|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Death of drug gang founder at hands of marines will represent a major victory for Mexican authorities if confirmed Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico, has apparently been killed in a shootout with marines, according to the country's navy. The navy said there was strong evidence after the firefight in the northern border state of Coahuila that Lazcano, known as El Lazca, was one of two men who died. But it added that more forensics tests would have to be carried out to confirm the identification. "Information was obtained after the first forensics tests were carried out that yielded indications that suggest that one of the bodies is Heriberto Lazcano," the navy's statement said. "The navy department is co-ordinating efforts with Coahuila state and will be awaiting the conclusions of the forensics examination in the case." The death of Lazcano would be a major victory for Mexican law enforcement. The Zetas cartel that he helped found with other deserters from an elite army unit has gone on to carry out some of Mexico's bloodiest massacres, biggest jail breaks and fiercest attacks on authorities. Lazcano, who is also known as El Verdugo (the executioner) for his brutality, is suspected in hundreds of killings, including the June 2004 slaying of Francisco Ortiz Franco, a top editor of a crusading weekly newspaper in Tijuana that often reported on drug trafficking. Ortiz Franco was gunned down in front of his two young children as he left a clinic. The US has offered a $5m reward and Mexico an additional $2.3m for information leading to Lazcano's arrest. Under Lazcano's leadership the Zetas recruited more hitmen, many of them former Mexican soldiers, and hired "kaibiles" – Guatemalan soldiers trained in counterinsurgency, transforming what had been a small group of assassins into a ruthless gang of enforcers for the Gulf cartel. The Zetas also were in charge of protecting the Gulf cartel's drug shipments. The Zetas finally split from their former bosses in 2010 and have since been fighting a vicious battle for control of the drug business in north-eastern Mexico, the traditional home base of the Gulf cartel. The result has been a surge of drug-related killings. Lazcano "is credited with strengthening the organiaation ... he created a new structure of regional cells that specialiae in specific crimes", Mexican federal prosecutors say in their profile of Lazcano.
The Zetas earned their notoriety for brutality by becoming the first to publicly display their beheaded rivals, most infamously two police officers in April 2006 in the resort city of Acapulco. The severed heads were found on spikes outside a government building with a message signed "Z'' that said: "So that you learn to respect."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Baltimore Orioles edge out New York Yankees 3-2 in game two, while St Louis Cardinals rout Washington Nationals 12-4 to tie NLDS 1-1 The Baltimore Orioles and the St Louis Cardinals tied up their divisional series with the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals. St Louis Cardinals 12, Washington Nationals 4
NLDS tied 1-1
Box score Carlos Beltran hit the last two of the St Louis Cardinals' four homers in a 12-4 rout of the Washington Nationals that tied their NL division series at 1-1. Allen Craig and Daniel Descalso also went deep to help the defending World Series champions build a big lead that compensated for a two-inning start from an ailing Jaime Garcia. Craig hit his fifth career postseason homer and scored three times. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche hit consecutive homers in the fifth for the Nationals, who head home for the remainder of the best-of-five series. But the NL East champions are without All-Star ace Stephen Strasburg, shut down for the rest of the season early last month to protect his surgically repaired arm. Game 3 is Wednesday afternoon at Nationals Park, the first postseason contest in the nation's capital since the original Senators played the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series. Edwin Jackson starts for Washington against Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter, who made only three starts during the regular season because of injury. Beltran homered twice in the postseason for the third time in his career. Jon Jay had two hits and three RBIs, plus an outstanding catch at the center-field wall to deprive Danny Espinosa in the sixth. "One of the best catches I've seen. I think it's his best catch of the year," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "He barely looked up as he was hitting the wall. Very impressive." Baltimore Orioles 3, New York Yankees 2
ALDS tied 1-1
As it happened
Box score Pitching his first postseason game, Baltimore Orioles' Wei-Yin Chen claimed victory over Andy Pettitte playing his 43rd playoff, in a tight 3-2 victory at Camden Yards. The New York Yankees took an early lead through a neat pirouette around the catcher Matt Wieters at home plate by Ichiro Suzuki. But then Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds delivered key hits for Baltimore. In Game One the Yankees delivered against closer Jim Johnson in the ninth inning but there was to be no repeat. Game Three will be in NY on Wednesday with the series tied 1-1.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pyongyang makes declaration after Washington allowed South Korea to extend the range of its arsenal North Korea has said its missiles can hit the US mainland in an apparent riposte to Washington letting South Korea extend the range of its arsenal. South Korea on Sunday unveiled an agreement with the United States that extends the range of its ballistic missiles by more than twice its current limit to 497 miles (800km) as a deterrent to the North. The United States has denied it has any intention to strike North Korea. It has more than 20,000 troops stationed in the South in defence of its ally. North Korea's National Defence Commission said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that the North was prepared to counter any US military threat. "We do not hide [the fact] that the revolutionary armed forces ... including the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the US imperialist aggression forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam and the US mainland." North Korea is believed to be developing a long-range missile with a range of 4,160 miles (6,700km) or more that could hit the United States. Two recent rocket tests both failed but neighbours fear the North is using such launches to perfect its technology. North Korea is under heavy UN sanctions that have cut off its previously lucrative arms trade and further isolated the state after its failed 2009 missile test drew sharp rebukes, even from its one major ally, China. In April, under new leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea launched a rocket purportedly carrying a satellite bound for space but it flew just a few minutes covering a little over 60 miles (100km) before blowing up over the sea between South Korea and China.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: New York Yankees visit the Baltimore Orioles for ALDS Game 2
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Baltimore's Wei-Yin Chen shuts down Yankees lineup
• Baltimore wins their first playoff game in 15 years
• Series tied 1-1 as it shifts to New York
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican candidate makes especially dramatic gains with female voters after strong performance in first debate The storm clouds gathering over President Obama's bid for re-election have thickened with the release of a new poll from the respected Pew Research Center that gives Mitt Romney a four-point lead among likely voters. The Pew survey of 1,511 adults was carried out over four days starting on the day after the first presidential TV debate last week. Its findings – including evidence that the Republican nominee is making dramatic headway with female voters, young people and those in the heartlands of the mid-west – appear to confirm that Obama's listless performance at the debate, and by contrast Romney's strong showing, has translated into a powerful political force. "We found a dramatic shift from a significant Obama lead to a slight Romney edge among likely voters – and this is the first evidence that the debate appears to have impacted the race," said Carroll Doherty, Pew Research Center's associate director. The poll records Obama and Romney on a direct tie of 46% each among registered voters, with Romney taking the lead by 49% to 45% among likely voters. The latter figure marks a striking turn-around in Romney's fortunes: last month the Pew poll marked him behind by eight points among likely voters. Romney's widely lauded performance at the debate in front of almost 70 million viewers appears to have had a particularly favourable impact on several groups that had been assumed to be unassailable strongholds for Obama. Among likely female voters, the two contenders for the White House now stand neck-and-neck on 47%, in contrast to a month ago when Romney trailed by a whopping 18 points. Support among voters under 50 has bounced in the past month for Romney by no fewer than 10 points, from 39% to 49%, and he now even leads among this demographic over Obama on 46%. The one feature that appears to be driving this sharp improvement in Romney's standing was the debate. Two-thirds of registered voters in the poll said that they thought Romney did the better job during Wednesday's televised head-to-head, with only 20% backing Obama. What is not clear is whether a post-debate bounce for Romney will last as the race for the presidency enters its final month. The latest tracking poll from Gallup has the two candidates on a 47% tie. One factor that could prove significant in terms of the final days of the campaign is that, in the Pew poll, the ground soldiers of the Republican party appear to have been energised by Romney's perceived debate victory. Some 67% of Romney's supporters said they now back him strongly, up from 56% in September. Engagement is one aspect of Romney's candidacy that the Republicans have been struggling with all year, including through the primary season when he was regarded with widespread suspicion by staunch conservatives as a result of the liberal policies – including healthcare reform – that he pursued while governor of Massachusetts. Romney needs a revitalised base if he is to wage an energetic get-out-the-vote ground operation come November. "This is perhaps the most important aspects of the results, that Republicans come out of the TV debate very energised," Doherty said. The poll will give Obama's top re-election advisers, led by David Axelrod, food for thought on how they are faring in terms of owning political issues. On the single most important policy area, the economy, Romney shows a 13-point lead among vital swing voters when asked who would do the better job on the job situation (Romney polled 37% to Obama's 24%). The Republican candidate is still seen as favouring the rich, but he is now given more credit by voters for policies that would help middle-class Americans, up from 41% in July to 49% today. In other policy areas, Romney has effectively closed the gap with the president over Medicare and health care, and is just four points behind Obama on foreign policy having lagged by 15 points last month. The Pew poll, conducted nationally, does not give a deep insight into what's happening in the vital swing states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia and elsewhere. The impact of the TV debate on these battle grounds will have to wait until state-wide polls are published. It does though give one intriguing finding, showing a six-point lead for Romney in the Midwest. The signs that Romney is making a spirited rally in the wake of his morale-boosting success on primetime TV will pile on the pressure on Joe Biden. He faces his only vice-presidential debate with Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, on Thursday night, with two further presidential debates following later in the month.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eighth death confirmed in nine-state outbreak traced to unaccredited New England pharmacy compounding company More than 100 people have now been infected with a rare and deadly form of meningitis caused by contaminated steroid shots, health officials announced Monday as police were called in to help track down those still at risk. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 105 cases of the illness had been confirmed and that another person had died in the past day, taking the number of fatalities to eight. Officials are attempting to trace thousands more patients who were given the suspect injections. The number of recorded cases almost doubled over the weekend, to 91. On Monday, CDC said a further 14 infected patients had been identified. Cases have been noted in nine states, as far apart as Florida and Minnesota. In Tennessee, where 35 cases have been identified, four people have died. The source of the outbreak has been traced to batches of a drug prepared by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), a pharmacy compounder, based in Massachusetts, that has a checkered health and safety record. It is thought that around 18,000 vials of potentially contaminated methylprednisolone acetate were shipped by the company to 76 clinics in 23 states from July to September. In Ohio, officials have enlisted sheriff's offices to help track down all those who are at danger of being struck down with the illness. "If that means knocking on doors, then that is what we will do," said Beth Bickford, executive director at the Association of Ohio State Health Commissioners. All of those affected were given the shot for back pain, for which the steroid is a common treatment. They then developed symptoms including fever, headache, nausea and neurological problems consistent with deep brain stroke. It could take weeks for some to recover. Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were sent to the NECC premises last week. They found a fungal contaminate in a sealed vial of the methylprednisolone acetate. They also found a "foreign material" in another, opened container. A spokeswoman for the FDA said Monday that the investigation was "ongoing" and that tests to confirm the exact species of fungus were continuing. Asked if criminal proceedings could be brought against the owners of the company, the FDA official said it could not speculate on the outcome of the investigation or comment on potential litigation. Complaints against NECC were made as long ago as 2002 and as recently as this year. A 2006 warning letter from the FDA to company owner Barry Cadden cited a string of health and safety violations, including the misbranding of drugs and the copying of FDA-approved, commercially available products. Over the weekend, NECC recalled all of its products, calling the move a precautionary measure. It has also suspended all operations and taken down its website. A man answering the phone at Cadden's address on Monday said that the pharmacist was not at home. Asked when Cadden he would be available, he hung up. The outbreak has led to questions over the practice of pharmacy compounding, in which drugs are mixed and altered to patients' requirements. The sheer numbers of shots sent out by NECC – close to 18,000 doses – has raised concerns, as has the fact that clinics in 23 states were using the company despite it being unaccredited and having a poor record The outbreak has also highlighted potential failings in the regulation of compounders. The FDA only has limited authority over the day-to-day operations of compounding pharmacies. Moreover, products do not have to win FDA approval before they are sold on, and the regulator has no jurisdiction over how the products are manufactured or labelled for use.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President will need to deal with rising violent crime and over-dependence on oil after winning election with smaller margin The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, brandished the sword of independence hero Simón Bolívar as he celebrated his re-election with a promise to further his government's brand of socialism during a new six-year term, in which he will face several economic challenges. "Truthfully, this has been the perfect battle, a democratic battle," Chávez told the euphoric crowd outside the Miraflores palace. "Venezuela will continue along the path of democratic and Bolivarian socialism of the 21st century." The triumph was shared by jubilant supporters throughout Sunday night after a hard-fought but convincing victory over the opposition challenger, Henrique Capriles. Tens of thousands of supporters descended on Caracas in cars, on motorbikes and minibuses, waving flags, honking horns and chanting: "Viva la patria!" (long live the fatherland). In the barrios of Catia and 23 de Enero – the heartlands of Chavismo – a party mood seized the streets as red-shirted residents danced and sang while fireworks exploded overhead. Some cried mock tears as they carried the "political coffin" of challenger Capriles. Chávez won 54.4% of the vote, 9.5 points ahead of his rival. The margin of victory gives Chávez a strong democratic mandate until 2018. Attention now focuses on whether he can use this popular endorsement to build on the gains of the past 13 years – notably a sharp reduction in poverty, unemployment and infant mortaility – while doing more to address rising concerns about violent crime, overdependence on oil and deteriorating infrastructure. He also faces an opposition that has united for the first time this year and gained votes despite what it said was an unfair playing field in terms of access to state resources and air time. Thanks to the record high turnout, Chávez also won more votes this time than in 2006, though the margin of victory was tighter than in any of his previous races. Supporters said this vindicated their claims that the opposition had concocted fake polls as well as rumours about the imminent demise of Chávez to cancer. "Spin doctors have constructed a macabre operation that violates his privacy and human decency by telling all sorts of lies. They said his death was imminent and that he would arrive at the election in a wheelchair. But look at him," said a close aide. "He's in complete condition to carry out the presidency." But the health concerns are unlikely to disappear. "I think it's inevitable that a victory margin of less than 15% will lead to intense discussions within the Chávez camp," said Nicmer Evans, a political science professor at the Central University of Venezuela. "The subject of illness has been neutralised until now, but it'll be reopened after the vote." Evans, who accurately predicted the outcome of the election, also expected a cabinet reshuffle. "Chávez has been failed by the people around him. He needs to change his team. We'll see that after the election," he said. Senior officials said the government would boost measures to address violent crime and economic vulnerabilities among the worst affected. Among those who shifted allegiance from Chávez, a commonly heard cause was the growing fear of crime. In 2009, Chávez created a whole new security body – the National Bolivarian police force – but Venezuela still has one of the four highest murder rates in the world, with a murder every half an hour. The rate has almost doubled since Chávez took power to 45.1 per 100,000 of the population, in 2011. Tough economic challenges also lie ahead. Despite its oil wealth, Venezuela has borrowed heavily in recent years and is now running a fiscal deficit of 16% of GDP. Ahead of the election, Chávez ramped up public spending, increasing pensions, building homes and raising the minimum wage. To meet debt obligations and pay for these measures, he will come under pressure to devalue the Bolivar – which now trades on the black market at more than double the official rate against the dollar – or significantly raise oil revenues, which account for 95% of Venezuela's export earnings. Chávez has outlined plans to more than triple production by 2020 from the heavy crude fields in the Orinoco Belt – which BP and Opec have identified as the world's biggest reserves of oil. That would push Venezuela past Iran in terms of output, but will require huge investment, technology transfer and a bigger skilled workforce. Some will come from existing partners – including China's CNPC, Chevron of the US and firms from Russia, Vietnam and India. Others, like BP and Shell, have so far been on the sidelines when it comes to developing new blocks. Managers at the state-owned PDVSA oil company said several multinationals were waiting until the outcome of the election to decide whether to participate in the expansion. If they hoped for change, it is unlikely to come. Miguel Tinker Salas, professor of Latin American Studies at Pomona College in California, said Chávez's victory implied continuity with an existing oil policy of state-led development, bolstering sales to China and using oil to shape foreign policy. Access to Venezuela's oil – as well as ideology and personality – help to explain how Chávez is seen overseas. In response to the election result, the US, which has seen its share of Venezuelan oil drop in the past decade, omitted direct recognition of the president's success. "We congratulate the Venezuelan people for the high turnout and generally peaceful manner in which this election was carried out," said state department spokesman William Ostick. But President Raúl Castro of Cuba, which receives subsidised oil from its Caribbean neighbour, was among the many Latin American leaders who sent warm congratulations to Chávez on his victory. "Chávez wins, the people win", said the headline on the Diario Granma website of the Communist party of Cuba. But it would be wrong to characterise the politics of Venezuela as a simple re-run of the cold war. Chávez has a popular mandate and a very different set of challenges. Whether he will respond to his smaller margin of victory by moving closer to the centre or to more radical policies remains to be seen.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney attacks president's foreign policy record and claims world is a more dangerous place than when Obama took office Mitt Romney claimed the world was a more dangerous place than when Barack Obama took office, as he accused the president of mishandling the Middle East and called for the US to pursue its traditional role as the world's policeman. Displaying new-found confidence since his debate victory last week, Romney used a major foreign policy speech in Virginia to attack Obama for a lack of leadership on a range of international issues, including Iran, Israel-Palestine, Libya and Syria. "Hope is not a strategy," Romney declared. "I believe that if America does not lead, others will; others who do not share our interests and our values, and the world will grow darker, for our friends and for us," Romney told the audience of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. Obama's failure to project strength abroad, Romney said, had left the US at the mercy of events in the Middle East and vulnerable to terrorist attacks, such as the one in Benghazi which killed the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. It was Romney's seventh speech on foreign policy in his bid for the White House and was intended to reset the button after previous efforts were heavily criticised. Obama's campaign team immediately accused him Romney of being in disarray. His proposals, they said, were a mixture of neo-conservative ideas from the Bush era and policies that Obama was already pursuing. In his toughest language yet against Obama's foreign policy record, Romney said: "When we look at the Middle East today — Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in Syria threatening to destabilise the region, with violent extremists on the march and with an American ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of al-Qaida — it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office." Apart from a shift towards backing the supply of heavier weaponry to Syrian rebels – by Saudi Arabia and Qatar – Romney had little new to say and leaves unanswered many key foreign policy questions. He reiterated his intent to confront Russia – even though many American foreign policy analysts see al-Qaida rather than Russia as the main threat to the US – and Iran. Although the language on Iran is tough, Romney proposed a mixture of threats and sanctions that were not dissimilar to the Obama administration's current approach. In his speech, Romney made the case for a more interventionist US foreign policy. "Our friends and allies across the globe do not want less American leadership … This is what makes America exceptional. It is not just the character of our country; it is the record of our accomplishments. America has a proud history of strong, confident, principled global leadership – a history that has been written by patriots of both parties." He accused Obama of "missing an historic opportunity to win new friends who share our values in the Middle East, friends who are fighting for their own futures against the very same violent extremists, and evil tyrants, and angry mobs who seek to harm us." He quoted a Syrian woman as saying: "We will not forget that you forgot about us." The speech was heavily trailed in advance, including an excerpt in which Romney promised more help for the rebels, who are out-gunned by the the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, which are using tanks, jets and helicopters. "Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them. We should be working no less vigorously with our international partners to support the many Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran – rather than sitting on the sidelines," he said. Romney's comments received a positive response from Syrian rebel leaders. Mustafa Sheikh, joint head of the Free Syrian Army military council, said: "We welcome, and we need, any American support, whether that be weapons, money, or anything we can use. The Americans need not be afraid that their support will go to the wrong people, or be wasted. It will be appreciated and it will be valuable. We appreciate that this is now being discussed." He also criticised Obama over his handling of the killing of the US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, noting the contrast between the administration initially blaming riots over an anti-Muslim movie made in the US and a recent statement pointing to al-Qaida elements. One of the most awkward parts of the speech was Romney's reaffirmation of the traditional US role as a supposed arbiter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This contrasted with his speech in May, caught on a secret video, in which he said the Palestinians were not interested in peace, the chances of a peace agreement was remote and the whole issue should be kicked down the field. On Afghanistan, over which Romney has faced a lot of criticism for failing to mention it during his Republican convention speech, he said he would not be tied to the deadline set by Obama for withdrawal by the end of 2014 and hinted he might delay it. "The route to more war – and to potential attacks here at home – is a politically timed retreat that abandons the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged their country and used it to launch the attacks of 9/11," he said. The former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, who has been called in to help the Obama team, told reporters that there was a lot of rhetoric but not a lot of specifics. She said Romney did not seem to understand America's role in the 21st century and his identification of Russia as the number one enemy reflected a nostalgia for cold war thinking. "I would like to ask Govenor Romney and his advisers how he would do things differently," she said. The Obama campaign issued an ad saying Romney had already failed the commander-in-chief test, citing his accident-prone tour of the UK, Israel and Poland in the summer and various comments since then. The ad says: "If this is how he handles the world now, just think of what Romney might do as president. It also said he was telling outright lies, as when he said Obama had signed no trade deals. Obama's team said he had signed three.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | John B Gurdon of Cambridge University and Shinya Yamanaka at the University of California have won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mitt Romney to give address at Virginia Military Institute as Gallup poll shows Republican contender pulling level with Obama. Follow the latest here
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After a man claims to have increased the value of a Rothko by signing it, we suggest five other pieces that could be polished A man who defaced a work by Mark Rothko at Tate Modern in London on Sunday has claimed that by doing so he has improved the value of the painting. Vladimir Umanets (or the person identifying himself as Umanets) claimed that he had acted in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp, who in 1917 signed a urinal "R.Mutt", gave it a title – Fountain – and submitted it for exhibition under the auspices of the American Society of Independent Artists. It was rejected – but with Fountain, Duchamp pretty much invented conceptual art. In the satirical or conceptual spirit of Duchamp, then – it being rather less advisable to act in the more demonstrative spirit of Mr Umanets, given Scotland Yard's efforts to find him – here are five more art works that could be improved … and how to improve them. 1. Tracey Emin: My Bed (1998)Emin, famously, made the Turner Prize shortlist with her unmade bed, which was strewn with the detritus of an unhappy life – including, as the Saatchi Gallery website says: … empty booze bottles, fag butts, stained sheets, worn panties: the bloody aftermath of a nervous breakdown.
The piece attracted protests, inevitably: two Chinese artists stripped to the waist and bounced about on the bed for 15 minutes, indulging in a pillow fight while they were at it. Clearly the best way to improve Emin's unmade bed would be simply to steal into its gallery in the middle of the night and make it – crisp counterpane, fluffed pillows, a bit of a vacuum of the carpet. All of which would obviously be a devastating comment about Emin's professed support for the Conservative party. 2. Martin Creed: Work No 227, The Lights Going On And Off (2000)Creed's Turner Prize winner offers a bare gallery that is illuminated, and then not, by a light that switches itself on and off every five seconds. According to MoMA: This piece is based on a cycle of repetitive contradictions: each five-second phase is denied by the next.
Which is all well and good. It is incumbent upon this writer, however, to suggest simply switching the light off, thereby setting a fine example in the fight to conserve energy and slow down global warming, the melting of the icecaps and other looming nasties otherwise encouraged by such wanton profligacy. That, or just make sure he's using a low-energy bulb. 3. Lucio Fontana, Spacial Concept Waiting (1960)Lest one be accused of willful philistinism – the best kind, admittedly – it is necessary next to a) proffer approval of Jake and Dinos Chapman's habit of improving or "rectifying" prints of works by Goya (not original pieces) and making interesting points about art and war and vandalism and so on, all by the addition of clown faces and b) suggest a similar improvement to works by Lucio Fontana, the founder of Spatialism. Fontana's Tagli ("Cuts") are canvases of various colours cut, jabbed and slashed in various ways to produce unsettling and thought-provoking effects. But even given the provocation of some prime art-historical gibberish – the cuts are, Tate tells us, "emblematic of his gestural aesthetic" – to suggest simply improving Fontana's work with a needle and thread would be lazy. Instead, one might consider some Chapman-esque work – a baleful pair of eyes and a horn or two, perhaps borrowed from Hieronymus Bosch's more apocalyptic stuff or Bartolomé Bermejo's little Satan and added to the canvas with appropriate care, might make Fontana's cuts more unsettling still. Fontana, by the way, was of the opinion that: My discovery was the hole and that's it. I am happy to go to the grave after such a discovery.
Which seems fair enough. 4. Raphael, The Madonna of the Pinks (1506-07)Some artworks could be improved simply by being found – Leonardo Da Vinci's long-lost Battle of Anghiari fresco, for an example well documented here. Others might be improved simply by not being found out. This tiny Raphael hangs in the National Gallery in London and is undeniably exquisite and thus unimprovable. Its inclusion here is due to a 2004 appeal that raised £22m, including £11.5m of lottery money, in order to persuade the Duke of Northumberland not to sell it to the Getty museum in Los Angeles. Intriguingly, the National Gallery's website says that "for more than a century it was thought to be only a copy". I don't doubt the scholarship that went into the realisation that The Madonna of the Pinks was a genuine Raphael. But attribution, particularly regarding old-master paintings, is a curious business (there are plenty of rather contentious Rembrandts) and about as difficult as it should be to justify paying vast sums public money to an aristocrat in order to "save for the nation" a painting, however marvelous, that most of the nation will never see. Or want to. Some paintings might be improved by not being proved to be great paintings and thus not being "saved for the nation". 5. Anish Kapoor, ArcelorMittal Orbit (2012)And finally: Kapoor's enormous public sculpture in the London Olympic park has attracted its fair share of criticism, conversation and controversy and I don't propose to add to all that here by suggesting improvement by demolition. Rather, the thing just has to be made into a helter-skelter, hasn't it?
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Afghan forces are far from ready to secure a country riddled with violence and corruption, Red Cross and thinktank warn The police and army in an increasingly violent Afghanistan will struggle to secure the country when foreign forces leave and the people face a corrupt presidential election in 2014, the Red Cross and a thinktank have warned. At stake is the limited and fragile stability that has insulated Kabul and most other urban areas from more than a decade of escalating aggression since the US invasion. There are growing fears the country could face a full-blown civil war after Nato troops hand over security to the Afghan police and army, and leave. "Time is running out," said Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group thinktank, in a blunt report about the handover from coalition to Afghan troops. "Steps toward a stable transition must begin now to prevent a precipitous slide toward state collapse. "Plagued by factionalism and corruption, Afghanistan is far from ready to assume responsibility for security when US and Nato forces withdraw in 2014." The Long Hard Road to the 2014 Transition also argues that time is running out to ensure a 2014 presidential vote is credible or acceptable. President Hamid Karzai is due to step down in that year and powerbrokers are already jostling for position. "It is a near certainty that under current conditions the 2014 elections will be plagued by massive fraud," the report stated. "Vote-rigging in the south and east, where security continues to deteriorate, is all but guaranteed. High levels of violence across the country before and on the day of the polls are likely to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands more would-be voters." The last decade has brought improvements for Afghans in areas including women's rights, health and education. But for many civilians, particularly in rural areas, the steady rise of the Taliban and insurgents linked with them has also brought insecurity and misery. "I am filled with concern as I leave this country," the outgoing head of the Afghanistan office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Reto Stocker, told journalists in Kabul. "Since I arrived here, in 2005, local armed groups have proliferated, civilians have been caught between not just one but multiple frontlines, and it has become increasingly difficult for ordinary Afghans to obtain healthcare." The conflict was now less brutal for civilians, however, than was the fighting that tore Afghanistan apart in the 1990s, when noncombatants were often directly targeted as a deliberate means of warfare, he said. But many were still killed and injured, others had fled their homes to escape violence, and many Afghans who had escaped being drawn into the conflict still lived in abject poverty, extremely vulnerable to drought, flooding, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The fragile economy was also likely to suffer, as the departure of foreign troops would hit a country dependent on war spending, from construction to fuel transportation, Stocker added. "Hardship arising from the economic situation or from severe weather or natural disaster has become more widespread, and hope for the future has been steadily declining," he said. Afghanistan's insecurity also appears to be fuelling its drug control problems. The country is already the world's largest producer of opium, with the UN saying on Monday the number of Afghan families growing cannabis as a cash crop leaped by more than a third last year.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Newly released diagrams show scale of the future that never was after air force cancelled funding for wobbly disc-shaped craft These days, flying saucers are most commonly associated with sci-fi films and conspiracy theories, but in the 1950s, some saw them as the future of aviation. Documents published by the US National Archives give new information about a craft commissioned by the US air force, which if successfully developed would have achieved speeds of 2,600mph and flown at around 100,000ft. Details of the proposed craft have been around for years. But the declassified papers include new diagrams and documents that demonstrate the scale of the project's ambition. The US air force contracted the work to a now-defunct Canadian company, Avro. In one document, Avro envisaged a "top speed potential between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000ft and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles". That would have sent the flying saucer spinning into the Earth's stratosphere. Language in a report labelled "final development summary" was optimistic: "It is concluded that the stabilization and control of the aircraft in the manner proposed – the propulsive jets are used to control the aircraft – is feasible and the aircraft can be designed to have satisfactory handling through the whole flight range from ground cushion take-off to supersonic flight at very high altitude." Such lofty ambitions were never achieved; video footage of other disc-shaped crafts constructed by Avro show a machine wobbling uncertainly around 3ft off the ground. The cost for the endeavour is listed as $3,168,000, which Wired estimates at $26.6m in today's money. Sadly, the project was cancelled and the craft were never built. They sounded good at the time ...Flying tanks "Imagine those two formidable weapons of modern warfare, the airplane and the armored tank, combined into one terrible machine of destruction!" Hurrah! Stick some wings on your tank and watch it fly. Apparently "initial tests were successful", but clearly flying tanks did not become the 'terrible machine of destruction' envisaged in the 1930s. More robust aeroplanes meant tanks were placed inside aircraft, rather than strapped underneath. Massive 'gas-shooting' riot car Apparently this vehicle was designed to control crowds "and put a stop to riots at any cost". The concept, which was patented by a Brooklyn based-company, would have spurted poisonous gas at any ne'er-do-wells, or alternatively soaked them with water. Or just shot them with machine guns. Options. Bell rocket belt After it was built for the US army in the 1960s, John F Kennedy was treated to a rocket-belt display in October 1961. The device used hydrogen peroxide as fuel – the belt-wearer was advised to wear insulating trousers – and could carry a man over 9m high obstacles at speeds of up to 10mph. Unfortunately it could only do so for about 20 seconds, and it was not put into widespread use by the military.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Invisible Children film-maker tells NBC that stress of promoting Joseph Kony video caused breakdown in San Diego in March The documentary film-maker behind Kony 2012 has spoken about his high-profile public breakdown in a series of interviews coinciding with the launch of the organisation's latest video. Referring to the incident, in which he was picked up by police while naked and rambling on the streets of San Diego, Jason Russell said his mind "clicked" after weeks of promoting and then defending his campaign against the Lord's Resistance Army and its murderous leader, Joseph Kony. "I wasn't in control of my mind or my body," Russell told NBC's Today show. In a separate interview with Oprah Winfrey, Russell said he put the episode down to "extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration". The fresh media appearances come as Invisible Children, Russell's organisation, launches a new video aimed at renewing its campaign against the use of child soldiers and atrocities carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army.
Posted on YouTube on Sunday, the film Move serves as a follow-up to the Kony 2012 video that went viral earlier this year, being seen by about 100 million people in a week. But the success of that campaign led to a backlash, with critics claiming the film it simplified the story of Kony's reign of terror and failed to sufficiently note that Kony – a wanted war criminal – and his followers were no longer a force in northern Uganda. Kony and his immediate circle are thought to be operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Showings of the film – which focused on the story of Jacob Acaye, a former child abductee of the LRA who witnessed his brother being killed by Kony's men – in Uganda prompted an angry response from those who believed that it presented an unfair portrayeal of the country. At the height of the Kony 2012 debate, Russell embarked on a whirlwind tour of interviews and media appearances. The travel and lack of sleep took its toll on his mental wellbeing, he said. He told Today: "It was so chaotic. It was so exciting because it felt like the world was for us, and then at the same time it was heartbreaking and felt almost like a nightmare because it felt like the world was against us." He added: "My mind couldn't stop thinking about the future – I literally thought I was responsible for the future of humanity. It started to get into the point where my mind finally turned against me and there was a moment that click, I wasn't in control of my mind or my body." As well as the new video, which has already been seen by tens of thousands of people, Kony is planning a November 17 march on the White House to further highlight the crimes of the Lord's Resistance Army.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mike Jones, 25 and originally from Lancashire, was involved in youth training programme at MLS team New York Red Bulls A 25-year-old British man who was working as a football coach in America has been stabbed to death in New York. Mike Jones, originally of Tarleton, Lancashire, was attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning, a spokesman for the New York police department (NYPD) said. He was found with a severed ear and stab wounds to his torso and neck. Jones, who coached juniors with the New York Red Bulls, was declared dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital, New York. NYPD said officers answering an emergency call had found Jones on the street near 25 West 14th Street. He confirmed a "homicide investigation" was under way and CCTV footage of a suspect was released to the media. John Parkinson, treasurer of Tarleton Corinthians, where Jones was a former player, said everyone knew him as "Jonesy". He said: "We are trying to come to terms with it. He was a genuine lad, no trouble. He was not a lad who would look for trouble or anything like that. He is not the sort of lad that would be up to no good … It's a big shock to us. We are stunned." Parkinson said his wife Betty, who is the chair of the club, had been to see his parents and that they were "in a state of shock". He said Jones had been with the senior team from the age of 17 until he went to the US on a scholarship. "He came home around November time and played football with us. So he kept in touch with everybody. He was just one of the lads." The New York Times reported that Jones coached children aged from seven to 13 for a New York Red Bulls youth training programme. The Red Bulls are one of the leading teams in US Major League Soccer (MLS). A spokesman for the New York Red Bulls said: "We are aware of this tragedy and on behalf of the entire organisation, want to send our most heartfelt condolences to Michael's family, friends and loved ones. He was a tremendous individual, a fantastic coach who loved soccer and a terrific friend for many of us. This is truly a sad day for our soccer community and we will do our utmost to help authorities in their investigation of this case. Our thoughts and prayers are with Michael's family at this time." A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in New York on 7 October. We are in touch with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance to the family." It is understood that Jones is a former pupil of Tarleton High School and former student at Edge Hill University, Southport.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Greek police have banned protests on some Athens streets tomorrow, when thousands of police officers and snipers will protect Angela Merkel
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded as the Syrian army closed in on rebels in Homs
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WikiLeaks founder to be co-author of book entitled Cypherpunks, despite being confined to Ecuadorean embassy in London Julian Assange's last foray into the publishing world ended in an acrimonious and highly costly dispute, after he withdrew from his million-pound contract and his publishers released a draft autobiography manuscript against his wishes. Now confined to the Ecuadorean embassy in London after being granted asylum, the WikiLeaks founder has announced he is to publish a new book about the internet, freedom and what he terms "the resistance". The book, entitled Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, will be published in paperback and electronically on 26 November, the US publisher OR Books told the New York Times. Three "cutting-edge thinkers and activists from the frontline of the battle for cyberspace" are listed as co-authors: US-based Jacob Applebaum, Jeremie Zimmermann from France and German Andy Müller-Maguhn. The text is largely based on a transcript of an interview Assange conducted with the three others for an episode of his TV show, The World Tomorrow, broadcast in June on the Russian state-funded channel RT, Zimmermann told the Guardian. But he said there would be "plenty of added content". "We covered a wide range of issues: from surveillance to data protection, from corporate influence over politics to citizen participation and action, transparency and accountability, from liberalism to anarchism, from copyright enforcement to culture, from flying killing robots (drones) to representation of crime scenes depicting abuse of children (child porn)," he added in an email. Zimmermann, the co-founder and spokesman for the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, said he had insisted on a bottle of whisky and some cigars during the interview, "to make the discussion more fluid, cosy and friendly". The announcement comes a year after the publication of Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography, which was issued by the publishers Canongate against the Australian's wishes after he withdrew from his contract but failed to return his advance. Last week Canongate blamed the collapse of its deal with Assange, reportedly worth a total of £930,000, for operating losses of £368,000 last year. The published book, based on an early draft manuscript, was a dramatic flop, selling only 644 copies in its first week of release. Assange has been living in a small room in the Ecuadorean embassy in west London since June, when he sought asylum, arguing that his imminent extradition to Sweden to answer accusations of sex offences put him at risk of onward removal to the US, where he fears espionage charges. The central American country granted his asylum request in August, but the UK authorities have insisted he will be arrested if he tries to leave the embassy.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russian president says arrest and conviction of feminist punk band for anti-Putin stunt in Moscow cathedral was justified Vladimir Putin has said the three jailed members of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot "got what they asked for", days before a Moscow court is due to consider their appeal. "It was right that they were arrested, and the court's decision was right," Putin told a journalist at NTV, a state-run television channel, during an hour-long documentary aired in honour of his 60th birthday on Sunday. Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have been held in a Moscow detention centre since their arrest in March. They were
sentenced to two years in prison in mid-August on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing an anti-Putin "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral. They are to appeal against the sentence on Wednesday. A lawyer for the women, Nikolai Polozov, said Putin's comments were part of "a planned propaganda campaign aimed at getting the court to form a negative opinion" in the appeal case. "This is pressure on the court." He compared it to comments Putin made before the sentencing on 17 August, when the powerful president said he thought the women should not be judged "too harshly". They were subsequently handed a two-year sentence instead of a possible seven. Putin claimed on NTV that he had played no role in the case. "I have nothing to do with it," he said. "They got what they asked for." The three women have been held in a Moscow detention centre since their arrest in early March. They have apologised for offending Russian Orthodox believers, but have insisted that their performance was a political act. Putin initially reacted to a question about the band with visible disgust and a laugh, asking the journalist, Vadim Takmenyov, whether he knew how to translate their name – Takmenyov said he could not say the word in front of Putin. "You see, if you can't say it in front of me, it means it's an indecent word. These girls must be talented – they forced you all to say that word," Putin replied. "Is that normal?" "One must not erode our moral foundation and undermine the country. What would be left then?" the president wondered. The New Times, an independent magazine, aired a video on its website on Monday of Tolokonnikova inside her cell, a dingy green room stacked with bunk beds, blankets and a pile of boxes of milk. She is asked if she has enough books to relax and replies: "I don't want to relax, my whole life is devoted to work." The women have remained defiant throughout their case. Putin used his birthday documentary as a chance to rubbish Russia's opposition movement, saying: "There are many here who don't want Russia to get stronger.". When asked if he followed polls – which show that Putin's popularity has slipped from heights that regularly had him polling at 70% approval ratings – the president said: "I have a chemical, an internal feeling, in the correctness of what I'm doing." Putin's latest approval ratings have fallen to a post-election low of 37% in one survey and even pro-government pollsters only have him at 48%.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Decades after Mao Zedong, couples are happy to browse sex toys together – but not all attitudes have changed "One-two-THREE! CONTROL! … and relax," Ma Jian urges. The 78-year-old author is addressing a few dozen men clustered around a stage in Guangzhou, but he aspires to a much bigger audience. "China has more than 2,000 years of sexual history and culture and skills. It has sexual experience which western countries have never known. I want to introduce its expertise to people here and people overseas and make all men happy," he said. "I want all women to benefit. I take guys who shoot in three minutes and teach them to hang on for 30. That's long enough." Until 10 years ago this evangelist was, he said, "an underground worker", toiling in strictest secrecy. He grew up in the sexually repressive society created by Mao Zedong. The chairman of the People's Republic may have shared his own bed with numerous women, but under his rule bodies were disguised in shapeless suits and holding hands in public was shocking. Even in the 80s, after liberalisation had begun, a man was executed for organising orgies. Now Ma rattles off his advice – swimming increases sexual desire; pee in short bursts, not a stream – at a convention co-hosted by family planning authorities. More than 30,000 visitors thronged last weekend to the 10th national (Guangzhou) sex culture festival to watch pole dancers, buy 007-brand condoms and browse porn in a resolutely unerotic exhibition centre. Couples take happy snaps with giant virility figures, and unabashed shoppers fondle realistic sex dolls (though not, this year, inflatable Obamas). The wealthiest can even choose a 100,000 yuan (£10,000) solid gold "pleasure object" – the kind of high-class product that appeals to shoppers usually found in Louis Vuitton or Dolce & Gabbana, a sales assistant said. But the shots of "artistic nudes" are tame by western standards. And though hordes of men photograph furiously as semi-clad models strut to a disco version of the Old Spice theme, there's no pouting or lip-licking. These days, sexual experimentation and puritanism sit side by side in China. Qiu Shuang, a lesbian activist and sex toy saleswoman, argued that repression had only kindled passions. "Maybe we seem very conservative, but we have the biggest desires," she said. China has an estimated six million sex workers, yet nudity is unacceptable in the cinema and there are periodic anti-porn crackdowns. Women have hymen restoration surgery so their husbands will believe they are virgins. Two years ago, an academic was jailed for hosting sex parties. It is no coincidence that the official denunciation of the disgraced politician Bo Xilai accused him of improper sexual relationships with several women. "People still frown on serial dating … [but] there are 200,000 sex shops and these huge sexual expos. Are they prudish about sex or are they incredibly liberated?" asked Richard Burger, whose new book, Behind the Red Door, chronicles the history of sex in China. He argues that for centuries China's leaders have swung between sexual openness and repression. In the Tang dynasty, prostitutes were registered; the late Ming saw explicit novels such as The Plum in the Golden Vase. At times, homosexual love has been celebrated. At other times, erotic books have been burned. In the west, the sexual revolution was part of a wider movement of personal liberation and challenges to authority. But in China, the post-Mao shift from procreation to recreation was driven not by the Beatles and Lady Chatterley but by the Communist party. "After the Cultural Revolution, the government's control [of people's lives] started loosening, and at the same time the one-child policy meant people could have sex lives that weren't for the purpose of giving birth. They could have sex for pleasure," said Pan Suiming of Renmin University, one of the country's leading experts on sex. Li Yinhe, another researcher, said: "In the past, women were not allowed to like sex – sex was only for giving birth to children, or serving men. Now they can enjoy sex." When the magazine Popular Cinema dared to print a romantic clinch in 1979, it sparked a national controversy. The publication of the kiss – a still from a Cinderella movie starring Richard Chamberlain – was "decadent, capitalist, an act meant to poison our youths", complained an irate local propaganda official. But thousands more picked up their pens to support the magazine. But puckering up lost its subversive edge – even if the average age for a first kiss remained at 23 just a few years ago. These days premarital sex is very common and has spread to rural areas too. Yet even now, most assume that sexual relationships end in marriage. Half the men Pan surveyed in 2007 reported only one sexual partner – and even younger and more experienced men have double standards, as a group of female students at the festival testify. "There's a long way to go. People do think a woman is a slut [if she has had multiple partners]," said Emily Mai. "We have a right to chose premarital sex," added her friend Yee Bai. "It's freedom. We can't stand to have only 'pure, spiritual' love." Sun Zhongxin of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh says the sexual revolution has benefited different sexes and sexualities to different degrees, and that both men and women may face new pressures, feeling inadequate when faced with a single and sometimes more westernised standard of sexiness. Tens of millions of men will not find wives or long-term partners at all, because of China's "missing" women: illegal sex-selective abortions have caused the gender ratio at birth to rise from the natural rate of 106 boys per 100 girls to 118 boys. Many more men are migrant workers who may see their spouses once a year at best. "They can use sexual toys to let their desire out. It's better than going to have sex with prostitutes," said the event's deputy director, Zhu Jianming. But as Sun pointed out, the sex industry is not just the fruit of changing attitudes; it has been aggressive in pushing "liberalisation". The results can be alarming. One stall in Guangzhou is advertising a sex doll designed to look like a very young girl. Zhu dismissed concerns: "It doesn't encourage people … You can't criticise a sexual fantasy." But he adds that he too worries that some people "have been influenced by western ideas about sex, are out of control and indulge themselves sexually". He insisted the show was designed to encourage sexual morality and positive relationships, not just sexual knowledge. Though the festival clearly caters primarily to straight men, there are several older couples browsing arm in arm. A husband and wife stop to listen attentively as a salesman demonstrates the different groans emitted by a selection of fake vaginas. "In the past, when two people dated, they even had to keep their distance on the street," said 25-year-old Li Bo, sheepishly clasping the sex toy he had just won in a prize draw. "Of course we wouldn't want to go back to the old times." Additional research by Cecily Huang
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Greek police have banned protests on some Athens streets tomorrow, when thousands of police officers and snipers will protect Angela Merkel
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | John B Gurdon of Cambridge University and Shinya Yamanaka at the University of California have won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates after Turkey returned fire against Syria for a fifth day
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Valérie Trierweiler risks inflaming diplomatic row over French woman, who is seen as victim of Mexican injustice back home France's first lady, Valérie Trierweiler, has used diplomatic channels to send presents to a French woman who was jailed for 60 years in Mexico after being convicted of kidnapping. Books, beauty products and chocolates were sent to Florence Cassez in jail last week, according to Le Parisien newspaper, which says Trierweiler dispatched will send a similar parcel every month until she is freed. Struggling to find a role in a position that does not formally exist, Trierweiler's choice of worthy cause will find favour in France, where Cassez is widely viewed as a victim of Mexican injustice. Even the opposition will find it hard to criticise her choice; the former president Nicolas Sarkozy's public support of Cassez triggered a diplomatic spat between France and Mexico. "It's a precious gesture that Florence much appreciated," Jean-Luc Romero, president of Cassez' support committee. "Pressure from the Elysée is important. It shows that France is still behind her and hasn't dropped her. She has been through difficult times recently." Cassez, 37, was sentenced to 60 years in jail in 2009 for taking part in kidnappings, associating with criminals and being in possession of illegal weapon. She has always maintained her innocence. Cassez was arrested in 2005 with her then boyfriend, Israel Vallarta, the head of a notorious kidnapping gang. The long-running legal battle centres over how police handled the arrest and over evidence from kidnap victims who were blindfolded and never saw their captors, but claimed to have recognised Cassez's voice. Sarkozy made her plight a cause célèbre, regularly telephoning her. But his blistering criticism of the Mexican authorities and decision in 2011 to "dedicate" a joint cultural year to Cassez led to Mexico pulling out of the event and a diplomatic crisis. His Elysée successor, François Hollande, who has spoken to Cassez' parents by telephone "several times" according to reports, is determined to be more subtle, believing insulting the Mexican legal system will not help free her. A French diplomat in Mexico said Paris had decided to "go carefully" and let Mexican justice do its work. "Any new attempt at pressure will be very badly seen. We have to treat lightly," the diplomat said. Romero, who accompanied the French president to Mexico for the meeting of G20 leaders in June, added: "Hollande asked us what was the best way to proceed to avoid anything that might be seen as a provocation. We have learned the lesson." In March, Mexico's supreme court ruled 3-2 against releasing Cassez, but agreed to study her appeal after admitting her rights had been violated and claims of irregularities in her trial. It is expected to make a final decision whether to uphold or quash Cassez's conviction, or order a retrial, early in 2013. Cassez's French lawyer, Frank Berton, has called the situation "a massive judicial impasse". In Mexico, where kidnappings by criminal gangs are common, her case elicits little public sympathy and relatives of the kidnap victims have expressed outrage at her "special treatment" and possible release. Trierweiler's involvement has unfortunate echoes of the former first lady Cécilia Sarkozy's trip to Libya in 2007 to save a group of Bulgarian nurses jailed under Muammar Gaddafi. Nicolas Sarkozy claimed the release was a great success while European Union officials who had been working behind the scenes to secure the nurses' release accused the then French president of taking the credit for their work. Cassez's family and supporters hope Hollande will raise her case when he receives Mexico's new president Enrique Peña Nieto, who takes up office in December, at the Elysée next week. At the same time, Trierweiler will have lunch with the Mexican first lady, Angélica Rivera.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rod containing americium-241/beryllium had been lost a month ago during a 130-mile journey between oil wells The US oilfield services company Halliburton has found a seven-inch radioactive rod it lost in the Texas desert almost a month ago. The company lost the rod, which contains americium-241/beryllium, during a 130-mile journey between oil well sites in Pecos and Odessa on 11 September. A spokesman for Halliburton said the device was found late on Thursday night on a road about seven miles from the well site in Pecos, where the rod was last used. Midland County sheriff Gary Painter said an oilfield pumper recognised the device from fliers that had been handed out in the area. Halliburton workers, police officers and the national guard had been involved in searching for the rod, which is stamped with a radiation symbol and the words "Danger Radioactive: Do not handle. Notify civil authorities if found." The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had warned that the radioactive materials "could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them". The agency said americium-241/beryllium, known as Am-241, is a "category 3" source of radiation and would normally have to be held for some hours before causing health problems. But the NRC still warned that "it could possibly – although it is unlikely – be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks". It is the first time the loss of a radioactive rod has been recorded by the NRC in at least five years, a spokesman for the agency said. The three-man Halliburton crew who lost the rod had been using it to identify oil and gas deposits suitable for fracking. Halliburton, which was once run by former vice president Dick Cheney, has previously attracted controversy for its role in BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, building Guantánamo Bay and for working in Iraq, Iran and Libya.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Peace negotiations foundered after failure to agree fate of detainees, but US now ready to resume talks Peace talks between the US and the Taliban broke down in March mainly because the Afghan insurgents refused to agree to a deal by which guerrilla commanders released from Guantánamo Bay would remain under Qatari government supervision in Doha, a senior US administration official said. The official said contacts have continued between the Kabul government and Taliban representatives, and that the US was also ready to resume talks. Negotiations broke down in March after a failure to agree the fate of five insurgents, including three Taliban commanders, held in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. In return, an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, was to have been freed by a Taliban affiliate, the Haqqani network, as part of a sequence of confidence-building measures leading to a ceasefire and broader talks between Kabul and the insurgency. The collapse has been widely blamed on resistance in the US Congress and the Pentagon to allowing any Taliban prisoners to be released or transferred from Guantánamo. However, a senior administration official insisted the Obama administration had been ready to transfer the five prisoners to Qatar had the Taliban agreed to the conditions in Doha. The transfer would have required a "certification" from the defence secretary, Leon Panetta, guaranteeing to Congress that the Guantánamo inmates would not re-enter the fight against US troops. "We had made a very good arrangement with the Qataris that they would have been supervised but not in jail. It would have been high-end. It would have been a heck of a lot better than Guantánamo," the official said. "We worked our way quite a long distance on this and I think if the Taliban had agreed to the final couple of conditions on this I think we would have certified. "As the secretary of defence, you would want to certify that once these people were transferred to Qatar they didn't leave Qatar – they didn't go back to Afghanistan or Pakistan or go to London or go to conferences at Chatham House [a UK foreign policy thinktank]. Among the things we said was that if they go to Qatar they have to stay in Qatar. And they were not able to agree." The Taliban announced they were suspending talks on 15 March, accusing American negotiators of being "shaky, erratic and vague". However, the American official, in an unusually detailed account of the diplomatic effort, argued the breakdown had been caused largely by internal rifts within the insurgency. "We were asking them some very hard questions they were having a difficult time answering. They were having a hard time motivating their fighters at that time, who were asking: why should people fight when some were in Doha talking to the United States?" the official said. "We've said in public and private that we are interested in getting back into that conversation, but that is up to them." The direct contacts began in November 2010 after nine years of war, in a safe house near Munich provided by German intelligence, where US officials met Tayyab Agha, a confidant of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, in an encounter brokered by German officials and the Qatari royal family. Further rounds of preliminary talks followed in Doha in February last year and again in Germany three months later, leading to the establishment of a Taliban "political office" in Doha at the beginning of this year. The talks in Doha focused largely on the five Guantánamo detainees, who included three senior commanders: Noorullah Noori, Mullah Fazel, and former interior minister Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa. The administration official said the Doha process had not been a total failure as the Taliban had kept representatives in Doha who have had direct contact with the government of Hamid Karzai, and had dispatched an official to a meeting in Kyoto in June also attended by Masoom Stanekzai, a Karzai adviser who runs the Afghan high peace council. With the collapse of the talks in Doha, there is declining optimism in Washington over the prospects of a deal before the end of 2014, when US and other Nato combat troops are due to leave, leaving a residual force for training, counter-terrorism operations aimed at al-Qaida, and possibly counter-narcotics operations. Lieutenant General David Barno, who commanded US and allied forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005, said: "The Taliban may feel that they will be in a better bargaining position after 2014 and they are prepared to fight on through the next two years."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Draft report says telecoms giants should be shut out of US market due to Chinese government influence on their operations American companies and its government should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms, Huawei and ZTE, because they pose a national security threat to the US, the House of Representatives' intelligence committee will warn in a report to be published on Monday. The Republican-controlled panel also says US regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in the US by the two companies, which are among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones. The panel's report will cause transatlantic friction over the role of the Chinese companies. In the UK, Huawei is a major supplier to the telecoms provider BT, and has supplied infrastructure being used in the new 4G superfast mobile network built by Everything Everywhere – the merged Orange/T-Mobile. Huawei provides access to its source code for GCHQ specialists who have reportedly examined it for threats and passed it as safe for use. Huawei is a private company founded by a former Chinese military engineer, and has grown rapidly to become the world's second largest supplier, behind Sweden's Ericsson, of telecommunications network gear, with operations in more than 140 countries. ZTE is the world's fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer, with 90,000 employees worldwide, and fifth-largest maker of telecoms equipment. While both companies' sales of mobile devices such as smartphones have grown in the US, espionage fears have proscribed any move into network infrastructure sales. ZTE has also enjoyed growth in its sale of mobile devices, although in recent months it has faced allegations about banned sales of US-sanctioned computer equipment to Iran. The FBI is probing reports that the company obstructed a US Commerce Department investigation into the sales. The intelligence panel says ZTE refused to provide any documents on its activities in Iran, but did provide a list of 19 individuals who serve on the Chinese communist party committee within the company. ZTE's citing of China's state secrecy laws for limiting information it could release only added to concern over Chinese government influence over its operations, the report says. Reflecting growing US governmental and commercial concern over cyber-attacks traced to China, the report also recommends that US government computer systems not include any components from the two firms because that could pose an espionage risk. "China has the means, opportunity, and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes," the report says. It also raises the diplomatic temperature by warning that "Huawei and ZTE have failed to assuage the committee's significant security concerns presented by their continued expansion into the US … In fact, given their obstructionist behaviour, the committee believes addressing these concerns have become an imperative for the country." But Huawei's US vice-president for external affairs, William Plummer, hit back: "Baseless suggestions otherwise or purporting that Huawei is somehow uniquely vulnerable to cyber mischief ignore technical and commercial realities, recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation, do nothing to protect national security, and should be exposed as dangerous political distractions from legitimate public-private initiatives to address what are global and industry-wide cyber challenges," he said. Huawei is a "globally trusted and respected company," he said, insisting that it had cooperated with investigators. ZTE said it "profoundly disagrees" with the committee's claims: "ZTE should not be a focus of this investigation to the exclusion of the much larger western vendors," it commented in an open letter. The recommendations are the result of a year-long probe, including a congressional hearing last month in which senior Chinese executives of both companies testified, and denied posing a security threat. The most recent hearing, in September, was titled "Open hearing on national security threats posted by Huawei and ZTE". The bipartisan report is likely to become fodder for a presidential campaign in which the candidates have been competing over their readiness to clamp down on Chinese trade violations. The Republican candidate Mitt Romney, in particular, has made it a key point to get tougher on China by designating it a currency manipulator and fighting abuses such as intellectual property theft. The committee made the draft available to reporters and wire services in advance of public release on Monday, but only under the condition that they not publish stories until the broadcast Sunday of a CBS 60 Minutes report on Huawei. In the CBS report, the committee's chairman, Republican Rep Mike Rogers, urged American companies not to do business with Huawei. "Find another vendor [than Huawei] if you care about your intellectual property; if you care about your consumers' privacy and you care about the national security of the United States of America," Rogers said in comments broadcast on the programme. The panel's recommendations are likely hamper Huawei and ZTE's ambitions to expand their business in the US. Their products are used in scores of countries, including in the west. Both deny being influenced by China's communist government. "The investigation concludes that the risks associated with Huawei's and ZTE's provision of equipment to US critical infrastructure could undermine core US national-security interests," the report says. The report says the committee received information from industry experts and current and former Huawei employees suggesting that Huawei, in particular, may be violating US laws. It says that the committee will refer the allegations to the US government for further review and possible investigation. The report mentions allegations of immigration violations, bribery and corruption, and of a "pattern and practice" of Huawei using pirated software in its US facilities. An unclassified version of the report will be released at 15:00 BST, though a classified annex with "significantly more information adding to the committee's concerns" will remain redacted. Similar concerns have led the Australian government to ban Huawei from bidding as a supplier to the A$38bn National Broadband Network (NBN). And in November 2011, the US online security company Symantec dissolved a joint venture in which it was the 49% minority partner with Huawei because it feared being shut out of US government business. However, "Huawei has not and will not jeopardize our global commercial success nor the integrity of our customers' networks for any third party, government or otherwise," senior vice-president Charles Ding testified to the committee in September, suggesting it would be corporate suicide to do so. The report says the companies failed to provide responsive answers about their relationships and support by the Chinese government, and detailed information about their operations in the US. Huawei, in particular, is criticised for failing to provide thorough information, including on its corporate structure, history, financial arrangements and management. "The committee finds that the companies failed to provide evidence that would satisfy any fair and full investigation. Although this alone does not prove wrongdoing, it factors into the committee's conclusions," it says. In Washington, Huawei executive Plummer said on Friday that the company co-operated in good faith with the investigation, which he said had not been objective and amounted to a "political distraction" from cybersecurity problems facing the entire industry. All major telecommunications firms, including those in the west, develop and manufacture equipment in China and overlapping supply chains require industry-wide solutions, he added. Singling out China-based firms wouldn't help. Plummer complained that the volume of information sought by the committee was unreasonable, and it had demanded some proprietary business information that "no responsible company" would provide. In justifying its scrutiny of the Chinese companies, the committee contended that Chinese intelligence services, as well as private companies and other entities, often recruit those with direct access to corporate networks to steal trade secrets and other sensitive proprietary data. It warned that malicious hardware or software implants in Chinese-manufactured telecommunications components and systems headed for US customers could allow Beijing to shut down or degrade critical national security systems in a time of crisis or war. The committee concluded that Huawei likely has substantially benefited from the support of the Chinese government. Huawei denies being financed to undertake research and development for the Chinese military, but the committee says it has received internal Huawei documentation from former employees showing the company provides special network services to an entity alleged to be an elite cyberwarfare unit within the People's Liberation Army. The intelligence committee recommended that the government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, bar mergers and acquisitions by both Huawei and ZTE. CFIUS is a multi-agency regulatory panel chaired by treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, and screens foreign investment proposals for potential national security threats. Last year, Huawei had to unwind its purchase of a US computer company, 3Leaf Systems, after it failed to win CFIUS approval. However, Huawei employs 1,700 people in the US, and business is expanding. US revenues rose to $1.3bn in 2011, up from $765m in 2010.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: New York Yankees take 1-0 ALDS lead at Baltimore Orioles
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican presidential candidate is to call for an escalation of the conflict in Syria in a major foreign policy address Mitt Romney will call for an escalation of the conflict in Syria by arming rebels with the heavy weapons needed to confront president Bashar al-Assad's tanks, helicopters and fighter jets. Romney is to make the proposal on Monday in what his campaign team has billed as a major foreign policy speech in Lexington, Virginia. In extracts published in advance, he opened up the prospect, if he becomes president, of a US-Iranian proxy war being fought in Syria. "Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them. We should be working no less vigorously with our international partners to support the many Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran – rather than sitting on the sidelines," he said. The proposal would mark a significant shift from Barack Obama's administration's policy of trying to keep the conflict a low-intensity one amid fears it might turn into a regional war. Obama is putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the main backers of the rebels, to restrict the supply of weapons to small arms. The Republican presidential candidate has made several attempts at establishing his credentials to be commander-in-chief but those speeches made little impact. Against the background of his win over Obama in last week's debate, the Romney campaign team is hoping this speech will be better received. The speech is aimed at countering critics who say he has not had much to say so far about foreign policy and given little indication of the lines he would pursue as president. He has a large team of foreign policy advisers – more than 30 – a mixture of realists and neo-conservatives. The aggressive language in the extracts of his speech released indicate he is leaning towards the neo-conservatives. Romney's comments that will have the most bearing on the election campaign are his return to criticism of the Obama adminstration over its handling of the killings of the US ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans at the consultate in Benghazi, Libya. "The attack on our consulate in Benghazi on September 11th, 2012 was likely the work of the same forces that attacked our homeland on September 11th, 2001. This latest assault cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the administration's attempts to convince us of that for so long," Romney said. "No, as the administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others, especially women and girls; who are fighting to control much of the Middle East today; and who seek to wage perpetual war on the west." Romney, after mishandling his initial response to the killings, is seeking to tap into widespread resentment and anger in the US, especially among conservatives, at what they regard as lack of gratitude among Libyans for American help during the Arab spring. He accused Obama of failing to provide unequivocal support for the rebels in Syria. "I will work with our partners to identify and organise those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad's tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets." He anticipated that the rebels will one day lead the country and the US should align itself with them, given the country's position at the heart of the Middle East. He said he and Obama share a desire for a safer, freer and more prosperous Middle East. "I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy. We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds," he said. He warned Iran not to pursue a nuclear weapon capability and said the US had to back this up "through actions, not just words", and urged an expansion of the aircraft carrier presence in the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf. On Afghanistan, over which Romney faced a lot of criticism for failing to mention during his Republican convention speech, he said he would not be tied to the deadline set by Obama for withdrawal by the end of 2014 and hinted he might delay it. "The route to more war – and to potential attacks here at home – is a politically timed retreat that abandons the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged their country and used it to launch the attacks of 9/11," he said. He expressed support for the US-proclaimed objective of creation of a Palestinian state.
 | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire