|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Spokesman for Libya's supreme security committee says member of staff at consulate has died following clashes An American member of staff at the US consulate in Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, two Libyan security sources said on Wednesday. "One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's supreme security committee, said, adding that he did not know the exact number of injured. Gunmen attacked the compound in the eastern city on Tuesday evening, clashing with Libyan security forces before the latter withdrew as they came under heavy fire. Reuters reporters on the scene saw looters raiding the compound, walking off with desks, chairs and washing machines. A security official said a fire was burning inside the consulate and that staff had been evacuated. Three injured members of the Libyan security forces taken away in an ambulance. The gunmen formed part of a group protesting against a US film they say is blasphemous. The incident followed a protest in Egypt where demonstrators scaled the walls of the US embassy, tore down the American flag and burned it during a protest over the same film, which attacks Islam's prophet, Muhammad. The film, clips of which are available on YouTube, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. Hurr said roads in Benghazi had been closed off and security forces were surrounding the building. He said the clashes were outside the consulate building. "There is a connection between this attack and the protests that have been happening in Cairo," he added. "They are trying to take advantage of the security situation in Libya and cause more instability in the country." The United States condemned the Benghazi attack and said efforts are underway with the help of Libyan authorities to secure the facility. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said: "We can confirm that our office in Benghazi, Libya has been attacked by a group of militants. We are working with the Libyans now to secure the compound. We condemn in strongest terms this attack on our diplomatic mission." Benghazi, the cradle of last year's uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, has been hit by several bombings and attacks on international convoys as well as some western missions. In June, an explosive device was dropped from a passing car outside the offices of the US diplomatic mission. The blast that followed slightly damaged the gate in front of the building. A week later, a British embassy convoy was attacked about 300 metres from the British consulate office in the city.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Spokesman for Libya's supreme security committee says member of staff at consulate has died following clashes An American staff member of the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, two Libyan security sources said on Wednesday. "One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's supreme security committee, said, adding that he did not know the exact number of injured. Armed gunmen attacked the compound on Tuesday evening, clashing with Libyan security forces before the latter withdrew as they came under heavy fire. Reuters reporters on the scene could see looters raiding the compound, walking off with desks, chairs and washing machines.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Social networking site's co-founder has given his first interview since the company's disastrous initial public offering Mark Zuckerberg has called Facebook's stock market debut "disappointing" but said people the company was set to bounce back. "Some days are hard, somedays kick ass," Zuckerberg told an audience at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference in San Francisco in his first interview since the company's disastrous initial public offering. Facebook's billionaire co-founder has come under intense criticism since May's IPO. The company's share price is close to half the $38 it was priced at the launch and the company and its advisers are being sued by angry investors. The share price collapsed on fears that the company was not prepared for the dramatic shift to mobile devices, an area where the company has struggled to make money. Zuckerberg offered a robust defence of Facebook's mobile strategy. The shares rose 4% in after hours trading. "The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing," said Zuckerberg. He said the big question in people's minds was how well the form would do in mobile. Facebook share price has collapsed in large part after the company said it had yet to work out how to make money from mobile users, the fastest growing way people access Facebook. Zuckerberg said that IPO rules had prevented the company from updating people on Facebook's mobile developments and that "a lot of things have changed". "I think it's easy for a lot of folks without us being out there talking about what we are doing to fundamentally underestimate how good mobile is for us," he said. Zuckerberg said mobile had more users and those people were spending more time on Facebook. He said the firm expected to make a lot more money off those users in the long run. But questioned about the atmosphere inside the company, Zuckerberg said the collapsing share price had brought pressures. The Facebook boss has faced criticism about claiming he was more interested in Facebook's "mission" than in making money. "It is definitely true that the primary thing that makes me excited about what we are doing is the mission but I also think that from the beginning we have had a healthy understanding that we need to do both," said Zuckerberg. He said "it doesn't help" motivate staff that the share price had fallen so hard but said the future looked brighter. Zuckerberg ruled out launching its own mobile device. Arch-rival Google has increasingly moved into the hardware business with phones and tablet devices. He said such a move would make no sense for Facebook. But he said he was interested in Google's core product - internet search. He said that the "legacy" in search was about keywords triggering responses from search engines like Google of Bing. Social search would give people more specific answers to questions like "what sushi restaurants have my friends been to in New York and liked". Zuckerberg also defended his $1bn purchase of Instagram, a loss making photo sharing site that now has over 100m users. "They are this super-talented group of engineers that are building this amazing product," he said. He said Instagram would remain a stand alone company. "There's no doubt we are a mission driven company," said Zuckerberg. "The thing that gets us excited is making the world more open and connected. But you can't just focus on that."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Protesters breach US embassy in Cairo and destroy American flag in protest against film they say insults Prophet Muhammad Egyptian protesters, largely ultraconservative Islamists, climbed the walls of the US embassy in Cairo on Tuesday, made their way into the courtyard and brought down the flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a film attacking Islam's prophet, Muhammad. Hours later, armed men in eastern Libya also stormed the US consulate there and set it on fire as anger spread. Hundreds of protesters marched to the embassy in central Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting against the movie, which was reportedly produced in the United States. "Say it, don't fear: their ambassador must leave," the crowd chanted. Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, took down the flag from a pole in the courtyard and brought it back to the crowd outside. The crowd tried to burn it, but failing that, tore it apart. The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with the Muslim declaration of faith on it: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The flag, similar to the banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultraconservatives around the region. In Washington, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US was working with Egyptian authorities to try to restore order. Almost all the staff had left before the embassy was breached, a US official said. Only a few staff members were still inside, as embassy security had sent most staff home early after learning of the upcoming protest. The situation is still fluid, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. An official in the embassy in Cairo said the ambassador was out of town. Egyptian media say the movie was recently produced in the United States by an anti-Muslim group. The film, clips of which are available on YouTube, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The protests came after some Egyptian media have been reporting on the film for several days, with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it. In a sign of growing anger over the film, Libyans set fire to the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi and fired in the air after a protest against the film. Witnesses said much of the consulate was burned.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Recording Industry Association of America has largely adjusted its anti-piracy strategy to stop suing individual downloaders A Minnesota women, one of the last people to be individually prosecuted in the US for illegal downloading and file-sharing, faces a $220,000 bill after a federal court ruling on Tuesday. The federal appeals court reversed a district court's decision to reduce Jammie Thomas-Rasset's owed damages to $54,000 from $1.5m. Tuesday's ruling (pdf) sets the damages at $220,000 and forbids Thomas-Rasset from making sound recordings available for distribution. "We are pleased with the appellate court's decision and look forward to putting this case behind us," the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement. The trade group filed their first complaint against Thomas-Rasset in 2006 on behalf of six record labels and has been embroiled in a legal battle with her ever since. The RIAA accused her of downloading and distributing more than 1,700 music files on file-sharing site KaZaA, but took legal action on 24 works for efficiency. They initially offered a $4,500 settlement which Thomas-Rasset did not accept. Court papers show Thomas-Rasset testified she had not heard of KaZaA prior to her case and after being found guilty, she filed a motion that any statutory damage awards would be unconstitutional in her case. Her lawyer Kiwi Camara said in an email they would try to take the case to the US supreme court. The RIAA sued more than 18,000 people for illegally sharing music in the mid-2000s. Most of those cases were settled out of court or dismissed – Thomas-Rasset's case being one of the few exceptions. The group adjusted its anti-piracy strategy in 2008 and stopped suing individuals. Since then, it has been in talks with Internet Service Providers in an effort to create a new strategy to abet piracy. "The individual lawsuits were unbelievably counterproductive," said Christopher Jon Sprigman, co-author of the Knockoff Economy. "The record companies basically bought themselves a huge amount of bad publicity, a few settlements and no real impact on file-sharing." Sprigman said the new strategy would involve internet service providers sending gentle reminders to people they think are infringing on behalf of the RIAA. Eventually, the internet service providers could cut people from internet access who did not stop downloading "I think that strategy is also fraught with peril," said Sprigman, explaining that it would likely irritate customers who felt like they were being spied on by their cable providers. Anti-piracy groups are also adjusting their strategies to focus on file-storing websites like Megaupload, which accounted for an estimated 4% of internet traffic at its peak. Site founder Kim Dotcom faces criminal copyright charges related to the site and is currently in New Zealand, awaiting an extradition hearing. One of the other individuals to be prosecuted is Joel Tenenbaum, who was left with a huge damages 30 songs he downloaded illegally after his appeal was denied in August. In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum – who graduated from Boston University with a doctorate in statistical physics in May – to pay $675,000 in damages. At one point, Tenenbaum's damage charges were reduced by a judge to $67,500, but the original amount was reinstated in the first circuit court "They're trying to create an urban legend out of me – the kid who downloaded music," Tenenbaum told the Guardian in May.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Haaretz claims president turned down meeting offer from prime minister as Israel increases rhetoric over Iran nuclear facilities The public feuding between Israel and Washington ratcheted up sharply on Tuesday amid claims that Barack Obama has declined to meet Binyamin Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister's visit to the US later this month. Haaretz reported an Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu asked for a meeting with Obama after attending the opening of the UN general assembly in New York in late September. The Israeli prime minister offered to travel to Washington but, according to the Israeli official, the White House said Obama was too busy. News of the apparent snub came as Netanyahu warned the White House that it had no moral right to block an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities if Washington is not prepared to set firm "red lines" for Tehran, including a deadline for it to meet western demands for a halt to uranium enrichment. The US national security council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, rejected the idea that Obama is snubbing Netanyahu. He said there will be no talks, because the pair are not in New York on the same day. But Vietor did not address the report that the Israeli prime minister was prepared to meet in Washington. It will be the first occasion that Netanyahu travels to the US as prime minister without seeing Obama, and it comes at a time when some of Obama's supporters are angered by what they see as the Netanyahu's interference in the American election in favour of the more hawkish Republican candidate, Mitt Romney. Tensions were not eased on Tuesday by Netanyahu's stinging attack on the US administration's rejection of his demand for Washington to say specifically at what point it would attack Iran. "The world tells Israel: 'Wait. There's still time.' And I say: 'Wait for what? Wait until when?'" he said. "Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel." The Israeli prime minister disparaged economic sanctions against Iran as ineffective, saying that Iran is getting closer every day to building a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu's comments came in response to a statement by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who repeated Washington's position that sanctions and diplomacy need to be given time to shift Iran. "We're not setting deadlines," Clinton told Bloomberg Radio. "We're convinced that we have more time to focus on these sanctions, to do everything we can to bring Iran to a good-faith negotiation." The latest flare-up in tensions comes after the Israeli leadership pulled back from months of threatening rhetoric over an imminent attack on Iran, under a barrage of pressure from the US and Europe, including the recent dispatch of a special envoy from Britain. But in return for a pullback, Netanyahu pressed his demand for "red lines" from the US on Tehran's nuclear programme. However, Washington has refused to play ball. The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, further angered the Israelis by saying that there is still more than a year to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He also contradicted Israeli claims that Iran has already decided to build an atomic bomb. Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, sought to cool tensions on Tuesday, at least in public, by saying that differences should be sorted out "behind closed doors". "We must not forget that the US is Israel's most important source of support in terms of security," he said. Last week, the chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, described attending a "very tense" and argumentative meeting between Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, in late August at which the pair had "elevated" exchanges. Rogers described Netanyahu as at his "wits' end" over Obama's refusal to set red lines for Iran. "It was very, very clear that the Israelis had lost their patience with the administration," Rogers told a Detroit radio station. "We've had sharp exchanges with other heads of state and other things, in intelligence services and other things, but nothing at that level that I've seen in all my time where people were clearly that agitated, clearly that worked up about a particular issue, where there was a very sharp exchange." Rogers said Israel will probably bomb Iran if the White House does not lay down firm limits for Iran. Shapiro rejected the "very tense" characterisation. A former senior Israeli foreign ministry official and diplomat who served in the US, Alon Liel, said Netanyahu engineered the confrontation in front of Rogers. "It appears to be an attempt to help the Republicans in the upcoming election. The entire show, under the patronage of Rogers, is meant to prove to the American public, and in particular to the Jewish community, that the rift between Israel and the United States is more significant and deeper than we thought," he said. Haaretz also reported that last month the British government sent an envoy to Israel to warn Netanyahu and Barak against a unilateral attack on Iran. Haaretz said that, according to an Israeli official source, British fears of an imminent Israeli strike were heightened by Netanyahu's failure during a phone conversation with the prime minister, David Cameron, "to provide clear and precise answers" to questions about Israeli intentions. The Israeli source told the paper that pressure from the US, Britain and Germany over recent weeks prompted Netanyahu and Barak's decision to tone down the rhetoric and edge back from the threat of an immediate attack. Instead the Israeli prime minister has put a greater emphasis on setting "red lines" for Iran.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Protesters breached embassy and destroyed American flag in protest against US film they say insults Prophet Muhammad Egyptian protesters, largely ultraconservative Islamists, climbed the walls of the US embassy in Cairo on Tuesday, made their way into the courtyard and brought down the flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a film attacking Islam's prophet, Muhammad. Hundreds of protesters marched to the embassy in downtown Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting against the movie, which was reportedly produced in the United States. "Say it, don't fear: their ambassador must leave," the crowd chanted. Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy walls, took down the flag from a pole in the courtyard and brought it back to the crowd outside. The crowd tried to burn it, but failing that, tore it apart. The protesters on the wall then raised on the flagpole a black flag with the Muslim declaration of faith on it: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The flag, similar to the banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultraconservatives around the region. In Washington, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US was working with Egyptian authorities to try to restore order. Almost all the staff had left before the embassy was breached, a US official said. Only a few staff members were still inside, as embassy security had sent most staff home early after learning of the upcoming protest. The situation is still fluid, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. An official in the embassy in Cairo said the ambassador was out of town. Egyptian media say the movie was recently produced in the United States by an anti-Muslim group. The film, clips of which are available on YouTube, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The protests came after some Egyptian media have been reporting on the film for several days, with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former president hits the road in swing states on the heels of barnstorming appearance at Democratic national convention Bill Clinton, less than a week after his triumphant appearance in front of the Democratic national convention, began a tour of battleground states across the US in a bid to help Barack Obama win re-election to the White House. In response to a request from Obama for help, Clinton promised to campaign alongside the president as well as on his own. The former president was scheduled to follow up appearances in Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday with trips to Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. He has also promised to help with fundraising. Obama's request for help contrasts with Al Gore in 2000 who famously rejected Clinton's help, wanting to win on his own, and lost.
Republican strategists last week praised Clinton after an old-fashioned barnstorming speech to the convention, with one saying the former president had won the election for Obama. Republican challenger Mitt Romney said in an interview on Sunday that Clinton had "elevated" the Democratic convention and mischievously contrasted Obama's performance unfavourably with the former president.
Clinton was due to speak in Miami before heading for another speech in Orlando today. He is capable of firing up parts of the Democratic base that have proved resistant to Obama, particularly white, working-class males. He made some appearances in the 2008 campaign to help boost Obama, but he failed to work his magic campaigning for Democratic candidates in the 2010 mid-term Congressional elections in which the Democrats were trounced.
Clinton's intervention comes as polls show Obama appears to have gained more from the party conventions than Romney. After months in which the two have been neck-and-neck, Obama opened up a six-point lead among registered voters in an ABC/Washington Post poll published Monday, putting him on 50% to Romney's 44%. That lead had to be tempered by the findings among likely voters, which showed the two tied. A CNN/ORC International poll the previous day also suggested Obama secured a bounce from the Democratic convention, putting him at 52% compared to 46% for Romney. Clinton was involved in bad-tempered exchanges during the 2008 fractious fight for the party's presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Obama. The former president was scathing about Obama during the primaries and caucuses, leaving a bad feeling between the Obama and Clinton camps that have lingered until now. Obama and Clinton chatted backstage together during the convention, and the former president agreed to do more campaign events. Relations between the Clinton and Obama camps have improved in part because Hillary Clinton has proven to be a loyal secretary of state, with no leaks or hints of criticism of the White House coming from her office in almost four years. She is due to stand down soon after the election, saying she is exhausted. She is planning to write her memoirs of her time the state department but not about her acrimonious battles with Obama for the Democratic nomination. She has emerged as favourite to be the Democratic nominee for the White House in 2016. It might be easier for her to follow an Obama presidency, given economic predictions that recovery should be well underway by then, than Romney seeking a second term, getting credit for any economic improvements. Apart from his new campaign commitments, Clinton will host his annual conference for his foundation, Global Initiative, which gives millions of dollars to the developing world. Both Obama and Romney are to speak at the conference in New York later this month. An Obama fundraising dinner is planned for London next week hosted by, among others, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Gwyneth Paltrow, according to the US-based Sunlight Foundation which tracks campaign funding. The foundation said the 19 September dinner, at Mark's Club in Mayfair, is seeking contributions of between $15,000 and $40,000 to attend.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Europeans hold strongly negative views about GOP contender but Obama's favourability poor in Pakistan and Middle East The reputation of the US in Europe risks sinking back to Bush-era levels of unpopularity if Mitt Romney becomes president, according to new international polling published on Tuesday. Only around one in 20 of those surveyed in Britain, France and Germany by YouGov held a positive view of the Republican presidential nominee. The poll of more than 12,000 people across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and China was prepared for the YouGov-Cambridge forum this week at which the Guardian is a media partner. The results are a sign that affection for Barack Obama has diminished little since his 2008 speech in Berlin in which he promised to restore America's reputation on the world stage, even though, four years on, Guantánamo remains open and the US is still engaged in military action in Afghanistan. But while Europeans had a strongly negative reaction to Romney, the prospect of him winning the White House was greeted with less dismay in Pakistan, where about 13% of respondents said it would make them more favourable to the US, compared to just 9% who said it would make them less favourable. This is possibly a reflection of the anger towards the Obama administration over drone attacks which have led to civilian deaths and are viewed as an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty. There was less antipathy, too, in the Middle East and north Africa, where only 8% said they felt a Romney presidency would make them feel less favourable towards the US. Again, the reason for this may be more to do with negative feelings about the current administration, in particular its failure to mount a serious attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, than warmth for Romney. But the most striking finding was the level of antipathy towards the Republican in Europe. Although he is still largely an unknown quantity outside the US, he alienated many during an ill-fated overseas trip in the summer, particularly in Britain, where he appeared to publicly criticise Olympic planning and the level of enthusiasm for the London games. Forty-seven percent of UK respondents said a Romney victory would make them feel less favourable towards the US, and only 3% would make them feel more favourable. That sentiment was mirrored in Germany and France, where only 4% and 5% respectively said that he would make them feel more favourable towards the US. In Germany, 48% said it would make them feel less favourable and in France 38%. It was not just in Britain that Romney's overseas trip went down badly. French daily Le Figaro, normally staunch conservative, ran a blog with the headline: 'Is Mitt Romney a loser?' In Poland, he was criticised by the Solidarity movement for being anti-unions. A negative poll among Europeans can easily be brushed aside by the Romney campaign, as their views are unlikely to have any impact on the election. Indeed, he might even regard the results as helpful since many Americans, at least in public, claim to be disdainful about European views. One of George Bush's successes in the 2004 campaign was to portray his opponent, John Kerry, as being too French in his tastes and manners. There was also a backlash against France over its opposition towards the Iraq war. But the findings play into a larger question over Romney's foreign policy credentials. Little is known about his position on these issues, mainly because he has had little to say, espousing only three positions: support for Israel in event of it bombing Iran; a threat to launch a trade war against China over alleged currency manipulation; and identifying Russia as America's main threat. Romney's 30-strong team of advisers includes a large number of neo-conservatives from the Bush era, such as former UN ambassador John Bolton, one of the most public advocates of bombing Iran. The Obama campaign team is seeking to exploit Romney's vulnerability in this area. One of the strongest sections of Obama's otherwise subdued speech to the Democratic convention last week was an attack on his opponent's lack of foreign policy experience. On Monday, the Obama campaign fielded the former Nato supreme allied commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark, to criticise Romney for failing to include any mention of Afghanistan in his speech at the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, a fortnight ago. The Romney campaign has judged that foreign affairs is not important in a campaign dominated by the country's sluggish economy. But it will come up in at least one of the three presidential debates scheduled for next month. Between 10-25 August 2012, YouGov questioned 12,693 adults across the US, Britain, Europe, the Middle East & north Africa (Mena), Pakistan and China. Data was weighted to be nationally representative of adult populations in Britain, US, France, Germany and the US. Data in Mena, Pakistan and China is representative of the online population.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Israeli PM says US cannot stop Israel launching military strike if it refuses to say under what circumstances it would take action The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has warned that if the US fails to set clear "red lines" for Iran over its nuclear programme, it cannot "place a red light" in front of Israel should the Jewish state decide to launch a military strike. "Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel," Netanyahu said on Tuesday, following clear indications from the US that it would not be bounced into hardening its position. Israel has been pressing the US to clarify the point at which it would take military action rather than allow the Iranian nuclear programme to advance. Some observers believe that this has been the primary aim of hawkish rhetoric from Netanyahu and his defence minister, Ehud Barak, over recent months. But last week, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, refused to engage on the "red lines" question. "We're not setting deadlines," she said in an interview. Her comment was reinforced on Monday by the state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who said: "It is not useful to be … setting deadlines one way or another" or to outline "red lines". She added: "[President Obama] has said again and again, unequivocally, that we will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon." But continued talk about specifics was "not helpful for the diplomacy". On Tuesday, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, estimated that the US would have more than a year to take action against Iran if it decided to proceed with making a nuclear weapon. "It's roughly about a year right now. A little more than a year. And so … we think we will have the opportunity once we know that they have made that decision to take the action necessary to stop [Iran]," Panetta said on CBS's This Morning programme. The US had the capability to prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb, he added. "We have the forces in place to be able to not only defend ourselves, but to do what we have to do to try to stop them from developing nuclear weapons," he said. Barak appears to have softened his earlier hawkish statements on the potential need for Israel to act alone in stopping the Iranian nuclear programme. Last week he hinted that Israel would not defy its "most important ally". Most of Israel's current and former military and intelligence establishment is believed to oppose unilateral action in the face of US opposition.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An argument with a teenager culminated in calamity for children who sold trinkets outside Nato headquarters in Afghanistan Nawab had been crowned the best skateboarder in Afghanistan, a joker and unofficial leader of the unruly gang. Mohammad Esa was perhaps the cleverest of his friends, always studying or lost in dreams of the day he would become a doctor. Khorshid was an uncompromising teenager whose name meant sunshine but whose character was steel, always ready to show the boys she could do anything they could, despite growing up in a country that is not kind to women. They sold scarves and bracelets to the foreign soldiers, journalists, diplomats and aid workers who filtered in and out of Nato's heavily guarded Kabul headquarters. Customers saw a group of scruffy children who should have been in school, racing to close a deal; but the competing hustlers were a close-knit group of friends who shared earnings as well as jokes, and often skateboarded or studied together when they were not chasing business. The boys had helped Khorshid's family throw up their modest mud-walled home by night, to avoid police fines for building on public land. On a recent holiday they walked several miles to a reservoir out of town, to swim and picnic, before walking all the way back again to work in the afternoon. In a country splintered by bitter ethnic divisions, they were an unusual mix of Pashtuns and Tajiks. But last Saturday a teenage boy in a white shalwar kameez wandered on to their patch, and, when some of the boys told him to leave, an argument broke out. It escalated into shouting, then blows, then ended abruptly when the stranger pressed a hidden trigger and detonated a suicide bomb. The blast was relatively small by the brutal standards of Afghanistan's decade-long war; eight people killed and perhaps a similar number wounded. But it has ripped apart the circle of friends. Nawab, Mohammad Esa, Khorshid, her sister Parwana and young brother-in-law Asad are dead, and two others from the group in hospital with serious injuries. "When I go to bed, my friends are all waiting for me, asking me to come swimming," said 14-year-old Omid, one of the group who was travelling in to work when the bomber struck. "I see their faces, and I can't sleep." Several of the dead were also the main breadwinners for their families; one father disabled, another a drug addict, with many younger brothers and sisters to feed. Their killings bring more than just the agonising loss of a sibling or child to grieving families. They are the latest children to suffer in a war that damages hundreds of young lives each year. "1,756 children were killed or seriously injured as a result of the conflict in 2011, which equates to nearly five children a day," said Unicef spokesman Alistair Gretarsson. In Nawab's home, packed with dozens of mourners, his family remembered a quiet 16-year-old, who liked eggs for breakfast when he could afford them and ignored their pleas to stop working near Nato. "He was a very serious person, busy from morning to evening with his business," said his mother, Anisa, her face bruised and scratched from where she had battered it in mourning. "After God, he was the person who fed the family." Nawab was different with his friends, says Omid, he was a joker and a natural leader, who looked out for the younger kids. He won the "Go Skateboarding" competition this year, and worked as a volunteer skateboarding teacher. He is buried nearby in a new graveyard that is marching up a hill, coffin by coffin, testament to the steady toll of the war and poverty in Afghanistan. There is a spectacular view of the city from his burial mound, where Omid stared at the dust and swore revenge. "I have to find the people who killed my friend," he said. "I want to become a pilot in the army." Khorshid, 14, and Parwana, 12, are buried a few miles away, in a sprawling graveyard overlooked by their family home, where 16-year-old Nilofar is mourning two sisters and a husband she had married only 20 days before his death. Khorshid too had loved skateboarding, fearless on the board as she was in life, taking to the streets in a country where women who do any kind of work, even in well-protected offices, are regularly harassed both outside and inside their homes. She worked as a skating instructor for the charity Skateistan, which, in an online tribute, quoted her saying: "If you are scared you end up doing nothing and without doing you cannot achieve anything. But if you do things, all that can happen is you succeed or fail." Her six-year-old sister Mersal survived the blast because she was playing down the street, but saw both her sisters' bodies. "Khorshid was broken," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "Do you have any pictures of my daughters?" their mother, Jemila, asked a visiting journalist. The family was too poor to have a single print of their children. The families of those who survived have banned them from working outside Nato, and are filled with relief. "We have told him to stop working and just concentrate on school," said Reza's older brother Mustafa. But the children themselves are haunted by their own escape, in a country where only a tiny minority have access to counselling services. "I looked down at myself and saw I was covered with blood, then I passed out," said Naved, 15, stranded in Kabul's emergency hospital with a shattered hand and shrapnel wounds to his shoulder, leg and side. "When I woke up, I saw the bodies of my friends lying on the ground and tried to go closer, but the police stopped me." He survived the bomb because of a chance thirst; he had walked a few metres down the street to a handpump a minute before the bomber detonated. Three years ago another bomb killed a group of street children just a few metres down the road, but many in the group have the recklessness of kids around the world, made many times more dangerous by their surroundings. "I never thought it might be dangerous," Naved said of working near the heart of the western military mission. Elias, in hospital with serious injuries to his legs, ignored his parents' warnings that the national holiday might attract attacks and went into town with Nawab. "I think I was closest to the bomber, but God saved me. I don't know why." He doesn't know what he will do when he gets out of hospital. "I have no feelings now, except sadness for my friends who are dead."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Projections that Apple will sell 8m of the devices predict growth rate surge of 0.5%. That is if it's releasing an iPhone at all When it was originally unveiled, the iPhone was so universally revered that wags dubbed it the "Jesus Phone". Five years on, its power is so great that its latest iteration could perform the miraculous feat of saving the US economy. Apple's release of the iPhone 5 on Wednesday could materially impact US gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of the year, claimed JP Morgan's chief economist Michael Feroli in a note to clients. Boosting the bottom line of the world's most valuable company is one thing, but Feroli contends that iPhone sales could add between 0.25 and 0.5 of a percentage point to the US's sluggish economic growth rate. JP Morgan expects Apple to sell around 8m of the new devices in the fourth quarter and for the iPhone 5 to be priced at about $600. Subtracting about $200 in imported component costs would allow the government to factor in $400 per phone into its GDP calculations for the fourth quarter, according to Feroli's calculations. In his note, Feroli wrote: "Calculated using the so-called 'retail control method', sales of iPhone 5 could boost annualized GDP growth by $3.2bn, or $12.8bn at an annual rate." Sales would help prop up the struggling US economy by limiting "the downside risk to our Q4 GDP growth protection, which remains 2%", he wrote. Feroli said the estimate of between a quarter to a half point of annualized GDP "seems fairly large, and for that reason should be treated skeptically". But, he added, "we think the recent evidence is consistent with this projection". The report met with some scepticism among Feroli's peers. "God help us if we have to rely on the iPhone to underpin the US economy," said one analyst who wished to remain anonymous. Others questioned the math, pointing out that if people buy iPhones with money they had intended to spend elsewhere, there would be no GDP boost. Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG said the larger point was what the story said about the US economy. "There's no doubt that Apple are going to sell millions of these things," he said. "But it underscores how weak the economy is that we even care about the possible impact of a quarter percentage boost to the economy." Of course there is always the tiny possibility that Apple will not be releasing the iPhone 5 at all. The notoriously secretive company has given no details of tomorrow's much anticipated launch. If it isn't a new iPhone, heaven help us all.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tuesday marks the 11th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks. This year's events in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania are smaller, more private affairs compared to last year's 10th anniversary
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wall Street readies for a third round of the Federal Reserve's bond-buying strategy to jolt struggling US economic recovery As the Federal Reserve prepares to meet on Wednesday, expectation is mounting that chairman Ben Bernanke will once more attempt to energise the US's flagging economic recovery. Wall Street economists are now priming their clients for a third round of quantitative easing (QE3), the Fed's massive bond-buying strategy that it hopes will increase lending and economic activity. "We now anticipate an announcement of another round of quantitative easing at the FOMC meeting on Sept 13," UBS economists wrote in a note to clients this week. The bank is not alone. Paul Dales, senior US economist at Capital Economics, says QE3 is a "done deal". Bernanke himself gave clear signs that he is prepared to act at a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last month. Defending his past actions the chairman said the economy was "far from satisfactory" and high rates of unemployment threatened to "wreak structural damage on our economy that could last for many years". His speech was followed last week by another disappointing monthly jobs report. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are now also predicting more action. Goldman puts the probability at "above 50%". But while Wall Street may want action, in Washington Republicans are likely to react angrily to further stimulus so close to November's election. And even within the Fed there are some who doubt that more stimulus is the answer to the current malaise. The first QE came at the peak of the financial crisis and aimed to restart the credit markets. The second round came in November 2010 and came as the Fed worried about deflation. Dales said by some measures the QE programmes have been a success. "With hindsight they addressed concerns that the Fed had with the markets. But unfortunately they have not done a lot to help the wider economy," he said. Dales said he believed unemployment would have been higher without the QE programmes but that the rate was still too high. "I think this round will be aimed at tackling that," he said. There is some speculation that the Fed may move to a more open-ended arrangement, pledging to buy billions in bonds each month in contrast to the last two programmes where the Fed specified how much it would buy and gave an end date to the programme. The Fed could target mortgage-backed securities in the hope of stimulating the housing market, still a major drag on the economy. Such a move would show renewed commitment to getting the economy back on track but is unlikely to win over Republican critics already furious with Bernanke's "tinkering". During the Republican primaries Bernanke became a bogeyman. He was "almost treasonous", according to Rick Perry and "the most inflationary, dangerous and power-centered" chairman in the history of the Fed, according to Newt Gingrich. His arch-critic Ron Paul charges the Fed with having caused much of the economy's woes in the first place with its interventionist behaviour. On Thursday the Fed finishes its two-day meeting and Bernanke holds his next press conference, the last but one before the election. The news will be out but the debate will have just begun.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Barack Obama and Mitt Romney scale down campaigning during 9/11 anniversary as Republicans trail in the latest polls
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Teaching union expresses surprise at Rahm Emanuel's claims that deal to end dispute is 'close'. Follow it live
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Teaching union expresses surprise at Rahm Emanuel's claims that deal to end dispute is 'close'.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Unions and school board fail to reach a settlement over pay and conditions as teachers' walkout heads into second day A strike by thousands of teachers in Chicago, the third-largest US school district, headed into its second day Tuesday, creating a political headache for Mayor Rahm Emanuel just as the former chief aide to President Barack Obama takes on a larger role in his former boss's campaign. The walkout by 26,000 teachers and support staff forced hundreds of thousands of parents to scramble for a place to send children and created an unwelcome political distraction for Emanuel. In a year when labor unions have been losing ground nationwide, the implications were sure to extend far beyond Chicago, particularly for districts engaged in similar debates. City officials acknowledged that children left unsupervised especially in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence might be at risk, but vowed to protect the nearly 350,000 students' safety. The two sides resumed negotiations Monday but failed to reach a settlement, meaning the strike will extend into at least a second day. Chicago school board president David Vitale said board and union negotiators did not even get around to bargaining on the two biggest issues, performance evaluations or recall rights for laid-off teachers. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said that was because the district did not change its proposals. "This is a long-term battle that everyone's going to watch," said Eric Hanuskek, a senior fellow in education at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. "Other teachers unions in the United States are wondering if they should follow suit." Thousands of teachers and their supporters took over several downtown streets during the Monday evening rush. Police secured several blocks around district headquarters as the crowds marched and chanted. The strike in Obama's hometown quickly got caught up in election-year politics, as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Chicago teachers were turning their backs on thousands of students and accused Obama of siding with the striking teachers. Obama's top spokesman said the president has not taken sides but is urging both the teachers and the city to settle quickly. The strike's timing seems inopportune for Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff whose city administration was already wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods before he agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for Obama's re-election. Emanuel and the union officials have much at stake. Unions and collective bargaining by public employees have recently come under criticism in many parts of the US, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute as election day. The union had vowed to strike Monday if there was no agreement on a new contract, even though the district had offered a 16% raise over four years and the two sides had essentially agreed on a longer school day. With an average annual salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are among the highest-paid in the nation, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. But negotiators were still divided on job security measures and a system for evaluating teachers that hinged in part on students' standardized test scores.
The strike in a district where the vast majority of students are poor and minority put Chicago at the epicenter of a struggle between big cities and teachers unions for control of schools. Romney, who has been critical of public employee unions, said he was disappointed by the Chicago teachers' decision to walk out of negotiations and sides with parents and students over unionized teachers, in a statement released Monday hours before he was set to land in Chicago for fundraisers. "Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet," Romney said. Emanuel, who said he would work to end the strike quickly, struck back at Romney's statement. "While I appreciate his lip service, what really counts is what we are doing here," he told reporters. "I don't give two hoots about national comments scoring political points or trying to embarrass … the president." Obama political aides in Chicago also criticized Romney for seeking political advantage and pointed to Romney's repeated campaign statements that class sizes do not impact students' education. "Playing political games with local disputes won't help educate our kids, nor will fewer teachers," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was monitoring the situation in his hometown but was not eager to take on a role in the dispute. "We hope that both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly and in the best interests of Chicago's students," Carney told reporters. About 140 schools were being kept open between 8.30am and 12.30pm so the children who rely on free meals provided by the school district can eat breakfast and lunch, school district officials said. The school district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities. Police chief Garry McCarthy said he would take officers off desk duty and deploy them to deal with any teachers' protests as well as the thousands of students who could be roaming the streets. Union leaders and district officials were not far apart in their negotiations on compensation, Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said. But other key issues remain unresolved, she said. Lewis said among the issues of concern was a new evaluation that she said would be unfair to teachers because it relied too heavily on students' standardized test scores and does not take into account external factors that affect performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness. She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years. City officials disagreed and said the union has not explained how it reached that conclusion. Obama has urged accountability in teachers moves that union leaders have opposed. For instance, Obama's administration has favored pilot programs that challenge current practices, rewarding schools who try new approaches and has pushed for longer school days. Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, is a former head of Chicago public schools who pushed for changes that unions opposed.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prof Juan Méndez, UN special rapporteur on torture, expresses concern at government's plan for secret courts The new generation of secret courts proposed by the government could suppress evidence of British collusion in torture, according to the chief UN official responsible for investigating wrongdoing by security and intelligence agencies. Deep concern about the government's plan – contained in the justice and security bill – was expressed by Prof Juan Méndez, the UN's special rapporteur on torture. "If a country is in possession of information about human rights abuses, but isn't in a position to mention them, it hampers the ability to deal effectively with torture," he said. Méndez, himself a victim of torture in his native Argentina in the 1970s, was speaking at the thinktank Chatham House on Monday night. After attacking the US for what he called the "extensive use of state secrets" to suppress evidence of torture and other abuses, Méndez referred to the so-called control principle – which allows governments to determine how its intelligence can be used once shared with another state. Ministers maintain that the new secret courts are needed to protect its intelligence-sharing relationship with the US and other governments, while critics say they are intended to conceal evidence of crimes committed by the British government – including the involvement in the rendition and torture of British citizens suspected of being terrorists. The issue was at the centre of high court hearings about the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, the Ethiopian-born UK resident secretly rendered to Guantánamo Bay after being seized in Pakistan in 2002. The high court ruled that CIA information that revealed MI5 and MI6 knew of Mohamed's ill-treatment should be disclosed. The ruling provoked a storm of protest, with some in the government claiming the US had threatened to withhold intelligence from the UK. At the same time, to avoid further incriminating evidence being disclosed, the UK government paid undisclosed sums, believed to amount to millions of pounds, in an out-of-court settlement to British citizens and residents who had been incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay. The government responded by introducing the justice and security bill, which would prevent the disclosure of any information in the hands of the security and intelligence agencies from being disclosed in civil cases. Méndez said that while the control principle might be a good way of maintaining a good working relationship with other governments, it could hinder attempts to suppress torture. He said he had expressed his concerns to the British government during discussions over the decision to suspend the work of the Gibson inquiry, the commission appointed by David Cameron in 2010, after police announced they were investigating the UK's role in the rendition of Libyan dissidents and their families to Tripoli in 2004. While describing the talks as "confidential", Méndez said he had specifically raised the problems that could be caused by the control principle and what he called the "important issue" of governments "aiding and abetting torture" by agents of other countries. In a clear reference to the treatment of terror suspects after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, Méndez said torture had been resorted to by states that claimed to be the strongest supporters of human rights. In the past 10 years, the "important asset, the moral condemnation of torture" had been lost, he hoped only temporarily. A culture had been generated, he added, whereby torture was considered inevitable to curb criminality and extreme terrorism. Under the UN convention against torture the ban on torture was absolute, and extended to "cruel and degrading treatment", he said. Méndez, a lawyer, represented political prisoners early in his career. He was arrested by the Argentinian military dictatorship and subjected to torture and administrative detention for 18 months. During this period, Amnesty International adopted him as a "prisoner of conscience", and in 1977, he was expelled and moved to the US. Meanwhile in the European parliament, the Liberal Democrat European justice and human rights spokeswoman, Sarah Ludford, criticised EU states for failing to meet their obligations to carry out full, independent inquiries to investigate human rights violations. Referring to a report into alleged transportation and illegal detention of prisoners in European countries by the CIA, she said: "It's vital that member states support independent inquiries to ascertain and secure accountability for their complicity in rendition and torture, without which we risk eroding citizens' trust in the democratic institutions of the EU to protect and promote our human rights."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Scot overcomes Novak Djokovic in five sets to become first British male to win a grand slam since 1936 This fairytale of New York written by Andy Murray was more than just an achievement to savour for itself. Few sporting voyages have carried such baggage, and Murray's alone has resembled a flea carrying a piano up a mountain. In a single win, wind ruffling his Scottish locks, Murray put a deal of pain to rest. It is unlikely he will ever win any of these big matches easily and Monday's for the US Open and his first slam title was straight from the Murray blueprint of struggle. Yet there was an underlying conviction, even in some of his mistakes. There was cool to go with the heat. When he went two sets up, he knew he had to just hold his nerve and the prize was his. There have been few doubts about his talent, some about his temperament, hardly any about his commitment. But everyone's got a take on Murray; the most pertinent and relevant belong those closest to him, of course, nobody so ever-present in that regard than his mother, Judy. A decent player herself, she has accompanied him on this journey since he first swung a racket with his bony arm as a 10-year-old around the halls and cold council courts of Scotland. She was here, naturally, as emotional as when he made her cry at Wimbledon after losing to Roger Federer – then beating the great Swiss a month later at the Olympics. She had Sir Alex Ferguson for company in Andy's box, after he turned up an hour late; a little further away, Sir Sean Connery, her other New York drinking partner this weekend, bristled silently. The clans had gathered. Those Wimbledon matches were seen as defining contests in Murray's often turbulent career. It turned out they were. They coincided with the growing confidence the player has in his coach Ivan Lendl, a court-side fixture these past nine months whose mien might frighten the ball-kids but encourages the Scot to reach for his full potential as he sheds, almost by the week, some of that psychic collateral. The sulking has all but gone. The forehand now flows with muscled freedom. His second serve is improving, to go with the potency of the first. And, crucially, Murray's reluctance to attack, borne of his noted ability to defend, has been recalculated. He remains a some times enigmatic individual, but so what? He will forever have the the tics and the squirms of memory-built repetition. And he will go again in quiet moments to sit alone in an empty Wimbledon, as he did many times this summer before cracking the secrets of that cathedral for a gold medal. Murray might not get lost on the Paris Metro again, but he will surely walk the streets of Manhattan by himself, tweet when he is happy, but not when he's not, and he can cry if he wants to. Mark Petchey, his first coach when he went on the Tour, said during the media agonising a year ago over who should guide the player's career after another minor upheaval in his team: "Everyone sees Andy on the court and they see this volatile, stroppy kid but I can assure you, you can't get more of a 360 away from the court. As much as the toughness is there and it seems to be there on the court, away from it things affect him much more than people realise. "This spotlight on him is difficult to deal with because he's the only one who is actually doing something in British tennis and yet here we are, having this major discussion about what is wrong with Andy. Hang on a minute – there's a whole lot wrong with what's behind him." And, of course, Murray picked Lendl. They started working together just before the Australian Open. Murray reached the semi-finals, where he gave Djokovic four hours and 50 minutes of hell. He could have won, but he didn't. Critics who don't understand tennis jumped on him. The fact is, that match could have gone either way. It was without a doubt one of the best performances of Murray's career, better than a lot of his wins. Lendl was proud but did not show it. He looks hard, and he is hard. It is one of the reasons Murray employs him, although the genesis of their contact has never been made clear. It suits both of them to leave it vague, although I suspect it was Lendl who made the first approach. It hardly matters. There have been few partnerships in tennis that have clicked so pleasingly in such a short space of time. Lendl has settled Murray's mind. When he arrived, older hacks remembered him from his playing days, and he remembered them. An initial wariness gave way to calculated warmth, and some wariness. There is something that binds him to Murray: defeat – each lost their first four slam finals. Lendl does not talk much – to the media or, as it happens, at length to Murray, but they did celebrate his Olympic gold. He told him he won because he'd lost. "I said to him, 'A loss is a loss; and a loss is not a loss. You learn from certain losses and become depressed from other ones. When you have losses, when you put it all out there and go hard, you can be proud of yourself. And you can learn from it, and that is really important.'" It might have been the best talking to anyone has ever given him.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | '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 hiker 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 [words] 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 the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother dead from bullet wounds in the car. Each of the victims had been shot twice in the head. The body of a French cyclist who had been shot seven times, 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 had been hiking 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 he couldn't get a signal up there." He said he had 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 – 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 had been planning to spend a week at the three-star Village Camping Europa site in Saint-Jorioz, but left after just two nights. The campers said Saad al-Hilli had acted "strangely" during that time, going off and leaving his family alone several times 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 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 she 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 the hard disk of a laptop. British police are working with French officers to try to unravel the mystery surrounding the four deaths.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | '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 hiker 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 signs 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 words 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. They discovered the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother dead from bullet wounds in the car. Each of the victims had been shot twice in the head. The body of a French cyclist who had been shot seven times, twice in the head, was found nearby. The first person to discover the horror 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. The man, who has a house in the area, arrived at the car park at the top of the hill and 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 newspaper he had been hiking 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. "I wasn't sure whether he didn't have a mobile telephone or he couldn't get a signal up there." Philippe D said he followed the British cyclist for a few metres before arriving at the car park. "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 said he heard no shooting and "seen nobody passing … not a car or motorbike". Police took statements from all four cyclists – including the RAF officer – and took them back up the Combe d'Ire at the weekend to determine exactly where they were when the killers struck. Philippe D said: "A few minutes earlier and it could have been us in place of the murdered cyclist. 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." It emerged on Tuesday that French investigators were looking at claims Saad al-Hilli unexpectedly moved his family from one campsite to another two days before the attack. A Dutch couple who had a neighbouring caravan said they believed the family had been planning to spend a week at the three-star Village Camping Europa site in Saint-Jorioz, but left after just two nights. The campers said Saad al-Hilli had acted "strangely" during the stay, going off and leaving his family alone several times 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 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: "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 said 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 she 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 the hard disk of a laptop. British police are working with French officers to try to unravel the mystery surrounding the four deaths. The public prosecutor at Annecy, Eric Maillaud, has announced a press conference for 5pm on Wednesday (4pm BST). Afterwards, Maillaud and one of the investigating judges appointed to oversee the inquiry will travel to London to meet the four gendarmes working with British police to find clues. Doctors at Grenoble University Hospital have said it will be several days before Zainab can be interviewed. French law requires that any questioning of Zainab is filmed, but the interview will be carried out by gendarmes who are specialists in dealing with children. Maillaud explained to French journalists: "The idea is to bring the child to say things without asking them too many questions. "Too often, a child wants to please and has a tendency to say 'yes' because they think it will please if they say 'yes'. That's not good for the investigation." • This article was amended on Tuesday 11 September. An error in translating the word 'randonneur' meant we called Philippe D a cyclist rather than hiker in the headline and story. This has been corrected.
| | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire