|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | One of Colombia's most wanted drug traffickers Daniel Barrera arrested in Venezuela with help of British and US intelligence One of Colombia's most wanted drug traffickers has been captured in neighbouring Venezuela with the help of Caracas as well as British and US intelligence agencies, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, said. Authorities in Colombia, one of the world's leading cocaine producers, had been closing in on Daniel Barrera – known as "Crazy Barrera" – in recent weeks, arresting 36 members of his gang and seizing 5 tonnes of the drug and 21 aircraft. "Crazy Barrera has been perhaps the most wanted kingpin in recent times," Santos said. "He has dedicated 20 years to doing bad things to Colombia and the world, all types of crime, perverse alliances with paramilitaries, with the Farc [rebel group]." In a televised speech, Colombia's president said Barrera was captured in San Cristobal, about 15 miles (24km) from the Colombian border. Santos said the operation was directed from Washington by a Colombian police general. The government said Barrera's smuggling ring was capable of sending 10 tonnes of cocaine a month to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, the most powerful organised crime gang in the Americas. He had a $5m (£3m) bounty on his head from the US and $2.7m (£1.7m) from the Colombian government. Santos thanked US and British intelligence agencies as well as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's government for their help. Chavez's government summoned reporters to a news conference early on Wednesday and issued a brief statement hailing the operation as further proof of Venezuela's "indomitable will" in the fight against drug trafficking. "[Venezuela] ratifies its determination to continue with a sovereign policy in this battle, whose results can be seen by the international community," the foreign ministry said. The Venezuelan government's statement did not mention the involvement of US, British or Colombian agents, saying Barrera was captured by Venezuelan forces led by the interior ministry's national anti-drugs office. The participation of foreign counter-narcotics agents would be something of a surprise, although far from impossible, given Chavez's frequent verbal attacks on the role of western "imperialist" governments in Latin America. He expelled US drug enforcement administration officials from Venezuela in 2005 after accusing them of spying, but says his government has greatly increased its number of arrests of traffickers and its seizures of drugs since then. Santos has forged a friendship with the socialist leader since Colombia's president took power in 2010. He has touted previous arrests of other Colombian traffickers in Venezuela as proof that he and Chavez's ideologically opposed governments are united against organised crime. Santos risks the ire of his Venezuelan counterpart on Wednesday, however, when he is due to meet Henrique Capriles, Chavez's election rival ahead of Venezuela's election on 7 October, in Bogota. Santos's economic policies have won Colombia investment grade status from the three leading rating agencies but the achievements have been tarnished by a recent increase in violence by leftist rebels, including attacks on oil companies. Drug-funded criminal gangs composed of members of former rightwing paramilitary groups and old cartels have become a big security threat for the nation of 46 million people. While bloodshed from Colombia's long guerrilla and drug wars has dropped since a US-backed offensive began more than a decade ago, bombings, murders and combat continue, mainly in border areas. The decline in violence has attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment, mainly in oil and mining, which has helped the country boost crude and coal output to historic highs.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ancient text contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to 'my wife', says expert in the history of Christianity at Harvard A Harvard University professor has unveiled a fourth-century fragment of papyrus she said is the only existing ancient text quoting Jesus explicitly referring to having a wife. Karen King, an expert in the history of Christianity, said the text contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to "my wife," whom he identifies as Mary. King says the fragment of Coptic script is a copy of a gospel, probably written in Greek in the second century. King helped translate and unveiled the tiny fragment at a conference of Coptic experts in Rome. She said it doesn't prove Jesus was married but speaks to issues of family and marriage that faced Christians. Four words in the 1.5 x 3in (3.8 x 7.6cm) fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, King said. Those words, written in a language of ancient Egyptian Christians, translate to "Jesus said to them, my wife," King said in a statement. He added that in the dialogue the disciples discuss whether Mary is worthy and Jesus says: "She can be my disciple." Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was unmarried even though there was no reliable historical evidence to support that, King said. The new gospel, she said, "tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous
debates about sexuality and marriage". "From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry," she said, "but it was over a century after Jesus's death before they began appealing to Jesus's marital status to support their positions." King presented the document at a six-day conference being held at Rome's La Sapienza University and at the Augustinianum institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. While the Vatican newspaper and Vatican Radio frequently cover such academic conferences, there was no mention of King's discovery in any Vatican media on Tuesday. That said, her paper was one of nearly 60 delivered on Tuesday at the vast conference, which drew 300 academics from around the globe. The fragment belongs to an anonymous private collector who contacted King to help translate and analyse it. Nothing is known about the circumstances of its discovery, but it had to have come from Egypt, where the dry climate allows ancient writings to survive and because it was written in a script used in ancient times there, King said. The unclear origins of the document should encourage people to be cautious, said Bible scholar Ben Witherington III, a professor and author who teaches at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He said the document follows the pattern of Gnostic texts of the second, third and fourth centuries, using "the language of intimacy to talk about spiritual relationships". "What we hear from the Gnostic is this practice called the sister-wife texts, where they carried around a female believer with them who cooks for them and cleans for them and does the usual domestic chores, but they have no sexual relationship whatsoever," during the strong monastic periods of the third and fourth centuries, Witherington said. "In other words, this is no confirmation of the Da Vinci Code or even of the idea that the Gnostics thought Jesus was married in the normal sense of the word." Thes doubts, King said, should not stop scholars from continuing to examine the document. Those who conducted an initial examination of the fragment include Roger Bagnall, a papyrologist who is director of the New York-based Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and AnneMarie Luijendijk, a scholar of the New Testament and early Christianity from Princeton University. They said their study of the papyrus, the handwriting and how the ink was chemically absorbed shows it is highly probable it is an ancient text, King said. Another scholar, Ariel Shisha-Halevy, professor of linguistics at Hebrew University and a leading expert on Coptic language, reviewed the text's language and concluded it offered no evidence of forgery. King and Luijendijk said they believe the fragment was part of a newly discovered gospel they named "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" for reference purposes. King said she dated the time it was written to the second half of the second century because the fragment shows close connections to other newly discovered gospels written at that time, especially the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Union activists accept negotiated agreement, ending more than a week of school closures The Chicago teachers' strike has ended after union activists accepted a negotiated agreement, bringing to a close more than a week of school-closures and allowing students in the nation's third largest school district to return to class. The union delegates, who extended the strike for two days on Sunday as they asked for more time to read the contract document, eventually endorsed their leader's advice that the deal they had negotiated had forced employers to concede considerable ground and that a better settlement was not possible through a strike. "We said we couldn't solve all the problems … and it was time to suspend the strike," said Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis at a news conference after the vote. "The issue is, we cannot get a perfect contract. There's no such thing as a contract that will make all of us happy. But do we stay on strike forever until every little thing we want can be gotten?" The main sticking points in the agreement were using test scores as a major component of teacher evaluation and balancing the right of teachers who are fired after school closings to be rehired against the right of principals to pick their own staff. The two sides reached a compromise on evaluation and agreed that teachers with good evaluations would be rehired. The latter point was of particular concern because the Chicago is about to embark on another round of school closures in the city's mostly black and latino areas that will throw thousands of teachers out of work. The last few days have been rocky for the union, confusing for the public and terrible for the image of the mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Union negotiators thought they had sealed an agreement and told parents, who overwhelmingly supported the strike, to prepare to send their children back to school. Then on Sunday afternoon the union's delegates demanded more time to read the contract, prolonging the strike by two more days. Emanuel, who most Chicagoans believe shoulders most blame for the strike, issued an injunction claiming the strike was illegal and asking a judge to force the teachers back to work. The judge delayed the injunction while the teachers deliberated and would have heard arguments on Wednesday. There is little evidence that the threat of legal action had any impact on the union's deliberations. There was some concern at picket lines on Tuesday morning that the union was split between the demands of teachers on the mostly white and wealthy north side and those on the mostly black and latino south and west sides, where the school closures will happen. "I'm so thrilled that people are going back," said Lewis. "All of our members are glad to be back with their kids. It's a hard decision to make to go out, and for some people it's hard to make the decision to go back in." The return to work brings to an end a frustrating week of make-shift arrangements for parents of the city's 350,000 school students. But it does not answer many of the underlying issues of poverty and creeping privatisation in one of the worst performing school districts of its size in the country.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Check out the best images from the Bernabéu José Mourinho ended this breathless contest on his knees with a sliding turf-surfing celebration that was fuelled by relief as much as joy. Until Cristiano Ronaldo dropped a hip to remove Pablo Zabaleta before unloading a dipping shot from the left angle that Joe Hart should have saved, the Real Madrid manager had witnessed a frantic close to the game that threatened to cause a week- long inquisition into him and his team. Mourinho's promise that "the best" Real Madrid would turn up had appeared empty. In this collision of more than half a billion pounds worth of supreme talent, first Edin Dzeko then Alexsandar Kolarov scored the goals that appeared to seal for Manchester City a memorable victory. Real, as their pedigree should, answered. A Marcelo curled shot that beat Hart provided the first Madrid equaliser before Karim Benzema answered Kolarov's strike and Ronaldo stepped up in the 90th minute to grab the glory as the world's second-best player should. On a sultry night in the Spanish capital City began the starriest occasion of their quest to join the game's aristocrats. Fourteen years ago minus a day Chesterfield had been the opposition at Maine Road in the third tier, when a point was scraped against 10-man opposition thanks to a Lee Bradbury equaliser. Now, as the flashlights popped and the Bernabéu howled, Vincent Kompany led out a City squad that cost £321m, to challenge a Real vintage whose price stands at £385m. This was City's second attempt at establishing themselves as a continental force. After last year's campaign ended before Christmas the pressure is on for Roberto Mancini to take his cash-soaked millionaires into the knockout stage at least. The headline team news consisted of Matija Nastasic being preferred to Joleon Lescott in central defence for a debut to remember, and Real's Michael Essien being preferred to Mesut Ozil, Luka Modric and Kaká in a 4-3-2-1 formation that had Ronaldo marauding from the left. This was the first home game for Madrid since Ronaldo declared himself unhappy. While the theory runs that the No 7's disquiet is due more to pay-rise jockeying than a love deficit for the Bernabéu, his performances have not lost any lustre, despite Madrid's poor start to La Liga. In the opening 15 minutes the Portuguese put on a show full of darting runs and ever-more menacing assaults on Joe Hart's goal, as City soaked up the expected onslaught from the nine-times European Cup winners who have not won the competition for a decade. An early shot from Ronaldo dribbled along the turf. His next flashed across Hart. Then Gonzalo Higuaín played in the former Manchester United man, again down the left, and the attempt was saved by Hart for a first corner. The closest the contest came to providing a goal in the opening half-hour came from two chances, each for Madrid, with one involving Ronaldo. The impressive Angelo Di María sprayed the ball wide and, when the 27-year-old cut in, his bullet of a shot was saved by Hart with a sideways starfish leap. The same manoeuvre rescued City moments later. Di Maria flipped a quarter-back's pass over the defence at Higuaín, who looked at the assistant referee as his fellow countryman appeared offside. When no flag went up Higuaín ran on, though a clumsy touch allowed Hart to spread his frame and smother the ball. When it broke back to the striker, Ronaldo was again on hand to receive and shoot. But the effort was deflected and Sami Khedira could not capitalise. When Di Maria set up Higuaín with another spooned ball, the striker was again unable to finish. For City there were a couple of surging Yaya Touré runs plus a move involving Maicon that looked to exploit what has been Madrid's defensive Achilles heel this season, an aerial vulnerability that does not usually feature in a Mourinho XI. This weakness was behind Sergio Ramos' demotion to the bench to make way for the 19-year-old Raphael Varane. However, when Maicon crossed from the right, both Varane and Pepe had problems with the delivery. That was about it for City before the break, with Carlos Tevez receiving scant sight of the ball in his role as lone striker. Goalless at half-time, though, would have pleased Mancini, especially after seeing the injured Samir Nasri limp off just past the half-hour. Alexsandar Kolarov, Nasri's replacement, was called into duty early in the second half: blocking a pass to Di Maria who would have had just Hart to beat. Ronaldo, who had been missing in action since his initial surge, produced a run and cross which caused Clichy problems as Di María came close to pick-pocketing him. Ronaldo had announced his return to the fray and, of course, is not a man to avoid the spotlight, as he went on to have the final, dramatic say.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Check out the best images from the Bernabéu José Mourinho ended this breathless contest on his knees with a sliding turf-surfing celebration that was fuelled by relief as much as joy. Until Cristiano Ronaldo dropped a hip to remove Pablo Zabaleta before unloading a dipping shot from the left angle that Joe Hart should have saved, the Real Madrid manager had witnessed a frantic close to the game that threatened to cause a week- long inquisition into him and his team. Mourinho's promise that "the best" Real Madrid would turn up had appeared empty. In this collision of more than half a billion pounds worth of supreme talent, first Edin Dzeko then Alexsandar Kolarov scored the goals that appeared to seal for Manchester City a memorable victory. Real, as their pedigree should, answered. A Marcelo curled shot that beat Hart provided the first Madrid equaliser before Karim Benzema answered Kolarov's strike and Ronaldo stepped up in the 90th minute to grab the glory as the world's second-best player should. On a sultry night in the Spanish capital City began the starriest occasion of their quest to join the game's aristocrats. Fourteen years ago minus a day Chesterfield had been the opposition at Maine Road in the third tier, when a point was scraped against 10-man opposition thanks to a Lee Bradbury equaliser. Now, as the flashlights popped and the Bernabéu howled, Vincent Kompany led out a City squad that cost £321m, to challenge a Real vintage whose price stands at £385m. This was City's second attempt at establishing themselves as a continental force. After last year's campaign ended before Christmas the pressure is on for Roberto Mancini to take his cash-soaked millionaires into the knockout stage at least. The headline team news consisted of Matija Nastasic being preferred to Joleon Lescott in central defence for a debut to remember, and Real's Michael Essien being preferred to Mesut Ozil, Luka Modric and Kaká in a 4-3-2-1 formation that had Ronaldo marauding from the left. This was the first home game for Madrid since Ronaldo declared himself unhappy. While the theory runs that the No 7's disquiet is due more to pay-rise jockeying than a love deficit for the Bernabéu, his performances have not lost any lustre, despite Madrid's poor start to La Liga. In the opening 15 minutes the Portuguese put on a show full of darting runs and ever-more menacing assaults on Joe Hart's goal, as City soaked up the expected onslaught from the nine-times European Cup winners who have not won the competition for a decade. An early shot from Ronaldo dribbled along the turf. His next flashed across Hart. Then Gonzalo Higuaín played in the former Manchester United man, again down the left, and the attempt was saved by Hart for a first corner. The closest the contest came to providing a goal in the opening half-hour came from two chances, each for Madrid, with one involving Ronaldo. The impressive Angelo Di María sprayed the ball wide and, when the 27-year-old cut in, his bullet of a shot was saved by Hart with a sideways starfish leap. The same manoeuvre rescued City moments later. Di Maria flipped a quarter-back's pass over the defence at Higuaín, who looked at the assistant referee as his fellow countryman appeared offside. When no flag went up Higuaín ran on, though a clumsy touch allowed Hart to spread his frame and smother the ball. When it broke back to the striker, Ronaldo was again on hand to receive and shoot. But the effort was deflected and Sami Khedira could not capitalise. When Di Maria set up Higuaín with another spooned ball, the striker was again unable to finish. For City there were a couple of surging Yaya Touré runs plus a move involving Maicon that looked to exploit what has been Madrid's defensive Achilles heel this season, an aerial vulnerability that does not usually feature in a Mourinho XI. This weakness was behind Sergio Ramos' demotion to the bench to make way for the 19-year-old Raphael Varane. However, when Maicon crossed from the right, both Varane and Pepe had problems with the delivery. That was about it for City before the break, with Carlos Tevez receiving scant sight of the ball in his role as lone striker. Goalless at half-time, though, would have pleased Mancini, especially after seeing the injured Samir Nasri limp off just past the half-hour. Alexsandar Kolarov, Nasri's replacement, was called into duty early in the second half: blocking a pass to Di Maria who would have had just Hart to beat. Ronaldo, who had been missing in action since his initial surge, produced a run and cross which caused Clichy problems as Di María came close to pick-pocketing him. Ronaldo had announced his return to the fray and, of course, is not a man to avoid the spotlight, as he went on to have the final, dramatic say.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Federal judge rules the so-called 'show me your papers' section of contentious immigration law can take effect immediately A judge has ruled that police in Arizona can immediately start enforcing the most contentious section of the state's immigration law, marking the first time officers can carry out a requirement that officers, while enforcing other laws, question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally. The decision on Tuesday by US district judge Susan Bolton is the latest milestone in a two-year legal battle over the requirement. It culminated in a US supreme court decision in June that upheld the provision on the grounds that it doesn't conflict with federal law. Opponents who call the requirement the "show me your papers" provision responded to the supreme court decision by asking Bolton to block the requirement on different grounds, arguing that it would lead to systematic racial profiling and unreasonably long detentions of Latinos if it's enforced. Other less controversial parts of the law have been in effect since July 2010, such as minor changes to the state's 2005 immigrant smuggling law and a ban on state and local government agencies from restricting the enforcement of federal immigration law. But those provisions have gotten little, if any, use since they were put into effect. Arizona's law was passed in 2010 amid voter frustration with the state's role as the busiest illegal entry point into the country. Five states – Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah – have adopted variations on Arizona's law. Despite the decision that lets Arizona's questioning requirement take effect, some backers of the law questioned the level of co-operation they will get from federal immigration agents, who will be called to verify people's immigration status and be responsible for picking up illegal immigrants from local officers. Federal immigration officers have said they will help, but only if doing so conforms to their priorities, including catching repeat violators and identifying and removing those who threaten public safety and national security. If federal agents decline to pick up illegal immigrants, local officers in some cases will likely have to let them go unless they're suspected of committing a crime that would require them to be brought to jail. To the supporters of Arizona's law, the questioning requirement was the most salient part of the statute, whose stated purpose was to make attrition through enforcement the state's immigration policy. Immigrant rights groups believe the requirement presented the most opportunities for civil rights abuses. Among the opponents of the law was the Obama administration, which filed a challenge that led to the most controversial parts of the statute being put on hold. Shortly before the law was to take effect in July 2010, Bolton prevented police from enforcing the questioning requirement and other parts of the statute, ruling the Obama administration would likely succeed in showing federal law trumps the state law. Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the measure into law, appealed the ruling, lost at the 9th circuit court of appeals and took her case to the supreme court. The Obama administration failed to persuade the nation's highest court to strike down the questioning requirement on the argument that federal law trumps the state law. A coalition of civil rights, religious and business groups then asked Bolton in July to prevent police from enforcing the questioning requirement. They offered different reasons in trying to put the brakes on the provision. This time, the opponents sought to block the provision by arguing that Latinos in Arizona would face systematic racial profiling and unreasonably long detentions if that section is enforced. Lawyers for Brewer urged the judge to let the requirement go into effect. They argued that the law's opponents were merely speculating in their racial profiling claims, that police have received training to avoid discriminatory practices and that officers must have "reasonable suspicion" that a person is in the country illegally to trigger the requirement.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | American agency for international development has until 1 October to shut its office in Moscow Russia has ordered a key US agency to shut down operations as Vladimir Putin continues to crackdown on a protest movement that he maintains was orchestrated by the US state department. The government has given the US agency for international development (USAid) until 1 October to shut its office in Moscow. "While USAid's physical presence in Russia will come to an end, we remain committed to supporting democracy, human rights, and the development of a more robust civil society in Russia," state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement. The move appeared to be the latest salvo in the Kremlin's efforts to squeeze a protest movement largely borne of civil society efforts to highlight growing government abuses. In addition to funding health and environment projects, USAid mainly focuses on supporting groups that promote democracy and human rights in Russia. "We regret this decision by the Russian government," a senior Obama administration official said. "We lament the fact that we will not be able to do the work that we've been proud to do. It's a difficult day." Putin, who returned to the presidency in May amid an unprecedented protest movement against him, has reserved particular scorn for Golos, an election monitoring organisation that receives the bulk of its budget from USAid. The group highlighted voting violations during a contested parliamentary election in December, helping bring tens of thousands into the streets as reports and videos of fraud went viral on YouTube and social networks. The administration official remained defiant about US funding of civil society in Russia, saying the order to close the agency "doesn't mean we've changed our policy of supporting the kinds of actors USAid has supported". "Over the coming weeks and months, the Obama administration will look at ways to advance our old policy objectives with new means," the official said. The situation could become reminiscent of the drawn out struggle experienced by the British Council, which was forced to shut all its offices outside Moscow in 2007 as relations plunged in the wake of the murder in London of dissident Alexander Litvinenko. About 60% of USAid's $50m budget for 2012 went to groups that promote democracy and human rights – a sharp increase from the Bush era. The agency first opened in Moscow in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Among the nearly 57 organisations that receive USAid funding in Russia are human rights NGO Memorial and anti-corruption group Transparency International. Those groups have already been squeezed. The Russian parliament passed a new law this summer that required all non-governmental organisations that receive foreign funding to brand themselves "foreign agents" on all publications and websites and to undergo extra financial checks. Although rumours that the Kremlin was pressuring USAid had long swirled, the government's means of informing Washington appeared sudden. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, first informed Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, of the planned move during a meeting at an economic summit in Vladivostok earlier this month. The foreign ministry sent official notice on 12 September. USAid's 13 diplomats will likely have to leave the country. The fate of the 60 locals that work for the office remains unclear. Officials in Washington see the Russian move as part of the continuing war of attrition by Moscow against groups clamouring for greater democracy. They say it has been clear for some time that the Russian government has been irritated by USAid's support for an array of pro-democracy organisations, civic society groups and human rights activists. Putin has drawn on Cold War stereotypes and conspiracy theories on US involvement in the Arab Spring uprisings to blame the US for encouraging Russia's own opposition movement. Relations have plunged to further lows over Moscow's defiant stance against pressuring the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • City concede two goals in last five minutes as victory turns to defeat Paul will be here from 7.25pm or so for coverage of Real Madrid v Manchester City. In the meantime, here a preview of tonight's game:
José Mourinho has warned Manchester City that Real Madrid will be "at our best" when they face them at the Bernabéu in their opening Champions League group game on Tuesday evening. The Spanish champions are reeling from a poor start to the season that continued with Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Sevilla, which left them eight points behind the leaders, Barcelona.
"To play against City motivates me as much as playing against Getafe," said Mourinho. "To win the Champions League motivates me like any other match. Motivation is something intrinsic to the job. The conviction is that tomorrow [on Tuesday evening] we will have a team. A determined, compact and solid team. I will try to field the team that I think will show up. Maybe we won't be as relaxed, or filled with the same conviction and confidence we usually have against an opponent like City, coming off a game which was terrible. "I'm sure we'll be at our best. I could be wrong but that's what I think. The lineup will not be very different [from Sevilla], nor will I try to show any player that they are not in the best condition. It will be the best that I consider to play against an opposition full of players of the highest level. I don't believe I have created doubts. The principal person responsible is me. When my teams win, we win together, and when we lose, I am the one responsible. Before losing to Sevilla I said to the players what I then said in the press conference. For this reason it is not a criticism but a conviction. "I said it to them before the game. Football is about today and tomorrow, not yesterday. Yesterday is history. I haven't been able to keep my players motivated and concentrated at the top level and that is my fault."
Here are the teams, although it should be noted that there are claims on Twitter that Uefa has published the wrong line-ups. Could it be that the mandarins accidentally scoffed the real ones somewhere between the canard au pamplemousse and black forest gateau? I'll bring you confirmation asap: in the meantime, it really does seem that Ramo and Ozil have been dropped and Essien and City new boy Nastasic are starting Real: Casilla; Arbeloa, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo; Khedira, Alonso; Di Maria, Essien, Poor Ronaldo; Higuian
Subs: Antonio, Sergio Ramos, Coentrao, Kaka, Benzema, Ozil, Modric City: Hart; Maicon, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; Javi Gracia, Y Touré, Barry; Silva, Nasri; Tevez
Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaltea, Lescott, Dzeko, Kolarov, Aguero, Rodwell Ref: D Skomina (Svn) 7.38pm: So it seems those line-ups are indeed correct. Mourinho, then, is laying down the law and telling certain spoilt slackers that their "lack of focus" is not acceptable. As for City, apparently an insider has told ITV that Mario Balotelli has been omitted from the squad for "technical reasons". 7.44pm: The away end is full, but there are abundant empty seats elsewhere in the stadium, which suggests that the economic woes in Spain mean many people have a good deal more cause to be sad than Poor Ronaldo. 1 min: We have go. For of you watching in black and white, Real are in white and City are in black. For those of you watching colour, it's the same. For those of you following only this mbm, Real are naked and City are in pink leather. 3 min: Real move quickly down the left, whereupon Ronaldo cuts inside and sends a decent long-range shot several yard wide. The poor guy just can't catch a break ... 5 min: City haven't shown much so far, just trying to keep it steady early doors. Yaya Touré, as ever, has shown a couple of classy touches but it's Real who've had most of the ball. 7 min: A lovely flick by Silva sends Tevez scampering into the danger zone but Pepe hurtles across to snuff out the danger. City are starting to spend a little time in the opposing half. 9 min: Fine save! Poor Ronaldo received the ball wide on the left, then bamboozled Kompany with some foot-magic before aiming a low curling shot towards the bottom corner. Hart sprawled himself smartly to tip it behind for a corner. 11 min: Poor Ronaldo receives the ball on the left, then cuts inside past Maicon and unleashes another fierce shot that Hart pushes away. At some point City are going to figure out that when he receives the ball on the left, Poor Ronaldo likes to cut inside and shoot ... 14 min: City knock the ball around midfield for a bit, going nowhere ... and then Nastasic tries to chip on forward for Tevez to chase but it's too long and Real get ready to rumble forward anew. "Real are naked and City are in pink leather?" gasps Toby Mohr before stammering: "The important question, Paul, is what are you wearing?" A confused expression, as ever. 17 min: You get the feeling City will pay for their passiveness sooner or later. Fortunately that time it was Arbeloa who cut in from the wing (right) and shot, and Hart was left with an elementary save. 20 min: Silva turns nicely in midfield and darts towards the Real box, with team-mates to either side of him: this is a promising position .... but Silva delayed his pass too long and Marcelo disposseses him. 21 min: Hart to the rescue again, as Higuain springs the offside trap but is forced sufficiently wide to have to pass backwards rather than shoot. Ronaldo attempts to find the net from the edge of the area but his shot is deflected into the path of Khedira ... who stabs it over the bar from eight yards. 24 min: Real are well on top, moving the ball at such speed that City seem sliuggish. Maicon is being given the Bale treatment by Ronaldo. 28 min: The ball is a boomerang to City at the moment: every time they boot it out of their half it keeps coming back, though accompanied by several Real players. Essien it the latest Real player to try his luck, but his 20-yard blast hurtles way wide. 30 min: Solid work by Kompany to shunt Higuain off the ball after Nastasic was caught in possession. 34 min: Nasri, who has been peripheral at best so far, appears to have pulled a muscle and is hobbling off. He looks unlikely to continue. 37 min: What a chance for City! The imperious Touré strode through midfield and City flood forward in support, and briefly had four attackers versus just two defenders. Alas, Touré pass to Silva was imperfect, forcing the Spaniard to break his stride and giving Real a moment to recover. Pepe charges down Silva's shot at the edge of the box. 39 min: Kolarov has been introduced in place of Nasri. 40 min: Scandalous miss! Di Maria clipped a superb cross from the right over Kompany's head. Hart, to the defender's anger, chose not to come to meet it, leaving Higuain to stretch out a leg and .... tonk the ball over the bar from five yards! 41 min: Ronaldo receives the ball wide on the right, cuts inside Maicon ... and this time Kompany blocks his shot before it reaches Hart. 42 min: Di Maria has a pop from 25 yards. It flashes just wide. 43 min: The ref stops play so that he can berate Touré and Khedira for excessive stroppery. "Looking at the subs it seems certain Barry has to play 90mins," moans Richard Hamilton. "Don't you think this level, and the business end of International football is just too much for him? Nice fella, good pro, just limited in ability." Yes. And I take it from your suggestion that there is no alternative on the bench that you don't think Rodwell is better? 45+1 min: After looking like they were coming to terms with things, City have let the initiative slip again and Real are well on top. Di Maria slams one wide from 25 yards. Half-time: City have bad Real finishing and fine Hart goalkeeping to thank for a scoreline that is even despite Real dominating for long periods. City have not been awful but not have they been good enough to suggest they can continue holding out unless they find greater cohesion, accuracy and tempo. Half-time observation: "I've just counted the total squad numbers of the 11 City players on the pitch," admits Edan Tal. "It's 190! This is getting silly!" It certainly is, Edan, it certainly is. Regarding Gareth Barry. "Ask any City fan if they'd have wanted Barry to start today, and the answer would have been a resounding yes," thunders Daniel Green. "We've leaked goals this season, and it is due to Barry's absence. When we won our last 6 games to win the league Barry was a critical part of the XI we used weekly. He is slow and isn't flashy, but then again neither was Dietmar Hamann. Only people who don't watch City regularly fail yo see how important he is to us." 46 min: City get the second half under way. 47 min: Maicon gets farther forward than he ever did in the first half ... but his cross from the right is feeble. 48 mins: Poor Ronaldo receives the ball wide on the right ... and you know the drill. But Nastasic knows it now too, so he came across to help out Maicon and prevent the Portuguese from shooting. So instead he shunted ball sideways to Di Maria, whose shot from the right is deflected wide. 49 min:Touré sets Kolarov racing in behind the Real defence down the left ... this is a great opportunity .... but instead of crossing, Kolarov runs all the way out of play. Oh dear. 51 min: Javi Garica booked after some helter-skelter midfield action sparked by Touré losing the ball. Garica didn't deserve to see yellow mind: he won the ball back off Khedira fair and square. 54 min: Garcia nods over from a corner, Pepe having applied enough pressure to prevent him from getting a proper connection on it. 56 min: Poor Ronaldo receives the ball on the right ... and gain City double up on him, Kompany helping out Maicon. But down-on-his-luck Ronaldo has support too, with Marceloa providing an overlap. PR gives him the ball and Marceloa fires a brilliant low cross across the face of goal. Higuain, however, was dawdling so Clichy was able to clear under no duress. "Someone should point out to Daniel Green that Dietmar Hamann did a bit more than just occupy space in front of the central defenders and knock the ball six yards sideways every now and then," bellows Nick Smith, doing the pointing out himself. "Why did Rafa want to replace Alonso with Barry? Its the biggest mystery in football... I miss Xabi." 59 min: City nod off while Real take a quick corner. THen Pepe is allowed to receive a cross unmarked on the far side of the box: he even has time to miscontrol it and do a fancy twirl before firing the ball across the face of goal. Again Clichy is on hand to bash it clear. "I throw a very dark cloud over Daniel Green's impassioned defence of G. Barry," barks Sasu Laaksonen. "The City fans I know understand there's a big difference between the Premier League football and CL/International football. And while they would not mind seeing Barry starting a game against Stoke, there's no way they would want him to lumber v Real Madrid. And yes, I am a Finn....but there's a rapidly growing City contingent here too." 60 min: Bang! Marcelo fires a cracking shot inches wide from 20 yards. City are on the rack here ... 62 min: Respite for City as Varane chops down Silva to concede a freekick near the Real corner flag (the one to the right of their goal, if you must know). And that's Silva's last contribution to the game, as Mancini takes him off to throw on Dzeko. 64 min: Marcelo goes close with yet another blast from distance. GOAL! Real 0-1 City (Dzeko 69') Now there's a sucker punch! That was mildly reminiscent of Fernando Torres' goal for Chelsea gainst Barcelona last season, although the chance was created not by a mighty punt forward but by a trademark burst by Touré, who collected the ball off Tevez and stormed past two and drew the last defender before knocking the ball into the path of Dezko. The Bosnian cantered towards the box and slotted the ball past Casillas from 20 yards. 71 min: Hart comes to meet a corner but misses it. Happily for him, Varane heads over from close range. Meanwhile, Mourinho is poised to make two substitutions ... 72 min: That's another dangerous break by City, who have three attackers versus four defenders. Tevez has Dzeko to his right and Kolarov to his left. He goes for the Serbian option ... and Kolarov forces a decent save from Casillas with a shot from 18 yards. Real subtitutions: The cavalry arrive in the persons of Benzema and Modric, with Higuain and Khedira leaving. City substitution: Maicon off, Zabaleta off. 75 min: Modric's first involvement sees him nick in to steal the ball off Kolarov as he embarked on another run. GOAL! Real 1-1 City (Marcelo 76') A superb strike by Marcelo, who did what Poor Ronaldo has been attempting to do all night: after receiving the ball on the right, he cut inside and curled a sumptuous shot into the top corner from 20 yards. And on that note, could people please stop referring to Ashley Cole as the best left-back in the world? 78 min: This is fun. The match has an engagingly hectic feel to it, with both sides going for the win. 80 min: Ozil, who came on for Essien earlier on, is becoming a menacing influence for Real, probing tantalisingly on the edge of the City box. Real's latest attach yielded a corner, with Hart then having to produce solid saves from first from Varane and then from Alonso. 82 min: Real are establishing a base camp at the rim of City's box. Modric has a pop from there but it's straight at Hart. 83 min: A fine break by Tevez and Kolarov relieves the pressure and results in a corner for City. Poor Ronaldo heads the corner clear but City regain the ball and circulate it smartly before winning another corner. GOAL! Real 1-2 City (Kolarov 86') Kolarov sends a curling freekick from the right towarads the back post. Defenders and attackers go for it ... but all miss it (or maybe Alonso got a slight nick to it) and it bounces into the corner of the net! That's what's called putting the ball into a dangerous area with vicious intent. Nasri's injury has turned out to be a blessing of sorts, since Kolarov has made a difference since replacing him. GOAL! Real 2-2 City (Benzema 87') Way to kill City's celebrations quick smart! Di Maria went on a jagged run down the right and then pinged the ball into Benzema, who turned away from Nastasic and fired a low shot into the net from the edge of the box! 88 min: This game is far from finished: Real threaten a winner with a lightning break and quickfire passes. Benzema cuts the ball back to Poor Ronaldo, who could put Di Maria through on goal but elects to have a good himself, and Hart pushes his 20-yard drive to safety. GOAL! Real 3-2 City (Happy Ronaldo 90') Ronaldo received the ball on the right, cut inside and sent a swirling shot past Hart and into the net! Kompany appeared to duck under the ball before it bounced just in front of the keeper, who reckons the centreback should have cut it out. Ronaldo, meanwhile, scampers off to milk the adulation of the jubilant crowd. Full-time: City will be sick. Twice they were in front and twice they let their lead slip quickly and sloppily, and then were sunk by a late winner than Ronaldo had been rehearsing all night. It was not a spectacularly high-quality game but it sure had its moments, and a pleasantly chaotic and positive vibe in the second half, in particular. Reaction from Joe Hart: "It's not on. You can't go 2-1 up and lose. It's not on. We only have ourselves to blame."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Warnings about breakdown of trust as mentoring of Afghan allies suspended following latest deaths in 'green-on-blue' attacks Nato's exit strategy in Afghanistan appeared to be in serious jeopardy on Tuesday, after it emerged that the US military command had set fresh limits on joint operations with Afghan troops in the wake of a rapid increase of "green-on-blue attacks" involving local soldiers turning their guns on their foreign mentors. The order, issued by the deputy commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), Lieutenant General James Terry, indefinitely suspends joint patrols and other operations for units smaller than 800-strong battalions. British and Nato officials sought to play down the impact of the measures, emphasising that they were intended to be temporary. But experts said the most effective mentoring took place in small units, warning that the decision would undermine Nato's training role and further unravel the already precarious trust between Afghans and their western allies. The Nato withdrawal from routine patrols means that Afghans could be left without potentially life-saving mine detectors and other equipment. Nato's plan to withdraw combat troops by 2014 depends on Afghan security forces being able to keep the Taliban at bay without assistance, an increasingly daunting goal. "The cessation of the partnership is likely to seriously damage the mission," said Paul Quinn-Judge, the acting Asia director of the International Crisis Group. "Things are already looking bad for 2014, with both the [troop] drawdown and possibly some very messy elections. The partnership was in many ways the core of the mission – 2014 could turn out to be even tougher without it." Adding to the air of confusion surrounding the Afghan mission, the announcement appeared to take the Americans' allies, including Britain, by surprise. The British defence secretary, Philip Hammond, had told the House of Commons on Monday that attacks by Afghan soldiers on their trainers and mentors, known as "green-on-blue" attacks, would not change policy. "We cannot and we will not allow the process to be derailed," he had said. The Kabul government also gave the impression it had been caught unawares. The president's office did not respond to requests for comment and the defence ministry simply dismissed reports of the policy change as "incorrect". British defence officials did not hide their anger on Tuesdayat the manner in which the change had been announced. Summoned back to parliament, Hammond played down the importance of the change, calling it tactical rather than strategic and blamed "overexcited" reporting of the announcement. The minister also claimed that it would have limited effect because US troops, the biggest Isaf contingent by far, did not mentor small units. "We try to get closer to the people, we try to get lower down the command structures and we try to be more embedded than sometimes the Americans appear to do," the defence secretary said. US and Nato sources queried Hammond's description of the American role, pointing out that before the weekend policy announcement, American troops routinely patrolled and shared outposts with small Afghan units. Pentagon officials said many joint operations with Afghan troops, including patrols and combat, involve small squads of about 10 US soldiers or platoons of up to 40. Colonel Thomas Collins of Isaf said he could not quantify the number of joint operations but confirmed that they did involve forces below battalion level. "We partner with Afghan security forces at all levels of command and in every regional command here for general security operations," he said. "It is extensive." The number of "insider attacks" by Afghan soldiers and police officers has surged recently. There have been 36 green-on-blue attacks this year, killing 51 Nato soldiers. The increase in the number of killings has divided the Nato allies over how to respond. "It is not a sensible decision. We have blinked," a source familiar with the Isaf mission in Afghanistan said of the new new measures. "There is no co-ordinated Taliban 'strategy' for these attacks. A majority of the attacks are not in pursuit of some lofty Taliban or fundamentalist goal, but more as a result of local disputes, grudges etc. "By ceasing lower-level co-operation, for however long, you are lending credence to the myth that green-on-blue is some kind of hugely well-orchestrated operation, which it isn't." The source asked: "And what happens when you re-commence lower-level collaboration? You haven't addressed the causes – it's almost impossible to do so – so there will be further green-on-blue incidents, certainly. You are just setting yourself up for failure in the public's eyes." Shashank Joshi, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said: "This is a symbol of a much deeper problem of Afghan-American distrust. In a way, there was a bigger change last month when special forces stopped training [new] Afghan local Police. "This is a signal that the US does not trust its counterparts. It is a statement of mounting cynicism and resignation." After earlier insider attacks, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had pledged to vet all new recruits but Nato officials on Tuesdaysaid the plan had never been properly implemented. "Vetting is virtually impossible in a place like Afghanistan," said Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan. In such conditions the suspension of joint patrols made "eminent sense" but he said much would depend on how long the suspension lasted. "You can't just allow these attacks to carry on. You have to do something," Kemp said. The acute political sensitivities surrounding the affair was reflected in a special communique issued later on Tuesday by the US embassy in London, which declared that Isaf remained "absolutely committed" to training and advising Afghan forces. Growing political opposition to Britain's continuing military presence in Afghanistan was reflected by interventions in the Commons from both government and opposition benches. John Baron, a Conservative MP and former army captain, whose urgent question forced Hammond to come to the Commons, said that the new Isaf order threatened "to blow a hole in our stated exit strategy, which is heavily reliant on these joint operations continuing".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Email paul.doyle@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts
• Check out tonight's latest live scores here
• Follow Montpellier v Arsenal here 21 min: Hart to the rescue again, as Higuain springs the offside trap but is forced sufficiently wide to have to pass backwards rather than shoot. Ronaldo attempts to find the net from the edge of the area but his shot is deflected into the path of Khedira ... who stabs it over the bar from eight yards. 20 min: Silva turns nicely in midfield and darts towards the Real box, with team-mates to either side of him: this is a promising position .... but Silva delayed his pass too long and Marcelo disposseses him. 17 min: You get the feeling City will pay for their passiveness sooner or later. Fortunately that time it was Arbeloa who cut in from the wing (right) and shot, and Hart was left with an elementary save. 14 min: City knock the ball around midfield for a bit, going nowhere ... and then Nastasic tries to chip on forward for Tevez to chase but it's too long and Real get ready to rumble forward anew. "Real are naked and City are in pink leather?" gasps Toby Mohr before stammering: "The important question, Paul, is what are you wearing?" A confused expression, as ever. 11 min: Poor Ronaldo receives the ball on the left, then cuts inside past Maicon and unleashes another fierce shot that Hart pushes away. At some point City are going to figure out that when he receives the ball on the left, Poor Ronaldo likes to cut inside and shoot ... 9 min: Fine save! Poor Ronaldo received the ball wide on the left, then bamboozled Kompany with some foot-magic before aiming a low curling shot towards the bottom corner. Hart sprawled himself smartly to tip it behind for a corner. 7 min: A lovely flick by Silva sends Tevez scampering into the danger zone but Pepe hurtles across to snuff out the danger. City are starting to spend a little time in the opposing half. 5 min: City haven't shown much so far, just trying to keep it steady early doors. Yaya Touré, as ever, has shown a couple of classy touches but it's Real who've had most of the ball. 3 min: Real move quickly down the left, whereupon Ronaldo cuts inside and sends a decent long-range shot several yard wide. The poor guy just can't catch a break ... 1 min: We have go. For of you watching in black and white, Real are in white and City are in black. For those of you watching colour, it's the same. For those of you following only this mbm, Real are naked and City are in pink leather. 7.44pm: The away end is full, but there are abundant empty seats elsewhere in the stadium, which suggests that the economic woes in Spain mean many people have a good deal more cause to be sad than Poor Ronaldo. 7.38pm: So it seems those line-ups are indeed correct. Mourinho, then, is laying down the law and telling certain spoilt slackers that their "lack of focus" is not acceptable. As for City, apparently an insider has told ITV that Mario Balotelli has been omitted from the squad for "technical reasons". Here are the teams, although it should be noted that there are claims on Twitter that Uefa has published the wrong line-ups. Could it be that the mandarins accidentally scoffed the real ones somewhere between the canard au pamplemousse and black forest gateau? I'll bring you confirmation asap: in the meantime, it really does seem that Ramo and Ozil have been dropped and Essien and City new boy Nastasic are starting Real: Casilla; Arbeloa, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo; Khedira, Alonso; Di Maria, Essien, Poor Ronaldo; Higuian
Subs: Antonio, Sergio Ramos, Coentrao, Kaka, Benzema, Ozil, Modric City: Hart; Maicon, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; Javi Gracia, Y Touré, Barry; Silva, Nasri; Tevez
Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaltea, Lescott, Dzeko, Kolarov, Aguero, Rodwell Ref: D Skomina (Svn) Paul will be here from 7.25pm or so for coverage of Real Madrid v Manchester City. In the meantime, here a preview of tonight's game:
José Mourinho has warned Manchester City that Real Madrid will be "at our best" when they face them at the Bernabéu in their opening Champions League group game on Tuesday evening. The Spanish champions are reeling from a poor start to the season that continued with Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Sevilla, which left them eight points behind the leaders, Barcelona.
"To play against City motivates me as much as playing against Getafe," said Mourinho. "To win the Champions League motivates me like any other match. Motivation is something intrinsic to the job. The conviction is that tomorrow [on Tuesday evening] we will have a team. A determined, compact and solid team. I will try to field the team that I think will show up. Maybe we won't be as relaxed, or filled with the same conviction and confidence we usually have against an opponent like City, coming off a game which was terrible. "I'm sure we'll be at our best. I could be wrong but that's what I think. The lineup will not be very different [from Sevilla], nor will I try to show any player that they are not in the best condition. It will be the best that I consider to play against an opposition full of players of the highest level. I don't believe I have created doubts. The principal person responsible is me. When my teams win, we win together, and when we lose, I am the one responsible. Before losing to Sevilla I said to the players what I then said in the press conference. For this reason it is not a criticism but a conviction. "I said it to them before the game. Football is about today and tomorrow, not yesterday. Yesterday is history. I haven't been able to keep my players motivated and concentrated at the top level and that is my fault."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Miners to return to work after pay rise ends five weeks of bitter industrial action during which 45 people were killed Striking platinum miners in South Africa have accepted an agreement with Lonmin and plan to return to work on Thursday, all but ending five weeks of acrimony, bloodshed and tragedy. The police massacre of 34 protesting mineworkers at Marikana last month was the worst display of state violence in the country's post-apartheid history. In all 45 people died during the bitter industrial action. Unrest spread to other mines, threatening the backbone of South Africa's economy. On Tuesday strikers gathered near the Marikana mine 60 miles north-west of Johannesburg cheered when they were informed of London-listed Lonmin's final offer. It includes a 22% pay increase for rock drillers – taking their salary to just over 11,000 rand (£825) – and a one-off payment of 2,000 rand (£150) to help cover nearly six weeks of not being paid while on strike, Bishop Joe Seoka, a member of the negotiating team, told Associated Press. About 5,000 strikers gathered in a stadium to hear the deal and cheered and sang when they finally accepted the offer, described as record-breaking. They formed a line and danced out of the stadium. "You have won as workers," Seoka told the crowd. He said there would be further negotiations in October where they could discuss a further increase. One worker held up a hand with the phrase "Mission Accomplished" written in black ink. All that remains is for the parties to sign the final agreement. A Lonmin spokesman said it had not yet received official acceptance from worker representatives so was unable to comment. Opposition parties welcomed the settlement. Sej Motau, shadow minister of labour for the Democratic Alliance, said: "We hope that this brings the necessary stability to the situation at Marikana, for appropriate humanitarian assistance to be provided to the families of Marikana victims and for unencumbered reflection on the majoritarian labour regime that has contributed to the tragedy. "The DA remains convinced that the events at Marikana could have been prevented through a more equitable labour regime, with a better prepared police service and in a minerals sector in which policies serve a broader range of stakeholders. We will be using our position in parliament to push for appropriate policy reforms. "We hope that the Marikana workers will be allowed to return to work without fear for their safety." The deadly strike has shaken Lonmin, mining and the whole of South Africa, triggering a wide ranging debate about the role of mining companies and labour unions, persistent police brutality and impatience at the governing African National Congress's lack of progress in arresting inequality after 18 years. The ferocity of the government's crackdown, and allegations that police tortured detained mineworkers, has been compared with the era of racial apartheid. Last weekend soldiers supported police as they seized weapons and dispersed some protesting workers with teargas and rubber bullets. Lonmin's acting chief executive Simon Scott wrote in South Africa's Sunday Times: "For Lonmin the starting point is to acknowledge that our company must go through a process of self-reflection. "What I can promise is that we are committed to playing our part. We have had our wake-up call, as has the rest of South Africa." The Lonmin workers were the first to strike and in recent weeks seven other mines had work stoppages. Partially led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the strikes have swept across the platinum belt, home to nearly 80% of the world's reserves. AMCU is challenging the dominance of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), whose leaders have grown rich and powerful from an alliance with the ANC, which has relied on organised labour for votes. The work stoppages reportedly cost the country more than 4.5bn rand (£335m). They hit the rand currency, raised insurance against default on South African debt and spooked some foreign investors into selling shares in mining companies. In another sign that weeks of labour unrest could be ending, Anglo American Platinum said it had resumed its operations in the strike-hit Rustenburg area. "Anglo American Platinum Limited (Amplats) confirms that all of its Rustenburg operations have resumed, effective from today's morning shift," the company said. On the news of the Marikana agreement, the spot platinum price fell 2% to a session low at $1,627.49/oz and the rand firmed against the dollar. The conflict in the mining sector had also damaged president Jacob Zuma and the ANC, whose response was seen as slow and ineffective. They face accusations that they had neglected poor workers and sided with wealthy business owners. On Tuesday Julius Malema, an ANC rebel who calls for the nationalisation of mines, criticised Zuma for sending the army to Marikana in recent days as if was under an "undeclared state of emergency". Malema added: "Never in the history of the ANC has a sitting president presided over such chaos and division in the ANC and the country."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Astronaut who has logged record 44 hours of 'extravehicular activity' is second woman to take charge of orbiting outpost The first time Sunita Williams climbed aboard the international space station, she had with her a bib from the Boston Athletic Association. When the time came, she taped it to a treadmill and ran for 26 miles, competing in the city's marathon from orbit. The feat, in April 2007, brought home the contrast between the life of an astronaut and those left behind. While other runners struggled against wind and rain, Williams clocked up a steady six miles an hour and saw the planet turn three times beneath her before she crossed the finishing line. The US navy test pilot turned Nasa astronaut fell back to Earth that year holding records for the number of days in space and the time spent outside the station on spacewalks. Her return to orbit in July this year has continued her run of achievements. On Monday, Williams, now 46, took over as commander of the space station, only the second time a woman has taken charge of the $100bn orbiting outpost. The first was Peggy Whitson, who held the position in 2007 and 2008. Williams blasted off in July from Baikonour cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on board a Soyuz rocket with the Russian Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide, a Japanese flight engineer. In a ceremony marking the handover of command on the station, Williams praised Gennady Padalka, the outgoing Russian commander, who was in charge of the six-strong crew of expedition 32. "I would like to thank our '32' crewmates here who have taught us how to live and work in space," she said. "And of course to have a lot of fun up in space." True to her word, Williams drew the curtains on her first day as commander of expedition 33 with a message for her 11,000 Twitter followers: "Well, it's quitting time. Good first day as commander of #Exp33 on #ISS. So, how about another geo quiz?" Tagged to the message was an unlabelled shot of Earth from orbit, all arterial roads, patchwork fields and sweeping coastlines. Days earlier she shared pictures of a jury-rigged toothbrush used in her record-breaking spacewalk to fix the station the week before. This month, on the sixth spacewalk of her career, Williams set another record. By the end of the six-and-a-half-hour walk to repair a power unit, she had clocked up an unprecedented 44 hours and two minutes of what Nasa calls "extravehicular activity". Her latest feat was another sporting achievement, making the most of the exercise equipment that astronauts use to keep fit and prevent muscle and bone wastage in orbit. Over one hour, 48 minutes and 33 seconds at the weekend, Williams ran four miles, pedalled for 18 miles and heaved on weights, as the first competitor in space in the Nautica Malibu triathlon, held in southern California. She used an exercise bike and treadmill for cycling and running, and a more obscure piece of equipment, the advanced resistive exercise device, to recreate the effort of a half-mile swim. To rehydrate, she floated off the machine for a moment and grabbed a water pouch dangling from a nearby wall. Williams will remain on the space station until January next year. The outgoing crew of expedition 32 touched down in Kazakhstan on Monday after 123 days at the station.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | French magazine Closer banned from further use of holiday photos as duke and duchess press for criminal charges The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge won the first round in their battle for privacy on Tuesday when a French magazine was banned from selling or reusing images taken of the couple at a private chateau in Provence. But the war was far from over as French prosecutors must now decide if criminal proceedings are to be brought against the magazine editor and the photographer or photographers responsible for taking pictures of the duchess sunbathing topless while on holiday in the south of France. The Tribunal de Grande Instance in Nanterre, Paris, granted an injunction ordering the gossip magazine Closer to hand over digital files of the pictures within 24 hours and preventing it disseminating them any further, including on its website and tablet app. The four-page ruling, which only affects Mondadori Magazines France, Closer's publisher, also ordered it to pay €2,000 (£1,600) in legal costs. The magazine faces a €10,000 fine for every day it fails to comply with the order. No damages were sought by the couple. "These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred metres from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passersby, are by nature particularly intrusive," it said. The couple were thus subjected to this "brutal display" from the moment the magazine's cover appeared. The magistrates ruled that every photograph published in France by Mondadori, the publishing company owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in future would carry a fine, also of €10,000 per breach. But the ruling refers only to the 14 pictures that have already been published. Closer's editor has hinted she has other, more intimate pictures. The ruling came as the duke and duchess were welcomed to the South Pacific country of Tuvalu on the final leg of a nine-day tour that has been largely overshadowed by the privacy row. Smiling through the media storm, they put on colourful grass skirts and danced at a fateles, a traditional gathering where local communities compete in singing and dancing. St James's Palace said the couple "welcome the judge's ruling". A source said: "They always believed the law was broken and that they were entitled to their privacy." Maud Sobel, a lawyer for the royal couple in Paris, described it as "a wonderful decision", adding: "We've been vindicated." Though pleased their civil action has succeeded, the couple have taken the rarer step of seeking to have a much more public criminal prosecution for breach of privacy brought against the magazine and photographer or photographers responsible. The prosecutor will have to decide the targets for any criminal proceedings and the complaint cites "persons unknown". But it is understood the couple want proceedings brought against the editor of Closer, which published the photos on Friday, and whoever took the images of the couple sunbathing at the chateau, which belongs to Lord Linley, son of the late Princess Margaret. A preliminary investigation was launched on Tuesday by the Paris police. Under French law breach of privacy carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of €45,000. This is the legal action that will truly lay down a marker, and by pursuing it the couple indicate a determination to convey a wider message to the world and, they hope, deter paparazzi in the future. Their lawyers had not asked for copies of Closer magazine to be removed from shelves. On Saturday the Irish Daily Star published the photos, leading to the editor being suspended on Monday night pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Also on Monday, the Mondadori-owned Italian celebrity magazine Chi rushed out a special edition with 26 pages devoted to the candid photos of the future queen. The couple's lawyer, Aurélien Hamelle, had told the Paris court it was necessary to block the "highly intimate" images of the duchess without her bikini top as she was a "young woman, not an object". But Delphine Pando, defending Closer, said the action was a "disproportionate response" to publication of the photographs. She added that the magazine could not control their resale as it did not own the original images. Copies of Closer magazine were doing brisk business on online auction site eBay, with one selling for £31.01, until the site removed all listings following "strong feedback" from its community.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US agency for international development to close office as analysts suspect growing hostility toward pro-democracy groups The US agency for international development will close its office in Russia following a Russian decision to end the aid agency's work there, the US state department said on Tuesday. Analysts said they believed the Russian decision partly reflected Moscow's hostility toward US-funded groups that seek to promote democracy and the rule of law in Russia. "The United States recently received the Russian government's decision to end USAid activities in the Russian Federation," state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a written statement. She later told reporters that Russia had informed the United States of its decision last Wednesday. "While USAid's physical presence in Russia will come to an end, we remain committed to supporting democracy, human rights, and the development of a more robust civil society in Russia and look forward to continuing our co-operation with Russian non-governmental organisations," Nuland added. Steven Pifer, a former US ambassador to Ukraine who is now at the Brookings Institution think tank, said he believed the decision reflected some reluctance by the Russian government to see foreign support for pro-democracy efforts in the country. "They see Aid's efforts in Russia as being a prime funder of the NGOs that are concerned about their elections and concerned about the regression of democracy in Russia," Pifer said. He said the Russian government, basking in oil revenues, no longer believed it should be a recipient of foreign aid and may also be "trying to make it more difficult" for the outside world to support pro-democracy NGOs, or non-governmental organisations, in Russia.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russia will 'forgive' 90% of debt and reinvest $1bn in debt-for-aid plan to develop energy, health care and educational projects Russia has agreed to write off nearly all of the $11bn debt accrued by North Korea during Soviet times as the Kremlin seeks to boost ties with its reclusive neighbour's new leader, Kim Jong-un. Russia will "forgive" 90% of the debt and reinvest $1bn as part of a debt-for-aid plan to develop energy, health care and educational projects in North Korea, Sergei Storchak, Russia's deputy finance minister, told state media on Tuesday. The debt deal was reached on Monday, he said. The agreement came following years of hard wrangling over Pyongyang's Soviet-era debt, a factor that hindered further investment in the strategically located state. Negotiations were revived after Dmitry Medvedev, the former president, who is now prime minister, met North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il, father of Kim Jong-un, in Siberia last summer on one of the reclusive leader's last foreign trips. The elder Kim died in December. His son is being closely watched for signs that will open up the impoverished nation. "This is an important serious step that will ease and expand the possibilities for further economic and trade co-operation," said Alexander Vorontsov, a North Korea expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences, who served at Moscow's embassy in Pyongyang at the turn of the century. Storchak visited the country in May. Vorontsov said the debt deal was a sign the North Korean leadership was evolving. "This shows that the intelligentsia and leadership in North Korea are adapting to a market economy – with, by the way, Russia's help," he said. "It's also a sign of political will from Russia." The deal comes as Moscow looks to boost its economic presence in Asia amid falling demand from the crisis-hit economies of the west. Analysts said infrastructure investments, including rail and electricity, would probably form the bulk of Russia's re-investment in the country. The deal announcement came on the heels of Moscow's hosting of an Asia-Pacific economic summit in the far eastern city of Vladivostok that highlighted Russia's turn eastward. The Kremlin has said it hopes to double the share of its total exports going to the Asia-Pacific region. Vorontsov said: "The development of the Asia-Pacific region is in our economic interests. If before, we talked about our potential to direct our oil and gas there when we needed to strengthen our negotiating position with the Europeans, now there are practical deals. "Russia's turn to east Asia, especially in the spheres of infrastructure and energy, means the importance of the Korean peninsula will only grow." He said the debt deal would pave the way for Russian plans to build a gas pipeline to South Korea via the north, which Kim Jong-il preliminarily signed on to during his meeting with Medvedev last summer. Few analysts see the deal as realistic, however, as the two Koreas technically remain in a state of war.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Crude analysis of Israel-Palestinian conflict comes the day after damaging '47%' remarks from secretly recorded video Mitt Romney's battered presidential campaign slid further into crisis on Tuesday after the release of secretly recorded video excerpts revealed his privately held positions on key domestic and foreign policy issues. Just a few hours after Romney was forced to convene a press conference to defend comments in which he described 47% of Americans as government-dependent "victims" who do not pay taxes, a second clip was released in which the Republican is heard setting out his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, claiming the Palestinians are not interested in peace. The revelations, which have forced the Romney campaign on to the defensive for the second week in succession, were met with dismay from conservative commentators and strategists, with one influential editor describing Romney's views as "stupid". The video, which was obtained by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, is in a different league from the long list of self-inflicted gaffes by Romney over the summer. His campaign team, with their candidate already trailing Barack Obama, is anxiously awaiting the next batch of polls to see the extent of the fallout. The video was shot during an hour-long appearance by Romney in May at a $50,000-a-head fund-raising dinner at the Florida home of investment banker Marc Leder. More excerpts are being lined up for release, making it impossible for his campaign to dampen the firestorm and return to its core focus, the economy. The latest clip shows Romney dismissing the chances of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not an unusual view, but he then goes on to firmly put the blame solely on the Palestinians. He contentiously described the the Palestinians as "committed to the destruction and elimination" of Israel and indicated he was unlikely to pursue, as president, the creation of a Palestinian state, warning that Iran would use it as a base for attacks on Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian excerpt can be easily brushed aside by the Romney campaign but the 47% excerpt which was released on Monday is harder to handle. Within the space of a few minutes, Romney managed to potentially offend the elderly, veterans, students, Latinos and other demographic groups, most of whom do, in fact, pay some taxes and have earned their entitlements. In a remark that sounded especially callous from someone who claims that as president he would represent all Americans, he said: "My job is not to worry about those people." One of the most destructive aspects of the video is the contrast between what he says in public and in private, opening him up to accusations of hypocrisy. The release of the video came only hours after the Romney team, struggling in the polls and repeatedly forced on the defensive by the Obama campaign team, had announced it was rebooting its campaign. The new-look strategy, in which Romney was to set out specific policies rather than focusing on attacking Obama, barely lasted 12 hours before the video emerged and the Romney campaign team was again engaged in damage-control. The media coverage was almost entirely negative. The New York Daily News on its front page had the headline 'Mitt Hits The Fan'. The Obama campaign was quick to jump on Romney's 47% remarks, with White House press secretary Jay Carney telling reporters on Tuesday that Obama was the president of all the people, not just those who voted for him. That was followed up with a new Obama campaign video in which footage from the 47% video was intercut with members of the public responding to it. "I actually felt sick to my stomach," said one woman. But it is the reaction of conservatives that will cause the Romney campaign the most concern. Some are labelling his election run as the most inept they have seen in half a century. The influential editor of the conservative Weekly Standard William Kristol described Romney's comments about the 47% as "arrogant and stupid" and hinted he should stand down in favour of his a ticket headed by his running mate Paul Ryan, with senator Marco Rubio as his vice-presidential candidate. Mark McKinnon, who was one of John McCain's campaign advisers in the 2008 campaign and one of the few Republican strategists to go on the record yesterday, told the Hill magazine: "It's a kidney shot because it reveals a very cynical view. He's pushing independent voters out the door." He added that it could help motivate disgruntled Democrats into turning out in large numbers for the election. With seven weeks left, there is still time for Romney to turn it around, with the support of tens of millions of dollars in advertising and a good performance in the debates with Obama, the first scheduled for 3 October in Denver, Colorado. Romney, who was scheduled to hold fundraising events in Salt Lake City and Dallas on Tuesday, looked uncharacteristically haggard when he held an impromptu press conference on Monday night to deal with the 47% video and offered up a rambling defence. He said he had been speaking "off the cuff" and describing his comments as not "elegantly stated". While Romney's views expressed in the new excerpt about the Palestinians are not a major surprise given his strong expression of support for the Israeli prime minister Binyanmin Netanyahu, US presidents like to portray themselves as neutral referees in the conflict, even if in fact they lean towards Israel. Romney has blown any lingering prospect of being seen as a neutral arbiter. "I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel," he said. He suggested he would not actively engage in the promotion of a peace process, as his predecessors have done. One of the reasons he said that it is difficult to allow the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank is that it could then become a base to which Iran and other Arab nations channel rockets and other weapons to threaten the Israeli financial capital Tel Aviv. He described Tel Aviv as being only seven miles from the West Bank, though in fact it is over 40 miles away. Indicating he would not be pushing for a two-state solution, the creation of Palestine to stand alongside Israel, he said: "All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it." The Obama administration, apart from a few tentative attempts at the start of his presidency, has made no serious effort to resolve the conflict. The Obama administration has hinted that, free from the constraints of fighting another election, it might take a more robust approach to the issue in a second term.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Crude analysis of Israel-Palestinian conflict come the day after damaging '47%' remarks from secretly recorded video Mitt Romney's battered presidential campaign was hit again on Tuesday with fresh material from a secretly recorded video in which he sets out his views on the Israel-Palestinian issue and claims the Palestinians are not interested in peace. Just a few hours after Romney was forced to defend describing 47% of Americans as government-dependent "victims" who do not pay taxes, a new excerpt of the video recorded at a private fundraiser with wealthy donors in May was released by liberal magazine Mother Jones. "I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, 'There's just no way'," Romney is heard to say. "And so what you do is you say, 'You move things along the best way you can.' You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognise that this is going to remain an unsolved problem." He then adds: "All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it." While the comments are not as devastating to his campaign as the 47% remarks revealed on Monday, his interpretation of a complex conflict is crude and will further enrage Palestinians still smarting from dismissive remarks he made about their culture on a recent visit to Israel. Romney claimed that one of the reasons the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank would be difficult was that it could then become a base through which Iran and other Arab nations could channel rockets and other weapons to threaten the Israeli financial capital Tel Aviv. He describes Tel Aviv as being only seven miles from the West Bank, though in fact it is over 40 miles away. US presidents have attempted to portray themselves in the past as independent referees in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though in reality they have tended to side with Israel. Romney's comments rule him out of the role of independent arbiter. The Obama administration, apart from a few tentative attempts at the start of his presidency, has made no serious effort to resolve the conflict. The Obama administration has hinted that, free from the constraints of fighting another election, it might take a more robust approach to the issue in a second term. Mother Jones says it obtained the video from an unnamed source who recorded it at a $50,000-a-head Romney fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida, held by hedge fund boss Marc Leder. The magazine has more excerpts lined up, making it impossible for the Romney campaign to dampen down the firestorm and get back to its core strategy of attacking Barack Obama's handling of the economy. The media reaction to the 47% claim has been overwhelmingly negative. The New York Daily News on its front page had the headline 'Mitt Hits The Fan', while the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard William Kristol described Romney's comments as "arrogant and stupid" and hinted he should stand down in favour of a ticket headed by his running mate Paul Ryan, with senator Marco Rubio as his vice-presidential candidate. The Obama campaign was quick to jump on Romney's 47% remarks, with campaign manager Jim Messina accusing the Republican of "disdainfully writing off half the nation". Ted Strickland, former Democratic governor of Ohio told CNN the problem with Romney was that he "spoke from his heart and that's what troubles me". With seven weeks left, there is still time for Romney to turn it around, with the support of millions of dollars in advertising and a good performance in the debates with Obama, the first scheduled for 3 October in Denver, Colorado. But Romney looked uncharacteristically haggard when he held an impromptu press conference on Monday night to offer up a rambling defence of the video revelations. He confirmed the authenticity of the video and opted against disavowing the views expressed in it. He said only that the case was not "elegantly stated" and that he had "spoken off the cuff". The controversy broke only hours after the Romney campaign set out to recalibrate its strategy. It said it would attempt to give a clearer, more positive picture of their candidate as it seeks to regain the initiative with just 50 days to go until the election. The new strategy will not abandon negative campaigning, but will focus on positive ads as well as speeches to spell out the Romney would pursue in office, in particular his five-point economic plan. Romney began his campaign early in the summer intent on making the election about Obama's economic record and making himself as small a target as possible by disclosing little about his own policies. But since then there has barely been a clear week in which Romney has been able to get his message across, either because of a barrage of ads on his record as chief executive of Bain Capital and his unwillingness to release more than two years' worth of tax records, or because of gaffes on his own side.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded after Tehran proposed that peace monitors from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey be sent to Syria
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Despite jitters over its plans for financial aid, a Spanish debt
auction went smoothly this morning
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Five of six biggest EU countries back plans which include pan-European foreign ministry and majority voting to bypass UK veto Five of the six biggest countries in the EU, excluding Britain, have called for a radical overhaul of European foreign and defence policies to create a powerful new pan-European foreign ministry, majority voting on common foreign policies to bypass a British veto, a possible European army, and a single market for EU defence industries. The German-led push, supported by 11 of 27 EU countries, embraces recent calls in Berlin and Brussels for a directly elected European president, sweeping new powers for the European parliament, and further splitting of the EU by creating a new parliamentary sub-chamber for the 17 countries of the eurozone. While the call for a European army was not supported by all 11, the document also calls for a new European police organisation to guard the union's external borders and for a single European visa. Nine months of brainstorming over the future of Europe by the foreign ministers of the 11 countries, launched by Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, has resulted in a 12-page document crammed with policy recommendations. It will prove hugely contentious and, if implemented, will increase the pressure on Britain to quit the EU. "To make the EU into a real actor on the global scene we believe that we should in the long term introduce more majority decisions in the common foreign and security policy sphere, or at least prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives," the document said. "Aim for a European defence policy with joint efforts regarding the defence industry (eg the creation of a single market for armament projects); for some members of the group this could eventually involve a European army." The backers include Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland, five of the six biggest EU countries omitting Britain. The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and Luxembourg also signed up. The recommendations include more incendiary steps, including a proposal to re-open and change European treaties by majority voting because getting consensus in a union of 27 or 28 has become too slow, acrimonious and unwieldy. Apart from stiff resistance from Britain, which would veto a European army and refuse to take part in foreign policies with which it disagreed, the proposals are likely to prompt a turf war in the European commission because they would strip several departments of powers and resources, concentrating them in the EU's relatively new diplomatic service headed by Catherine Ashton, a Briton. The document demanded a "substantial revision" of the powers of the European External Action Service by next year, streamlining it and giving it authority over development, energy, trade and enlargement currently vested in other parts of the commission. If realised, the changes would produce a European foreign ministry with much more muscle.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Knox's boyfriend at the time of Meredith Kercher's murder delivers a curious story in memoir that alleges sloppy police work Raffaele Sollecito, the less arresting of the two students convicted and eventually acquitted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, has a memoir out – a warm-up act to Amanda Knox's book out next year – and is in some ways the more curious story. Until now, Sollecito has been a relatively unknown quantity, presented in the tabloids as weedy foil to the femme fatale by his side (you can imagine him being played by Daniel Radcliffe in the movie) who said he was stoned on the night of the murder. In Honour Bound: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox, he makes a slew of new claims about what he says was sloppy police work leading up to his conviction and what actually happened that night: • While being held in custody in Perugia, he writes, the police stripped him naked, threatened him and slapped him. During that first overnight interrogation, Sollecito was subject to what he calls a "less than scrupulous" set of "time-honoured pressure techniques", in which, he believes, the police asked him to repeat his story multiple times in order "to catch me out in whatever inconsistencies they could find". • He believes the police never seriously believed in his guilt, but pursued him aggressively in order to pressure him into testifying against Knox. The fact that he refused to do so, after the confusion of the first 24 hours, accounts in his opinion for the harsh treatment he received. • As part of a litany of either hapless or actively malicious police work, Sollecito says that when the police searched his apartment after his arrest, an officer called Finzi reached into the cutlery drawer in the kitchen, "pulled out the first knife that came to hand, a large chopping knife with an eight-inch blade", and turning to a fellow officer, said, "Will this knife do?", to which the answer came, "Yes, yes, it's great." • During early questioning, Sollecito wavered in his conviction that Knox had been beside him all night when the murder took place, which he puts down to being out of it after smoking pot, something he curses himself for in the book: "I knew I had nothing to do with Meredith's murder, but I was furious with myself for having such a foggy memory and I knew it was in part because of the joint I'd smoked on the afternoon of November 1." • He is now certain she didn't leave his side: Knox didn't have a key to his apartment. If she had slipped out to murder Kercher, he writes, she would have had to ring the doorbell for him to let her back in. This didn't happen, says Sollecito. • Knox's behaviour after her arrest, which convicted her in the minds of many casual consumers of the story, made Sollecito "uneasy" and he wishes he had put his foot down at the police station when she "curled up on me like a koala bear, grabbing hold of my neck with both arms and resting her body in my lap", to which a passing police officer remarked, "behave yourselves". • Sollecito's own family made up the shortfall in police work by scouring the country for the sneaker that matched the bloody footprint at the crime scene, a Nike shoe but not, as the police maintained, one that matched Sollecito's Nike shoe. Eventually, Sollecito's uncle Giuseppe found an out-of-stock pair of Nikes in a sales rack with the same swirly pattern on the tread, and emphatically not the shoe that Sollecito owned. • Less helpfully, writes Sollecito, his family, and his lawyers, urged him to abandon Knox and change his testimony in order to buy police favour and save himself, something he refused to do. "I had made many mistakes," he writes, "but my determination to stick by Amanda, and by what I knew to be the truth, was one thing I knew I had exactly right. Nothing in the world – not the people I cared about most, and certainly not the threat of further punishment for a crime I did not commit – could induce me to change my mind." • He was punished by the police for this lack of co-operation, he believes, with unjustifiably harsh treatment, including six months of solitary confinement (longer than Knox) and assignment to the sex offender wing of the prison. "Nothing was said explicitly, but the subtext seemed clear: if you don't want to tell us what we want to hear, you can take your chances with the perverts and child molesters and transsexuals and see how you like that instead." It's unclear what transsexuals are doing on this list, but one gets the point. • This isn't new information, but is still extraordinary to consider that Knox and Sollecito had been dating for one week before the murder. Speculation on whether, after the release, they were going to "get back together" made no sense in the context and underlines the strangeness of their connection to each other; how exactly do you relate to someone wrongly co-convicted with you in a murder trial? Sollecito details the difficulties of the reunion he had with Knox after their release. "I wasn't at all sure it was a good idea to see her and I wavered back and forth even after I had booked my ticket. We had been through so much; perhaps we owed it to each other to live our lives and leave each other in peace."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In an adaptation of Margaret Mazzantini's bestseller, Penélope Cruz stars as an infertile woman who returns to relive her past in Sarajevo. Here she talks about babies, breastfeeding and pacifism When Penélope Cruz was shooting Twice Born – in which she plays an unhappily infertile academic – she was still breastfeeding her own young son. For some scenes, her character shares the screen with a rolling cast of newborns, swapped once they grew too big. "Some of these babies were only a week old. And so they were smelling me and that made them want to eat. But I was playing a woman who couldn't feed because she hadn't given birth! That created a very strange but alive dynamic between me and those babies. You cannot learn something like that. And this film is full of moments that could not be planned." Cruz leans forward, black trousers tapering to huge nude stilettos. She looks polished and glossy as a stag beetle; a stag beetle who's wearing a crocheted cardie and miming batting babies from her breasts. This film is Twice Born, an epic, operatic soap partly set during the Bosnian war, which premiered at the Toronto film festival. Cruz plays Gemma, an Italian who returns to Sarajevo in the present day with her 16-year-old son, Pietro. They're in town so she can tell him more about his father, a dead American photographer called Diego (Emile Hirsch), with whom she lived in the city years before. Through flashbacks, we realise Gemma isn't actually Pietro's mother, and Diego's copybook might be more blotted than family legend records. "I think this movie is homage to all women, a homage to motherhood," she says in husky, heavily accented English. It's testimony to her work ethic – and accent coach – that she's one of the few foreign-language female actors able to open a movie in the States, who can flirtily jostle for top-billing with Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Carribean 4) and Nicolas Cage (Captain Corelli's Mandolin). She pauses, sucks on her iced coffee, and continues. "It's a homage to that relationship of mother and child." Having her own, Leo, with the actor Javier Bardem, amped up her empathy. "A woman that doesn't want children obviously can be happy without children. But one that wants to have children that much ... it's very difficult for her to be happy. Of course I understood all that before I became a mother. But after you give birth you understand in a much deeper way what Gemma was missing." So it intensified her pity? "The opposite. Just the understanding. This is what she wanted and what she can't have." Twice Born is based on the bestseller by Margaret Mazzantini – a European book club staple and a heady holiday read. Mazzantini also wrote the erotic thriller Don't Move, which starred Cruz in the 2004 film version as an Albanian bartender who is raped by a wealthy surgeon, and then falls in love with him. The co-star and director of that film was Mazzantini's husband, Sergio Castellitto; he also directed Twice Born, and plays Gemma's present-day army husband and the film's real hero (great with babies, looks lovely in uniform). Cruz lapped up both books. "Mazzantini is one of my favourite writers for she talks about things the way women are. It's painful to read but at the same time it's really encouraging and raw; the way it is." In what way encouraging? "You can be reading something by her and weeping but also feeling really strong. Sometimes it is dark and painful, but you always turn the page with a feeling that to fight is still worth it. Her writing makes you feel you should keep going." Both novel and film are remarkably frank about the reasons some women want children. Gemma is fuelled most by a desire to replicate her partner; at one point she says she longs to see a smaller version of his feet pattering in front of her. As she admits to a psychologist, played by Jane Birkin, who is assessing the couple as potential adoptive parents: "I want a child to tie this man to me." "For me," says Cruz, "that's one of the most important lines in the book. She says: 'I want a padlock of flesh.' When I read the book I highlighted that line. That really describes who Gemma is. She's really honest. She wants to become a mother because she wants to experience that but also because she doesn't want to lose that man. She feels defective." Such candour seems rare. "Yes! Really refreshing! But Gemma doesn't have a problem showing her insecurities. She even says to Diego that he should go and find somebody with good ovaries." Cruz hasn't shot a lot since her son's birth. "More and more I try to be more picky with my selection. I am now able to choose the work I do, which I don't take for granted." She has chosen to re-team with Woody Allen, as a helpful prostitute in To Rome With Love, and has just finished filming I'm So Excited, Pedro Almodóvar's return to comedy. And she's now working on Ridley Scott's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Counselor. They are all obvious nods: Almodóvar is the mentor/soulmate who's cast her in a fleet of bespoke vehicles since Live Flesh in 1997. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship: with films such as All About My Mother, Volver and Broken Embraces, he has cemented her celebrity while she has widened his appeal. Cruz is warm enough to sand down the Almodóvarian excesses that can prove too spiky for some. Her genius lies in humanising camp and, on the flipside, making the mainstream sensual. Allen cast her in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) without audition, after seeing her in Volver. It won her an Oscar (and rekindled her relationship with Bardem). The Counselor co-stars Bardem, her now-husband, as well as Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender. Cruz's decision to commit to Twice Born is less immediately obvious and, maybe, more revealing. For a start, there's her loyalty to Castellitto and Mazzantini; Twice Born is very much a family affair – their son, Pietro, plays Pietro, while Cruz's brother, Eduardo, provides the soundtrack. He too is in Toronto giving interviews, and seeing brother and sister together is curious. Eduardo, a composer (and ex of Eva Longoria), is a buffed hunk with elaborate tattoos and blingy earring. Twice Born may have gritty bits and its feet in Greek mythology, but it's also a pretty naked (and efficient) pageturner. Plus, Gemma is a transitional role, which recalls Cruz's youth in flashback (she can still pass as a 22-year-old) then ages her with badgery hair and muted makeup to her late 40s. She is also much more the everywoman than in her usual roles. Gemma has neither the vivacity nor the mystery of her roles for Almodóvar, nor the flat-out battiness of her work with Allen. "When we did Don't Move that character was really borderline. There cannot be fear or concern about looking ugly. This character was very different; emotionally, you had to be nearer the truth. She goes through so much, so in order to get all the colours of that journey you have to be able to try everything and not be afraid of the result." In the flesh, Cruz is friendly, thoughtful and smoothly beautiful, but her luminosity seems purposefully dimmed. At 38, you suspect she has wearied of the charm offensive and doesn't mind muting herself in the service of frying bigger fish. She is an eager cheerleader for Castellitto's manifesto for the film: to examine why the world is so violent, and to tub-thump for pacifism. "We need to be reminded about things that happened not so long ago in places not far away. I cannot go to this movie without thinking about what is happening in Syria. I'm always depressed that it doesn't occupy more space in the newspapers. That should be the main story instead of elections. So many children are dying every day. It's the same with so many areas in Africa that are in disastrous situations. They last so long, then they are forgotten, and that makes it worse." So what is her theory? Why is there so much violence? Cruz's brow furrows lightly. "There is a lot of confusion and this is not new. By now we should learn from our mistakes, but we don't. I don't think a movie can solve a problem like that. Unfortunately it doesn't have that power. But it can inspire a question."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Despite jitters over its plans for financial aid, a Spanish debt
auction went smoothly this morning
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Anti-Japan protests spread amid reports that Chinese boats are heading for archipelago where Japanese activists landed briefly Anti-Japanese protests are continuing across China as the countries' competing claims to a group of islands threatened to escalate. There were reports that a large flotilla of Chinese fishing boats was due to arrive in the area later on Tuesday. Hundreds of Japanese firms closed their businesses, as demonstrators took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the start of Japan's 14-year occupation of northern China in 1931. As the region braced for the possible arrival of up to 1,000 fishing boats in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – Beijing reacted angrily to reports that two Japanese activists had briefly landed on one of the three islands that the Japanese government bought from their private Japanese owners last week. "The unlawful landing of the Japanese rightwingers on the Chinese territory of the Diaoyu islands was a gravely provocative action violating Chinese territorial sovereignty," Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement. At least two of 11 Chinese ocean surveillance and fishery patrol ships sailing near the islands have entered what Japan considers its territory, the public broadcaster NHK said, quoting Japan's coastguard. China's national defence minister, Liang Guanglie, said Beijing reserved the right to take further action against Japan over the dispute. It was hoped the countries could reach a negotiated solution, but the Japanese government should "undo its mistakes and come back to the right track of negotiations", he said. The Japanese activists briefly landed on one of the islands – which are thought to be located amid huge natural gas deposits – after swimming ashore from a dinghy, then returned to their boat, NHK said. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted an aide to Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, as saying that the possible arrival of the fishing boats would take the dispute to a "new stage". He told the paper: "The government is taking a wait-and-see approach for the moment. But we will not be able to sit by idly if fishing vessels reach the Senkaku islands in large numbers. It could lead to a new stage." The coastguard could be forced to arrest the captains of any Chinese vessels that enter Japan's territorial waters, in a repeat of an incident that soured relations between the two countries in 2010. If the coastguard is unable to cope, some have speculated that the defence forces could become involved. The Japanese activists' landing and the presence of Chinese ships in the area heightened tensions days after protesters set fire to Japanese factories, attacked other businesses and hurled objects at the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Tuesday's demonstrations reportedly spread to 100 cities, but there were no reports of violence amid a much heavier police presence. The Chinese authorities have endorsed the popular outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment – now in its eighth day – but have warned marchers not to break the law. Wang Guoming, a retired soldier, said anger towards Japan had prompted him to travel to Beijing from his hometown in Shanxi province. "I came here so our islands will not be invaded by Japan," Wang told the Associated Press. "We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are evil. Down with little Japan!" In central Chengdu, around 1,000 demonstrators waved Chinese flags and chanted, but appeared outnumbered by the massed ranks of paramilitary, uniformed and plain clothes police. A note left on a Japanese-made police car nearby read: "Reject Japanese products. Don't dig your own grave." The Chinese government moved to dampen the fervour of the protests late on Monday after signs that some of the demonstrators' anger was being directed towards their own government. Authorities in China are normally quick to prevent even small-scale protests, but have a history of tolerating mass anti-Japan protests for a few days before stepping in to tone them down or stop them, aware of the potential for the mood to turn against them. Some human rights activists have already sought to take advantage of the rare chance to take to the streets: one protestor told the Guardian three of his friends had been detained by police after 10 of them marched with a banner reading "Democracy, human rights, constitutional government" at a demonstration in Shenzhen this weekend. They were released with a warning. "We saw the anti-Japan protests online and joined because China rarely gives people a chance to take part in protests," the man said. "Police said we had disturbed social order and could not have the protest because it was not harmonious with the other protesters." China's state news agency, Xinhua, announced that Beijing had expressed "strong dissatisfaction" after one of its consulates in Japan was attacked with smoke bombs. The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, repeated calls for both sides to prevent an escalation in the crisis amid calls for a boycott of Japanese goods that could harm ties between two important trading partners. Washington has not taken sides in the sovereignty row but is bound by its security treaty obligations with Tokyo to come to Japan's aid if it is attacked. "We hope that the US will truly abide by the principle of not taking sides over the question of who the Diaoyu islands belong to," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. The Japanese airline All Nippon Airways reported more than 18,000 cancellations from passengers in the coming weeks, most for flights from China. While there have been no reports of violence against Japanese citizens, some expatriates voiced concern about their safety. Many stayed home on Tuesday on the advice of their employers and the Japanese government. There are no signs at this stage that Japanese companies are preparing to withdraw from China, although analysts say they may reconsider future investments there. China is Japan's single biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth a record $345bn (£213bn) last year.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Anti-Japan protests spread amid reports that Chinese boats are heading for Senaku islands Anti-Japanese protests are continuing across China as the countries' competing claims to a group of islands threatened to escalate. There were reports that a large flotilla of Chinese fishing boats was due to arrive in the area later on Tuesday. Hundreds of Japanese firms closed their businesses, as demonstrators took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the start of Japan's 14-year occupation of northern China in 1931. As the region braced for the possible arrival of up to 1,000 fishing boats in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – Beijing reacted angrily to reports that two Japanese activists had briefly landed on one of the three islands that the Japanese government bought from their private Japanese owners last week. "The unlawful landing of the Japanese rightwingers on the Chinese territory of the Diaoyu islands was a gravely provocative action violating Chinese territorial sovereignty," Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement. At least two of 11 Chinese ocean surveillance and fishery patrol ships sailing near the islands have entered what Japan considers its territory, the public broadcaster NHK said, quoting Japan's coastguard. China's national defence minister, Liang Guanglie, said Beijing reserved the right to take further action against Japan over the dispute. It was hoped the countries could reach a negotiated solution, but the Japanese government should "undo its mistakes and come back to the right track of negotiations", he said. The Japanese activists briefly landed on one of the islands – which are thought to be located amid huge natural gas deposits – after swimming ashore from a dinghy, then returned to their boat, NHK said. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted an aide to Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, as saying that the possible arrival of the fishing boats would take the dispute to a "new stage". He told the paper: "The government is taking a wait-and-see approach for the moment. But we will not be able to sit by idly if fishing vessels reach the Senkaku islands in large numbers. It could lead to a new stage." The coastguard could be forced to arrest the captains of any Chinese vessels that enter Japan's territorial waters, in a repeat of an incident that soured relations between the two countries in 2010. If the coastguard is unable to cope, some have speculated that the defence forces could become involved. The Japanese activists' landing and the presence of Chinese ships in the area heightened tensions days after protesters set fire to Japanese factories, attacked other businesses and hurled objects at the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Tuesday's demonstrations reportedly spread to 100 cities, but there were no reports of violence amid a much heavier police presence. The Chinese authorities have endorsed the popular outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment – now in its eighth day – but have warned marchers not to break the law. Wang Guoming, a retired soldier, said anger towards Japan had prompted him to travel to Beijing from his hometown in Shanxi province. "I came here so our islands will not be invaded by Japan," Wang told the Associated Press. "We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are evil. Down with little Japan!" In central Chengdu, around 1,000 demonstrators waved Chinese flags and chanted, but appeared outnumbered by the massed ranks of paramilitary, uniformed and plain clothes police. A note left on a Japanese-made police car nearby read: "Reject Japanese products. Don't dig your own grave." The Chinese government moved to dampen the fervour of the protests late on Monday after signs that some of the demonstrators' anger was being directed towards their own government. Authorities in China are normally quick to prevent even small protests, but have a history of tolerating mass anti-Japan protests for a few days before stepping in to tone them down or stop them, aware of the potential for the mood to turn against them. Some human rights activists have already sought to take advantage of the rare chance to take to the streets: one protestor told the Guardian three of his friends had been detained by police after 10 of them marched with a banner reading "Democracy, human rights, constitutional government" at a demonstration in Shenzhen this weekend. They were released with a warning. "We saw the anti-Japan protests online and joined because China rarely gives people a chance to take part in protests," the man said. "Police said we had disturbed social order and could not have the protest because it was not harmonious with the other protesters." China's state news agency, Xinhua, announced that Beijing had expressed "strong dissatisfaction" after one of its consulates in Japan was attacked with smoke bombs. The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, repeated calls for both sides to prevent an escalation in the crisis amid calls for a boycott of Japanese goods that could harm ties between two important trading partners. Washington has not taken sides in the sovereignty row but is bound by its security treaty obligations with Tokyo to come to Japan's aid if it is attacked. "We hope that the US will truly abide by the principle of not taking sides over the question of who the Diaoyu islands belong to," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. The Japanese airline All Nippon Airways reported more than 18,000 cancellations from passengers in the coming weeks, most for flights from China. While there have been no reports of violence against Japanese citizens, some expatriates voiced concern about their safety. Many stayed home on Tuesday on the advice of their employers and the Japanese government. There are no signs at this stage that Japanese companies are preparing to withdraw from China, although analysts say they may reconsider future investments there. China is Japan's single biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth a record $345bn (£213bn) last year.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Anti-Japan protests spread amid reports that Chinese boats are heading for Senkaku islands Anti-Japanese protests are continuing across China as the countries' competing claims to a group of islands threatened to escalate. There were reports that a large flotilla of Chinese fishing boats was due to arrive in the area later on Tuesday. Hundreds of Japanese firms closed their businesses, as demonstrators took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the start of Japan's 14-year occupation of northern China in 1931. As the region braced for the possible arrival of up to 1,000 fishing boats in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – Beijing reacted angrily to reports that two Japanese activists had briefly landed on one of the three islands that the Japanese government bought from their private Japanese owners last week. "The unlawful landing of the Japanese rightwingers on the Chinese territory of the Diaoyu islands was a gravely provocative action violating Chinese territorial sovereignty," Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement. At least two of 11 Chinese ocean surveillance and fishery patrol ships sailing near the islands have entered what Japan considers its territory, the public broadcaster NHK said, quoting Japan's coastguard. China's national defence minister, Liang Guanglie, said Beijing reserved the right to take further action against Japan over the dispute. It was hoped the countries could reach a negotiated solution, but the Japanese government should "undo its mistakes and come back to the right track of negotiations", he said. The Japanese activists briefly landed on one of the islands – which are thought to be located amid huge natural gas deposits – after swimming ashore from a dinghy, then returned to their boat, NHK said. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted an aide to Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, as saying that the possible arrival of the fishing boats would take the dispute to a "new stage". He told the paper: "The government is taking a wait-and-see approach for the moment. But we will not be able to sit by idly if fishing vessels reach the Senkaku islands in large numbers. It could lead to a new stage." The coastguard could be forced to arrest the captains of any Chinese vessels that enter Japan's territorial waters, in a repeat of an incident that soured relations between the two countries in 2010. If the coastguard is unable to cope, some have speculated that the defence forces could become involved. The Japanese activists' landing and the presence of Chinese ships in the area heightened tensions days after protesters set fire to Japanese factories, attacked other businesses and hurled objects at the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Tuesday's demonstrations reportedly spread to 100 cities, but there were no reports of violence amid a much heavier police presence. The Chinese authorities have endorsed the popular outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment – now in its eighth day – but have warned marchers not to break the law. Wang Guoming, a retired soldier, said anger towards Japan had prompted him to travel to Beijing from his hometown in Shanxi province. "I came here so our islands will not be invaded by Japan," Wang told the Associated Press. "We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are evil. Down with little Japan!" In central Chengdu, around 1,000 demonstrators waved Chinese flags and chanted, but appeared outnumbered by the massed ranks of paramilitary, uniformed and plainclothes police. A note left on a Japanese-made police car nearby read: "Reject Japanese products. Don't dig your own grave." The Chinese government moved to dampen the fervour of the protests late on Monday after signs that some of the demonstrators' anger was being directed towards their own government. Authorities in China are normally quick to prevent even small protests, but have a history of tolerating mass anti-Japan protests for a few days before stepping in to tone them down or stop them, aware of the potential for the mood to turn against them. Some human rights activists have already sought to take advantage of the rare chance to take to the streets: one protestor told the Guardian three of his friends had been detained by police after 10 of them marched with a banner reading "Democracy, human rights, constitutional government" at a demonstration in Shenzhen this weekend. They were released with a warning. "We saw the anti-Japan protests online and joined because China rarely gives people a chance to take part in protests," the man said. "Police said we had disturbed social order and could not have the protest because it was not harmonious with the other protesters." China's state news agency, Xinhua, announced that Beijing had expressed "strong dissatisfaction" after one of its consulates in Japan was attacked with smoke bombs. The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, repeated calls for both sides to prevent an escalation in the crisis amid calls for a boycott of Japanese goods that could harm ties between two important trading partners. Washington has not taken sides in the sovereignty row but is bound by its security treaty obligations with Tokyo to come to Japan's aid if it is attacked. "We hope that the US will truly abide by the principle of not taking sides over the question of who the Diaoyu islands belong to," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. The Japanese airline All Nippon Airways reported more than 18,000 cancellations from passengers in the coming weeks, most for flights from China. While there have been no reports of violence against Japanese citizens, some expatriates voiced concern about their safety. Many stayed at home on Tuesday on the advice of their employers and the Japanese government. There are no signs at this stage that Japanese companies are preparing to withdraw from China, although analysts say they may reconsider future investments there. China is Japan's single biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth a record $345bn (£213bn) last year.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | PM Ashraf climbs down in dispute and agrees to write 'Swiss letter' concerning money-laundering claims against president Pakistan's government appears to have abandoned a three-year-long standoff with the country's top judges over the writing of a controversial letter to officials in Switzerland responsible for investigating money-laundering charges against the president. What is known as "the Swiss letter" has become central to a case that, although based on arcane legal and constitutional arguments, has already ended the career of one prime minister and has threatened to bring down the government led by the Pakistan People's party (PPP). The supreme court, led by an increasingly assertive and popular chief justice, has long demanded the government write to Switzerland to rescind a 2008 notification that it was no longer a party to corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardari that Swiss officials had investigated. The government has been equally insistent it would never write such a letter, claiming Zardari enjoys immunity as head of state. PPP loyalists have argued the supreme court refused to drop the issue because of the personal enmity between Zadari and the chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry. In June, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was forced to step down after he was found guilty of being in contempt of court for refusing to write the letter. Many observers had assumed Zardari would continue to defy the court in order to limp to the end of the government's term by sacrificing one prime minister after the next – the current incumbent, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, is widely regarded as a political lightweight and has been implicated in his own separate corruption scandal. But on Tuesday morning, Ashraf, accompanied by senior cabinet ministers, arrived at the grand marble chamber of the supreme court to announce that the law minister had been "empowered" to write to the Swiss authorities. He said he was acting "in the larger interest of the country" and added: "I don't want to be seen standing on the wrong side of the history." The climbdown prompted the judges to exempt Ashraf from threatened charges of contempt of court, ensuring his political future for the time being. Several legal experts predicted that any letter written to the Swiss would be contrived to ensure it would not trigger any further investigation of Zardari for the alleged laundering of tens of millions of dollars through Swiss bank accounts in the 1990s when Benazir Bhutto, Zardari's widow, was in power. "Given the track record of the PPP it is certain they will not write the letter that the supreme court wants," said Wajih Uddin, a former chief justice of the Sindh provincial supreme court. "It will be sugar-coated in such a way that it will benefit Mr Zardari." However, the law minister indicated he would allow the supreme court to approve a draft of the letter. Other legal experts assume the government must have been assured that Switzerland would not reopen the case, even if formally asked to do so.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Freedom of information tribunal says public has right to know how prince seeks to influence government policy The government has for the first time been ordered to disclose copies of confidential letters that Prince Charles wrote to ministers. The publication of the letters will reveal how the heir to the throne has been lobbying ministers behind the scenes with his strongly held opinions. In a significant ruling published on Tuesday, three judges in a freedom of information tribunal decided the public is entitled to know how the prince seeks to alter government policy. "The essential reason is that it will generally be in the overall public interest for there to be transparency as to how and when Prince Charles seeks to influence government," they ruled. For seven years, the government has been resisting the disclosure of a set of letters following a freedom of information request by the Guardian to see them. Seven Whitehall departments will now have to hand over within a month letters sent during a seven-month period in 2004 and 2005, unless they lodge an appeal at the court of appeal. There have been long-standing criticisms that the prince has been intervening in the affairs of government by sending a stream of letters to ministers, known as "black spider memos" because of his handwriting. In their 126-page ruling, the judges, led by Mr Justice Walker, acknowledged that some people "fear, among other things, that disclosure would damage our constitutional structures". However, they dismissed the arguments put forward by the Whitehall departments, saying they had a "strong air of unreality" and were "difficult to pin down". The departments had argued that the correspondence between the prince and ministers had to be kept secret under a constitutional convention. Disclosure would undermine the convention which allowed the heir to the throne to be educated in the business of government to prepare him to become king, they claimed. But the judges decided that permitting the prince's lobbying to be concealed under this convention was a "massive extension" of the convention, which was not justified. They decided that "it was fundamental" that the lobbying by the heir "cannot have constitutional status" and cannot be protected from disclosure. The evidence, they said, "shows Prince Charles using his access to government ministers, and no doubt considering himself entitled to use that access, in order to set up and drive forward charities and promote views, but not as part of his preparation for kingship". "Ministers responded, and no doubt felt themselves obliged to respond, but again not as part of Prince Charles's preparation for kingship." Paul Richards, a former Labour special adviser, told the tribunal that letters from the prince went "to the top of the pile" and were "treated with great reverence". The judges noted that although the public had strong views about Charles, they had made their decision "dispassionately – in the words of the judicial oath, 'without fear or favour, affection or ill-will'". They said: "Some will be horrified at any suggestion that correspondence between government and their heir to the throne should be published … Others may welcome such disclosure, fearing among other things that without it there will be no real ability to understand the role played by Prince Charles in government decision-making." The judges noted that the prince's activities "are not neutral and in a number of respects have been controversial". Adam Tomkins, a law professor, had testified that the prince had lobbied on "the perceived merits of holistic medicine, the perceived evils of genetically modified crops, the apparent dangers of making cuts in the armed forces, his strong dislike of certain forms of architecture (leading him to make high-profile interventions in a number of contested planning developments), a range of issues relating to agricultural policy". According to media reports, the prince once complained to Tony Blair, when he was prime minister, about the government's treatment of rural workers, relaying a Cumbrian farmer's view that "if we, as a group, were black or gay, we would not be victimised or picked on". On another occasion he outlined his concerns to Lord Irvine, then lord chancellor, about an American-style "compensation culture", reportedly writing: "I and countless others dread the very real and growing prospect of an American-style personal injury 'culture' becoming ever more prevalent in this country". He was also reported to have criticised "the degree to which our lives are becoming ruled by a truly absurd degree of politically correct interference". Copies or details of the prince's letters have been made public, either through leaks, Jonathan Dimbleby's 1994 biography of Charles, or other sources. However, the tribunal's decision is the first time under the freedom of information legislation that the government has been instructed to publish his letters. It is likely to be the last time, as ministers last year enforced a blanket ban on his correspondence being disclosed under the freedom of information law in the future, regardless of whether it is in the public interest. The absolute block was imposed following pressure from the royal family, a well-placed source has told the Guardian. The judges ordered the Cabinet Office, and the departments responsible for business, health, schools, environment, culture and Northern Ireland to disclose their correspondence with the prince between September 2004 and April 2005. It is the second freedom of information defeat the government has suffered over the question of the prince's political influence. The Queen and the prince have the power to veto legislation that could harm their private interests. Last month the information commissioner ruled that an internal Whitehall guide into the use of this veto should be published.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Defence secretary called to the Commons after US general suspends joint patrols with Afghan troops The Nato-led military strategy in Afghanistan has been thrown into disarray after joint on-the-ground operations were suspended because of a collapse in trust over the killings of Americans and other Nato soldiers by Afghan government forces. The move came after a surge in the number of "insider attacks" by Afghan government soldiers and police officers. There have been 36 such attacks this year, which have killed 51 Nato soldiers. The suspension threatens the joint plan to train an effective Afghan army to keep the Taliban at bay after foreign troops pull out. General John Allen, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, ordered a stop to joint combat operations and patrols "until further notice". The decision, which was announced in Washington, took the UK government by surprise, coming just a day after the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, spoke in defence of Nato's continued work with Afghan troops in parliament. Whitehall sources said British commanders were unaware the announcement was going to be made. He said on Monday: "It is essential that we complete the task of training the Afghan national security forces and increasing their capability so that they can take over the burden of combat as we withdraw. That is what we intend to do, and we will not be deterred from it by these attacks." Hammond will be forced to address the Commons on Afghanistan for a second day in succession on Tuesday after the Speaker, John Bercow, granted Tory MP John Baron an urgent question at lunchtime. A Ministry of Defence source said everything the British army did in Afghanistan was in partnership with Afghans so it would have to look closely at how to continue operations while complying with the direction from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). The source said: "We are very much partnered with the Afghans. Literally everything is partnered with them right down to every level. We need to see what are the parameters for us … it's for the individual countries working under Isaf to determine how they work through what Isaf wants to be done." The chief US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said the "insider attacks", in which four American and two British soldiers were killed at the weekend, were themselves "a very serious threat to the campaign" against the Taliban. There were at least 12 such attacks last month alone, leaving 15 dead. Nato said in a statement that "most partnering and advising" would now be at a battalion level and above, a significant withdrawal by Nato forces from working with the Afghan military on the ground. Joint operations at a lower level would be "evaluated on a case by case basis" and only happen with the approval of regional commanders. Nato said in some places all on-the-ground collaboration would cease and foreign military advisers would be "stepping back to advise from the next level". The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, described the attacks as the "last gasp" of a weakened Taliban. But the admission that Nato troops are no longer safe from the forces they are relying on to contain the Taliban after the final US pullout in two years' time is a severe blow to Washington's plans. Under the strategy, members of the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces gain experience patrolling and fighting alongside US and other foreign soldiers. But the killings have led to a collapse in trust. American, British and Afghan officials became increasingly alarmed at the attacks because of their impact on troop morale and public opinion in the US and UK. The decision strikes at the heart of Nato – and British – strategy which is based on the assumption that foreign troops and Afghan security forces will work increasingly closely until the Afghans take over all ground combat operations by the end of 2014. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, asked why Hammond made no mention of the move when he faced MPs in the Commons on Monday in response to an urgent question from former Labour minister Denis MacShane. He said there were "very serious questions" for the government to answer. Alexander told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This announcement begs more questions than it answers. Why did Philip Hammond not even mention it yesterday when he addressed MPs in the House of Commons? Was it that he didn't know or did he choose not to tell MPs? But sitting beyond that question is the deeper question: does this represent a temporary tactical response by military commanders on the ground or does it represent a more strategic shift in the mission? "If we are in a position where a regional commander is generally unwilling to grant the authority for troops to go out on patrol with Afghan soldiers, that would severely compromise the capacity of the mission to deliver its objectives." He went on: "The whole of the strategy in Afghanistan now is built around the premise that as the international forces step back, the Afghan forces can step up. "That's why I think there are very serious questions for the government to answer in the hours ahead." Though British commanders were drawing up plans designed to better protect their troops against "insider" or "green on blue" attacks, defence officials are making clear that the Nato decision to suspend joint ground operations was unexpected. Hammond told the House of Commons on Monday that the latest attacks, including the killing of two British soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment on Saturday, could not be allowed to "derail" the training of Afghan security forces by British troops. The Nato decision has driven a coach and horses through that plan, and raises a huge question mark over the manner in which the 9,000 British troops in Helmand will be reduced over the next two and a quarter years. Hammond confirmed to MPs on Monday his remarks in an interview with the Guardian last week that his military commanders had advised that UK troops could withdraw faster than planned – a reversal of recent military advice. That advice may change again. Hammond discussed the attacks with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on a visit to Kabul last week, saying the problem was a huge concern and had to be "put back in its box". American officials say the insider attacks are carried out by a mixture of Taliban infiltrators dressed as soldiers, insurgents who have got themselves recruited and Afghan soldiers angry about their treatment, personal insults or cultural differences. US commanders had already assigned soldiers to guard their comrades as they slept, ate or interacted with Afghan forces because of the increasing number of insider killings. American troops were also ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times, even inside their own bases. Afghan civilian deaths caused by Nato attacks have added to the strain. In the latest, an air strike killed eight women and girls collecting firewood. The loss of trust in the force the US is relying on to prevent the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan compounds other concerns about Washington's strategy. The additional 33,000 soldiers Barack Obama, dispatched two years ago as part of the surge are expected to complete their withdrawal this week. The remaining 68,000 American troops are supposed to gradually shift responsibility to Afghan forces, which, under the US strategy, are to take the lead in combat as early as next year. But despite gains on the battlefield, questions persist about whether Afghan forces will have the ability and will to keep an undefeated Taliban at bay once Nato forces have left. Colonel Tim Collins, a former commanding officer in the Royal Irish Regiment, said Allen had taken a sensible decision to reduce the risk to his troops. He told the Today programme: "Because of the recent upsurge of protest across the Islamic world, amongst Muslims in general, the risk to his troops at this point is such that this is the time to decide to take the train wheels off and let them go on their own." Collins said there was no evidence that the Taliban had a strategy in play. "There is no evidence to support that," he said. "The Taliban are taking advantage of disgruntled Afghans who have been recruited in large numbers – many of them far too quickly. This has turned into a copycat thing. To credit the Taliban with a tactic is to become what Lenin would describe as a useful idiot."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Despite jitters over its plans for financial aid, a Spanish debt
auction went smoothly this morning
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Publisher of Closer to be fined €10,000 a day if it republishes paparazzi shots of the duchess sunbathing topless The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have won an injunction in a French court preventing celebrity magazine Closer from publishing further paparazzi shots of the duchess sunbathing topless. Mondadori France, Closer's publishing company, will be fined €10,000 per day if it publishes any more photographs following Tuesday's judgment or transmits them to any third party via email or any other means. Mondadori, owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, will also have to pay €2,000 towards legal fees as part of the ruling following a civil action. A court in Nanterre, near Paris, opened a separate criminal investigation on Tuesday into charges that Closer and a photographer breached the privacy of the duke and duchess by publishing the topless photos. The initial investigation will be carried out by the BRDP, a branch of the French police responsible for dealing with attacks on individuals which notably handled a probe into a writer's sexual assault allegations against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn. If found guilty, the magazine could be fined up to €45,000 (£36,000) and the editor could be jailed for up to a year. In granting the injunction in the civil action, the French judge sided with the royal couple, whose lawyer told him on Monday the photos portrayed the "profoundly intimate life of the couple" and asked: "In what name did this magazine publish these shocking photos ... It was certainly not in the name of information. This has no place on the cover of a magazine or even in an article in a magazine." Their lawyer had argued in court that the photographs were a breach of the French privacy laws and were "a shocking breach of their personal intimacy". The legal action, while not the first taken by a member of the royal family against a newspaper or magazine, was seen as a bid to put down a marker and prevent any further invasion of theduchess's privacy. But one senior executive at a British celebrity magazine said: "I think the action has been taken while the horse is already half way round the field." On Saturday a second publication, the Irish Daily Star, published the photos, leading to the editor being suspended on Monday night pending the outcome of an internal investigation. And on Monday, an Italian celebrity magazine, Chi, rushed out a special edition with 26 pages devoted to the candid photos of the future Queen. When Closer published the photos on Friday, St James's Palace roundly condemned the move as a "grotesque" invasion of the duke and duchess's privacy "reminiscent of the worst excesses of worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales". Closer's editor, Laurence Pieau, defended the decision to print the photos and said she did not think the photos were "shocking" or "degrading". She said she thought the reaction had been "disproportionate" and that all they had tried to do was show a young couple in love. The pictures were taken while the duke and duchess were staying in Provence at a chateau owned by Lord Linley, the Queen's nephew. The couple, who are currently visiting parts of southeast Asia and the South Pacific for a diamond jubilee tour, were told about the pictures just ahead of a stop at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Anti-Japan protests spread as flotilla of Chinese fishing boats is reported to be heading for disputed archipelago Anti-Japanese protests continued across China on Tuesday, as the countries' competing claims to a group of islands threatened to escalate. There were reports that a large flotilla of Chinese fishing boats was due to arrive in the area later in the day. Hundreds of Japanese firms closed their businesses, as demonstrators took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the 1931 start of Japan's 14-year occupation of northern China. As the region braced for the possible arrival of up to 1,000 fishing boats in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – Beijing reacted angrily to reports that two Japanese activists had briefly landed on one of the three islands the Japanese government bought from their private Japanese owners last week. "The unlawful landing of the Japanese rightwingers on the Chinese territory of the Diaoyu islands was a gravely provocative action violating Chinese territorial sovereignty," Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement. The activists briefly landed on one of the islands – which are thought to be located amid huge natural gas deposits – after swimming ashore from a dinghy, then returned to their boat, the broadcaster NHK said. The Asahi Shimbun quoted an aide to Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, as saying that the possible arrival of the fishing boats would take the dispute to a "new stage". He told the paper: "The government is taking a wait-and-see approach for the moment. But we will not be able to sit by idly if fishing vessels reach the Senkaku islands in large numbers. It could lead to a new stage." The coastguard could be forced to arrest the captains of any Chinese vessels that enter Japan's territorial waters, in a repeat of an incident that soured relations between the two countries in 2010. If the coastguard is unable to cope, some have speculated that the defence forces could become involved. The Japanese activists' landing and the presence of Chinese patrol ships in the area heightened tensions days after protesters set fire to Japanese factories, attacked other businesses and hurled objects at the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Tuesday's demonstrations reportedly spread to 100 cities, but there were no reports of violence amid a much heavier police presence. The Chinese authorities have endorsed the popular outpouring of anti-Japanese sentiment – now in its eighth day – but have warned marchers not to break the law. Wang Guoming, a retired soldier, said anger towards Japan had prompted him to travel to Beijing from his hometown in Shanxi province. "I came here so our islands will not be invaded by Japan," Wang told Associated Press. "We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are evil. Down with little Japan!" The Chinese government moved to dampen the fervour of the protests late on Monday after signs that some of the demonstrators' anger was being re-directed towards their own government. According to a Hong Kong newspaper, protesters in the nearby mainland city of Shenzhen had been detained after calling for democracy and improvements in human rights. The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, repeated calls for both sides to prevent an escalation in the crisis amid calls for a boycott of Japanese goods that could harm ties between two important trading partners. In China on a three-day visit, Panetta called on leaders in Beijing to develop closer military contacts with Washington to help lower tension and avoid confusion in the region. The US has not taken sides in the sovereignty row but is bound by its security treaty obligations with Tokyo to come to Japan's aid if it is attacked. "We hope that the US will truly abide by the principle of not taking sides over the question of who the Diaoyu islands belong to," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. Shop and factory closures aside, the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways reported more than 18,000 cancellations from passengers in the coming weeks, most for flights from China. While there have been no reports of violence against Japanese citizens, some expatriates voiced concern about their safety. Many stayed home on Tuesday on the advice of their employers and the Japanese government. But Mutsuko Takebayashi, a housewife living in Shanghai, said she had already booked a ticket home. "It's possible that Japanese companies will start evacuating families back home and if that happens it'll be too late to book tickets," she told Reuters. "That's why I'm going back today." There are no signs at this stage that Japanese companies are preparing to withdraw from China, although analysts say they may reconsider future investments there. China is Japan's single biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth a record $345bn (£213bn) last year.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Joint patrols halted until further notice after collapse in trust over number of US and Nato soldiers killed in 'insider attacks' The Nato-led military strategy in Afghanistan has been thrown into disarray after joint on-the-ground operations were suspended because of a collapse in trust over the killings of Americans and other Nato soldiers by Afghan government forces. The move came after a surge in the number of "insider attacks" by Afghan government soldiers and police officers. There have been 36 such attacks this year, which have killed 51 Nato soldiers. The suspension threatens the joint plan to train an effective Afghan army to keep the Taliban at bay after foreign troops pull out. General John Allen, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, ordered a stop to joint combat operations and patrols "until further notice". The decision, which was announced in Washington, took the UK government by surprise, coming just a day after the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, spoke in defence of Nato's continued work with Afghan troops in parliament. Whitehall sources said British commanders were unaware the announcement was going to be made. He said on Monday: "It is essential that we complete the task of training the Afghan national security forces and increasing their capability so that they can take over the burden of combat as we withdraw. That is what we intend to do, and we will not be deterred from it by these attacks." A Ministry of Defence source said everything the British army did in Afghanistan was in partnership with Afghans so it would have to look closely at how to continue operations while complying with the direction from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). The source said: "We are very much partnered with the Afghans. Literally everything is partnered with them right down to every level. We need to see what are the parameters for us … it's for the individual countries working under Isaf to determine how they work through what Isaf wants to be done." The chief US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said the "insider attacks", in which four American and two British soldiers were killed at the weekend, were themselves "a very serious threat to the campaign" against the Taliban. There were at least 12 such attacks last month alone, leaving 15 dead. Nato said in a statement that "most partnering and advising" would now be at a battalion level and above, a significant withdrawal by Nato forces from working with the Afghan military on the ground. Joint operations at a lower level would be "evaluated on a case by case basis" and only happen with the approval of regional commanders. Nato said in some places all on-the-ground collaboration would cease and foreign military advisers would be "stepping back to advise from the next level". The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, described the attacks as the "last gasp" of a weakened Taliban. But the admission that Nato troops are no longer safe from the forces they are relying on to contain the Taliban after the final US pullout in two years' time is a severe blow to Washington's plans. Under the strategy, members of the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces gain experience patrolling and fighting alongside US and other foreign soldiers. But the killings have led to a collapse in trust. American, British and Afghan officials became increasingly alarmed at the attacks because of their impact on troop morale and public opinion in the US and UK. The decision strikes at the heart of Nato – and British – strategy which is based on the assumption that foreign troops and Afghan security forces will work increasingly closely until the Afghans take over all ground combat operations by the end of 2014. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, asked why Hammond made no mention of the move when he faced MPs in the Commons on Monday in response to an urgent question from former Labour minister Denis MacShane. He said there were "very serious questions" for the government to answer. Alexander told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This announcement begs more questions than it answers. Why did Philip Hammond not even mention it yesterday when he addressed MPs in the House of Commons? Was it that he didn't know or did he choose not to tell MPs? But sitting beyond that question is the deeper question: does this represent a temporary tactical response by military commanders on the ground or does it represent a more strategic shift in the mission? "If we are in a position where a regional commander is generally unwilling to grant the authority for troops to go out on patrol with Afghan soldiers, that would severely compromise the capacity of the mission to deliver its objectives." He went on: "The whole of the strategy in Afghanistan now is built around the premise that as the international forces step back, the Afghan forces can step up. "That's why I think there are very serious questions for the government to answer in the hours ahead." Though British commanders were drawing up plans designed to better protect their troops against "insider" or "green on blue" attacks, defence officials are making clear that the Nato decision to suspend joint ground operations was unexpected. Hammond told the House of Commons on Monday that the latest attacks, including the killing of two British soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment on Saturday, could not be allowed to "derail" the training of Afghan security forces by British troops. The Nato decision has driven a coach and horses through that plan, and raises a huge question mark over the manner in which the 9,000 British troops in Helmand will be reduced over the next two and a quarter years. Hammond confirmed to MPs on Monday his remarks in an interview with the Guardian last week that his military commanders had advised that UK troops could withdraw faster than planned – a reversal of recent military advice. That advice may change again. Hammond discussed the attacks with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on a visit to Kabul last week, saying the problem was a huge concern and had to be "put back in its box". American officials say the insider attacks are carried out by a mixture of Taliban infiltrators dressed as soldiers, insurgents who have got themselves recruited and Afghan soldiers angry about their treatment, personal insults or cultural differences. US commanders had already assigned soldiers to guard their comrades as they slept, ate or interacted with Afghan forces because of the increasing number of insider killings. American troops were also ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times, even inside their own bases. Afghan civilian deaths caused by Nato attacks have added to the strain. In the latest, an air strike killed eight women and girls collecting firewood. The loss of trust in the force the US is relying on to prevent the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan compounds other concerns about Washington's strategy. The additional 33,000 soldiers Barack Obama, dispatched two years ago as part of the surge are expected to complete their withdrawal this week. The remaining 68,000 American troops are supposed to gradually shift responsibility to Afghan forces, which, under the US strategy, are to take the lead in combat as early as next year. But despite gains on the battlefield, questions persist about whether Afghan forces will have the ability and will to keep an undefeated Taliban at bay once Nato forces have left. Colonel Tim Collins, a former commanding officer in the Royal Irish Regiment, said Allen had taken a sensible decision to reduce the risk to his troops. He told the Today programme: "Because of the recent upsurge of protest across the Islamic world, amongst Muslims in general, the risk to his troops at this point is such that this is the time to decide to take the train wheels off and let them go on their own." Collins said there was no evidence that the Taliban had a strategy in play. "There is no evidence to support that," he said. "The Taliban are taking advantage of disgruntled Afghans who have been recruited in large numbers – many of them far too quickly. This has turned into a copycat thing. To credit the Taliban with a tactic is to become what Lenin would describe as a useful idiot."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chinese court recognises extenuating circumstances that should result in lighter sentence for Wang Lijun, as trial ends The flamboyant Chinese police chief whose dash to a US consulate triggered the downfall of politician Bo Xilai appears on course to escape the death penalty, after the court trying him credited him with confessing and giving important evidence against others. Wang Lijun received 3m yuan (nearly £300,000) or more in bribes, according to a statement released by Chengdu intermediate people's court in south-west China shortly after his trial concluded on Tuesday. He is also accused of defection, "bending the law to selfish ends" and abuse of power. The statement described how Wang had been privy to state secrets due to his position and had left his post in Chongqing while on duty and defected to a foreign consulate – the US mission in Chengdu. There, he told diplomats that he believed Bo's wife Gu had murdered British businessman Neil Heywood. She was handed a suspended death sentence last month. "Wang knew perfectly well that Bogu [SIC] Kailai was under serious suspicion of intentional homicide, but he deliberately covered up for her so that Bogu Kailai would not be held legally responsible … The circumstances are especially serious," said the statement. The document, read out by spokesman Yang Yuquan, also said Wang had used surveillance technology "against many people on multiple occasions, either without the approval of authorities or by forging approval documents". But it also added that prosecutors acknowledged a string of extenuating circumstances that should result in a lighter sentence. Wang ordered his subordinates to collect and preserve evidence of the murder case, reported Gu's possible involvement to authorities, provided evidence and willingly aided the reinvestigation. He turned himself in, in other words, agreed to leave the US consulate, and confessed and performed "major meritorious services" by exposing serious offences committed by others and playing a key part in the investigation. While the amount of bribes Wang accepted appeared almost modest when compared with the startling sums revealed in other recent corruption cases, it might under normal circumstances be enough to warrant the death penalty because the legal threshold was low, said Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based expert on the Chinese criminal justice system. "There are significant grounds for lenience, but we have to figure out what we mean by lenience. It's clear, I think, that he won't be put to death and quite likely, I think, that he won't be given a suspended death sentence. Could he still get a life sentence? I think there's a chance of that. Under the circumstances, that might be considered lenient," he added. Video released by China's state broadcaster showed the 52-year-old Wang looking calm and apparently well as he sat in the courtroom, wearing a white shirt and dark trousers, with a few dozen people behind him. He was seen reading documents and speaking briefly. The court statement described Wang as emotionally stable and in good health. The judgment will be delivered on an unspecified date, but there is little doubt of the verdict. Criminal cases almost always end in conviction in China and state news agency Xinhua described evidence against him as "concrete and abundant" when it announced his indictment. The case began unexpectedly on Monday, with a hearing held behind closed doors because it touched on state secrets. Xinhua described Tuesday's hearing as an "open trial", although it took place under tight security and with only carefully selected people present. Scores of uniformed and plainclothes officers surrounded the taped-off courthouse, with at least 10 photographing and filming journalists. Wang Yuncai – no relation of her client, and one of two defence representatives – said the former police chief's relatives had been in court. She declined to comment on whether he had made a statement. The court statement said Wang did not challenge the charges but his lawyer put forward mitigating circumstances. The conclusion of the trial will take China closer to resolving the political upheaval that resulted from Wang's decision to go to US officials – particularly important given the impending transition of power to younger leaders. It remains to be seen whether authorities will also try Bo, who has been under investigation by the party for unspecified disciplinary violations since April. Some analysts believe those at the top of the party are reluctant to do so because it would shed such an unflattering light on senior leaders and might stir up Bo's supporters. Others think that indicting Wang for offences related to his duties indicates they are preparing the way for a criminal trial of his boss.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Skyrocketing housing costs in Berlin can't be blamed on an influx of 'foreigners', but are in fact fuelled by the global financial crisis I recently moved back to Berlin after four years in London, and it seems half of London had the same idea. When I walk down the familiar streets of my old neighbourhood, where the most exotic sight used to be the local kebab shop, I now hear posh kids from the home counties discuss their nightly exploits and see stylish Swedes sipping espressos. It all suddenly feels like Dalston. I was lucky enough to be able to move back into my old flat in Neukölln, one of Berlin's poorest districts with high crime rates and crumbling infrastructure, but ridiculously cheap rents. The money I used to pay for my room in north-east London would easily get you a decent two-bedroom flat here. Or, rather, it used to: rents here are suddenly skyrocketing. According to a recent article in Die Zeit, they rose over 23% between 2007 and 2010, the biggest increase over the whole city. Many locals are blaming "the foreigners", the tourists and bohemians from Britain, Spain or Scandinavia, for this sudden rent hike. Last year, Der Spiegel reported on a backlash against the growing international community in the district, spearheaded by one of the local bar-owners whose video manifesto against "the fucking students, artists and layabouts" went viral. Just a few months ago, a grumpy local told an English friend of mine who was having fun in one of the pubs in the area to "go and laugh in your own country". As understandable as this rage against supposedly gentrifying hipsters might be, it is odious and it is misdirected. Neukölln's rising rents are a just one symptom of a much broader development. While house prices continue to fall worldwide, they are on the rise in Germany, and the country's unlikely property hotspot has been Berlin. The capital has long been notorious for its languishing housing market, and its reputation as a mecca for alternative culture is very much founded on the oversupply of affordable living space. But these days might soon be over: according to a study by the economic thinktank Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, property prices in the capital rose nearly 40% between 2003 and 2011, far more than in the rest of Germany. And my run-down, dirty and scruffy old home is in the centre of the capital's housing boom. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, property auctions of the district council are suddenly packed with estate agents, young families and professionals from around the world. House prices in Neukölln have doubled in the last few years, and the new owners often try to get back their investment by raising the rent. How did it come to this? Ironically, it is the international financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of the US housing bubble, that led to Berlin's property boom. Germans who normally would have invested their savings on the stock market are now putting their money into relatively secure real estate. This run on property is fuelled by historically low interest rates. And it's not only scared Germans who are looking for a secure investment: in their yearly forecast published in February, the self-styled "wise men of the real estate industry", an expert council of economists and analysts, glowingly reported on Germany's status as a "safe haven" for international property developers. The boom has already alarmed the ministry of finance, which in June warned of "first abnormal developments" of the housing market in parts of the country's metropolitan areas. Even the chairman of Berlin's association of estate agents has recently spoken out against unsustainable property prices in Neukölln. These are the weird ways of globalisation: a real estate crash in the US leads to a housing bubble in a run-down city-centre district in Germany a few years later. But these are no natural forces. They can be kept in check with the right policies, like a cap on rents or laws against property speculation. Decent, affordable housing is a basic right, for locals as well as for international students, artists and layabouts.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Collapse in trust over number of US and Nato soldiers killed in 'insider attacks' The Nato-led military strategy in Afghanistan has been thrown into disarray after joint on-the-ground operations were suspended because of a collapse in trust over the killings of Americans and other Nato soldiers by Afghan government forces. The move, which came after a surge in "insider attacks" by Afghan government soldiers and police officers that have killed 51 Nato soldiers in 36 attacks this year, threatens the joint plan to train an effective Afghan army to keep the Taliban at bay after troops start pulling out. General John Allen, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, ordered the suspension of joint combat operations and patrols "until further notice". The decision, which was announced in Washington, appeared to take the UK government by surprise, coming just a day after the defence secretary Philip Hammond defended Nato's continued work with Afghan troops in the Commons. He said on Monday: "...it is essential that we complete the task of training the Afghan national security forces and increasing their capability so that they can take over the burden of combat as we withdraw. That is what we intend to do, and we will not be deterred from it by these attacks." An MoD source said that everything the British army did in Afghanistan was in partnership with Afghans so it would have to look closely at how to continue operations while complying with the direction from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). The source said: "We are very much partnered with the Afghans, literally everything is partnered with them right down to every level. We need to see what are the parameters for us ... it's for the individual countries working under Isaf to determine how they work through what Isaf wants to be done." The chief US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, said the "insider attacks", in which four American and two British soldiers were killed at the weekend, were themselves "a very serious threat to the campaign" against the Taliban. At least 12 such attacks were carried out last month alone, leaving 15 dead. Nato said in a statement that "most partnering and advising" will now be at a battalion level and above, a significant pulling back by Nato forces from working with the Afghan military on the ground. Joint operations at a lower level will now be "evaluated on a case by case basis" and only happen with the approval of regional commanders. Nato said that in some places all on the ground collaboration will cease and foreign military advisers "will be stepping back to advise from the next level". The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, described the attacks as the "last gasp" of a weakened Taliban. But the admission that Nato troops are no longer safe from the forces they are relying on to keep the Taliban at bay after the final US pullout in two years is a severe blow to Washington's plans. Under the strategy, members of the 350,000 strong Afghan security forces gain experience patrolling and fighting alongside American and other foreign soldiers. But the killings have led to a collapse in trust. American, British and Afghan officials because increasingly alarmed at the attacks because of their impact on troop morale and public opinion in the US and UK. However, the move still came as a complete surprise to British commanders, Whitehall officials have made clear. The decision strikes at the heart of Nato – and British – strategy which is based on the assumption that foreign troops and Afghan security forces will work increasingly closely until the Afghans alone conduct all ground combat operations by the end of 2014. Though British commanders were drawing up plans designed to protect their troops better against "insider" or "green on blue" attacks, defence officials are making clear that the Nato decision to suspend joint ground operations was unexpected. Hammond told to the Commons on Monday that the latest attacks, including the killing of two British soldiers from 3 Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment on Saturday, could not be allowed to "derail" the training of Afghan security forces by British troops. The Nato decision has driven a coach and horses through that plan, and raises a huge question mark over the manner in which the 9,000 British troops in Helmand will be reduced over the next two and a quarter years. Hammond confirmed to MPs on Monday his remarks in an interview with the Guardian last week that his military commanders had advised that UK troops could withdraw faster than planned – a reversal of recent military advice. That advice may change again. Under the new order, most joint patrols and advisory work with Afghan troops will only be conducted at the battalion level and above, while co-operation with smaller units will have to be "evaluated on a case-by-case basis and approved by RC (regional) commanders", Isaf said in a statement. Hammond, discussed the attacks with President Karzai on a visit to Kabul last week, saying the problem was a huge concern and had to be "put back in its box". American officials say the insider attacks are carried out by a mix of Taliban infiltrators dressed as soldiers, by insurgents who have got themselves recruited and Afghan soldiers angry about their treatment because of personal insults or cultural differences. US commanders had already assigned soldiers to guard their comrades as they slept, ate or interacted with Afghan forces because of the increasing number of insider killings. American troops were also ordered to carry loaded weapons at all times, even inside their own bases. Nato attacks on Afghan civilians have added to the strain. In the latest, an air strike killed eight women and girls collecting firewood. The loss of trust in the force the US is relying on to prevent the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan again, compounds other concerns about Washington's strategy. The additional 33,000 soldiers Barack Obama despatched two years ago as part of the surge are expected to complete their withdrawal this week. The remaining 68,000 US troops are supposed to gradually shift responsibility to Afghan forces which, under the American strategy, are to take the lead in combat as early as next year. But despite gains on the battlefield, questions persist about whether the Afghan forces will have the ability and will to keep an undefeated Taliban at bay once Nato forces have left.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Auction of short-term debt this morning could show if financial markets are losing patience with Madrid
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wang Lijun, who brought about downfall of Bo Xilai, faced charges of taking bribes and 'bending law for selfish ends' The trial of the flamboyant Chinese police chief who brought about the downfall of leader Bo Xilai concluded in south-western China on Tuesday, one day after a secret hearing took place behind closed doors. Wang Lijun faced charges of taking bribes and "bending the law for selfish ends", state news agency Xinhua reported. It described the hearing as an "open trial", although it took place under tight security before a carefully selected audience. Foreign journalists were not permitted to attend. Lawyer Wang Yuncai – no relation of her client, and one of two defence representatives – said Wang's relatives had been in court and that the judgment would be made at a later date. She made no further comment, saying people should wait for the court's announcement. Earlier she said that the first session, regarding defection and abuse of power charges, had been held behind closed doors because it touched on state secrets. Scores of uniformed and plain clothes officers surrounded the taped-off courthouse, with some photographing and filming journalists. Three prison vans were seen leaving just after 1pm and an official at the court confirmed the hearing was over. Criminal cases almost always end in conviction in China and Xinhua has already described evidence against Wang as "concrete and abundant". Possible punishments range from a lengthy jail term to the death penalty. "It will probably be somewhere between 15 years to the same verdict for Gu Kailai – the death penalty, but commuted to suspended capital punishment," Cheng Li, a China expert with the Brookings Institution, told Associated Press. An ambulance arrived at the back door of the Chengdu People's Intermediate Court shortly before the scheduled start of the hearing at 8.30am and two medical staff were seen at the front door. There have been rumours that Wang is in poor health. The conclusion of the trial will take China closer to resolving the political upheaval that resulted from Wang's dash to the US consulate in Chengdu in February – particularly important given the impending transition of power to younger leaders. By accusing Gu, the wife of his patron Bo, of murder, Wang triggered the ousting of the Chongqing party secretary as well as a reinvestigation of the death of British businessman Neil Heywood. Last month, a court handed Gu a suspended death sentence for the murder of the 41-year-old. But it remains to be seen whether authorities will also try Bo, who has been under investigation by the party for unspecified disciplinary violations since April. Some analysts believe those at the top of the party are reluctant to do so because it would shed an unflattering light on senior leaders and might stir up Bo's supporters. Others think that indicting Wang for offences related to his duties indicates they are preparing the way for a criminal trial of his boss.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russian and South African pilots among 12 killed after vehicle is attacked by Hezb-e-Islami in retaliation for Muhammad film A suicide attack on a minibus in the Afghan capital killed 12 people on Tuesday, including seven foreigners, and the Hezb-e-Islami insurgent group claimed responsibility, saying the blast was retaliation for a film mocking the prophet Muhammad. "A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up in response to the anti-Islam video," said Zubair Sediqqi, a spokesman for the militant faction, which does not usually carry out such attacks. The attack near Kabul airport underscored growing anger in Afghanistan over the film, which has enraged much of the Muslim world and led to the killing last week of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Thousands of protesters clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, burning cars and hurling rocks at security forces in the worst outbreak of violence since February rioting over the inadvertent burning of Qur'an by US soldiers. The suicide attack was the first in Kabul involving a woman and the foreigners killed were mostly Russian and South African pilots working for an international courier company, senior police sources said. The toll was the highest on foreigners in the city since last April when an Afghan air force pilot shot dead eight US military flight instructors and an American civilian adviser after an argument at Kabul airport. Hezb-e-Islami, which means Islamic party, is a radical militant group which shares some of the Taliban's anti-foreigner, anti-government aims. But the political wing of the group, founded by warlord and anti-Soviet fighter Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has recently been in nascent talks with Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on a peace deal to end the 11-year war. The attack on the van took place as it stopped to refuel near the airport. Police said several civilians were caught up in the blast, which again underscored the ability of militants to bypass police checkpoints in the city, which had been manned by extra security forces after Monday's rioting. "The target was a minivan carrying employees of a foreign company who had a contract with Americans. The seven foreigners killed were Russians and South Africans," said General Muhammad Dawod Amin, a deputy for Kabul's police chief.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | More than 130 inmates escape through tunnel from prison in Piedras Negras, sparking massive search close to US border
More than 130 inmates escaped through a tunnel from a prison in northern Mexico on Monday, setting off a massive search by police and soldiers in an area close to the US border. Authorities in Coahuila state said the 132 inmates fled the prison in Piedras Negras, a city across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, through a tunnel that was 21ft long and 4ft in diameter, then cut their way through a chain link barrier and escaped on to a neighbouring property. The Coahuila attorney generalm Homero Ramos Gloria, said the director and two other employees of the state prison had been detained pending an investigation and were being questioned by authorities about their possible involvement. The prison houses about 730 inmates. The tunnel "was not made today. It had been there for months," Ramos told the Milenio TV station. "The prison was not overcrowded, none of our prisons are. We have 132 inmates escaping through a tunnel, and it doesn't make sense." Authorities said they found ropes and electric cables they believe were used in the break. Federal police units and Mexican troops were deployed to search for the missing inmates, while rewards of up to $15,000 were offered for information leading to arrests. Ramos said 70 members of an elite military special forces unit had been sent to search for the prison along with federal police. US Customs and Border Protection said it was aware of the prison break and officials were in communication with Mexican law enforcement, according to an emailed statement. Ramos said in a press conference police were investigating a shootout 160 miles south of Piedras Negras after the escape to determine if any of the four people killed were fugitives. He said 86 of the escaped inmates were serving sentences or pending trials for federal crimes, such as drug trafficking, and the rest faced state charges. Other Mexican states have said in the past that they are not prepared to handle highly dangerous federal prisoners. It was one of the larger prison breaks to hit Mexico's troubled penitentiary system in recent years. In December 2010, 153 inmates escaped from a prison in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo. Authorities charged 41 guards with aiding inmates. Mexico's drug gangs frequently try to break their members out of prison. Coahuila, where Monday's prison break took place, has seen a wave of violence tied to the brutal Zetas cartel's battles with the Sinaloa cartel, allies of the now-weakened Gulf cartel. Authorities in Coahuila did not say which gang was believed to be behind the escape. Last week, Gulf cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez was arrested, leading experts to anticipate an increase in violence in parts of northern Mexico as the Zetas attempted to take over their turf. In Piedras Negras, family members had gathered outside the prison to hear word of their loved ones.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Authorities question prison employees as police begin massive search near US border after mass jailbreak in Piedras Negras More than 130 inmates escaped through a tunnel from a prison in northern Mexico on Monday, setting off a massive search by police and soldiers in an area close to the US border. Authorities in Coahuila state said the 132 inmates fled the prison in Piedras Negras, a city across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, through a tunnel that was 21ft long and 4ft in diameter, then cut their way through a chain link barrier and escaped on to a neighbouring property. The Coahuila attorney general Homero Ramos Gloria, said the director and two other employees of the state prison had been detained pending an investigation and were being questioned by authorities about their possible involvement. The prison houses about 730 inmates. The tunnel "was not made today", Ramos told the Milenio TV station. "It had been there for months." He added: "The prison was not overcrowded. None of our prisons are. We have 132 inmates escaping through a tunnel, and it doesn't make sense." Authorities said they found ropes and electric cables they believed were used in the break. Federal police units and Mexican troops were deployed to search for the missing inmates, while rewards of up to $15,000 were offered for information leading to arrests. Ramos said 70 members of an elite military special forces unit had been sent to search for the prison along with federal police. The US customs and border protection agency said it was aware of the prison break and officials were in communication with Mexican law enforcement authorities, according to an emailed statement. Ramos said in a press conference that police were investigating a shootout 160 miles south of Piedras Negras after the escape to determine if any of the four people killed were fugitives. He said 86 of the escaped inmates were serving sentences or awaiting trial for federal crimes, such as drug trafficking, and the rest faced state charges. Other Mexican states have said in the past that they are not prepared to handle highly dangerous federal prisoners. It was one of the larger prison breaks to hit Mexico's troubled penitentiary system in recent years. In December 2010, 153 inmates escaped from a prison in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo. Authorities charged 41 guards with aiding inmates. Mexico's drug gangs frequently try to break their members out of prison. Coahuila, where Monday's prison break took place, has seen a wave of violence tied to the brutal Zetas cartel's battles with the Sinaloa cartel, allies of the now-weakened Gulf cartel. Authorities in Coahuila did not say which gang was believed to be behind the escape. Last week, Gulf cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez was arrested, leading experts to anticipate an increase in violence in parts of northern Mexico as the Zetas attempted to take over their turf. In Piedras Negras, family members had gathered outside the prison to hear news of their loved ones.
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