|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US academics' report says drones kill large numbers of civilians and increase recruitment by militant groups The CIA's programme of "targeted" drone killings in Pakistan's tribal heartlands is politically counterproductive, kills large numbers of civilians and undermines respect for international law, according to a report by US academics. The study by Stanford and New York Universities' law schools, based on interviews with victims, witnesses and experts, blames the US president, Barack Obama, for the escalation of "signature strikes" where groups are selected merely through remote "pattern of life" analysis. Families are afraid to attend weddings or funerals, it says, in case US ground operators guiding drones misinterpret them as gatherings of Taliban or al-Qaida militants. "The dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling 'targeted killings' of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. This narrative is false," the report, entitled Living Under Drones, states. The authors admit it is difficult to obtain accurate data on casualties "because of US efforts to shield the drone programme from democratic accountability, compounded by obstacles to independent investigation of strikes in North Waziristan". The "best available information", they say, is that between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed in Pakistan between June 2004 and mid-September this year – of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children. The figures have been assembled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which, estimated that a further 1,300 individuals were injured in drone strikes over that period. The report was commissioned by and written with the help of the London-based Reprieve organisation, which is supporting action in the British courts by Noor Khan, a Pakistani whose father was killed by a US drone strike in March 2011. His legal challenge alleges the UK is complicit in US drone strikes because GCHQ, the eavesdropping agency, shares intelligence with the CIA on targets for drone strikes. "US drones hover 24 hours a day over communities in north-west Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning," the American law schools report says. "Their presence terrorises men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves. "These fears have affected behaviour. The US practice of striking one area multiple times, and evidence that it has killed rescuers, makes both community members and humanitarian workers afraid or unwilling to assist injured victims." The study goes on to say: "Publicly available evidence that the strikes have made the US safer overall is ambiguous at best … The number of 'high-level' militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low – estimated at just 2% [of deaths]. Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks … One major study shows that 74% of Pakistanis now consider the US an enemy." Coming from US lawyers rather than overseas human rights groups, the criticisms are likely to be more influential in US domestic debates over the legality of drone warfare. "US targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections and may set dangerous precedents," the report says, questioning whether Pakistan has given consent for the attacks. "The US government's failure to ensure basic transparency and accountability in its targeted killings policies, to provide details about its targeted killing programme, or adequately to set out the legal factors involved in decisions to strike hinders necessary democratic debate about a key aspect of US foreign and national security policy. "US practices may also facilitate recourse to lethal force around the globe by establishing dangerous precedents for other governments. As drone manufacturers and officials successfully reduce export control barriers, and as more countries develop lethal drone technologies, these risks increase." The report supports the call by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN's special rapporteur on countering terrorism, for independent investigations into deaths from drone strikes and demands the release of the US department of justice memorandums outlining the legal basis for US targeted killings in Pakistan. The report highlights the switch from the former president George W Bush's practice of targeting high-profile al-Qaida personalities to the reliance, under Obama's administration, of analysing patterns of life on the ground to select targets. "According to US authorities, these strikes target 'groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren't known'," the report says. "Just what those 'defining characteristics' are has never been made public." People in North Waziristan are now "afraid to attend funerals" or other gatherings, it suggests. Fears that US agents pay informers to attach electronic tags to the homes of suspected militants in Pakistan haunt the tribal districts, according to the study. "[In] Waziristan … residents are gripped by rumours that paid CIA informants have been planting tiny silicon-chip homing devices that draw the drones. "Many of the Waziris interviewed spoke of a constant fear of being tagged with a chip by a neighbour or someone else who works for either Pakistan or the US, and of the fear of being falsely accused of spying by local Taliban." Reprieve's director, Clive Stafford Smith, said: "An entire region is being terrorised by the constant threat of death from the skies. Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meetings, or anything that involves gathering in groups. "George Bush wanted to create a global 'war on terror' without borders, but it has taken Obama's drone war to achieve his dream."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | At Akin's first big event since 'legitimate rape' controversy, Gingrich says GOP will eventually come around to support It is said there's someone for everyone. Who would have predicted, when Todd Akin, the Republican representative, was abandoned by his party for his "legitimate rape" comments a month ago, Newt Gingrich would be his knight in shining armour. But at the first major fundraising event held by the Akin campaign since the Missouri senate candidate was blackballed by the party funders and leaders, Gingrich pledged his support and said he was just the first in a wave of well-known Republicans to stand by Akin. Republican party leaders have said the controversial remarks have made it impossible for Akin to unseat incumbent US senator Claire McCaskill. They have pleaded with him to step down in time to name a replacement for the election. Gingrich came to Missouri on Monday to back Akin at a $500-a-ticket fundraising lunch, at which he addressed about 50 of the congressman's supporters – and earlier, the media. At at a press conference at a train station in Kirkwood, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, Gingrich said Akin was running a winnable race and made his own prediction – that the national Republican leaders, including Mitt Romney, would reverse track and back the candidate once they "adjust to the reality" that he is staying in the race. "If Todd and the people of Missouri prove it's a close race, what's the moral case for not backing the Republican nominee?" Gingrich said. Gingrich told the crowd, made up of reporters and a handful of supporters that it all came down to a simple question. "Do you want to keep Harry Reid as the majority leader?" Gingrich said to shouts of "No" from Akin supporters. Gaining McCaskill's seat is seen as vital if the GOP is to take over the Senate in November. "How do you go back to your donors and say: 'Let's throw the Senate away?'," Gingrich said. The former presidential candidate dismissed comments on Sunday by Republican national committee chairman Reince Preibus who declared on TV that there was no way any RNC money would be used to help Akin. "My expectation would be that in the crunch, in October, governor Romney is going to be for the entire ticket, and he's going to be for Todd Akin," Gingrich said. He compared Akin to Harry Truman, senator and later president who was dumped by the party machine in the 1940s. The fundraiser would have netted Akin up to $42,000 from the cost of the tickets alone, in addition to the $600,000 Akin has already raised online.
Rick Tyler, a former longterm aide to Gingrich, who is now advising Akin, said he had "adequate funding" to fight the election. The polls are showing a close contest, and Tuesday is the last day that Akin could seek a court order to drop out. On Monday, he reaffirmed that he had no plans to withdraw, telling supporters that a number of prominent Republicans have already agreed to campaign on his behalf but declining to name names. He begins a four-day "Common Sense" bus tour. Akin has aplogised for the remarks on "legitimate rape" he made in a televised interview and has even drummed up a "Women for Akin" group. A video on his website has one woman weeping as she recounted having an abortion as she endorses the pro-life candidate she said speaks up for women. His supporters say he a mistake and should be forgiven for it. Paula Ritter, 78, who was at Kirkwood station with her husband to support Akin said he and other politicians needed to learn "who they are talking to". "I think he's sorry. But I don't think he's sorry for thinking that" she said. Ritter said she didn't agree with him "but I wouldn't change my vote because of it. I'm not for single-issue politics". Gingrich joked: "if saying something dumb disqualifies you, Joe Biden couldn't be vice-president." Akin's comments stirred up a wave of outrage and added to the perception of the so-called "war on women" among conservative Republicans. Outside the Branica restaurant where the former House speaker addressed some 50 Akin supporters, a similar-sized crowd had gathered to protest. One held up a banner which said: "Lets shut Todd Akin down" in reference to his comments that rape victims had a way of "shutting down" pregnancies. Jane Von Kaenel said his remarks had re-invigorated the feminist base in Missouri. "He's an embarrassment, he's out of touch," she said of Akin. "You just can't hold your nose and get away from the smell." She said she thought that "many, many" Republicans would vote for McCaskill. Susan Cunningham, 73, a retired teacher from Pacific, in Franklin, Missouri, who was holding the banner declaring "Let's shut down Todd Akin" said she was worried about Republican party becoming more and more conservative on social issues. She said: "I'm very worried about what is happening in this country. I'm against Todd Akin's voting record on everything, from women's issues, to the environment and education." "I don't understand why Newt Gingrich is supporting him, but to be honest I don't understand why Newt Gingrich does anything. Newt must have an ulterior motive. They are blowing smoke and they are very good at it. But Todd Akin is scary. When I think of my daughter and my grandchildren, are they going to have access to birth control of are they going to have to put a veil on? It's crazy here, we are going backwards." Gingrich refused to say what conversations he had with the party leadership that led him to predict a u-turn on Akin. Asked if anyone from the party had tried to stop him from coming out in support of Akin, he said: "I'm not going to talk about my conversations with party leadership." Tyler, a former long-term aide to Gingrich who now works for Akin, said he thought the candidate would raise an "adequate amount" of money to stay in the race, but added that he believed if would be "political malpractice" if the Republican party did not get back behind him. Marsha Walker, a social worker from Chesterfield, who attended the fundraiser, said she hoped the voters would forgive Akin his remarks. She said she was voting for him because of his strong pro-life views. "Everyone who has spoken has erred in some way, and not to forgive is unforgivable. We need someone like Todd to fight for morality in Washington, and Todd is s a fighter."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Video of 2011 incident prompted outrage earlier this year, but only two of the five marines involved face criminal prosecution Two US marines are facing criminal charges for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, after their actions were caught on a video that circulated widely on the internet, the US military said on Monday. Staff sergeants Joseph W Chamblin and Edward W Deptola will face courts martial, the first criminal charges faced by anyone over the incident. The video prompted widespread anger in Afghanistan earlier this year; the Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the marines' actions "inhuman". Chamblin and Deptola, were also charged with "posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties", and will face charges over failing to report or stop misconduct by junior marines, the military said. Three marines have already been disciplined over the urination incident. Although the video was circulated on the web in January 2012, the incident actually took place on or around July 27, 2011, during a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province, an internal investigation showed. The video showed four men in army combat gear urinating on the bodies of three men lying on the ground. The voice of a fifth man can be heard from behind the camera. The military said on 27 August that three marines had pleaded guilty to charges over the video, but their punishment fell short of criminal prosecution and the men did not face courts martial. Two of the three pleaded guilty to wrongfully posing for an unofficial photograph with human casualties and admitted urinating on the body of a dead Taliban fighter. The third pleaded guilty to failing to report the mistreatment of human casualties by other marines, and admitted making a false statement to an investigative officer about his knowledge of the video, according to the Military Times. The three men face punishments within the military, such as a reduction in rank or extra duties, meaning their names would not have to be published in public. Chamblin and Deptola, however, also face a series of charges for failing to supervise junior marines. This includes simple things like failing to require them to wear protective equipment to more serious breaches, like failing to report the "negligent discharge" of a grenade launcher. Deptola is also charged with failing to stop the unnecessary damaging of Afghan compounds, the marines said. The marines said there were other pending cases in the video investigation. They declined to elaborate on the incident in which the negligent actions took place.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Radical cleric one of five men who could be flown to US within weeks after European court ruling The European court of human rights has cleared the way for the extradition to the United States of five major terror suspects, including Abu Hamza al-Masri and Babar Ahmad, after legal battles dating back to 2004. The decision was immediately welcomed by the home secretary, Theresa May, who said the Home Office will now work to hand over the five to the US authorities as quickly as possible. The home secretary will be keen to ensure that there are no errors of the kind that delayed the removal of Abu Qatada to Jordan earlier this year when there was confusion with the European court over dates. It is expected that the five suspects could be on a plane within a matter of weeks. The suspects involved include the radical cleric Abu Hamza, aged 54, who is wanted by the US in connection with plans to establish a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon as well as allegations that he provided material support to the Taliban. He is also wanted in connection with allegations that he was involved in hostage-taking in the Yemen in 1998. Hamza, who lost one eye and a hand, possibly fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan, was first arrested in London at the request of the US in 2004. But his extradition was halted after he was jailed for incitement offences relating to his sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque. A panel of five human rights judges sitting in Strasbourg rejected appeals to the court's grand chamber from the five suspects and agreed an earlier ruling that their human rights would not be violated by the prospect of life sentences and solitary confinement in an American "supermax" prison. The ruling was seen as one of the most important since 9/11. All the suspects insisted that they would face inhumane and degrading treatment if they were extradited to the US. The other four suspects include Babar Ahmad, aged 37, who was first detained in 2004 and is one of the longest held suspects in detention in Britain without facing trial. The other cases involve Ahmad's co-accused Syed Talha Ahsan, and Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, who are accused of being key aides to Osama bin Laden in London. Ahmad and Ahsan are accused of being involved in a website which encouraged terrorism and which, while operated from London, was hosted in the US. A Home Office statement said: "The home secretary welcomes today's decision not to refer the cases of Abu Hamza and four others to the Grand Chamber. This follows the judgment of the European court of human rights on 10 April to allow the extradition of these five terrorism suspects to the US. "We will work to ensure that the individuals are handed over to the US authorities as quickly as possible." But the family of Babar Ahmad called for him to be prosecuted in Britain. They said the judges' decision was largely irrelevant as the matter would never have got to this stage had the British police done their job almost nine years ago and provided the material seized from Babar's home to the Crown Prosecution Service, rather than secretly passing it to their US counterparts. "The CPS is now in possession of all that material which forms the basis of the US indictment and should immediately prosecute Babar for conduct allegedly committed in the UK. There is enormous public interest in Babar being prosecuted in the UK, as reflected by the fact that almost 150,000 members of the British public signed a government e-petition to this effect last year. A British businessman Karl Watkins has recently commenced his own private prosecution of Babar based on the principle of the matter," said the family's statement. Newcastle-based businessman Watkin said earlier this month that he wanted to bring a private prosecution against Ahmad and Ahsan, rather than outsource the UK's criminal justice system to the US. Hamza arrived in Britain from Egypt 28 years ago and worked as a bouncer in a Soho nightclub. The 53-year-old, born in Alexandria, studied civil engineering and in 1984 married a British woman, Valerie Fleming. But throughout the 1980s he slowly began to turn towards a fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. In 1990 he divorced his wife and returned to Egypt where he reinvented himself as a Muslim "holy man" or sheikh. He travelled to Pakistan and then on to Afghanistan, which was at the time gripped by civil war as differing factions fought to fill the power vacuum left by the retreat of Russian troops. It is unclear if he fought there but when he returned to the UK with his British passport in the early 1990s he was missing his right hand and an eye. In 1996 he re-emerged at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, preaching jihad to a young congregation. Following the September 11 attacks, he said: "Many people will be happy, jumping up and down at this moment." He was jailed in February 2006 for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred and is being held in the maximum-security Belmarsh jail in Woolwich, south-east London. The judges said: "Having regard to the seriousness of the offences in question, the court did not consider that these sentences were grossly disproportionate or amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment." They said "supermax" jail inmates, albeit confined to cells for the "vast majority" of their time, were provided with services and activities – television, radio, newspapers, books, hobby and craft items, telephone calls, social visits, correspondence with families, group prayer – which went "beyond what was provided in most prisons in Europe".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Major terror suspects may be moved in days as European court ends eight-year legal battle The European court of human rights has cleared the way for the extradition to the United States of five terrorism suspects, including Abu Hamza al-Masri and Babar Ahmad, after legal battles dating back to 2004. The decision was immediately welcomed by the home secretary, Theresa May, who said the Home Office would work to hand over the five to the US authorities as quickly as possible. The home secretary will be keen to avoid the confusion that delayed the removal of Abu Qatada to Jordan earlier this year. The five suspects are expected to be on a plane within weeks. The suspects involved include the radical cleric Abu Hamza, 54, who is wanted by the US in connection with plans to establish a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, as well as allegations that he provided material support to the Taliban. He is also wanted in connection with allegations that he was involved in hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998. Hamza, who has lost one eye and a hand, possibly fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan, was first arrested in London at the request of the US in 2004. But his extradition was halted after he was jailed for incitement offences relating to his sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in London. A panel of five human rights judges sitting in Strasbourg rejected appeals to the court's grand chamber from the five suspects and agreed an earlier ruling that their human rights would not be violated by the prospect of life sentences and solitary confinement in an American "supermax" prison. The ruling was seen as one of the most important since 9/11. All the suspects said they would face inhumane and degrading treatment if they were extradited to the US. The other four suspects include Babar Ahmad, aged 37, who was first detained in 2004 and is one of the longest-held suspects in detention in Britain without facing trial. The other cases involve Ahmad's co-accused, Syed Talha Ahsan, and Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, who are accused of being key aides to Osama bin Laden in London. Ahmad and Ahsan are accused of being involved in a website that encouraged terrorism and which, while operated from London, was hosted in the US. A Home Office statement said: "The home secretary welcomes today's decision not to refer the cases of Abu Hamza and four others to the grand chamber. This follows the judgment of the European court of human rights on 10 April to allow the extradition of these five terrorism suspects to the US. "We will work to ensure that the individuals are handed over to the US authorities as quickly as possible." But the family of Babar Ahmad called for him to be prosecuted in Britain. They said the judges' decision was largely irrelevant as the matter would never have got to this stage had the British police done their job almost nine years ago and provided the material seized from Babar's home to the Crown Prosecution Service, rather than secretly passing it to their US counterparts. The family's statement said: "The CPS is now in possession of all that material which forms the basis of the US indictment and should immediately prosecute Babar for conduct allegedly committed in the UK. There is enormous public interest in Babar being prosecuted in the UK, as reflected by the fact that almost 150,000 members of the British public signed a government e-petition to this effect last year. A British businessman, Karl Watkin, has recently commenced his own private prosecution of Babar based on the principle of the matter." Watkin, a Newcastle-based businessman, said earlier this month that he wanted to bring a private prosecution against Ahmad and Ahsan, rather than outsource the UK's criminal justice system to the US. The judges said that between 1999 and 2006 the five men were indicted on various terrorism charges in America. Hamza has been charged with 11 counts of criminal conduct related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon, between June 2000 and December 2001. Bary and Fawwaz were indicted – with Osama bin Laden and 20 others – for their alleged involvement in, or support for, the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. Fawwaz faces more than 269 charges of murder. Ahmad and Ahsan are accused of offences including providing support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country. In April the judges said: "Having regard to the seriousness of the offences in question, the court did not consider that these sentences were grossly disproportionate or amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment." They said "supermax" jail inmates, albeit confined to cells for the "vast majority" of their time, were provided with services and activities – television, radio, newspapers, books, hobby and craft items, telephone calls, social visits, correspondence with families, group prayer – which went "beyond what was provided in most prisons in Europe". Hamza arrived in Britain from Egypt 28 years ago and worked as a bouncer in a Soho nightclub. Born in Alexandria, he studied civil engineering and in 1984 married a British woman, Valerie Fleming. But in the 1980s he began to turn towards a fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur'an. In 1990 he divorced his wife and returned to Egypt, where he reinvented himself as a Muslim sheikh, or preacher. He travelled to Pakistan and then on to Afghanistan which was at the time gripped by civil war as differing factions fought to fill the power vacuum left by the retreat of Russian troops. It is unclear if he fought there but when he returned to the UK with his British passport in the early 1990s he was missing his right hand and an eye. In 1996 he re-emerged at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London preaching jihad to a young congregation. Following the September 11 attacks, he said: "Many people will be happy, jumping up and down at this moment." He was jailed in February 2006 for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred and is being held in the maximum-security Belmarsh jail in Woolwich, south-east London.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Opposition sources report 15 people killed in the northern city, and a total of 58 across the country Syrian air force planes bombed targets in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 15 people, including three children from one family, according to opposition sources. Fighting was also reported around Damascus and elsewhere across the country. The Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition network, reported on Monday that at least 58 people had died, including the 15 in Aleppo, where two buildings were hit by bombs dropped by government planes in the southern suburb of Maadi. Video posted online showed people digging through rubble searching for survivors. Mohammed Saeed, a local activist, said the pre-dawn raid was intended to "terrify the people and try to turn them against the Free Syrian Army", the Associated Press news agency reported. Attacks by government troops backed by helicopter gunships were reported in the southern town of Sheikh Miskeen in Daraa province. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels and troops were fighting near the airbase of Tabaqah in the northern province of Raqqa. Last week, rebels captured a key border crossing with Turkey in Raqqa. The Syrian Revolution General Commission reported an armed helicopter dropping a barrel filled with explosives over Taftanaz in the Idlib area. Sana, Syria's official news agency, reported that the army had "cleansed" several districts of Aleppo. Troops had seized ammunition, dismantled bombs and "killed a large number of terrorists", it added. The news was a bleak but routine backdrop to discussions about Syria at the UN general assembly, where the new UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, reported on his first meeting with President Bashar al-Assad last week. According to a diplomat at the private briefing, Brahimi said that Assad's goal was to return his country to "the old Syria" without any intention of carrying out reforms. The envoy described a rapidly deteriorating country with routine torture, looming food shortages and damaged schools. Diplomats said they were studying the effect of the weekend move of the headquarters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) – the largest of the armed opposition groups – from across the border in Turkey to Syria. The intention is that FSA military operations can be better co-ordinated and implemented in line with an agreed political strategy. The new HQ is in a secret location to avoid attack by government planes and helicopters, which have been used with impunity in recent weeks. In Damascus there was concern about the fate of members of an opposition group who were detained ahead of a conference on Sunday. Eight members of the National Co-ordination Body, which is normally tolerated by the regime, were detained by Syrian security forces last week, including three who were seized outside Damascus airport after they returned from a trip to China. The Syria Salvation conference called for the overthrow of the regime and an end to all violence, but it was criticised by the FSA and others for giving the impression that Assad was ready for reforms. Diplomatic sources said they believed that the fact the conference was allowed to go ahead could indicate policy divisions within the regime. The missing delegates were detained by officers of air force intelligence, the most feared of the state's overlapping and competing security branches. Western governments are hoping to see more high-level defections after the flight of the former Syrian prime minister, Riyad Hijab, to Jordan in August. But there is confusion about reports that Assad's sister, Bushra, has also fled Syria. It was reported last week that she was in Dubai with her family. Bushra is the widow of Assef Shawkat, one of Syria's top security chiefs, who was killed by a bomb with three others in July. Opposition sources said they believe she may be in Dubai but are not certain that she has defected.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former US Postal rider and team-mate of Lance Armstrong says the time for silence about drugs in the sport is over "I believe the pendulum has swung the other way," Tyler Hamilton says on a quiet afternoon at home in Montana as he considers the shift of momentum in the case of Lance Armstrong and the dirty truth of road cycling. "The Omertà – the code of silence – still exists but a lot of riders in the peloton, a lot of directors, know so much about Lance. They've not said a lot because they're scared. But the truth is coming out now. I've heard that the stuff coming out in the next couple of weeks from other riders is going to make front page news in the sports sections." Hamilton pauses in the midst of a continuing storm. The recent publication of his book The Secret Race marked a gripping and grimy return to his past as an elite cyclist and former team-mate of Armstrong. In a story swollen with blood bags and discarded needles, with furtively constant use of EPO, Hamilton has placed Armstrong near the centre of his narrative. A mordant humour sometimes frames the shooting up and downbeat cheating. In his team they named EPO after Edgar Allan Poe, a novelist of mystery whose final words on his deathbed were reputedly: "Lord, help my poor soul." If they usually called their performance-enhancing drug of choice "Edgar", being on first-name terms with EPO, Hamilton claims to have also asked Armstrong a simple question about "Poe". They were in Armstrong's villa in Nice, in the spring of 1999, preparing for the Tour de France – and the first of his seven wins. "Hey dude, you got any Poe I can borrow?" Hamilton supposedly asked Armstrong. "Lance pointed casually to the fridge," Hamilton writes. "I opened it and there, on the door, next to a carton of milk was a carton of EPO, each stoppered vial standing upright, little soldiers in their cardboard cells. I was surprised that Lance would be so cavalier." Unlike Hamilton and other paranoid members of the peloton, "Lance acted like he was invulnerable." The façade has crumbled – and last month Armstrong abandoned any further challenge to the US Anti-doping Agency's allegations that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs between 1999 and 2005. A day later Usada gave itself the right to strip Armstrong of all his Tour victories. They will soon send a report to the Union Cycliste Internationale, containing riders's testimonies, which is both critical of cycling's governing body and a justification of their action against Armstrong. Travis Tygart, the director of Usada, has received three death threats since beginning his investigation – with the French newspaper L'Equipe suggesting this week that the evidence against Armstrong will be "terrible" and "30 times" more damning than anything published so far. "I was initially surprised," Hamilton claims of Armstrong's decision, "because Lance never backs down from a fight. It's the first time we've seen that happen. But then I wasn't surprised because the information is so comprehensive it would have been a long, slow death for him. The public would have found out eventually so I think he decided to quit while he was ahead." Hamilton believes the dam of deceit is about to burst and he stresses that Tygart "deserves a good medal. Hopefully all the testimonies coming out in the next few weeks will encourage others currently in cycling to speak out. If a director or soigneur wants to tell the truth I'm not sure they should be penalised. They should allow a period of time when they can be transparent without worrying about their futures." Hamilton's suggested amnesty echoes the call made by Jonathan Vaughters for cycling to emulate South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid. Vaughters, an anti-doping campaigner who now manages the Garmin-Sharp team, used to be a team-mate of Armstrong and Hamilton at US Postal. He has also admitted his doping past. "You can say I'm lying," Hamilton murmurs, "but you can't say all 10 of us are lying. So Lance is in a tough spot right now. If I could make a recommendation to him it would be to tell the truth. I've been through this. I lied for years and years. And the thing about lies and secrets is that they eat you alive from the inside. I would not wish that pain on anyone." Hamilton's deception finally ended after 13 years when, in June 2010, he was contacted by Jeff Novitsky, a federal investigator. Hamilton could have refused to admit his doping but, instead, he spoke for four hours before a grand jury as he explained all he had done, and seen, in professional cycling. Novitsky then allowed him to speak for another three hours. Hamilton compares himself to a fist unclenching as the truth flowed out of his mouth. "I feel that a hundred times more now," he says. "It's a massive release but I also feel obliged to admit that I did dope. No-one put a gun to my head. I knew the difference between right and wrong. But I'd like people to understand how we started small and got trapped. I was just a couple of months away from riding in my first Tour de France. I was in a vulnerable position and they put a subtle pressure on me to make a poor decision." Hamilton was invited to join "the white bag club" in 1997 and he suggests that most cyclists have "a thousand days" before their youthful idealism subsides and it just seems easier to dope. Three years of riding huge and terrible mountains paniagua [Spanish for "on bread and water"], according to Hamilton, produces a thousand days of crushed hope as doped cyclists sail past with apparently little effort. Yet pages in Hamilton's book still jar. In 2003 a long solo breakaway resulted in Hamilton winning a stage to Bayonne in the Tour de France and he writes this disconcerting passage: "You can call me a cheater and doper until the cows come home. But the fact remains that in a race where everybody had equal opportunity I played the game and I played it well." This kind of smug zeal is fuelled by a bogus claim that, even at its worst, cycling offered a "level playing field." It peddles the hollow deceit that underpins the entire twisted culture of doping. If it's surprising that Hamilton should have used it again, he backtracks now. "That's how we looked at it then but to be honest with you it really wasn't a level playing field. If you weren't a risk-taker you were always going to be a step behind. You could be the best cyclist in the world but if you weren't a risk-taker you weren't going to win the Tour de France. It takes money and connections to doctors." False boldness bolsters the doping "risk-taker". Instead, the boldest and bravest man in Hamilton's book makes just a fleeting appearance. Christophe Bassons was called Mr Clean. He not only refused to dope but during the 1999 Tour he wrote a column for Le Parisien in which he said the notorious Festina Affair had changed nothing. Despite arrests and bans, cycling remained as crooked as ever. Hamilton claims he saw Armstrong threaten and then isolate Bassons. "No one defended him," Hamilton writes of Bassons. "No one would talk to him, not even on his own team. Bassons understood and dropped out the following day." Asked about Bassons now, Hamilton sounds mortified. "I feel awful about the way he was treated. I always knew the peloton would not talk to Christophe after Lance singled him out – but shame on me for doing the same. We succumbed to the pressure that Lance exerted. "Around 2004, when I was racing against the big beasts, there were only two riders who spoke out against doping: Christophe and Filippo Simeoni, the Italian rider. They were both quickly knocked to the floor and shut down by Lance. Their careers just went downhill and they were ushered out of the sport. At the time people were happy to see them leave. Now I think: 'How tragic.' I'd love to let them know how I feel. They were just two small fish in a huge pond filled with hundreds of fishermen – they had little chance." One of Hamilton's most serious allegations in his book is that the UCI not only did so little to combat doping but that he was summoned to their headquarters and given a quiet warning about his blood-test results after he out-climbed Armstrong on Mont Ventoux during the Dauphiné Libéré classic in 2004. Floyd Landis, who has since also admitted to doping, apparently told Hamilton that "Lance called the UCI on you … and said … you were on some new shit." Hamilton confronted Armstrong – who denied the allegation. The UCI, meanwhile, has come in for a deluge of criticism in the media since announcing last week that it would sue Paul Kimmage, the renowned anti-doping writer, in relation to the publication of the transcript of a 2011 interview with Landis. "It's mind-boggling," Hamilton says. "I just hope journalists keep asking the tough questions and we stick up for Paul Kimmage and others fighting for a clean sport. "I've never got my head fully around the UCI and I've never been comfortable with it. There is absolutely no doubt that the UCI could do much, much more. Obviously the sport has changed and testing has got much better but we're trying to figure out what happened in the past. We need to answer those questions before the sport can move on. It's cleaner but it still has bad elements. There are people running teams and cyclists who are not still fully transparent." If Hamilton believes that the victory of Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky in this year's Tour is a triumph for clean riding, he remains "sceptical about cycling at the elite level. There's still a lot of denial. Times have slowed down a lot from 10 years ago and testing is getting a lot better. But it still feels as if there's not much transparency. That worries me." Hamilton argues that the full story of Armstrong would bestow freedom on everyone. "I'd like to say to him, 'Lance, you are going to be way happier if you can take this heavy weight off your back.' But, right now, Lance is afraid. He's afraid to let down his family, his friends and the cancer community. It's a tough pill to swallow but people will forgive him. And even if Lance lost half his income he's still going to be fine. Hamilton hesitates when asked if Armstrong will buckle under the weight of new information. "I don't know. Based on his recent actions he'll deny it. But I can't imagine he can maintain it. He's one hell of a tough son of a bitch but I can speak from experience that telling the truth feels so good. It's totally changed my life. I didn't have much to look forward to before I told the truth. I still wish I'd made the right choice but I'm really excited about moving forward with the second part of my life. I couldn't have said that two years ago. It's the same with Lance. His future is going to be so much greater if he tells the truth." The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton & Daniel Coyle [Bantam, £15.19] is available from guardianbookshop.co.uk
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President's latest swing state campaign ad keeps Republican's devastating week in the spotlight as polls show widening gap Barack Obama launched an ad Monday exploiting for the first time Mitt Romney's derogatory comment caught in a secret video about 47% of Americans being freeloaders, a gaffe that could dictate the outcome of the White House race. Romney's camp had been hopefully predicting last week that the issue would have been largely forgotten by election day, November 6, but the Obama campaign team is intent on keeping it live. Although the election is still six weeks away, this is an important week when the polls begin to solidify post-convention. Obama is enjoying an average lead of about 3%. The Obama team's 30-second ad claims Romney had "callously written off" 47% of Americans whom Romney said paid no income-tax, including veterans, the elderly and the disabled. "Doesn't the president have to worry about everyone?" the ad asks. The ad also raises another issue on which the Obama campaign feels Romney is vulnerable, his failure to follow the tradition of presidential candidates publishing their tax returns in full. The ad says: "Mitt Romney paid just 14.1% in taxes last year. He keeps millions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. He won't release his tax returns before 2010. Maybe instead of attacking others on taxes, Romney should come clean on his." The Republican presidential candidate released on Friday his tax return for 2011, adding to the release earlier this year of one for 2010. But he only produced a summary of other tax returns dating back to 1990, leaving open many questions. The launch of the Obama ad is aimed at keeping Romney on the defensive, as he has been for almost all of the last two months, and disrupt his plans to get his own message across. The Romney team ended up in a shambles last week, twice promising to reset its campaign strategy. It is still not clear what the new strategy is going to be, with the candidate and his team sending out different messages about what direction it is going to take. Some of the harshest criticism has come from fellow Republicans, urging him to show some passion or at least agree on a campaign message and stick to it. The Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speech-writer Peggy Noonan called the campaign a "rolling calamity". Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, brushed aside the conservative criticism. In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, he said: "I think that's just the nature of conservative punditry is to do that – to kind of complain – about any imperfection they might see." Ryan said the campaign still had "a ways to go". Romney has been criticised for failing to spend enough time on the road and too much preparing for next week's first presidential debate. He is scheduled to embark today/Tuesday on a three-day bus tour of Ohio, one of the biggest of the eight swing states. The Obama ad, at least initially, is only being shown in Ohio. Having twice relaunched of its campaign last week, a Romney strategist, Ed Gillespie, Monday morning announced a "change in message", focusing on an issue that the campaign believes resonates with voters, the idea that China is stealing US jobs. The Romney team released an ad of its own, accusing Obama of failing to stand up to China, accusing it of stealing US ideas and technology. The ad says: "Fewer Americans are working today than when President Obama took office. It doesn't have to be this way, if Obama would stand up to China. China is stealing American ideas and technology. Everything from computers to fighter jets." A new poll by Politico and George Washington University shows Obama leading Romney by 50% to 47%. According to the polls, Obama records a favourability rating of 50%, something that has eluded him for much of this year and last. It is hard for a president to be re-elected with favourability ratings below 50%. Romney's unfavourable rating rose from 46% to 49% while his favourability rating remained static, at 46%. In a poll in Florida, another of the big swing states, Obama and Romney are tied but with Obama gaining among independent voters A Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll has Obama on 47% to Romney's 46%. But a Public Policy Polling survey in the state puts Obama further ahead, on 50% to Romney's 46%.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As 120 world leaders make annual trip to UN headquarters, unusually bitter atmosphere has been compared to cold war The police barricades are up and the traffic has begun to congeal across midtown Manhattan as more than 120 world leaders make their annual pilgrimage to the UN headquarters to declaim, appeal, cajole and sometimes threaten each other. It is seldom an edifying spectacle but the mood this year is so sour it is being compared to the cold war. The root of the bitterness lies in the worsening Syrian conflict, which has divided the security council to the point of paralysis along familiar faultlines. Russia and China have vetoed three resolutions in a row aimed at curbing the slaughter, and the council has not even been able to agree on humanitarian relief. The conflict is already spilling over Syria's borders, at a time when another Middle East conflict, possibly with even darker consequences, is constantly threatening to break out between Israel and Iran. Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are both in New York this week to deliver speeches more likely to stoke than soothe the gathering fear of war. The world's powers have no coherent response. France's UN ambassador, Gérard Araud, setting the scene at the UN Turtle Bay headquarters before this week's general assembly, said the security council "has never been as paralysed as it is today since the end of the cold war". The key players are distancing themselves from the unfolding debacle. Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao are not coming at all. Barack Obama is expected to make a "drive-by" appearance, with a stern speech on Tuesday very much with UN-averse American voters in mind. He will not stick around for lunch or for the customary round of bilateral meetings with other leaders, leaving that to Hillary Clinton. Even the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, normally a byword for courtesy and euphemism, is expected to issue an impatient rebuke to the global statesmen in the chamber for their fecklessness when he opens the session. Aides are describing the address as "no more Mr Nice Guy". If there was ever a moment for speaking out, this is probably it. The security council is no stranger to impasse, but seldom has the deadlock come at such a high human cost. The death toll in Syria by UN estimates is 20,000 and climbing sharply, and 1.5 million civilians, probably far more, have fled their homes. Abeer Etefa, a World Food Programme officer who visited Homs and other areas last week, said: "People are constantly on the move. Some have moved two or three times trying to escape the violence. There are 35 people in an apartment in some places, living in places with no doors or windows. They badly need blankets and baby milk." Leila Zerrougui, the UN special representative on children in conflict, warned the security council last week that children were suffering disproportionately, saying UN agencies had "documented government attacks on schools, children denied access to hospitals, girls and boys suffering and dying in bombardments of their neighbourhoods and also being subject to torture, including sexual violence". Human Rights Watch has reported that government forces appear to be deliberately targeting bread queues, citing 10 cases of artillery bombardment or air strikes outside bakeries in Aleppo province in August alone. Reporting by human rights groups and the UN itself has consistently found that the overwhelming majority of atrocities in the Syrian conflict have been committed by forces loyal to the president, Bashar al-Assad, although abuses by the fragmented rebel groups are also on the rise as the conflict spirals. In the face of clear evidence of abuses by the Syrian regime, however, both Russia and China have adamantly refused to support any security council resolutions that pressure Assad, even when the wording excludes military action. They are also not prepared to discuss authorising an international criminal court investigation into the war crimes committed by all sides. Even after Zerrougui gave her chilling briefing last week on the killing and torture of children, the response of the Russians and Chinese, together with Pakistan and Azerbaijan, was to seek (unsuccessfully) to restrict the scope of the UN envoy's inquiries and to refuse to back an annual resolution condemning the use of child soldiers and the deaths of children in conflict. Michael Williams, who served both as UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process and for Lebanon, said: "I hope that in the margins in New York there would be some possibility to engage with the Russians and Chinese, but I'm not going to hold my breath." There are many factors underpinning Moscow and Beijing's hard line. Damascus has long been a Russian ally, and a buyer of Russian arms. The Syrian port of Tartus is the only Russian military base outside the former Soviet Union and its sole foothold in the Mediterranean. Both Russia and China feel badly burned by allowing security council resolution 1973 to pass in March 2011 authorising "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians, which was then used by Nato as a mandate to help topple Muammar Gaddafi. The ghosts of the 2003 Iraq invasion and the furious debates that preceded it still hang in the air. Even though it was not fought on humanitarian grounds but rather on spurious claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the fiasco and subsequent US and British attempts to justify it helped reverse what was arguably one of the great moral advances of the post-cold-war era: the UN-backed principle that the international community had the "responsibility to protect" civilian populations when their own states were unable or unwilling to. "The whole concept of responsibility to protect has been forgotten and no one among the statesmen here has the courage to utter the words," Williams said. He also criticised the west for giving up on diplomacy in the face of Russian and Chinese resistance. "Even compared with the old cold war days, there doesn't seem to be much active diplomacy to engage Russia and China. And there is a complete absence of the EU as a political actor," Williams said. "The tragedy is that the security council has not given diplomacy a chance in the case of Syria," Mark Malloch Brown, a former UN deputy secretary general, said. He argued that a tentative deal between the west, Russia and China in Geneva in June – by which the specific demand for Assad to step down was omitted in favour of the backing for a new government in Damascus by "mutual consent" – could have provided the basis for a settlement. "There was a road map forward," Malloch Brown said, adding that the US, Britain and France "got caught up in the theology" of trying to pass a "chapter 7" involving sanctions, and so divided the security council once again. Western diplomats counter that the Assad regime has shown it would use any agreement not enforced by sanctions as cover to buy time and intensify its counter-insurgency. Wherever the exact balance of blame lies, it is directed at the major powers in the security council rather than the UN as an institution. UN agencies such as the high commission for refugees and the World Food Programme are widely agreed to have performed as well as could be expected in Syria, hampered by severe restrictions on access and a critical lack of emergency funding from donors. However, Richard Gowan, an expert on the UN at New York University, said the security council had been effective on other fronts. "The paradox is that while the council has been paralysed over Syria, it has worked pretty efficiently on other issues this year. It has headed off a war between Sudan and South Sudan, and has provided a lot of co-ordination of peacekeeping operations in Africa. In Libya, it has helped the creation of the post-Gaddafi state," Gowan said, adding that, notwithstanding the ominous echoes over Syria: "We are not back in the cold war." But he admitted: "Everything else is absolutely overshadowed by Syria. Let there be no doubt that for many countries the Syrian crisis is really corroding high-level trust in the security council. And what is really looming on the horizon is a crisis over Iran."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Managing director Christine Lagarde says IMF 'prepared to be flexible' – saying both growth and austerity are necessary The International Monetary Fund dropped the broadest of hints on Monday night that it would give Greece more time to implement its hardline cuts programme as it warned that Europe posed a "critical risk" to a weakening global economy. Christine Lagarde, the Fund's managing director, said the Washington-based institution was "prepared to be flexible" and said both growth and austerity were needed to put an end to a crisis which will next month again force the IMF to cut its global growth forecasts. The head of the IMF was speaking as financial markets responded nervously to Portugal's decision to dilute its deficit-reduction programme, the protracted talks over a new package of help for Greece, and mounting political pressure on the Spanish government over its package of cuts and tax increases. Pedro Passos Coelho, Portugal's prime minister, said his government was abandoning plans to raise employee social security payments from 11% to 18% of their salary following widespread public protests. In Spain, Mariano Rajoy's government was facing one of its toughest weeks since it came to power last year as it sought approval for a new wave of reforms designed to pave the way for a European rescue. Meanwhile, in Greece there was mounting suspicion among members of Antonis Samaras's government that the IMF has been deliberately blocking agreement on €11.9bn (£9.5bn) of spending cuts necessary for Greece to receive the next tranche of its bailout. "Basically they want the measures to fail so that Greece is forced to ask for another haircut [on its debt] but we know that is not the view of the EU commission or Germany which is strongly against another debt restructuring at this time," said one Greek official in Athens. Lagarde said that Europe's debt crisis and the projected sharp budget retrenchment in the US early next year posed critical risks, and said the Fund would show flexibility to countries in trouble. "We continue to project a gradual recovery, but global growth will likely be a bit weaker than we had anticipated even in July, and our forecast has trended downward over the last 12 months", she said in a speech in Washington. The Fund had been expecting the global economy to grow by 3.5% this year and by 3.9% in 2013. "A number of factors are weighing the global economy down. At the centre of them all is the element of uncertainty; uncertainty about whether policymakers can and will deliver on their promises." The IMF managing director said the lasting scars from the crisis included youth unemployment in countries like Greece and Spain, high levels of public debt and a poorly functioning financial sector. "Worryingly, the energy to implement the reforms that have been agreed –as well as the other reforms that we need – is waning. I am often asked, five years into the crisis, whether the financial sector is safer today than it was then. My answer? 'Despite real progress, not yet.'" Lagarde said Europe remained the epicentre of the crisis, adding that programmes should be tailored to the needs of individual countries and backed by financial help. "On the Fund's part, we are favourably considering that this be done in as timely and flexible a manner as possible: slowing the pace of fiscal adjustment where needed; focusing on measures rather than targets; and, above all, keeping the emphasis not just on austerity, but also on growth as we believe that the two can be reconciled and should not be mutually exclusive." In Madrid, some 1,300 police were being drafted in to keep protesters away from the Congreso de los Diputados, the parliament building, as an "occupy parliament" movement called for a popular, indefinite blockade starting on Tuesday. Metal fencing and several rings of security manned by police were being put in place to keep demonstrators away from the building, with authorities claiming a blockade would be a direct attack on Spanish democracy. "We will not let parliament be surrounded or taken over," warned Cristina Cifuentes, the interior ministry's Madrid chief, who claimed extreme left-wing and right-wing groups were both involved. It was unclear whether organisers, who define themselves on the internet as "democratic, anti-neoliberal, anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchal", would be able to mobilise a large number of demonstrators. The protest coincides with the beginning of a debate in the Catalan regional parliament in Barcelona which threatens to see it demand that Rajoy's government formally recognise a right to self-determination for the wealthy north-eastern region. Rajoy's government will this week approve a new reform programme and next year's budget, opening the way for it to request a bailout from eurozone countries. That would allow the European Central Bank to intervene in bond markets and drive down the country's exorbitant borrowing costs. Several of Spain's most important indignado protest groups have refused to back Tuesday's attempted peaceful blockade of the Congreso de los Diputados organised by the "On Your Feet!" group, which says it does not intend to stop deputies going to work. a
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Secretary of state Hillary Clinton strays into presidential politics with call for rich people around the world to do more Hillary Clinton strayed into presidential politics on Monday with a call for the global elite to pay more taxes, a day after her husband re-ignited speculation she would seek the White House herself in 2016. The barbed comments, made in a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative event, were widely seen as a dig at Mitt Romney. The Republican contender has been under attack – from Bill Clinton among others – for paying a relatively small portion of income tax despite his immense wealth. The secretary of state's remarks on taxing the rich were directed at developing countries, and they included a disclaimer. "I am out of politics now," she said. But she said she had become increasingly convinced of the need for changes in tax structures around the world. "One of the issues I have been preaching about around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from elites around the world," Clinton said. "It is a fact that around the world the elites of every country are making money. "There are rich people everywhere, and yet they do not contribute to their growth of their own countries." The remarks met with nods of recognition inside the room as a rebuke at Romney and earned a smattering of applause. It was hard to escape the parallels with comments made by Bill Clinton on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday – that it would be hard for America to dig itself out of the recession with low tax rates on the rich. The former president's remarks were seen as a reference to the release of Romney's 2011 tax return on Friday, which showed the Republican candidate paid an effective tax rate of 14.1% on $13.7m in income. "I don't think we can get out of this hole we're in if people at that income level only pay 13% or 14%," the former president said. The secretary of state, in her remarks, also called for the rich to do more. "They don't invest in public schools and public hospitals and other kinds of development internally," she said. "So it means for leaders telling powerful people things they don't want to hear. It means being transparent about budgets and revenues and bringing corruption to light." The similarity of such comments from a former president and a serving member of the Obama administration was striking – and reminiscent of Bill Clinton's comments many years ago that he and his wife were a double act. The Bill-Hillary show was in evidence on Sunday, when the former president re-ignited speculation that his wife would make another run for the White House in 2016, having failed to secure the Democratic nomination in 2008. Officially, the secretary of state plans to retire when she fills out her term. She has said that she does not want to serve in a second Obama administration, if the president is re-elected in November. She has spoken about taking time off after a grueling schedule, and about writing a memoir. In July, Clinton racked up more distance traveled than any other secretary of state, with more than 27,000 miles on the road. There have been more trips since then. Clinton also used her speech on Monday to deliver a message to protesters in the Middle East and north Africa that violent demonstrations would not improve their lives. "If you look around the world today, countries that are focused more on fostering growth than fomenting grievance are racing ahead," she said. "Building schools instead of burning them; investing in their people's creativity, not inciting their rage; opening their economies and societies to have more connections with the wider world, not shutting off the internet or attacking embassies. "The people of the Arab world did not set out to trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob. There is no dignity in that." Despite such exertions as secretary of state, speculation that Clinton may have enough energy for another run for the White House continues. On Sunday her husband, in his appearance on CBS, failed to offer a denial that his wife still had political ambitious. "I have no earthly idea what she will decide to do," the former president said. "She wants to take some time off, kind of regroup. Write a book." By the time the secretary of state turned up for her rapturous welcome at the CGI on Monday morning, however, that was seeming less and less likely.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the Libyan authorities continue to disband local militia groups after brigades were routed by protesters in Benghazi
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney's campaign attempts another relaunch while Newt Gingrich stumps for embattled Todd Akin in Missouri
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Contents of philanthropist's New York residences auctioned to raise millions for her favourite charities and institutions "Money," the late philanthropist and New York socialite Brooke Astor was fond of saying, "is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around." Five years after her death, that sentiment was embodied on Monday in the start of a two-day auction of some 900 of her personal effects to raise millions for her favourite charities and institutions. Sotheby's is offering the contents of two of Astor's residences – her Park Avenue duplex, with its Albert Hadley-designed library, and her Holly Hill country estate in New York state. The grande dame of the Big Apple collected throughout her long life. She died in 2007, aged 105. European and Asian furnishings, old masters, Qing dynasty paintings and more than 100 paintings of dogs – she was a lover of all animals but especially dachshunds – are going under the hammer and are expected to raise between $6.5m (£4m) and $9m. Items of particular note include a platinum emerald-and-diamond necklace, designed by Bulgari. Provenance is everything, and so the auction catalogue includes a classic photograph of her wearing the necklace while chatting to President Lyndon Johnson at a black-tie event in 1969. It is expected to sell for $250,000-$350,000. Another photograph, taken at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, shows her with friends Nancy Reagan and the designer Oscar de le Renta while receiving an award from the Fashion Designers of America. Lot 895, the platinum and diamond brooch she was sporting that night, is estimated at $50,000-$60,000. There are Chinese jade, turquoise and porcelain pieces and Indian gold and carved ivory reflecting her passion for Asian art and furniture. Her international outlook was informed in part by her father's military career, which took the family all over the world. An imperial Chinese gilt-bronze lion clock, estimated at $180,000 to $220,000, is among items expected to raise the highest bids, Enthusiasts will be bidding, too, for her collections of animal sculptures by Herbert Haseltine, the Italian-born French-American sculptor. "This is a woman who surrounded herself with the things that she loved," said Elaine Whitmire, vice-chair of Sotheby's single-owner collections. "You can see it in the upholstery, you can see it in the porcelain that she used, floral, animal and Asian-inspired. "You see not only paintings of dogs, but also sculptures of camels, bulls and pigs. She clearly adored animals, and that passion was reflected not only in her residences … they were also the passions of her philanthropic legacy." That philanthropy earned Astor a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Using the fortune left to her by her third husband, Vincent Astor, heir to a fortune originally built on fur trading, she supported many New York institutions and causes. Those expected to benefit from the auction include the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bronx zoo, Central Park, plus the Animal Medical Center of New York, New York City's public schools and charities in Maine. The auction comes after a family feud involving her only son, Anthony Marshall. The five-year dispute ended in March with a settlement that freed $100m for her charities and cut by more than half the amount going to Marshall, 85, who was convicted of taking advantage of his mother's dementia, partly by engineering changes to her will. He has appealed.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Orphaned baby mountain gorillas rescued from poachers are cared for at the Senkwekwe Centre in the Virunga national park, Democratic Republic of Congo
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Portuguese PM Pedro Passos Coelho has admitted that plans to hike workers' social security payments have been dropped, following street protests
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has said Greece should be granted an extension to its financial targets, as Portugal's leader prepares for a u-turn on an unpopular tax rise
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as militia groups resist attempts to have them disbanded
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Reports suggest as many as 2,000 workers involved in fight in dormitory at Taiyuan plant, which makes Apple's iPhone 5 A brawl involving as many as 2,000 workers forced Foxconn to close its Taiyuan plant in northern China late on Sunday, and left a number of people needing hospital treatment. "The fight is over now … we're still investigating the cause of the fight and the number of workers involved," said Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo, adding it was possible it involved "a couple of thousand workers". A police statement reported by the official Xinhua news agency said 5,000 officers were dispatched to the scene. The violence was brought under control after about four hours and 40 people were taken to hospitals for treatment, the Taiwanese-owned company said. It said several people were detained by police. The violence did not appear to be work-related, the company and police said. Comments posted on Chinese internet bulletin boards said it might have erupted after a security guard hit an employee. The Taiyuan plant, which employs about 79,000 workers, makes parts for automotive electronics and assembles various electronic devices, according to Woo. Other staff sources said it makes parts for and assembles Apple's new iPhone 5, released last week. It was not clear how long the shutdown would last at the plant. Woo said the fight happened in the workers' dormitory facilities. Photographs of the incident that were posted to social networks but later deleted showed smashed windows and riot police, and crowds of workers. Later pictures from just outside the plant showed workers clearing shards of glass from broken windows at a building by an entrance gate and a line of olive-coloured paramilitary police trucks parked inside the factory grounds. Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for the pressure group China Labor Bulletin, told the New York Times workers at the plants had become increasingly emboldened. "They're more willing to stand up for their rights, to stand up to injustice," he said. The same plant was the subject of a brief strike over pay in March. Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, is the world's largest contract maker of electronic goods. It has seen a few violent disputes at its sprawling plants in China, where it employs a total of about 1 million workers. It is an important supplier for companies including Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. Hon Hai shares were down 1.14% by late on Monday morning, lagging behind the broader market's decline of 0.28%. In June, about 100 workers went on a rampage at a Chengdu plant in south-west China. The company has faced allegations of poor conditions and mistreatment of workers at its Chinese operations, and has been spending heavily in recent months to raise wages and improve working conditions. A staff member at the Taiyuan plant said he was told the plant could be closed up to two to three days while police investigate. "There are a lot of police at the site now," the staff member, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has said Greece should be granted an extension to its financial targets, as Portugal's leader prepares for a U-turn on an unpopular tax rise
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UK health agency issues advice as experts try to identify virus that infected two men in Middle East, killing one Health experts are trying to identify a new Sars-like virus that is so far known to have infected two people, one of whom is receiving intensive care in a London hospital. A 49-year-old Qatari man was transported by air ambulance from Doha almost two weeks ago. The other person, a 60-year-old man, died in Saudi Arabia, where the Qatari had recently travelled before falling ill. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is drawing up advice to help healthcare workers recognise in others the symptoms that occurred in the two men. These include fever, cough, shortness of breath and other breathing difficulties. It is not clear at present whether the two confirmed cases are typical or the virus could be circulating more widely, but only rarely causing severe illness. John Watson, head of respiratory diseases at the HPA, said: "The HPA is providing advice to healthcare workers to ensure the patient under investigation is being treated appropriately. "In the light of the severity of the illness that has been identified in the two confirmed cases, immediate steps have been taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest they have." Watson said information was also being prepared to help increase vigilance. This was being shared with national and international authorities including the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Control. "As we are aware of only two cases worldwide and there is no evidence of ongoing transmission, at present there is no specific action for the public or returning travellers to take but we will share any further advice with the public as soon as more information becomes available." The HPA said it was aware of a small number of other cases of people with a serious respiratory illness in the Middle East in the past three months, one of whom had been treated in the UK, but had since died. This person's illness was also being investigated but there was no evidence it had been caused by the same virus or that it was linked to the two confirmed cases. The WHO said the man now in London had been admitted to intensive care in Doha, Qatar, on 7 September and flown to London on 11 September. He had also suffered renal failure. Officials will also be concerned that the hajj pilgrimage next month – which will be attended by thousands of Muslims from around the world – might provide an opportunity for the virus to spread to other countries. The Sars crisis of 2003, which seems to have started in southern China the previous year but was not identified as a serious problem until an outbreak in Vietnam, quickly become a multicountry epidemic. There were an estimated 8,000 cases, including some in the UK, and 750 deaths. The new virus is a type of coronavirus. These are causes of the common cold but can be responsible for far more serious illness. The new virus is different from any previously identified, the HPA says. Preliminary inquiries are said to have revealed no evidence of illness in contacts of the two cases, including healthcare workers. The agency said that based on previous knowledge of coronaviruses, many of the contacts would already have passed the period when they could have caught the virus from one of the infected people. Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, said: "For now, we need to be watchful: any evidence of human to human transmission causing severe disease would be very worrying and would raise the spectre of a new Sars-like outbreak. "The hope for now is that these cases are just highly unusual presentations of a generally mild infection, and that viral surveillance and detection is now so good that we are picking up cases that would not have been found in previous times."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pakistani government says $100k reward offered by Ghulam Ahmad Bilour to kill maker of anti-Islam film is not official policy The Pakistani government has distanced itself from an offer by one of its cabinet ministers to pay $100,000 (£60,000) for anyone who kills the maker of a film that mocks Islam, saying the offer does not represent official government policy. The offer by the railways minister, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, has drawn criticism in Pakistan despite anger against the film running high in this predominantly Muslim country. Bilour said on Saturday he would pay the reward out of his own pocket. He also appealed to al-Qaida and Taliban militants to contribute to "a noble cause" of eliminating the film-maker. The film, made in the US and entitled Innocence of Muslims, has enraged Muslims around the world for its portrayal of the prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womaniser and a child molester. At least 51 people, including the US ambassador to Libya, have been killed in violence linked to protests over the film, which has also renewed debate over freedom of expression in the US and Europe. In Islamabad, the Foreign Office said in a statement that the bounty reflected Bilour's personal view and was not Pakistan's official policy. The minister belongs to the secular Awami National party, an ally in the government of President Asif Ali Zardari. His comments appealing to al-Qaida and the Taliban struck a nerve within the party, which is considered anti-Taliban and has lost several leaders in the fight against the insurgency. His colleague in parliament, Bushra Gohar, demanded that the party force Bilour to explain himself. A party spokesman, Haji Adeel, said the statement was Bilour's personal view, and that the party had sought an explanation from him. "We are a secular party," he said. "We consider al-Qaida and Taliban our enemy." Pakistan observed a national holiday on Friday which it termed the Day of Love for the Prophet, and called on people to go out on the streets to protest against the anti-Islam film peacefully. But the protests turned violent, and at least 21 people were killed.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wang Lijun was found guilty of covering up the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Bo Xilal's wife Gu Kailai China has spared the high-flying police chief whose flight to a US consulate led to the toppling of leader Bo Xilai, with a court in Chengdu handing him a relatively lenient 15 year jail sentence on Monday. Wang Lijun, 52, had previously been Bo's right hand man in Chongqing, winning plaudits for the pair's populist anti-gang crackdown and earning a promotion to vice mayor. State news agency Xinhua said the Chengdu intermediate people's court found him guilty of defection, accepting bribes of at least 3 million yuan, abuse of power and bending the law to selfish ends by covering up the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Bo's wife Gu Kailai. Gu was last month handed a suspended death sentence for the crime, while an aide who helped her was jailed for nine years. "[Fifteen years] was in the realm of expectations but I would say on the low end of what most people were expecting," said Joshua Rosenzweig, an expert on the Chinese criminal justice system. The crimes for which Wang was convicted carry penalties ranging from several years in prison to the death sentence. The court sentenced Wang to two years imprisonment for abuse of power, two years for defection, nine years for bribe-taking and seven for bending the law for selfish ends. But in total, his sentence is 15 years and he may serve far less if given parole. Wang's lawyers have said he will not appeal. Analysts say there would be little point since his sentence will have been decided at a high level due to the sensitivity of the case. According to Xinhua, he told judges during the hearings that he confessed and repented his crimes, adding: "For the Party organisations, people and relatives that have cared for me, I want to say here, sincerely: I'm very, very sorry. I've let you down." While coverage of the trial has been strictly controlled, a powerful editorial by business magazine Caixin's editor-in-chief Hu Shuli - published before the sentencing - said Wang had no choice but to enter the US consulate. "When mafia members break up with their bosses, they can attempt to seek police protection. But in Chongqing and for the former police boss, there was nowhere to turn. And this perhaps encapsulates one of the greatest embarrassments of the country's current legal system," she wrote. Wang stood trial in hearings over two days in the southwestern city last week. The first day was held secretly because it touched on state secrets, according to his lawyer. The second was watched by a carefully vetted audience of a few dozen people. An official statement on his trial, issued by the court, had already hinted heavily that he would be treated leniently - with prosecutors citing factors such as his confession and the fact that he had given information on other people to investigators. A subsequent report from state news agency Xinhua formally linked Bo to the case for the first time - raising the chances of him too facing trial. Although it mentioned him only by position, rather than name, it described him scolding and hitting Wang after he alleged that Gu had murdered Heywood. The court had heard that Wang fled to the US consulate in Chengdu several days later, after he had been removed from police duties and three staff members had been illegally detained. There, he repeated his allegations to US diplomats - leading to British demands for a reinvestigation of Heywood's death last November. It had initially been ascribed to excessive alcohol consumption.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | PM orders inquiry into actions of government agents in lead-up to arrest of Megaupload founder, who is fighting US extradition New Zealand's prime minister, John Key, has launched a inquiry into "unlawful" spying by government agents leading to the arrest of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who is fighting extradition to the US where he faces charges of internet piracy and breaking copyright laws. The investigation may deal another blow to the US case after a New Zealand court ruled in June that search warrants used in the raid on Dotcom's home earlier this year, requested by the FBI, were illegal. Key has asked the government's intelligence and security division to investigate "circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of certain individuals by the government communications security bureau", his office said in a statement on Monday. Key's spokesman would not comment on whether the "certain individuals" referred to Dotcom, his three colleagues also arrested and facing US charges, or all of them. "The bureau had acquired communications in some instances without statutory authority," Key's statement said. New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom and his colleagues at his rented country estate near Auckland in January, confiscating computers and hard drives, works of art, and cars. The FBI accuses the flamboyant Dotcom, a 38-year-old German national also known as Kim Schmitz, of leading a group that netted $175m (£100m) since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted content without authorisation. "I welcome the inquiry by [Key] into unlawful acts by the GCSB," Dotcom said on his Twitter account. Dotcom maintains that the Megaupload site was no more than an online storage facility, and has accused Hollywood of lobbying the US government to vilify him. The raid and evidence seizure has already been ruled illegal and a court has ruled that Dotcom should be allowed to see the evidence on which the extradition hearing will be based. US authorities have appealed against that ruling, and a decision is pending.
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