|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ratings agency Moody's has affirmed Spain's credit rating as Baa3, thanks in part to Mario Draghi's bond-buying programme
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Apple's Taiwanese manufacturing partner admits breaking law by taking on children as workers via schools programme Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, has acknowledged using student interns as young as 14 in a Chinese factory. The case is in breach of national law and raises further questions about its intern programme. Employment rights activists in China have accused Foxconn and other big employers in the country of using young student interns as a cheap source of labour for production lines, where it is difficult to attract adult workers to lower-paid jobs. Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, said it had found that some interns at a factory in Yantai, in the north-eastern Shandong province, were under the legal working age of 16. It did not say how many were underage. "Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks," the company said. "This is not only a violation of China's labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions." Foxconn is Apple's largest manufacturing partner and makes products for Dell, Sony and Hewlett-Packard among others. It said the Yantai factory was not making Apple products. It made the announcement after investigating Chinese media reports of underage interns among its Chinese workforce of 1.2 million. It said it had found no evidence of similar violations at any of its other plants in China. Foxconn said it would work with local government to bar the schools involved in the Yantai case from the intern programme unless they were shown to be compliant with employment law and company policy. "However, we recognise that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologised to each of the students for our role in this action," the company said. Foxconn and Apple have been forced to improve working conditions at Chinese factories that make most of the world's iPads and iPhones after a series of suicides in 2010 and reports of employment abuses, such as excessive overtime, threw a spotlight on conditions inside the plants. In response to the scrutiny Foxconn plans to cut overtime to fewer than nine hours a week from the current 20. In September, a riot broke out at a Foxconn plant assembling iPhones in the northern city of Taiyuan over living conditions inside on-site dormitories for migrant workers. The company defended its intern programme, saying the workers made up only 2.7% of its workforce in China. Internships could be long-term or short-term, carried out in co-operation with vocational schools and other educational institutions. The average internship lasted three and a half months, it said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Case worsens US military's relations with Japanese islanders amid continued furore over stationing of Osprey aircraft Two American sailors have been arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in Okinawa, raising the possibility of further protests against the US military presence on the southern Japanese island. The suspects, named as Christopher Browning and Skyler Dozierwalker, both 23, were arrested after allegedly raping the woman as she walked home in the early hours of Tuesday. The alleged victim, who is in her 20s, later identified the sailors at an off-base housing complex, local media said. The two men, who are in Japanese police custody, had reportedly been drinking before the alleged incident. The case has come at a particularly sensitive time for relations between the US military and residents in Okinawa, which hosts more than half of the approximately 47,000 US military personnel in Japan. Lingering resentment at the large US military footprint on the island turned to anger recently following the controversial deployment earlier this month of 12 Osprey aircraft at Futenma, a marine corps base located in the middle of a densely populated city. "This [the rape case] is the worst possible timing," Kyodo quoted an aide to the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, as saying, adding that Tokyo had lodged a strong protest with the US authorities. The US ambassador to Japan, John Roos, said in a statement: "The United States government is extremely concerned by recent allegations of misconduct by two individual United States service members. "We are committed to co-operating fully with the Japanese authorities in their investigation. These allegations, given their seriousness, will continue to command my full personal attention." A Pentagon spokesman said: "The defence department takes all allegations involving misconduct by service members seriously wherever they may occur. "The US navy in Japan is focused on co-operating and supporting the Okinawa police investigation." A spokesman for Okinawa prefecture said the alleged crime was "unforgivable" and had "shocked all Okinawans". Recent protests against the US military have centred on the Osprey deployment. Residents claim accidents involving the MV-22 Osprey, including two last year, prove the aircraft is too dangerous to fly in built-up areas. The Japanese government, however, approved their deployment this summer after Washington attributed the accidents to pilot error rather than mechanical or design faults. The marines plan to deploy 24 Ospreys at Futenma by 2014. The Osprey's tilt-rotors enable it to take off and land like a helicopter and cruise like conventional aircraft. The US says the fleet at Futenma is needed to replace existing CH-46 transport helicopters and improve its ability to respond to security crises in the Asia-Pacific region amid growing concern over China's military buildup. Crimes by military personnel are a longstanding cause of tension in Okinawa, which hosts the majority of US bases in Japan. The 1995 abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen brought 85,000 people on to the streets in protest and forced Tokyo and Washington to discuss way to reduce the US military presence on the island. Those discussions led to an agreement to relocate the most contentious base, Futenma, but the move has been effectively ditched in the face of opposition from residents near the proposed new site along an unspoiled stretch of Okinawan coastline. In 2008, the then secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was forced to apologise during an official visit to Tokyo following the arrest of a US marine for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa. Opposition to US bases surged again in 2010 after the then prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, reneged on an election promise to move Futenma off the island altogether after failing to secure an alternative site. According to the public broadcaster NHK, seven US servicemen have been arrested on rape charges since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control 40 years ago.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President more confident and combative, with Mitt Romney committing a series of gaffes over Benghazi attack and women Barack Obama secured the comeback he desperately needed in the second presidential debate against Mitt Romney, finishing the night on top after a series of fierce clashes in which the two made no attempt to hide the extent of their personal hostility. At one point in the 90-minute debate, watched by tens of millions of Americans, the two squared off, only a few feet apart, talking over one another, jabbing fingers at one another and accusing each other of lying. Deriding Romney for what the Obama campaign sees as a belated shift to the centre, Obama potrayed him as more extreme than George W Bush on social issues, particularly women's rights. Obama needed a big performance after his dismal failure in the first presidential debate in Denver. That 3 October debate was dominated by Romney and started the president's poll slide, leaving the two in a dead heat less than three weeks from election day. Obama will have lifted Democratic morale and may have done enough to slow – or even arrest – the crisis. It will be several days before the first reliable polls appear but a snap poll by CNN awarded the debate 46% to Obama and 39% to Romney, while CBS put it as 37% Obama to 30% Romney. Obama, listless in Denver, was transformed in the second debate: focused, animated and combative. The president grew in confidence in the later stages of the night, while Romney, confident at the start, began to fade. Obama's campaign team said Obama turned in the peformance it had expected him to produce two weeks ago. The former White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, reinstated to the Obama team as an adviser, said: "The president knew he did not do well two weeks ago. He knew he had to step up his game tonight and Mitt Romney was left looking uncomfortable". Republicans countered that nothing the president said will have changed the dynamic of the race. Romney and Obama now have a presidential debate victory apiece going into the final one, usually the most watched of the three, in Boca Raton, Florida, on Monday. The two men clashed in the second debate – at Hofstra University, Long Island – over tax, energy, women's rights, immigration and Libya. Obama taunted Romney over the vagueness of his plans for tax cuts and deficit reduction. "If somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said, 'Here, I want to spend seven or eight trillion dollars, and we're going to pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe after the election how we're going to do it,' you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal, and neither should you, the American people," Obama said. But the most politically damaging moment for Romney came when he bungled his attack on the Obama administration's handling of the assault on the Benghazi consulate in which the US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. It should have been an easy one for Romney, after days of shifting accounts from administration officials who initially blamed the attack on a protest over an Islamophobic film but have now conceded it was a pre-planned terrorist attack. Romney accused Obama of flying off on fund-raising trips the day after the Benghazi killings. But Obama came back forcefully, accepting he buck stopped with him, not with Hillary Clinton or anyone else in his administration. "Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job. But she works for me. I'm the president and I'm always responsible, and that's why nobody's more interested in finding out exactly what happened." He described as "offensive" Romney seeking to suggest that as president he was acting out of political motivation over the deaths of four Americans. Then, when Romney tried to challenge the president over his assertion that he had described it as an act of terror on the morning after the attack, the moderator Candy Crowley intervened to say that Obama was correct. "He did, in fact, sir," she told Romney, who was unable to counter-attack. Crowley, CNN's chief political correspondent and the first woman in two decades to moderate a presidential debate, went on to point out that it had taken two weeks for the administration to abandon the idea that the attacks were related to protests over the anti-Muslim video. But her intervention left conservatives furious, with one Republican strategist describing it as the most egregious error by a debate moderator ever. Obama also hit home in an exchange over Romney's investments in China. When the Republican responded that Obama should look at the investments in his own pension, Obama, with his trademark grin, shot back: "I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours." The power of the quip was that it encapsulated the image the Democrats have been labouring to put across of Romney as rich and elitist, in a different league from the majority of Americans. In the final minutes, to the relief of Democrats, Obama also mentioned the secret video in which Romney dismissed 47% of American voters as freeloaders. The president had dismayed Democrats when he failed to raise it in the Denver debate. The format, a town-hall debate with questions from the audience, makes exchanges between the two awkward and supposedly encourages civil exchanges. From the start Obama and Romney dispensed with tradition, rising from their seats to engage first with the questioners and then one another. During a discussion about lack of drilling for oil on federal land, the two could barely contain themselves, confronting one another just a few feet apart, almost eye-balling one another, with Obama saying "not true" while Romney insisted it was "absolutely true". Until then it was thought the animosity between the two was confined to policy but it became apparent there is also deep personal antipathy. At one point Romney, almost contemptuous of the president, told him: "You will get your chance in a minute. I am speaking." Republicans may view this as Romney standing up to Obama and what they regard as a representative of the liberal media, but the risk is that independents view it as rudeness. In the early exchanges Romney held his own, at one point witheringly telling Obama that whatever he said he would do in his second term, his first term suggested otherwise. But his difficulties began with a question from an audience member over what the candidates would do to improve conditions for working women. He replied by talking about his time as governor of Massachusetts when he appointed many women into cabinet roles and had commissioned a study on women leaders. But he then delivered an unfortunate line when he said that he had looked through "whole binders full of women" when seeking to recruit cabinet members as Massachusetts governor. Romney also clashed repeatedly with Crowley over the rules and how much time he was being given to answer questions. In the spin room afterwards David Axelrod, Obama's campaign adviser, said Romney had been "cornered and ran out of the room. It was clear to the American people he was exposed tonight." Romney's adviser, Ed Gillespie, said: "The momentum continues for Governor Romney." Asked about Romney's failure to control the debate as he had in Denver, he said: "I don't think it changes the dynamic. This was never about style. It is about substance – jobs – and that has not changed."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney puts up a fight against a more decisive opponent but can't overcome the president's sharp delivery Barack Obama had one thing going for him coming into this debate: he couldn't be any worse than the last time. Mitt Romney had one drawback: he apparently couldn't be any better. As it turned out Obama was much better. Clearer, sharper, more decisive and passionate, he challenged Mitt Romney on the facts and rhetorically he overwhelmed him. It was a rout every bit as conclusive as the first debate. Only this time the victor was Obama. Last time he barely showed up; tonight he showed Romney up. Self-assured without being too cocky, focused without being too wonkish, he managed to strike the right balance between being firm with Romney and empathetic with the questioners. There was little of substance that he said that was different; but there was a great deal of difference in the way that he said it. To him were gifted the best lines of the night. When taking on his Republican challenger over his shift from supporting a ban on assault weapons as governor of Massachusetts to opposing them as a presidential candidate, he said: "He was before an assault weapons ban before he was against it." When Romney pushed him on investments in his pension funds Obama, asking if he'd seen his pension recently, Obama responded: "I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long." When Romney was corrected by the moderator, Candy Crowley, after suggesting that Obama did not call the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi a "terrorist attack" Obama shouted with a smile: "Say it louder, Candy." Romney did put up a fight. Approaching the debate with the same style as he did in Denver he brought his best self. Probably his best line came in an answer about why, given the hard times of Obama's first term, he should be trusted with a second. "We just can't afford another four years like the last four years," said Romney. It is difficult to equate the stiff and impersonal figure of the conventions with the man who showed up tonight. But it simply wasn't enough. Indeed, if anything it was too much. For in his effort to reassert the control he enjoyed during the first debate he overreached. Where he once appeared animated he now came off as aggressive. His interruptions looked desperate and his interjections were shrill. In the two weeks since his triumph in Denver he went from persuasive to petulant. The other loser tonight was US politics. Two men circling, talking over each other, drawing on different facts and calling each other liars looked like a metaphor for much that has gone wrong in American political culture over the last generation. Town hall meetings are supposed to be less confrontational. But more caustic than consensual, this was a bad-tempered affair. Obama's performance will energise his base and shore up the doubts of those shaken by his earlier drubbing. It will staunch the bleeding of support towards Romney but it is unlikely to reverse the flow. They called it a town-hall meeting. But in truth there are very few towns like it. It was a room full of undecided voters: the nation is not.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Human Rights Watch alleges pro-Gaddafi fighters, including dictator's son Mutassim, were abused and murdered in Sirte Militia forces from the Libyan city of Misrata executed dozens of detainees following the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi a year ago this week, according to a new report from the group Human Rights Watch. Almost 70 members of the former Libyan dictator's convoy were abused and executed after Gaddafi's own capture and death in the city of Sirte last October, the human rights group alleges. The report – Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte – details Gaddafi's final hours and includes evidence that appears to prove captured pro-Gaddafi fighters caught attempting to leave the city, including Gaddafi's son Mutassim, were murdered. Mutassim was allegedly killed after being taken to Misrata, which suffered a months-long siege by pro-government troops. He had been filmed alive in the city earlier in the day, but later footage showed him dead from a fresh wound to the throat not visible in the first video after his capture. Also killed, investigators believe, were at least 66 other members of the convoy, executed at the nearby Mahari Hotel. While both sides committed atrocities, including murder, during the Libyan war's last battle, which saw some of the heaviest street fighting, this would be the worst single incident attributed to the coalition of anti-government militias. Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said: "The evidence suggests that opposition militias summarily executed at least 66 captured members of Gaddafi's convoy in Sirte." The claims by the group are deeply embarrassing for Nato members that backed the rebel campaign to oust Gaddafi with a no-fly zone. That action – supported by Russia – was authorised because of fears that government forces might massacre civilians. However, the apparent confirmation that anti-government militia forces were also responsible for war crimes that have yet to be investigated will once again raise serious questions over the nature of some of the groups backed by the west and its allies, some of whom have continued to fuel instability in the country. "In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them, and then found dead hours later," Bouckaert said. "Our strongest evidence for these executions comes from the footage filmed by the opposition forces, and the physical evidence at the Mahari Hotel, where the 66 bodies were found." "It also looks as if they took Mutassim Gaddafi, who had been wounded, to Misrata and killed him there. Our findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Muammar Gaddafi was killed in crossfire, and not after his capture." Among the most powerful new evidence is a mobile phone video clip filmed by opposition militia members that shows a large group of captured convoy members in detention, being cursed at and abused. Human Rights Watch used hospital morgue photos to establish that at least 17 of the detainees visible in the phone video were later executed at the Mahari Hotel. Under the laws of war, the killing of captured combatants is a war crime, and Libyan civilian and military authorities have an obligation to investigate war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. A Human Rights Watch research team was nearby when Gaddafi's convoy engaged in its final battle with opposition forces, on 20 October 2011. Following the battle, the research team visited the site and found more than 100 bodies, most killed in combat. Two days later, the Human Rights Watch research team found the decomposing remains of at least 53 people at the nearby Mahari Hotel, some with their hands still bound behind their backs. To document fully what had occurred on 20 October, the team interviewed officers in opposition militias who were at the scene, as well as surviving members of the Gaddafi convoy at the hospital, in custody, and in private homes. The group also reviewed a large number of video recordings made by opposition forces on their mobile phones, some of which show captured detainees at the site of the final battle. Using Sirte hospital morgue records, Human Rights Watch researchers were able to establish the identities of 17 people last seen alive in custody whose bodies were recovered at the Mahari Hotel. Among those executed was Ahmed Ali Yusuf al-Ghariyani, 29, a navy recruit originally from Tawergha. In a phone video that is believed to show him in captivity after the battle, militia forces beat, kick and throw shoes at him, and taunt him about being from Tawergha, a town seen as being loyal to Gaddafi. Ghariyani's body was later found at the Mahari Hotel, and was photographed by hospital staff and buried as unidentified body number 86. He was later identified by family members from the photographs taken by the hospital staff. Journalists who covered the battle for Sirte also saw detainees being abused after their capture.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | USGS locates 4.6 quake's epicentre near Portland as witnesses in Boston report shaking for up to 30 seconds An earthquake that hit southern Maine has rattled nearby New England states as far as Connecticut, including the Boston area. The US Geological Survey at first estimated the Tuesday evening quake as a 4.6 magnitude, but later downgraded that to 4.0. It hit at about 7.12pm ET. The epicentre, about 3 miles west of Hollis Center, Maine, is about 3 miles deep. That's about 20 miles west of Portland. The Maine emergency management agency had no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In Waterboro near the epicenter, about 20 customers and staff at Waterboro House of Pizza ran outside when they heard a loud bang and the building shook. The Seabrook Station nuclear plant, about 60 miles away in New Hampshire, declared an unusual event, but said it wasn't affected. The plant has been offline for refueling. Eyewitnesses across the Boston area told Reuters they felt the quake for up to 20 to 30 seconds.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The second presidential debate sees Barack Obama under pressure to fend off Mitt Romney's surge - live coverage
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Candidates complete tour of debate site
• Supreme Court declines to suspend early voting in Ohio
• Romney hits 50% among likely voters in Gallup poll
• Crowley says she'll ask follow-up questions despite ban
• Read the most recent summary
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Candidates complete tour of debate site
• Supreme Court declines to suspend early voting in Ohio
• Romney hits 50% among likely voters in Gallup poll
• Crowley says she'll ask follow-up questions despite ban
• Read the most recent summary
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Candidates arrive in New York
• Supreme Court declines to suspend early voting in Ohio
• Romney hits 50% among likely voters in Gallup poll
• Crowley says she'll ask follow-up questions despite ban
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Death of patient in Virginia takes fatalities to 16 as federal authorities raid pharmacy linked to contaminated drug The death toll from the meningitis outbreak linked to a contaminated steroid drug rose to 16 on Tuesday night as a leading medical expert said the infections were "nowhere near the end". William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said he expects a "steady increase" in the number of fungal meningitis infections over the coming weeks. His warning came as the Virginia health department confirmed that a second person had died in the state, just hours after the Centers for Disease Control said the number of cases had increased by 19 to 231. It also reported two cases of peripheral joint infections. Earlier on Tuesday federal agents raided the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy linked to the outbreak. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts said agents from the Food and Drug Administration searched the NECC facility in Framingham. Schaffner described the escalating FDA investigation into further NECC products as "ominous" and said they would have to warn more patients. "We were concerned that there might be other medications that might be contaminated coming from that pharmacy," said Schaffner, a past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Disease. "The FDA has given us a heads up that that looks to be the case. We'll have to notify many more patients across the country that they may have been exposed to a fungal infection." On Monday, after reporting unconfirmed infections from two more drugs made by the NECC, the FDA told medical personnel to contact all patients injected with any drug from the pharmacy, in particular heart transplant and opthalmic patients, as a precautionary measure, to alert them of the risk of infection. The advice has confused some clinicians who accused the FDA of sending mixed messages which may panic patients. During a conference call with clinicians and journalists on Tuesday, Dr Janet Woodcock of the FDA stressed that no other NECC products have been confirmed as being linked to the outbreak, but they were investigating such products following at least one infection in a heart transplant patient. "None of the infections have been confirmed" said Woodcock. "No other products have been linked to documented infections." Asked if they were in danger of issuing mixed messages in danger of scaring patients, Woodcock said: "I don't think we are asking you to tell them they should be concerned, we are asking you to reach out to them make sure they are healthy and they are no signs of infections." The infections in patients that have been linked to two new drugs made by NECC, particularly that of a heart transplant patent, who are susceptible to infections, could have arisen from another source, officials said. Already, 14,000 patients at risk from contracting the disease after having been injected with a potentially contaminated steroid, methylprednisolone, are on the lookout for symptoms of meningitis. Asked about the spread of the outbreak, Schaffner said: "I think we're still in the middle. We're nowhere near the end of this problem. And we will see more patients reporting in ill and we'll have to treat many more going forward." Hospitals, clinics and physicians have already been warned not to use any product made by NECC, as well as to contact patients who may have had an injection of the steroid associated with the 15 deaths. So far, those infected with meningitis have received a spinal injection of the steroid as a treatment for back pain. On Monday, the agency said it had reports of three patients, including two transplant patients, with possible meningitis who received an injection of another steroid made by NECC. On Tuesday, the FDA issued a revised statement on its website saying that it was one transplant patient. The patient, who had received a heart drug known as cardioplegia solution made by NECC, had Aspergillus infection but the FDA said there may be another explanation for the infection.The investigation was ongoing, it said. The second patient identified by the FDA as potentially having meningitis received an injection of the steroid triamcinolone, also supplied by NECC. It cautioned that any injectable drugs made by NECC, including those intended for use in eyes, are of "significant concern". The statement on the FDA website said: At this point in FDA's investigation, the sterility of any injectable drugs, including ophthalmic drugs that are injectable or used in conjunction with eye surgery, and cardioplegic solutions produced by NECC are of significant concern, and out of an abundance of caution, patients who received these products should be alerted to the potential risk of infection.
It also advised physicians and medical personnel to "follow-up with patients for whom you administered an injectable product, including an ophthalmic drug that is injectable or used in conjunction with eye surgery, or a cardioplegic solution purchased from or produced by NECC after May 21, 2012."
The FDA said they were still investigating the two infections found in patients who had received cardioplegia and triamcinolone made by NECC to see if they were linked. The NECC said in a statement that it was reviewing the new information from the FDA. On Monday a Tennessee woman who contracted fungal meningitis after receiving an epidural injection with the NECC-prepared steroid filed a lawsuit against the company seeking $15m in damages. Tennessee has been the hardest-hit state, with 53 cases and six deaths. Meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever and nausea. Fungal meningitis, which also causes strokes, is not contagious. All but eight of the 23 states that received suspect medications from the Massachusetts specialist pharmacy have reported at least one case of fungal meningitis, a rare and deadly disease that has proven difficult to treat. The suspect lots of steroid were shipped to 76 facilities. A list of recalled NECC products on the FDA website ran 70 pages. The outbreak has raised questions over the oversight of pharmacies known as compounding centers, which are not directly regulated by the FDA. In compounding, pharmacies prepare specific doses of approved medications, based on guidance from a doctor, to meet an individual patient's need. However, state pharmacy regulators have said that NECC violated its license in Massachusetts by not requiring patient prescriptions before shipping products. The 15 states reporting cases of meningitis are Tennessee, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Florida.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Federal authorities worry of increase in number of cases as two peripheral infections from non-steroid injections reported The fatal meningitis outbreak that has left 15 dead and more than 200 people sick is "nowhere near the end", a leading medical expert said on Tuesday, amid warnings to a fresh tranche of patients who may be at risk. A day after federal authorities confirmed that they had widened their investigation to include two more potentially contaminated drugs made by the Massachusetts pharmacy involved in the outbreak, William Schaffner said he expects a "steady increase" in the number of fungal meningitis infections over the coming weeks. The number of cases has increased by 19 to 231 in the last 24 hours with no further deaths, the Centers for Disease Control said on Tuesday. It also reported two cases of peripheral joint infections. Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, described the escalating FDA investigation into further NECC products as "ominous" and said they would have to warn more patients. "We were concerned that there might be other medications that might be contaminated coming from that pharmacy," said Schaffner, a past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Disease. "The FDA has given us a heads up that that looks to be the case. We'll have to notify many more patients across the country that they may have been exposed to a fungal infection." On Monday, after reporting unconfirmed infections from two more drugs made by the New England Compounding Center, the Food and Drug Administration told medical personnel to contact all patients injected with any NECC drug, in particular heart transplant and opthalmic patients, as a precautionary measure, to alert them of the risk of infection. The advice has confused some clinicians who accused the FDA of sending mixed messages which may panic patients. During a conference call with clinicians and journalists on Tuesday, Dr Janet Woodcock of the FDA stressed that no other NECC products have been confirmed as being linked to the outbreak, but they were investigating such products following at least one infection in a heart transplant patient. "None of the infections have been confirmed" said Woodcock. "No other products have been linked to documented infections." Asked if they were in danger of issuing mixed messages in danger of scaring patients, Woodcock said: "I don't think we are asking you to tell them they should be concerned, we are asking you to reach out to them make sure they are healthy and they are no signs of infections." The infections in patients that have been linked to two new drugs made by NECC, particularly that of a heart transplant patent, who are susceptible to infections, could have arisen from another source, officials said. Already, 14,000 patients at risk from contracting the disease after having been injected with a potentially contaminated steroid, methylprednisolone, are on the lookout for symptoms of meningitis. Asked about the spread of the outbreak, Schaffner said: "I think we're still in the middle. We're nowhere near the end of this problem. And we will see more patients reporting in ill and we'll have to treat many more going forward." Hospitals, clinics and physicians have already been warned not to use any product made by NECC, as well as to contact patients who may have had an injection of the steroid associated with the 15 deaths. So far, those infected with meningitis have received a spinal injection of the steroid as a treatment for back pain. On Monday, the agency said it had reports of three patients, including two transplant patients, with possible meningitis who received an injection of another steroid made by NECC. On Tuesday, the FDA issued a revised statement on its website saying that it was one transplant patient. The patient, who had received a heart drug known as cardioplegia solution made by NECC, had Aspergillus infection but the FDA said there may be another explanation for the infection.The investigation was ongoing, it said. The second patient identified by the FDA as potentially having meningitis received an injection of the steroid triamcinolone, also supplied by NECC. It cautioned that any injectable drugs made by NECC, including those intended for use in eyes, are of "significant concern". The statement on the FDA website said: At this point in FDA's investigation, the sterility of any injectable drugs, including ophthalmic drugs that are injectable or used in conjunction with eye surgery, and cardioplegic solutions produced by NECC are of significant concern, and out of an abundance of caution, patients who received these products should be alerted to the potential risk of infection.
It also advised physicians and medical personnel to "follow-up with patients for whom you administered an injectable product, including an ophthalmic drug that is injectable or used in conjunction with eye surgery, or a cardioplegic solution purchased from or produced by NECC after May 21, 2012."
The FDA said they were still investigating the two infections found in patients who had received cardioplegia and triamcinolone made by NECC to see if they were linked. The NECC said in a statement that it was reviewing the new information from the FDA. On Monday a Tennessee woman who contracted fungal meningitis after receiving an epidural injection with the NECC-prepared steroid filed a lawsuit against the company seeking $15m in damages. Tennessee has been the hardest-hit state, with 53 cases and six deaths. Meningitis is an infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include headache, fever and nausea. Fungal meningitis, which also causes strokes, is not contagious. All but eight of the 23 states that received suspect medications from the Massachusetts specialist pharmacy have reported at least one case of fungal meningitis, a rare and deadly disease that has proven difficult to treat. The suspect lots of steroid were shipped to 76 facilities. A list of recalled NECC products on the FDA website ran 70 pages. The outbreak has raised questions over the oversight of pharmacies known as compounding centers, which are not directly regulated by the FDA. In compounding, pharmacies prepare specific doses of approved medications, based on guidance from a doctor, to meet an individual patient's need. However, state pharmacy regulators have said that NECC violated its license in Massachusetts by not requiring patient prescriptions before shipping products. The 15 states reporting cases of meningitis are Tennessee, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, Idaho, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Florida.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | EU, ECB and IMF introduced 'unreasonable' 11th-hour demands that were not part of deal Athens signed up for, claim officials Greece's relations with its international creditors were close to rock bottom on Tuesday when talks aimed at unlocking €31.5bn (£25.5bn) of aid for the debt-choked country were suspended amid unprecedented acrimony – despite late night efforts by both sides to dampen speculation that the negotiations had been derailed. The breakdown, ahead of Thursday's EU summit, followed the refusal by prime minister Antonis Samaras' fragile coalition to endorse further labour reforms and wage cuts – moves that officials believe would be the tipping point for a society brought to the brink by more than two years of belt-tightening. Tensions were heightened by the overriding sense that the EU and International Monetary Fund – which with the European Central Bank form the troika keeping the country afloat – were putting "unreasonable" demands on the table "at the eleventh hour". Officials claimed the conditions were not part of the deal when Athens signed up to its second €130bn bailout agreement in March. Many rejected the latest demands, which include drastically reducing severance pay, as tantamount to introducing labour conditions not unlike "those of the middle ages". The IMF mission chief to Greece, Poul Thomsen, tried to play down the spat saying "we agreed on most policy issues" after talks with finance minister Yiannis Stournaras. The Oxford-trained Stournaras said "open issues" remained but the government would make counter-proposals in the coming days. Samaras' junior coalition partners, however, appeared in no mood for compromise. "The troika demands feed galloping recession," said Fotis Kouvelis, leader of the small Democratic Left party as he left talks earlier on Tuesday night with Samaras and his other coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos. "They exceed the endurance of Greek society." With public coffers set to run dry next month, the government needs agreement over the €13.5bn package of budget cuts and long-overdue structural reforms, otherwise Greece stands to lose a €31.5bn tranche of aid. But with the country also mired in unprecedented recession, officials are digging in their heels over the need not to push the austerity-weary nation too far. "We must conclude the measures but not haphazardly and not at any cost," Venizelos, the socialist Pasok party leader, told reporters after the discussions. The former finance minister accused the troika "of playing with fire and endangering Greece and the EU".Instead of wishing to conclude the marathon negotiations lenders appeared bent on deliberately stalling the talks, he said. "I asked the prime minister to make very clear the economic and social conditions of Greece at [Thursday's] summit to explain why these demands cannot be met." It will now be left to Samaras to explain the latest setback when he attends the EU summit, his first since assuming power in June. The conservative leader, who faces mounting opposition from unions and Greece's increasingly vociferous "anti-bailout" front, had wanted to have the negotiations wrapped up when he flew to Brussels. "You have to ask why they are doing this. Do they want to push Greece into a corner, do they want the government to fall, do they want to see the country default on its debt?" asked commentator Yiannis Pretenderis on Mega TV's news programme. "It makes no sense at all. These questions have to be asked both in and outside Greece." In a clear bid to win goodwill ahead of the summit, the government announced on Tuesday that it planned to lease a string of state assets including the country's biggest oil refiner and two largest ports as part of efforts to pay down debt and meet the conditions of its international bailout.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | EU, ECB and IMF introduced 'unreasonable' 11th-hour demands that were not part of deal Athens signed up for, claim officials Greece's relations with its international creditors were close to rock bottom on Tuesday when its "troika" of lenders walked out of talks crucial to unlocking €31.5bn of aid for the debt-choked country. The unexpected collapse of talks before Thursday's EU summit followed the refusal by the fragile coalition of the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, to endorse further labour reforms and wage cuts – moves that officials believe would be the tipping point for a society brought to the brink by more than two years of belt-tightening. Tensions were heightened on Tuesday by the overriding sense that the EU and International Monetary Fund – which along with the European Central Bank form the troika keeping the country afloat – were putting "unreasonable" demands on the table "at the eleventh hour". Officials claimed the conditions were not part of the deal when Athens signed up to its second €130bn bailout agreement in March. Many rejected the latest demands arguing they would reduce labour conditions "to those of the Middle Ages". "The troika demands feed recession and galloping recession," said Fotis Kouvellis, leader of the small Democratic Left party as he left talks on Tuesday night with Samaras and his other coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos. "They exceed the endurance of Greek society." With public coffers set to run dry next month, the government needs agreement over a mammoth €13.5bn package of budget cuts and long-overdue structural reforms, otherwise Greece stands to lose a €31.5bn tranche of aid. But with the country also mired in unprecedented recession, officials are digging in their heels over the need not to push the austerity-weary nation too far. "We must conclude the measures but not haphazardly and not at any cost," Venizelos, the socialist Pasok party leader, told reporters after the discussions. The former finance minister accused the troika "of playing with fire and endangering Greece and the EU".Instead of wishing to conclude the marathon negotiations lenders appeared bent on deliberately stalling the talks, he said. "I asked the prime minister to make very clear the economic and social conditions of Greece at [Thursday's] summit to explain why these demands cannot be met." It will now be left to Samaras to explain the latest setback when he attends the EU summit, his first since assuming power in June. The conservative leader, who faces mounting opposition from unions and Greece's increasingly vociferous "anti-bailout" front, had wanted to have the negotiations wrapped up when he flew to Brussels. "You have to ask why they are doing this. Do they want to push Greece into a corner, do they want the government to fall, do they want to see the country default on its debt?" asked commentator Yiannis Pretenderis on Mega TV's news programme. "It makes no sense at all. These questions have to be asked both in and outside Greece." In a clear bid to win goodwill ahead of the summit, the government announced on Tuesday that it planned to lease a string of state assets including the country's biggest oil refiner and two largest ports as part of efforts to pay down debt and meet the conditions of its international bailout.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chief executive told shareholders they could take their money elsewhere if they don't like the way he runs the company Rupert Murdoch told shareholders they could take their money elsewhere if they did not like the way he runs News Corp as he sailed through his second meeting with investors since the hacking scandal tore through his media empire. At the company's annual meeting in Los Angeles the chairman and chief executive announced he had seen off moves by dissident shareholders calling for him to appoint an independent chairman. He also blocked a move to end a dual-class share structure that allows him to control the company by owning the largest chunk of voting shares. The victories were no surprise given that the arrangement gives him control of 40% of the voting shares in the company. Newscorp is expected to release the details of how many independent shareholders voted for Murdoch to step down. The motion had gathered widespread support from major shareholders including the massive California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the UK's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum and the Australian Shareholders Association. If most independent shareholders vote against Murdoch, that will be a major embarrassment for the company. Last week Murdoch wrote on Twitter: "Busy preparing for next week's company AGM. Signs pretty peaceful, but any shareholders with complaints should take profits and sell!" Asked at the meeting about the comment, Murdoch said: "Oh please." He then pointed to a comment in The New York Times where an analyst suggested dissident shareholders could sell their stock and buy other media firms. The exchange was a rare flash of annoyance from the often irascible chairman who delivered a calm performance and avoided any tricky questions about the alleged £7m payoff for his former favourite Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief who presided over News Corp's disgraced UK newspapers. Murdoch used his opening address at the sparsely attended meeting to talk about the hacking scandal. "As you know we never thought of ourselves as a conventional company," he said. "We focus on writing our own future, and in doing so we have transformed the media landscape." "But that is not to say we have not had mishaps," he added. He said the company had "seized the opportunity to make amends". He said the company's stock price had risen 45% since last year's meeting and that the problems at the UK newspaper division had proven to be isolated. News Corp is now planning to split off its publishing assets including The Wall Street Journal, The Times and Sunday Times from its TV and film groups including Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox TV network. "Notwithstanding our success, our company is undervalued," Murdoch said. "As we head into this future, the company you know will be replaced by two dynamic new ones with separate names, different visions". Murdoch is planning to be chairman of both companies. He said details of executives and board members will be finalised by the end of this year. Shareholders repeatedly asked him about his dual role, called for clearer oversight and asked about his $22m pay package. But Murdoch was not asked about Brooks or about reports that James Murdoch will be put in charge of News Corp's flagship TV assets. Last year a majority of independent shareholders voted for James Murdoch to step down. He was recently heavily criticised by UK media regulator Ofcom for his role in the hacking scandal. After the meeting Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers investment services, expressed disappointment in Murdoch's responses. Tanner had led the charge for him to step down as chairman. "He is not in a position to be sending shareholders away," she said. "The majority of independent shareholders voted against five board members last year and three are still there. It's very disappointing."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chairman and chief executive spoke about division of roles and hacking scandal, but avoided questions about Rebekah Brooks Rupert Murdoch told shareholders they can take their money elsewhere if they do not like the way he runs News Corp as he sailed through his second meeting with investors since the hacking scandal tore through his media empire. At the company's annual meeting in Los Angeles, the chairman and chief executive announced he had seen off moves by dissident shareholders calling for him to appoint an independent chairman. He also blocked a move to end a dual-class share structure that allows him to control the company by owning the largest chunk of voting shares. The victories were no surprise given that the arrangement gives him control of 40% of the voting shares in the company. The motion had gathered widespread support from many major shareholders including the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the UK's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum and the Australian Shareholders Association. Most shareholders voted for the re-election of the board and James Murdoch escaped embarrassment with broad support, a reversal of last year's angry protest votes. But Murdoch did not get everything his way. A majority of independent shareholders voted for the separation of chief executive and chairman roles, with 156,615,065 shares votes for the proposal and 356,720,056 against. Murdoch wrote on Twitter last week: "Busy preparing for next week's company AGM. Signs pretty peaceful, but any shareholders with complaints should take profits and sell!" Asked at the meeting about the comment, Murdoch said: "Oh please." He then pointed to a comment in the New York Times where an analyst suggested that dissident shareholders could sell their stock and buy other media firms. The exchange was a rare flash of annoyance from the often irascible chairman, who delivered a calm performance and avoided any tricky questions about the alleged £7m payoff for his former favourite Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief who presided over News Corp's disgraced UK newspapers. Murdoch used his opening address at the sparsely attended meeting to talk about the hacking scandal. "As you know, we never thought of ourselves as a conventional company," he said. "We focus on writing our own future, and in doing so we have transformed the media landscape. But that is not to say we have not had mishaps." He said the company had "seized the opportunity to make amends", pointing out that its stock price had risen 45% since last year's meeting and that the problems at the UK newspaper division had proven to be isolated. News Corp is now planning to split its publishing assets, including the Wall Street Journal, Times and Sunday Times, from its TV and film groups such as Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox TV network. "Notwithstanding our success, our company is undervalued," Murdoch said. "As we head into this future, the company you know will be replaced by two dynamic new ones with separate names, different visions". Murdoch is planning to be chairman of both companies. He said details of executives and board members will be finalised by the end of this year. Shareholders repeatedly asked him about his dual role, called for clearer oversight and asked about his $22m pay package. But they did not ask about reports that James Murdoch will be put in charge of News Corp's flagship TV assets. Last year a majority of independent shareholders voted for James Murdoch to step down. He was recently heavily criticised by UK media regulator Ofcom for his role in the hacking scandal. After the meeting Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers investment services, expressed disappointment in Murdoch's responses. Tanner had led the charge for him to step down as chairman. "He is not in a position to be sending shareholders away," she said. "The majority of independent shareholders voted against five board members last year and three are still there. It's very disappointing."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Freud and Monet are among the artists whose works were stolen from Dutch gallery Paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Meyer de Haan, Lucian Freud and two by Monet were stolen on Tuesday from a gallery in Rotterdam in what will rank as one of the most spectacular art heists of modern times. The dawn raid at the Kunsthal museum in the Netherlands' second largest city was described by police as a "well-planned" and "bold" operation. Security experts speculated that the thieves might have taken advantage of Rotterdam's port - one of the largest in the world - to swiftly move the paintings abroad. While police were reluctant to put a price tag on the stolen paintings, experts said it ran into tens of millions of pounds. One security expert described the museum, designed by the star Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, as a "gem of a gallery", but a "nightmare to protect", and suggested that thieves spent months plotting the robbery. The works were named by the museum's management on Tuesday afternoon, as Pablo Picasso's Tete d'Arlequin; Henri Matisse's La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune; Claude Monet's Waterloo Bridge, London, and Charing Cross Bridge, London; Paul Gauguin's Femme devant une fenetre ouverte, de Haan's Autoportrait and Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed. The Picasso was the best known work. Jop Ubbens, the general director of Christie's in Amsterdam, told the Dutch daily newspaper de Volkskrant the paintings were worth "far more than just a few million Euros". He declined to give a more exact estimate, saying he had not seen the paintings. "They could be worth 50 million or more," he said, pointing out that a work of Monet's - two of whose paintings were amongst the missing works - brought almost €52m at auction four years ago, the highest amount ever paid for a French impressionist painting. He did not rule out that the paintings had been "stolen to order" by an art collector, "in which case they could be hanging on a wall somewhere by now, never to be seen again." Alternatively he said, they might have been stolen for ransom. "For example, the thieves might ask for a million euros for the return of the Matisse," he told the paper. He said the idea that the thieves would try to sell the paintings on the open market was unlikely. "That would be a really stupid idea. They are so well known, no one would touch them," he said. The works were immediately listed on the Art Loss Register which helps trace lost stolen works of art, and makes the chance of selling stolen works harder. Ubbens said that while the Picasso was the best known painting, the de Haan was the least well-known, but as it resembled a Matisse, "it might have been stolen by mistake". The works were showing as part of an exhibition at the Kunsthal opened to mark its 20th anniversary. Called Avant-Gardes, the exhibition, which opened just over a week ago and is due to run until 20 January, comprised 150 works from the Triton Foundation Collection, a collection assembled by the Cordia family which made its money in oil and shipping and is ranked among the richest families in the Netherlands. The gallery's curators described the exhibition as the first public showing of the "carefully and lovingly assembled Triton Collection", which had developed an "international reputation" and comprised "representative works by the most important and influential artists of the late nineteenth century to the present day". It also includes works by Piet Mondriaan, Marcel Duchamp, Vincet van Gogh, George Braque and Willem de Kooning. The gallery was closed until further notice as forensic experts scoured it for clues about the thefts. A short message on the gallery's website informed visitors: "Due to the theft which occurred in the Kunsthal Rotterdam last night, the Kunsthal is closed to the public today." Security expert Ton Cremers said that it had become easier than ever for thieves to steal paintings even from well-protected galleries like the Kunsthal. He said some of the fault lay with its design. Calling the Kunsthal a wonderful museum, it was a nightmare from a security point of view: "As a gallery it is a gem. But it is an awful building to have to protect. If you hold your face up to the window at the back you have a good view of the paintings, which makes it all too easy for thieves to plot taking them from the walls," he told De Volkskrant.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US investment bank says Pandit has stepped down as chief executive and left the board with 'immediate effect' The chief executive of Citigroup abruptly quit on Tuesday after five years in the top job, amid reports of a boardroom clash. The shock announcement came just 24 hours after the bank reported better-than-expected profits. Citi said Vikram Pandit, 55, was stepping down as chief executive and leaving the company's board with "immediate effect". Pandit said the decision to leave was his own and he was quitting because it was "the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup". However, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pandit resigned after clashing with the board over strategy and performance. There has also been speculation that Pandit may have quit over a row about his pay. In April Citi shareholders voted down his $15m (£9.3m) pay deal, but the vote was non-binding and his pay rise went through. Michael O'Neill, Citi's chairman, said the board respected Pandit's decision to leave the bank. "Since his appointment at the start of the financial crisis until the present time, Vikram has restructured and recapitalised the company, strengthened our global franchise and refocused the business," he said in a statement. However Citi's shares, which were trading 1% higher on the back of Pandit's resignation, have lost almost 90% of their value since he took the helm in December 2007. Pandit told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday night: "The bank is actually in damn good shape." He said confidence had been restored and capital rebuilt. Citi said Pandit will be replaced by Mike Corbat, the bank's current head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and a former Harvard University footballer who once planned to play professionally in the NFL, the top American football league. Pandit said he "could not be leaving the company in better hands". "Mike is the right person to tackle the difficult challenges ahead, with a 29-year record of achievement and leadership at this company," he said. "I will truly miss the wonderful people throughout this organisation. But I know that together with Mike they will continue to build on the progress we have made." In a memo to Citi's 260,000 employees, Pandit added: "Only you can understand the effort and hard work that was put in to get our company where it is today. "I am proud of each and every one of you and I have the utmost confidence in your future success." The bank's president and chief operating officer John Havens, and long-time associate of Pandit, also resigned. The bank said Havens "had already been planning retirement from Citi at year-end but decided, in light of Mr Pandit's resignation, to leave the company at this time." The departures remove a leadership team that navigated Citigroup through 2008's global credit crisis, when taxpayers rescued the bank from collapse with a $45bn bailout. Following Pandit's departure, just two men who ran Wall Street banks during the financial crisis remain in their posts: Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan Chase and Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs. If no changes are made to Pandit's compensation package, Citigroup will have paid him about $261m in the five years since he became chief executive, including $165m it paid to buy his Old Lane Partners hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to him taking the top job, according to Bloomberg. The shake-up at Citi came as Goldman Sachs reported profits of $1.46bn in the three months to the end of September, compared to a $428m loss in the same quarter a year earlier. The bank said higher profit and revenues allowed it to more than double salaries, benefits and bonuses to $3.7bn. A spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, which is calling for a 0.5-1% tax on financial transactions to fund welfare projects, said: "These eye-watering profits and pay are further evidence that banks are a law unto themselves. While the rest of us are belt-tightening banks are yet to change their ways. "If banks can afford to dole out such lavish bonuses, they can afford to pay more to get the economy they helped derail back on track."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republicans say Obama must 'man up and accept responsibility' after Hillary Clinton accepted blame for Libya security failings Leading Republicans have accused Barack Obama of trying to duck responsibility for the attack in Benghazi after the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, accepted the blame for security failures over the killing of the American ambassador to Libya and three other officials by an armed militia. In an apparent attempt to weaken a potential line of attack on Obama by Mitt Romney in Tuesday's crucial debate, Clinton broke away from a tour of Latin America to tell US television networks that responsibility for the circumstances that led to the death of the ambassador, Chris Stevens, stops with her not the White House. "I take responsibility," Clinton told CNN. "I'm in charge of the state department's 60,000-plus people all over the world and 275 posts. The president and the vice-president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision." Republicans reacted with scorn and accused the White House of attempting to shirk responsibility for failures exposed by a hearing in Congress last week, including the state department's refusal of requests to strengthen diplomatic security in Libya even following a series of attacks on American, British and other international targets in Benghazi. Richard Williamson, a Romney foreign policy adviser, said he expected the Romney to use the debate to press the president to "man up and accept responsibility" for failures that led to Stevens' death. Senator John McCain praised Clinton for "throwing herself under the bus" to shield Obama. But McCain joined two other Republican senators – Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte – in questioning White House claims that it knew nothing of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi ahead of the killings on September 11 nor the requests for added protection. They noted that the attack on the US consulate was "preceded by an escalating pattern of attacks this year in Benghazi". "If the president was truly not aware of this rising threat level in Benghazi, then we have lost confidence in his national security team, whose responsibility it is to keep the president informed," the senators said. "But if the president was aware of these earlier attacks in Benghazi prior to the events of September 11, 2012, then he bears full responsibility for any security failures that occurred. "The security of Americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the commander-in-chief. The buck stops there." While Clinton moved to shield the president, she also accepted responsibility only up to a point. The secretary of state said specific decisions about protection in Benghazi were made by others. "The decisions about security assets are made by security professionals," she told Fox News. Clinton also sought to shift some of the responsibility for inaccurate statements initially made by administration officials about the circumstances of the assault on the Benghazi consulate. Five days after the attack, the administration sent the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, on to television talk shows to say that the assault was part of a broader backlash across the Middle East against an anti-Muslim video. The administration later backtracked, describing the attack as a preplanned terrorist assault that went on for several hours. Clinton said Rice was merely conveying faulty intelligence. "As the intelligence community has now said, their assessment over the last month changed. But everyone in the administration was trying to give information to the best of their ability at the time with the caveat that more was likely to be learned and there would be most likely changes," she told Fox News. "The fog of war, the confusion you get in any kind of combat situation, remember this was an attack that went on for hours." Rice also denied the administration was covering up the true nature of the attack. "It was purely a function of what was provided to us," she told the Washington Post. But McCain remained sceptical. "They're either deceiving the American people or they are so incompetent they don't deserve to serve," he said. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Centre for Politics, said Clinton's series of interviews were clearly an effort to draw fire away from the White House. "There's three weeks to the election and Obama's struggling. The last thing he needs is to have this placed on this plate so she's doing her party duty. She swinging into action as Bill [Clinton] swung into action for the party convention," he said. But Sabato said that while Obama will be relieved to be able to defend himself in the debate by pointing to Clinton's statements, there is little evidence that Republican criticism is having an impact on the election. "This issue is not cutting. It's not having an impact. People seem to be focused squarely on domestic and economic matters in this election, and I just haven't seen any impact," Sabato said. "The Republican base is interested but they've already made a decision." The greater impact may ultimately be on Clinton if she decides to make a bid for the presidency in 2016. "It would come back and it would be used by her opponents. I can't imagine it would by any means be the decisive issue. But if she does run, the critical question among the Obama supporters will be: was she loyal? So far the Clintons are the best thing Obama has got going," Sabato said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pakistani Taliban militants say Pakistani schoolgirl was targeted for speaking out against them and praising Barack Obama Taliban insurgents have said the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by their gunmen deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised the US president, Barack Obama. Malala Yousafzai, 14, was flown to Britain on Monday, where doctors said she had every chance of making a good recovery. The attack on Yousafzai, who had been advocating education for girls, drew widespread condemnation. Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet from near her spinal cord during a three-hour operation the day after the attack last week, but she now needs intensive specialist follow-up care. Authorities say they have made several arrests in connection with the case but have given no details. Pakistan's Taliban described Yousafzai as a "spy of the west". "For this espionage, infidels gave her awards and rewards. And Islam orders killing of those who are spying for enemies," the group said in a statement. "She used to propagate against mujahideen [holy warriors] to defame [the] Taliban. The Qur'an says that people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed. "We targeted her because she would speak against the Taliban while sitting with shameless strangers and idealised the biggest enemy of Islam, Barack Obama." Yousafzai, a schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father's wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban's efforts to deprive girls of an education. Pakistanis have held some protests and candlelight vigils but most government officials have refrained from publicly criticising the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism. "We did not attack her for raising voice for education. We targeted her for opposing mujahideen and their war," said the Taliban. "Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow the day's developments as the US state department said it is concerned that Gulf-supplied weapons are reaching the wrong hands and urged Syria's neighbours to keep a vigilant watch on their airspace
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Political action committee aimed at subsidizing efforts to revise the controversial law cited in Florida teen's shooting death The parents of Trayvon Martin have launched a website and a political action committee aimed at fighting the proliferation of stand-your-ground laws. Change For Trayvon will collect funds to be "distributed to candidates, elected officials and efforts which support the mission of … revising stand-your-ground laws across the nation to ensure there is judicial or prosecutorial oversight". A video on the website shows Martin's father, Tracy Martin, and mother, Sybrina Fulton, sitting side by side, urging viewers to join their campaign. "We need your help to change the laws which keep parents like ourselves from finding peace," Tracy Martin says. The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighbourhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, prompted weeks of protest and racially charged debate. Police cited Florida's stand-your-ground law, which allows the use of deadly force if threatened, in their decision not to arrest the gunman. Zimmerman, who claims he shot the unarmed 17-year-old in self-defence, was eventually charged with second-degree murder and is out on bail awaiting trial. "These laws allow individuals to shoot first and ask questions afterwards," says Tracy Martin in the video. Martin says he is standing with the 30,000 parents who have lost children to gun violence. A black and white photograph on the website shows father and son in baseball caps, Martin with an arm around his son's neck, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Worse, under existing stand-your-ground laws, decisions on shootings are made even before a judge or prosecutor can review the case" adds Fulton in the short video. The website carries a link to a PayPal account for donations and includes a colour-coded map of the US, showing 32 states which have enacted stand-your-ground laws. Six states have passed such laws since Martin's death on 26 February. The website shows a further eight states where proposed stand-your-ground laws are on the ballot in November. The site's stated mission is to give Trayvon Martin's family a voice in the political process. It states: "Your support will help engage the discussion across the country regarding stand-your-ground laws and the need to revise them so that there is required judicial or prosecutorial review before decisions are made … The Change for Trayvon movement will shine the light on stand-your-ground laws across the nation." Fulton says: "Stand-your-ground is a solution in search of a problem, and it's a terrible solution with tragic results; like the death of our son." No member of the Martin family or their attorneys will benefit directly from donations, the website says. It promises that 90% of donations would go to "support the mission of Change for Trayvon". No further details on how the campaign would be taken forward were immediately available and a call to the Martin family lawyer went unreturned. However Benjamin Crump, Martin's lawyer, is quoted on the site talking about proposed laws on the ballot next month. "Most people don't know whether these laws are on the ballot to be reviewed in their state or not," says Crump. "The Change For Trayvon CCE and its associated website and social media outlets will work to enlighten voters about the status of these laws across the country." In August, Zimmerman's lawyer said he would no longer pursue a stand-your-ground defence for his client. However, he said that the defence team would still try to get the case dismissed during a stand-your-ground hearing. "I think the facts seem to support that though we have a stand-your-ground immunity hearing, what this really is, is a simple, self-defence immunity hearing" Mark O' Mara told the Huffington Post. He will argue that Zimmerman was being attacked by Martin and fired the fatal shots in an act of self-defence without having an opportunity to escape. According to Florida stand-your-ground law, a person may use deadly force without having to take evasive action if they are in reasonable fear of danger. This means that even though individuals may have the opportunity to escape their attacker, they could choose to stand ground and fight back.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Most Cubans will be able to leave without exit visa, though restrictions remain on some workers to prevent brain drain Cuba will open its exit doors wider than at any time in 50 years as a result of migration reforms announced on Tuesday that will make it easier for citizens to travel overseas. Under the new government policy, most islanders will no longer require an exit visa or a letter of invitation to leave the country, raising the prospect of increased travel to the United States and elsewhere. However, there will continue to be restrictions on certain sectors of society, including doctors, scientists and members of the military, in an effort to prevent a brain drain of personnel who have benefited most from Cuba's highly regarded state education and health systems. The major shift in migration policy follows economic and social reforms by the president, Raúl Castro, that loosen controls on sales of private property, mobile phone ownership and hotel stays and aim to make the island more attractive to foreign investors. The exit visa system dates back to 1961, when the government tightened border controls to stem a flood of migrants amid tensions with the US and unease among some sectors of society about the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power. Its abolition – which will come into effect before 14 January – is likely to be popular because it will save time and money for tourists and those who want to work overseas or visit relatives among the large diaspora in the US. Exit visas currently cost about $150 – about a third of the average monthly wage. The change – which was promised by Raúl Castro when he became president in 2008 – was announced by the Communist party newspaper Granma. "As part of the work under way to update the current migratory policy and adjust it to the conditions of the present and the foreseeable future, the Cuban government, in exercise of its sovereignty, has decided to eliminate the procedure of the exit visa for travel to the exterior," read the notice. The government has also extended the length of time that Cubans can stay overseas – without losing their social security, health benefits and voting rights – from 11 to 24 months. The reform will have political ramifications beyond the island's borders. There are thought to be more than a million Cubans in the US, which has a longstanding policy of granting citizenship to almost all migrants from the island, on which Washington has imposed an economic embargo. Sharp economic disparities, political differences and migration controls have prompted countless Cubans to migrate illegally in recent decades. Thousands travel via Mexico and other countries in Central America each year, sometimes at great risk in unsafe boats. Under the new system, travellers should only need a passport and a visa from the country they intend to visit. But government critics said controls on the movement of dissidents were likely to continue, through denials of passports and other restrictions. "The devil is in the details," tweeted Yoani Sánchez, a dissident blogger who was detained by the authorities earlier this month. She said the new law could be used to prevent overseas travel by Cubans who "organise or participate in actions that are hostile against the country's political foundation". Most citizens were thought likely to welcome the change. "There have been many expectations for many years about a new travel law. It's a big step forward that will save us money and simplify the process," the office worker Rafael Pena told Reuters reporters in Havana.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Full coverage as the mogul faces pressure from shareholders seeking to break his hold over the media empire. By Dan Sabbagh and Dominic Rushe
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mogul faces pressure from shareholders seeking to break his hold over the media empire. By Dan Sabbagh and Dominic Rushe
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President needs strong display in town-hall style debate in Long Island with new polls showing his lead in Pennsylvania cut
• Follow today's debate build-up in our politics liveblog Barack Obama is preparing to fly to New York from his Virginia retreat for the second presidential debate against Mitt Romney, in which the president has to put in a strong performance if he is going to halt Romney's poll momentum. Obama's mission has been given added urgency by a new poll showing his lead cut to just four points in Pennsylvania, traditionally a Democratic-leaning state. Obama's task is a difficult one, given that the debate format is town-hall style in which questions come from the audience, meaning the president and Romney have to devote at least some of the 90 minutes to answering questions civilly, rather than in direct confrontation. It is harder, too, for Obama to make the same impact as Romney did in Denver on October 3 as second debates usually attract fewer viewers than the first. Obama, according to aides, was spending his final hours before flying to New York working out, and undertaking a last round of debate preparation. Obama's team said that in the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, he will challenge Romney on his remark about 47% of voters being freeloaders, and also on healthcare and his tax and deficit-reduction plans. The Democrats dismissed the minor controversy over how involved the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley, should be. Obama's adviser David Axelrod tweeted: "Enough already about moderators. POTUS is ready for a vigorous debate and Q's from all comers!" The Romney camp, based outside Boston, is bracing itself for the media writing, at the hint of an improvement by Obama, a 'comeback' story. Romney's campaign team, whose news management is improving, followed the announcement of $170m in fundraising in September with an announcement on Tuesday morning that their candidate is being backed by Ross Perot, who ran for the presidency as an independent in 1992 and 1996. Romney described him as "a living legend". Perot, in a statement endorsing Romney, said: "The fact of the matter is that the United States is on unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home, and our constitutional freedoms." But the big surprise is the Quinnipiac poll which put Obama on 50% to Romney's 46% in Pennsylvania, where neither side has spent much time campaigning, evidence it is not regarded as competitive by either team. The Quinnipiac poll would need to be supported by a stream of similar poll findings before the Romney campaign would even consider diverting the vast sums that would be needed to fight the state. The importance of Quinnipiac on Pennsylvania is dramatic evidence of the drift in the polls in Romney's favour since Obama's poor showing in the Denver debate. Quinnipiac shows a huge jump for Romney in Pennsylvania since last month, when Obama was on 54% to Romney's 42%.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President needs strong display in town-hall style debate in Long Island with new polls showing his lead in Pennsylvania cut Barack Obama is preparing to fly to New York from his Virginia retreat for the second presidential debate against Mitt Romney, in which the president has to put in a strong performance if he is going to halt Romney's poll momentum. Obama's mission has been given added urgency by a new poll showing his lead cut to just four points in Pennsylvania, traditionally a Democratic-leaning state. Obama's task is a difficult one, given that the debate format is town-hall style in which questions come from the audience, meaning the president and Romney have to devote at least some of the 90 minutes to answering questions civilly, rather than in direct confrontation. It is harder, too, for Obama to make the same impact as Romney did in Denver on October 3 as second debates usually attract fewer viewers than the first. Obama, according to aides, was spending his final hours before flying to New York working out, and undertaking a last round of debate preparation. Obama's team said that in the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, he will challenge Romney on his remark about 47% of voters being freeloaders, and also on healthcare and his tax and deficit-reduction plans. The Democrats dismissed the minor controversy over how involved the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley, should be. Obama's adviser David Axelrod tweeted: "Enough already about moderators. POTUS is ready for a vigorous debate and Q's from all comers!" The Romney camp, based outside Boston, is bracing itself for the media writing, at the hint of an improvement by Obama, a 'comeback' story. Romney's campaign team, whose news management is improving, followed the announcement of $170m in fundraising in September with an announcement on Tuesday morning that their candidate is being backed by Ross Perot, who ran for the presidency as an independent in 1992 and 1996. Romney described him as "a living legend". Perot, in a statement endorsing Romney, said: "The fact of the matter is that the United States is on unsustainable course. At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home, and our constitutional freedoms." But the big surprise is the Quinnipiac poll which put Obama on 50% to Romney's 46% in Pennsylvania, where neither side has spent much time campaigning, evidence it is not regarded as competitive by either team. The Quinnipiac poll would need to be supported by a stream of similar poll findings before the Romney campaign would even consider diverting the vast sums that would be needed to fight the state. The importance of Quinnipiac on Pennsylvania is dramatic evidence of the drift in the polls in Romney's favour since Obama's poor showing in the Denver debate. Quinnipiac shows a huge jump for Romney in Pennsylvania since last month, when Obama was on 54% to Romney's 42%.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After a decade-long legal battle, hacker will learn whether or not he has won his battle to avoid extradition to the US
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The US poverty rate has risen 19% since 2000. Gary Younge talks to voters in Fort Collins about the struggle to stay afloat – and whether Obama or Romney offers any kind of solution The first visit to the food bank is always the hardest. Michelle Venus, 52, cried. "Not while I was there," she said. "But before and after." Four years earlier, she'd been a homeowner in a $75,000 a year job. She'd donated to the food bank's fundraising drives. Now she was there to pick up food she couldn't afford to buy. "It was not what I'd expected for myself or from myself. It was just a really hard day." Mark Weaver, 54, the former chairman of nearby Loveland chamber of commerce, tried to avoid the gaze of acquaintances he'd met when he attended the food bank's galas. "It was very humiliating," he says. "I used to take clients to their events, and all of a sudden I'm living below the poverty line." He used to earn a six-figure salary plus commission plus benefits, and also chaired the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance, which lobbied local politicians on behalf of the business community. He made up his mind to go after a friend, a well-paid software engineer who'd also fallen on hard times, telling him to: "Get over being proud." The queue at the Larimer County food bank in Fort Collins, a town of 147,000 in northern Colorado, snakes out of the door and is mostly silent. In line there are slightly more people than trolleys. The number of families visiting here has increased more than 50% over the last five years. On average they also visit more often and need more food. In the parking lot there are only two bumper stickers – one for Mitt Romney and one for the US navy. Inside it is set up like a grocery store. People take what they need, although there are limits for some of items such as bread. From the outside, if you didn't know it was a food bank, you might think they were going to the cinema. People often think they know what poverty looks like until they end up here, and then they realise it looks like them and many other people that they know. Weaver lives in a nice area. The first he knew that his next-door neighbour was struggling with his mortgage payments was when his house was foreclosed on and he was moving out. The official poverty rate in the US has risen 19% since 2000 with just under one in seven Americans now poor and one in five reported they did not have enough money to buy food last year. But since the beginning of the financial crisis it is the 'precarity rate' that has really taken off – the number of people who feel economically precarious. Those who fear poverty, look it straight in the eye at the end of every month, face a constant battle to avoid it or slip in and out of it while struggling to retain every semblance of middle-class stability. People who may have high school diplomas, college degrees, pensions, good credit and mortgages, juggling aspiration and reality, who find themselves one lay-off or illness away from a steep and dizzying descent into hardship. More than the half the people who use the Larimer County Food Bank, which is based in Fort Collins, are working. One in 10 have at least a college degree, almost a third have no health insurance and more than half have unpaid medical bills. "There's been a real difference, not only in the number of people that we serve in recent years," explains Amy Pezzani, the food bank's executive director. "But also in the kind of people we serve. People think that if they're not living in poverty then they're middle class. But the official poverty level is such an unrealistic indicator of economic status. Most of the people who use the food bank are working people. These used to be referred to as 'emergency food pantries'. But now it's like people are having an emergency every day. It's really just a way to exist." 'There are more people struggling that the official numbers show'Last year the census bureau released a new measurement of poverty, which takes regional cost of living, medical payments and other expenses into account and found a third of Americans are either in poverty or desperately close to it. Half are married, almost half are suburban. "These numbers are higher than we anticipated," Trudi Renwick, the bureau's head poverty statistician, told the New York Times. "There are more people struggling than the official numbers show." This is the fragile economic terrain on which the election is being fought: the needs and aspirations of the ever-expanding numbers of America's working poor and the far larger ranks of those anxious about joining them. These are the people most likely to be offended by Mitt Romney's suggestion that 47% of the country see themselves as victims, who most needed the kind of change Obama promised four years ago, and have been least impressed by the apparent lack of it. These are the people at whom the ads attacking Romney's record of outsourcing and asset-stripping at Bain Capital were aimed. They are also the ones the Tea Party sought to galvanise through their populist message against the bailout and in defence of small business. A New York Times poll in 2010 revealed that more than half of those who identified as Tea Party supporters were concerned that someone in their household would be out of a job in the next year, while more than two-thirds said the recession had been difficult or caused hardship and major life changes. A slim majority of Americans now define getting ahead as "not falling behind". That describes life for many here in Larimer County, where between 2006 and 2010 median family income (adjusted for inflation) shrank by 9% leaving around a third of homeowners paying 30% or more of their income for housing. The number of people using food stamps, and applying for heating assistance over the last six years has rocketed. Over the past 10 years the number of children getting free and reduced lunch doubled, while in-state tuition fees at Colorado State University, which has a huge campus in town, increased 138%. The Fort Collins Homelessness Prevention Initiative, which provides one-time grants for emergency rent assistance, has seen a 50% increase in the number of people they are helping every year. "We mainly serve two kinds of people," explains executive director Sue Beck-Ferkiss. "One are the pay-check surfers who are used to skating by on very little. But we also see more people who are falling out of the middle class. It could be a couple who both worked on contract. The work dries up. But the world doesn't stop just because your income stops. They wipe out their savings and maybe they end up here." 'I don't think the Republican party cares about people like me'Larimer County is a swing county in a swing state. It voted for Bush twice, but went for Obama in 2008. Now Colorado is on the fence and Mark Weaver is right there with it. Mark is one of those rare species this election. An undecided voter with genuinely eclectic views. He's an evangelical Christian who is for gun control and a more humane immigration policy, who wants to rein in the deficit, thinks unions are dinosaurs and is against abortion although he'd rather peoples' hearts changed than legislation. He voted for John McCain last time because he didn't think Obama had the experience, and was a registered Republican until July 4 when, appropriately enough, he registered as an independent. Both campaigns are spending millions to reach him with microtargetting on the issues they think will swing his vote their way. They're also bombarding him with ads. But all they are earning so far is his contempt. "If you took all the money they spent on the political system and elections you could feed the world," Weaver says. He's not particularly impressed by either candidate. "Somebody's got to fix the economy, but I don't know that either of them has the guts to do it," he says. "I'm looking to vote for someone I like and trust; I've never been more distrustful of the whole thing. I wish we could vote for none of the above. I want a do-over." Mark's fortunes began to change in the summer of 2009 when was a human resources manager in a company with 1,500 employees. He was let go and replaced by a colleague 20 years his junior on half of his salary. He could have found other work elsewhere in the country, but that would have involved uprooting his three children, and he didn't think that was fair. He got another job in a start-up that involved a long commute and eventually went collapsed owing him money. With his mortgage paid off and no debts, the biggest expense for a family of five was healthcare. Since everyone in the family was healthy they contemplated doing without it. Then his youngest daughter got bitten by a rattlesnake. "That would have been a six-figure healthcare bill," he says. "If we'd gotten rid of healthcare at that point we would have been sunk." It was around that time he started to going to the food bank. He stopped after he got a job at a major book store as a night-time accountant and head cashier paying just $9 an hour but with good health benefits, and is now getting a human resources consultancy practice off the ground. When Pezzani heard the tape of Romney referring disparagingly to the 47% of the country who don't pay taxes she was unimpressed. "It's very difficult to see the folks that we're serving maligned in that way," she says. Beck-Ferkiss at the HPI has similar reservations. "It's hard for me to believe that Romney is focused on the population that I serve," she says. Mark, however, says it just confirmed everything he already thought. "It doesn't surprise me about Romney because he's always struck me as a stuffed shirt. He's arrogant, and it's hard for me to get past that. It didn't change my mind about him because I always thought that about him. It was exactly the same as Obama saying "You didn't build that". Those were exactly the words I would expect to come out of his mouth." Michelle, on the other hand, was devastated. "I was heartbroken," she says. "I was highly offended. I thought he's just disrespected me personally. I just don't think the Republican party cares about people like me." Michelle describes herself as a lifelong Democrat. She had not long moved to the Fort Collins area when her husband was diagnosed with brain cancer. They had health insurance, but with only one salary coming in they ate through their savings just to keep afloat. "We raided our personal accounts to survive." She got a job in marketing paying $75,000 a year and remained relatively comfortable in the 2,400 sq ft house she was buying. Then she lost that job and went into consulting. "I just kept going," she says. "I lived through recessions before, and assumed I'd come out the other side." But work was drying up and when her boyfriend of six years killed himself last March she struggled to keep up. "After that I'd get up to feed my dogs but that was about it." When a client complained that she wasn't meeting deadlines she texted back: "I'm just not trying to kill myself." Struggling to pay the mortgage on the house, which had been sold on from her bank to a loan company, she tried to renegotiate. In a conference call with an adviser and the lender, she was told that it made more sense to foreclose on her than change the terms of the loan. "I stopped paying the mortgage and got the house ready to sell," she says. She managed to sell it for a small profit and move into a place less than half the size with her son. It was around this time she found herself crying as she prepared to go to the food bank. "I just couldn't make ends meet," she says. "I don't go every week. Just when I really need something. When I first went I was worried that I would see people I knew. " Now she's starting a new career as a journalist and has scaled down considerably and muddles through. "I have an understanding mechanic," she says. "If something happens to my car and I can't pay him everything he let's me pay what I can." She thinks things are getting better, although she wishes they would improve faster. She blames the slow pace on the Republican congress rather than Obama. "He tried to incorporate some of what they want but ever since he got in all they've wanted to do is get him out." The ramifications of the inability of the nation's political culture to engage with this increasingly pervasive sense of fragility goes beyond the immediate election. Since the financial crisis began five years ago, the significant shift in Americans' economic wellbeing has posed a considerable challenge to both national mythology and the political rhetoric on which it is built. Among other things, the American dream rests on the notion of meritocracy and progress – that those who work hard will get on, that each year will better than the last and each generation better off than their parents. Since 1977, when Gallup first asked if people thought they would be personally better off the following year, an overwhelming majority say yes every year, even though there have been four recessions. It's not a guarantee of success – indeed, quite the opposite. Inequality of wealth, and the poverty that comes with it, is tolerable on the understanding that there will be equality of opportunity. While only 2% described themselves as "rich", 31% thought it very likely or somewhat likely they would "ever be rich". "Because differences in income in the US are believed to be related to skill and effort, and because social mobility is assumed to be high," argued Isabel Sawhill, codirector of the Centre on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution in September, "inequality seems to be more acceptable than in Europe." But the recent downturn has delivered a severe dent to that self-image. A report earlier this year showed that between 2007 and 2010 the median American family lost a generation of wealth. Most Americans believe it unlikely that young people will have a better life than their parents – the highest on record. 'I still feel the American dream is available to me'Meanwhile, as the National Journal's Ron Brownstein made clear recently, the sclerotic effects of class entrenchment are becoming ever more deeply embedded. In a study called 'Pathways to the middle class', Sawhill and two colleagues pointed out that nearly two-thirds of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of income stay in that category as adults, while more than three-fifths of children born into families in the top fifth remain in theirs. But despite that it seems the belief in the American dream remains steadfast. Eighty five per cent of Americans still believe theirs is the land of opportunity, while other polls over the last four years reveal a sizeable majority of Americans still believe "the American Dream is still possible and achievable for … people like you." When Mark reflects on the last few years he falls back on his faith. "This experience has definitely made me more humble. I think God's made me more authentically who I am." Having moved into a smaller home with her teenage son, Michelle now wonders why she surrounded herself with so many things she didn't need. "When I was working, if I saw something I wanted I would buy it. Now I wonder if I really need it. When I see people in Target getting all these things for Halloween I think: what are you going to do with all that stuff? Where are you going to put it? I still feel the American dream is available to me. I'm not prepared to let that go yet," she says. "But I no longer think it's about being a consumer."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney and Barack Obama face each other for the second time tonight, in a town-hall format at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Follow the build-up live
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seven paintings, including those by Gauguin and Freud, taken in overnight theft from Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam Thieves have stolen paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and other famous modern artists from a museum in Rotterdam, Dutch police say. Works by Paul Gauguin, Lucian Freud and Meyer de Haan, were also among the seven paintings stolen from the Kunsthal museum overnight, police said on Tuesday. Neither the police nor the museum were immediately able to put a value on the haul, but the theft is one of the art world's most dramatic in recent years and will likely be worth millions. The list of paintings on the Dutch police website were: • Picasso, Tete d'Arlequin • Matisse, La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune • Monet, Waterloo Bridge, London • Monet, Charing Cross Bridge, London • Gauguin, Femme Devant une Fenetre Ouverte, Dite la Fiancé • De Haan, Autoportrait (circa 1889-91) • Freud, Woman with Eyes Closed (2002) Kunsthal, designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, does not have its own collection and exhibits different types of art, including photos, sculptures, design and fashion. It opened a new exhibition a few days ago to celebrate its 20th anniversary, including paintings by Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondriaan, Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Freud, and others showing examples of impressionism, expressionism and other modern art movements. More than 150 paintings in the exhibition came from the privately owned Triton Foundation collection, and many of the works were worth €1m or more, Kunsthal's former executive Wim van Krimpen told Dutch public radio station Radio 1
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US investment bank says Pandit has stepped down as chief executive and left the company's board with 'immediate effect' Vikram Pandit has abruptly quit as chief executive of Citigroup. The US investment bank said on Tuesday Pandit had stepped down as chief executive and left the company's board with "immediate effect". Citi said Pandit will be replaced by Mike Corbat, the bank's current head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Pandit said it was "the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup" after the bank "emerged from the financial crisis as a strong institution". Michael O'Neill, Citi's chairman, said the board respected Pandit's decision to leave the bank. "Since his appointment at the start of the financial crisis until the present time, Vikram has restructured and recapitalised the company, strengthened our global franchise and refocused the business," he said. Pandit said he "could not be leaving the company in better hands". "Mike is the right person to tackle the difficult challenges ahead, with a 29-year record of achievement and leadership at this company," he said. "I will truly miss the wonderful people throughout this organization. But I know that together with Mike they will continue to build on the progress we have made." The bank's president and chief operating office John Havens also resigned from the company. The bank said Havens "had already been planning retirement from Citi at year-end but decided, in light of Mr Pandit's resignation, to leave the Company at this time." The departures remove a leadership team that navigated Citigroup through 2008's global credit crisis, when taxpayers rescued the bank from collapse with a $45bn (£27bn) bailout. Shares of New York-based Citigroup, the third-largest US bank, declined 2.6% to $35.70 in early trading in New York. If no changes are made to Pandit's compensation package, Citigroup will have paid him about $261m in the five years since he became CEO, including $165m it paid to buying his Old Lane Partners LP hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to his becoming CEO, according to Bloomberg.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wall Street bank easily beats analysts' estimates for earnings and revenue in third quarter Goldman Sachs easily beat analysts' estimates for earnings and revenue in the third quarter. Net profit was $1.5bn (£931m), a turnaround from a loss a year ago. Back then, Goldman suffered as its clients pulled out of the market, scared off by the uncertainty caused by contentious budget negotiations in Congress and a downgrade of the US government's debt rating. On a per-share basis Goldman earned $2.85, blowing away Wall Street's expectations. Analysts had been predicting $2.19, according to FactSet. Revenue more than doubled, to $8.4bn from $3.6bn, and also beat estimates of $7.2bn. The bank enjoyed big jumps in revenue from underwriting stock and bond offerings and investment management.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Wall Street bank easily beat analysts' estimates for earnings and revenue in the third quarter Goldman Sachs easily beat analysts' estimates for earnings and revenue in the third quarter. Net profit was $1.5bn (£931m), a turnaround from a loss a year ago. Back then, Goldman suffered as its clients pulled out of the market, scared off by the uncertainty caused by contentious budget negotiations in Congress and a downgrade of the US government's debt rating. On a per-share basis Goldman earned $2.85, blowing away Wall Street's expectations. Analysts had been predicting $2.19, according to FactSet. Revenue more than doubled, to $8.4bn from $3.6bn, and also beat estimates of $7.2bn. The bank enjoyed big jumps in revenue from underwriting stock and bond offerings and investment management.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pair stopped at Birmingham trauma centre treating Pakistani girl who Taliban shot after she campaigned for education rights Two people have been questioned by police after they turned up at a hospital wanting to see Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who the Taliban shot in the head because she campaigned for the right to be educated, police said. Malala, 14, arrived at Queen Elizabeth hospital, in Birmingham, on Monday after travelling on a special air ambulance from Pakistan. West Midlands police described the visitors who turned up at the hospital as "well-wishers". A spokeswoman said: "They were stopped in a public area of the hospital and questioned by police, who recorded their details and advised the pair that they would not be allowed to see her. No arrests were made and at no point was there any threat to Malala." The hospital's medical director, Dr Dave Rosser, said that "a number of people turned up claiming to be members of Malala's family, which we don't believe to be true". He said the people in question had been arrested, but police issued a statement clarifying that no one had been detained. Malala was shot at point-blank range last Tuesday after a gunman clambered into the back of a van full of her classmates. She rose to prominence in 2009 after writing a BBC blog describing the terror of living under the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan's Swat valley. The attack on her triggered worldwide condemnation and sent shockwaves through Pakistani society. "Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in Pakistan to an education is an example to us all," said the foreign secretary, William Hague. A spokesman for Pakistan's military said Malala would require "prolonged care to fully recover from the physical and psychological effects of the trauma that she has received". That is likely to include the partial rebuilding of her skull and "intensive neuro-rehabilitation". The Queen Elizabeth is one of Britain's 16 major trauma centres specialising in treating severe gunshot wounds and major head injuries. The Foreign Office said the Islamabad government was bearing the costs of transportation and treatment. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the militant group that has said it shot her, has threatened to attempt to kill her again if she recovers. A Downing Street spokesman said on Monday that "security has been taken into account", but gave no specific details. Rosser said the hospital and West Midlands police were "comfortable with the levels of security".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After a decade-long legal battle, hacker will learn whether or not he has won his battle to avoid extradition to the US
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After a decade-long legal battle, 46-year-old computer hacker to learn whether or not he has won his battle to avoid extradition to the United States
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation in September eased to 2.2% – its lowest level in almost three years UK inflation fell to its lowest in almost three years in September, easing the pressure on cash-strapped consumers. But there was a sting in the tail for people on benefits, as last month's inflation numbers will be used to set payouts. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said consumer price inflation eased to 2.2% in September, the lowest since November 2009. That compares with a rate of 2.5% in August and is in line with economist forecasts. Retail price inflation (RPI), which includes some housing and tax costs, dropped from 2.9% to 2.6%. Policymakers have been hoping that a fall in inflation will ease the pressure on consumers and encourage people to start spending again to help prop up the economy. However, the figures were skewed by sharp rises in gas and electricity in September last year and inflation is expected to pick up again when this year's round of price increases start to take effect. This month, four of the big six energy suppliers announced bills will rise by 6-9%. Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics said higher utility bills, rising food prices and university tuition fees will boost inflation in the coming months. But she expected the yearly rate to stay close to the Bank of England's 2% target, and even fall below it as a result of the weakness of the economy. That should pave the way for the bank to announce an extension of the quantitative easing programme later this year. She said: "While next month's MPC [monetary policy committee] decision is shaping up to be a relatively close call, we still expect more asset purchases to be announced in the coming months." Tuesday's data will provide George Osborne with a rare piece of good news, as next year's benefits bill could come in lower than forecast as a result. The Office for Budget Responsibility, whose forecasts are used by the Treasury, expected September's CPI [consumer prices index] to be 2.6%. Under that estimate, the benefit bill for next year stood at £183bn. The lower rate of inflation will also offer relief to retailers and other companies, as the annual increase in business rates, due in the spring, is determined by September's RPI. However, some of Britain's leading retailers are campaigning for rates to be frozen, as the escalation of costs was preventing them from opening new stores and driving the economy. In a letter to the Financial Times, Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher, Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, and Andy Clarke, chief executive of Asda, called for the moratorium. Separately, the ONS said factory gate inflation rose to 2.5% – higher than analyst forecasts of 2.2%; while input prices dropped 1.2%, as the price of oil and imported metals came down. The ONS said house prices rose 1.8% on the year in August, down from a 2% increase in July.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation in September eased to 2.2% in September – its lowest level in almost three years UK inflation fell to its lowest in almost three years in September, easing the pressure on cash-strapped consumers. But there was a sting in the tail for people on benefits, as last month's inflation numbers will be used to set payouts. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said consumer price inflation eased to 2.2% in September, the lowest since November 2009. That compares with a rate of 2.5% in August and is in line with economist forecasts. Retail price inflation (RPI), which includes some housing and tax costs, dropped from 2.9% to 2.6%. Policymakers have been hoping that a fall in inflation will ease the pressure on consumers and encourage people to start spending again to help prop up the economy. However, the figures were skewed by sharp rises in gas and electricity in September last year and inflation is expected to pick up again when this year's round of price increases start to take effect. This month, four of the big six energy suppliers announced bills will rise by 6-9%. Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics said higher utility bills, rising food prices and university tuition fees will boost inflation in the coming months. But she expected the yearly rate to stay close to the Bank of England's 2% target, and even fall below it as a result of the weakness of the economy. That should pave the way for the bank to announce an extension of the quantitative easing programme later this year. She said: "While next month's MPC [monetary policy committee] decision is shaping up to be a relatively close call, we still expect more asset purchases to be announced in the coming months." Tuesday's data will provide George Osborne with a rare piece of good news, as next year's benefits bill could come in lower than forecast as a result. The Office for Budget Responsibility, whose forecasts are used by the Treasury, expected September's CPI [consumer prices index] to be 2.6%. Under that estimate, the benefit bill for next year stood at £183bn. The lower rate of inflation will also offer relief to retailers and other companies, as the annual increase in business rates, due in the spring, is determined by September's RPI. However, some of Britain's leading retailers are campaigning for rates to be frozen, as the escalation of costs was preventing them from opening new stores and driving the economy. In a letter to the Financial Times, Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher, Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, and Andy Clarke, chief executive of Asda, called for the moratorium. Separately, the ONS said factory gate inflation rose to 2.5% – higher than analyst forecasts of 2.2%; while input prices dropped 1.2%, as the price of oil and imported metals came down. The ONS said house prices rose 1.8% on the year in August, down from a 2% increase in July.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From January Cubans will no longer need to obtain exit visas before travelling abroad, the government has announced The Cuban government has announced it will no longer require citizens to apply for an exit visa, eliminating a much-loathed bureaucratic procedure that has prevented many from travelling overseas. A notice published in Communist party newspaper Granma said Cubans would also no longer have to present a letter of invitation to travel abroad when the rule change took effect on 13 January. From that date islanders will only have to show their passport and a visa from the country to which they are travelling. "As part of the work under way to update the current migratory policy and adjust it to the conditions of the present and the foreseeable future, the Cuban government, in exercise of its sovereignty, has decided to eliminate the procedure of the exit visa for travel to the exterior," the notice said. The measure also extends to 24 months the amount of time Cubans can remain abroad, and they can request an extension when that runs out. Cubans currently lose residency and other rights after 11 months. However, the notice said Cuba planned to put limits on travel within unspecified sectors. Doctors, members of the military and others considered to hold valuable roles in society at present face restrictions on travel to combat a possible "brain drain". "The update to the migratory policy takes into account the right of the revolutionary state to defend itself from the interventionist plans of the US government and its allies," the notice said. "Therefore, measures will remain to preserve the human capital created by the revolution in the face of the theft of talent applied by the powerful."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former Bosnian Serb leader makes clear to war crimes tribunal he will blame Bosnian government for civilian deaths Radovan Karadžić, the former Bosnian Serb leader on trial for his alleged role in the siege of Sarajevo and the murder of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, has opened his defence claiming he should be praised as a "peacemaker". Karadžić, switching from Serbo-Croat to English and back, told The Hague war crimes tribunal: "Sarajevo is my city, and any story that we would shell Sarajevo without any reason is untrue." Outlining his case, the 67-year-old said he would be claiming – as other Serb officials have unsuccessfully tried to do – that the Bosnian government was the aggressor in the war, shelling and sniping at its own civilians. "Instead of being accused, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I have done. I did everything in human power to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians," Karadžić told the court. "I proclaimed numerous unilateral ceasefires and military containment. And I stopped our army many times when they were close to victory." He added: "Everybody who knows me knows I am not an autocrat, I am not aggressive, I am not intolerant. On the contrary, I am a mild man, a tolerant man with great capacity to understand others." Karadžić was arrested in 2008, after years in hiding, living in Belgrade in the guise of a new age health guru. His remarks drew shouts from watching Muslim survivors of the war accusing him of "lying". "It is difficult to even describe how I felt when I heard him saying this," Kada Hotic, a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre who lost 56 male family members, told Reuters after listening to his opening statement. "I lost so many family members only because they were Muslims in a territory that Karadžić desired to turn into exclusively Serb land. Is that peacemaking?" Karadžić, a former psychiatrist, is on trial over alleged war crimes committed during the Bosnian war from 1992-1995 in which more than 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced. Conducting his own defence, he added that Muslims had faked two shellings of the Markale (marketplace) in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a siege by Serb forces in which more than 100 people were killed. He described the shelling as being a "shameless orchestration", adding: "Obviously some people got killed by that explosion but we also saw mannequins being thrown onto trucks creating this show for the world." Karadžić made the claim despite a previous Hague trial, that of Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Galic, establishing that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for shelling. Fiddling occasionally with his glasses, Karadžić called as his first witness the former Russian liaison officer for the UN military mission's Sarajevo sector, Colonel Andrei Demurenko, who also provided a witness statement in the trial of Dragomir Milošević. Echoing the claims of previous Serb defendants, Demurenko suggested a conspiracy existed among western UN officials, foreign journalists, and the Bosnian government and its forces to portray Serb forces as the aggressors. At the centre of the first day's evidence was Demurenko's claim that the shelling of the Markale was a "terrorist act" staged by Bosnian forces as was a second a few days later. In his statement, the Russian claimed he had been told by a Bosnian liaison officer that an order had been given to kill him after giving a statement to the press contradicting the findings of two UN investigations that accused Serb forces of responsibility for the marketplace bombings. He added he did not recognise the picture of Sarajevo under siege by the Serbs presented by western media or military officials who he accused of spreading "rumours". Under cross-examination Demurenko was challenged that, in exonerating Serb forces from firing on the market, he had become confused by different scaling systems used by military investigators and visited the "wrong" firing locations. The court was reminded that the tribunal – in the Milošević case – had ruled that Demurenko's evidence was "vague and evasive" on the question of whether he had visited too narrow a selection of locations to dismiss the possibility of the mortars having been fired from an area held by Serb forces. Asked by the prosecution whether he accepted the previous chambers ruling, Demurenko said he had "too much respect for the court to challenge its ruling". He appeared to contradict himself on a number of occasions, saying at one stage his team had covered the entire slope of the mountain where the mortars could have been fired from and on another that he had only visited a small number of sites. He was also challenged that his evidence directly contradicted what he had told the previous trial.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former Bosnian Serb leader opens defence at The Hague saying he should be rewarded for 'the good things I have done' The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who is on trial over his role in some of the worst atrocities in Europe since the second world war, has begun his defence by saying that far from being accused, he should be praised for his efforts to promote peace. Karadzic is one of a trio of Serb leaders brought to trial in The Hague for war crimes during the violent break-up of Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1999, in which well over 100,000 people were killed and millions were displaced. Prosecutors at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia have accused him of responsibility for the shelling of Sarajevo when the Bosnian capital was under siege by Bosnian Serb forces from 1992 to 1996. He is also charged with being behind the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. "Instead of being accused, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I have done. I did everything in human power to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians," he told the court. "I proclaimed numerous unilateral ceasefires and military containment. And I stopped our army many times when they were close to victory." Karadzic, 67, is defending himself against charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and will cross-examine witnesses himself. Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic went on trial this year, and former Yugoslav and Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 before the end of his trial.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former Bosnian Serb leader conducts own defence at war crimes tribunal in The Hague and makes clear he will try to blame Bosnian government for civilian deaths Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader on trial for his alleged role in the siege of Sarajevo and the murder of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, opened his defence claiming he should be praised as a "peacemaker." Wearing a grey suit and a blue-striped tie, Karadzic, switching from Serbo-Croat to English and back, told The Hague war crimes tribunal: "Sarajevo is my city, and any story that we would shell Sarajevo without any reason is untrue." Outlining his case as he called his first witness, the 67-year-old made clear he would be claiming – as other Serb officials have unsuccessfully tried to do before him – that the Bosnian government were the aggressors in the war, shelling and sniping at their own civilians. "Instead of being accused, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I have done. I did everything in human power to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians," he told the court at the start of his defence. "I proclaimed numerous unilateral ceasefires and military containment. And I stopped our army many times when they were close to victory." Karadzic, a former psychiatrist, is on trial over alleged war crimes committed during the Bosnian war from 1992-1995 in which well over 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced. Conducting his own defence, he added that Muslims had faked two shellings of a marketplace in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, during a siege by Serb forces in which more than 100 people were killed. He was finally arrested in 2008, after years spent in hiding, living in Belgrade in the guise of a new age health guru. Fiddling occasionally with his rimless glasses, Karadzic called as his first witness the former Russian chief of staff of the UN military mission's Sarajevo sector Colonel Andrei Demorenko who also provided a witness statement in a previous trial. Echoing the claims of previous Serb defendants, Demorenko suggested a conspiracy existed among western UN officials, foreign journalists and the Bosnian government and its forces to demonise Serb forces and paint them as the aggressors. At the centre of the first day's evidence offered by the defence was Karadzic and Demorenko's claim that the shelling of the Markale maketplace in February 1994, in which 68 people were killed and 144 were injured, was orchestrated by Bosnian forces as was a second attack a few days later. They made the claim despite a previous tribunal, of Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Galic, which established that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the shelling. In his statement Demorenko claimed that a Bosnian liaison officer threatened he would kill him when he gave a statement to the press contradicting the findings of two UN investigations that accused Serb forces of responsibility for the marketplace bombings. He added he did not recognise the picture of Sarajevo under siege by the Serbs presented by the western media and military officials whom he accused of spreading "rumours".
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former Bosnian Serb leader makes clear to war crimes tribunal he will blame Bosnian government for civilian deaths Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader on trial for his alleged role in the siege of Sarajevo and the murder of 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, has opened his defence claiming he should be praised as a "peacemaker". Wearing a grey suit and a blue, striped tie, Karadzic, switching from Serbo-Croat to English and back, told The Hague war crimes tribunal: "Sarajevo is my city, and any story that we would shell Sarajevo without any reason is untrue." Outlining his case, the 67-year-old made clear he would be claiming – as other Serb officials have unsuccessfully tried to do before him – that the Bosnian government was the aggressor in the war, shelling and sniping at its own civilians. "Instead of being accused, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I have done. I did everything in human power to avoid the war. I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians," he told the court at the start of his defence. "I proclaimed numerous unilateral ceasefires and military containment. And I stopped our army many times when they were close to victory." The former psychiatrist is on trial for alleged war crimes committed during the Bosnian war from 1992-1995 in which more than 100,000 people were killed and millions displaced. Conducting his own defence, he said Muslims had faked two shellings of a marketplace in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, during a siege by Serb forces in which more than 100 people were killed. After years spent in hiding, Karadzic was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade, where he was living in the guise of a new-age health guru. Fiddling occasionally with his rimless glasses, Karadzic called as his first witness the former Russian chief of staff of the UN military mission's Sarajevo sector, Colonel Andrei Demorenko, who also provided a witness statement in a previous trial. Echoing the claims of previous Serb defendants, Demorenko suggested a conspiracy existed among western UN officials, foreign journalists and the Bosnian government and its forces to demonise Serb forces and paint them as the aggressors. At the centre of the first day's evidence offered by the defence was Karadzic and Demorenko's claim that the shelling of the Markale marketplace in February 1994, in which 68 people were killed and 144 were injured, was orchestrated by Bosnian forces, as was a second attack a few days later. They made the claim despite a previous tribunal, of Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Galic, establishing that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the shelling. In his statement Demorenko claimed that a Bosnian liaison officer threatened he would kill him when he gave a statement to the press contradicting the findings of two UN investigations that accused Serb forces of responsibility for the marketplace bombings. He said he did not recognise the picture of Sarajevo under siege by the Serbs presented by the western media and military officials whom he accused of spreading "rumours".
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Plunging car sales show European plight is worsening as Spain continues to hold off asking for financial help
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the US state department says it is concerned that Gulf-supplied weapons are reaching the wrong hands and urges Syria's neighbours to keep a vigilant watch on their airspace
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Plunging European car sales show European financial crisis is deepening, as Spain continues to hold off asking for financial help
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Woman claimed her father was Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman of the Sinaloa cartel after she was stopped at US border The daughter of one of the world's most sought-after drug lords has been charged with trying to enter the US on someone else's passport, American officials said on Monday. Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar, 31, was arrested on Friday at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing and charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. US officials said she told authorities her father was Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. A woman under that name was charged on Monday in federal court in San Diego. A spokeswoman for the US attorney's office said she could not confirm the woman charged was Guzman's daughter. Guzman Salazar hired Jan Ronis, whose previous clients include Benjamin Arellano Felix, the fallen leader of the eponymous Mexican drug cartel. Ronis said he was just learning about the case and declined to comment on the charges. The complaint said Guzman Salazar attempted to enter the country on foot, presenting a non-immigrant visa contained in a Mexican passport. She told authorities she was pregnant and intended to go to Los Angeles to give birth. The significance of the arrest will depend on what Guzman Salazar can tell authorities about her father. David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute, said: "We don't know exactly what she knows. It may just be an interesting factoid in the war on drugs or it could be a vital clue for law enforcement … This is the kind of random development that could potentially shift the tides." The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Guzman's wife – former beauty queen Emma Coronel – travelled to Southern California and gave birth to twin girls at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. The newspaper said Coronel, then 22, holds US citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the US and to use its hospitals. "You kind of surmise that there's some family connection back to southern California," Eric Olson, associate director of the Wilson Centre's Mexico Institute said of this week's development. The arrest and investigation of Guzman Salazar were handled by US Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the nation's largest border crossing in San Diego. A bail hearing was scheduled for 25 October. Authorities in the US and Mexico have said they believe Guzman has children with several partners, though it is not clear how many. The US treasury department has put sanctions on sons Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" Guzman Salazar, 31, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 22. Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 26, was indicted with his father on multiple drug trafficking charges in an Illinois court in August 2009.
 | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire