|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Libya promises to seek out killers who used riot as cover for ambassador's killing, but Barack Obama comes under increasing pressure to take action A US "film-maker" linked to an anti-Islamic movie that has sparked deadly riots across the Middle East, claiming the lives of the US ambassador to Libya as well as a number of others, has been questioned by federal probation officers in Los Angeles. As violence in cities across the Muslim world appeared to be dying down, convicted fraudster Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed over suspected breaches of his parole conditions relating to his use of computers. Federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind Innocence of Muslims, a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that has ignited mob violence against US embassies across the Middle East. Yesterday the same video was also linked by a Taliban spokesman to its attempted attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, home base of Prince Harry, during which two US Marines and 18 militants were killed. A federal law enforcement official told Associated Press on Thursday that authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and director of the film. Violent protests set off by the film in Libya played a role in mob attacks in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials. US Embassy gates in Cairo were breached by protesters and demonstrations against American missions spread to Yemen on Thursday and on Friday to several other countries. Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in 2010 and ordered not to use computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer. The questioning of Nakoula, who was pictured being escorted to a police car by several deputies with a scarf around his face, comes as Libyan investigators disclosed that they were hunting a group of approximately a dozen armed militants they blame for the killing last week of Stevens in Benghazi. Amid reports in American media that point to the involvement of the Benghazi-based brigade, Ansar al-Sharia, local officials say they have launched a nationwide manhunt. "The people we are looking for, there were about 12 to 14 guys," said Abdul Shihaibi, an intelligence officer with Libyan State Security. "We are searching for them. We think in a few days we will be done with the investigation." Four days after the attacks on the consulate and a second accommodation compound left Stevens and three more US diplomats dead, a more detailed picture of the assault is emerging. Libyan investigators say witnesses and mobile phone footage indicate that the attackers, armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, used the riot as cover for the attack. "Some people came in a special car to Benghazi, they covered their faces," said Shihaibi. He said the leader of Ansar al-Sharia had denied responsibility but brigade personnel remain under the spotlight. This was confirmed by the head of the Benghazi Special Security Committee, the national gendarmerie, Fawzi Yunis Gaddafi, jailed by the former regime despite coming from the same tribe as the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He said he viewed mobile phone footage: "We saw them (Ansar al-Sharia), some of them." The al-Sharia brigade remains barricaded behind the heavy iron gates of its Benghazi compound, refusing to meet journalists. "It was pre-planned – 100%" said Iusef Magarief, president of the newly elected national congress. Four suspects have been arrested but their identities are being kept secret, part of a disjointed investigation that is symptomatic of the chaos that continues a year after the revolution. What evidence there might have been at the consulate has been trampled by sightseers. Two wounded attackers are being treated in a city hospital but have not been interviewed, with local police fearing to confront the Sharia militia who stand guard around the building. And Libya has yet to give permission for an FBI team dispatched to Libya to work in Benghazi. But anxiety about the attack is everywhere in this city. "It is chaos, only chaos, we need the United Nations here," said Mailand Saad, a local businessman. "We need to defeat these bloody people, these extremists." More than 600 community leaders gathered on Saturday at a conference, the Committee of the Wise People of Benghazi, to promise help in finding the militants. Conference organiser Alem Ali said leaders had agreed a joint demand that rogue militias must surrender or be disarmed by force. "If they do not join legitimate armed forces, the tribes have authorised the government to take action." Sulaiman Mohammed, dressed in the traditional white robe, white and embroidered gold waistcoat and red fez, said tribal leaders had agreed to hunt terrorists in their midst. "It's a bad thing and cowardly people did this. I tell you, the killer is here, and he will be found." There is anxiety about unilateral American action, amid reports that the Obama administration is under pressure to show determination with a presidential election looming. "We know the pressure on Mr Obama, there is the election, there is Romney and the Republicans [demanding action]." said Salah Jehuda, a prominent local MP who worked as a business analyst in Washington. He said a US strike on militants in Libya could inflame nationalist sentiment. "There should be action, but not by the Americans. Maybe it [American action] would solve it in 48 hours, but the fact of foreign forces on the ground creates another problem," he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Soldiers from 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment killed at Helmand province checkpoint by man wearing Afghan police uniform Two British soldiers were shot dead in Afghanistan on Saturday by a man wearing the local Afghan police uniform, the Ministry of Defence has said. The soldiers, from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, were killed at a checkpoint in the south of Nahr-e Saraj district in Helmand province. The deaths follow that of a soldier from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards who died on Friday after his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. The soldiers' next of kin had been informed. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce the death of two soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. "The soldiers were shot and killed by a man wearing the uniform of the Afghan local police at a checkpoint in the south of Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand province." Major Laurence Roche of Task Force Helmand said: "It is with deep sadness that I must report the death of two soldiers." "The Yorkshire Regiment has suffered a deep loss today and everyone serving within Task Force Helmand will want to send our condolences to the soldiers' families and loved ones at this time." The soldier who died on Friday was killed when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. The MoD said the deaths were unrelated to the attack at Camp Bastion in which two US Marines were killed. Saturday's deaths bring the number of members of UK forces to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 to 430.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A superb biography of David Foster Wallace brings the man and his work to life, writes Benjamin Markovits David Foster Wallace is one of those novelists who seem to push along the evolution of the form. You can recognise his prose style by a single sentence. He mixed high and low references, postmodern philosophy and popular television, maths theory and stoner slang. The people he wrote about tended to be well-educated and not very happy, for reasons that had something to do with the zeitgeist and something to do with America. Everything they experience has been packaged for them by one kind of experience-packager or another (advertisers, tennis academies, production companies, etc) and they respond to this fact with habitual irony that turns out to be just as hard to escape or stomach as the packaging. One test of good writing is whether it expands the scope of what seems literary. Wallace wrote about feeling stressed out while you wait for your drug dealer to arrive and project-managing corporate focus groups. He died while working on a novel about the IRS. His sentences spliced over-the-top grammatical pedantry into lazy, semi-ironic college-kid run-ons. Somehow he managed at the same time to be a nerd and a dude. And yet his reputation as a novelist isn't straightforward. People talk about his nonfiction at least as much as the fiction: the Federer piece, the cruise-ship piece, the State Fair piece… His most famous novel, Infinite Jest, is so long that even at his publisher's marketing meetings people used to joke: "Has anyone here actually read this thing?" For all the sophistication of his prose, he sometimes gives the impression of a writer who never outgrew his precocity. Infinite Jest is about a rogue video so absorbing it renders anyone who watches it completely passive. There's a subplot involving the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.). One of his short stories describes an artist who becomes famous for what he shits. Of course, this kind of thing is supposed to be funny, but it isn't just the humour that seems sophomoric. Wallace's obsession with the problems of irony and authenticity and boredom, with TV and advertising and pot, suggests that his sense of what matters to people remained fundamentally shaped by his college years. One thing DT Max's new biography makes clear, though, is that this is a guy who suffered. Wallace hanged himself in 2008, at the age of 46, after years of carefully medicated depression. Max has written the book before his subject's literary reputation has had a chance to settle, but the biography itself feels fresh rather than hurried. You get the painful sense of a life that should still have been in progress. One problem with literary biographies is that their subjects tend to analyse themselves better than their biographers can. Max solves this by mining Wallace's own work, particularly Infinite Jest, for sophisticated expressions of the author's mental states. The technique not only brings Wallace to life, it brings the work into play as well. As it happens, Max is a very smart writer himself and has managed to write the biography without falling in love or out of love with his subject. This can't have been easy, for Wallace doesn't always come across as easy to like. He grew up in Urbana, near the campus of the University of Illinois, where his father taught philosophy, on a street just a few blocks from prairie land. He told an interviewer that his father read Moby-Dick to him and his sister Amy when they were five and three years old. (Their father denies this.) His mother used to cough ostentatiously when her kids made grammatical mistakes. On a summer road trip, they once decided to replace any mention of the word "pie" with 3.14159 – that was the kind of family he belonged to. When he was nine, he suffered his first episode of "depressive, clinically anxious feelings" – what his mother later referred to as the "black hole with teeth". Even if the depression went away, he was turning into an anxious kid. He wasn't very good at sports, he sweated a lot, puberty gave him a bad case of acne. As a teenager he discovered pot and tennis and tried to discover girls – but they were harder to figure out than the "trajectory of a tennis shot". He watched a lot of TV. But he also found his schoolwork easy, and since he liked winning, he devoted a great deal of his obsessive energy to doing well. Wallace went to Amherst, the prestigious liberal arts college in Massachusetts, and eventually graduated top of his class – having become a well-known, almost cultish figure on campus. But he had also taken time off to cope with depression. "What's wrong?" his room-mate asked him once, seeing Wallace sitting on a packed suitcase. "I don't know. There's something wrong with me," he said. (The room-mate was Mark Costello, who turned into a pretty good novelist himself.) He was eventually diagnosed with "atypical depression" and put on a drug called Nardil to deal with it – which he took for much of the rest of his life. At Amherst he fell in love with technical philosophy and maths theory (he turned out not to be very good at the maths itself), and then moved on to postmodern fiction. Some of his friends were discussing The Crying of Lot 49, so Wallace read it. As Costello remembers, it was like "Bob Dylan finding Woody Guthrie". For one of his senior projects, Wallace wrote a novel, which eventually became The Broom of the System, his first published book. The rest of his life followed the pattern he set up at Amherst. School and writing, studying and teaching, interrupted periodically by bouts of depression and time in rehab to cope with addiction. Pot was always a problem for him, but during one visit to Yaddo, the writers' colony in upstate New York, he fell under the wing of Jay McInerney and started drinking a lot, too. Wallace once joked about the difficulties his future biographer would face: "Dave sat in the smoking lounge of the library, pensively taking a drag from a cigarette and trying to think of the next line." As it happens, Max's biography does a good job of dramatising not only the struggles of composition but the slightly depressing fun of a writer's life – these visits to Yaddo, the book tours (what Wallace referred to as facing the "eye of Sauron"), the groupie sex. (He once ditched Costello at a book launch when a young blonde came up to him and said: "Do you want to meet my puppy?") Michael Chabon has written about the need for writers to have "manageable vices" – Wallace had a pretty hard time managing his. During one period of self-doubt, he signed up for postgraduate work in philosophy at Harvard, then checked himself a few months later into the psychiatric institute at McLean Hospital. The four weeks he spent there, Max writes, "changed his life" – he got clean and spent the rest of his life as a recovering addict. The novel that grew out of this difficult period became Infinite Jest – which included many of the voices and stories he heard in his recovery sessions. Wallace remained an experimental writer, but the hip irony of his first two books had been replaced by what he called "single entendre" writing. Rehab had taught him the power of sincerity. Rumours of the novel made their way through New York publishing circles – this was going to be Wallace's "big shit", as he put it himself. Even after ferocious editing the book weighed in at 484,000 words. By the time of its publication, Wallace had started to make a name for himself, not only as a cutting-edge fiction guy, but as a magazine writer who covered kitsch events in a literary, humorous, memoiry way. The world was ready to take him seriously, and Infinite Jest became a big hit. Wallace's readings sold out, celebrities showed up to hear him talk, he had become a celebrity himself. Celebrity brought its own problems. He once complained to Jonathan Franzen that his destiny in life seemed to be to "put my penis in as many vaginas as possible". This is a typical Wallace line – candid, self-mocking and boastful at the same time. The boy once known as "mushface" took pleasure from the fact that he had figured out how to get the girls into bed. But sex also brought out the worst in him. He tried to push one girlfriend in front of a moving car, he threw a coffee table at her; once he even arranged to buy a gun to kill her husband. Then there was the sheer number of his relationships. He once told a friend that he had slept with an underage girl. As Max writes, "He saw that the need to make every woman fall madly in love with him had made him highly manipulative." It made him, as Wallace put it himself, not so different from "the people selling Tide". Of course, what partly redeems a writer is his gift for self-exposure, and Wallace managed to turn his sexual boastfulness and self-doubt into interesting fiction: the short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. But Max finds more to admire about Wallace than his prose. He could be very generous towards other writers – such as Franzen, whose first book Wallace read and loved at a time when his own writing was going particularly badly. And in more practical ways, too. When he started making money, not just from the fiction, but from the MacArthur "genius" grant, which he won in 1997, he began giving it away to help his friends. And many of these friends came from the people he met at recovery meetings, who seem to have treated Wallace like something of a holy fool. He worked very hard for his students, triple-marking their submissions in different coloured pens. And he got over his womanising phase, and married a woman with a teenage son, and managed to be happy with ordinary domestic existence, in spite of the fact that his work – on The Pale King – wasn't going well. Until he decided to come off the Nardil, just to see if that was the problem, and if maybe he was ready to live an entirely drug-free life. After that, nothing went right or felt right any more – Max's account of those last years is harrowing. And Wallace himself emerges as something of a hero. First, he tried living without any medication, then he tried one kind after another, and all this tinkering produced an ever more fragile sense of his relation to the world. Throughout the book Max makes a strong case that Wallace's analysis of what's wrong with America and modern life is deeply grounded in his own struggles and issues – the various insecurities and obsessions, the whole problem of a sophisticatedly mediated existence. Eventually, he went back on the Nardil. It takes a while to reach some kind of balance with these drugs, but Wallace was finding it harder and harder to keep going. You get the picture of this incredibly smart, increasingly humble man trying to figure out, for reasons both personal and literary, how to be alive in the universe, and failing. Towards the end his wife put him on a more or less constant suicide watch. At one stretch, she didn't leave the house for more than a week. But then he seemed better and one day Wallace persuaded her to go out. "You don't go to the chiropractor if you're going to kill yourself," she thought. When she came back to the house he had hanged himself from a trellis on the patio. He left her a two-page note and a stack of what he could salvage from that difficult last novel among the lamps in the garage where he used to write. Benjamin Markovits's most recent novel is Childish Loves (Faber)
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: Follow the action with Graham Parker, as Portland Timbers take on Seattle Sounders
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: As it happened coverage of Portland Timbers' Cascadia Cup game with rivals Seattle Sounders, with Graham Parker
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | St James's Palace denounces move as motivated by greed while British publisher distances itself from paper's decision The row over publication of photographs of a topless Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing on holiday in France intensified on Saturday after the Irish Daily Star published the pictures in its Saturday edition. St James's Palace denounced the move as motivated by greed and has sought to dissuade others from using the pictures by launching legal action against a French magazine, Closer, after it printed four pages of the shots of Prince William and his wife, Catherine, at the Château d'Autet in Provence. However, the crisis has deepened with the decision by a British publisher to use the paparazzi shots for the first time – albeit not in its British publications which would, on the face of it, breach the UK editors' code of practice. The move to publish in the Republic of Ireland came after the editor of an Italian gossip magazine announced he was to use 30 previously unseen topless shots over 24 pages under the headline "The Queen is Naked" on Monday. The editor of the Irish Daily Star, Mike O'Kane, said the pictures would not feature in the Northern Ireland and British editions. But Richard Desmond, chairman of co-owner Northern and Shell, said he was taking "immediate steps" to close down the joint venture with Ireland's Independent News and Media, which runs the paper. St James's Palace, which had described the publication of the photos in France as "grotesque and totally unjustifiable", said: "There can be no motivation for this action other than greed." O'Kane said the printing of the pictures was only causing upset in the UK, and not the rest of Europe. "The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga. She's not the future queen of Ireland, so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the UK, and they are very, very tasteful pictures." The newspaper carried an image of Closer magazine on its front page and ran 13 photos of the duchess over a spread inside under the headline "Kate fears new intimate pics". The editors' code of practice in the UK stipulates that it is "unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent" and defines private as "public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy". A spokesman for Northern & Shell sought to distance the company from the decision to publish. "The Irish Daily Star is a joint venture with Independent News & Media over which we have no editorial control. 'We are consulting with our lawyers as a matter of urgency over what we believe to be a serious breach of their contract. We abhor the decision of the Irish Daily Star to publish these intrusive pictures of the duke and duchess which we, like St James's Palace, believe to be a grotesque invasion of their privacy." The royal couple could sue the Irish Daily Star in Britain because it is owned by a media company with some of its assets in the UK, a top Irish media lawyer warned on Saturday, saying: "If the paper's owners have assets in the UK then the duke and duchess could enforce a judgment against that publisher in a British court." He also confirmed that the heir to the throne and his wife would make a complaint to Ireland's press ombudsman, who has the power to demand that a publication prints an apology. He said that the Irish Daily Star should be careful of "leakage across the border" in terms of its southern edition being sold in Northern Ireland where UK jurisdiction would apply. Peter Preston, the Observer's media commentator, said: "The Daily Star sells over 64,000 in the Republic. It's a big player, signed up to honour and obey the Irish press ombudsman who so impressed Lord Justice Leveson." Preston said there were ramifications from printing the pictures "far beyond the simple point that Irish law is not English – or French – law where privacy is concerned. "How many cases can the Prince of Wales – expensively, slowly – mount? How many extra copies of overseas magazines or papers will be sold on the back of them? It's all an object lesson in hoping that old law can manage new sorts of crisis. And that it's high, digital time to move on."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Romney's running mate Paul Ryan attacks Barack Obama's handling of the recovery after week dominated by issues abroad In a rare break in the campaign schedule, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent Saturday away from the stump, leaving it to others to make their cases for them as economic policy returned as the election topic du jour. After a rocky week, the Romney camp attempted to put perceived missteps on foreign policy behind them as they attempted to draw attention to their candidate's fiscal plan. In Florida – a key swing state being targeted by both men ahead the November run-off – Romney's running mate Paul Ryan attacked Obama's handling of the economic recovery, telling supporters that the Democrat had inherited a bad situation, but managed to make it worse. Meanwhile, the president's re-election team were also attempting to make the running over the economy, releasing a new TV ad in battleground states painting Romney as candidate willing to put the interests of multimillionaires over that of middle America. The 60-second commercial shows a clip of former president Bill Clinton attacking Republicans for putting forward the "same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place." It then cuts to Obama telling supporters at the Democratic national convention: "We're not going back, we are moving forward." The ad contrasts the president's plan to ask "millionaires to pay a little more" to help aid America's fragile economic recovery, with Romney's fiscal blueprint that would provide "a new $250,000 tax break for multimillionaires". "We're not there yet, but the real question is: whose plan is better for you?" the ad asks. The new advertising push comes amid polling suggesting that Obama is eating away at Romney's advantage on the economy. A new survey released Saturday by the New York Times and CBS News found that the Republican candidate had lost his longstanding edge on the question of who voters view as most likely to restore the economy and create jobs. Romney's running mate Paul Ryan spent Saturday trying to rally supporters behind the Republican pair's economic message. Attacking the Federal Reserve's plan to buy up mortgage bonds in a bid to keep rates low, Ryan said the move would help banks, not people. Romney spent Saturday away from the campaign trail. After a week in which he was widely criticised over statements he made regarding the attacks on US embassies overseas, he will be hoping that refocusing on the economy could bring about a reversal in fortunes. Recent polls point to a tight race in the few weeks left before election day, but one which is beginning to lean in favour of Obama. The president remained in Washington over the weekend, keeping tabs on unrest in cities across north Africa and the Middle East. But the hiatus in campaigning isn't expected to last for long. On Sunday, Romney will hit the road again, heading to Colorado before moving on to California, Texas and Florida in the week. Obama will take an extra day away from the campaign trail, with nothing in the diary ahead of Monday, when he will be in Ohio. He is likewise due to head to Florida later in the week, such is the importance placed of the state in the election.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher made it three goals from three outings for his new side, but a late Luis Suarez goal saved Liverpool from undeserved defeat We reach the denouement of a painful, poignant and monumentally important week for Liverpool FC, their fans, all football supporters, and humanity in general. The atmosphere at today's Premier League match between Sunderland and Liverpool at the Stadium of Light promises to be "highly charged because of what happened on Wednesday," says Martin O'Neill, the home manager respectfully referring to the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which this week vindicated those brave and decent women and men forced into a 23-year struggle for the truth behind a disaster which claimed the lives of 96 innocent football fans. Much has been written in the wake of the report, which detailed an appalling and systematic establishment cover-up that viciously wronged the victims, the survivors, their families, a community, and by extension the entire country. All of it - including the report itself - is essential reading. But you might only have time, or the emotional strength, to make it through one or two pieces, so here's the reaction of journalist Adrian Tempany, a survivor of that awful day in April 1989, and David Conn's tale of Phil and Hilda Hammond, whose 14-year-old son Philip went to watch a game of football but never came back. With the truth uncovered, it's now time for justice. You can show your support for the righteous fight by downloading You'll Never Walk Alone, with Gerry Marsden donating all proceeds from the sales to the Hillsborough charities. "We need to keep the momentum going and if we could get You'll Never Walk Alone to No1 this would send a really positive message," says Walton MP Steve Rotheram. "It will not bring the 96 back but since the release of the report the dark cloud that was hanging over Liverpool and its people has been lifted." There's only one way to wrap up this subject... If there's ever been a more eloquent piece of broadcasting than this impromptu eulogy by the legendary BBC reporter Peter Jones, delivered in a moment of appalling emotional trauma, I'd love to hear it. Segueing from such a harrowing topic into today's game is nigh-on impossible, so forgive me for the following, deliberately self-conscious, clunk. Clunk. Self-conscious clunk. There's no point me pretending there was any other way. Now then, all the pressure appears to be on struggling Liverpool, but Sunderland aren't shoo-ins for the three points this evening. They've started the season solidly enough, with two staunch away draws at Arsenal and high-flying Swansea. And their new star striker Steven Fletcher has already started filling his boots, with two goals at the Liberty Stadium a fortnight ago. But on the flip side, they're without a victory in their past ten league matches, and have failed to win their first home game of the season in any of the previous four campaigns. Which may explain why the bookies have Liverpool down as slight favourites. But wins are hard to come by when you've got the worst conversion rate (5.6%) and the lowest shooting accuracy (25%) in the entire division. The Brendan Rodgers reign has suffered an awful, abortive start, with defeats at the hands of West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal, and a promising but defensively profligate draw against champions Manchester City. The heat's on, because if they lose today, it'll be one point from four matches - with on-fire Manchester United to come at Anfield next weekend. But their is hope for the visitors, as their record at Sunderland isn't bad: they've won on four of their last six Premier League visits to Mackem Country. For the record, the other two games saw them lose to a Nicklaus Bendtner strike here in March, and to a goal scored by a beach ball in October 2009. Oh Pepe! Kick off: 5.30pm. Sunderland, without Adam Johnson, who misses out on a league home debut after failing to get rid of a thigh injury: Mignolet, Gardner, Cuellar, O'Shea, Rose, Larsson, Colback, Cattermole, McClean, Sessegnon, Fletcher.
Subs: Westwood, Campbell, Kilgallon, Ji, Meyler, Bramble, Saha. Liverpool, making two changes to the side beaten at home by Arsenal, with Martin Kelly and Jonjo Shelvey replacing Jose Enrique and Nuri Sahin: Reina, Kelly, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Gerrard, Allen, Shelvey, Borini, Suarez, Sterling.
Subs: Jones, Jose Enrique, Sahin, Assaidi, Henderson, Downing, Carragher. Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire) The teams are out, which at the Stadium of Light means it's time for a blast of ...
Is there more portentous running-out music than this? Marvellous. He's not bad, the lad Prokofiev. Sunderland are in their trademark red-and-white shirts with black shorts, Liverpool in their all-black away strip. The players shake hands nicely. We'll be underway very soon.
And we're off! Sunderland's Steven Fletcher, wearing a pair of shocking, in the best 1981 dayglo sense, boots, get the ball rolling. There's a chorus of "Justice for the 96" from the travelling fans, while Sunderland flash an official message of support and understanding on the big screen. A classy touch. 2 min: It's a bitty, scrappy start. Sunderland are seeing more of the ball in the very early exchanges, but to little effect. 4 min: Suarez - to a chorus of boos from the home support, some things will never change no matter the circumstances - advances towards the Sunderland area down the inside left. He nudges the ball inside to Shelvey, who drags a hilariously inept shot wide left from a very decent position. 5 min: Johnson dinks and diddles down the left, and finds a good deal of space as he reaches the byline. His pullback into the centre reaches nobody, but Gerrard eventually nicks it away and sets Suarez off down the same wing. Suarez's dink inside is read by Sessegnon, who scoots away from danger, buys a foul, and Sunderland relax. 6 min: Apropos Hillsborough, seems there had been pre-match talk of a supportive chorus of You'll Never Walk Alone on the symbolic six-minute mark. If there had been any such plan, it hadn't reached the travelling Liverpool contingent. That's if the ESPN microphones are anything to go by, of course. 9 min: A rare moment during which Scotland manager Craig Levein can enjoy a smile, as Steven Fletcher is rolling around on the floor in agony after being clattered by Skrtel. He'll be OK, by the looks of it, writes resident Guardian quack Dr Murray, but for the moment there's a bit of grimacing and swearing to be done. 11 min: Allen, in the centre circle, slides a ball straight down the middle for Suarez, who spins in from the inside-left channel, takes the ball a wee bit to the right, and advances towards the area, before dragging a Shelveyesque shot wide left. A lovely move by Liverpool, followed by a terrible finish, and how many times have we said that over the last 18 months or so. 14 min: Liverpool are beginning to dominate possession. Sterling slides a ball down the right for Borini, who wallops a low cross into Mignolet's hands at the near post. That was a good take by the keeper, because the ball was skelped in at speed, and Suarez was lurking. 16 min: Sunderland get back into it with a spot of possession football themselves. Sessegnon is this close to breaking clear down the right with a savvy change of pace, but Johnson sticks to him well, and forces him out of play down the wing for a goal kick. 18 min: An appalling header back to his keeper down the inside-right channel by Cuellar, letting Borini in. The young Liverpool striker has a rush of blood, blasting the ball straight at Mignolet when a clever dink would have surely resulted in the opener. Shelvey screws a weak follow up wide right, which at least shows he's prepared to mix it up a bit, if nothing else. 20 min: A free kick to Sunderland midway in the Liverpool half, down the left. Larsson swings it towards the far post, the ball bouncing out of play an inch or so wide. Reina was absurdly confident in leaving that ball to fly out under its own steam, especially as one of Sunderland's players, having packed the box, really should have been attacking that. What an opportunity. 23 min: Sterling buys a free kick down the right with some fancy footwork. Skrtel comes up looking to replicate his feat in the Manchester City game, but the ball's flicked away from him at the last by O'Shea. Suarez attempts to go again down the left, but dances out of play. Goal kick. "Can someone please nail up barn doors on either side of the goal so Luis Suarez can miss them instead?" pleads Hubert O'Hearn. And you think he'll miss them on the inside?! 25 min: Shelvey cuts in from the right and plays a diagonal ball towards Suarez, on the left of the D. Suarez cushions a first-time pass inside for Borini, who looks to guide a strong sidefoot into the bottom-right corner. His effort is too close to Mignolet, though, and the keeper parries well. That's better from Liverpool; neither side have got going so far. 27 min: A magnificent run by Suarez down the right, latching onto a poor pass from McClean, with O'Shea all over the shop. He reaches the area, then rolls the ball inside for Shelvey, who can't quite get a shot away. The ball breaks left to Johnson, who spins through 360 degrees as he tries to squeeze between Gardner and Cuellar, and is nudged a wee bit by the former. He crashes to the floor demanding a penalty, but that would have been a very soft award, and a soft award's not what he's getting here. What he's getting here is nowt. 29 min: GOAL!!! Sunderland 1-0 Liverpool. Steven Fletcher, a boyhood Liverpool fan, is the sort of striker his former heroes need. He's just scored his third goal of the season, sidefooting home from close range after Gardner burst down the inside-right channel and zipped a low ball into the danger zone. Not sure either Reina or Skrtel will be particularly happy with their positioning there. Like Sunderland won't care; that was a crisp move, with a finish to match. 31 min: After soaking up a wee bit of pressure, then landing the opening blow, Sunderland have their tails up now. McClean bursts down the left, and flies another dangerous low ball into the centre. Johnson is on hand to hack out on the right for a corner. The only danger to Liverpool from the resulting set piece comes from their own ranks, Skrtel accidentally hoofing Kelly in the head. 34 min: Sterling brushes past Rose down the inside-right channel and hits the turf, winning a free kick just to the left of the D. Suarez steps up, and looks to curl the ball into the top right. It only hits the top right of the wall, which wasn't anywhere near ten yards away, but then how many walls are these days? Nothing comes from the corner kick. "The plan was to sing 'Justice for the 96' at the now discredited 15-minute mark," explains Tim Byron. Not going to be much help here, I'm afraid. I didn't hear it, but then I wasn't listening out for it, and the ESPN microphones may not have picked it up. 37 min: Suarez dances down the right and reaches the byline. O'Shea tracks him, and sticks his leg out. Suarez launches himself over it. It's a saucy dive, and very well executed, but the referee is quite rightly having none of it, and shows the striker a yellow card. Suarez has the decency to grin sheepishly as he wanders off back upfield. 40 min: Colback busts into the Liverpool area down the right. He's got a chance to shoot from a far-from-prohibitive angle, but decides to pause and look for someone in the middle instead. And the chance is gone. "Dear Dr Murray," begins Phil Sawyer. "A friend of mine has a problem with their love life. The evening always starts well. For the first thirty minutes it's all smart moves and attractive strokes. Then they inevitably do something stupid and spend the rest of the evening running around like a headless chicken desperately trying to make amends but ultimately failing to score. What advice do you have?" A wait and see policy, is my suggestion. If they can't get, and furthermore keep, it up next week for the visit of local saucepots Manchester United, then we can safely say they've got a problem. In which case I'll be prescribing several liquid balls of single malt, which will make it easier to ignore. 43 min: Liverpool were sliding the ball around with some confidence before the goal, but now they're a shapeless mess. Such is the brittle nature of confidence when you're struggling. Sunderland are enjoying more of the ball, winning it back efficiently and without fuss whenever they lose it. Colback, McClean and Fletcher are all taking turns to run at the Liverpool back line, who are far from enjoying the experience. HALF TIME: Sunderland 1-0 Liverpool. Sterling looks to make ground down the right, but he's easily battered off the ball by Rose. And that's that for the opening period, one which Sunderland ultimately deserved to shade. It's going to be a big 45 minutes for Liverpool, who are currently in 19th position in the league, and a big half time for Brendan Rodgers. HALF TIME ENTERTAINMENT: The ludicrous Being: Liverpool documentary will be screened on Channel 5 next month, and when asked for his take on it, Martin O'Neill's eyebrows started pinging up and down so quickly he should have issued a strobe warning for epileptics. "The documentary couldn't have been done without Brendan Rodgers' consent," he said. "I wouldn't be up for that but, whatever way he does things, is entirely up to him." O'Neill went on to reel off a list of similar documentaries he has loved over the years: "I liked Peter Reid's one here [Premier Passions], the one at Leyton Orient a couple of years ago, where the manager [John Sitton] went ballistic, loved it. The best one I have ever seen though was the final days of Malcolm Allison and Manchester City. It was fantastic. Played out to Stevie Winwood's music in around 1981, with John Bond coming in to take over. Really, really great. That's brilliant. But I wouldn't want to do it myself. I couldn't deal with any of my cohorts saying: 'Yes boss, no boss,' like Phil Neal in the Graham Taylor documentary." Three of those O'Neill referenced were also mentioned in this Joy of Six: Football Documentaries. And if you haven't seen O'Neill's fave, City!, we beg you to start watching it now: If it means you getting addicted, and missing the second half, so be it. And we're off again! Liverpool get the ball rolling. They're as they were. Sunderland have made one change, though: the hamstrung Cuellar makes way for Bramble, whose presence may or may not offer the visitors some hope. 46 min: "I have a different interpretation of Suarez's grin (37 mins)," writes JR in Illinois. "I think it was because he feels he was actually fouled and that (due to his reputation) he is never going to get a call. Seeing it again I'm not sure if he was fouled or not but like Mr. Atkinson I am never going to be predisposed to believing anything Senor Suarez is trying to sell me." And, well, here you go, JR. Because extreme slow-motion replays reveal light contact between the striker and O'Shea's standing leg, just as he was about to sail over it. That's a fair shout for a penalty - the softest of soft penalties, admittedly, but a fair shout nonetheless - and never a yellow card. Sunderland, with Gardner in particular coming over to give Suarez verbals for his cheek, certainly helped the referee make his decision there. But I'll not be criticising the official for it, having thought it was a dive at the time myself. I'm not too sure Liverpool can complain too much about the non-award, but the subsequent yellow card was a bit much. 47 min: Shelvey gets a shot on target, finally. Cutting in from the right, he sends a daisycutter straight down Mignolet's throat. Liverpool really need to come firing out of the blocks here. 48 min: Sterling wins a corner down the right, from which the ball's sent to Skrtel, ten yards out level with the far post. The big defender executes a Cruyff Turn, but his resulting ball inside clanks off Suarez and out for a goal kick. 49 min: Johnson makes space down the left, and sends a delicious ball along the corridor of uncertainty. There's nobody in Liverpool black to attack the ball. Very poor. "I really do have faith in Brendan Rodgers and I know it will take two more transfer windows to sort out the squad," writes Hubert O'Hearn, "but right now it's like taking the first rehearsal of a grade school play and saying it's ready for Broadway. Ah well, gin was invented for a reason." 51 min: Johnson is so unlucky here. He scampers down the left, eases out to the wing, then cuts back inside. Upon entering the area, he curls a magnificent effort towards the top-right corner, the ball twanging off the crossbar and away. That deserved nothing less than a goal, it was a magnificent effort. Mignolet was nowhere. But Liverpool's woodwork woes continue. 53 min: Gerrard curls a free kick from the right wing into the Sunderland area, but it's easily cleared. Suarez looks to confuse down the same flank, but is stopped in his tracks by Rose. Liverpool already look a wee bit frustrated, though it's a bit early for that, as they've been the only team pressing in this half. Sunderland have yet to re-emerge from the dressing room. 56 min: Sunderland re-emerge from the dressing room. Sessegnon teases Johnson down the inside-right. He's robbed of the ball, but Liverpool can't clear, and it's soon coming back at them. Sessegnon once again romps down the right, and wins a corner. From which Gardner belabours an effort goalwards from the edge of the area. Kelly takes a hit for the team, cushioning the effort with his coupon. 58 min: Now it's Liverpool on the back foot. McClean curls a dangerous ball into the middle from the left, with Fletcher lurking. Agger is forced to clear in the most desperate fashion for a corner. But the flag goes up, as Fletcher was standing around in the middle, yards offside, with the carefree insouciance of a man with pint and fag on. But the rest of the home team have categorically awoken from their post-break slumber. 59 min: Colback attempts to clear the stand behind Reina's goal. And by God he nearly manages it. "That City! documentary is brilliant!" chirps Alex Hanton, who isn't wrong. "Takes me back to the late 70s (and let's be honest the early 80s where the late 70s in the same way that about half of the 60s were really the 50s) An era when the world was wood-panelled, rogue exclamation points roamed the streets and haircuts were something that happened to Americans. Also why was Malc shirtless during his pregame talk?" Well, why not? 61 min: It's just not happening for Liverpool. Sterling, down the right, whips a ball towards the near post. Borini can't quite reach it, but Mignolet's desperate parry only flies out to Shelvey, on the edge of the area. Shelvey rolls a first-time pass inside for the onrushing Gerrard, the Liverpool captain threading a sidefooted effort through a crowded box and just wide right of goal. In fact, I think that may have brushed the post. Liverpool might not be clicking, but it's also true that they do not deserve to be losing this game. 63 min: Skrtel is booked for a late slide on Sessegnon. Liverpool can have no arguments about that booking. "Okay, so Suarez will miss the barn doors (23 mins) to the outside," admits Hubert O'Hearn. "Theory 2 or Plan B! Spray paint the silhouette of an opponent's leg on the netting - THAT Luis Suarez will hit every time! (I actually like Suarez. On the international level, you could argue he's Lionel Messi; domestically ... Carlton Cole.)" 64 min: A first change by Liverpool, who swop Borini for Downing. "I've just spent the day helping out a friend, greasing the underside of static caravans," begins Matt Dony. "Rust issues, apparently. It was quite comfortably the worst day of my life. Please can you tell me that Liverpool are a silky football machine, scoring goals at will, throughout the second half. I don't need it to be true, I just want to hear the words." Can't do that, I'm afraid. The caravans should have a couple more years holidaying in them, though. Something's better than nothing, surely? 66 min: Another Liverpool corner. They never scored from these things in the 1980s, there's no reason why they'll be doing so now. The ball's cleared. From the inside right, Gerrard lumps it back into the area. The home defence has been slow to push out, and the lurking Skrtel can come in from the left and guide a clever header towards the bottom right. It's a decent effort, but there's not quite enough power there, and Mignolet snaffles. 67 min: Sterling comes in from the right and drags an awful effort well wide left. He's been hanging about with that Jonjo far too much. 69 min: Sterling twinkles down the right and evades two challenges as he breaks into the area. Suarez can't convert the chance. And then... 71 min: GOAL!!! Sunderland 1-1 Liverpool. ... the pair combine again. Sterling discos down the right, then slides the ball in to Suarez at the near post. Suarez can't guide an effort goalwards with a first-time snatch, but Bramble kindly cushions a sidefoot back to him, and the striker makes no mistake second time, blasting a low shot into the net. No more than Liverpool deserve, and Suarez's relief is palpable in his celebration. 72 min: Rose, who has some minor ailment or other, is replaced by Campbell. 75 min: Sterling is looking extremely dangerous now. He isn't far close from reaching the byline down the right with a blistering change of pace, but Colback is older and wiser, and escorts him out of play without fuss. "Isn't the thing that really stands out about City! not the period clothes and furniture but the fact that during Malcolm Allison's team talk, nobody is listening?" wonders Justin Horton. Haw. They'd obviously got his number by then. Although at least they're still showing him a sliver of respect. I'm assuming that, by the time John Bond's first full season came around, people started actively breezing out of the room when the manager began chuntering on. 78 min: Liverpool are pushing Sunderland back for a series of corners. Is two enough of a series? Nothing comes from the entire run. It's the most pointless series since they remade Reggie Perrin. "I'm not a Liverpool supporter but I liked them back when they were great (the 70s and 80s which apparently were the same decade in terms of something)," begins Ben Dunn. "But could they just hurry up and be something more than the team that might be good this year and return to former glories? They're becoming the Spurs of the 70s and 80s and 90s - decades which etc and so on - a team which win something now and again but are not that good. A shame." Spurs went down the 70s. Is this what you're trying to say? 80 min: A brilliant run into the area down the right by Shelvey, who then swans past three Sunderland shirts and, when in a central position, hits a shot low and hard from 12 yards. Mignolet is right behind it, and Suarez can't head the rebound back on target, the ball sailing well over the bar. That was less than half a chance for Suarez, under a high ball, so for once can't be blamed for profligacy. 82 min: Larsson scythes Sterling down as the young winger looks to break down the left. That's a booking, and rightly so. 83 min: Sessegnon zips down the middle in space. He eventually shuttles the ball wide left to McClean, who has options in the middle, but needlessly blooters an over-ambitious effort miles over the bar. 84 min: Now it's Johnson's turn to foolishly reach for the stars. Which is where the ball is heading, the full back having come inside from the left and hoicked a risible effort into the skies to the right of goal. 86 min: Fletcher limps off to be replaced by the former Everton and Manchester United striker Loius Saha. 87 min: Sterling is upended twice in quick succession down the left. Gerrard swings a hopeless free kick into the area. "At last!" writes Matt Dony. "Something finally comes together for Liverpool, but I was busy in the shower with a huge tub of swarfega. At least now I'm lemon fresh." 90 min: Suarez flies off on a buzzing run down the inside-right channel. Shelvey makes a decoy run to open up some space, and Suarez should shoot upon cutting inside and reaching the edge of the box, but he elects to pass inside to Sterling, who miscontrols, and the chance is gone. One other observation from that City! doc from Alex Hanton: "Did Paul Power have the best name in football history? He sounds like a promotional superhero designed to sell breakfast cereal." 90 min +1: There will be three added minutes, and the first has already elapsed. 90 min +2: Saha drops a shoulder and unleashes a rising drive that only just misses the top-left corner. FULL TIME: Sunderland 1-1 Liverpool. Allen, Suarez and Downing combine down the right. Corner. Johnson meets the set piece with a harmless header, the ball floating wide right of goal. And that's that. Sunderland would have robbed a victory had Titus Bramble Luis Suarez not equalised late on, but that's still their worst start to a league campaign since 1911. Liverpool move ahead of Southampton, Reading and QPR into 17th place, while Sunderland nestle three places above them with an extra point in their kitty. Both teams are still looking for their first win, but you sense the home team will be a far happier clan than the visiting one. "Matt Dony's been busy in the shower with a huge tub of swarfega?" splutters Phil Sawyer, leaving us with an image to take away. "The mind fair boggles."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Union leaders and school board agree outline to resolve sticking points, meaning pupils could be back in school by Monday Union leaders representing thousands of striking Chicago public school teachers returned to the negotiating table Saturday to work out the details of a deal to end a week-long walkout in one of the nation's largest school districts. Both sides say they have arrived at an outline to resolve their months-long contract dispute, which came down to two main sticking points: a new teacher evaluation system, and union demands that laid-off teachers get preference for new jobs. The dispute in Chicago is being closely watched around the nation because of its implications for other labor disputes at a time when unions have been losing ground. Saturday's talks were taking place at the offices of union attorney Robert Bloch, who told the Chicago Sun-Times there was still a lot of work to be done, though agreement has been reached on the most contentious issues. The union hopes to present the wording of a deal to its House of Delegates for review on Sunday. If they approve it, students could be back in class on Monday. On his way into the talks, Chicago Teachers Union vice-president Jesse Sharkey was optimistic that timetable was still possible. "We're hopeful that we can do it, but frankly, like I said, the devil is in the details of this contract – and we want it in writing," he told the Sun-Times. "We're going to go in today and hammer (out) the details." Out on the streets, hundreds of teachers and their families were streaming toward Chicago's Union Park for a midday rally. The atmosphere was festive, even if a deal had yet to be presented in writing. In announcing a framework had been achieved, union leaders emphasized Friday that they and their members needed to see it in writing before they would call off the strike. "They are suspicious, you have to understand," union president Karen Lewis told reporters Friday after a meeting with nearly 800 members of the union's House of Delegates. "We have been a little burnt by the (school) board in the past." With things still somewhat up in the air, Saturday's rally was shaping up to be a show of force for organized labor after a string of setbacks, with participants coming from Wisconsin, Minnesota and perhaps as far away as Boston. Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, said he expects a couple hundred Wisconsin teachers to attend Saturday's rally. Buses were being organized to take teachers from Madison and Milwaukee and others planned to drive separately or take the train, he said. "People are going to go down and celebrate that the teachers union in Chicago stood up to the corporate reform agenda," said Peterson. "I think they've come out with some real victories for the kids of Chicago." Wisconsin teachers had another reason to rally: A judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Scott Walker, the governor, that had effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers. Walker's administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which have vigorously fought the law, declared victory. Teachers union leaders from three of Minnesota's largest school districts also were organizing a bus to Chicago for their members to show their support for their colleagues there. The plan was for the bus to leave the Twin Cities about 4am Saturday, drive about seven hours, attend the rally and return home the same day, said Julie Blaha, president of Education Minnesota, the state's largest teachers union. Blaha already had travelled to Chicago to assist her striking colleagues, "doing whatever they need us to do." Members of the Boston Teachers Union may make the trip on their own, said president Richard Stutman. The group already voted to send Chicago a token donation of money and took out an ad in the Chicago Sun-Times to express their support of striking teachers there. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has blasted the union for engaging in a "strike of choice," sounded optimistic Friday, saying "the tentative framework is an honest and principled compromise that is about who we all work for: the students." The walkout, the first by Chicago teachers in 25 years, canceled five days of school for more than 350,000 public school students who had just returned from summer vacation. Until this week, Chicago teachers had not walked out since 1987, when they were on strike for 19 days.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Arsenal finally found the scoring boots as they trashed Southampton as Stoke held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Authorities reportedly set to crack down on banks for failing to monitor whether cash was being used to launder dirty money Major US banks are being investigated for insufficiently safeguarding against being used by drug dealers or terrorist groups to launder dirty money, it was reported Saturday. An article in the New York Times suggested that federal and state authorities were ready to launch an aggressive crackdown on the failure to monitor transactions, in a move aimed at flagging to financial institutions that weak compliance is unacceptable. Officials told the Times that regulators are close to taking action against JP Morgan, while other firms including Bank of America are also being investigated over perceived shortcomings when it comes to putting a check on money-laundering activities. It comes just months after a Senate committee roundly criticised HSBC for ignoring warning signs that it was being used by money launderers and drug cartels in Mexico. US politicians also accused HSBC of circumventing US sanctions on countries including Cuba and Iran – a charge that has also been levied against JP Morgan. The Senate report was also highly critical of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), stating that the regulator needed to take "stronger action" on banks that exercise poor anti-money laundering controls. The OCC is now leading the crackdown on non-compliant banks, according to the New York Times report. It suggested that a "cease-or-desist" order could be issued against JP Morgan in the coming months, forcing the bank to review its checks, and implement measures to firm up its safeguards. Prosecutors from the justice department and the Manhattan district attorney's office are also investigating lapses at a number of financial institutions, it was reported. If action is taken against JP Morgan it will comes as a further blow to a bank still reeling from a $5.8bn trading loss that led to a political firestorm in the US and led to a tighter regulation of Wall Street.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, interviewed by police but not arrested or detained as protests continue across Middle East A film-maker thought to be behind a crude movie that sparked anti-American riots across the Muslim world has been questioned by police in California, as President Barack Obama vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four Americans in Libya. The developments came after days of chaos that has seen numerous attacks on American and other western targets, ranging from US-branded fast food restaurants in Lebanon to a deadly assault on a consulate in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador to Libya and three others. The protests, which appeared on Saturday to be subsiding, were galvanised by the emergence of a crude anti-Islam video called Innocence of Muslims that was made in California. That movie, according to a lengthy trailer which has spread via YouTube, depicts the prophet Muhammad as a murderous child-molester and appears to be deliberately aimed at inflaming Muslim emotions. Considerable mystery has surrounded the people behind the film. A film-maker from southern California called Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed by federal probation officers at a Los Angeles sheriff's station but was not arrested or detained, authorities said early Saturday. According to the Associated Press federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind the movie and identified him to be "Sam Bacile", the man who claimed earlier this week to be writer and producer of the film. Police officers said Nakoula went voluntarily with them to the police station and they were investigating to see if he had breached the term of a parole he is serving after being convicted of fraud charges. A probation order authorized in June 2010 warned Nakoula against using false identities. US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have condemned the movie's content as an attempt to denigrate an entire faith. But the statements have done little to dampen the wave of protests and riots. Over the past few days demonstrations have been reported in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Jerusalem and the West Bank, Kashmir, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria. In Tunisia, protesters targeted the US embassy and burned down an American school in the capital, Tunis, and in Sudan, mobs torched the German embassy and targeted other western diplomatic outposts. Days of rioting across cities in North Africa and the Middle East appeared to give way to calmer scenes on Saturday. Meanwhile in the US, the fallout from the film, and the violent unrest overseas continued. The death of US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, has shocked the American political establishment and created a serious foreign policy row in the middle of the hotly contested American presidential election. Using hardline language, Obama promised in his weekly radio address Saturday that the attackers would be brought to justice. "As we mourn their loss, we must also send a clear and resolute message to the world: those who attack our people will find no escape from justice. We will not waver in their pursuit. And we will never allow anyone to shake the resolve of the United States of America," Obama said. Obama, however, also joined the chorus of condemnation of the film's content. "I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. We stand for religious freedom. And we reject the denigration of any religion – including Islam," he said. The film was apparently made using actors who have said they had no idea they were making an anti-Islam film. The offensive language about Muhammad was dubbed in later. A 14-minute clip of the film appeared on YouTube in July but only began to generate widespread anger this week, when it was promoted by radical Islamophobic Christians in the US and then broadcast in Egypt by Islamic activists. Nakoula appears to have a criminal record. He was arrested in June 2009, pleaded no contest to bank fraud charges a year later and was released from federal prison in June 2011 after serving a 21-month prison term, according to federal records. In a 2010 hearing in that case prosecutors sought a longer prison term and noted that he misused some of his own relatives' identities to open 600 fraudulent credit accounts. According to court transcripts Nakoula's defence said he only got involved in the scheme after losing his job in the gas station industry and had been forced to work for a few dollars a weekend at swap meets to try to support his children and an ailing father. Nakoula apologized during the proceedings and his attorney James Henderson Sr said Nakoula had learned his lesson. "He's clearly gotten the message," Henderson said at the time during that court hearing. "I can't imagine him doing anything stupider than he did here."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Group, which struggled to maintain momentum after initial flurry last autumn, to celebrate one-year anniversary on Monday Activists plan to mark the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on Monday by descending on New York's financial district in an attempt to rejuvenate a movement that has failed to sustain momentum after initially sparking a national conversation about economic inequality. The group, which popularized the phrase "We are the 99%," will attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour in lower Manhattan, according to a movement spokeswoman. Monday's protests will cap a weekend of Occupy seminars, music and demonstrations in New York, said Linnea Paton, 24, an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) spokeswoman. Demonstrations are also planned in other US cities, other OWS organizers said. The grassroots movement caught the world by surprise last fall with a spontaneous encampment in lower Manhattan that soon spread to cities across North America and Europe. Occupy briefly revived a long-dormant spirit of US social activism, and drew enduring attention to economic injustice. But the movement's colorful cast of theatrical demonstrators struggled through last winter to sustain the momentum that first drew attention to its patchwork of economic grievances – including corporate malfeasance on Wall Street, crippling student debt and aggressive bank foreclosures on American homes. On Sunday, organizers will provide live music, including a Foley Square concert featuring Tom Morello, guitarist for the rock band Rage Against the Machine. At 7am Monday, some protesters will try to surround the NYSE, while others will engage in a loosely choreographed series of "sit-ins" at intersections throughout the financial district, according to OWS's website. The tactics are designed to undermine New York police efforts to contain protesters on the narrow, winding streets of the financial district. Last year's demonstrations featured the spectacle of activists breaking into sudden dashes down one narrow street or another, pursued by visibly frustrated police and television reporters tripping down cobblestone streets. Sound permits for Sunday's events have been secured, Paton said, but OWS has not sought permits for Monday's protests - which last fall led to mass arrests and clashes between police and protesters. Occupy Wall Street maintains about $50,000 in its bail fund, several organizers said. NYPD spokesman Paul Brown confirmed that no OWS demonstration permit applications were submitted, but said police will be prepared for demonstrations. "We accommodate peaceful protests and make arrests for unlawful activity," he said. Brown said that based on previous experience with OWS, the NYPD expects that "a relatively small group of self-described anarchists will attempt unlawful activity and try to instigate confrontations with police by others while attempting to escape arrest themselves … we expect most demonstrators to be peaceful." New York police have made a total of 1,852 Occupy arrests as of September 12 according to Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance's office, including the arrest of 700 protesters who spilled into the roadway while marching across the Brooklyn bridge last October. On Friday, Twitter was ordered by a New York judge to turn over the tweets of one of the protesters arrested on the bridge. That case has emerged as a closely watched court fight over law enforcement access to users' social media content. Six weeks after the Brooklyn bridge arrests, citing public health concerns, New York authorities entered the Manhattan OWS camp and dispersed protesters. The movement has never regained its initial momentum.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Beijing university tour and speech follows unexplained two-week absence that sparked rumours of ill health affecting succession Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping has reappeared in public and made an impromptu speech following a two-week absence that had sparked rumours about his health and raised questions about the stability of the country's succession process. State media said Xi toured exhibits at China Agricultural University in Beijing commemorating National Science Popularisation Day, but offered no explanation of why he had dropped from sight. Photographs posted on the government's official website showed Xi walking in the sunshine dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and black coat. Another photo showed him smiling as he looked at potted plants, showing no sign of disability or ill health. A lengthy Chinese-language report from the official Xinhua news agency did not address why Xi had not been seen publicly since 1 September, when he made a speech at the ruling Communist party's official training academy. Since then he has cancelled meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries including US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The Chinese government has yet to explain Xi's public absence. Speculation over Xi's absence highlights the intense scrutiny China's succession process is under, tempered with uneasiness about the country's opaque political system, which often seems at odds with its rising global importance. "The leadership needs to realise how the world perceives this. They may have their own reasons for keeping secret, but it is not beneficial to China's global status and position as a world power," said David Zweig, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Xinhua said Xi, while visiting the university, spoke about food safety and made an impromptu speech in which he praised the university for sharing science with the public. Xi is due to take over as head of the Communist party at a leadership congress later this year, the first step in a generational power transition that will see him assume the presidency next spring, embarking on what is expected to be a decade at the helm of the world's most populous nation and second largest economy. In addition to deciding personnel matters, Xi is heavily involved in drafting a major report to be delivered at the congress, as well as possible amendments to the party's constitution. While Xi hasn't indicated what if any changes he plans to make, expectations are high for gradual economic and political reforms to meet China's changing circumstances, three decades after its abandonment of orthodox Marxism. Xi's absence also came amid the biggest crisis in years in relations with Japan, sparked by a renewed dispute over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Amid a wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations around the country, Beijing has taken an unusually hardline stance over the long-running dispute, sending maritime surveillance vessels into what Japan says are its territorial waters around the islands on Friday in a show of resolve. While Xi is generally considered a political moderate, he comes from a family of stalwart communists and is seen by some as likely to be relatively tough on matters of sovereignty and national dignity. "It's a critical political time when the whole world is looking at this guy. If they're worried about uncertainty and instability, well … this will just feed the instability," Zweig said. Early rumours about his public absence said the 59-year-old Xi had thrown his back out swimming or pulled a muscle playing football. As the days passed and Xi was still not seen, speculation escalated to more serious conditions, including a heart attack, stroke and emergency surgery. While the Communist party has become more sensitive to public opinion over nationalism and social unrest, it reverts to its roots as a clandestine organisation when it comes to leaders' private lives, particularly their health. The uncertainty surrounding Xi has been heightened by the party's silence on the dates for the party congress, widely expected to be held in late October. The leader-in-waiting's sudden disappearance on the eve of his ascension also came during a year full of unforeseen and unsettling political developments that had already threatened hopes for a smooth party leadership. Most notably, the case of Bo Xilai, one of China's most charismatic and ambitious politicians who fell from power in March, remains unsettled. Bo's former aide, Wang Lijun, is to go on trial on Tuesday in southwest China's Chengdu city. He faces defection, bribery and other charges. Wang served as the police chief in the city of Chongqing under Bo but lost his job for still unexplained reasons. In February, Wang fled to the US Consulate in Chengdu, where he told U.S. diplomats about his suspicions linking Bo's wife to the murder of a British businessman. Since then, Bo's wife has been convicted of murdering the Briton, and Bo is under internal party investigation for severe but unspecified disciplinary violations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Most French citizens believe that the rich elite should pay more in tax, but not so much that it will drive them to flee abroad The narrow streets around the Rue de Grenelle in Paris, a short stroll from the Boulevard St Germain, are dotted with familiar waystations of the internationally monied. There are smart restaurants, art galleries and designer clothes shops, among them Moschino and Dolce & Gabbana. Above and between these places are townhouses and mansion apartments with grilled gates or with smoked-glass doors guarding the entrances – foyers hushed to the kind of silence that only serious money can buy. How serious the money is can be confirmed by a scan of the property pages online – in one case, almost €2m for a two-bedroom flat with three bathrooms. It is in districts such as this, around Avenue Mozart and in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France's wealthiest postcode, that a cold wind has suddenly begun to blow, prompted by the announcement by François Hollande, France's Socialist president, that he intends to make good on his threat from February and soak les riches. That, we now know, will take the form of a two-year emergency tax of 75% on individuals earning more than €1.1m (£900,000) a year as part of his government's efforts to fill a €30bn hole in the public finances. Even before Hollande delivered his announcement, he was pre-empted by the very public confirmation by France's wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury goods firm LVMH, that he planned to apply to Belgium for dual nationality. The remarks were calculated to cause political impact, although Arnault later attempted to insist that he had no intention of ducking his French taxes. It was an intervention by Arnault that prompted a tidal wave of condemnation – led by the leftwing French newspaper Libération, which published a picture of Arnault with a suitcase on its front page under the blunt headline: "Get lost – rich twat!" While Arnault is now threatening to sue the paper for abuse, he has received little public sympathy. Fellow tycoon Edouard de Rothschild, a shareholder in the paper, gleefully backed its assault. France's political class has united across the ideological spectrum to condemn Arnault's manoeuvring – from the National Front's Marine Le Pen, who declared herself "shocked", to the far left's Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who said that the rich had no notion of "homeland except for money". Those occupying the political territory in between, including figures in both Hollande's Socialist party and the Gaullist UMP, have been no less scathing, accusing Arnault of behaviour tantamount to treachery in the middle of a national economic crisis. If the debate seems strange to Anglo-Saxons, it is because French attitudes to wealth, taxation and the state are fundamentally different, though the issue of how much the wealthy should pay is not a new debate. A year ago, at the dog-end of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, a group of 17 prominent magnates issued a declaration in Le Nouvel Observateur asking to be taxed more (although none, it emerged last week, had quite in mind the rate Hollande is proposing). Indeed, when Le Monde revisited the signatories last week, it found that those who were willing to speak described the tax as "too onerous". "Morally it is legitimate," one said bitterly. "Economically and politically, it's stupid." While it is a threat made by city types – to quit a city rather than pay more – that is more often uttered than acted on, what is clear is that some are leaving France. They are alarmed as much by the sense of uncertainty that in recent years has enveloped the French tax code as by the reality of the new tax, which most, it appears, will be able to avoid by deferring salaries above the new cutoff. The reality is that what both the tax and the reaction to Arnault speak of are complex and conflicted ideas about wealth and social responsibility in French society. Driving to meet Steve Horton, a US tax accountant whose clients include bankers, entrepreneurs and high-flying American lawyers based in France, the taxi driver passes Fouquet's, the expensive restaurant where Sarkozy inadvisedly celebrated his own election victory, in company with pop star Johnny Hallyday, film star Jean Reno and high-flying businessmen, prompting the coining of the soubriquet President Bling Bling. When asked about the restaurant, the driver recounts the story of Sarkozy's party again, where he snubbed the crowds of ordinary voters waiting to greet him elsewhere. I assume, because of this, the driver might be in favour of the new tax, but he is quick to condemn it as a "bad idea" that will hurt France economically. The rich, he thinks, should pay more tax, but not so much that they will be driven away. Horton says he has already lost clients who might have been affected by the tax, including two American bankers, two lawyers and a French citizen based in the US who had recently moved his software company to France, but has gone back. He does a quick calculation on a piece of paper. He calculates that the combined lost taxes to the French exchequer – even before the advent of the supertax – amount to €14.5m a year for a handful of people. "These were people who had been long-term residents," he says. "They had several homes here. They left before the announcement to London, New York and Moscow. They figured that they couldn't take the risk." Horton remarks on a common theme that has emerged in the midst of the tax row – over his perception of very different attitudes to wealth among the French and his US clients. "If you go to a US cocktail party with the kind of people who are earning these sums, very quickly people will begin talking about their bonuses and share options. In France that is frowned on." It is not only wealthy expats who have been spooked, according to Arnaud Jamin, a French tax lawyer for the company Fidal, who has his office in Neuilly-sur-Seine. "There has been a lot of concern," he says of his French clients, adding that it was not only the new proposed tax. "In practice there are very few people in France who would pay the new tax. Maybe between 1,000 and 2,000. And some of those will benefit from loopholes. But it is the impression that it gives to those outside." At the very heart of the issue, remarks Nicolas Tenzer – a political commentator and author, among other books, of The Elites and the End of French Democracy – is France's attitude to wealth, the state and social justice. "It is not a new phenomenon," he says. "Even in 1995 [the conservative] Jacques Chirac ran a campaign founded on the notion that social mobility was broken. All the polls suggest that people believe they live in a deeply divided society permeated with feelings of injustice and inequality." It is a sense of "us and them" that was sharply underscored by Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, writing in Libération last week in a defence of its "Get lost" headline – a widespread suspicion that the country's elites are forever tempted to flee to more accommodating tax regimes, even though the "guillotines are not active". "The suitcase of Bernard Arnault," he argued, "symbolises a frontier: between 'them' and 'us'. Them – the traitors who abandon the country in this period of trouble." If few believe, however, that the new super-tax will do much to help Hollande balance the books, they admit that the issue conceals a wider fear – that it is a symbolic act to soften the blow for both cuts in services and spending and further increases in taxes for the wealthier middle classes. Tenzer argues that this sense of division was exacerbated by the Sarkozy years with a president who became associated in people's minds with cutting taxes for his friends in the very wealthy elite – such as Arnault, who was best man at Sarkozy's wedding to the former model Carla Bruni. It is in this context, Tenzer believes, that Hollande's new tax should be seen: as a symbolic political rebuke to the "bling bling" years, which he blames for the deep sense of anxiety afflicting French society, which Tenzer believes has corroded its social and fiscal contracts. Tenzer describes the announcement, too, as a kind of socialist auto da fé on Hollande's part – like his declared hatred of the "rich" – to reassure his allies on the left at a time of very painful decisions. And despite the political outcry directed at Arnault, he suspects that the French are more ambiguous about the new tax than, perhaps, the front pages and politicians suggest. He adds that he has heard similar remarks to that of my taxi driver. "There is a sense among even some ordinary Socialist supporters – and simple people, too, whom I have spoken to – that, yes, the system is globally unfair, but they are uncertain about what the 75% tax rate will really achieve," he says.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Deaths follow killing of two US Marines and a British soldier plus Taliban attack at Camp Bastion where Prince Harry is stationed A man believed to be a member of the Afghan police force has shot dead two Nato soldiers, officials have said. The shootings took place in southern Afghanistan. the gunman was killed in the gun battle. The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) gave no more details. The deaths on Saturday follow the killing of two US Marines and a British soldier in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan on Friday. The marines were killed when around 20 Taliban fighters breached the perimeter of Camp Bastion, damaging aircraft and buildings. The British soldier from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards was killed by a roadside bomb in an unrelated incident on Friday. He died when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. Next of kin have been informed. Afghan soldiers and policemen, who are meant to be working with Nato forces have killed 47 Nato soldiers this year. On Saturday, a Taliban commander told Sky News that Prince Harry was the main focus of the attack on Camp Bastion, but other Taliban spokesmen told media organisations that the attack was in revenge for the anti-Islamic film The Innocence of Muslims. The prince, an army captain, is based at Camp Bastion for his second tour of duty. US officials said the Camp Bastion attack was by heavily armed insurgents and involved a range of weaponry, including mortars, rockets or rocket-propelled grenades, as well as small-arms fire. Harry was about a mile away with other crew members of the Apache attack helicopters, of which he is a co-pilot gunner, when the attack took place, sources said. Isaf said the attack happened near an airfield on the north-east side of the base, which houses American forces in Camp Leatherneck. A Ministry of Defence source said: "After saying this attack was mounted in reaction to the video on Islam, it is entirely predictable that the Taliban have changed their tune to say it was aimed at Captain Wales. "The insurgency who mounted this attack – most of who were killed by Isaf – were nowhere near Captain Wales, who with other UK and Isaf personnel was under lockdown." A number of aircraft, hangars and other buildings at the base were hit and badly damaged by insurgent fire. Major Martyn Crighton, from Isaf, said: "Nobody would deny that the insurgents are opportunistic. Isaf's facilities are very safe places, it just so happens that last night insurgents were able to make a spectacle of themselves and cause some damage. "But there wasn't any real threat that it was under attack from a large group of insurgents." It is understood the militants managed to breach Camp Bastion's perimeter using rocket-propelled grenades before being driven back by forces inside the camp. Major Crighton said there was no evidence to suggest whether the attack had been planned in advance or if it was simply opportunistic. Prince Harry, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Saturday, arrived in Afghanistan on 7 September. He has been undergoing training to fly operations in Apache attack helicopters and is expected to start flying missions this week as a co-pilot gunner. Camp Bastion is a huge base in the middle of the desert and is shared with US, Estonian, Danish and Afghan troops. It is the logistics hub for operations in Helmand, with supply convoys and armoured patrols regularly leaving its heavily defended gates, to support the military forward operating bases, patrol bases and checkpoints spread across the province.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Irish Daily Star prints topless photos with Italian gossip mag owned by Silvio Berlusconi planning to follow suit with 26-page photo special The Irish edition of the Daily Star has published topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge despite it being part of a British-owned media group which has promised to respect the privacy of the Royal Family. Its editor, Mike O'Kane, said the pictures did not feature in the Northern Ireland or British editions. The Daily Star is partly owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell Group, which also owns Channel 5. Responding to reports that the Irish Daily Star has published topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, St James's Palace said: "There can be no motivation for this action other than greed." Northern and Shell said in a statement: "We abhor the decision of the Irish Daily Star to publish these intrusive pictures of the duke and duchess which we, like St James's Palace, believe to be a grotesque invasion of their privacy. "We are consulting with our lawyers as a matter of urgency over what we believe to be a serious breach of their contract." The Italian publication Chi is also set to follow the French gossip magazaine Closer in printing topless photographs of the duchess. Chi is understood to be planning a 26-page photo special of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on holiday in the south of France, to run in an edition next week, according to the BBC. Despite St James's Palace describing the publication of the photos of Kate in French magazine Closer on Friday as a "grotesque and totally unjustifiable" invasion of privacy, and the announcement that the royal couple will sue its publishers, unconfirmed reports said Chi still planned to print the images. Editor Alfonso Signorini said: "The fact that these are the future rulers of England makes the article more interesting and topical. This is a deserving topic because it shows in a completely natural way the daily life of a very famous, young and modern couple in love." Both Chi and the French edition of Closer are published by the Mondadori media group, which is owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have launched legal proceedings in France against the Closer magazine, which published photographs of the duchess sunbathing topless, in a bid to stop any future invasion of the royal couple's privacy. St James's Palace said in a statement on Friday: "St James's Palace confirms that legal proceedings for breach of privacy have been commenced today in France by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge against the editor and publishers of Closer magazine, France." Earlier on Friday, in another strongly worded statement, the palace said the royal couple were hugely saddened by what it described as a "grotesque and totally unjustifiable" invasion of their privacy. St James's Palace was unequivocal in its condemnation of Closer. "The incident is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and all the more upsetting to the duke and duchess for being so. "Their royal highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them." The magazine's publication of the intrusive pictures re-ignited memories of the pursuit of the duke's mother, Princess Diana, by paparazzi on the night of her death in a high-speed car accident in a Paris tunnel. Legal action will be taken under French privacy law, considered the toughest in Europe, with potential for both civil and criminal cases. French media lawyer Jean Frederic Gaultier of Olswangs said under French criminal law, the magazine could face a fine of up to €45,000 (£36,000) and the editor could be jailed for up to 12 months. "There could be a case for criminal action, if the photographs are taken or a voice is recorded in a private place without the people knowing. They were in a private place, so in my view this was a breach of law," said Gaultier. He said it was unheard of for an editor to be jailed and celebrity magazines in France are generally willing to risk fines if the benefits of boosting circulation and revenues outweigh any fines for breaching the law. Over five pages, Closer published what it described as exclusive pictures of the duchess topless under the headline: "Oh my God – sex and sun en Provence." The pictures were apparently taken on the terrace of a guest house during a brief holiday with the duke in France last week. Royal photographer Harry Page told Sky News that from what he had seen, they were taken with long lenses and the couple would have had no idea they were being photographed. Closer magazine defended its decision, with its editor-in-chief Laurence Pieau describing the photos as a beautiful series that showed a couple in love and saying they were in no way degrading. She said the magazine had more intimate shots from the same series that it opted not to publish. "There's been an over-reaction to these photos. What we see is a young couple, who just got married, who are very much in love, who are splendid," Pieau told French TV news channel BFM. "She's a real 21st Century princess," she added: "It's a young woman who is topless, the same as you can see on any beach in France or around the world." Closer published a dozen shots of the duchess as she relaxed in Provence at a chateau owned by Lord Linley, the Queen's nephew, ahead of the couple's diamond jubilee tour of south-east Asia and the South Pacific on behalf of the Queen. With a cover headline Oh my God!, the photos show the couple soaking up the sun on the balcony of a 19th-century hunting lodge, oblivious to lurking paparazzi. They show her taking off her bikini top, sunbathing on a sun lounger and at one point pulled down the back of her bikini bottoms as Prince William applies sun cream. Sources at St James's Palace said they had no advance warning about the photos before publication and by the time they learned of Closer's plans it was too late to try and get an injunction to prevent the magazine going on sale in France on Friday morning. The publication of the pictures is a blow to Buckingham Palace as it tries to move on from a scandal over naked shots of Prince Harry that tarred the image of the royal family, which had been bolstered by the duke and duchess's wedding, the Queen's 2012 diamond jubilee and her surprise cameo in the London Olympics opening ceremony. Newspapers in Britain were not offered the photographs publisher by Closer. They were offered a different set of long-lens shots last week, but turned them down. Publication of the pictures was also condemned by Bauer, the owner of Closer magazine in the UK, which had licensed Berlusconi's company to publish the French version. The company demanded Closer remove the pictures from its website immediately and in a veiled threat to sever ties with the publisher, said it was "reviewing the terms of our licence agreement with Closer France". "Like our readers, we are appalled and regret the pain the publication of these photographs has caused," said Paul Keenan, chief executive of Bauer media, who said the company "deplore the publication of these intrusive and offensive pictures". Executives on two national tabloids said the set of photos being touted around last week were different. "They were also long lens, but you couldn't see anything. These pictures nobody has seen, as far I am aware," one picture editor said. Page, a photographer who has worked with national newspapers for the past 30 years, said: "From what I have seen, these photos have been taken from a very long way. Kate and William would have had no idea they were being taken. "They were on a 640-acre estate in the south of France. I think they would have expected a certain degree of privacy. They were on a private holiday. "Remember the toe-sucking photos of Fergie [Sarah Ferguson], again in the south of France. That is exactly 20 years ago this month and there was a scramble for them. But now there is not a single newspaper in Britain who would publish these pictures." The royal family only rarely and reluctantly resorts to legal action over media coverage, despite being constantly in the spotlight. The Duchess of Cambridge has taken action over invasion of privacy once before, receiving an apology, damages and legal costs from picture agency Rex in March 2010 after it distributed photos of her taken during a private holiday in Cornwall. The Prince of Wales won a protracted legal battle over privacy with the Mail on Sunday in late 2006, when the court of appeal ruled that the paper had infringed his copyright and confidentiality by publishing extracts from his private diaries about the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Princess Diana sued the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror in 1993 over secretly-taken pictures of her exercising in a gym and won an injunction against the publishing preventing further publication. The Queen dropped legal action against the Daily Mirror after a reporter breached royal security to work as a palace footman in 2003,. The publication of the topless pictures of the duchess are also likely to be taken into account by Lord Justice Leveson, who is currently drafting his final report offering recommendations to the government on the future of press regulation. The latest controversy will underline the difficulties any future British regulator will have in controlling overseas internet publication of content that can be viewed online in the UK.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Several more troops wounded in rocket, mortar and small arms assault on compound where Prince Harry is stationed At least two American marines were killed in an attack on a Nato base in Afghanistan in the early hours of Saturday morning. Taliban attackers are believed to have breached the perimeter of Camp Bastion and damaged buildings, hangers and aircraft. The base is the same one where Prince Harry arrived a week ago to begin a four month tour flying Apache helicopters. There is no suggestion he was close to the fighting. A Ministry of Defence spokesman in London said: "We are aware of an incident that has taken place at Camp Bastion, which is currently being dealt with." A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan said: "I can confirm there was an attack involving small arms fire." A US official said the attack killed two marines and wounded several troops. A number of aircraft and buildings at the base were hit by insurgent fire. The official said: "The attack is long over and now UK and US forces are in the process of conducting an assessment to discover the extent of the damage and go through the camp to make sure everything is secure." The attack was aimed at Camp Leatherneck, the US sector of Camp Bastion which is the main American base in southern Afghanistan. Although Bastion is a British base, it is also home to American, Estonian, Danish and Afghan troops. It has two runways, a hospital and is the supply hub for southern Afghanistan handling thousands of flights of every month. The base is in desert several miles outside of Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province. A Washington official said the attack involved a range of weapons, possibly including mortars, rockets or rocket-propelled grenades, as well as small arms. The base is often subject to mortar fire, but officials in Afghanistan said the damage was far more severe than normal.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Law that led to push to recall governor Scott Walker is found unconstitutional after two public-workers unions sue A Wisconsin judge has struck down the state law championed by governor Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers. It was not clear if the ruling means the law is immediately suspended. The law took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year. Anger over the law's passage led to an effort to recall Walker from office in June. Walker won and became the first governor in US history to survive a recall. His victory was seen as adding momentum to wider Republican party efforts to reclaim the Senate and the White House in November. Dane County circuit judge Juan Colas ruled Friday that the law violates both the state and US constitution and is null and void. The ruling comes after a lawsuit brought by the Madison teachers union and a union for Milwaukee city employees. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said he was confident the decision will be overturned on appeal. "We believe the law is constitutional," said Dana Brueck, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice. Lester Pines, an attorney for Madison Teachers Inc, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The proposal was introduced shortly after Walker took office in February last year. It resulted in fierce opposition and led to large protests at the state capitol that lasted for weeks. All 14 Democratic state senators fled the state to Illinois for three weeks in a failed attempt to stop the law's passage from the Republican-controlled legislature. The ruling comes as Wisconsin has emerged as a potential battleground in the presidential election. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, who is trying to make inroads in traditionally Democratic territory, chose Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. President Barack Obama is travelling to Wisconsin next week, a sign that his re-election campaign may be concerned about his prospects in a state he won in 2008.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | American victims of US consulate attack in Libya are returned to US soil as violence widens to include more embassy attacks A wave of anger that saw US, British and German embassies in Khartoum attacked by rioters swept across the Muslim world on Friday, with violent scenes playing out on streets from north Africa to south-east Asia. Protests, mostly aimed at US embassies and galvanised by the emergence of a crude anti-Islam video made in California, were reported in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Jerusalem and the West Bank, Kashmir, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Nigerian city of Jos. In Tunis, crowds of rioters throwing stones clashed with police outside the US embassy, who responded with teargas. Several dozen protesters briefly stormed the embassy compound, tearing down the American flag and raising a banner bearing the Muslim profession of faith, the Associated Press reported. Reports said at least two demonstrators had been killed. A fire could be seen within the embassy compound, and the American school in Tunis was also reported to be ablaze. Some of the worst violence of the day was in the Sudanese capital, where protesters targeted the German embassy first, storming through the outer wall and setting fire to buildings and a car near the gates before they were pushed back by police firing teargas. German diplomats fled to the British embassy next door, which became the next target of the mob. The US embassy in Khartoum, which appears to have been the next target, announced that protesters had been expelled from its compound. The embassy attacks in Sudan marked the first time anti-US protests over the film had mutated into a broader anti-western revolt. In Cairo, where the current wave of unrest began on Tuesday, clashes between demonstrators and police erupted in the city for a fourth straight day, with one person left dead. Defying an appeal from president Mohamed Morsi to protect embassies, the crowds had gathered in Tahrir Square after Friday prayers where they tore up a US flag. When they tried to move towards the embassy, they were blocked by police, who fired tear gas. As the riots continued to spread, the bodies of four state department officials killed in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, including the ambassador to Libya, were returned to US soil. They were met by Barack Obama who said their deaths must cause even the most hopeful to question a fundamental American belief in leaving the world a better place. Speaking next to the flag-draped coffins of the ambassador, Chris Stevens, and the three other victims at Andrews air force base in Maryland, the president praised each of the men in turn while again vowing to "bring to justice the ones who took them from us" and to "stand fast" against the continuing attacks on US embassies as anti-American protests spread across the Middle East. "They didn't simply embrace the American ideal, they lived it. They embodied it. The courage, the hope and, yes, the idealism. That fundamental American belief that we can leave this world a little better than before," said Obama, who was accompanied by secretary of state Hillary Clinton and other senior members of the administration. "I know that this awful loss, the terrible images of recent days, the pictures we're seeing again today, have caused some to question this work. And there is no doubt that these are difficult days. In moments such as this, so much anger and violence, even the most hopeful among us must wonder." But, the president said, there were also Libyans who took to the streets with homemade signs repudiating the killings. Two US destroyers have been deployed to the Libyan coast and a 50-strong unit of marines trained in counter-terrorist operations have arrived in country. US drones over Benghazi were targeted by anti-aircraft fire by the extremist groups in the area who are believed to have led Tuesday's storming of the consulate. As a result, the city's airport was temporarily closed. As Washington scrambled to protect its far-flung diplomats, marines were also reported to have arrived to bolster security at the embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, which has also been the target of rioters. It was unclear how much the violence was spontaneous and to what extent it had been orchestrated. The film involved was apparently made last year by a Coptic Christian living in Los Angeles, using actors who have said they had no idea they were making an anti-Islam film. The offensive language about the prophet Muhammad was dubbed in later. A 14-minute clip of the film appeared on YouTube in July but only began to generate widespread anger this week, when it was promoted by radical Islamophobic Christians in the US and then broadcast in Egypt by Islamic activists. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, denounced the film as "disgusting and reprehensible". US officials have said they believe outrage over the film may have been used by an extremist Libyan group, Ansar al-Sharia, as cover and a diversion for an assault on the Benghazi consulate that had been long planned for the 11th anniversary of the 11 September attacks. The president of the Libyan assembly, Yousef al-Megariaf, agreed. During a visit to Benghazi, he described the storming of the consulate as "pre-planned to hit at the core of the relationship between Libya and the United States".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Friday protests against 'the Innocence of Muslims' film occur in Jordan, Iraq, Kashmir, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen and several other countries
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | School board president says the 'heavy lifting' is over but few details have emerged on possible compromises or agreements A week-long strike by teachers in Chicago appeared to be heading toward a resolution Friday after negotiators emerged from marathon talks to say they had achieved a "framework" to end the walkout in time for students to return to class Monday. Chicago school board president David Vitale said the "heavy lifting" was over. He declined to say where each side compromised and stressed that union delegates still must vote to formally end the strike. Vitale said the agreement gives children the time they need in the classroom and teachers the respect they deserve. Robert Bloch, an attorney for the Chicago teachers union, said union leaders expected to complete the contract language in time to present a final package to 700 union delegates sometime Sunday. The walkout, the first by Chicago teachers in 25 years, canceled five days of school for more than 350,000 public school students who had just returned from summer vacation. As the bargaining dragged on, teachers returned to the streets for rallies to press the union's demands, which include a plan for laid-off instructors to get first dibs on job openings and for a teacher-evaluation system that does not rely heavily on student test scores. On Thursday, contract talks pushed on for more than 15 hours. Vitale said early Friday that the two sides had worked beyond the evaluations issue and had begun crunching numbers on financial matters. Union president Karen Lewis said negotiators had many "productive" conversations, but she declined to describe the talks in detail. "It was a long day," Lewis said. "There were some creative ideas passed around, but we still do not have an agreement." The union scheduled a Friday afternoon meeting of the delegates who would be required to approve any contract settlement with a majority vote. About 15 minutes after Lewis entered the meeting, delegates could be seen through the windows cheering and applauding, some on them on their feet and pumping their fists in the air. Journalists were not allowed inside, and there was no way to know what they were applauding. The strike by more than 25,000 teachers in the nation's third-largest school district has idled many children and teenagers, leaving some unsupervised in gang-dominated neighborhoods. It also has been a potent display of union power at a time when organized labor has lost ground around the nation. The union is trying to win assurances that laid-off but qualified teachers get dibs on jobs anywhere in the district. But Illinois law gives individual principals in Chicago the right to hire the teachers they want, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel argues it's unfair to hold principals accountable for their schools' performance if they can't pick their own teams. The district has offered a compromise. If schools close, teachers would have the first right to jobs matching their qualifications at schools that absorb the children from the closed school. The proposal also includes provisions for teachers who aren't hired, including severance. It wasn't clear if the union had accepted the proposal, but Lewis said it "did not intend to sign an agreement until these matters are addressed." Readers of the Sun-Times opened the paper Friday to a full-page letter to Emanuel written by the Boston teachers union. In the letter, the union reminded readers that some of the things Chicago teachers are fighting have long been available to Boston teachers, including the right to let teachers with seniority move into jobs in other schools if their schools close down. Perhaps more significantly, the union took Emanuel to task for the contentiousness of the negotiations, putting the blame on the mayor's shoulders. "Perhaps you can learn from us – and begin to treat your own teaching force with the same respect," the union wrote. Meanwhile, Chicago teachers said they were planning a "Wisconsin-style" rally for Saturday, regardless of whether there is a deal on the contract. The union has won widespread support from other teachers unions around the country, and a couple of hundred Wisconsin teachers planned to come to Chicago to join the event. "It's really sort of a spontaneous kind of organizing," said Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, which unsuccessfully sought the recall of Gov. Scott Walker. The walkout is the first Chicago teachers strike in 25 years. A 1987 walkout lasted 19 days.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gary Haugen was convicted of murder and sentenced to die on death row before the governor imposed an injunction on capital punishment, leaving him and other inmates in a strange limbo A convicted murderer in Oregon is suing for the right to die by lethal injection after accusing the state governor of cowardice for announcing he would not authorise any more executions but granting only a temporary reprieve to death row prisoners. Governor John Kitzhaber this week asked for the state supreme court to force Gary Haugen, 50, who has spent almost all his adult life in prison, to accept a stay of execution until the state legislature or a public referendum decides the future of capital punishment. But Haugen said that life on death row is soul destroying and mind numbing. He won a court order last month for his execution date, originally set for last December, to be reinstated in protest at what he calls a "broken system". Haugen was condemned for murdering a fellow inmate nine years ago while serving a life term for beating his former girlfriend's mother to death with a hammer and a baseball bat in 1981. Kitzhaber issued a moratorium on executions last year, saying he regards the death penalty as "morally wrong". Haugen initially welcomed the move because he thought it amounted to a commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment but turned against the governor when he realised he was receiving only a temporary reprieve while the future of Oregon's death penalty is decided. If the state does not scrap capital punishment, the reprieve would not stop the next governor from ordering the execution of Haugen or any one of the 36 other people, including a woman, on death row. Haugen's lawyers argued that a reprieve, unlike a pardon, must be agreed by the condemned man. In August, a court agreed, setting the clock ticking again on his execution. Haugen said it was his right to choose to die. "This is my free will. This is my constitutional right," he told the court. "You know, we need to put this to sleep. That's probably the wrong expression." Kitzhaber, a former doctor who favours cowboy boots at the statehouse and wore jeans to his inauguration, announced the moratorium in November just two weeks before Haugen was to be put to death. He said his authorisation of the executions of two men during a previous term as governor in the 1990s had been "the most agonising and difficult decisions" he made in office and that he no longer believed in capital punishment. "The death penalty as practiced in Oregon is neither fair nor just, and it is not swift or certain. It is not applied equally to all," Kitzhaber said in announcing the moratorium. "It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach. I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer, and I will not allow further executions while I am governor." Kitzhaber said a particular problem is that only condemned prisoners who abandon the lengthy appeals process out of desperation are ever executed.
"It is a perversion of justice that the single best indicator of who will and will not be executed has nothing to do with the circumstances of a crime or the findings of a jury. The only factor that determines whether someone sentenced to death in Oregon is actually executed is that they volunteer," he said. Jeff Ellis, director of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that no one has been executed in the state in the past half a century who did not effectively ask to die. "We haven't had an execution of an individual who's gone through the entire court process in over 50 years in Oregon. You get individuals who either suffer from mental illness or who get so beaten down by the conditions of enduring life on death row that every decade or so somebody gives up. Every decade or so we execute somebody who gave up along the way. That is hardly functioning system," he said. But the governor did not commute the sentences of those on death row to life imprisonment, as he had the power to do. He said that was not his decision to make given that a referendum voted to reinstate capital punishment in 1984 and he wanted the moratorium to prod the state legislature into a "long overdue re-evaluation" of the issue. Haugen said he agreed with the moratorium but criticised the governor for leaving death row prisoners to continue to deal with an appeals process Kitzhaber said is discredited. "You're not going to execute people, but you're going to continue to allow people to litigate in a broken system?" he told the Statesman Journal in Oregon's capital, Salem.
Haugen called the governor's decision to grant him a temporary reprieve rather than commute his sentence "a coward's move" that left him in a "void". The condemned man mocked the governor, saying he did not have the guts to carry out the execution. "I feel he's a paper cowboy," he said. "He couldn't pull the trigger."
At a court hearing in July, Haugen's lawyer, Harrison Latto, said the reprieve was a form of torture. "It could be a day, could be seven years. During that indefinite period of time, they're saying: sit tight and we'll tell you at the end of that period whether you'll be executed or not," he said. The governor's attorney, Tim Sylwester, said Haugen cannot refuse the reprieve unless it has strings attached. "He has a death sentence he can't challenge," Sylwester said. "Right now, you're serving a life sentence, it's unconditional. So you can't refuse it." The judge who cleared the way for Haugen to seek execution, Tim Alexander, said he set aside his personal views in doing so. "I agree with many of the concerns expressed by the governor, and share his hope that the legislature will be receptive to modifying and improving Oregon laws regarding sentencing for aggravated murder," he said in his judgement. "Many Oregon judges with experience presiding over death penalty cases would concur that the current law requires spending extraordinary sums of tax dollars that could be better used for other purposes to enforce a system that rarely, if ever, result in executions." Kitzhaber's spokesman, Tim Raphael, said the governor expects to prevail on appeal. "We're confident the governor has the authority to issue a reprieve, and we look forward to getting clarity from the supreme court," he said. Ellis said that although he would like to see the total abolition of capital punishment in Oregon, he understood why Kitzhaber chose the interim measure of a temporary reprieve for Haugen rather than commuting the death sentences of all those facing possible execution. "I think the governor was attempting to balance the power that he has as the chief executive in this state to grant clemency but also wanting to keep in mind the democratic will of the people," he said. "I see his actions as completely consistent with the appropriate role of a governor in a democratic society." Oregon has had a turbulent relationship with the death penalty. It was outlawed in the state from 1914 to 1920, and again for 14 years from 1964. It was scrapped again in 1981 but reinstated three years later in a referendum.
Ellis said he thinks attitudes are again swinging away from capital punishment. "I think Oregonians are ready to abolish it again. The death penalty debate has turned from a relatively simple debate – the choice of do you think it's moral or do you think it's immoral? – to a much more complex choice of whether this keeps us safe and, more importantly, are there better alternatives? We now know that the cost of the death penalty is extraordinary. In Oregon, we pay these extraordinary costs and the only people we execute are folks who give up their appeal," he said. It costs about $20m a year for the state to fund the legal process, including the mandatory 10 stages of appeal, as well as maintain death row – a significant amount at a time when the state is forcing deep cuts to education and other public services. But Kitzhaber's move met with strong criticism from some prosecutors in the state and the family of Haugen's first victim. District attorney Bernice Barnett, who sent another inmate to death row for murder, criticised the governor for not having told voters when he ran for election that he planned to impose a moratorium. Josh Marquis, another district attorney, accused Kitzhaber of failing to carry out his duty to follow the law. Ard Pratt, ex-husband of the woman Haugen beat to death, called the governor's granting of a reprieve "a miscarriage of justice". Haugen's defence lawyers last year attempted to argue that he is mentally unfit to decide his own fate because he suffers from attention deficit disorder, foetal alcohol syndrome and mental problems. During a hearing on his competence, Haugen made clear he wants to die.
"Do you understand what the effect of the death sentence will be?" he was asked. "Well, one of them will be that we'll never have to have this conversation again," Haugen replied.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Roitfeld achieved notoriety as editor of French Vogue, where she was accused of promoting 'porno chic', anorexia and racism. Now she's launched a magazine of her own Carine Roitfeld began wearing high heels in order to look Mario Testino in the eye. Long before she became editor of French Vogue, Roitfeld was a young stylist working with Testino, then a little-known photographer. "Mario has a very strong idea of how a woman should look, how she should stand, how the photo should be," Roitfeld says. "But I have a lot of ideas as well. So I had to get him to listen to me. It was difficult. Well, you know Mario is very tall. So I realised I needed to be looking him in the eye when we were shooting." Before that, she had usually worn flat shoes – for a stylist, a fashion shoot is a long working day spent mostly standing – but she swapped them for high heels. "And it worked. He has good ideas, but I have good ideas too." The stilettos were a smart move. The early advertising campaigns the pair shot, for Tom Ford's Gucci, went on to define fashion's aesthetic for the best part of a decade. Interesting that Roitfeld, a controversial figure whose erotica-tinted aesthetic has been criticised as fuelling the sexualisation of fashion imagery, should use a stiletto on a fashion shoot not for sex appeal, but to square up to a male ego. Underestimate her at your peril. At 57 years old and after three decades in fashion, 20 months clear of a decade-long tenure at French Vogue, she is a rock star of the fashion front row. At New York fashion week this week, the launch party for CR Fashion Book, the biannual magazine that marks Roitfeld's return to the editor's chair, was the invitation everyone wanted. On an evening that saw a tornado hit Queens, and Manhattan buffeted and drenched by wind and rain from the storm's coat-tails, every hot model in town showed up to the Frick Collection in black tie to pay homage to Roitfeld, who held court in bandage-tight, floor-length black Alaïa. Our interview is originally scheduled for the day after the party, but Roitfeld's new baby granddaughter, three-month old Romy, turns out to be in town and at the party, Roitfeld asks if I mind moving our slot. ("I must see her, I am sure you understand, no?") Two days later, we meet at the Standard East, a fancy new downtown hotel that has loaned Roitfeld rooms on the 18th floor to use as offices. She is wearing her signature pencil skirt, today by Balenciaga, along with a fitted black sweater (Alaïa) and towering apple-green platform sandals (Balenciaga). In person, she is surprisingly sweet, much more approachable than her public image suggests, with richly Parisian-flecked English that is as expressive as it is grammatically flawed. I ask how she enjoyed the party. "I thought it was a great party, all the very beautiful people were there. But I had so many people to talk to. And I think maybe I drank a lot. Every time I am in a picture, someone takes my vodka glass away, because you don't want to hold a drink in a photograph. And every time the glass comes back, it is full. So I don't know how many vodkas, you see." At most such launches in NYC, the host nurses a Pellegrino. But then, nobody ever accused Roitfeld of being vanilla. Scandal is what she does. Her French Vogue was notorious for an aesthetic that was dubbed "porno chic": nudity, bondage, blood. Karen Elson was tied up with a curtain cord. Sometimes it seemed there were more pictures in hotel bedrooms than fashion studios, more nipples than dresses. She was accused of promoting anorexia by printing semi-nude photos of very thin models, and of racism when the blond Dutch model Lara Stone appeared in the magazine painted black. One of her final issues, guest edited by Tom Ford, featured a 10-year-old model in full makeup posing on a tiger skin. Shortly after that photo was published to a media furore, Roitfeld and Condé Nast went their separate ways. So when it was announced that Roitfeld was launching an independent magazine, with no prissy publishing house to worry about, the industry held its breath for the most outrageous magazine yet. As it turns out, the first issue of CR Fashion Book is a shock, but not in a way anyone predicted. Double-sided, the magazine has two covers. One shows Kate Upton, the voluptuous blond Sports Illustrated covergirl who resembles a young Monroe, holding a clutch of baby ducklings to her creamy bosom. The other shows a young girl wearing bunny ears, grinning from ear to ear while holding a plumply naked baby. Shot by Bruce Weber, the images radiate wholesomeness. "No one is expecting this, huh?" Roitfeld smiles. "They expect me to have a very sexy girl on the cover, Kate Moss, or Lara Stone, legs, very sexy, lots of black around the eyes. But when I started to plan this magazine, I had just found out my daughter was pregnant. I started seeing babies everywhere, because I was thinking all the time about babies. I am so happy to be a grandmother, and it is amazing to be around a baby again. Babies are a mind-opener. They make you see the world in a whole new way. I had forgotten all this, because it is a long time since my children [she has a grown-up son, Vladimir, as well as her daughter] were small." Her favourite image in the magazine is the cover shot of the girl holding the baby. "The baby had just peed on her at that moment, and the girl was laughing, and her face was just so full of joy. It is like a family picture, no? Every family would love to have that picture on their chimney." Inside, there are more dimply naked babies and puppies and more pregnant women, including a portrait of daughter Julia taken while pregnant with Romy. There is a model in Givenchy haute couture pushing a pram, and another in black-lace Gucci carrying a baby doll. There are more headshots, and fewer nude shots, than in Roitfeld's Vogue. The running theme is "Rebirth". There is still eroticism and provocation – Ford has written and photographed a "fairytale" about a Princess of New York ("when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was gorgeous"), which includes a woman lying motionless in a glass casket, wearing a damson Dior suit and getting a pedicure. But the overall mood is upbeat, celebratory, and revolves around family. "I wanted to do something different. When I did my book last year [Irreverent, a kind of visual autobiography], I was a little shocked because I did not realise I used so much blood, so many knives. The book was like going to a shrink. I am ready to do something new now. I have always had a different side to me, a very family side. "I am a mum, and now I am a grandma, and I have been with the same man for ever (her partner is Christian Restoin)." What's more, she says, it's not just her who is obsessed with babies. "When I was young, no one got married. Now, all the young people, they want to get married, they want security. Now that my children's friends are getting married, I go to more weddings than I ever did when I was young." What Roitfeld has, which makes her bankable even in the dicey world of magazines, is a point of view everyone wants to hear. It is worth noting that her magazine is biannual, like the catwalk show season, launched concurrently with the catwalk shows, and – in contrast to any other fashion magazine – does not take its cue from the mood of the current season's clothes. (This autumn's clothes are rather dark and gothic, a world away from ducklings and bunny ears.) The format places her as an opinion-former alongside the designers, looking ahead to future seasons, rather than in line with traditional magazines, selling clothes currently in store. Oh, and the next issue, she says, will be completely different. "You will be very surprised, I promise," she teases. "Carine is a born performer, and magazines are her stage," says Stephen Gan, Roitfeld's business partner and longtime collaborator. Roitfeld and Gan, who is the editor-in-chief of V and creative director of Harper's Bazaar magazines, hatched the idea for CR Fashion Book in New York, early this year. The double-sided, wordless cover was conceived because the magazine, which sells for $15 (£9.30), "should be like a coffee-table book. When you get bored of one picture, you can turn it over," says Roitfeld. Features printed in other languages, such as Chinese (then translated on the following spread) are another innovation "because the printed languages look so beautiful, and because I think international readers will be happy to see something in their language". Advertising is placed alphabetically, with Alexander McQueen at the front and Valentino at the back. Did she have trouble convincing the advertisers to go along with it? "No one had a problem with it!" says Roitfeld triumphantly. Certainly, the 340-page issue is fat, with 140 ads (outpacing the original plan for 100) sold at $40,000 per double-page spread. CR Fashion Book will also have a life online. The traditional front-of-book, newsy section will live only on the website, alongside pictures and diary entries posted by Roitfeld. "I am from the age of magazines," she says, "so the internet is terrifying to me. But I am learning." In Roitfeld's account, most of the scandal that has swirled around her career is a fuss about nothing. She flatly denies she was fired from Vogue – and indeed, the last time I interviewed her, when she had been editor for eight years, she said she thought 10 years would be about the right length of time in the job. On the subject of controversy, she says she is "against taboos", but that she never printed an image she wouldn't want her children to see. She doesn't use cigarettes in her photographs. She dismisses as "ridiculous" the allegation of racism, saying her French edition featured many more black models than most European or American Vogues. "For me, a model is never just a model. She is an actress. We are telling a story, and she is playing her part. I get on well with models and I like to treat them well." She rejects the moniker of "porno chic", preferring "erotic chic". The little girls in the Tom Ford shoot were not in any way exposed, she says: they wore T-shirts under their evening gowns. "But people will see what they want to see." Nor will she acknowledge any rivalry with Anna Wintour, however much the fashion industry may stir. "Anna was my boss for a long time. I respect her. We worked fine together. She's tough, but she's honest. And when my kids moved to New York, she was one of the first people who invited them to dinner. As a mum, I don't forget that." Leaving the cushioned world of Vogue was, she says, a shock. "Before, I had an assistant, a car, everything organised for me. Now I have to call taxis on the street. Vogue was like a golden cage. It is a beautiful life, but for me, it is better to have a change. I feel I am making a new family. It is a wonderful new energy." Roitfeld is in a good mood. "I'm happy because I didn't know how it would be, to be at fashion shows, and not be the editor of Vogue. I did not know where they would sit me. You know what the fashion world can be like ... and now I am happy and surprised, because I know I have many friends." Zipping around New York in yellow taxis, she finds, is fine. She tells me that she has taken up ballet classes in recent years, and stands to show me the extra strips of fabric her dressmaker has inserted in her pencil skirt, because "still I am skinny, but now my bottom is more round. It's good, no? I don't want to do Botox, that kind of thing. But I think how you hold yourself is very important. Ballet is good, because it makes you stand up tall."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Presidential candidate and advisers describe Obama's handling of Middle Easy policy as 'amateur hour' amid Romney missteps The Republican presidential campaign has used the backdrop of the spreading anti-US protests in the Middle East to accuse Barack Obama of a failure of leadership through weakness in confronting danger and betrayal of America's closest ally in the region, Israel. Mitt Romney spurned criticism that he distastefully exploited for political gain the deaths of four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, in an attack on Tuesday, to press home criticism that the president is more willing to apologise to enemies than support friends. He was joined by his Republican running mate, Paul Ryan, who accused Obama of a "lack of moral clarity" and firmness in his foreign policy in confronting evil. Ryan told the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington the president is weak in support of America's friends and in confronting its enemies. "Look across that region today, and what do we see? The slaughter of brave dissidents in Syria. Mobs storming American embassies and consulates. Iran four years closer to gaining a nuclear weapon. Israel, our best ally in the region, treated with indifference bordering on contempt by the Obama administration," he said. "Amid all these threats and dangers, what we do not see is steady, consistent American leadership. In the days ahead, and in the years ahead, American foreign policy needs moral clarity and firmness of purpose. Only by the confident exercise of American influence are evil and violence overcome." But Ryan did not say what kind of "moral clarity" Romney would provide as president. For his part, Romney attacked Obama for declining to meet the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, when he is in the US later this month. The Republican candidate called the move "an extraordinarily confusing and troubling decision". "This is our closest ally and best friend in the Middle East," Romney said at a New York fundraiser. "It stands between a nuclear Iran in some respects and a region that would have more stability without a nuclear Iran. And yet when the prime minister of Israel says, 'I'm going to be in New York. Can we meet?' And the president says, 'No, I'm too busy,' I can't imagine that circumstance. I don't know what the president is trying to send to the world in terms of a message but it does send a message." The White House has denied the president snubbed Netanyahu, saying it was merely a matter of logistics because they will not be in New York at the same time. Israeli officials have said Netanyahu offered to travel to Washington but was rebuffed. The White House denied it. However, the spat was seen as further evidence of the deepening divide between Washington and Jerusalem over how far to go in confronting Iran over its nuclear programme. One of Romney's foreign policy advisers, Richard Williamson, described Obama's handling of the Middle East crisis as "amateur hour" and blamed it on the fact that respect of the US has fallen. "There's a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you'd be in a different situation," he told the Washington Post. Other Republicans have accused the president of being too distracted by campaigning to focus sufficiently on the growing Middle East crisis. "They've got to get out of campaign mode and get into leadership mode," said Congressman Randy Forbes, a member of the House of Representatives armed services committee, told Fox News. "And they really haven't done that, they haven't done it in this situation." The White House quickly accused Romney of exploiting a tragic situation for electoral gain. "It is astonishing that the Romney campaign continues to shamelessly politicise a sensitive international situation," the Obama campaign said. "The fact is that any president of either party is going to be confronted by crises while in office, and Governor Romney continues to demonstrate that he is not at all prepared to manage them." The president and US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, were expected to speak at a ceremony later on Friday for the arrival of the bodies of the four Americans killed in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, including the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | British, German and US envoys targeted as riots erupt from north Africa to south-east Asia as well as Australia A wave of anger that saw British, German and American embassies in Khartoum attacked by rioters swept across the Muslim world with violent scenes playing out on streets from north Africa to south-east Asia. The continuing demonstrations have claimed further lives. Two protesters were killed in Khartoum, Sudan and two more in Tunis, Tunisia. Four were
killed in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. Police in Cairo cleared demonstrators from outside the American embassy and Tahrir Square. A 36-year old man died after being hit by a rubber bullet In Sydney around 200 demonstrators clashed with police outside the American consulate. Friday's worst violence was in the Sudanese capital, where protesters targeted the German embassy first, storming through the outer wall and setting fire to buildings and a car near the gates before they were pushed back by police firing teargas. German diplomats fled to the British embassy next door, which became the next target of the mob. William Hague, the foreign secretary, said: "Sudanese police attended the scene, but demonstrators were able to break down a perimeter wall and cause minor damage to the compound. They did not attempt to gain access to the British embassy building." No staff had been harmed, he added. Reports said at least one of the rioters had been killed in clashes with police. The US embassy in Khartoum, which appears to have been the next target, announced that protesters had been expelled from its compound. Protests, mostly aimed at US embassies and galvanised by the emergence of a crude anti-Islam video made in California, were also reported in Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Jerusalem and the West Bank, Kashmir, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Nigerian city of Jos. In Tunis, crowds of rioters throwing stones clashed with police outside the US embassy, who responded with teargas. A fire could be seen within the embassy compound and the American school in Tunis was also reported to be ablaze. Reports said two demonstrators had been killed. The embassy attacks in Sudan marked the first time anti-US protests over the film had mutated into a broader anti-western revolt. In his statement on the events in Khartoum, Hague said: "The neighbouring German embassy, which appeared to be the focus of the attack, was set on fire and severely damaged. We remained in close contact with the Germans throughout the incident and were able to offer shelter to German diplomats. I am pleased to say that they are also safe." The unrest began in Tuesday in Cairo, when protesters stormed the American embassy, and then spread to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, where the US consulate was stormed and gutted by an armed mob who killed the ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other employees. Two US destroyers have been deployed to the Libyan coast and Barack Obama dispatched a unit of marines trained in counterterrorist operations to the country. US drones over Benghazi were targeted by anti-aircraft fire by the extremist groups in the area who are believed to have led Tuesday's storming of the consulate. As a result, the city's airport was temporarily closed. As Washington scrambled to protect its far-flung diplomats, US marines were also reported to have arrived to bolster security at the embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, which has also been the target of rioters. It was unclear how much the violence was spontaneous and to what extent it had been orchestrated. The film involved was apparently made last year by a Coptic Christian living in Los Angeles, using actors who have said they had no idea they were making an anti-Islam film. The offensive language about the prophet Muhammad was dubbed in later. A 14-minute clip of the film appeared on YouTube in July but only began to generate widespread anger this week, when it was promoted by radical Islamophobic Christians in the US and then broadcast in Egypt by Islamic activists. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, denounced the film as "disgusting and reprehensible". US officials have said they believe outrage over the film may have been used by an extremist Libyan group, Ansar al-Sharia, as cover and a diversion for an assault on the Benghazi consulate that had been long planned for the 11th anniversary of the 11 September attacks. The president of the Libyan assembly, Yousef al-Megariaf, agreed. During a visit to Benghazi, he described the storming of the consulate as "pre-planned to hit at the core of the relationship between Libya and the United States". Small anti-American demonstrations in Damascus and Tehran appeared to have been facilitated by the authorities there.
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