|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Report says News Corp has made approaches about buying LA Times and its Chicago stablemate from Tribune Company Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is looking to bid for the Los Angeles Times, the paper has reported, adding Murdoch is also interested in buying its stablemate the Chicago Tribune from their parent company, the Tribune Company. The Times said senior News sources confirmed executives had approached the two investment firms and a bank that hold Tribune's debt – the lenders will become its majority owners once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, possibly within months according to the LA Times. The paper said a deal might require a waiver of federal laws that block ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same market. Murdoch's Fox network has stations in Los Angeles in Chicago. Tribune also has interests in television stations, some of which carry programming from News Corp's TV channels or operate as Fox affiliates. A bid for the LA Times alone could be worth as much as US$400m, the paper said. On Friday, News Corp announced Roger Ailes will remain in charge of the Fox News Channel for the next four years. The news ended a protracted period of speculation about his contract negotiations. The deal means Ailes will remain in control of Fox for the next presidential election season in 2016 and through the 20-year anniversary of Fox News, which Ailes has run since it was set up in 1996. The terms of the new contract were not released. Ailes is already one of the highest-paid executives in television; he has received a base salary of $5m and a bonus of $1.5m a year for the past several years, as well as millions in additional compensation based on the financial performance of Fox News, according to public filings by News Corp. In the fiscal year that ended in June, Ailes received $9m, paid in cash rather than stock, as a reward for Fox's record earnings, and $4m in stock awards tied to the performance of Fox Business which he also runs. His total compensation for the fiscal year was $21m, making him the third highest paid executive at New Corp behind Murdoch, who made $30m, and Chase Carey, the chief operating officer, who made nearly $25m.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | San Francisco Giants beat St Louis Cardinals 5-0 to take NLCS back to the west coast for Game Six on Sunday The San Francisco Giants had a surprise for the St Louis Cardinals in NLCS Game Five: Barry Zito. Facing elimination from the playoffs, the Giants starter pitched 7 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, with six strikeouts to help San Francisco to a 5-0 victory. The Cardinals still lead the series 3-2 but must now clinch it in San Francisco. Game Six will be on Sunday at 7pm ET. Zito, the pitcher with an impressive contract but slightly less impressive statistics, also contributed to the Giants' offense, with an RBI bunt in the decisive fourth inning. San Francisco scored four runs in the top of the fourth and forced Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn out of the game. Pablo Sandoval had two hits, two runs and an RBI for the Giants. The Cardinals outhit the Giants 7-6 but failed to make them count. Box score
As it happened
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Barry Zito throws 7 2/3rds scoreless innings for the San Francisco Giants against the St Louis Cardinals, forcing a NLCS Game 6
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong says 'I've been better, but I've also been worse' at Livestrong 15th anniversary event in Texas Lance Armstrong said he has been through a "difficult couple of weeks" and urged supporters of his cancer-fighting charity to stand behind its mission. "The mission is bigger than me. It's bigger than any individual," Armstrong said on Friday in his opening remarks at Livestrong's 15th anniversary celebration. Armstrong has been turned into an outcast in professional cycling and most of his personal sponsors dropped him this week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report detailing performance-enhancing drug use by the seven-time Tour de France winner. USADA has ordered him banned from cycling for life and stripped of his Tour de France victories. Armstrong, who denies doping, didn't address the USADA report or the doping charges in his remarks. Instead, he focused on the mission of the foundation he started in 1997. Armstrong was diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. "I am ... truly humbled by your support," Armstrong said after receiving a standing ovation from the crowd of 1,700. "It's been an interesting couple of weeks. It's been a difficult couple of weeks for me and my family, my friends and this foundation." Armstrong said he's been asked many times how he is doing. "I say, 'I've been better, but I've also been worse,'" said Armstrong, making his first public appearance since the USADA report was released last week. On Monday, the International Cycling Union is expected to announce whether it will appeal USADA's sanctions. The celebration gala came two days after Armstrong stepped down as chairman of Livestrong to help shield the charity from the fallout of the controversy swirling around him. He remains on the board of directors.
Armstrong urged the crowd to continue fighting to help cancer patients and survivors. "There's 28 million people around the world living with this disease," Armstrong said. "Thank you for your support." Livestrong officials expected to raise $2.5 million from the event, which included appearances by actors Sean Penn and Robin Williams and singer Norah Jones. Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999-2005 and his success on the bike helped propel the foundation into one of the most popular and well-known charities in the country. Livestrong has raised about $500 million in the fight against cancer. In 2004, the foundation introduced the yellow "Livestrong" bracelets, selling more than 80 million and creating a global symbol for cancer awareness and survival. The silent auction included two Trek bicycles valued up to $12,000 Trek was one of the companies that dropped Armstrong as a sponsor on Wednesday and seven autographed yellow jerseys Armstrong wore on the podium during his Tour de France victories. Gerry Goldstein, a criminal defense attorney and friend of Armstrong for several years, criticized USADA's investigation and sanctions of Armstrong. Drug testers never caught Armstrong when he was competing, Goldstein said. "I'm a big fan of what he has done. Overcoming cancer and doing what he did, who gives a (expletive) about anything else? That's so much more important as a role model and a human being," Goldstein said. "Quit whining about it." Kansas City Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who donated a pair of cleats to the silent auction, said he wants to continue supporting Livestrong. "Some things have a left a little scar, but people think it's still important to come out and support Livestrong," Guthrie said. The charity has worked hard to separate its mission of fighting cancer from Armstrong's troubles, said Doug Ulman, Livestrong president and chief executive. Although Armstrong lost many of his personal sponsorship contracts, Nike, Anheuser-Busch and others who said they were terminating their contracts or would not renew them because of the doping evidence, said they would keep supporting Livestrong. "We're proud of our history and we're excited to celebrate. We've heard from so many grass-roots supporters, program partners, corporate partners and a lot of them are doubling down, saying they are going to come back even stronger in 2013," Ulman said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong says 'I've been better, but I've also been worse' at Livestrong 15th anniversary event in Texas Lance Armstrong said he has been through a "difficult couple of weeks" and urged supporters of his cancer-fighting charity to stand behind its mission. "The mission is bigger than me. It's bigger than any individual," Armstrong said on Friday in his opening remarks at Livestrong's 15th anniversary celebration. Armstrong has been turned into an outcast in professional cycling and most of his personal sponsors dropped him this week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report detailing performance-enhancing drug use by the seven-time Tour de France winner. USADA has ordered him banned from cycling for life and stripped of his Tour de France victories. Armstrong, who denies doping, didn't address the USADA report or the doping charges in his remarks. Instead, he focused on the mission of the foundation he started in 1997. Armstrong was diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. "I am ... truly humbled by your support," Armstrong said after receiving a standing ovation from the crowd of 1,700. "It's been an interesting couple of weeks. It's been a difficult couple of weeks for me and my family, my friends and this foundation." Armstrong said he's been asked many times how he is doing. "I say, 'I've been better, but I've also been worse,'" said Armstrong, making his first public appearance since the USADA report was released last week. On Monday, the International Cycling Union is expected to announce whether it will appeal USADA's sanctions. The celebration gala came two days after Armstrong stepped down as chairman of Livestrong to help shield the charity from the fallout of the controversy swirling around him. He remains on the board of directors.
Armstrong urged the crowd to continue fighting to help cancer patients and survivors. "There's 28 million people around the world living with this disease," Armstrong said. "Thank you for your support." Livestrong officials expected to raise $2.5 million from the event, which included appearances by actors Sean Penn and Robin Williams and singer Norah Jones. Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999-2005 and his success on the bike helped propel the foundation into one of the most popular and well-known charities in the country. Livestrong has raised about $500 million in the fight against cancer. In 2004, the foundation introduced the yellow "Livestrong" bracelets, selling more than 80 million and creating a global symbol for cancer awareness and survival. The silent auction included two Trek bicycles valued up to $12,000 Trek was one of the companies that dropped Armstrong as a sponsor on Wednesday and seven autographed yellow jerseys Armstrong wore on the podium during his Tour de France victories. Gerry Goldstein, a criminal defense attorney and friend of Armstrong for several years, criticized USADA's investigation and sanctions of Armstrong. Drug testers never caught Armstrong when he was competing, Goldstein said. "I'm a big fan of what he has done. Overcoming cancer and doing what he did, who gives a (expletive) about anything else? That's so much more important as a role model and a human being," Goldstein said. "Quit whining about it." Kansas City Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who donated a pair of cleats to the silent auction, said he wants to continue supporting Livestrong. "Some things have a left a little scar, but people think it's still important to come out and support Livestrong," Guthrie said. The charity has worked hard to separate its mission of fighting cancer from Armstrong's troubles, said Doug Ulman, Livestrong president and chief executive. Although Armstrong lost many of his personal sponsorship contracts, Nike, Anheuser-Busch and others who said they were terminating their contracts or would not renew them because of the doping evidence, said they would keep supporting Livestrong. "We're proud of our history and we're excited to celebrate. We've heard from so many grass-roots supporters, program partners, corporate partners and a lot of them are doubling down, saying they are going to come back even stronger in 2013," Ulman said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: San Francisco Giants visit St Louis Cardinals in NLCS Game 5
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Creator of the infamously 'fair and balanced' network signs a new contract that will keep him at the helm until 2016 Roger Ailes has signed a new contract with Fox News which will keep him in charge of the channel for the next four years, News Corp announced on Friday. As part of the deal, Ailes will also run Fox Business Network, Fox television stations and 20th Century Television. The 72-year-old helped launch Fox News in 1996 and has been at the helm ever since. News Corporation confirmed the deal in a statement on Friday afternoon. News Corporation today announced that Roger Ailes has signed a new four-year contract to continue serving as Chairman and CEO of Fox News and Chairman of Fox Television Stations. Mr. Ailes, who first joined News Corporation in 1996, will continue to oversee Fox News, Fox Television Stations (FTS), Fox Business Network (FBN), Twentieth Television and MyNetwork TV. He will also continue in his role as a senior advisor to Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch on television and news matters.
Ailes's lucrative contract – his base salary is said to be $5m – had been due to expire next summer. "It's election season, and the most powerful man in America just ensured himself of four more years in office," wrote Forbes – "a joke, but not by much". The New York Times said the notion Ailes might retire next year has "intrigued many media observers". In October 2011 he said he had not decided whether to stay, although hinted that he may be amenable to a new offer when talking about his robust health: "If I still feel like this and somebody offers me a job in June of '13, I may just take it."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Howard Schultz says Starbucks is not making money in Britain and that he would be happy to co-operate with any tax inquiry Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz has defended his company's UK tax payments and said he would be happy to co-operate with any official investigation of the British unit's finances. Speaking on Friday at the opening of the first Starbucks branch in India, Schultz denied shifting profits out of the UK unit into tax havens. "We don't pay income tax because we are not making money there," he told Reuters. Starbucks has been the target of criticism in the UK this week after Reuters reported its British unit had paid no corporate income tax in the past three years despite notching up sales of £1.2bn. The report found the company had consistently told investors the UK unit was performing strongly over recent years. George Mudie MP, who chairs a committee of MPs that scrutinises HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), said he would like to have executives from Starbucks answer questions to the committee. Several MPs have said HMRC should investigate the company's affairs. "We will absolutely comply with any government inquiry with transparency and respect," Schultz said. Starbucks has rung up total sales of £3bn in the UK since opening its first store in 1998, but has recorded a loss for every year since it started trading in Britain, despite US management claiming it had been a "profitable" marketplace. Bosses at the company are thought to have been in contact with HM Revenue and Customs to clarify its tax position. On Thursday, HMRC said a total of £32bn had been lost to tax avoidance in the past year, an increase of £1bn on 2010-11.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Marvel and DC featured high-profile plot lines this year, but many gay readers are wondering where the industry will go next The comic-book industry has earned billions over the years with variations on one very simple story: do-gooders helping the oppressed defend themselves. It's a tale that resonates strongly with the medium's fans – especially gay readers, who have often faced oppression in the real world and sought solace in superheroes. This year, finally, the industry embraced those readers as mainstream publishers offered prominent gay plot lines. Archie Comics' first gay character, Kevin Keller, was married in January; Marvel's X-man Northstar was married in May; and DC Comics reintroduced the Green Lantern as gay in June. "I think any large industry responds more slowly than the culture it feeds, so I think that the prevailing attitude in society are leading popular culture in that direction, towards acceptance, towards embracing all members of their community," said Jono Jarrett, the co-founder of Geeks Out, a group that celebrates the overlap between geek and LGBTQ culture. The perceived geekiness of comic book culture can be mark readers out as somehow odd - and for young gay people coming to terms with a sexual preference that goes against the mainstream, that can be yet another thing that identifies them as different. "We're trying to address the sense that if you are a gay geek, you are not doubly doomed, you are doubly awesome," Jarrett said. For older gay comic-book readers, the gay-centric comic-book plot lines of 2012 were an important step towards mainstream acceptance. "For 2012 in comics, it was really incredible, but it was also a beginning," Jarret said. "It wasn't: 'Oh thank you, now we're satisfied.' It was: 'Thank you, and 'at last' and 'now what?' And it's great, but this is still the beginning." Gay comic-book characters have been around for decades, but Archie Comics was the first mainstream book to put gay marriage in its pages – a surprising move for a series that evokes the bobby-socks-and-milkshake imagery of the 1950s. Jon Goldwater, the co-chief executive of Archie Comics, said that when he first came to the company, he held a meeting to ask the writers to come up with contemporary, out-of-the-box pitches that may not have been acceptable to the previous administration. Archie Comics writer Dan Parent then approached Goldwater with this pitch: a new character shows up in the all-American Riverdale, USA. Veronica, the comic's resident hottie, falls for but can't nab the new Riverdale resident – because he's not interested in women. "It was forward-thinking and it was funny and it was natural, and when Dan pitched it to me I said: 'You know what? We have to do it. We absolutely have to do it,'" said Goldwater. It was also important to Goldwater that Keller wasn't seen as a token character, but a natural part of Archie Comics' Riverdale, USA. "He's defined by being himself, by being smart, by being a good athlete," Goldwater said of Keller. "Just a kid who enjoys the high-school experience and just happens to be gay." Seven people unsubscribed from Archie after Keller was introduced, but thousands more signed up, Goldwater said. Months later, Archie Comics hosted the first gay marriage in mainstream comic books when Keller married his partner, Clay Walker, in the Life with Archie magazine that skews towards slightly older readers and follows the character's lives as adults. Marvel, inspired by the legalization of gay marriage in New York, followed shortly after with the marriage of Northstar to his partner, Kyle. Northstar was the first male hero to come out in the Marvel universe; he began his relationship with Kyle in 2009. Marvel editor Daniel Ketchum, who is gay, was involved with Northstar story since the two characters appeared together in 2009; he said the It Gets Better campaign had also influenced the writers to include a gay marriage storyline. "I think it was kind of a critical mass of gay discussion in mainstream media, so of course that seized into creators' heads and finds a way into their stories," Ketchum said. Marvel PR prepared the team behind Northstar's issue for waves of backlash, but Ketchum said he was overwhelmed by positive responses. The marriage was first announced on The View, and Ketchum said when he returned to his office a half-hour after the episode aired, the first of several emails filling his inbox was from a gay man who said he had wept at his desk when he heard the news. The man told Ketchum that comic books had helped him get through darker periods in his life and that it meant a lot to see a marriage in the Marvel universe because he and his partner were considering getting married. "For me, that one email made so much of the experience worth it, where anything anyone else does good or bad pales in comparison of knowing that this is what it's meant to do," Ketchum said. "It's meant to touch hearts and minds and resonate with real-life experience. At their best, I think that's what comic books do." Token characters disappearing after gay plotlinesThough the response was mostly positive, within the LGBTQ community there were still pangs of dissent when Northstar dropped out of the spotlight after his marriage. Then, when DC Comics announced that one of its main characters was coming out, it was seen as a token move following the success of the other publishers. DC publisher Dan Didio said writer James Robinson had a long-term plan for the character that didn't feel gratuitous. "We have a dedication to the diversity, and its not just to populate a world and forget about it, it's to make them important members of our cast and story," Didio said. DC reintroduced the Green Lantern as gay in June. Didio said that when the company's New 52 series was launched, it wanted to reflect the diversity of its audience in its books. There have been multiple Green Lanterns – Didio said it was a great place for the publisher to showcase diversity in a prominent role. DC has had gay characters before. In 2007, it revealed that Batwoman is a lesbian. "Our plan was to show her as a person, as a hero, and the fact that she was a lesbian was just an aspect of who she was, but not a defining aspect. Same thing with Alan Scott [the Green Lantern], same thing for these other characters," Didio said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | French interior minister says under former president access to citizenship had been 'hindered and restricted' The French government is scrapping plans to introduce citizenship tests ordered by Nicolas Sarkozy and will make it easier for foreigners living in the country to gain French nationality. Manuel Valls, the Spanish-born Socialist interior minister who at 20 became a citizen, said this week that France was a country of "welcome". But he complained that under the rightwing former president, access to citizenship had been "hindered and restricted" to reflect a nation which was "doubtful, viewed the world with suspicion and was tempted to close in on itself". Scrapping the test ordered by Sarkozy he said: "You don't become French by answering multiple choice questions." Earlier this year, he had likened the test to a TV gameshow. Topics for questions included the dates of building of the Eiffel tower and the chateaux of the Loire as well as: Was Edith Piaf a singer, cyclist or bird expert? And which of the following was never president? Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, François Mitterrand or Victor Hugo. The test was the brainchild of the former interior minister Claude Guéant who made citizenship requirements tougher last year – but it was never introduced after Sarkozy failed to get re-elected. Crucially, Valls will also scrap the requirement introduced by Sarkozy that each candidate for citizenship must have a permanent employment contract. Now, short-term contracts will also be accepted. The requirement for a high-level of French language, an understanding of the values of the Republic and to sign a citizenship charter remain. Other criteria include how long a person has been living in France. In 2010, around 120,000 foreigners were granted citizenship and French passports but that figure fell by 30% between 2010 and 2011. Valls said he wanted to reverse the trend. The French right criticised Valls's initiative. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, said French nationality "shouldn't be granted as if handing out metro tickets, like it has been for years". About 80,000 people a year take the UK citizenship test, introduced by Labour in 2005 as an essential part of applying to settle in the UK and acquiring a British passport.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President to ready himself for foreign policy debate, with Mitt Romney expected to ask tough questions over Benghazi attack Barack Obama is scheduled to fly to the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington later for three days of seclusion to prepare for the third and final debate with Mitt Romney on Monday as polls suggest the race remains too close to call. Obama and Romney swapped jokes at a charity event in New York on Thursday night but there will be few jokes on Monday at the debate in Boca Raton, Florida, an encounter devoted to foreign affairs. The president had enjoyed high approval ratings in foreign affairs until recently, mainly as a result of the killing on his watch of Osama bin Laden. But the Republicans see the president as vulnerable over the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi that left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead. Obama's 2008 Republican presidential opponent John McCain took the president to task yesterday/Friday, over his choice of words during an interview on Jon Stewart's Daily Show on Thursday night in which he oddly referred to the deaths as "not optimal". "The optimal line, of course, is very regrettable and makes me a little sad," McCain told Fox. Obama used the description in response to a question from Stewart, who was the first to use the word "optimal". Stewart said: "I would say, and even you would admit, it was not the optimal response." Obama replied: "Here is what I will say: when four Americans get killed, it's not optimal." Romney fumbled a question about Libya in their second debate on Tuesday in New York, but will get a chance on Monday to redeem himself. The Republicans are questioning why the Obama administration has offered conflicting accounts of what happened at the consulate, by first blaming it on a demonstration by people allegedly upset over a US-made anti-Muslim film and later on al-Qaida affiliates. McCain said it had been obvious to him soon afterwards that it was more than just a demonstration. "You really don't have to be a CIA analyst or a station chief to know an attack with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, and which lasted for eight hours, is not a spontaneous demonstration," he said, adding that the responses of the administration amounted either to a cover-up or gross incompetence. Another layer of intrigue was added to the story yesterday when the Associated Press reported that the CIA station chief in Libya told Washington within 24 hours of the attack that there was evidence it was carried out by militants. However, it was unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. Both Obama and Romney spent Friday campaigning before heading for their respective debate preparation camps, with Romney basing himself in Boca Raton. Obama went to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the second time in a fortnight he has spoken on campus in the crucial swing state, where students and the youth vote as the key to his winning. He ridiculed Romney for what he claimed were repeated policy switches, saying the Republican candidate had forgotten his previous positions – a condition he labelled 'Romnesia'. As well as Libya, Obama and Romney are set to argue over Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Obama administration officials have hinted that Obama, in his second term, with no election to be fought, would be braver in tackling the Israeli-Palestinian issue, which, like Tony Blair, he views as a source of friction in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world. On Iran and Syria, Romney and Obama are not particularly far apart in terms of policy, despite Romney sounding more bellicose than Obama on both issues. New polls taken after Tuesday's debate, which both conservatives and Democrats gave to Obama on points, showed Obama ahead in Iowa, which has long been a swing state, and Wisconsin, which had been listed as an Obama hold but had recently been moved to a toss-up. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll put Obama on 51% and Romney on 45% in Wisconsin and 51% to 43% in Iowa. Most polls suggest the two are in a dead heat nationally. Gallup, in contrast with most of the rest, has Romney with a big lead nationally, on 52% to 45%. But Public Policy Polling has Obama on 48% to Romney's 47% and Rasmussen has the two tied at 48%.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as a bomb kills security chief in Beirut and Lakhdar Brahimi takes his plan for an Eid truce in Syria to Damascus
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rivals travel to Florida and Virginia after poking fun at themselves and each other during Al Smith charity dinner. Follow the day's politics news here
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Leaders returned to the negotiating table today after a marathon session that dragged into the early hours of the morning, and which saw a compromise deal on banking supervision
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The 67th annual Alfred E Smith dinner made good on its promise of a moment of fun in a season full of frowns Into the Waldorf they waddled, two by two, elected officials and the most recognizable faces in news. The grandees were seated on the stage – ABC's daytime star Katie Couric behind New York state governor Andrew Cuomo; MSNBC's attack dog Chris Matthews within fork-stabbing distance of governor Mitt Romney. The president sat next to the podium, smile fixed. Next to him was a large man with a small red cap. By the time they finished talking, the 67th annual Alfred E Smith dinner had made good on its promise of a moment of fun in a season of frowns. "It's nice to finally relax and wear what Ann and I wear around the house," Romney began, succeeding at the forbidding task of the tuxedo joke. His 10-minute speech was frequently interrupted by the whole room laughing. "We were chatting pleasantly this evening as if Tuesday never happened," Romney said of President Obama and their most recent feisty debate. "I was actually hoping that the president would bring Joe Biden along this evening, because he'll laugh at anything." The president got off to an even better start: "Everyone please take your seats," he said. "Otherwise Clint Eastwood will yell at them." "In less than three weeks, voters in states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida will decide this incredibly important election," Obama continued. "Which begs the question, 'What are we doing here?'" It was a crowd-killer, solecism notwithstanding. The lines of the night? From the president: "Of course the economy's on everybody's minds. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since I took office. [Pause.] I don't have a joke here. I just thought it would be useful to remind everybody that the unemployment rate is at its lowest level since I took office." From the president, on his name: Ultimately though tonight's not about the disagreements Governor Romney and I may have. It's what we have in common, beginning with our unusual middle names. Actually Mitt is his middle name. I wish I could use my middle name.
From the president, on Paul Ryan's marathon:
I have to admit it can be a grind. Sometimes it feels like this race has dragged on forever. But Paul Ryan assured me that we have only been running for two hours and 50-something minutes.
From Romney, on his opponent: Of course we're down to the final months of the president's term. As president Obama surveys the Waldorf banquet room, with everyone in white tie and finery, you have to wonder what he's thinking: 'So little time. So much to redistribute.
From Romney, on the secret to his debate prep: First, refrain from alcohol for 65 years before the debate.
Mitt Romney's full speechBarack Obama's full speech
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Leaders returned to the negotiating table today after a marathon session that dragged into the early hours of the morning, and which saw a compromise deal on banking supervision
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Car reportedly packed with 30kg of TNT explodes in Christian district, the deadliest attack in Lebanon's capital for years As many as eight people have been killed and more than 78 injured after a rush-hour car bomb tore through a middle-class, largely Christian district of Beirut in the deadliest attack in the Lebanese capital for years. The motive behind the bombing was not immediately clear. The blast damaged buildings in a six-block radius and was audible across a large part of the city, sending up a pall of black smoke above the skyline. In the blast's immediate aftermath the Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence officials released conflicting totals for the number killed. The bomb, which struck a city that has become increasingly tense owing to the frictions of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, hit the affluent Achrafieh district. According to Lebanese army examinations, quoted by the Lebanese Daily Star, the car was rigged with 30kg of TNT, with the sheer force of the explosion throwing the vehicle's engine into the air. Nearby buildings were also heavily damaged. As the scale of the bombing became clear, local hospitals appealed for blood donors. Emergency workers ferried the scores of injured to hospital, in some cases by motorbike. The blast occurred during rush hour, when many parents were picking up children from school. It was in the same street as the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange party, near Sassine Square. The Phalange leader, Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and a member of parliament, condemned the attack. "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006. The Bemo bank, which is part owned by the Assad regime, was also damaged. Some Christian politicians were quick to blame the Damascus regime for the blast, saying the Achrafieh district, rather than any specific building, was the target. The possibility that the bombing is related to the fallout from Syria comes amid rising tension in Lebanon. Shia fighters with the Hezbollah group have been fighting on Assad's side, while Syrian rebels have used Lebanon to supply forces fighting the Syrian regime. The war in Syria has pitted mostly Sunni insurgents against Assad, who is from the Alawite sect linked to Shia Islam. Tension between Sunnis and Shias has been simmering in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war and have reignited amid the Syria conflict. Tensions peaked when Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, a Sunni, was killed in 2005. His supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him, a charge both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder. The group's political opponents, who have for months accused it of aiding Assad's forces, have warned that its involvement in Syria could reignite sectarian tension in Lebanon. The last bombing in Beirut occurred in 2008 when three people were killed in an explosion which damaged a US diplomatic car. However, fighting had broken out this year between pro- and anti-Assad factions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lebanese general who foiled pro-Syrian bombing campaign and led investigation into Hariri assassination reportedly the target Syria's bloody conflict appeared to spill over the border into Lebanon on Friday when one of the country's most senior intelligence officers was murdered in a car bomb attack that killed seven others and left scores injured in downtown Beirut. The bomb was detonated during rush hour in the middle-class Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh as many parents were picking up children from school. The target of the attack was Major General Wissam al-Hassan, head of the police intelligence unit and the prime mover behind the arrest in August of Michel Samaha, a pro-Syrian former information minister and Assad associate, alleged to be plotting a bombing campaign in Lebanon. The killing of such a senior figure so closely linked with the anti-Assad camp in Lebanon will fuel fears that violence from Assad's war in Syria is spreading to neighbouring states, including Lebanon and Turkey. Speculation was already rife that Syria, or its allies, were behind the attack in Beirut on Fridaydespite the quick condemnation by Damascus of the bombing. Confirming Hassan's death, a senior Lebanese intelligence official told Reuters: "I can just say that it is true, he is dead." News of his death in the blast was also reported by Lebanese media outlets quoting security sources. Hassan had also led the investigation that implicated Syria and its ally Hezbollah in the killing of the former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, a Lebanese official said. The Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the government was trying to find out who carried out the attack in Beirut and declared that those responsible would be punished. With Lebanon already dangerously destabilised by the war in Syria, the assassination of Hassan will heighten the threat of a return to sectarian violence. By Friday there were reports of sporadic clashes in largely Sunni areas and roads blocked by tyres amid growing fears of sectarian retaliation. The Shia militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Assad, has sent fighters to support Syrian government forces, a move fiercely opposed by other factions in the country. The attack was condemned by Saad Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister, whose father was killed by a similar car bomb. "The cowardly terrorist attack in Achrafieh today is an attack on all of Lebanon and all Lebanese," Hariri said in a statement. "This was a cowardly act aimed at destabilising Lebanon and its security," he added. He blamed Syria's president Bashar al-Assad for the blast. The explosion damaged buildings across a six-block radius and was audible across much of the city, sending up a pall of black smoke above the skyline. Describing the attack, an employee of a bank close to the explosion told Reuters: "Some people were wounded from my bank. The whole car jumped five floors into the air." Bloodied residents fled their homes while others tried to help the wounded. One little girl, apparently unconscious and bleeding from her head, was carried to an ambulance in the arms of rescue workers, her white trainers stained with blood. "I was standing nearby in Sassine Square and I heard a big explosion and I ran straight to it," resident Elie Khalil told the Associated Press. Michael Fish, 25, a British musician visiting Beirut, said he was in his hotel a street away when the explosion happened. "At first I thought it was an earthquake. It shook the whole hotel for a second." In the immediate aftermath of the blast, the Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence officials released conflicting totals for the number killed. Body parts were scattered at the scene, while emergency workers evacuated the injured, who included children, by motorbike. As the scale of the attack became clear, hospitals appealed for blood donors. The engine of the car carrying the bomb was thrown from the scene, while nearby buildings were heavily damaged in the street where the office of the Phalange, or Kataeb, party – an anti-Assad, Maronite Christian bloc – is located near Sassine Square. The Phalange leader, Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and member of parliament, condemned the attack. "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.Commenting on the risk of Lebanon now being drawn more deeply into the spreading Syrian conflict, Nabil Bou Monsef, a columnist at the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar, said: "They warned of the implications of the Syrian crisis and here it comes. Who did it and why nobody knows but what is certain is that it cannot be isolated from what is happening in Syria."The explosion shows that Lebanon cannot be safe and peaceful in the middle of this situation boiling around it."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | CIA station chief in Libya reported within 24 hours that there was evidence US consulate attack was not carried out by a mob The CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month's deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that there was evidence it had been carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad, US officials have said. It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was carried out by a mob similar to those that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US. Those statements have become highly charged political fodder as the presidential election approaches. A Republican-led House committee questioned state department officials for hours about what Republican lawmakers said was lax security at the consulate, given the growth of extremist Islamic militancy in North Africa. In their debate on Tuesday, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney argued over when Obama first said it was a terror attack. In his Rose Garden address the morning after the killings, Obama said: "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for." But Republicans say he was speaking generally and didn't specifically call the Benghazi attack a terror attack until weeks later, with the president and other key members of his administration referring at first to the anti-Muslim movie circulating on the internet as a precipitating event. Congressional intelligence committees are demanding documents to show what the spy agencies knew and when, before, during and after the attacks.
The White House now says the attack probably was carried out by an al Qaida-linked group, with no public demonstration beforehand. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed the "fog of war" for the early conflicting accounts. The officials who told the AP about the CIA cable spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to release such information publicly. Congressional aides say they expect to get the documents by the end of this week, to build a timeline of what the intelligence community knew and compare that with what the White House was telling the public about the attack. That could give Romney ammunition to use in his foreign-policy debate with Obama on Monday night. The two US officials said the CIA station chief in Libya compiled intelligence reports from eyewitnesses within 24 hours of the assault on the consulate that indicated militants had launched the violence, using the pretext of demonstrations against US facilities in Egypt against the film to cover their intent. The report from the station chief was written late Wednesday 12 September and reached intelligence agencies in Washington the next day, intelligence officials said. However, on Saturday of that week, briefing points sent by the CIA to Congress said "demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault". The briefing points, obtained by the AP, added that "there are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations" but did not mention eyewitness accounts that blamed militants alone. Such raw intelligence reports by the CIA on the ground would normally be sent first to analysts at the headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for vetting and comparing against other intelligence derived from eavesdropping drones and satellite images. Only then would such intelligence generally be shared with the White House and later, Congress, a process that can take hours or days if the intelligence is coming only from one or two sources who may or may not be trusted. US intelligence officials say in this case the delay was due in part to the time it took to analyze various conflicting accounts. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the incident publicly, explained that "it was clear a group of people gathered that evening" in Benghazi, but that the early question was "whether extremists took over a crowd or they were the crowd". But that explanation has been met with concern in Congress. "The early sense from the intelligence community differs from what we are hearing now," Democratic representative Adam Schiff said. "It ended up being pretty far afield, so we want to figure out why... though we don't want to deter the intelligence community from sharing their best first impressions" after such events in the future. "The intelligence briefings we got a week to 10 days after were consistent with what the administration was saying," said William Thornberry, a Republican member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees. Thornberry would not confirm the existence of the early CIA report but voiced skepticism over how sure intelligence officials, including CIA director David Petraeus, seemed of their original account when they briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "How could they be so certain immediately after such events, I just don't know," he said. "That raises suspicions that there was political motivation." National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor declined comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Turkish foreign minister says countries must set aside differences over Syria to prevent humanitarian disaster Turkey has called on the US, Britain and other leading countries to take immediate action to intervene in Syria to prevent a looming humanitarian "disaster" that it says threatens the lives of millions of internally displaced people and refugees as winter approaches and could soon ignite a region-wide conflagration. Appealing to the major powers to set aside their differences over how to end the 20-month-old civil war in which an estimated 32,000 people have died, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said the crisis had gone on for long enough. The Syrian people were crying out for help and their pleas could no longer be ignored. "How long can this situation continue? I mean in Bosnia, now we have Ban Ki-moon [the UN secretary general] apologising 20 years after. Who will apologise for Syria in 20 years' time? How can we stay idle?" Davutoglu told the Guardian in an exclusive interview in Istanbul. "We [Turkey] are doing all we can to help these people, using all diplomatic capacity to stop this bloodshed. But there should be a much more concerted effort by the international community. The best way we can see now is direct humanitarian intervention." The call came as the UN's peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, travelled to Damascus for crucial talks with the regime due to be held on Saturday – the latest bid, after several failed international initiatives, to bring a halt to the killing. Brahimi is expected to propose a temporary truce, beginning on 26 October, the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, in the hope that it may lead to a permanent ceasefire. Predominantly Muslim Turkey, a leading Middle East power that is also a Nato member and long-time US ally, has been caught in the storm as the Syrian crisis has unfolded south of its shared 560-mile (900km) border. Opinion polls show most Turks are fearful of their country being sucked into the Syrian quagmire. More than 145,000 refugees have taken shelter in improvised camps or Turkish cities, fighters of the Free Syrian Army and their Gulf backers use Turkey as a base and covert weapons supply route, and fighting has spilled on to Turkish soil. Earlier this month, Syrian shelling killed five Turkish civilians in the town of Akçakale, triggering a week of cross-border artillery and mortar exchanges and fears of all-out war. Turkey also recently forced down an aircraft flying from Russia to Syria that it said was carrying military equipment. Turkey's earlier proposal to the UN to set up a border buffer zone, backed by a possible no-fly zone, was ignored by the US, Britain and other Nato members wary of involvement in another Middle East war. Russia and China oppose direct intervention. Now, clearly frustrated by the impasse and deeply concerned at the prospect of a spreading conflict, Turkey's leaders appear to be adopting a tougher line while appealing to the world's conscience. The Syrian regime's continuing use of air bombardment and heavy weapons against Syria's civilian population was propelling the country and the region towards a human catastrophe, Davutoglu said. A much more robust response was required from London, Washington and Paris. "If nothing is done, maybe in the next two months it [the number of refugees] will double to 200,000, even 400,000 … When the technology the regime was using was snipers, the refugees were coming in a few thousands. Now they are using artillery shells and tanks, the number increased rapidly," Davutoglu said. "We want the international community to find a solution to resolve this issue inside Syria. All means can be discussed. But there must be proper humanitarian access. We have 145,000 refugees in Turkey but there are millions of people, two million people inside Syria who are IDPs [internally displaced people]. Those that are lucky can come to Turkey. They are the lucky ones. "So there has to be humanitarian access, a humanitarian mission inside Syria, and the international community must be ready to protect it. This is the question, whether it is a buffer zone or humanitarian access – how these people are to be protected inside Syria. We are calling for an international humanitarian mission to go into Syria and be protected to stop the refugee flow. "The international community must make a decision. Humanitarian access must be guaranteed by any means that is acceptable. These people are human beings. The winter is approaching. How will they survive the winter?" Davutoglu stressed any new initiative must be backed by the UN security council. If it established a mechanism to guarantee international humanitarian assistance inside Syria, Turkey would support it and would allow its soil to be used as a base. But Turkey would not act alone or without UN authorisation, he said. Alluding to the Obama administration, which has been criticised by Republicans for a weak response, as well as to Britain and other countries, Davutoglu said: "We expect the leading powers of the international community to be more firm, more decisive and clear in their policy regarding oppression in Syria." Davutoglu said Turkey was not seeking military confrontation with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the international community must send a "stark warning", via the UN security council, that some of Damascus's actions constituted a "war crime", he said. Turkey wanted the immediate creation of a transitional government, leading to democratic elections. If Assad wanted to avoid facing war crimes charges in The Hague, he should stop killing his own people. While Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has called for Assad to step down, Davutoglu said it was ultimately a matter for the Syrian people. "It is not our business, it is for them to decide. But after such a criminal act, such oppression and aggression, more than 30,000 people have been killed, we don't know how many are lost, millions are IDPs, and maybe more than 500,000 are refugees, how can such a person [Assad] who is responsible for these statistics continue to run a country?" With Brahimi due in Damascus, Davutoglu said Turkey would support a meaningful peace process in Syria but its end objective must be a transfer of power. The biggest problem for any talks process was that Assad could not be trusted to keep his word, Davutoglu said. Turkey has suggested that Faruk al-Shara, Syria's vice-president, might lead any transition negotiations. This idea was predictably rejected by Damascus, and by its main regional ally, Iran. "We don't see a serious counterpart in Damascus for such talks who is powerful or strong enough to fulfil commitments … Last year myself personally and other senior state officials went to Damascus to convince the regime to halt the violence against civilians. But unfortunately they did not fulfil their promises. "What is the purpose of any dialogue if it legitimises the Syrian regime? If they are sincere, there are channels to have a dialogue, UN special envoy Brahimi and many other channels. If they come to us with a proposal to end the bloodshed and allow the people to decide their own future, then there will always be a channel." Davutoglu said he was hopeful that Russia, wary of another Libyan-style, regime-changing Nato operation, might be persuaded to soften its anti-interventionist stance, once the scale of the impending humanitarian crisis became clear. "I have contact with [Sergei] Lavrov [Russia's foreign minister]. They have their own approach especially after the Libyan experience, but even if there was a mistake or something wrong in Libya and I don't think that there was, why should Syrian people pay the price?" Asked about US concerns that hardline jihadi groups were hijacking Syria's uprising, Davutoglu said that possibility made a swift solution all the more urgent. "The presence of some groups on the ground should not be used as an excuse for not being active. Prolonging the crisis will create a much more critical environment concerning these groups. We must have a solution and act as soon as possible to avoid a power vacuum in Syria. "We must immediately establish a transitional government and let the Syrian people see a light at the end of the tunnel. At present they do not see light at the end of the tunnel. In the surrounding darkness, anyone can do anything."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Lakhdar Brahimi is expected in Damascus where he will lobby for a temporary truce for Eid al-Adha
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Taliban bullet grazed Pakistani girl's brain but doctors say she is writing, has memory and has expressed gratitude for support Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl flown to Britain for treatment after being shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan, has the potential to make "pretty much a full recovery", her doctors have said. She is able to stand with help and is writing notes, and although the bullet grazed her brain she has not shown "any deficit in terms of function", doctors at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham said. She was "not out of the woods but is doing very well", said Dr Dave Rosser, medical director of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust. Malala, whose age was given as 15 by the hospital, and not 14 as previously reported, was shot 10 days ago on her school bus after promoting the education of girls and criticising Taliban militants. Initially treated by neurosurgeons at a Pakistani military hospital before being flown to the UK on Monday, she awoke from a medically induced coma on Tuesday afternoon and reportedly asked: "Which country am I in?" The bullet, fired at point-blank range, struck just above the back of the left eye, went down through the side of her jaw, damaging the skull and the jaw joint on the left side, went through the neck and lodged in the tissues above the shoulder blade. Shock waves from the bullet shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and fragments were driven into the brain. "The bullet grazed the edge of her brain," Rosser said. "Certainly if you're talking a couple of inches more central, then it's almost certainly an unsurvivable injury." Doctors say she has memory but they have not talked to her about the shooting. "From a lot of work we have done with our military casualties we know that reminding people of traumatic events at this stage increases the potential for psychological problems later, so we wouldn't do that," Rosser said. He said Malala was aware of her surroundings, and though she couldn't talk because she had a tracheotomy tube, she had given permission for medical details to be revealed, and wanted to thank everyone for their support. She was still showing some signs of infection, related to the bullet track, but "she was standing with some help for the first time this morning. She is communicating very freely. She is writing. She has a tracheotomy tube because her airway was swollen by the passing of the bullet, so she is not able to talk, though we have no reason to believe she won't be able to talk once this tube is out, which may be in the next few days." The specialist doctors, who have expertise in treating soldiers with gunshot injuries flown back from Afghanistan, said it was a "fluid situation" and Malala had suffered "a very, very grave injury". She will need a couple of weeks to rehabilitate before her skull will need to be reconstructed and work may be carried out on her jaw. Rosser said it was too early to say whether there would be "any subtle intellectual or memory deficit down the line". But in terms of function, "she is able to understand, she has some memory, I am led to believe, she is able to stand, she's got motor control, she's able to write. It certainly would be over-optimistic to say that there is not going to be any further problems, but it is possible she will make a smooth recovery. It's impossible to tell." He said the hospital was trying to arrange for Malala to listen to her father, who remains in Pakistan, on the phone, though she would not be able to speak to him because of the tube. Hospital staff were communicating with her in Urdu, though it was clear she understood English. "She is keen that people share the details. She is also keen that I thank people for their support and their interest. She is obviously aware of the amount of support and interest this has generated around the world. She is keen to thank people for that," Rosser said. Malala was shot along with two classmates as they made their way home from school in north-west Pakistan, in what the foreign secretary, William Hague, described as a "barbaric attack".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nineteen people, including six children and seven women, killed in blast that hit a minibus on a road in northern Afghanistan An explosion from a roadside bomb tore into a minibus carrying people to a wedding in northern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving 19 dead and 16 wounded, authorities said. Spokesman Shir Jan Durani said the group was travelling to Dawlat Abad district, about 270 miles (450km) north-west of the capital, Kabul. District police commander Bismullah Muslimyar said six children and seven women were among those killed in the blast, which occurred at 6am local time. The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, strongly condemned the attack. "Planting a mine on a road used by civilians and the killing of innocent people represents hostility toward humanity," he said in a statement. Earlier this month, the UN security council expressed serious concern at the high number of civilian casualties in the war, especially among women and children. The Taliban and other militants are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths in the country. About 77% of the deaths between January and June can be attributed to insurgents, a UN report said. Insurgent-placed homemade bombs continue to be the deadliest weapon for civilians, accounting for 29% of all such deaths in the period, it said. Separately, six football fans died and 36 were injured on Friday when their bus collided with a fuel tanker on a narrow road about 240 miles north-west of the capital, provincial governor Mohammad Aleem Saaie said. The fans were travelling to Kabul for the final round of the country's football championships.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Lakhdar Brahimi is expected in Damascus where he will lobby for a temporary truce for Eid al-Adha
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 14,500 pages compiled between 1959 and 1985 detail actions to shield scoutmasters who allegedly molested children An array of US local authorities – police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and scout leaders among them – quietly shielded scoutmasters and others who allegedly molested children, according to a newly opened cache of confidential files compiled between 1959 and 1985. At the time, they justified their actions as necessary to protect the reputation and good works of the Boy Scouts of America. But, as detailed in 14,500 pages of secret "perversion files" released on Thursday by order of the Oregon supreme court, their manoeuvres protected suspected sexual predators while victims suffered in silence. The files document sex abuse allegations across the country, from a small town in the Adirondacks in New York state to downtown Los Angeles. At a news conference on Thursday, Portland lawyer Kelly Clark attacked the scouts organisation for its continuing attempts to keep the files secret. "You do not keep secrets hidden about dangers to children," said Clark, who in 2010 won a landmark lawsuit against the Boy Scouts on behalf of a plaintiff who was molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the 1980s. The files were shown to a jury in a 2010 Oregon civil suit that the scouts lost, and the Oregon supreme court ruled the files should be made public. After months of objections and redactions, they were released. The new files are a window on a much larger collection of documents the Boy Scouts of America began collecting soon after its founding in 1910. The files, kept at its headquarters in Texas, consist of memos from local and national executives, handwritten letters from victims and their parents, and newspaper clippings about legal cases. They contain details about proven molesters, but also unsubstantiated allegations. Many of the files released on Thursday have been written about before, but this is the first time the earliest ones have been put in the public domain. The 1959-85 files show that on many occasions the files succeeded in keeping paedophiles out of leadership positions – the reason they were collected in the first place. But in many instances – more than a third, according to the organisation's own count – police weren't told about the alleged abuse. And there is little mention in the files of concern for the welfare of scouts who were allegedly abused by their leaders. But there are numerous documents showing compassion for suspected abusers, who were often sent to psychiatrists or pastors to get help. One of the most startling revelations is the frequency with which attempts to protect scouts from alleged molesters collapsed at the local level, at times in collusion with community leaders. On the afternoon of 10 August 1965, a distraught Louisiana mother walked into the sheriff's office. A 31-year-old scoutmaster had raped one of her sons and molested two others, she said. Six days later, the scoutmaster sat down in the same station and confessed. But the decision was made not to pursue charges. "This subject and scouts [leaders] were not prosecuted," a Louisiana scouts executive wrote to national headquarters, "to save the name of Scouting." In a statement on Thursday, Boy Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said: "There is nothing more important than the safety of our scouts." Smith said there had been times when the organisation's responses to sex abuse allegations were "plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong" and it extended its "deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families". The Boy Scouts recently made public an internal review of the files and said it would look into past cases to see whether there were times when abusers should have been reported to police.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US presidential challengers take time off from campaigning to make fun of each other at a high-society dinner in New York Locked in a tense race with time running out, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney took time off to exchange light-hearted jabs and make fun of each other in a joint appearance at a high-profile charity dinner. Two days after a brutal debate in which they traded verbal blows and stalked each other on stage, Obama and Romney greeted each other warmly, dressed formally in white tie and tails. But the combativeness of the campaign trail was ever-present as they gave back-to-back speeches at the annual Al Smith memorial dinner. Romney, speaking first, said Obama must have had some thoughts as he looked out at the crowd of wealthy people at the dinner. "You have to wonder what he's thinking: so little time, so much to redistribute," he said. Obama, in turn, made fun of Romney's vast wealth. "Earlier I went shopping at some stores in midtown. I understand Governor Romney went shopping for some stores in midtown." The Al Smith dinner is a glittering affair at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel where New York's high society dined on poached lobster and rack of lamb and contributed $5m (£3m) for various children's charities. Obama and Romney sat separated only by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York who spoke at both the Republican and Democratic conventions in late August and early September. Obama made light of his much-criticised performance during his first debate with Romney. He said at the second debate, where he was judged the winner, he had been well-rested because of the "nice long nap I had at the first debate". Romney was similarly self-deprecating, noting the way he prepared for the debate was to "refrain from alcohol for 65 years". As a practising Mormon, the former Massachusetts governor is teetotal. Obama, who frequently credits himself with ordering the mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, noted that the last debate is about foreign policy. "Spoiler alert: we got Bin Laden!" he said. Romney taunted Obama on the high jobless rate, saying its recent small decline meant only one thing: "You're better off now than you were four weeks ago." Obama said he and Romney have some things in common, like their unusual middle names. Romney's is Mitt (Willard is his first name). "I wish I could use my middle name," said Obama, whose middle name is Hussein. Obama got in a jab at the Republicans' use of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood at the Republican convention. Eastwood was panned for talking to an empty chair on stage as if Obama was sitting in it. "Please take your seats," Obama told the crowd, "or else Clint Eastwood will yell at them." The tone of the evening was set with introductory remarks by Al Smith IV, who could not resist teasing Romney for saying at the debate that he sorted through "binders full of women" in trying to put together a diverse cabinet as governor of Massachusetts. "I want to say a special welcome to all of the accomplished women here tonight. It's good to see you made it out of those binders," Smith said to laughter. The dinner was first held in 1945 in tribute to Smith, a former Democratic New York governor who lost the 1928 presidential election to Republican Herbert Hoover in a landslide.
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