.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Spanish PM tells TV interview he won't accept financial help if it comes with "concrete" demands for policy changes
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Those exposed to toxic compounds from the wreckage of the September 11 attacks will be entitled to free treatment The 70,000 surviving firefighters, police officers and other first responders who raced to the World Trade Centre after the attacks of September 11, 2001 will be entitled to free monitoring and treatment for 50 forms of cancer. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced on Monday that those exposed to toxic compounds from the wreckage, which smoldered for three months, will be covered for cancer under the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The act, which also covers responders and survivors of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon outside Washington, was signed into law by Barack Obama in January. The decision addresses concerns over the rising health toll for emergency workers in the wake of the attacks, when aircraft slammed into the WTC in New York and the US military command centre in northern Virginia. It "marks an important step in the effort to provide needed treatment and care to 9/11 responders and survivors", said Dr John Howard, administrator of the WTC health programme established by the Zadroga law. "We have urged from the very beginning that the decision whether or not to include cancer be based on science," New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. The decision "will continue to ensure that those who have become ill due to the heinous attacks on 9/11 get the medical care they need and deserve". Illnesses related to the September 11 attacks have caused an estimated 1,000 deaths. Last week, the New York City Fire Department etched nine more names into a memorial wall honouring firefighters who died from illnesses after their work at Ground Zero, bringing the total to 64. Cancers to be covered include lung and colorectal, breast and bladder, leukaemias, melanoma and all childhood cancers. The programme had already covered respiratory diseases such as asthma and pulmonary fibrosis, mental disorders including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as well as musculoskeletal conditions. But researchers have known that responders and survivors, including local business owners and residents, were exposed to a complex mixture of chemical agents, including human carcinogens. That mix included combustion products from an estimated 20,000 gallons of jet fuel, 100,000 tons of organic debris, and 100,000 gallons of heating and diesel oil. Pulverized building materials created a toxic pall of cement dust, glass fibres, asbestos, crystalline silica, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides and dioxins - "a total of 287 chemicals or chemical groups", the WTC health programme reported in 2011. "They did a magnificent thing, showing not only scientific acumen but also a generosity of spirit," said Dr Michael Crane, director of the WTC health programme at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. While scientists knew from the start that responders were exposed to toxic chemicals, it was not obvious they had caused cancer. For many cancers, the time between exposure to a carcinogen and the appearance of a malignancy can be 20 years or more. That has cast doubt on whether cancers detected in the years after the attacks were caused by exposure to the toxic chemicals. The health of first responders has also been intensely monitored, raising questions about whether an elevated rate of cancers reflected closer scrutiny, not a true increase. Also, data on potentially cancer-causing agents in the air around the WTC wasn't collected until four days after the attacks. "Nobody knows to this day what was in that cloud," said Mount Sinai's Crane. "Trying to assess the risk from an unknown exposure is incredibly difficult: we don't know what people actually breathed."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Massachusetts Institute of Technology takes first place as US universities continue to dominate, but four of top six are British
• The top 200 of the QS World University Rankings 2012 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US university that specialises in science and technology, has pipped its neighbour Harvard to first place in a league table of the world's top universities. Cambridge, which topped the list in 2011, came second and Harvard third in the QS World University Rankings, published on Tuesday. The QS table is based on measures of research quality, graduate employability, teaching and how international the faculties and student bodies are. University College London, Oxford, Imperial College, Yale, the University of Chicago, Princeton and Caltech, in that order, make up the top 10. The highest ranked institution outside Europe and the US is the University of Hong Kong, at No 23. MIT, which tops the list for the first time, came first in 11 out of 28 subject tables published by QS in June. A sharp increase in the proportion of foreign academics on its staff – a measure on which MIT has scored relatively poorly in the past – tipped the balance in its favour in the overall league table. Harvard, which has regularly led the table in the past, remained the favourite of academics and employers in polling conducted by QS. US universities continue to dominate the list, although four of the top six this year are British. American institutions make up 13 of the top 20 and 31 of the top 100 – the same as last year. There is only one new entrant to the top 20 – the University of Toronto, at No 19. Continental Europe performs poorly in the table. France has two entries – ENS Paris and the École Polytechnique, also in Paris – in the top 50, and two Swiss universities make the top 30, but there are no German universities in the top 50. Universities in China, South Korea and Hong Kong are flourishing. Hong Kong has three universities in the top 100. John O'Leary, a member of the QS global academic advisory board, said in a statement: "UK universities are improving the effectiveness of their research. All but three of the UK's top 20 institutions achieved higher citation rates than last year, though they still trail the big US institutions like Harvard, Stanford and MIT." MIT has announced a programme of courses – MITx – that can be studied and assessed online. The first of these, in electronics, launched in March.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Murray wins thrilling US Open final in five sets
• Scot is first British man to win major since 1936 Thank God that's over. Thank God we can let Fred Perry lie easy. Thank God for Andy Murray. The Scot's career reached an apogee of excellence over five sets in the wind-whipped testing ground of the Arthur Ashe Court at Flushing Meadows in the US Open final against the defending champion Novak Djokovic, who was spent and gracious at the end. He was spent because Murray made him run miles; gracious because he is a decent man. Murray's 7-6 (12-10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 victory over an opponent exactly a week younger than him and whose career he has trailed like a jet vapour since they were 11 years old, equalled the longest in a final here, four hours and 54 minutes – exactly the same time it took Murray's coach, Ivan Lendl, to lose to Mats Wilander in the 1988 final. Murray reckoned he saw Old Stone Face smile at the end. Well he might. It was a flawed, heroic, unforgettable contest, taking about as long as a decent production of Macbeth, with nearly as many twists and turns. A scattered collection of Scots watched, headed by the loud knights Sean Connery and Alex Ferguson – as well Andy's delighted mother, Judy – as a final that arrived a day late due to a rain-made postponement, the fifth here in five years, held New Yorkers spellbound. But it was worth the wait. This, after all, was the culmination of a quest that has frustrated British males in 287 grand slam tournaments since 1936. "They were incredibly tricky conditions," Murray said. "After the third and fourth sets it was really tough for me. Novak is such a fighter. I just managed to get through. I think that was almost a smile I just saw [motioning towards Lendl]. He's one of the greatest players, made eight consecutive finals. I want to thank not just him, but the whole team, who have been there from the start." As Murray lifted the trophy, the thought crept through none the less: could this really have happened? It could. It did. And it could not have happened to a nicer guy. Djokovic added: "I want to congratulate Andy on his first grand slam, he thoroughly deserves it. I really tried my best. I gave it my all. It was a tremendous match." When the sainted Perry won his third US title in 1936, beating Don Budge in five quick sets with wooden rackets in the same event under a different name, the National Championships, it was at a different venue, on the grass of the West Side Tennis Club at nearby Forest Hills. They wore long trousers and slicked their hair. They didn't watch television nor fly often in aeroplanes. They didn't play tie-breaks and they didn't get paid. Murray earned $1.9m (£1.1m) for his maiden major victory to go with career earnings of $21.5m (£13.4m) and is worth £24m through endorsements and prize-money; Perry turned pro after beating Budge and made much more through his famous shirts than he ever did with a tennis racket. This was hardly about the money, though. As in Perry's case, it was about fulfilment of personal ambition, as well as a nation's absurdly drawn-out longing to adjust tennis history. And how he made us suffer. Again. He seems incapable of winning easily in the really big matches; indeed, at four times of asking in grand slam finals, he has lost fairly convincingly. This was a victory against a rival who'd been in sublime form all fortnight and who, after going two sets down, came back at him as if he'd stolen his car. The first two sets were as tight as the scores suggest, the tie-break lingering 26 minutes before Murray converted his sixth set point. In the second, he raced to 4-0 and there were not many who reckoned on what was to come. Murray held his advantage, with a little difficulty, took the set and then we got down to some serious fighting across the net. The last player to win the US Open from two sets down was Pancho Gonzales in 1949. Djokovic might not have known that. He did know that this was the first time Murray had won two sets in five slam finals. Under the cosh in the third, Murray aced to hold after giving up two break points; the drama would not leave the building. Murray never imagined Djokovic would disintegrate without assistance. He had to crack him again. He could not afford to do what he had done too many times before and let the moment go free. Their gaze now saw only the other, two kids who'd come such a long way. A second Murray double fault gave Djokovic two break points in the third game – and he did not flinch. When he hit long from deep under pressure in the sixth game, he put the gun back in Murray's hand with two bullets. Murray shot wide three times, and the Serb held for 4-2 after three hours. Djokovic did that bull-snort and swagger as he broke for 5-2. The dynamic of the contest and the energy on the court had shifted considerably. He smashed an overhead to take the set and, although Murray had a one-set cushion, it was one with pins in it. He had nowhere to rest his head yet. A beautiful disguised drop-shot earned Djokovic two break points at the start of the fourth, and a stout backhand volley clinched it. Murray was in trouble, not so much because he was playing poorly – although his level had slipped – but because his opponent had found his A game and did not look like losing it. Djokovic saved two break points in the fourth game, fired up by a time warning he thought unjust. The message was: don't get in my way. Murray did his best. In a memorable 30-shot rally at deuce and 3-2 on Djokovic's serve that earned a standing ovation, the Serb fell heavily behind the baseline and Murray hit the winner with malice. Yet still Djokovic kept the break intact – and levelled for two-all. Murray, energised despite giving two sets in a row, broke in the first game of the deciding stanza and it was Djokovic's turn to cope with the anxiety. He had proved so many times that these were the situations that brought out the animal in him – so memorably in two semis and two finals, here last year against Federer and Nadal, and in Melbourne this year, against Murray and Nadal. He doesn't look like a tank, but he is as strong as one. The test for Murray was to match this inspired lunatic and, at the end of a long, muscular rally that pulled both players here and there and had the fans screaming into the night, Murray held serve and gave out a crowd-scream of his own. He was engaged again, all right. They'd been on court just half an hour short of their four hours and 50 minutes purgatory in Melbourne and Murray could smell history in his nostrils – or was it cordite? They were playing tennis as if they wanted to get out some guns and go at it for real, each unbelievable rally containing one high-quality shot after another. Somehow, they were playing the most remarkable tennis, in tandem, when their bodies surely were screaming for relief. Even when Murray broke a second time, there was no certainty about the outcome; Djokovic, after all came from four games down in the third set. Anything was possible in those most improbable of contests. Of course, he broke back, for 1-3. There was sweat in every stroke and that was just on this keyboard. Djokovic's first serve and volley, four and a half hours into the match, was as brave a shot as we'd seen all night, but he was desperate, and rightly so. Murray's ground-strokes grew short; Djokovic found strength from somewhere, but the Scot was almost cruel in the way he pushed and pulled him across the baseline for deuce, yet could not get the break, and, although leading 4-2, was hanging on like Frank Bruno when he outlasted Oliver McCall to win the world heavyweight title – at his fourth attempt. Djokovic started cramping up at 0-30 on his serve in the seventh game. The power drained from his serve, not his spirit, but a weary forehand into the net gave Murray the opportunity for the final knockout punch. Djokovic went to his stool for treatment on his groin. Murray idled behind the service line. Then they pounded out the final act of their special bout. Murray batted down a backhand volley for 15-0; Murray successfully challenged a called-out ace, fingernail legal, for 30-0; Djokovic hit long and Murray had three match points – Djokovic roused his legs to hunt down a smash and save the first; Murray went for an ace down the T, just long – and Djokovic hit the return long on the second, his Lendl-improved second, and he was a grand slam winner at last. It is difficult to convey the feeling that rippled around the stadium, even along the press row, but let's just say there were a lot of grown men crying – and I know who they are.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A member of the Anonymous collective claims responsibility for hacking the internet's largest domain registrar GoDaddy, the internet's largest domain registrar, was hacked on Monday morning by a member of the Anonymous hacking group. Although it was not clear how many websites were affected, "DNS" or Domain Name System, "GoDaddy" and "Anonymous" are trending on Twitter, as thousands of clients and observers comment on the outage. A hacker identifying himself as the Security leader of Anonymous claimed responsibility shortly after the attack. @AnonymousOwn3r said he hacked GoDaddy because: "I'd like to test how the cyber security is safe and for more reasons that I can not talk now." Also on Twitter, GoDaddy customer service representatives said they were overwhelmed with complaints, but were working on the problem. GoDaddy is also one of the biggest hosting providers on the internet, housing the content for millions of websites. Domains affected by the attack range from small community groups like Little Rock Mommies, an online group for mothers in Central Arkansas, to Coursera, an online education company, to JHill's Staffing Services, a Los Angeles-based recruitment & career consulting firm. Anonymous is a loose collection of hackers who co-ordinate online and infiltrate websites as a form of protest against governments or corporations they view as oppressive or corrupt. In a tweet, @AnonymousOwn3r claimed that he acted alone and without the cooperation of other Anonymous members. Since its creation in 2003, Anonymous has claimed responsibility for several high-profile hackings including the recent takedowns of several UK government sites in April 2012 and that of CIA.gov in February 2012.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Arguments over who will pay ballooning construction costs – as well as an estimated $60m annual maintenance – delay museum New York officials were locked in negotiations Monday in a last-ditch attempt to break the deadlock that has delayed the building of the ground zero memorial museum ahead of the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Parties to the talks were hopeful that a deal could yet be done ahead of Tuesday's anniversary ceremony in order to avoid yet another embarrassing chapter in the rebuilding of ground zero. The current dispute between funding parties has pushed back the opening of the museum, which is conceived as the memorial heart of the 16-acre site, until 2014 – fully five years after it was initially meant to be completed. Family members of some of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, who have been involved in designing the museum, said they were reaching the end of their patience. Ten of the 40 seats on the board of the September 11 foundation, which controls the memorial and museum, are taken by victims' family members. "Family members are very sad that politics have got in the way of building this museum. If a deal isn't reached many of us will be speaking out about it," said Christine Ferer, a board member who lost her husband, Neil Levin, on 9/11. Ferer, whose husband was the executive director of the port authority of New York and New Jersey, said that the current dispute paradoxically arose from an attempt by politicians on the port authority to wrest control of the museum away from the September 11 foundation. "The foundation is a private body that raised $450m to build the museum – it is not appropriate for government bodies to try and control it." The disagreement has led to work on the memorial museum to be suspended for the past nine months. It has also pitted some of the most powerful political figures in the US north-east against each other. On one side are Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie, the governors of New York state and New Jersey respectively, who control the port authority that has been designated the job of building the museum. Up against them is Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, who sits as chair of the foundation and who has contributed $15m of his own money to the project. The governors have been expressing their disgruntlement over how much the museum is costing. Originally estimated at $700m, it has almost doubled in cost to $1.3bn; the port authority and the foundation are wrangling over how much each should pay of the capital costs as well as the estimated $60 million annual running costs. As a sign of the ill-feeling that is swirling around the memorial site, for the first time no politicians of any description will be invited to speak at the anniversary memorial service. In previous years the mayor and governors have read out some of the names of the fallen. The political squabble is a throwback to previous disagreements that have troubled the ground zero reconstruction for many of the past 11 years. The main replacement skyscraper, 1 World Trade Center, took years to get going as different private and government agencies tussled with each other over budgets and control before it finally took off over the past three years. The building has now reached its summit 104th floor with only the telecoms spire that will take it to 1,776 feet yet to be erected. It is expected to open for business in 2014. As talks over the museum continued on Monday, the first glimpse of how it might eventually look was revealed to victims' families. The building will consist of two main parts – an historical section that will explore the world before and after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, and a memorial portion that will remember the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks in 2001 as well as the World Trade Center bombing on 26 February 1993.
In a hotel near to ground zero, family members were given a foretaste of the memorial section. They were shown a prototype of touchscreen tables that will be present throughout the museum, carrying the photographs of all 2,983 victims. So far the memorial exhibition's organisers have tracked down images of all but 21 of the victims, in addition to gathering personal artefacts to be displayed in the building such as favourite items of clothing, wedding rings, pocket books and so on. Visitors will be able to touch the portraits of any of the victims to access their biographies, written or recorded tributes from friends and family, and a picture gallery of their life. One of the first of these multi-media profiles to be completed was that of Joseph Agnello, a 35-year-old firefighter from Queens who died in the Twin Towers. His profile contained audio recordings of his mother, Rita, and father, Salvatore, reminiscing about him. Similar biographies will be projected onto a large white wall and the exhibition will also include a small chamber where loved-ones will be able to sit and remember those who died in an more intimate setting.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former hunger striker, whose name and nationality were not released, dies after apparently being found unconscious in cell A former hunger strike prisoner at Guantánamo Bay has died, the US military said Monday, after the man was apparently found unconscious in his cell at the isolated, high-security prison. The prisoner, whose name and nationality were not released, was found by guards on Saturday and taken to a base hospital, where he was declared dead "after extensive lifesaving measures had been performed," the US military's southern command said in a brief statement. He was the ninth prisoner to die at the facility since it was opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. The military has said two of those deaths were by natural causes and six were declared suicides. The death occurred in Camp 5, a section of the prison used mostly to hold prisoners who have broken detention center rules, said navy captain Robert Durand, a spokesman for the prison. This prisoner had recently splashed a guard with what military officials call a "cocktail," typically a mixture of food and bodily fluids, which is why he was on disciplinary status, Durand said. He had been on a hunger strike in the past but had resumed eating on June 1 and was at 95% of his ideal body weight and 14lb heavier than when he came to Guantánamo, the spokesman said. The US still holds nearly 170 prisoners at Guantánamo and they range from men the officials have cleared for release but can't find a stable country to accept them to a handful who have been charged with war crimes. Durand said the man who died Saturday had not been charged and had not been designated for prosecution. A medical examiner has been brought to the base to determine the exact cause of death and an investigation will be conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is standard in the death of detainees at Guantánamo. Durand said the US government was working to notify the man's family and his country before releasing further information. "Certainly we don't want the family finding out in the media before they have been notified," he said. A mortuary team will wash and place the body in a shroud in accordance with Islamic burial rites before it is shipped back to the prisoner's homeland, he said. The most recent death was in April 2011, when a 37-year-old Afghan prison died in an apparent suicide. His lawyer told The Associated Press at the time that the man had a long-term mental illness and had tried to kill himself at least once before. Two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner were found hanging in their cells in June 2006 in what the military determined was a coordinated suicide.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Paul and Rachel Chandler are setting sail around the world, just two years after their horrific ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates There is still, says Rachel Chandler, a bullet hole in the boom. An abandoned dagger and a flip-flop are further reminders of the gruelling ordeal that she and her husband, Paul, endured after Somali pirates, operating thousands of miles from their base in a hijacked merchant ship, stormed their yacht off the Seychelles in October 2009. But apart from a few small teething problems – there seems to be something the matter with the electric bilge pump and the boat "is smelling a bit", says Rachel – the 38ft Lynn Rival is shipshape, repaired and ready to resume her voyage. As are the Chandlers, despite the 388 days they spent as captives of the pirates. "We would have been devastated if we hadn't been able to carry on," says Paul, 60, a retired engineer. "It would have been very difficult. You retire early enough, with a dream; you scrimp and save to make it possible … It's like coming home. The Lynn Rival was to be our chosen home for many years. We've been back in her a week." The Chandlers survived solitary confinement, a diet of goat's liver and rice, and severe beatings. Front-page news for more than a year, they were finally released in November 2010, after a reported £600,000 ransom had been raised by their family and the Somali diaspora in the UK. Now, having just completed their first proper sea voyage (overnight, from Dartmouth) since their capture, they are in Falmouth harbour, sorting out a few last-minute bits and pieces – that recalcitrant bilge pump – before setting off for Spain. They aim to spend the next few months in Spain and Portugal, moving on to Morocco and maybe the Canaries, before reaching the Cape Verde islands by December, and hopefully Brazil by February or March next year. How does it feel? "Fantastic," says Rachel. "It was hard to believe we were actually doing it. I wasn't even seasick, and I quite often am for the first two or three days." For Paul, it was just "wonderful still to remember how to do it. There was always that apprehension that we might not be physically up to it any more." Neither believes they will be unduly troubled by memories of what they went through. "We're comfortable," says Rachel, 57. "We've gone through it, and it was a horrendous experience, but we were very unlucky. We can't pretend it didn't happen; it did. But we know that underneath we are still the same people. And you do have to get on with life." The couple's family, who have refused to tell them who donated what for the ransom because they don't want to be repaid, and Dahir Abdullahi Kadiye, the "incredibly kind" Somali-born London businessman who, out of shame for his fellow countrymen, raised the final tranche but has equally rejected all publicity, are all "very happy" to see the Chandlers setting off again on their cruelly interrupted journey, Rachel says. The east coast of Africa, though, will not be on their itinerary. Not as things stand, anyway. "Maybe," says Paul, "maybe, after we've been to South America and the Pacific and the Far East, say nine or 10 years down the road, perhaps it will be perfectly fine there. Who knows?" If not, they'll be steering well clear.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney weighs in to criticise union and Obama for teachers' strike amid signs that compromise is still some way off Teachers in Chicago took to the picket lines for the first time in 25 years Monday after unions and the city's school district failed to reach agreement over a new contract. The strike marks the latest phase in an acrimonious, months-long dispute between Mayor Rahm Emanuel – a man not known for his consensual management style – and a union that has seen its base energised under strident new leadership. The effects were felt throughout the city after parents received automated calls from the school board on Sunday evening informing them of the action. The message, coming just one week after the new academic year began for most students, said there would be no school, and informed parents of makeshift arrangements at libraries and other drop-off sites around the city. At the centre of the dispute is Emanuel's attempt to reform the city's schools in a manner that would put a greater emphasis on test results when evaluating teachers, and demands for increased pay for a longer working day – plus a promise that teachers laid off in a widely anticipated series of school closings will be hired when new vacancies occur. On Monday morning, both sides said they were close on pay but still had considerable distance to go on the question of evaluation and job security. On the picket line outside Helen C Pierce school, Chris Inserra, a parent, said she was there to support the teachers because "they believe in children". "How can you evaluate a teacher who is at the toughest school in one of the roughest neighbourhoods, with all the problems that come with that, in the same way as a teacher in one of the best schools with the best resources?" Jennifer Foss, the school's middle school co-ordinator, said her main concern was that they had not been provided with adequate resources to staff the longer school day, but she also worried about evaluation. "It's not that I don't think we should be evaluated," she said. "But it shouldn't be attached to test scores. That can have a very divisive effect in a school and students respond to teachers in very different ways." The confrontation, the first teachers' strike in a generation, has been brewing since Emanuel made school reform the centrepiece of his election campaign last year. Not long after he took office Emanuel reneged on a teachers pay increase that had been negotiated. He then sought to extend the school day in return for a 2% pay increase, which was rejected by the union. It was thought that a new state law requiring 75% of eligible union members to support a strike would have forestalled industrial action. But things have not gone his way. A poll in May revealed that parents of Chicago schoolchildren were almost three times more likely to back the unions than Emanuel. Then, an independent arbitrator ruled that teachers should receive raises of between 15% and 20% for a longer working day, and criticised the school board for trying to extend the longer day during such tough times. When the union did put the strike to a ballot it received more than 90% support from its members for strike action. The city accuses the union, whose leadership has taken a left turn in recent times, of being intransigent and demanding concessions that the city cannot afford or that will detrimentally affect students. "This is avoidable, because it is a strike of choice," claimed Emanuel. "This is about as much as we can do," insisted David Vitale, the president of the school board. "There is only so much money in the system." The two sides did reach an agreement in July where the school board would rehire almost 500 teachers in non-core subjects like art and music who had been laid off to staff the longer day. But since then progress has stalled. Union officials and teachers insist the strike is not primarily about money. Indeed, the recurring theme on the picket line was a grievance far more heartfelt and difficult to negotiate – respect, and a sense of being professionally undervalued. At a community-led strike school, set up to support the teachers, Inez Jacobson, a retired teacher who worked for 30 years in the city's schools, said: "Teachers have a very difficult job. They're trained professionals. They deserve better. You can't just put anybody in a classroom and get good results. "If you evaluate them on test scores then they'll teach test taking skills. But that's not education. Kids learn in very different ways so that's no way to evaluate a good teacher." The strike could have national ramifications, and risks becoming an issue in the presidential campaign. Emanuel was President Obama's chief of staff and the strike is taking place in Obama's hometown. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney blamed both the union and Obama: "I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith, but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education. "President Obama has chosen his side in this fight, sending his vice-president last year to assure the nation's largest teachers union that: 'You should have no doubt about my affection for you and the president's commitment to you.' " The White House is believed to be keeping its distance in the hope of a speedy resolution.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Diocese allegedly backs out of selling mansion to couple because of the 'potentiality of gay marriages' in the house A gay couple is suing the Catholic church in Massachusetts for allegedly refusing to sell them a mansion out of concern that they would host same-sex weddings at the site. James Fairbanks and Alain Beret filed their discrimination lawsuit against the Catholic diocese of Worcester in county's superior court on Monday. They allege that they were in negotiations to buy Oakhurst, a former retreat center in Northbridge, when church officials suddenly pulled out due to the possibility of same-sex marriage ceremonies being held there. "I have lived quietly in the mainstream for nearly 60 years, and I expected to continue that," Beret told the Boston Globe. "But I will not continue that at the expense of my dignity." Fairbanks and Beret said they inadvertently received an email sent from Thomas Sullivan, chancellor of the diocese of Worcester, to the church's broker. In the email Sullivan said he did not want to sell to the pair because of the "potentiality of gay marriages" at the house. Sullivan contends that the email was taken out of context and says Fairbanks and Beret could not finance the purchase. He said he had only been told by the church's broker that Fairbanks and Beret planned to hold same-sex weddings there after the deal had fallen through. "They didn't have the money, that was it," he told the Boston Globe. Sullivan said the pair had been unable to secure financing for their first offer, while a second offer was too low. Sullivan told the Globe, however, that the church has a policy of not selling properties where Mass has been held to people who plan to host same-sex weddings. The same applied to other developers who planned to use former church properties for things the church deemed inappropriate, such as abortion clinics or bars. "We wouldn't sell our churches and our properties to any of a number of things that would reflect badly on the church," he told the newspaper. "These buildings are sacred to the memory of Catholics." Beret argues that neither he nor Fairbanks would have discussed same-sex weddings in front of the church's broker as they do not think in terms of "gay weddings", just weddings. He said the property had been "way overpriced" at $1.45m, and that he and Fairbanks had agreed a preliminary deal to buy it for $1m. After examining the structure they discovered it needed repairs totalling $500,000 and reduced their offer to $550,000. "With lightning speed," Beret told the Globe, the church's broker decided against the sale. "It was not the kind of thing you would expect after having negotiated for a month, and everything having gone rather well," Beret said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Game-by-game report: Andy Murray is set to face Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open at Flushing Meadow, at 4pm. Join Martin Pengelly now!
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As it happened: Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open at Flushing Meadow. Martin Pengelly was watching
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open at Flushing Meadow. Martin Pengelly was watching
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Advisers say president's total of $114m came from grassroots donations, not from 'limitless checks' they say Romney enjoys President Barack Obama broke Mitt Romney's dominance of fundraising last month after sending out a series of increasingly desperate and frenetic appeals for cash. Obama raised more than $114m compared with Romney's $111m, figures released on Monday showed. It comes after three straight months in which the president has been beaten by his White House rival in terms of campaign donations. Obama's $114m in August represented a big jump from the $75m he raised in July, and came after a series of emails, television appeals and other pleas for help. Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager, attributed the rise to small donations. The Democrats like to portray their fundraising as being reliant on a large grassroots movement, rather than the wealthy donors they claim Romney relies on. More than 1.1 million made contributions averaging $58, the campaign said. More than 317,000 had never contributed to a campaign before, it added. The Obama camp said that since the re-election campaign began, more than 3.1 million Americans have donated money to their cause, more than in 2008. Ninety-eight percent of donations were $250 or less. Obama's surprise fundraising success was announced earlier Monday in a tweet from his campaign team less than 30 minutes after the Romney campaign published its results. In the message, the Obama campaign team included a caution: "No celebrating because they're going to have an even bigger September. But now we know we can match them, doing this our way." In spite of Obama's success last month, he still faces being outspent overall. Romney has more money stashed away for the remainder of the campaign, about $169m, partly because he was unable to spend it until he formally became the Republican presidential nominee two weeks ago. The Obama team has not disclosed how much it has in the bank, though it is substantially less, mainly because it spent around $120m in negative adverts in swing states over the summer attempting to define Romney as elitist, uncaring businessman. Romney also enjoys a huge advantage from Super Pacs. These political action committees are legally separate from the campaign teams, but the distinction often appears to be more theoretical than practical. The Super Pacs supporting Romney, such as Restore Our Future and Karl Rove's American Crossroads are easily outraising their much smaller Democratic equivalents, mainly through reaching out to rich business leaders.
Restore Our Future and American Crossroads between them have raised about $1 billion, and these are just two of many Republican Super Pacs. The difference in Super Pac spending power could still mean that Obama, as his campaign team claims, will be outspent two to one in the remaining two months of the campaign. At the Democratic convention in Charlotte last week, Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was recruited to the main Obama Super Pac, Priorities USA, whose performance so far has been poor. A target has been set of raising £150m by election day. The Obama campaign announced the August figure on Twitter, though all the details do not have to be released until it formally reports to the Federal Election Commission later this month. Messina said: "The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August. "Fueled by contributions from more than 1.1 million Americans donating an average of $58 — more than 317,000 who had never contributed to the campaign before — we raised a total of more than $114m. That is a critical downpayment on the organization we are building across the country — the largest grassroots campaign in history." Romney's national finance chairman Spencer Zwick and the Republican national committee chairman Reince Priebus, said in a joint statement: "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are offering bold solutions to our country's problems. That is why we are seeing such tremendous support from donors across the country."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Detectives working on theory of one gunman, as area around Hilli family home temporarily evacuated and caravan searched The British family murdered while on holiday in the French Alps were all shot with a single weapon, according to investigators. Ballistic and forensic experts who have examined the bullet casings at the scene say they were fired from a 7.65mm automatic pistol, a medium calibre that is not as powerful as modern 9mm pistols. Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were each shot twice to the head in their car at a beauty spot near Lake Annecy, in the Haute Savoie, last Wednesday. Syvain Mollier, 45, a French father of three who appears to have come across the bloodbath while cycling up the mountain path, was shot up to seven times, including twice in the head. The Hillis two daughters were the only survivors. The eldest, Zainab, aged seven, was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head, leaving her with a fractured skull. She has been brought out of a medically induced coma and police are waiting to interview her. Her sister, Zeena, four, who hid for eight hours in the rear footwell of the family's BMW 5-series estate under the skirt of her dead mother, has been brought back to Britain by carers. Nearly 25 bullet casings were found at the scene. Several were reported to have been discovered in the car, suggesting the gunman had fired at close range, but investigators said all the shots were fired from outside the vehicle. A source close to the inquiry told the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper that detectives were now working on the theory there was one gunman who may have had one or more accomplice. "There was only one weapon used in the attack on the Hilli family at Chevaline, according to a source close to the inquiry," a journalist told the Guardian. "The weapon used was an automatic pistol of a 7.65mm calibre, a medium calibre considered as old by experts and not corresponding to modern weapons." Witnesses including a former RAF pilot who arrived at the scene on a bicycle moments after the killer fled reported seeing a dark-coloured – possibly green – 4x4 vehicle driving down the narrow winding road away from the scene followed by a motorbike. At the Hilli family home in Claygate, Surrey, detectives called in army bomb disposal experts and evacuated the area for two hours after discovering "items" that were later assessed to be non-hazardous. They appeared to be concentrating on items discovered in a workshop in the garden of the mock-Tudor home. James Mathews, a family friend, said the workshop was used by Hilli, an aeronautics engineer, as a draughtsman's office for his design work, and by his wife to study for her dentistry exams. Mathews, 53, a fellow engineer, said he had helped Hilli build the workshop a number of years ago and that inside there were a number of computer servers, large printouts of plans, and four desks. Dismissing claims about hazardous materials, Mathews said: "Would he keep a explosive materials where his wife worked?" He said that there was a further office upstairs inside the house and two garages, one of which contained tools and bicycles and the other a mothballed 1950s Mercedes Benz. Mathews said Hilli had worked for Surrey Satellites on an ad-hoc freelance basis, and that when they had spoken on 24 August Hilli had told him he did not know when he would be back working for the company as his latest project had ended. French police have been combing through the caravan in which the family stayed from 3 September until the day of the shooting, which has been removed from the Solitaire du Lac campsite at Saint-Jorioz. They are examining a laptop computer found in the caravan and two mobile phones discovered in the car. They hope CCTV cameras might have captured the killer as they fled the Alpine beauty spot. "We are looking at all the cameras that might give us some information. We're finding out where they all are, outside shops, banks or even as part of the video protection of communities and we will collect their recordings," a gendarme told the Dauphiné Libéré. The weaponFirearms with a 7.65mm calibre are not as powerful as some modern 9mm pistols and are still fairly prevalent, said Philip Boyce, UK firearms expert for Forensic Scientific. "It's probably the most famous calibre. There is the old James Bond Walther PPK. You can get very early 1903, 1904 pistols that were made in that calibre. It ranges from back then to now and they are still making them today. It could be quite a modern gun was used," he said. "It's probably a pistol of some sort. There are a lot of manufacturers around the world make them. It's not a low, low calibre. It's still very dangerous." Boyce added: "The fact that there are 25 cartridge cases is interesting. Normally you have between seven and 15 cartridges in a magazine. So the person who did this may have had two magazines, or they have got a special one where they have got an extended magazine, which will take 25 cartridges. Normally you wouldn't expect a pistol of that calibre to have a 25-cartridge capacity magazine." Caroline Davies
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Academics who conducted private talks with Taliban say senior figures believe war in Afghanistan is not winnable A belief that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable and fear of a future civil war has persuaded Taliban leaders of the merits of a ceasefire, power-sharing and a political deal, according to a group of experts and academics who conducted private talks with senior Taliban figures. Two former Taliban ministers, a former mujahideen commander and an Afghan mediator with experience of negotiating with the Taliban spent between three and five hours in individual discussions with professors Anatol Lieven, Theo Farrell and Rudra Chaudhuri of King's College London and Michael Semple of Harvard. Separately, Matt Waldman, a former key UN official in Kabul involved in promoting dialogue and reconciliation in Afghanistan, has told the Guardian: "It would be a grave mistake to assume the Taliban would settle for nothing less than absolute power." At a press briefing on Monday on their report published by the Royal United Services Institute, Lieven and his colleagues painted a picture of a pragmatic Taliban leadership around Mullah Omar. Three of his group's four interlocutors said they could imagine a "long-term US military role in Afghanistan … so long as the US military presence contributed to Afghan security", Farrell said. But it could be used to attack Afghan's neighbours, including Iran, the Taliban leaders insisted. Semple said the Taliban figures they spoke to were driven by the belief that "war was not winnable" and by "fear of precipitating civil war". Lieven described "real disillusionment and anger with al-Qaida" within the Taliban leadership. However, he said their Taliban interlocutors were "very silent" on the question of the Haqqani network, which has attacked US and Afghan forces from their base in Pakistan. Originally encouraged by the CIA during the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, the group has just been proscribed by the US as a terrorist organisation. "Pakistan's influence would be crucial," Lieven described one of their Taliban interlocutors as saying, because Pakistan could undermine a peace agreement. "Taliban leaders know they stand no chance of seizing power now or in the near future," writes Waldman in the Guardian. "They know that even coming close would reinvigorate, potentially augment, the coalition of forces ranged against them. That could trigger a civil war, which they are anxious to avoid." He continues: "Antediluvian theocracy has had its day and thinking Talibs know it," and adds: "Most Taliban leaders deeply resent their dependence on, and manipulation by, Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI … They yearn to be taken seriously as a credible, national political force."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sale will raise $5.6bn as US prepares to levy fines that could reach up to $20bn over company's actions amid disaster BP has agreed to sell some of its Gulf of Mexico oil fields for $5.6bn as it builds up cash reserves ahead of potentially huge fines for 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster. The British oil giant is selling its interests in older smaller fields in the gulf to Plains Exploration & Production of Houston. BP will remain a major operator in the area. "While these assets no longer fit our business strategy, the Gulf of Mexico remains a key part of BP's global exploration and production portfolio, and we intend to continue investing at least $4bn there annually over the next decade," chief executive Bob Dudley said in a statement. "This sale, as with previous divestments, is consistent with our strategy of playing to our strengths as a company and positioning us for long-term growth. In the Gulf of Mexico, that means focusing future investments on our strong set of producing assets and promising exploration prospects." On completion of the transaction, BP will continue to operate four large production platforms in the region – Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Na Kika – and hold interests in three non-operated hubs – Mars, Ursa and Great White. Analysts calculate that BP faces a fine of up to $20bn under the clean water act for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The blowout killed 11 workers and pumped about 4.9m barrels of oil into the Gulf. Transocean, the company that owned Deepwater Horizon, said Monday that it was in discussions with the justice department to pay $1.5bn to resolve civil and criminal claims related to the US's worst offshore oil spill. Last week the US department of justice launched a withering attack on BP over its handling of the disaster. In court papers government lawyers said BP had made "plainly misleading representations" in its settlement proposals. "The behaviour, words and actions of these BP executives would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall," wrote government lawyers. The Gulf sale comes as BP looks to raise $38bn from asset sales by the end of 2013. The company said the divestment was in line with its global strategy "of playing to its strengths, including the development of giant fields and deepwater exploration". BP intends to focus on "producing more high-margin barrels from fewer, larger assets," said the company. The sale brings the value of BP's disposals since the 2010 spill to more than $32bn. BP is also looking to sell its Texas City refinery – the site of fatal explosion in 2005 that left 15 dead and 170 injured.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police say they have appointed special team to investigate deaths of women, most of whom were sex workers Police in Rwanda are investigating the murder of 15 women, most of them sex workers, amid speculation that a serial killer is at large. All the victims were strangled. The mysterious deaths have puzzled the tiny east African republic and instilled fear among sex workers, whose trade is illegal but often seen as a way out of poverty. Most of the women were killed in the capital, Kigali, in the past two months, police said. Two suspects were arrested last week, the Rwanda Focus newspaper reported, but detectives continue to search for a culprit or culprits. Supt Theos Badege, a police spokesperson, said: "Rwanda national police is well aware of these mysterious incidents and measures have been undertaken to bring to justice all those responsible. "Rwanda national police takes this as a serious case and a special team has been appointed to investigate thoroughly these incidents and produce the findings as soon as possible." The victims include three women who were killed in broad daylight in a working class district of Kigali on 28 August. Two were known sex workers while the third is suspected to have been killed after she witnessed the murders of the others, local media reported. The Rwanda Focus claimed that, according to several neighbours, another victim, Clementine Uwimbabazi, was found dead at her house with the words "I will stop once I have killed 400 prostitutes" carved into the flesh of her stomach. Police dismissed this as a rumour, the paper added. "Conflicts over money and revenge following HIV/Aids contamination are apparently at the root of the problem," it quoted Badege as saying. The Rwanda Focus also interviewed Flora Uwase, a sex worker and friend of Uwimbabazi. "I was the first to see her body, and you would have thought she was sleeping," she said. "The killer knew very well what he was doing." She added: "There is something else behind all this, something bigger. What if I were the next to be killed? I am going to quit, I'll find something else to do." Whether one serial killer or a group is responsible remains a subject of speculation. The New Times of Rwanda reported: "In most incidents eyewitnesses talk of a slender light-skinned man who appears to be in his early 30s. A man fitting that description, they say, has been sighted in areas known for sex trade in Kigali." Local authorities have stepped up security, with awareness meetings being held and residents paying guards to patrol streets around the clock. Badege appealed to the public to remain calm and vigilant and to co-operate with the investigation. "The government of Rwanda values every person living in Rwanda regardless of what they do," a police statement added. The prevalence of HIV among female commercial sex workers is 51% compared with a national average of 3%, according to a 2010 national survey.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Said al-Shehri was seen as second-in-command of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula Yemeni armed forces have killed Said al-Shehri, seen as the second-in-command of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), a government website said. The Yemeni defence ministry said Shehri, a Saudi national, was killed along with six other militants in an army operation in the remote Hadramout province. It gave no more details. A Yemeni security source said the operation last Wednesday was thought to have been carried out by a US drone rather than the Yemeni military. The source said another Saudi and an Iraqi national were among the others killed. Shehri is a former inmate of Guantánamo Bay who was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and put through a Saudi rehabilitation programme for militants. Yemen's government is trying to re-establish order after an uprising pushed out its veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, but faces threats from Islamist militants, southern secessionists and a Shia rebel movement in the north. The protests and factional fighting have allowed al-Qaida's regional wing to seize swaths of south Yemen, and Shia Muslim Houthi rebels to carve out their own domain in the north. The lawlessness has alarmed the US and Saudi Arabia, which view the state as a new frontline in their war on al-Qaida and its affiliates. The US has used unmanned drones to target Aqap, which has planned attacks on international targets including planes and is described by Washington as the most dangerous wing of al-Qaida. The US backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province in Yemen, but militants have struck back with a series of bombings and assassinations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Public school teachers in America's third largest school system walk out over wages and job security. Follow the latest here
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police lift cordon around house, allowing neighbours to return after surrounding area was evacuated A bomb disposal unit called to the Claygate home of the French Alps shooting victims has been stood down after the examination of items that caused police initial "concern" at the address. Surrey police imposed an exclusion zone around the mock Tudor house shortly after 9.30am, closing neighbouring roads and temporarily evacuating the area. They extended an existing cordon and appeared to be examining a shed or workshop in the back garden of the house of the murdered engineer Saad al-Hilli and his family. Hilli, 50, was shot in the head last week along with his wife, Iqbal, a dentist, and his mother-in-law, the Iraqi-born naturalised Swede Suhaila al-Allaf, while on a camping holiday with the couple's two daughters in Annecy. The children, Zainab, aged seven, and Zeena, four, survived the attack, which took place while the family was in the car. The family's home has been under police guard since Thursday, and police and forensic teams began searching the property at the weekend for any clues that may help French police investigating the murders. The cordon around the house was lifted shortly after midday on Monday, and the bomb squad left the premises. Earlier, Surrey police said the bomb disposal unit had been called "due to concerns around items" found at the address. The unit was stood down after an assessment, and neighbours were allowed back in to their properties. Surrey Police later confirmed items found at the address were "not hazardous". Attention on the property intensified as police in Annecy waited to question Zainab, who was brought round from a medically induced coma after the attack, in which Sylvain Mollier, 45, a French cyclist who apparently stumbled across the scene, also died. Zeena, who survived after hiding underneath her dead mother's dress, flew back to Britain with carers on Sunday. French investigators confirmed on Monday that only one weapon was used to kill the four victims; there had been speculation that because of the large number of shots fired there may have been more than one weapon. Eric Maillaud, the French prosecutor overseeing the Alpine murder investigation, has told journalists he has absolutely no comment to make about the inquiry in France or developments in the United Kingdom.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rahm Emanuel condemns union's decision as 'unnecessary' as 26,000 teachers in nation's third largest school system walk out Chicago's public school teachers will go on strike Monday morning for the first time in 25 years after their union announced that intense contract talks with the school district had failed over issues including compensation, health benefits and teacher evaluations. The walkout was announced after months of talks between Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the school board and union leaders at a time when unions and collective bargaining have come under criticism in many parts of America. More than 26,000 teachers and support staff are expected to hit the picket lines first thing Monday, while the school district and parents carry out plans for keeping nearly 400,000 students safe and occupied while classes remain empty in the coming days in America's third largest school district. "This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve." Emanuel condemned the union's decision, calling the action "unnecessary" and "a strike by choice." He said the negotiations had come down primarily to two issues that he claimed could be resolved if the two sides kept talking, "given how close we are." School board President David Vitale had first announced Sunday night that talks had broken off, despite the school board offering what he called a fair and responsible contract that would cover four years and meet most of the union's demands. Lewis said she believed talks would resume Monday but a time had not been set for the sides to meet. She added that progress had been made but not enough to avert a strike. Union officials said among the outstanding issues were district proposals for standardized student testing that would "cheapen" the school system and a teacher evaluation system that would cost 6,000 teachers their jobs within two years. Lewis said the union had won concessions from the district on other matters. The district had been offering a raise of 2% a year for four years. The union called that offer unacceptable particularly after Mayor Rahm Emanuel last year canceled a previously negotiated 4% pay raise, citing budget problems. The union countered by asking for a 30% pay raise over two years, followed by a request for a 25% increase over two years. Just weeks ago, Lewis told delegates the union had adjusted its demand and was asking for a 19% pay raise in the contract's first year. The union also has raised concerns about raises based on teacher experience and education. It said the district agreed to retain contract language allowing raises based on experience, called step increases, but would not actually pay the money now. The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union. When he took office last year, the former White House chief of staff inherited a school district facing a $700m budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4% raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2% pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Satirist whose drawings highlighted corruption among India's political elite imprisoned for two weeks after refusing bail An Indian cartoonist detained on sedition charges for his satirical drawings highlighting widespread corruption among India's political elite has been jailed for two weeks, rekindling a fierce debate on freedom of speech in the world's largest democracy. Aseem Trivedi, 25,turned himself in to police in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai at the weekend. His arrest followed the publication of a series of cartoons, including one drawing that depicts the parliament building as a lavatory buzzing with flies. Trivedi is being held in judicial custody after refusing bail. If found guilty, the satirist could face a lengthy prison service. News of the case immediately sparked widespread protests among free speech and anti-graft activists who complain that India's government, hit by a series of corruption scandals, is increasingly intolerant of criticism. "Politicians must learn to be tolerant. This is not a dictatorship," Markandey Katju, the head of the Press Council of India, told local TV channel CNN-IBN. Last month, the beleaguered government of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, temporarily blocked a number of Twitter accounts. Ministers have also responded angrily to articles by foreign media criticising Singh's record and have clashed with major social media providers incluging Facebook over material deemed insulting to major political figures. Ambika Soni, the Indian information and broadcasting minister, told reporters that government cartoonists "should stay within constitutional parameters", saying "they cannot make national symbols the object of their cartoon". Though Trivedi's arrest was prompted by a complaint from a private individual with no known political ties, campaigners point to a raft of recent cases in which political figures have used the law to muzzle criticism across the country. In April, police arrested an academic in the eastern city of Kolkata for allegedly sharing by email cartoons that ridiculed Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal state. A statement from campaign group India Against Corruption, for which Trivedi was an activist, said "there have been many instances of harassment of cartoonists and other artists". "The appropriateness of the cartoons should be judged by the public, and not by the police," the group said. There are broader fears of censorship and intimidation. A new cinematic adaptation of Mumbai-born Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, which charts the life of a boy with magical powers in post-independence India and includes unflattering portrayals of major Indian historic political figures, has struggled to find a distributor in the controversial author's native land. Indian television showed images of a bearded Trivedi shouting slogans as he was bundled by police into a patrol car outside the court. The cartoonist refused the services of a lawyer and welcomed his own arrest. "If telling the truth makes one a traitor, then I am happy," he said. The case against him was filed in a Mumbai court by a local advocate who said the pictures mocked national symbols. Also charged with posting seditious and obscene content on his website, which is now blocked, Trivedi declined to apply for bail in a sign of protest. The sedition laws in India date back to the country's colonial days. Nationalist heroes such as Mahatma Gandhi were frequently charged with sedition during their struggle for independence. The cartoonist's father, Ashok Trivedi, told CNN-IBN his son was being targeted because he was actively involved in a campaign to mobilise Indians for mass protests against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. The government has struggled to counter allegations that corruption on its watch has cost the country billions of pounds. Even top government advisers admit that so-called "crony capitalism" is a major problem. Petty graft is present at all levels of Indian society and is one of the chief complaints of the new urban middle classes.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • American wins 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 to win fourth US Open crown
• Azarenka served for the match but could not close it out All the weaknesses and wonders of the women's game were on display on the Arthur Ashe Court at Flushing Meadows on Sunday night as Victoria Azarenka came within a shot or two of winning just her second match in 11 attempts against Serena Williams, US Open champion for the fourth time. The world No1 soaked up 13 aces and served four double faults yet several times was on the verge of victory. Williams won 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, in two hours and 18 minutes, statistical shorthand that inadequately reflects the rolling drama. The greatest serve the women's game has seen was again the building block of Williams's game. Only Tatjana Malek had matched her fastest serve, 124mph. On Sunday, Williams hit a peak of 125mph. And still she struggled. For the first half an hour the American threatened to bury the Belarusian as convincingly as she had embarrassed the diminutive and ace-less Italian Sara Errani in a little over an hour in the semi-finals. Within an hour, they were engaged in a dog-fight in the third set. As the two-hour mark arrived, Williams was serving to stay in the match. A quarter of an hour after that, she had won it. Along the way, there were some brilliant individual winners – 13 by the loser, 44 by the winner, many of them spectacularly hit from the back of the court, but at the cost of 45 unforced errors – and plenty of decent ralliesThe lingering impression was one of an error-riddled contest, compelling though it was at the end. At 3-5, down, Williams needed a couple more of those aces to stay in the game. None arrived, but she survived. Serving for the match, Azarenka lost focus and gave up three break points. She saved one, but dropped serve and anxiety set in. In the 12th game, a forehand floated long and Serena had match point; when Azarenka over-cooked another one, it was all over. How different it all looked at the beginning. Within minutes, Azarenka was defending two break points, then dropped serve. After 20 minutes, Azarenka trailed 1-4, as Williams powered two aces past her to go with the 50 she had already hit in the tournament, 13 more than Sharapova. Soon Azarenka was 2-5 down and serving to stay in contention. Even without the ball in hand, Williams was lethal, leaving her younger opponent rooted to the spot all along the baseline. A long, cross-court backhand won her the first set in 34 minutes. Azarenka had a glimmer of encouragement when Williams double-faulted to drop serve at the start of the third, only her third such hiccup in the entire tournament – and then things began to unravel for both of them. Williams won her first major on this court 13 years ago when she was just 17 and the No9 seed. Her career has been glorious, curious and furious. She has excited and irritated, but she has invariably bounced back. Surgery to her left knee in 2003 kept her out of tennis for eight months; three years later she missed a further six months after more trouble with her left knee. She nearly died from the post-operational fallout of a cut foot suffered in a Munich restaurant after winning Wimbledon three years ago. At 30, she is still standing. This is some woman, some champion.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow events as they happened as bomb disposal officers were called in amid concerns that items in the Hilli house in Claygate could be explosive devices
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Surrey police have cordoned off the road and evacuated neighbours due to the discovery of items at the Hilli property in Surrey, following the shootings in Annecy last week which left three members of the family dead
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A decade after he first lived in Colombia, Tom Feiling went returned to Bogotá. Here he reads Colombia's recent past through the capital's graffiti
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move hailed as step towards transition from war-torn failed state to nation with functioning government Somalia's new parliament is due to vote for a new president, a move that members of the international community say is a key step towards the country's transition from a war-torn failed state to a nation with an effective government. While Somalia has had transitional administrations since 2004, it has not had a functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos. Augustine Mahiga, the UN special representative for Somalia, urged parliamentarians to think of the good of their country and vote with a clear conscience. The UN-backed process of electing the country's next government has been criticised for corruption and threats of violence. The International Crisis Group thinktank has claimed the process has been as undemocratic as the Transitional Federal Government structure it seeks to replace, "with unprecedented levels of political interference, corruption and intimidation". The US government called on Somali lawmakers to act with courage, determination and integrity in conducting a fair and transparent election. Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesman for the state department, urged those who lose the election to accept the result, and refrain from inciting violence or encouraging others to distance themselves from Somalia's new federal governmental institutions. Somalia's intricate clan politics and loyalties must be navigated in the selection of the country's leaders. A clan that wins the post of speaker, for example, is not eligible to get the presidency. Somali elders were charged with naming a full parliament, since a general election is impossible because of fears over security. An incomplete parliament elected the former labour minister Mohamed Osman Jawari as the new speaker on 28 August. The last day of the eight-year UN-backed transitional government was 20 August and the UN wanted a new president in place by then. But political bickering, threats and seat-buying schemes delayed progress towards the selection and seating of 275 members of the new parliament that will select a president. Somalia has seen much progress over the past year. Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab militants were forced out of Mogadishu in August 2011, allowing businesses to thrive and the arts and sports to return. Al-Shabaab has lost control of Mogadishu and ceded power in towns in western Somalia. The militants have largely either fled to northern Somalia and Yemen, or have retreated to Kismayo, the last major town controlled by the militants. Last month, Somali leaders endorsed a new provisional constitution that expands rights for Somali citizens. The UN – which helped broker the constitution and is in charge of the poll – hopes that one day all of Somalia will be able to vote to endorse or reject the constitution.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move hailed as step toward transition from war-torn failed state to a nation with a functioning government Somalia's new parliament is due to vote for a new president, a move that members of the international community say is a key step toward the country's transition from a war-torn failed state to a nation with an effective government. While Somalia has had transitional administrations since 2004, it has not had a functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos. Augustine Mahiga, the UN special representative for Somalia, urged parliamentarians to think of the good of their country and vote with a clear conscience. The UN-backed process of electing the country's next government has been criticised for corruption and threats of violence. The International Crisis Group thinktank has claimed the process has been as undemocratic as the Transitional Federal Government structure it seeks to replace, "with unprecedented levels of political interference, corruption and intimidation". The US government called on Somali lawmakers to act with courage, determination, and integrity in conducting a fair and transparent election. Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesman for the state department, urged those who lose the election to accept the result, and refrain from inciting violence or encouraging others to distance themselves from Somalia's new federal governmental institutions. Somalia's intricate clan politics and loyalties must be navigated in the selection of the country's leaders. A clan that wins the post of speaker, for example, is not eligible to get the presidency. Somali elders were charged with naming a full parliament, since a general election is impossible because of fears over security. An incomplete parliament elected former labour minister Mohamed Osman Jawari as the new speaker on 28 August. The last day of the eight-year UN-backed transitional government was 20 August and the UN wanted a new president in place by then. But political bickering, threats and seat-buying schemes delayed progress toward the selection and seating of 275 members of the new parliament that will select a president Somalia has seen much progress over the last year. Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants were forced out of Mogadishu in August 2011, allowing businesses to thrive and the arts and sports to return. Al-Shabab has lost control of Mogadishu and ceded power in towns in western Somalia. The militants have largely either fled to northern Somalia and Yemen, or have retreated to Kismayo , the last major town controlled by the militants. Last month, Somali leaders endorsed a new provisional constitution that expands rights for Somali citizens. The UN – which helped broker the constitution and is in charge of the poll – hopes that one day all of Somalia will be able to vote to endorse or reject the constitution.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President Karzai hails formal transfer of controversial US-run prison to Kabul as victory for Afghan sovereignty American officials have handed over formal control of Afghanistan's only large-scale US-run prison to Kabul, even as disagreements between the two countries over the Taliban and terror suspects held there marred the transfer. The handover ceremony on Monday took place at the prison next to the sprawling US airfield at Bagram, north of Kabul. President Hamid Karzai has hailed the transfer as a victory for Afghan sovereignty. Bagram, also known as the Parwan Detention Facility, has been the focus of controversy in the past but has never had the notoriety of the prisons at Guantánamo Bay or Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Earlier this year, the prison's image was tarnished when hundreds of Qur'ans and other religious materials were taken from its library and sent to be burned in a pit at the military base. The event triggered anti-American protests across Afghanistan and led to the deaths of six US soldiers. "We are telling the Afghan president and the Afghan people that today is a proud day," said Afghan army general Ghulam Farouk, who now heads the prison. The US had already given Afghanistan authority over most of the 3,000 detainees held at the prison before 9 March, when the countries signed a handover agreement. The prison's current detainee population under US control is not known but is thought to be in the hundreds. The US recently suspended the transfer of new detainees, apparently because of disagreements with Kabul, which has questioned the long-term detention of suspects without charge after their capture. The US reportedly fears that Afghan authorities may simply let some detainees go, and appears reluctant to turn over all the suspects it holds. According to Farouk, the US had transferred 3,082 detainees but was still in the process of transferring another 600 captured after the March agreement. The US will continue to hold about 50 non-Afghan prisoners not covered by the agreement on a small part of the facility that they will still administer. They are thought to include Pakistanis and other foreign nationals either captured in Afghanistan or transferred to Bagram from countries including Iraq. The disagreement is not expected to affect military operations around Afghanistan, but it is an indication of the tense relations between the US-led Nato military coalition and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. It is also unlikely to have an impact on the gradual handover of security responsibilities from Nato to Afghan forces. The US and its allies are reducing their military presence in Afghanistan and hope fully to hand over control to the Afghans by the end of 2014, when most foreign troops are to leave the country. The acting Afghan defence minister, Enayatullah Nazary, said after a ceremony that "very few prisoners" remained with the US military and the rest were under Afghan control. He attributed the delay in handing over the rest to "technical issues" but declined to elaborate further.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sunni politician Tariq al-Hashemi says his conviction for masterminding death squads is illegitimate Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice-president has said that the terrorism trial that convicted him of masterminding death squads against rivals was illegitimate and accused the nation's Shia prime minister of being behind it. Tariq al-Hashemi maintained his innocence at a news conference on Monday in Turkey, where he is in exile. Hashemi was convicted on Sunday of organising death squads that killed a Baghdad lawyer and a government security official. The Baghdad court sentenced him to death by hanging.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aseem Trivedi is being held in Mumbai on sedition charges over drawings that criticised widespread political corruption Police in India have arrested a political cartoonist on sedition charges after his drawings that criticised rampant corruption angered political leaders. On Sunday, a Mumbai magistrate ordered Aseem Trivedi to be held for questioning for a week over a complaint that the cartoonist had mocked the Indian constitution in his drawings. Trivedi's cartoons lampooning widespread corruption among Indian politicians were displayed at a protest in New Delhi last year by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. Students, opposition politicians and free speech advocates protested on Monday that Trivedi's arrest showed politicians' growing intolerance for criticism. A university professor was arrested recently in West Bengal for emailing a spoof cartoon caricaturing the chief minister.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aseem Trivedi held in Mumbai on sedition charges over drawings that criticised widespread political corruption Police in India have arrested a political cartoonist on sedition charges after his drawings that criticised rampant corruption angered political leaders. On Sunday, a Mumbai magistrate ordered Aseem Trivedi to be held for questioning for a week over a complaint that the cartoonist had mocked the Indian constitution. Trivedi's cartoons lampooning widespread corruption among Indian politicians were displayed at a protest in New Delhi last year by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. Students, opposition politicians and free speech advocates protested on Monday that Trivedi's arrest showed politicians' growing intolerance for criticism. A university professor was arrested recently in West Bengal for emailing a spoof cartoon caricaturing the chief minister.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded after Lakhdar Brahimi travelled to Cairo for talks on Syria
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the Lakhdar Brahimi is in Cairo for talks on Syria with President Mohamed Morsi after car bombs and air raids in Aleppo
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the Lakhdar Brahimi is in Cairo for talks on Syria with President Mohamed Morsi as the violence continues in Aleppo
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Greek PM is expected to ask Mario Draghi for help tomorrow, as negotiations with its lenders over its €11.7bn cuts package drag on
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Greek PM is expected to ask Mario Draghi for help tomorrow, as negotiations with its lenders over its €11.7bn cuts package drag on
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Another crunch week for Europe's debt crisis begins with election fever rising in the Netherlands, and Germany's top court poised to rule on the eurozone bailout fund
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Caribbean coral reefs are in danger of disappearing, depriving the world of one of its most beautiful and productive ecosystems
• Interactive guide: Coral reefs around the world
• What does a coral reef sound like? Caribbean coral reefs – which make up one of the world's most colourful, vivid and productive ecosystems – are on the verge of collapse, with less than 10% of the reef area showing live coral cover. With so little growth left, the reefs are in danger of utter devastation unless urgent action is taken, conservationists warned. They said the drastic loss was the result of severe environmental problems, including over-exploitation, pollution from agricultural run-off and other sources, and climate change. The decline of the reefs has been rapid: in the 1970s, more than 50% showed live coral cover, compared with 8% in the newly completed survey. The scientists who carried it out warned there was no sign of the rate of coral death slowing. Coral reefs are a particularly valuable part of the marine ecosystem because they act as nurseries for younger fish, providing food sources and protection from predators until the fish have grown large enough to fend better for themselves. They are also a source of revenue from tourism and leisure. Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of the global marine and polar programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which published the research, said: "The major causes of coral decline are well known and include overfishing, pollution, disease and bleaching caused by rising temperatures resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Looking forward, there is an urgent need to immediately and drastically reduce all human impacts [in the area] if coral reefs and the vitally important fisheries that depend on them are to survive in the decades to come." Warnings over the poor state of the world's coral reefs have become more frequent in the past decades as pollution, increasing pressure on fish stocks, and the effects of global warming on the marine environment – in the form of higher sea temperatures and slightly elevated levels of acidity in the ocean – have taken their toll. Last year, scientists estimated that 75% of the Caribbean's coral reefs were in danger, along with 95% of those in south-east Asia. That research, from the World Resources Institute, predicted that by 2050 virtually all of the world's coral reefs would be in danger. This decline is likely to have severe impacts on coastal villages, particularly in developing countries, where many people depend on the reefs for fishing and tourism. Globally, about 275 million people live within 19 miles of a reef. IUCN, which is holding its quadrennial World Conservation Congress on Jeju island in South Korea this week, said swift action was vital. The organisation called for catch quotas to limit fishing, more marine-protected areas where fishing would be banned, and measures that would halt the run-off of fertilisers from farmland around the coast. To save reefs around the world, moves to stave off global warming would also be needed, the group said. On a few of the more remote Caribbean reefs, the situation is less dire. In the Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands and a few other places, the die-off has been slower, with up to 30% coverage of live coral still remaining. The scientists noted that these reefs were in areas less exposed to human impact from fishing and pollution, as well as to natural disasters such as hurricanes. The report – compiled by 36 scientists from 18 countries – was the work of the IUCN-coordinated Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
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