|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | German chancellor tells Irish taoiseach that Ireland is a 'special case', offering fresh hope of deal on its banking debts
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Latest poll has candidates tied on 47% ahead of Monday's final televised debate, which is dedicated to foreign policy Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will this week throw themselves into frantic, almost non-stop tours of the battlefield states that will help decide what is shaping up to be one of the most closely contested elections in recent US history. In a sign of the intensity of the campaign in the final fortnight, after Monday's third and final presidential debate, Obama is to travel to six swing states and his hometown, Chicago, in 48 hours. The president, who normally returns to Washington overnight, is to sleep aboard Air Force One to save time for campaigning and will also make election calls while the plane is in the air. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that after trailing Obama all year, Romney is now tied with him on 47% of the likely vote. The last WSJ/NBC poll, taken before the first presidential debate in which Romney dominated the president, had Obama ahead by 49% to 46%. One of Obama's chief advisers, David Axelrod, expressed scepticism about the polls when he appeared on NBC on Sunday, pointing to huge variations in findings. "I do think that this is going to be a very close race, and we've said that consistently," he said. "We feel good about where we are. We feel we're even or ahead in these battleground states." An election that had seemed listless is entering its last phase with re-energised Republicans finally believing that their candidate might make it to the White House and Democrats panicking at the thought that Obama might be slung out of office after a single term. Tens of thousands of volunteers, many of whom had been disinterested for much of the year, turned up at campaign offices over the weekend, conscious at last of what is at stake on 6 November. The two candidates go into Monday's debate in Boca Raton, Florida, with Romney having won with a knock-out in the first in Denver and Obama winning on points in the second in Hempstead, New York. The 90-minute Boca Raton debate will be devoted to foreign affairs. As president, with daily access to briefings on foreign affairs and security, Obama goes into the final debate as favourite, not least because it gives him another chance to remind voters that Osama bin Laden was killed on his watch. But Romney, after two botched attempts to force Obama onto the defensive over Libya, will try again over the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead. The US response to the stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme is almost certain to be debated. The New York Times reported on Sunday that the Obama administration had achieved a diplomatic breakthrough with an agreement in principle to one-to-one talks with Tehran after the election. The Iranian government has long argued for one-to-one negotiations rather than the international coalition of the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The White House denied there had been an agreement, but said it was open in principle to such negotations. In a sign of how engaged voters have become, an estimated 65.5 million people watched the second debate, one in which the figures normally drop off substantially. It was only marginally down on the first one, which was watched by 67 million people, and well up on 2008 viewing figures. Even amid the excitement then at the prospect of the first African-American president, the three debates averaged audiences of around 57 million. Obama spent the weekend in debate rehearsal at Camp David, while Romney held his last fundraising event at a donor's home in Palm Beach, Florida, freeing himself for debate preparation at a hotel in Boca Raton and the campaign sprints that will follow. With the debate over, Obama will on Wednesday embark on a two-day campaign blitz of six swing states: Iowa, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Virginia and Ohio. He will also drop into his hometown Chicago to cast his ballot early. "As the president crisscrosses the nation, he will spend time on Air Force One calling undecided voters, rallying national team leaders and volunteers and continuously engaging with Americans," his campaign said in a statement. Romney will head for two days of campaigning in Nevada, Colorado and Ohio on Tuesday. The Republican campaign has been underway since at least the Ames straw poll in Iowa in summer last year, a traditional early test for candidates seeking the party's nomination. The Republican nomination race produced lots of headlines, from allegations of sexual harassment by Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich's proposals for a colony on the moon, but the election failed to capture the public imagination in the same way as 2008. But Romney's victory in the Denver debate and the subsequent tightening in the polls has changed all that. Both campaigns having raised close to $1bn (£625m), meaning that the candidates go into the final fortnight with funds to saturate ad markets in every swing state. It is the costliest election in US history. An analysis by the Politico website suggested the Obama campaign had raised $969m in funding and the Romney campaign $919m. Both will be asking for more donations over the final two weeks. Filings by the Republicans over the weekend to the federal election commission, as required by law, showed Romney and the Republican party ending September with $183m in hand, compared with $149m for Obama and the Democrats. The Obama campaign spent heavily over the summer in a pre-emptive strike while Romney has been hoarding cash for a final ad blitz. As alarming for Democrats as the WSJ/NBC poll is one by Public Policy Polling in Ohio, the bastion on which Obama rests his hopes if the east coast swing states - Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and New Hampshire - fall to Romney. PPP has Obama on 49% and Romney on 48% in what is a predominantly working-class state in America's industrial heartland.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Australian prime minister's approval rating has increased according to the first public opinion survey following speech Julia Gillard's approval rating has risen significantly in the first public opinion survey since the Australian prime minister branded her conservative opponent Tony Abbott a sexist and misogynist.
The Herald/Nielson poll, carried out a week after Gillard's landmark speech to parliament, showed her personal standing amongst men and women improved by 5 points to 47%. It also showed her disapproval rating amongst men fell five points (three points with women) to 48%.
"That's a big jump," said John Stirton, director of polling at Nielsen, which carried out the survey. "When politicians get a boost, 5 or 6 points is usually as much as it ever is."
The poll showed 45% of women polled think Abbott is sexist, compared with 38% of men, averaging out to 42% of the population.
"It is reasonably substantial if 42% of the population thinks something," said Stirton.
Only 17% of those surveyed said they thought Gillard was sexist (women, 16%: men, 18%). It's the first time a Nielsen poll has asked a question about sexism.
The poll also showed the prime minister is now 10 points clear of Abbott in terms of preferred leader, but Labor would still lose an election by a margin of 52% to 48% (after preferences), if it were held now.
Stirton says the improvement in Gillard's standing is in line with a trend over the past four months. But, he said, while it's difficult to attribute all of it to a single issue "the speech certainly hasn't done the prime minister any harm and her numbers continue to rise."
More than 2m people have viewed the video of Gillard's speech in which she told Tony Abbott that if he wanted to know what a misogynist in modern Australia looked like he should look in a mirror. The prime minister also tore strips off Abbott for standing in front of signs outside parliament urging voters to "Ditch the witch" and others which described her as another man's "bitch".
"I was offended by those things. Misogyny, sexism, every day from this leader of the Opposition," Gillard said.
In the days that followed the speech, Abbott accused Gillard of playing the gender card and of having double standards on sexism after she refused to sack the (now former) parliamentary speaker, Peter Slipper, for sending vulgar text messages.
Much of Australia's mainstream media criticised Gillard's speech as a political disaster. By contrast, social media largely praised the prime minister, something more in line with the latest poll results.
Following the heated debate on sexism and misogyny Australia's most authoritative dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, broadened its definition of misogyny to include "entrenched prejudice against women" rather than "pathological hatred". It brought it in line with the complete Oxford dictionary, which changed its definition in 2002.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: St Louis Cardinals visit the San Francisco Giants for Game 6 of the NLCS
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Suspect found dead at Azana Day Spa in Brookfield, near Milwaukee – the scene of earlier shooting A man police suspected of killing three people and wounding four others by opening fire at a tranquil day spa was found dead on Sunday afternoon following a six-hour manhunt that locked down a shopping centre, country club and hospital in suburban Milwaukee. Authorities said they believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute. The man they identified as the suspect, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Wisconsin, had a restraining order against him. Brookfield police chief Dan Tushaus said Haughton died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was found in the spa. Authorities initially believed Haughton had fled and spent much of Sunday looking for him. The shooting happened at about 11am at the Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot (836-square-metre) building across from a major shopping mall in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee. Hours later, a bomb squad descended on the building, and police chief Dan Tushaus said an improvised explosive device had been found inside. The mall, a country club adjacent to the spa, a nearby hospital and other buildings were locked down as police searched for Haughton. Shortly before authorities said Haughton's body had been found, his father, Radcliffe Haughton Sr, said that he had last spoken to his son a few days ago, but didn't have any indication anything was wrong. He said then that he had a message for his son: "Please just turn yourself in or contact me." Tushaus said officers initially focused on reaching and helping the victims. The victims' names were not released by authorities, and a hospital treating the victims also was put on lockdown. Staff members were being escorted into the building, and critically injured patients were being accepted with a police escort. Officers were stationed at all main entrances to the facility. A sea of ambulances and police vehicles collected at the scene shortly after the shooting. A witness, David Gosh of nearby West Allis, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he was returning from duck hunting with his father and a friend when he saw a woman emerge from the spa, screaming, as she ran into traffic. The area is near an interstate highway and a busy commercial road. "She ran right out into the street and was pounding on cars," Gosh told the newspaper. He said that moments later, a man with a handgun ran out, and appeared to be chasing her, then went back inside. Police released little about Haughton other than a physical description and a photo. Online court records showed a temporary restraining order was issued against Haughton in Milwaukee county circuit court on 8 October because of a domestic abuse complaint. Haughton appeared in court on Thursday, when a no-contact order was issued and he was told to turn all his weapons over to the sheriff's department. It was not clear who sought the restraining order, but his father said he was married. It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself 5 August at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee. The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded in March 2005 when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police say three people have been killed after shooting at spa in Brookfield in suburban Milwaukee Police in Wisconsin searched on Sunday for a man suspected of killing three people and wounding four others in a shooting at a spa in suburban Milwaukee. Police identified the suspect as Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer, Wisconsin. Brookfield police chief Dan Tushaus said Haughton's car had been found, but he was still at large. The shooting happened about 11am at the Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot (836-square-metre) building across from a major shopping mall in a middle- to upper-class community west of Milwaukee. An improved explosive device was found at the spa, and a bomb squad was investigating, Tushaus said. Spokesmen for the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said their agencies also had agents participating in the investigation. The mall, a country club adjacent to the spa, a nearby hospital and other buildings were locked down as police searched for Haughton, local media reported. Tushaus described the situation as "fluid and ongoing", saying officers were initially focused on reaching and helping the victims. Online court records showed a temporary restraining order was issued against Haughton in Milwaukee county circuit court on 8 October because of a domestic abuse complaint. It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself on 5 August at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee. The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded in March 2005 when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jordanian intelligence has arrested 11 men alleged to have planned bomb and mortar attacks on western diplomats, foreign nationals and shopping centres Jordanian security services have foiled a terrorist campaign aimed at western diplomats, foreign nationals and shopping centres, the state news agency has announced. Jordan's intelligence department has arrested 11 men who had allegedly been planning attacks for several months. The men are reported to have identified targets, carried out surveillance and begun recruiting suicide bombers. The Jordanian government said the men were all Jordanians inspired by the ideology of al-Qaida. Its investigators had watched the men as they developed their plans and tested home-made explosives after receiving instruction via Iraqi websites. In 2005, the Jordanian capital was hit by three suicide bombs which killed 60 people at three different hotels. Most of the dead were attending a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding. The bombings were ordered by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who was killed in 2006. The three bombers were Iraqi men. A fourth, the wife of one of the bombers, did not detonate her bomb and escaped before being caught by the police. The government said the men hoped to emulate the bombings which took place on the ninth of November. Speculation at the time suggested the bombers has chosen the date because of its link to the American notation of 11 September, 9/11. Government spokesman Sameeh Maaytah said all the suspects are all Jordanian and are in police custody. He said the men had brought in arms from Syria to use them in the alleged plot and had been assisted by al-Qaida operatives based in Iraq in manufacturing home-made explosives. Jordanian police also seized machine guns and ammunition along with basic material for the manufacture of explosives. Other seized items included computers, cameras and forged documents. The case has been transferred to the Jordanian prosecutor general of the state security court for investigation and further legal proceedings. The suspected terrorists planned to get more explosives and weapons from Syria before embarking on the attacks. They also posted their bomb-making methods on the internet for others to use. The Jordanian news agency Petra said the group planned to target diplomats in hotels and public areas followed by the bombing of two major shopping malls, going on to fire mortar shells at the entire neighbourhood of Abdoun, a wealthy district of Amman. Jordan has so far avoided serious turmoil since the invasion of Iraq and the Arab spring. Many Iraqi refugees moved to Amman but security forces prevented most violence from crossing the border. Jordanian forces have skirmished with Syrian forces on their joint border in recent months as more than 100,000 refugees have fled the fighting. Abdullah, the king of Jordan, is under pressure from his natural Bedouin supporters and Islamist and secular reformers to allow freer elections but he shows little sign of agreeing.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Shooting took place across from major mall in suburban Milwaukee as sheriff's department says suspect still at large Deputies searched Sunday for a shooter after multiple people were wounded when someone opened fire at a spa near a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall. Brookfield police told WTMJ-AM the shooting happened about 11am Sunday at a spa across the street from the Brookfield Square Mall. The mall and a country club adjacent to the spa were locked down, local media reported. Calls to police rang to the Waukesha County sheriff's department. A woman who answered the phone there said deputies were looking for an active shooter but did not provide any other information. Milwaukee FBI spokesman Leonard Peace said its special weapons team, hostage negotiators and others were helping with the response. But he declined to say how many FBI personnel were involved or provide details on what had happened. Robert Schmidt, spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it had 10 agents participating. Beth Strohbusch, a spokeswoman for Froedtert Memorial Hospital, said four shooting victims were taken there, and three more were expected. She said none of the four already received were in critical condition. WISN-TV reported police were asking people in the mall's parking lot to clear out, because they had set up operations there. Tactical teams were on the scene, along with at least 20 fire, ambulance and police vehicles. A medical helicopter was on the ground. The shooting took place at Azana Day Spa, a two-story, 9,000-square-foot (836-square-metre) building across from the mall in a middle- to upper-class community west of Milwaukee. It was the second mass shooting in Wisconsin this year. Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and white supremacist, killed six people and injured three others before fatally shooting himself on 5 August at a Sikh temple south of Milwaukee. The shooting at the mall took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded on 12 March 2005, when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Shooting took place across from major mall in suburban Milwaukee as sheriff's department says suspect still at large Multiple people were wounded in a shooting near a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall on Sunday, and deputies were still looking for the gunman. Brookfield police told WTMJ-AM the shooting happened about 11am on Sunday at a spa across the street from the Brookfield Square Mall. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the mall was locked down. Calls to police from the Associated Press rang to the Waukesha County sheriff's department. A woman who answered the phone there said deputies were looking for an active shooter but did not provide any other information. Beth Strohbusch, a spokeswoman for Froedtert Memorial Hospital, said four shooting victims were taken there, and three more were expected. She said none of the four already received were in critical condition. WISN-TV reported police were asking people in the mall's parking lot to clear out, because they had set up operations there. Tactical teams were on the scene, along with at least 20 fire, ambulance and police vehicles. A medical helicopter was on the ground. The shooting took place less than a mile from where seven people were killed and four wounded on 12 March 2005, when a gunman opened fire at a Living Church of God service held at a hotel.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Latest poll has candidates tied on 47% ahead of Monday's final televised debate, which is dedicated to foreign policy Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will this week throw themselves into frantic, almost non-stop tours of the battlefield states that will help decide what is shaping up to be one of the most closely contested elections in recent US history. In a sign of the intensity of the campaign in the final fortnight, after Monday's third and final presidential debate, Obama is to travel to six swing states and his hometown, Chicago, in 48 hours. The president, who normally returns to Washington overnight, is to sleep aboard Air Force One to save time for campaigning and will also make election calls while the plane is in the air. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that after trailing Obama all year, Romney is now tied with him on 47% of the likely vote. The last WSJ/NBC poll, taken before the first presidential debate in which Romney dominated the president, had Obama ahead by 49% to 46%. One of Obama's chief advisers, David Axelrod, expressed scepticism about the polls when he appeared on NBC on Sunday, pointing to huge variations in findings. "I do think that this is going to be a very close race, and we've said that consistently," he said. "We feel good about where we are. We feel we're even or ahead in these battleground states." An election that had seemed listless is entering its last phase with re-energised Republicans finally believing that their candidate might make it to the White House and Democrats panicking at the thought that Obama might be slung out of office after a single term. Tens of thousands of volunteers, many of whom had been disinterested for much of the year, turned up at campaign offices over the weekend, conscious at last of what is at stake on 6 November. The two candidates go into Monday's debate in Boca Raton, Florida, with Romney having won with a knock-out in the first in Denver and Obama winning on points in the second in Hempstead, New York. The 90-minute Boca Raton debate will be devoted to foreign affairs. As president, with daily access to briefings on foreign affairs and security, Obama goes into the final debate as favourite, not least because it gives him another chance to remind voters that Osama bin Laden was killed on his watch. But Romney, after two botched attempts to force Obama onto the defensive over Libya, will try again over the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead. The US response to the stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme is almost certain to be debated. The New York Times reported on Sunday that the Obama administration had achieved a diplomatic breakthrough with an agreement in principle to one-to-one talks with Tehran after the election. The Iranian government has long argued for one-to-one negotiations rather than the international coalition of the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The White House denied there had been an agreement, but said it was open in principle to such negotations. In a sign of how engaged voters have become, an estimated 65.5 million people watched the second debate, one in which the figures normally drop off substantially. It was only marginally down on the first one, which was watched by 67 million people, and well up on 2008 viewing figures. Even amid the excitement then at the prospect of the first African-American president, the three debates averaged audiences of around 57 million. Obama spent the weekend in debate rehearsal at Camp David, while Romney held his last fundraising event at a donor's home in Palm Beach, Florida, freeing himself for debate preparation at a hotel in Boca Raton and the campaign sprints that will follow. With the debate over, Obama will on Wednesday embark on a two-day campaign blitz of six swing states: Iowa, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Virginia and Ohio. He will also drop into his hometown Chicago to cast his ballot early. "As the president crisscrosses the nation, he will spend time on Air Force One calling undecided voters, rallying national team leaders and volunteers and continuously engaging with Americans," his campaign said in a statement. Romney will head for two days of campaigning in Nevada, Colorado and Ohio on Tuesday. The Republican campaign has been underway since at least the Ames straw poll in Iowa in summer last year, a traditional early test for candidates seeking the party's nomination. The Republican nomination race produced lots of headlines, from allegations of sexual harassment by Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich's proposals for a colony on the moon, but the election failed to capture the public imagination in the same way as 2008. But Romney's victory in the Denver debate and the subsequent tightening in the polls has changed all that. Both campaigns having raised close to $1bn (£625m), meaning that the candidates go into the final fortnight with funds to saturate ad markets in every swing state. It is the costliest election in US history. An analysis by the Politico website suggested the Obama campaign had raised $969m in funding and the Romney campaign $919m. Both will be asking for more donations over the final two weeks. Filings by the Republicans over the weekend to the federal election commission, as required by law, showed Romney and the Republican party ending September with $183m in hand, compared with $149m for Obama and the Democrats. The Obama campaign spent heavily over the summer in a pre-emptive strike while Romney has been hoarding cash for a final ad blitz. As alarming for Democrats as the WSJ/NBC poll is one by Public Policy Polling in Ohio, the bastion on which Obama rests his hopes if the east coast swing states - Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and New Hampshire - fall to Romney. PPP has Obama on 49% and Romney on 48% in what is a predominantly working-class state in America's industrial heartland.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President tells mourners in Beirut he has ordered rapid investigation into murder of General Wissam al-Hassan The Lebanese president, Michel Sleiman, told mourners at the funeral of a senior intelligence official murdered on Friday in a car bombing that he had ordered a rapid investigation into the killing. He called for further examination of a series of destabilising plots that many Lebanese suspect are linked to the Syrian government. Within an hour of the funeral in central Beirut on Sunday, protesters drawn mostly from General Wissam al-Hassan's Sunni Muslim community began attacking security forces and attempted to storm the office of the prime minister, Najib Mikati, before rubber bullets and teargas forced them back from the barricades. Hassan was Lebanon's top police intelligence official and a key investigator into the murder of the former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, and into an alleged plot to kill members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition. Sleiman said: "I see that this institution is being punished by the assassination of its chief, the martyr major general, as the intelligence bureau has managed under his leadership to unveil networks of espionage and terrorism." Lebanon has faced increasing tensions between supporters of the rebellion in neighbouring Syria, where mostly Sunni Muslim rebels are attempting to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and Shia supporters of the militant group Hezbollah, Assad's ally. Lebanese Sunnis already blame Hezbollah for Hariri's murder as well as for an armed takeover of west Beirut in 2008 that left scores dead in street battles. Mikati has announced he will step down as soon as a cabinet of national unity can be formed, but protesters were still furious at the leader they consider to be in league with the Syrians. "Come on boys, let's force the dog Mikati from his house," shouted one young man in Arabic as he waved the blue flag of Hariri's Future Movement party. Police fired teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd, which returned fire with bottles, broken pieces of wood and, at one point, a large metal barricade. As it became clear that the police lines could not hold, a unit of army commandos arrived and made a cordon of their own. After several bottles and sticks hit their ranks, soldiers began rushing into the melee until policemen pushed between the army and protesters and calmed the situation. Senior politicians and military and security top brass turned out at the Internal Security Force headquarters for the funeral, which was broadcast live on national television. Hassan's wife and two sons listened as he was eulogised by the head of police, Ashraf Rifi, and by Sleiman. Church bells rang as police officers carried the flag-draped coffins of Hassan and his bodyguard to the mosque on Martyrs' Square. Muslim prayers were broadcast by loudspeaker from the mosque. "We blame Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria," said Assmaa Diab, 14, from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, Hassan's home town. She was in the square with her sister and father. "He is responsible for everything – in the past, now, and if we don't stand up to him, in the future," she added. In Damascus on Sunday, a taxi rigged with explosives blew up near a police station, killing at least 13 people, while the UN peace envoy was visiting the Syrian capital. Syria's state news agency, Sana, said 29 people were wounded in the blast in the Bab Touma neighbourhood, a popular shopping district largely inhabited by Syria's Christian minority.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: RG III makes his New York debut as Eli Manning and the New York Giants host the Washington Redskins
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The 86-year-old retired leader reportedly 'looked very good' in five-hour meeting with former Venezuelan vice-president Former Venezuelan vice-president Elias Jaua said Sunday that he met with aging revolutionary icon Fidel Castro for five hours and showed the Associated Press photos of the encounter, quashing persistent rumours that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke. Jaua also confirmed that the 86-year-old retired Cuban president personally accompanied him to the Hotel Nacional after their meeting Saturday, in which they talked about politics, history, culture and tourism. "He had the courtesy of bringing me to the hotel," Jaua said Sunday, adding that Castro looked "very well". Jaua showed a photograph of himself seated in a minibus along with the former Cuban leader, Castro's wife, Dalia Soto del Valle, a hotel executive and several other people. The photo shows Jaua and Castro smiling broadly, and the former Cuban leader is wearing a checked shirt and cowboy hat. The public appearance was Castro's first in months. A top Hotel Nacional executive told the AP earlier Sunday how Castro had dropped off the Venezuelan guest, then stayed on to chat with hotel staff. "Fidel Castro was here yesterday, he brought a guest and spoke to workers and hotel leaders for 30 minutes," commercial director Yamila Fuster said. Fuster was not present, but hotel director Antonio Martinez is seated next to Castro in the photo shown by Jaua. Castro's health has been the subject of intense speculation for years, but the rumors gained force in recent days after he failed to publicly congratulate Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a top ally, on his 7 October electoral victory. The former Cuban leader has not appeared since March, when he was shown greeting visiting Pope Benedict XVI, and he has also ceased writing his once-constant opinion pieces, the last of which appeared in June. Twitter and other social media sites have been abuzz with claims of Castro's demise. Late last week, a Venezuelan doctor purported to have information that Castro had suffered a stroke, but the same doctor has previously claimed knowledge that turned out to be false. Sunday's news from the Hotel Nacional appeared to be Cuba's attempt to hit back against what it says are false and malicious rumors. A letter attributed to Castro was published Thursday by Cuban state media. In it, he congratulated graduates of a medical school on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Two close family members of Castro have also recently denied he is in grave condition. Juanita Castro, the former leader's sister, told the AP in Miami that reports of her brother's condition are "pure rumours" and "absurd". Son Alex Castro told a reporter for a weekly Cuban newspaper that his father "is well, going about his daily life". Castro stepped down in 2006 following a severe illness, handing power to his brother Raul.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: RG III makes his New York debut as Eli Manning and the New York Giants host the Washington Redskins
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | NFL: Eli Manning hit Victor Cruz with a 77-yard touchdown pass to secure a comeback victory for the New York Giants over the Washington Redskins
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Protesters at funeral of General Wissam al-Hassan demand resignation of Lebanese government The funeral for a top Lebanese security official has turned violent as protesters demanding the resignation of the government poured out into the streets around central Beirut amid teargas, rock throwing and the occasional burst of gunfire by security forces. Lebanon's political opposition had called upon protesters to use the funeral of General Wissam al-Hassan, who died in a car bomb assassination on Friday afternoon in central Beirut, as an opportunity to protest at the current government's perceived support for the Syrian regime. After a number of speeches by opposition politicians that directly accused Syria of murdering Hassan for investigating a series of violent plots and assassinations against opposition members, protesters turned their fury on the nearby office of the prime minister, Najib Mikati. Mikati tendered his resignation to the president, Michel Sleiman, on Saturday but agreed to stay in office until a national unity government could be formed. As protesters tried to scale a series of fences and barbed wire emplacements surrounding the building, security forces resorted to teargas and some sporadic gunfire to protect the government building. Soldiers had earlier carried two flag-draped coffins carrying Hassan and his bodyguard through Martyrs' Square, which was packed with thousands of Lebanese mourners. "We came for Lebanon's future to show that we will not be scared," said Arama Fakhouri, an interior designer from Beirut in the cheering crowd. Many people were shouting that Hassan was a martyr who was struck down while trying to protect Lebanon. Hassan, 47, was a powerful opponent of Syria in Lebanon. He headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of the former information minister Michel Samaha, a Lebanese politician who was one of Syria's most loyal allies in Lebanon. He was among eight people killed in the attack on Friday. "He was killed while he was defending his country," said Samer al-Hirri, who travelled from northern Lebanon to attend the funeral. Before the burial, there was a memorial ceremony attended by government officials and Hassan's wife, Anna, his two sons, Majd and Mazen, and his parents. Even before Friday's bombing, the civil war in neighbouring Syria had set off violence in Lebanon and deepened tensions between supporters and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The attack heightened fears that Lebanon could easily plunge back into cycles of sectarian violence and reprisal that have haunted it for decades. France's foreign minister said it was likely that Assad's government had a hand in the assassination. Laurent Fabius told Europe1 radio that while it was not fully clear who was behind the attack, it was "probable" that Syria played a role. "Everything suggests that it's an extension of the Syrian tragedy," he said. Dozens of anti-Syrian protesters erected eight tents near the cabinet headquarters in central Beirut, saying they would stay until Mikati's government, which is dominated by the Shia militant group Hezbollah and its allies, resigned. Hezbollah is Syria's most powerful ally in Lebanon, which for much of the past 30 years has lived under Syrian military and political domination. "The Syrian regime started a war against us and we will fight this battle until the end," said a protester, Anthony Labaki, a 24-year-old physiotherapist who is a member of the rightwing Phalange party. Syria's hold on Lebanon began to slip in 2005, when the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, an opponent of Syria, was assassinated in truck bomb along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront. Syria denied any role. But broad public outrage in Lebanon expressed in massive street protests forced Damascus to withdraw its tens of thousands of troops from the country. For years after the pullouts, there was a string of attacks on anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon without any trials for those responsible. Assad has managed to maintain his influence in Lebanon through Hezbollah and other allies. Samaha, the former minister arrested in Hassan's investigation, remains in custody. He is accused of plotting a wave of attacks in Lebanon at Syria's behest. The Syrian Brigadier General Ali Mamlouk, one of Assad's most senior aides, was indicted in absentia in the August sweep that saw Samaha arrested. Samaha's arrest was an embarrassing blow to Syria, which has long acted with impunity in Lebanon. The car bombing struck Beirut's mainly Christian Achrafieh district and also wounded dozens of people, including children. Security was tight around Martyrs' Square on Sunday, as police officers and soldiers cordoned off the square, searching people trying to enter and barring vehicles. Giant posters of Hassan were set up around Beirut before the funeral, calling him a "martyr of sovereignty and independence". On Saturday, Mikati linked the bombing to the Samaha case. "I don't want to prejudge the investigation, but in fact we cannot separate yesterday's crime from the revelation of the explosions that could have happened," he said. Many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Shia Muslims have tended to back Assad. Assad, like many who dominate his regime, is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Hassan was a Sunni who challenged Syria and Hezbollah.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Microsoft brings out Surface tablet with no-expenses-spared launch, while Apple prefers minimal PR strategy It's the tale of two touchscreens this week as Microsoft and Apple go head-to-head launching their latest tablet devices. Microsoft has pulled out all the stops to convince the world that Surface is the small tablet to beat, with a no-expenses-spared New York event on Thursday. Apple, a notoriously secretive company, prefers a bafflingly minimal PR strategy that would utterly fail for any other organisation you could think of. Dedicated rumour sites hum with speculation for months beforehand, encouraging Apple evangelists to soap themselves into a frenzy of excitement. This is a busy sector of the tablet market, with Amazon's bestselling Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 powered by Google's Android software. Apple will have noticed this potential and, given its venomous competitiveness, will want to obliterate Google from the small tablet market. Microsoft needs a small miracle to reverse its fortunes. Surface is a bold product with some great touches, like the magnetic cover that turns into a keyboard and a minimal, Apple-like body. There's no camera and a focus on Office software, which indicates Microsoft is pitching this more as an executive toy, but there's also no 3G connection so buyers don't have the worry of an extra contract. The real delight is Metro, the impressive navigation interface, which is so beautifully designed it feels like a breath of fresh pixellated air, made up of zingy typography and brightly coloured navigation squares. Pre-orders for Surface sold out in the US over the weekend, so it would seem it has the tribe excited. Microsoft launched its first tablet in November 2002 – nearly eight years before the iPad – but the following years of swivel-screened, pen-tapping slates weren't exactly Microsoft's JK Rowling years. The incarnation as a touchscreen coffee table didn't speak to the mobile trend, either. Apple's late chief executive Steve Jobs wasn't shy about sticking the knife into the lumbering Microsoft beast; in a gleeful aside while launching the iPad 2 in 2011, Jobs claimed Apple had sold 15m iPads in the last nine months of 2010 – "more than every tablet PC ever sold". Surface is being launched alongside Windows 8, Microsoft's overdue operating system update, described as the biggest change in Windows history, replacing the familiar desktop with Metro's tiles. Disappointing quarterly results last week showed Microsoft is being hit hard by the move from PCs to mobile and tablets, so Windows 8 is built for the touchscreen world. An unprecedented marketing spend estimated at $1.8bn shows either confidence that Windows 8 will reinvent the Microsoft experience – or a desperate last investment to preserve the empire. Either way, Microsoft needs Windows 8 to hit the spot. As for the date clash, this is partly about grabbing the Christmas market, but it's not hard to imagine Apple wanting to steal some thunder from its old adversary. After all these years of hyperbolic product launches, the world's most valuable company ($571.67bn) is rather more porous than it might like. On Tuesday we can reliably expect something provisionally called the iPad Mini, roughly half the size of the current iPad with a 7.85 inch-diameter screen, 4G connectivity and a starting price of around £249. Before the new device is even announced, let alone on sale, analysts are predicting the iPad Mini could eat 15% of iPad sales. Look back exactly two years, and Steve Jobs appeared to dismiss smaller tablets: "The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad." Reading that now it sounds more like clever Jobsian code, making a case for a new product that doesn't compete with the iPhone or iPad. Dan Crow, the former senior engineering manager for Apple and project manager at Google, thinks it is a sign of Apple's maturity that it is pushing into more niche sectors of the market. For Microsoft, it's a diversification from larger touchscreen products that consumers have not warmed to. "Touchscreens have been tried on desktops for years, but as soon as the screen is vertically orientated your hands get tired … I don't see touch taking over traditional desktop computers, but the proportion of tablets and smartphones is going to keep growing, and tablets are eating into the laptop market." Where does Apple go from here? Crow thinks the company has peaked, and that the new, error-ridden maps tool was a mistake that wouldn't have happened under Jobs. "That's indicative of the sort of missteps that Steve was very good at stopping. They build up over time and erode people's confidence in the company. I think we may have seen the peak of Apple. We're past the golden era." Two days after the launch of the iPad Mini, and very probably a new MacBook, Apple's fourth quarter results will be released. After a gloomy week for Intel, Microsoft and Google shares, investors will be looking to Apple to lift the spirits and the finances of the tech sector. Last quarter, Apple admitted product rumours were disrupting sales, but this quarter should see the beginning of iPhone 5 takeup. Next quarter will be the big one, covering Christmas and watching that iPhone 5 roll flood in. It's worth remembering that Jobs's talent was not in predicting the future. It was in creating good products and then – master salesman – convincing everyone that this was the future. Microsoft had better hope it has its banter all worked out. Elsewhere in the technology triumvirate, Larry Page, Google's co-founder and chief executive lost his voice in June after an as-yet-unnamed throat condition. Last Thursday he had to find it again to explain why Google's downbeat quarterly financial results had leaked early and the company's market value had dropped by $20bn. He somehow found the words. Google will be hoping that its new Chromebook laptop and anticipation of the new Nexus 7 handset, likely to be unveiled on the 29th, creates a nice distraction. And maybe claws back a little of that $20bn.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After promising Muslims a new beginning in his Cairo speech, the president put the US squarely on the side of the Arab street On 4 June 2009 Barack Obama bounded on to the stage at Cairo University to deliver a speech which promised to seek "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world". It was, he said solemnly, a time of great tension. Speaking from a lectern set against a backdrop of plush red curtains, Obama sought to move beyond the toxic legacy of the 9/11 attacks, the US-led invasion of Iraq, the "war on terror" and the long and occasionally bloody impasse on the Palestinian issue. Expectations were enormous. Even at the time it was hard to imagine that this young African-American president with Muslim roots could meet them all. Still, Obama had opposed George Bush on Iraq and chided him for not doing enough to promote a just peace for the Palestinians – the two defining Middle Eastern issues of the preceding, turbulent years. The 55-minute speech was widely praised for its eloquence and ambition, but the reviews were mixed. For one commentator, the key was to get beyond the courtesies – mujamalat in Arabic – to the beef. Honeyed words were welcome, went a typical response. But would actions follow? Was Obama really any more than "a Bush in sheep's clothing"? Now, as the end of his term nears, the answer is clear: Obama was different from his predecessor. Yet his record is as varied as the responses to the Cairo address. An extraordinary chain of unforeseen events – a hazard for any leader – has created new circumstances and new dilemmas. On Palestine, always a touchstone for Arabs and Muslims, Obama has been a grave disappointment. Having strikingly called the situation of the Palestinians "intolerable", he blinked first in the confrontation with Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, over whether settlements in the occupied territories would have to stop before peace talks could resume. US domestic politics interceded. Hopes of a two-state solution to the world's most intractable conflict are now fading fast. From the start, Obama reached out to Iran with a friendly message to its people and hints at flexibility in negotiations with its government. But his efforts to engage have failed, leading only to tougher sanctions and a covert war. Unless long-running diplomacy starts to work, a potentially catastrophic confrontation over its nuclear programme still looms. US troops have now left Iraq, but the country is racked by sectarianism and is not a reliable friend, its post-Saddam leaders in thrall to Tehran. On another post-9/11 front, US forces are beginning to wind down the war in Afghanistan. Obama has, though, escalated drone strikes against al-Qaida from Pakistan to Yemen. The killing of Osama bin Laden in his Abbotabad hideout was a national security triumph. Yet the dangers of jihadi violence, spreading to areas such as Somalia and the Maghreb, live on. The Guantánamo Bay detention centre, which Obama pledged to close, remains open – a stain on his record. In Cairo, Obama touched on the broad issue of political change in a sclerotic Arab world whose rulers sold themselves as guarantors of stability and western interests. That required an especially delicate balance. Watching as he spoke was Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, a US ally for whom democracy was a dirty word. And Obama had spent the previous night at the desert ranch of the octogenarian King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the indispensable guardian of cheap western oil supplies. America, the president said, with a humble nod to these ageing Arab autocrats – and in a lightly coded reference to Bush's controversial "freedom agenda" – did "not presume to know what is best for everyone". But there was a bigger nod: "I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose." Eighteen months later, the uprisings of the Arab spring tested that awkward construct. From the short and mostly peaceful revolution in Tunisia to carnage in Syria, Obama's responses have, as one admirer put it, mixed "pragmatism and values". Egypt's revolution provided the first hurdle. Obama was criticised for backing stability as the drama of Tahrir Square unfolded. But on 1 February came his call for Mubarak to step down "now". As the New York Times wrote: "Obama upended three decades of American relations with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, putting the weight of the United States squarely on the side of the Arab street." So when Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who succeeded Mubarak to become Egypt's first democratically elected president, visited Washington last month – after demonstrations in Cairo and far beyond over a crude Islamophobic film — the tension was as obvious as the change was palpable. The US hope is that engagement, combined with the responsibility of exercising power, will encourage Islamist-led governments toward pragmatism. Libya's revolution illustrated Obama's ambivalent attitude to force and his reluctance to get involved in another war in a Muslim country. Washington "led from behind," providing air power and intelligence but leaving it to Nato's European powers and their Arab allies to help overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. The brutal aftermath – in which jihadis killed the US ambassador in Benghazi – painfully underlined the dangers. Syria, the bloodiest front of the Arab spring, has been the biggest challenge. Obama demanded Bashar al-Assad's departure but resisted pressures to arm the opposition or impose a no-fly zone. Now anxiety is growing about the rise of jihadi-type groups and the "blowback" on the Gulf and the wider region. Obama has defended his record of supporting democratisation despite chaos and crises. "It was absolutely the right thing for us to do to align ourselves with democracy, universal rights, a notion that people have to be able to participate in their own governance," he said on 60 Minutes in September. Critics say that in trying to balance US national security with the promotion of democratic values and human rights, Obama has ducked hard choices. Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution characterises this stance as "aggressive hedging," which has alienated both regimes and their opponents. "Autocrats, particularly in the Gulf, think Obama naively supports Arab revolutionaries, while Arab protesters and revolutionaries seem to think the opposite," Hamid said. In Bahrain, on the sectarian divide between the Sunni and Shia worlds, home to the US fifth fleet and a key link in western defences against Iran, strategy and a Saudi veto trumped universal rights. Israel's close links with the US and worries about Iran have acted as a brake: a new tolerance of Islamists does not extend to the armed "resistance" movements – Lebanon's Hezbollah or Hamas in Palestine. "Obama has successfully moved the US out of the ditch that George W Bush left the country in," Fawaz Gerges argued in a recent book. "But the test … will be whether or not he can realign US foreign policy with progressive and democratic voices in the region and translate his words into concrete policies." So to look back now to the uplifting rhetoric of June 2009 is to reflect on the gap between ambition and reality. Considering the choice between Obama and Romney, Arab political blog Awsaat offered only the weakest of support for the president who aroused such hopes when he spoke of that "new beginning" between America and Muslims. "Although many of us are feeling disappointed with Obama's first term," it said, "unfortunately we can choose between the bad we know or the worse we don't know."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attorneys for John Errol Ferguson contend the court is relying on an outdated definition of competency in death row case A federal judge has granted a stay of execution for a convicted mass killer in Florida who was due to be put to death on Tuesday despite being mentally ill. US district judge Daniel Hurley granted the motion for a stay in the case of John Errol Ferguson, who was to be executed Tuesday after 34 years on Florida's death row. "The issues raised merit full, reflective consideration," the court said. The court will hear three hours of arguments on Ferguson's habeas corpus petition on Friday, according to his attorneys. They contend that the Florida supreme court, in determining that Ferguson could be executed, relied on an outdated definition of competency that conflicts with a 2007 US supreme court ruling. Ferguson's attorneys maintain he is insane and that the constitution prohibits the state from executing him. "In order for the state to execute him, Mr Ferguson must have a rational understanding of the reason for, and effect of, his execution," said Chris Handman, an attorney for Ferguson, in an emailed statement. "A man who thinks he is the immortal Prince of God and who believes he is incarcerated because of a Communist plot quite clearly has no rational understanding of the effect of his looming execution and the reason for it." Attorneys for the state could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday evening. The 64-year-old Ferguson was convicted of killing eight people including six who died execution-style in 1977 in Carol City, which at the time was the worst mass slaying in Miami-Dade County history. He also was convicted of killing a teenage couple from Hialeah in 1978. Two accomplices in the drug-related Carol City killings, Beauford White and Marvin Francois, also were convicted of murder. Both were executed in the 1980s. The state supreme court this month upheld a lower court ruling based on testimony by a panel of psychiatrists appointed by governor Rick Scott that Ferguson is legally competent to be executed even though he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. The state justices wrote that "Ferguson understands what is taking place and why." Ferguson's lawyers contend an inmate's awareness of his execution as the state's rationale for putting him to death is not enough. They argue the inmate must have a "rational understanding," a higher standard than mere awareness. The US supreme court set the rational understanding standard in a 2007 case, but the Florida justices noted that the opinion specified that it wasn't attempting to "set down a rule governing all competency determinations." Ferguson lacks rational understanding, his lawyers say, because he suffers from delusions that he's the "prince of God" and that God is preparing him to return to earth after his execution and save the United States from a communist plot. Attorneys for Ferguson had previously challenged the procedure that Scott used to deny Ferguson's clemency request, but the US supreme court declined to hear that appeal and rejected a stay, 7-1. Justice Stephen Breyer would have granted the stay. Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate. Ferguson's attorneys then filed the new appeal.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | South Dakota senator suffered one of the most crushing defeats in presidential election history against Richard Nixon in 1972 George McGovern, who argued fervently against the Vietnam war as a senator and suffered one of the most crushing defeats in presidential election history against Richard Nixon in 1972, has died aged 90. A family spokesman said McGovern died at 5.15am on Sunday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, surrounded by friends and relatives. "We are blessed to know that our father lived a long, successful and productive life advocating for the hungry, being a progressive voice for millions and fighting for peace," a family statement said. "He continued giving speeches, writing and advising all the way up to and past his 90th birthday, which he celebrated this summer." A decorated bomber pilot in the second world war, McGovern said he learned to hate war by waging it. In his disastrous race against Nixon, he promised to end the conflict in Vietnam and cut defence spending by billions of dollars. He helped create the Food for Peace programme and spent much of his career believing the United States should be more accommodating to the former Soviet Union. Never a showman, he made his case with a style as plain as the prairies where he grew up, often sounding more like the Methodist minister he'd once studied to be than a longtime US senator and three-time candidate for president. McGovern never shied from the word "liberal", even as other Democrats blanched at the label and Republicans used it as an epithet. "I am a liberal and always have been," McGovern said in 2001. "Just not the wild-eyed character the Republicans made me out to be." Americans voting for president in 1972 were aware of the Watergate break-in, but the most damaging details of Nixon's involvement would not emerge until after election day. McGovern tried to make a campaign issue out of the bungled attempt to wiretap the offices of the Democratic national committee, and he called Nixon the most corrupt president in history, but the issue could not eclipse the embarrassing missteps of his own campaign. McGovern chose Thomas Eagleton as vice-presidential nominee but 18 days later, after the disclosure that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy for depression, decided to drop him from the ticket despite having pledged to back him "1,000%". It was the most memorable and the most damaging line of his campaign, and was said by one political writer to have been "possibly the most single damaging faux pas ever made by a presidential candidate". He went on to carry only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, winning 38% of the popular vote. "Tom and I ran into a little snag back in 1972 that in the light of my much advanced wisdom today, I think was vastly exaggerated," McGovern said at an event with Eagleton in 2005. Noting that Nixon and his running mate, Spiro Agnew, would both ultimately resign, he joked, "If we had run in 74 instead of 72, it would have been a piece of cake." McGovern's campaign left a lasting imprint on US politics. Determined not to make the same mistake, presidential nominees have since interviewed and intensely investigated their choices for vice-president. Defeated by Nixon, McGovern returned to the Senate and pressed to end the Vietnam war while championing agriculture, anti-hunger and food stamp programmes in the US and food programmes abroad. He won re-election as South Dakota senator in 1974 but was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in the 1980 Republican landslide that made Ronald Reagan president. McGovern went on to teach and lecture at universities, and founded a liberal political action committee. He made a longshot bid in the 1984 presidential race with calls to end US military involvement in Lebanon and Central America and to open arms talks with the Soviets. The former vice-president Walter Mondale won the Democratic nomination and went on to lose to President Ronald Reagan by an even bigger margin in electoral votes than had McGovern to Nixon. After his career in office ended, McGovern served as US ambassador to the Rome-based United Nations food agencies from 1998 to 2001 and spent his later years working to feed needy children around the world. He and the former Republican senator Bob Dole collaborated to create an international food for education and child nutrition program, for which they shared the 2008 world food prize. "I want to live long enough to see all of the 300 million school-age kids around the world who are not being fed be given a good nutritional lunch every day," McGovern said in 2006. McGovern's wife, Eleanor, died in 2007 aged 85; they had been married 64 years, and had four daughters and a son. "I don't know what kind of president I would have been, but Eleanor would have been a great first lady," he said after his wife's death. One of their daughters, Teresa, was found dead in a snowdrift in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994 after battling alcoholism for years. He recounted her struggle in his 1996 book Terry, and described the writing of it as "the most painful undertaking in my life". It was briefly a bestseller and he used the proceeds to help set up a treatment centre for victims of alcoholism and mental illness in Madison.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Anti-terrorism body announces deaths days after Vladimir Putin led meeting of country's security council Russian security forces have killed 49 militants in an operation across the North Caucasus region, where rebels are fighting to carve out an Islamic state, Russia's top anti-terrorism body has said. The agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for law enforcement agencies operating in the region, gave no time period for the operation, which was launched days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, led a meeting of the country's security council. Putin has pushed the North Caucasus insurgency, rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya, back to the forefront of national politics. He has told security forces to ensure that militants do not launch attacks on the 2014 Winter Olympics and other high-profile events planned in Russia. "A series of co-ordinated measures allowed for the suppression of the activity of a number of notorious leaders, members of bandit groups and associates and allowed for a significant disruption of the bandits' supply system," Interfax quoted an agency statement as saying. Operations, which can often take place in residential areas in the patchwork of regions that make up the North Caucasus, can last between a few hours and a number of weeks with the involvement of local police and special forces. The Caucasus Emirate, which leads the insurgency, has vowed to attack the Olympic Games to be held in Sochi, west of the predominantly Muslim region where it wages nearly daily violence against local authorities and law enforcement officers. The anti-terrorism agency said nine local leaders were among those killed and 30 militants had been detained. It said 90 militant bases had been destroyed along with 26 weapons caches. Putin has promised to hunt down Russia's most wanted man, the self-styled Amir of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russia's top anti-terrorism agency announces deaths days after Vladimir Putin led meeting of country's security council Russian security forces have killed 49 militants in an operation across the North Caucasus region, where rebels are fighting to carve out an Islamic state, Russia's top anti-terrorism body has said. The agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for law enforcement agencies operating in the region, gave no time period for the operation, which was launched days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, led a meeting of the country's security council. Putin has pushed the North Caucasus insurgency, rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya, back to the forefront of national politics. He has told security forces to ensure that militants do not launch attacks on the 2014 Winter Olympics and other high-profile events planned in Russia. "A series of co-ordinated measures allowed for the suppression of the activity of a number of notorious leaders, members of bandit groups and associates, and allowed for a significant disruption of the bandits' supply system," Interfax quoted an agency statement as saying. Operations, which can often take place in residential areas in the patchwork of regions that make up the North Caucasus, can last between a few hours and a number of weeks with the involvement of local police and special forces. The Caucasus Emirate, which leads the insurgency, has vowed to attack the Olympic Games to be held in Sochi, west of the predominantly Muslim region where it wages nearly daily violence against local authorities and law enforcement officers. The anti-terrorism agency said nine local leaders were among those killed and 30 militants had been detained. It said 90 militant bases had been destroyed along with 26 weapons caches. Putin has promised to hunt down Russia's most wanted man, the self-styled Amir of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Car explosion in Syrian capital's Bab Touma district during visit by UN peace envoy leaves 10 dead and dozens injured A powerful explosion has hit Damascus, killing 10 people on a day when the UN peace envoy was visiting the Syrian capital for talks with President Bashar al-Assad on the crisis. An official speaking from the scene said an explosives-rigged taxi blew up 50 metres from the Bab Touma districts's main police station. He and another official said 17 had been wounded. Both insisted on anonymity because they are not allowed to make press statements. Bab Touma, a popular attraction for shoppers, is inhabited mostly by members of Syria's Christian minority. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 10 had died and dozens were wounded, adding that it was not immediately clear if the victims and the wounded were civilians or policemen. Blood stains were reported on streets, several shop windows in the area were shattered and at least four cars were completely burned. Islamist militant groups fighting alongside the rebels have sometimes claimed responsibility for bomb attacks against security targets in the capital, but none were confirmed. In another party of the city, Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the UN and the Arab League, met with Assad as part of his push for a ceasefire between rebels and government forces during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins on 26 October. Brahimi told reporters following a closed-door meeting that he had earlier met with unidentified Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country to consult on his truce plan. He said he received "promises" but not a "commitment" from them to honour the ceasefire. "There is a promise to stop fighting," he said, referring to the opposition. He noted that he "found an overwhelming response" from Assad's opponents to his ceasefire plan and that "all of them have said that it's a good idea which they support". He declined to reveal Assad's response to his plan, viewed as a preliminary step toward a larger deal. "We are hopeful that the Eid in Syria will be calm if not happy," he said, adding that he will return to Syria after the holiday. "If we find that this calm is actually achieved during the Eid and continued, we will try to build on it," he added. "The Syrian people expect more than a truce for a few days and it is their right, but all we can promise is that we will work hard to achieve their aspirations," he said. Brahimi arrived in Damascus on Friday after a tour of Middle East capitals to drum up support for the ceasefire. Countries including Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Germany have backed the idea. Brahimi met foreign minister Walid al-Moallem on Saturday. A foreign ministry statement released after the meeting did not mention the proposed truce, but said the two men discussed "objective and rational circumstances to stop the violence from any side in order to prepare for a comprehensive dialogue among the Syrians". Syrian government forces and rebels have both agreed to and then promptly violated internationally agreed ceasefires in the past, and there is little indication that either is willing to stop fighting now.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kateri Tekakwitha among seven new saints celebrated by crowd of 80,000 in St Peter's Square Eighty thousand pilgrims, many in flowered lei, feathered headdresses and other traditional attire, gathered in St Peter's Square on Sunday as the pope added seven more saints to the Catholic roster in an attempt to reinvigorate the faith in parts of the world where it is lagging. One of the seven, Kateri Tekakwitha, will be the first Native American saint to be canonised. In his homily, Benedict praised each of the seven as heroic and courageous examples for the church, calling Kateri an inspiration to indigenous faithful across North America. "May the witness of these new saints … speak today to the whole church, and may their intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the gospel to the whole world," he said. The celebrations began at dawn, with Native Americans in beaded and feathered headdresses and leather-fringed tunics singing songs to the beat of drums. Later, the crowds cheered as the pope read out the names of each of the new saints in Latin and declared that they were worthy of veneration by the entire church. Prayers were read out in Mohawk and Cebuano, the dialect of another saint, Pedro Calungsod, a 17th-century Filipino teenage martyr, and in English by a nun wearing a lei. "It's so nice to see God showing all the flavours of the world," said Gene Caldwell, a Native American member of the Menominee reservation in Neopit, Wisconsin, who attended with his wife, Linda. "The Native Americans are enthralled" to have Kateri canonised, he said. Known as the "Lily of the Mohawks", Kateri was born in 1656 to a pagan Iroquois father and an Algonquin Christian mother. Her parents and only brother died when she was four during a smallpox epidemic that left her badly scarred and with impaired eyesight. She went to live with her uncle, a Mohawk, and was baptised Catholic by Jesuit missionaries. But she was ostracised and persecuted by other Native Americans for her faith, and she died in what is now Canada when she was 24. Speaking in English and French, in honour of Kateri's Canadian ties, Benedict noted how unusual it was in her culture for her to choose to devote herself to her Catholic faith. "May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are," Benedict said. "Saint Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America." Among the few people chosen to receive communion from the pope himself was Jake Finkbonner, a 12-year-old boy of Native American descent from Washington state in the US. The Vatican determined that Jake had been cured of an infection of flesh-eating bacteria through Kateri's intercession after his family and community invoked her in their prayers, paving the way for her canonisation. The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedure requires that it certify a miracle has been performed through the intercession of the candidate – a medically inexplicable cure that can be directly linked to the prayers offered by the faithful. One miracle is needed for beatification, a second for canonisation. The other new saints are: Marianne Cope, a 19th-century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii; Jacques Berthieu, a 19th-century French Jesuit who was killed by rebels in Madagascar, where he had worked as a missionary; Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian who founded a religious order in 1900 and established a Catholic printing and publishing house in his native Brescia; Carmen Salles y Barangueras, a Spanish nun who founded a religious order to educate children in 1892; and Anna Schaeffer, a 19th century German laywoman who became a model for the sick and suffering after she fell into a boiler and badly burned her legs. The wounds never healed, causing her constant pain.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Democratic US presidential candidate who lost to Richard Nixon In the long roll-call of characters involved in the Watergate scandal, there is usually one curious omission – the name of the intended victim. This was Richard Nixon's Democratic opponent in the 1972 presidential election, George McGovern, who has died at the age of 90. To this day no one has ever satisfactorily explained why Nixon's campaign managers thought it necessary to bug the Democratic national committee or indulge in other shenanigans that eventually brought the nation's first presidential resignation. It was clear throughout that McGovern had ensured his own defeat long before he took to the hustings. His problems began in the shambles of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, which had gathered in the wake of President Lyndon Johnson's withdrawal from the election and the assassination of his likeliest replacement, Robert Kennedy. Racked by prolonged demonstrations against the Vietnam war and the violent police response, the delegates barely seemed to understand what they were doing when they voted at 1am (after seven incomprehensible hours of procedural wrangling) to accept a minority report from the rules committee. Against the advice of the committee's majority, this report stipulated that each state's Democratic party should give members "a full, meaningful and timely opportunity to participate in the selection of [convention] delegates". No one had the least idea what this meant, but McGovern was appointed to head a reform commission to flesh out its pieties. Though Kennedy had once described him as "the most decent man in the Senate", McGovern had already demonstrated a serious personal failing – a need to be all things to all men. Several times during his Senate career he had made mutually incompatible deals with other legislators, and thus made enemies of those whom he had let down. Under his weak chairmanship, the commission, most of whose members lost interest in its arcane disputes and stopped attending, fell under the influence of a politically correct faction that vigorously transformed an ill-conceived aspiration into an electoral disaster. The new rules laid down that state delegations must set quotas to ensure that they fully represented the wider community, particularly in the proportion of women, black people and young people. It may have been socially admirable, but it brought mayhem. In many states the rules were used by leftwing activists to discriminate against the white males who comprised the administrative core of the party. Such manoeuvres ensured, for example, that only 30 of the 255 Democratic members of Congress managed to secure accreditation to the 1972 convention in Miami. Even more damaging, none of the party's big city mayors – already endorsed by huge electorates in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia – survived the new process, and the trade union barons were equally cast out. The practical outcome was organisationally disastrous. The Democrats had dumped the old-timers who had experience where it mattered most, those who had organised the anonymous thousands who set up meetings, stuffed envelopes, canvassed back streets and got the voters to the polls. When the new-style delegates overwhelmingly nominated McGovern as their presidential candidate, the AFL/CIO trade union federation, still smarting from his failure to vote as promised on an important closed-shop amendment, flatly refused to endorse him. On top of this, McGovern immediately inflicted his own wounds. After a great deal of fruitless casting around for a running mate, he opted for his sixth choice, Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri. Barely had the announcement been made than it brought a flurry of reports that Eagleton had suffered three bouts of mental illness requiring hospital treatment. Initially, McGovern held firmly to his choice. Five days later, in the face of catastrophic falls in the opinion polls and in campaign contributions, Eagleton was dropped and Sargent Shriver proclaimed as the new vice-presidential candidate. McGovern's campaign never recovered from the shifts and turns of this incident, but an already dismal performance was exacerbated by his rash promise of a guaranteed annual income for every American family. With no consideration of financial controls, he proposed a tax credit of $1,000 a year to every citizen. He was never able to give a convincing analysis of the plan, and it served mainly to outrage blue-collar and middle-class voters unable to grasp why their tax payments should apparently be offered to layabouts. Underlying these repeated gaffes was McGovern's personal separation from the mainstream of American life. He had been born in a hamlet in South Dakota. After graduating from the local Wesleyan college, he became a bomber pilot during the second world war and emerged with a Distinguished Flying Cross. Initially, he resumed his education at a religious seminary but decided to change direction and, with a PhD in history, started teaching at his old college. After a year, however, he moved into full-time politics to help establish the Democratic party in an overwhelmingly Republican state. In 1956 he was elected to Congress, and in 1960 to the Senate. His Senate colleagues regarded him as an enigma, best summed up by Eugene McCarthy, probably the nearest to McGovern in general outlook. "Talking to George," he once said, "is like eating a Chinese meal. An hour after it's over you wonder whether you really ate anything." McGovern became noted for the high moral tone of his speeches, declaring on one occasion that: "I want this nation we all love to turn away from cursing, and hatred, and war to the blessings of brotherhood and love." Unfortunately this Christian fervour was unaccompanied by any coherently presented policies or administrative ability, and his presidential election bid quickly descended into chaos. In the largest voter turnout ever recorded, Nixon carried every state bar Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. A still-righteous McGovern returned to the Senate, but remained a fringe figure until his defeat in the 1980 election. His involvement in anti-hunger initiatives for international organisations lasted from his appointment by President John F Kennedy as director of Food for Peace in 1961 until the final years of his life. He and his wife, Eleanor, suffered a traumatic family loss in 1994 when their alcoholic daughter, Terry, froze to death at the age of 45 in a snowdrift. Following her death they established a foundation to help other alcoholics. Eleanor died in 2007, and their son, Steve, in July 2012. McGovern is survived by their three other daughters. • George Stanley McGovern, politician, born 19 July 1922; died 21 October 2012
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hundreds of dog owners dressed up their pets for the largest Halloween dog parade in the US, at Tompkins Square in New York
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Customs officers confiscate largest ever haul of tusks and ornaments in containers from Tanzania and Kenya Hong Kong has seized its largest ever haul of illicit ivory tusks and ornaments, which had been smuggled from Africa, authorities say. Customs officers in Hong Kong and neighbouring Guangdong confiscated the ivory, worth HK$26.7m (£2.2m) and weighing a total of 3.8 tonnes, in raids at a container port last week, the Hong Kong government said. "It is the biggest ever in Hong Kong in the number of tusks seized in a single seizure," a government spokesman said. Customs officers found 972 tusks and the ornaments in bags of plastic scraps inside a container that arrived from Tanzania on Tuesday, the government said. Another 237 tusks were found the next day in a container carrying beans from Kenya. Customs officials quoted by Hong Kong media said they did not think much of the ivory had been destined for the Chinese mainland. "We believe a small portion would have gone to the mainland and the rest elsewhere in the region, such as Japan and Taiwan," the South China Morning Post quoted the senior Hong Kong customs official Lam Tak-fai as saying. Hong Kong was a major importer, trader and manufacturer of ivory carvings, crafts and other products before the international trade in ivory was banned in 1990.
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