|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Company will plead guilty to 11 counts of misconduct or neglect in the deaths of 11 men during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill BP met its day of reckoning in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster on Thursday when the company admitted guilt on 14 criminal charges and agreed to pay an historic $4.5bn (£2.8bn) penalty in connection with the fatal explosion of its rig and the catastrophic oil spill. The payments include $4bn for criminal charges and $525m to security regulators. BP will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect in relation to the deaths of 11 men aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the rig blew up and sank in April 2010, as well as misdemeanour counts under the clean water and migratory bird acts. The company will plead guilty to lying to Congress. "This marks the single largest criminal fine – $1.25m – and the single largest total criminal resolution – $4m – in the history of the United States," the attorney general, Eric Holder, told a news conference in New Orleans. "I hope this sends a clear message to those who would engage in this kind of reckless and wanton misconduct that there will be a significant penalty to be paid." Three BP officials were also charged, in addition to the charges against the company. Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza, the two senior managers aboard the Deepwater Horizon, face charges of manslaughter and of negligence in supervising the pressure tests on the well. "In the face of glaring red flags indicating that the well was not secure, both men allegedly failed to take appropriate action to prevent the blowout," said assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer. David Rainey, BP's former vice-president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, was charged with obstruction of Congress and lying about how much oil was gushing from the well. The criminal settlement does not settle all of the claims against BP for the April 2010 blowout of the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent oil spill. BP is still on the hook for environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico and could face up to $21bn in penalties under the clean water act for restoration costs to waters, coastline and marine life. Holder said the federal government would "vigorously" pursue the case. But Thursday's deal does free the company to focus on resolving those other civil claims and on ongoing operations. BP said it not had been advised on any ban on future operations: the company was awarded a new oil lease in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The company said it had agreed to appoint two safety monitors to help improve safety. Its chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said BP believed the settlement was in the company's best interests. "We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders," he said. "It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims." In London, the company's shares, which had stopped trading before the news of the fine broke, closed down a fraction of a penny at 425.4p. So far, the company has set aside $38.1bn to settle claims and fines related to the disaster. Reaction from environmental groups was mixed. Greenpeace said the fine amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist for BP. "This fine amounts to a rounding error for a corporation the size of BP," the environmental group said. The Oceana conservation group said it was pleased the US government was holding BP accountable for its negligence in the spill, but added: "By rights, this settlement should be just a first step." It said the real test of the government's will would come when it came to assessing civil penalties on BP for environmental damage. Ed Markey, the senior Democrat on the house natural resources committee, said the fines were appropriate: "People died, BP lied to Congress, and millions of barrels of oil poured into the Gulf. This steep cost to BP will provide the Gulf coast some of the funds needed to restore the region, and will hopefully deliver some comfort and closure to the families and businesses affected by the spill." Under the deal, the oil company will pay about $1.25bn in fines along with payments of nearly $2.4bn to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and $350m to the National Academy of Sciences. Holder said much of that money would be spent in the Gulf and in developing better oil clean-up technology. The company will pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $350m for misleading investors by deliberately under-estimating the amount of crude gushing from the well. The settlement remains subject to US federal court approval. It also remains separate from the Justice Department's investigation of BP's partners in the well, Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which cemented the well.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • US concerned that violence could damage peace accords
• Concern mounts over rising civilian casualties in Gaza
• Israeli troops 'on alert' for potential ground invasion Barack Obama is pressing the Egyptian leadership to help de-escalate the bloody conflict in Gaza amid concern that a further ratcheting up of violence, such as a major Israeli ground assault, could damage the peace accords between Cairo and Jerusalem. The Egyptian prime minister, Hisham Kandil, is expected to lead a delegation to Gaza on Friday for talks with Hamas leaders on quelling the fighting which has escalated with the Israeli assassination of the Hamas military leader, Ahmed Jabari, and the firing of hundreds of rockets from Gaza into Israel. The fighting has now claimed civilian lives on both sides. On Thursday, the conflict threatened to escalate further as the Israelis stepped up their intense bombardment of Gaza and Hamas continued its barrage of rocket fire into Israel. Three people were killed and three children injured when a rocket hit their apartment block in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi. Another rocket struck close to the city of Rishon Lezion, 22 miles north of Gaza, one of almost 150 fired from the enclave on Thursday. In Gaza, there was mounting concern about rising civilian casualties, with the ministry of health reporting that four children and a woman pregnant with twins were among the dead. It said 130 people had been wounded. By late afternoon, Israeli jets were continuing, and Hamas said the death toll had reached at least 19. Israeli troops were reported to be moving south in preparation for a possible ground invasion of Gaza. However, the IDF spokeswoman, Avital Leibovitch, indicated that such a move was not imminent, saying it was only an "option" and that ground forces were "on alert". One trigger for an order to launch a ground offensive could be a rocket landing in Tel Aviv, Israel's second-largest city. Gaza's militants have never reached the city, which is roughly 50 miles north of the strip. But on Thursday, a rocket fired from Gaza reportedly landed in the sea close to the city. The Egyptian prime minister's visit to Gaza follows a call by Obama to the Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, on Wednesday in which the US president urged him not to take any action that could cause a further deterioration in relations with Israel and threaten the Camp David peace accords, according to diplomatic sources. "The American focus is getting the Egyptians to pull Hamas back, and making sure the Egyptians themselves do not do anything precipitous that could seriously damage the peace accords," said a western diplomat in the region. "The Americans recognise that there has to be a certain latitude for Morsi because he faces his own pressures to take a tougher stand with Israel. "But they want to make sure it doesn't get to a point where the peace accords are under threat, and an escalation in Gaza could push it down that path. Washington is co-opting the Egyptians into making peace not only to get Hamas to rein it in, but to stop the Egyptians themselves from taking it over the cliff." The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, spoke to the Egyptian foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, to press home the message. Amr called on the US to put pressure on the Israelis to halt the assault on Gaza, the foreign ministry said. Morsi is maintaining a firm line in public, pulling the Egyptian ambassador out of Israel and calling an emergency meeting of the Arab League. "Israel needs to understand that we won't accept the aggression that negatively affects the security and stability of the region," Morsi said on Thursday at the end of a meeting on the crisis. The Egyptian foreign ministry handed a letter to the Israeli embassy in Cairo expressing "strong condemnation" of the military strikes on Gaza. Obama also spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday. Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East negotiator and now vice-president of the Wilson Centre, said he expects Obama to have appealed to the Israelis not to push the assault too far. "The message to the Israelis is clearly restraint, give the Egyptians time to work this. Nobody has an interest in escalation," he said. Publicly, the US administration has firmly backed Israel over the Gaza conflict. The White House blamed Hamas and other armed Islamic groups for "cowardly" attacks and said in a statement about the president's call to Netanyahu that Obama reiterated "the United States's support for Israel's right to self-defence in light of the barrage of rocket attacks being launched from Gaza against Israeli civilians". Miller said Obama will remain unwavering in his support of Israel – not just in Gaza but on diplomatic issues such as opposition to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas's plan to ask the UN general assembly to recognise Palestinian statehood later this month – despite criticism from Morsi that Washington siding with the Jewish state has damaged US interests in the Middle East. "If Obama has any hope of promoting an Israeli Palestinian initiative down the road, he's going to have to remain in lock step with the current Israeli government on two issues – opposing Abbas's efforts on recognition New York and taking a very very tough line on Israeli security," said Miller. "There'll be latitude in giving the Israelis a lot of leeway in terms of the disproportionality of whatever response they undertake in Gaza." But behind the scenes Obama is having to tread carefully with Morsi who has been more forcefully critical of Israel than his predecessor, the deposed ruler, Hosni Mubarak. Morsi has said Egypt will continue to respect the peace accords but has also said Israel has not fulfilled its obligations – a claim that has caused concern in Washington that the long term stability of the agreement may be undermined. In criticising the US for taking sides with Israel against the Palestinians, the Egyptian leader singled out Washington's "failure" to ensure Israel's compliance with what he said is a requirement in the Camp David agreement for it withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. "As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians, then the treaty remains unfulfilled," he told the New York Times in September. The Egyptian president has also been strongly critical of Obama's failure to live up to the president's early promise of a shift in US policy in the Middle East and warned that it continues to foster anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. Obama has contributed to the cooling of the relationship after the close ties between the Mubarak regime and the US by saying that he regards the present Egyptian administration as neither an ally nor an enemy. But Miller said that Obama is also in a position to exert pressure on Morsi to ensure the peace treaty is not undermined by the Gaza conflict or broader political pressures, not least over Egypt's position as one of the largest recipients of US aid. "We've got a $4.5bn IMF loan to Egypt under consideration and Morsi wants our help with that. Why is there massive assistance to Egypt? It grew out of the peace treaty. Without that peace treaty, the chances of our treating Egypt as a special case are going to diminish dramatically," he said. "Morsi has a much more proactive agenda which is to actively work to make an already cold peace colder. Ultimately he could get away with it, to redefine the nature of the Egyptian-Israeli relationship which he doesn't like. The potential upside is that if Morsi's role is a positive one in defusing this crisis, it would serve to inject a fair amount of stability in the Egyptian-Israeli relationship right now because under a Muslim Brotherhood president, every day that peace treaty exists it's legitimised."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tom Harkin says better federal regulation of compounders needed but industry lobby blames FDA for not enforcing laws The chairman of a congressional panel investigating a health scandal that has killed 32 people and sickened 400 promised to take action to prevent such a tragedy happening again. Senator Tom Harkin, of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee, said that better federal regulation was needed to stop companies such as the New England Compounding Center from acting like drug manufacturers and said he would work with the industry in the future. At the Senate hearing, the second congressional session to scrutinize the oversight of compounding pharmacies in as many days, legislators described the health scandal as "needless tragedy" and a "catastrophic failure" of federal and state regulatory bodies to protect the public. Amid a growing frustration towards the agencies concerned, one senator expressed scepticism over whether, given the additional regulation it has asked for, the Food and Drug Administration would be any more effective than before. Another questioned why the FDA existed if they could not stop "back alley" companies that they knew had breach standards from operating. The regulation of compounding pharmacies is currently inadequately governed amid a patchwork of laws, between the state and federal authorities. Harkin said his panel would find a bipartisan solution that would protect small drug compounders from regulations that could mean higher compliance costs. "In the face of such a tragedy, it is natural to want to take action," said Harkin, at the beginning of the hearing into the cause of the outbreak linked to the Massachusetts-based pharmacy, NECC. "And we will." He said it was important to remember that drug compounding is an essential part of healthcare and that most compounding pharmacies, which mix customised medications based on individual prescriptions, operate on a vastly smaller scale than NECC, which mass-producing thousands of vials of drugs and distributed them to 23 states. That trend has prompted calls for tighter oversight of compounders. "We do not know where or how much large-scale drug compounding is being conducted, or if these companies are compounding drugs in accordance with best practice standards," said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, who chairs the Senate health committee. "This is a problem and indicates to me the need for better federal regulation in this area." The call for legislation was backed by the FDA, which has called for regulations which distinguishes between traditional compounders and those who operate like manufacturers. Dr Lauren Smith, interim commissioner of the Massachusetts department of public health, has also told lawmakers that current laws which leave oversight of compounders to states are inadequate and that new legislation is needed to bolster FDA authority to register and regulate large-scale compounding operations. "If we fail to act, this type of incident will happen again. It's a matter of when, not if, I'm afraid," Margaret Hamburg, the FDA commissioner, told the Senate panel. However, the top lobbyist representing compounding pharmacies said that Congress does not need to draft new laws because current laws, if enforced, wold have prevented the outbreak. David Miller, the head of the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, said the NECC was operating as a rogue drug manufacturer and should have been shut down years ago by federal regulators. He told the Senate committee there was "no question" who should have been responsible for shutting it down as an "illegal drug manufacturer – and that is the FDA." He said: "They knew that the company was distributing drug without prescription in the US and did nothing to stop them." The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists has spent more than $1m lobbying Congress in the past decade and has a track record of defeating measures opposed by the industry. In 2007, senators including Ted Kennedy and Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, introduced a bill to give the FDA more power to inspect compounders, set standards for sterile drugs and limit interstate sale of medications. Roberts told the hearing that the bill was defeated after lawmakers were inundated by protests from the compounding industry. "What we needed were more answers; what we got was pushback," Roberts said. Both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have called for stronger FDA authority over drug compounding. But some have called for a more cautious approach, emphasizing the failure of FDA and Massachusetts state regulators to act against NECC despite repeated problems with its products and business operation. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said the meningitis outbreak was a "disaster waiting to happen" and questioned whether, if additional laws were forthcoming, whether the FDA was the best agency to handle oversight. He told Hamburg, who testified before the hearing: "A lot of the questions you are seeing reflects a scepticism on the part of Congress and the public of whether the FDA will use this enhanced authority more effectively than the authority it has used to date." Hamburg said that the FDA authority was hampered by a patchwork of regulations which meant that it was reactive not proactive. The outbreak has produced 461 cases of rare fungal meningitis. More cases are expected with up to 14,000 people exposed to methylprednisolone acetate epidural injections that NECC sold in 23 states for treatment of back and joint pain. Dr Marion Kainer, the director of new and emerging diseases at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke of the "public health heroes" who had worked tirelessly to identify the source of the outbreak, to stop more products being sent out, to identify the 14,0000 patients and to stop more people dying. The recall of the contaminated steroid happened eight days after it was identified as the source of the outbreak. She said that one patient had been tracked down by contacting a tour operator in Yellowstone Park. She estimated that, had it been delayed another single day, five more patients would have died and another 59 would have become ill in the state of Tennessee alone. Tennesse was the hardest hit state. "The catastrophic failure by regulatory agencies charged with protecting patients from unsafe drugs is unacceptable," said Senator Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate committee. "We must break down this situation piece by piece to discuss how this tragedy occurred in order to prevent its repeat in the future." The NECC faces several investigations, including a federal criminal probe over unsanitary conditions at its production site and operations that critics say amounted to drug manufacturing that eluded scrutiny by FDA and Massachusetts officials. Hamburg says her agency routinely faces lawsuits and other challenges when they attempt to scrutinize compounding pharmacy operations. Legal action has already produced conflicting federal court rulings about FDA powers in different parts of the country. The FDA chief said the agency will host a meeting on December 19 with state regulators from across the country to discuss a possible framework for new federal authority. The House energy and commerce committee held a similar hearing on Wednesday at which Republican lawmakers charged that FDA had the authority to act against NECC but failed to do so in time to avert the public health crisis.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Workers plan week of action ahead of major shopping day in response to perceived greed from the retail giant Strikes and protests aimed at disrupting the retail giant Walmart during next week's Black Friday sales events began on Thursday with walk-outs at a number of stores and the promise of more actions in the lead-up to what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. The news comes amid controversy about plans by Walmart and other large chains to open on Thanksgiving evening, kicking off Black Friday a day early. It also comes as another strike has hit part of Walmart's warehouse supply chain in southern California. At least 30 workers from six different Seattle-area Walmarts have gone on strike, organisers and Walmart staff from the OUR Walmart group said. The group, which is not a union but has close ties with the labour movement, is seeking to protest what it says is low pay, too few hours and retaliation by managers against workers who speak out. Seattle Walmart worker Sara Gilbert said she had taken the decision to go on strike to protest the fact that she could only make around $14,000 dollars a year. Despite working as a customer service manager, she said, her family remained reliant on food stamps and other benefits. "I work full time at the richest company in the world," she said. The Seattle strike is aimed at kickstarting a series of protests in the run-up to Black Friday, when more than a thousand separate demonstrations ranging from walk-outs to leafleting to flash mobs are planned. So far they are set to hit Walmart stores in Illinois, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington DC. But organisers say they expect it eventually to be country-wide. "You are going to see unprecedented activity starting now and going into the holiday season. This is going to continue this year and next year," said Dan Schlademan, director of the union-backed Making Change at Walmart group which is helping organise the effort. Members of OUR Walmart are demanding better wages, better access to benefits and an end to what they say is retaliating against their members who protest or organise. Last month the group helped organise one of the biggest sets of protests to ever hit the retailer when workers held strikes at more than 12 different stores, earning national headlines across the US. Walmart has said that the complaints of OUR Walmart members represent only a tiny fraction of its huge workforce of 1.3 million people. "There have been a very small number of associates raising concerns about their jobs," said Walmart spokesman Steve Restivo. "When our associates bring forward concerns, we listen. Associates have direct lines of communication with their management team and we work to understand their concerns," he added. But the Black Friday protests are only one of several areas of controversy to hit Walmart in recent months. The company has also been struck by a series of strikes and protests in its warehouse supply chain, some of which is outsourced to third party logistics firms and staffing agencies. Those outside companies have been accused by some campaigners of poor safety standards, meagre wages and also retaliating against workers who complain. A group of warehouse workers at a Walmart supply chain warehouse in southern California have also launched a strike action this week following a previous protest in September. Some 30 workers held a picket outside a huge warehouse in Mira Loma, California, saying that previous strikers had been sacked or had their hours reduced. Javier Rodriguez, a forklift driver at the facility, said managers had drastically cut his hours after the last protest. "This is the form of retaliation that they use for me. It makes it hard to earn enough to feed my family and run my car," he said. The strike on Thursday saw six supporters of the protest, including a pastor, arrested after sitting down in the middle of a road in front of the warehouse. "This isn't just for warehouse workers. Your efforts benefit all working people," Reverand Eugene Boutilier told a group of supporters before being handcufffed by local police. The warehouse is run by logistics giant NFI but supplies goods only to Walmart. An NFI spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment but the firm has said previously that it adheres to all legal labour standards. Meanwhile in Illinois, workers at another Walmart supply chain warehouse near the small town of Elwood filed charges to a state labour relations board alleging unfair practises by four different firms involved in the running and staffing of the warehouse. They also relate to claims of retaliation against workers who had previously gone on strike to protest an alleged practise of "wage theft" where employees are not paid for all the time they work.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pledge to tackle official corruption from new chief but ex-leader Jiang Zemin's influence brings in conservative politburo China unveiled its new leader on Thursday as Xi Jinping gained control of both the Communist party and the military for the next decade, with a speech and team of colleagues that gave no hint of a change in the country's course. It was only the second orderly transition since the founding of the People's Republic by revolutionaries, who included Xi's father. But the handover has been preceded by months of turbulence and sharp-elbowed political manoeuvring for places on the top political body. Former leader Jiang Zemin's influence seems to have produced a broadly conservative politburo standing committee, disappointing those who had been pressing for reforms. But Xi has 10 years ahead of him and some think his confidence and connections; his control over the military; the reduction of the committee from nine to seven seats; and the press of events might yet result in bolder decisions than seen under his predecessor, Hu Jintao. Though Xi's ascension was signalled five years ago, the public saw its full new leadership for the first time as the men in dark suits filed on to a red-carpeted platform in front of international media, under the glittering chandeliers of the Great Hall of the People. Chinese politics employs both spectacle and concealment: the demonstration of power – via the grandeur of the newly concluded party congress and the crush of journalists vying for shots on Thursday – yet the obfuscation of its workings. "They actually operate in a way to deify the power … if you get to see how they talk and discuss things, it reduces the mystery of power," said Wang Zhengxu, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Nottingham. "But they also want to communicate to the public that the central committee and its politburo are making decisions according to rules for the benefit of the public." No one can be sure what Xi stands for, still less what he will achieve as the first among equals. The scarcity of hard facts have also led to analysts noting, albeit mostly with tongues in cheeks, the relative size of chairs at the congress and the decision of one new leader to wear a blue rather than red tie. Xi, 59, gave a confident, relaxed performance as he introduced his colleagues. Li Keqiang, who will replace Wen Jiabao as premier, has already served one term on the committee with Xi. New arrivals include conservative figures such as Zhang Dejiang, who trained in economics in North Korea, and propaganda official Liu Yunshan. The other members are Yu Zhensheng, party chief in Shanghai; Zhang Gaoli, in charge of Tianjin; and Wang Qishan, who has taken the discipline portfolio. That move has been variously interpreted as a sign that the party will get tough on abuses or an attempt to ensure his financial expertise does not overshadow Li. The group is entirely male, although the number of women on the broader 25-member politburo doubled – to two. The Fujian party secretary, Sun Chunlan, has joined Liu Yandong. Two leaders seen as more sympathetic to reform, Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang and organisation department head Li Yuanchao, failed to reach the standing committee. But experts note that members seen as socially and politically conservative may still be open to financial modernisation and some economic reforms. Kerry Brown, of the University of Sydney, said the composition meant increased power for Xi within a "dual-core leadership" with Li Keqiang, describing their new colleagues as "not particularly disruptive". All are older figures who would normally retire after one five-year term. But Zhang Jian, a political scientist at Peking University, argued: "I don't think the other five guys will just sit there … I expect to see perhaps a little bit more paralysis." Xi sought to reach beyond the party to the public with a relatively conversational speech. After the scandal over former politburo member Bo Xilai – now facing prosecution following his wife's conviction for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood – it was perhaps inevitable he would have to address official abuses and growing public cynicism. "Inside the party there are problems that need to be addressed, especially the problems of corruption, taking bribes, being out of touch with the people, undue emphasis on formalities and bureaucratism, which must be addressed by great efforts," he pledged. But there was no hint of a new approach to tackling the problems. "It was powerful, down-to-earth, authoritative, and calm. He did not have empty conventional talk," said Li Weidong, a Beijing-based political commentator. "I don't have any expectation of political reform. However, I have hopes of them improving normal people's lives, reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, and solving the problems that normal people are demanding [answers to] now." Xi said people yearned "for better education, stable jobs, more satisfactory income, greater social security, improved medical and healthcare, and more comfortable living conditions and a more beautiful environment". Zhang Jian noted: "He carefully did not mention people wanting more decisions in their own lives." Xi is not only the "princeling" son of a venerated revolutionary figure, Xi Zhongxun, but enjoys strong party and military connections across the party and with the military thanks to his previous roles. Hu waited two years to take over chairmanship of the central military commission from Jiang after becoming the party's leader, but Xi has already claimed the position. His wife, Peng Liyuan, is a famous singer. They have one daughter, currently studying at Harvard.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Israel continues military assault on Gaza strip
• Egyptian PM to visit Gaza tomorrow
• Rocket strike on southern Israel kills three
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former CIA director insists no information was passed to Paula Broadwell as closed-door congressional hearing begins Former CIA director David Petraeus has denied passing classified documents to his lover, Paula Broadwell, as the FBI investigation focuses on how the general's biographer came to have restricted material on a personal computer and in her house.
Petraeus also told CNN that his resignation as the intelligence agency chief was solely the result of the affair and was not linked, as some Republicans have hinted, to the CIA's role during the Benghazi attack in which the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans, including two CIA security men, were killed.
Petraeus has agreed to give evidence on Friday to congressional intelligence committees looking into the security failures around Stevens' death, including allegations that the State Department turned down appeals from American officials in Libya for more protection, and accusations that the CIA and other agencies failed to heed warning signs of an attack. The closed door hearings opened on Thursday with appearances by Petraeus's replacement, acting CIA director Michael Morell, and the national intelligence director, James Clapper. CNN did not directly quote Petraeus. It said he had a conversation with one of its reporters, Kyra Phillips, who has previously interviewed him. She said that although Petraeus was no longer formally required to testify to congressional intelligence committees about the Benghazi attack once he resigned as CIA director, he is keen to do so. "He said this has nothing to do with Benghazi, and he wants to testify. He will testify," she said on CNN. Phillips also quoted Petraeus as saying that he resigned as a matter of honour after he "engaged in something dishonourable". "He was very clear that he screwed up terribly ... even felt fortunate to have a wife who is far better than he deserves," Phillips said. Petraeus's affair with Broadwell prompted the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, to order a review of ethics training for military officers. The FBI is scrutinising classified material discovered in Broadwell's house and on her home computer. But Phillips said Petraeus denied giving secret documents to his biographer and lover. "He insisted to me that he has never passed classified information to Paula Broadwell," she said. The Pentagon withdrew Broadwell's security clearance as a lieutenant colonel in the military intelligence reserve on Wednesday as the focus of the FBI investigation shifted to how she came to have classified documents. Her security clearance gave her access to "secret" and "top secret" material. However, it would not necessarily have permitted her to keep hold of classified documents, or to store them at her house or on a personal computer.
CNN reported a source as saying that "Broadwell was acting as Petraeus' archivist". Concerns that Petraeus may have spoken to his mistress about secret information were raised after it was revealed that in a speech at the University of Denver last month, Broadwell told students that the Benghazi attack on 11 September was prompted by the CIA holding militiamen prisoner there.
"I don't know if a lot of you have heard this, but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to get these prisoners back," she said. The CIA has denied the claim. The intelligence committees of both houses of Congress are keen to speak to Petraeus about what the CIA told the White House in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack as well as whether it had picked up warnings of an imminent assault and security failings. Senator John McCain is pressing for Watergate-style public hearings after accusing the president of being an incompetent or a liar over the attack. Republican ire has focused on Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, who said in television interviews five days after the attack that it was an angry spontaneous response to an anti-Muslim video on the web which prompted protests in Egypt and other countries. McCain has accused the administration of playing down links between the attackers and al-Qaida and of denying the Benghazi assault was a terrorist attack. Barack Obama fired back on Wednesday, vigorously defending Rice by saying her statements merely reflected the intelligence information available at the time. Petraeus is likely to face intense questioning over whether that is true. CBS reported that it obtained the CIA talking points given to Rice, which were also supplied to the House of Representatives intelligence committee ahead of Thursday's hearing, in which no reference is made to the Benghazi assault being a terrorist attack. The memo appears to back Obama's assertion that Rice accurately reflected what she was told by the intelligence service. "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations," the CIA talking points said. "This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated." McCain said he also wants Petraeus to explain why there were not "significant forces" in or near Libya to respond to the attack, although it is not immediately clear that was the CIA's responsibility even though it is evolving from an intelligence organisation and increasingly resembles a paramilitary force. The committees have agreed not to ask about the Broadwell affair.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oil giant will pay $4.5bn to US authorities and agrees to plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct over fatal rig explosion BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal fine in US history – $4.5bn – to resolve all criminal charges arising from the fatal oil rig explosion and catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said on Thursday that it had agreed to pay $4bn to the US government over five years, and $525m to the Securities and Exchange Commission. That money will be paid over three years. The criminal settlement does not settle all of the claims against BP for the April 2010 blowout of the Deepwater Horizon, and the subsequent oil spill. The oil giant is not yet off the hook for environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico, and could face billions in restoration costs to waters, coastline and marine life. But Thursday's deal does limit BP's exposure to further criminal charges and penalties, and frees the company to focus on resolving those other civil claims. The fine is the largest criminal penalty in US history, easily outstripping the previous record of $1.2bn levied by the Justice Department against drug giant Pfizer over fraudulent marketing practices. In addition to the fines, the oil company agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect of ships' officers, arising from the deaths aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the rig exploded and sank. It also agreed to single misdemeanour counts under the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Act and one felony count of obstruction of Congress. The settlement remains subject to US federal court approval. "All of us at BP deeply regret the tragic loss of life caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident as well as the impact of the spill on the Gulf coast region," BP's chief executive, Bob Dudley, said in a statement. "We apologise for our role in the accident, and as today's resolution with the US government further reflects, we have accepted responsibility for our actions." The company's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said BP believed the settlement was in the company's best interests. "We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders," he said in the statement. "It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims." In London the company's shares, which had stopped trading before the news of the fine broke, closed down a fraction of a penny at 425.4p. So far, the company has set aside $38.1bn to settle claims and fines related to the disaster. The Justice Department is expected to issue a statement on the settlement later on Thursday. It was expected that a number of BP executives and managers, including those working on the rig the night of the explosion, would be charged. All but one of the 14 criminal charges announced on Thursday relate to the night of the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, and are based on the negligent misinterpretation of the negative pressure tests performed on the well. A number of the investigations into the disaster have homed in on the final hours before the rig explosion, when engineers tried and abandoned different plans to finish off the well. The final criminal count arises from statements BP officials made to a closed session of Congress about how much oil was gushing from its stricken well. The company is accused of deliberately underestimating the flow-rate – which experts say compromised efforts to cap the well. It was not immediately clear how BP's plea would affect its operations in the Gulf. The oil company remains one of the major players in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. BP said it was not aware of any government actions to suspend or curtail its activities in the Gulf, as a result of the settlement. The settlement could also clear the way for the justice department to come to a plea deal with BP's partners on the doomed well: Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which cemented the well.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New GDP data shows that the eurozone is officially in recession, the day after the region was gripped by strikes and protests
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Industry group tells Senate hearing that outbreak occurred because officials failed to take action under current laws US states should remain the primary regulators for compounding pharmacies, rather than the US Food and Drug Administration, despite a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak that has killed 32 people since September, an industry group said on Thursday. The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, headquartered in Missouri City, Texas, told a US Senate oversight panel that the meningitis outbreak raging across 19 states occurred because regulatory officials at both the state and federal levels failed to take action under current laws. The New England Compounding Center (NECC) from Framingham, Massachusetts, faces several investigations including a federal criminal probe over unsanitary conditions at its production site and operations that critics say amounted to drug manufacturing that eluded scrutiny by FDA and the Massachusetts board of registration in pharmacy. "Massachusetts' board obviously failed to execute its responsibilities both to its citizens as well as patients in other states," the industry group's chief executive, David Miller, said in written testimony submitted to the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee. "The state and the FDA should have worked together to force the pharmacy to register as a manufacturer," he said. "NECC showed blatant disregard for existing rules and regulations." Miller submitted his testimony ahead of a Senate committee hearing to examine the cause of the meningitis outbreak and determine whether new federal legislation may be necessary to bolster FDA authority over pharmacies that compound drugs in large quantities, especially sterile products. The outbreak has produced 461 cases of rare fungal meningitis, and more are expected with as many as 14,000 people exposed to methylprednisolone acetate epidural injections that NECC sold in 23 states for treatment of back and joint pain. The House of Representatives energy and commerce committee held a similar hearing on Wednesday at which Republican lawmakers charged that FDA had the authority to act against NECC but failed to do so in time to avert the public health crisis. FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg and Dr Lauren Smith, interim commissioner of the Massachusetts department of public health, both told House lawmakers that current laws which leave oversight of compounders to states are inadequate and that new legislation is needed to bolster FDA authority to register and regulate large-scale compounding operations. Hamburg complained that her agency routinely faces lawsuits and other challenges when they attempt to scrutinize compounding pharmacy operations. Legal action has already produced conflicting federal court rulings about FDA powers in different parts of the country. But Miller said FDA is already capable of regulating pharmacies that engage in manufacturing or run afoul of state regulators. "Since the practice of pharmacy is already regulated at the state level, the majority of policy and oversight is best if implemented, addressed, enforced at the licensure level," he said in testimony released by the Senate committee. "States have the ability to remove a pharmacy's license if that pharmacy is not operating within its licensure requirements," Miller added. Drug compounding is a little-known practice in which pharmacists traditionally alter or recombine drugs to meet the special needs of specific patients with a doctor's prescription. It is overseen primarily by state authorities that critics say are often ill-equipped for the job. But in some cases, as with NECC, compounding has evolved to include large-scale production that some experts view as drug manufacturing that should be, but currently is not, subject to FDA regulation. While Republicans remain sceptical about the need for new legislation, Democrats in the House and Senate have called for bipartisan action before the end of this year.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Petraeus breaks his silence to deny leaks as House and Senate committees hold closed meetings on Benghazi attack
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hearing Rihanna sing her abusive partner's praises makes this a deeply disturbing listen, however good the tunes You don't even have to listen to Rihanna's seventh album to set alarm bells ringing. You merely have to look at its track listing. There, sandwiched between a collaboration with singer Mikky Ekko called Stay and the intriguingly titled Love Without Tragedy/Mother Mary comes track 10: Nobody's Business (feat. Chris Brown). Uh-oh. If nothing else, Nobody's Business is – if you'll pardon the phrase – one in the eye for the kind of person who tells you modern pop music has nothing new to offer: it's hard to think of another perky disco-house number featuring a victim of domestic abuse duetting with her abuser about how perfect their relationship is. "Could we become love's persona?" they coo, prompting the answer: no you probably can't, because three years ago, one of you beat the other one up so savagely he left her with major contusions either side of her face, a bloody nose, a split lip and bite marks on her arms and fingers, an incident she told police was symptomatic of an "ongoing and escalating abusive relationship". You'd listen to Nobody's Business with your jaw on the floor if you weren't well primed for what to expect. Vast swathes of Unapologetic's lyrics appear to be concerned with Rihanna and Brown's relationship. You get a lot of stuff about how exciting dangerous men are, the appeal of affairs that are wrong but feel right, how no one else can match up to him. "I pray that love don't strike twice," offers Love Without Tragedy, again inviting an inevitable response: you want to pray your ghastly on-off boyfriend doesn't, either. You could dismiss all this stuff as merely wildly misguided and naive were it not for the fact that elsewhere, Unapologetic actually appears to play on the incident in question. "Your love hit me to the core, I was fine til you knocked me to the floor," she sings over a loping, drumless reggae rhythm on No Love Allowed. "Dial 911 it's a critical emergency." Rihanna might argue with some justification that a lot of other people have made money from her relationship with Brown, so why shouldn't she? Furthermore, perhaps, she's only telling the truth about how she feels. But that doesn't make hearing it any more edifying. Still, the whole thing must come as quite the spirit-bucking tonic for any listening domestic abusers. Leaving all that aside to concentrate on the music is a big ask. But it's worth noting that, sonically, Unapologetic is a far more interesting album than its predecessor. Rihanna is as responsible as any artist for the homogenisation of the Top 40 into the same weary pop-dance template. It gets used over and over again because it's commercially successful, and it's been more commercially successful for Rihanna than anyone, providing the basis for S&M, The Only Girl in the World, We Found Love and Where Have You Been. And yet, it's largely absent here, the David Guetta-produced Right Now notwithstanding. That sounds less like a song than a bid to break the world record for cramming current pop cliches into three minutes. Elsewhere, however, the various producers seem to have been minded to try something different, or at least to rearrange voguish sounds into less familiar shapes. Fresh Off the Runway piles on distorted synthesisers derived from Joey Beltram's 1990 rave classic Mentasm until it sounds weird and disorientating. What Now attempts to weld a walloping brostep drop to a sensitive acoustic guitar and piano ballad with suitably peculiar results: there's a fantastic moment towards the end where producer Ighile throws in a widdly-woo guitar solo, apparently in the mistaken belief that the track wasn't yet preposterous enough. During its best moments, you're struck by the suspicion that Unapologetic's producers might be trying to undercut the lyrical content. Numb apparently returns to the subject of Rihanna's personal life – "Can't tell me nothin' … I don't care, get closer to me if you dare" – but the music doesn't sound defiant: it lurches and drags along, an oppressive mass of slowed-down voices and grating electronics. Pour It Up's invitation to splash your cash in a strip club is set to a weird, disjointed, gloopy backdrop: it doesn't sound like much fun there, a sensation compounded by a particularly dead-eyed vocal. You get another one of those on Jump, ostensibly an unmissable invitation to frenetic sexual activity in Rihanna's boudoir, rendered intriguingly weird by her delivery. "Ride my pony, my saddle is waiting," she sings, blankly, as if she finds the prospect of frenetic sexual activity only marginally more attractive than having a verruca frozen off. So there's stuff here that's worth hearing, if you could untangle the music from the artist's personal life. But you can't, and furthermore, you get the feeling that the artist doesn't want you to. Perhaps it's quite a cold and canny move masquerading as an outpouring of unpalatable emotion, playing on the public's prurient interest in her love life. Perhaps that's too cynical. Either way, for all its musical value, listening to Unapologetic is a pretty depressing experience. Rating: 3/5
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | AP source says BP will plead guilty to obstruction and two employees face manslaughter charges for deaths of 11 people Oil giant BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in US history, totaling billions of dollars, for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said Thursday. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the deal, also said two BP employees face manslaughter charges over the death of 11 people in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the massive spill. The source said BP will plead guilty to obstruction for lying to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well. The Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, sank after the explosion that occurred on April 20, 2010. The well on the sea floor spewed an estimated 206 million gallons of crude oil, soiling sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, killing wildlife and shutting vast areas of the Gulf to commercial fishing. The spill exposed lax government oversight and led to a temporary ban on deepwater drilling while officials and the oil industry studied the risks, worked to make it safer and developed better disaster plans. BP's environmentally-friendly image was tarnished, and independent gas-station owners who fly the BP flag claimed they lost business from customers who were upset over the spill. BP chief executive Tony Hayward stepped down after the company's repeated gaffes, including his statement at the height of the crisis: "I'd like my life back." The cost of BP's spill far surpassed the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. Exxon ultimately settled with the US government for $1bn, which would be about $1.8bn today. The government and plaintiffs' attorneys also sued Transocean, the rig's owner, and cement contractor Halliburton, but a string of pre-trial rulings by a federal judge undermined BP's legal strategy to pin blame on them. At the time of the explosion, the Deepwater Horizon was drilling into BP's Macondo well. The rig sank two days later. After several attempts failed, engineers finally were successful in capping the well on July 15, 2010, halting the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico after more than 85 days. The disaster also created a new lexicon in American vocabulary — such as top kill and junk shot — as crews used innovative solutions to attempt to plug the spewing well with pieces of rubber. As people all over the world watched a live spill camera on the internet and television, the Obama administration dealt with a political headache, in part because the government grossly underestimated how much crude was spilling into the Gulf. US district judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans was assigned to oversee tens of thousands of court claims spawned by the explosion. A trial date was set, but Barbier postponed it so BP could hammer out a deal with attorneys for Gulf coast shrimpers, commercial fishermen, charter captains, property owners, environmental groups, restaurants, hotels and others who claim they suffered economic losses after the spill. Relatives of workers killed in the blast also sued. Barbier gave his preliminary approval to that proposed settlement in May and scheduled a January trial for the remaining claims, including those by the federal government and Gulf states. In a pre-trial court filing, the Justice Department said it would argue that BP's actions and decisions leading up to the deadly blowout amounted to gross negligence. "We do not use words like 'gross negligence' and 'willful misconduct' lightly," a Justice Department attorney wrote. "But the fact remains that people died, many suffered injuries to their livelihood, and the Gulf's complex ecosystem was harmed as a result of BP and Transocean's bad acts or omissions." One of Barbier's rulings possibly insulates Transocean and Halliburton from billions of dollars in liability. Barbier said Transocean and Halliburton weren't obligated to pay for many pollution claims because of contracts they signed with BP. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation of the spill. The only person facing charges so far is former BP engineer Kurt Mix, who was arrested in Texas in April on obstruction of justice charges. Mix is accused of deleting text messages about the company's response to the spill, not what happened before the explosion. The companies also sued each other, although some of those cases were settled last year. BP has sued Transocean for at least $40bn in damages. And there are still other claims against BP from financial institutions, casinos and racetracks, insurance companies, local governments and losses caused by a government-imposed moratorium on drilling after the spill. None of those are covered by BP's proposed settlement with the private lawyers. A series of government investigations have spread blame for the disaster. In January 2011, a presidential commission found that the spill was caused by time-saving, cost-cutting decisions by BP, Halliburton and Transocean that created unacceptable risk. The panel didn't point blame at any one individual, concluding the mistakes were caused by systemic problems. In September 2011, however, a team of US Coast Guard officials and federal regulators issued a report that concluded BP bears ultimate responsibility for the spill. The report found BP violated federal regulations, ignored crucial warnings and made bad decisions during the cementing of the well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. BP has repeatedly said it accepts some responsibility for the spill and will pay what it owes, while urging other companies to pay their share. BP waived a $75m cap on its liability for certain economic damage claims under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, though it denied any gross negligence.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New GDP data shows that the eurozone is officially in recession, the day after the region was gripped by strikes and protests
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Gaza militants and Israel trade fire after commander of Hamas's military wing killed
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Open letter from marine scientists at Dalhousie University challenges claim that cull is needed to help fish stocks Canada's multimillion dollar proposal to cull grey seals will not bring back the ravaged stocks of Atlantic cod it is intended to help, scientists have said. In October, the Canadian Senate approved a controversial plan to kill 70,000 grey seals in the Gulf of St Lawrence under a bounty system next year, ostensibly to revive the cod stocks that the seals were eating. But a group of marine scientists at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have said in a recent open letter: "There is no credible scientific evidence to suggest a cull of grey seals in Atlantic Canada would help depleted fish stocks recover. "Seals are being used as a scapegoat, just like whales were once blamed for fishery declines," said Hal Whitehead, marine biologist at Dalhousie, told the Guardian. He called the proposed cull an abuse of the science. "I don't like the idea of slaughtering all these animals for no reason." Canada's Atlantic cod stocks, once estimated at 1.5-2.5 billion fish of reproductive age, collapsed in the early 1990s from overfishing. Despite a nearly total ban on cod fishing for the past 20 years, stocks have not recovered. That's not the case for grey seals. Similarly depleted by hunting, numbers stood at just a few thousand in the 1970s. Following the collapse of markets for seal fur, mainly due to bans by European countries, their numbers increased dramatically. Grey seals are now estimated at 300,000 to 400,000. Canada's standing Senate committee on fisheries and oceans report declared last month that since there are more seals, and seals eat fish, they are "an important cause" in the lack of recovery of Atlantic cod, as well other groundfish like American plaice, winter skate and white hake. The committee, after looking at reports by fishermen and the Department Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) studies estimating that cod represents 1-7% of seal diets, said it was "convinced" that predation by seals was a major reason cod stocks had not recovered. The cull request was currently being reviewed, said a DFO spokeswoman. That seals are a factor in the lack of cod and groundfish recovery was "a logical conclusion given that an individual grey seals eat between 1 and 2 tonnes of fish every year", she told the Guardian. But Sara Iverson, a researcher in physiological ecology at Dalhousie University, said cod madke up a very small part of the grey seal's diet. Iverson, who has studied their diets for 17 years, said they prefer fatty fish, while cod are lean with only 1% body fat. There are all kinds of reasons why the cod have not bounced back, Whitehead said, adding that there has never been a complete ban with some local fisheries continuing, and there is a problem of bycatch. However he said the leading theory amongst scientists was a species shift. When an abundant species like the cod suddenly declines, other species step into their ecological niche. "Northern shrimp have taken over and are now the big fishery in the region," he said. John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, described the bounty system of payment to seal hunters a "nothing more than a subsidy for a dead industry "The money could be put to better use by buying out sealing licences and creating sustainable employment for the sealers."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Human rights campaigners say no dissidents are among prisoners to be released in 'goodwill gesture' Burmese authorities have freed more than 450 detainees in a goodwill gesture before a historic visit by the US president, Barack Obama. But human rights campaigners said the list of released prisoners did not include any political dissidents. Announcing the amnesty – the latest in a series that have coincided with high-profile visits of foreign dignitaries or trips by senior Burmese leaders overseas – state media said late on Wednesday that its aim was "to help promote goodwill and the bilateral relationship". A home ministry official told Reuters that an unspecified number of the country's remaining 300 or more political detainees would be released. However Bo Kyi, of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), said no prisoners of conscience had been freed so far. "All are common criminals or foreign nationals from China, Thailand or neighbouring countries. We know of no political prisoners among the 452 freed today," he said. Five or six prisoners had been released from the notorious Loikaw prison in Kayah state in eastern Burma, Bo said, but none were political prisoners. U Myint Aye, a 61-year-old human rights activists and one of the most high-profile dissidents currently detained, is held at Loikaw. Details of the exact identities of those released on Thursday remain unclear and there was no further confirmation of the AAPP's claim. However, a failure to release any political detainees would mar preparations for Obama's visit, his first after his re-election, on Monday. Over the past year, Burma has introduced the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a military coup 50 years ago. A semi-civilian government stacked with former generals has allowed elections, eased rules on protests, relaxed censorship and freed some dissidents. In response, the US and the European Union have eased sanctions on the country. However, western leaders have repeatedly called for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Burma. Around 700 were freed between May 2011 and July 2012. An amnesty was announced in September but it included only 88 dissidents. Campaign groups have been critical of the visit. Obama was rushing to "normalise relations" with Burma, Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, told the Guardian earlier this month. "Burma isn't a normal country; it is not a democracy and still has one of the worst human rights records in the world", Farmaner said. Obama, the first ever US president to visit Burma, will be coming from Cambodia, where he is attending the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) summit, via Thailand, a long-standing US ally in the region. Obama has repeatedly signalled his desire to refocus American foreign policy on the Asia-Pacific region after a decade when conflicts in the Middle East have dominated. One key aim is to roll back growing Chinese influence. Burma, which has huge natural resources and a key strategic location with borders with China and India as well as Indian Ocean ports, is seen as key to the effort to bolster US influence. During decades of isolation, Beijing consolidated political and commercial links with the Burmese elite. But key players in the opaque military-dominated regime felt that the relationship was one-sided and needed to be balanced. Obama is due to meet the Burmese president, Thein Sein, seen by analysts as one of the driving forces behind the recent reforms, on Monday. He will also see the veteran pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Earlier this week Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in November 2010, cautioned against "too much optimism" regarding reforms in her country and, in a speech in India on Wednesday, said Delhi's relatively close relations with the repressive military authorities over recent years had "disappointed" her. The election of Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner, to parliament in April was key in persuading the west to begin rolling back sanctions after a year of reforms. Many US companies are looking at starting operations in the country attracted by the vast untapped market it represents and the prospect of low-cost labour. Obama is expected to raise the vexed question of minority rights in Burma and the potential for religious violence. There have been repeated clashes between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhists in the west of the country, with hundreds dead and tens of thousand displaced. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been attacked for not taking a stronger stance on the issue, called the recent strife "a huge international tragedy" in an interview with Indian TV.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ireland's health service to appoint independent investigator into death of Savita Halappanavar after she was refused abortion Ireland's heath service is appointing an external investigator to head the inquiry into how an Indian woman died of blood poisoning after she was repeatedly refused an abortion in an Irish hospital. Savita Halappanavar's husband, Praveen, said his wife asked for a termination in University Hospital Galway after being told her baby would not survive. He claimed she was refused a termination because medical staff at UHG believed there was still a foetal heartbeat even though his wife died in agony afterwards. The Health Service Executive's national incident management team has confirmed it is investigating the 31-year-old dentist's death last month. In a statement, the HSE said it was in the process of appointing an independent, external report in obstetrics and gynaecology to join its inquiry team. On Thursday night candlelit vigils were held in memory of Halappanavar in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Limerick, and the Irish embassy in London was picketed. In the largest of the demonstrations, 2,000 people protested outside the Irish parliament over what they called the "political cowardice" of the country's leadership on the abortion issue. A mass protest against Ireland's abortion ban is to be staged in Dublin on Saturday and there are calls for other Irish embassies across the EU to be picketed at the weekend. Halappanavar's death has prompted calls for the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition to legislate on abortion based on a 1992 ruling that terminations could be permitted in Irish hospitals if there was a "real and substantive" risk to the life of the mother. Irish governments over the last 20 years have ignored demands that they lay down specific guidelines on abortion for doctors and medical teams. The Irish cabinet is due to discuss an expert report on abortion which centres on a European court of human rights ruling last year that found in favour of three women who claimed the abortion ban was a breach of their human rights.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BP expected to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster BP confirmed it is close to agreeing a deal over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster with the US Department of Justice and is expected to plead guilty to criminal misconduct through a plea agreement, according to two sources familiar with discussions. The sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said BP would plead guilty in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution. BP said on Thursday: "No final agreements have yet been reached and any resolutions, if agreed, would be subject to federal court approvals in the US." It stressed that until the final agreements had been made, it was not certain it would enter into any such resolutions. The justice department declined to comment. The oil giant has been locked in months-long negotiations with the US government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars of potential civil and criminal liability claims resulting from the explosion on 20 April 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig. The deal could resolve a significant share of the liability that BP faces after an explosion killed 11 workers and fouled the shorelines of four Gulf Coast states in the worst offshore spill in US history. BP still faces economic and environmental damage claims sought by US Gulf Coast states and other private plaintiffs. It is unclear to which form of criminal misconduct BP would plead guilty. In an August filing, the department of justice said "reckless management" of the Macondo well "constituted gross negligence and willful misconduct", which it intended to prove at a pending civil trial set to begin in New Orleans in February 2013. The US government has not yet filed any criminal charges in the case. It is also unclear whether the deal will resolve any civil charges brought by the justice department – and how large a financial penalty BP might pay to resolve the charges, or other punishments that BP might face. Negligence is a central issue to BP's potential liability. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple the civil damages owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $21bn (£13.24bn) in a straight-line calculation. According to the justice department, errors made by BP and Swiss-based Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform, in deciphering a key pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear indication of gross negligence. "That such a simple, yet fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," the government said in its August filing. The mile-deep Macondo well spewed 4.9m barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The torrent fouled shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsed in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs. The company estimates it will cost $7.8bn to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BP expected to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster BP confirmed it is close to agreeing a deal over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster with the US Department of Justice and is expected to plead guilty to criminal misconduct through a plea agreement, according to two sources familiar with discussions. The sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said BP would plead guilty in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution. BP said on Thursday: "No final agreements have yet been reached and any resolutions, if agreed, would be subject to federal court approvals in the US." It stressed that until the final agreements had been made, it was not certain it would enter into any such resolutions. The justice department declined to comment. The oil giant has been locked in months-long negotiations with the US government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars of potential civil and criminal liability claims resulting from the explosion on 20 April 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig. The deal could resolve a significant share of the liability that BP faces after an explosion killed 11 workers and fouled the shorelines of four Gulf Coast states in the worst offshore spill in US history. BP still faces economic and environmental damage claims sought by US Gulf Coast states and other private plaintiffs. It is unclear to which form of criminal misconduct BP would plead guilty. In an August filing, the department of justice said "reckless management" of the Macondo well "constituted gross negligence and willful misconduct", which it intended to prove at a pending civil trial set to begin in New Orleans in February 2013. The US government has not yet filed any criminal charges in the case. It is also unclear whether the deal will resolve any civil charges brought by the justice department – and how large a financial penalty BP might pay to resolve the charges, or other punishments that BP might face. Negligence is a central issue to BP's potential liability. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple the civil damages owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $21bn (£13.24bn) in a straight-line calculation. According to the justice department, errors made by BP and Swiss-based Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform, in deciphering a key pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear indication of gross negligence. "That such a simple, yet fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," the government said in its August filing. The mile-deep Macondo well spewed 4.9m barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The torrent fouled shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsed in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs. The company estimates it will cost $7.8bn to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 'Princeling' gives confident performance as he introduces conservative team to media Xi Jinping took the reins of both the Communist party and the military in China on Thursday morning, before introducing the broadly conservative team who will lead the country with him. The presentation of the seven men in dark suits, at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, offered little encouragement to the growing numbers pressing for economic, social and particularly political reforms in China. It was only the second orderly transition in the more than six decades since the founding of the People's Republic by revolutionaries including Xi's father. But it has been preceded by months of turbulence and sharp-elbowed political manoeuvrings. After five years as heir apparent, 57-year-old Xi gave a confident performance as he introduced his colleagues to the waiting media. The message was one of a clean start, with the outgoing leader, Hu Jintao, giving up the chairmanship of the central military commission immediately; his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, took two years to do so. Xi will be first among equals in the top decision-making body. Li Keqiang, who will replace Wen Jiabao as premier, has already served one term on the committee with him. It has been cut from nine members to seven, apparently to make decision-making more effective. Some think that may prove harder than expected because Jiang's influence has helped to win more places than expected for his proteges. But others say it is hard to draw a straight line between personal networks and policy choices or even between an individual's approach to different areas of policy; some of the new members are seen as financial modernisers even if politically conservative. The new body includes conservative figures such as Zhang Dejiang, who trained in economics in North Korea, and the propaganda official Liu Yunshan. The other members are Yu Zhensheng, party chief in Jiang's stronghold of Shanghai, Zhang Gaoli, in charge of Tianjin, and Wang Qishan, who has taken the discipline portfolio. That move has been variously interpreted as a sign that the party will get tough on abuses after years of promising to do so or an attempt to ensure his financial expertise does not lead to him overshadowing Li when the latter becomes premier. Crucially, two leaders seen as more sympathetic to reform, the Guangdong party secretary, Wang Yang, and organisation department head, Li Yuanchao, failed to reach the top body. Zhang Gaoli was impassive as he surveyed the audience from the red-carpeted platform, but other leaders smiled as Xi introduced them during the session, which lasted less than 20 minutes. All wore dark red ties bar Wang, who sported a blue tie. Kerry Brown of the University of Sydney argued that the outcome of years of political jostling was increased power for Xi within a "dual core leadership" with Li Keqiang. "It is really the Xi-Li show. They are deeply networked individuals and both have a power base," he said. "The others aren't ever going to take away from their glory if they get things right," he added, describing their colleagues as "not particularly disruptive". All the new members of the body are older figures, meaning that under existing rules they should have to retire in five years' time, while Xi and Li carry on to another term. But Zhang Jian, a political scientist at Beijing University, argued: "I don't think the other five guys will just sit there … I expect to see perhaps a little bit more paralysis." Jean-Pierre Cabestan of Hong Kong Baptist University told Reuters: "The leadership is divided. I'm not saying that they're not going to try anything. It's easier for them to move to a new growth model. I think they agree upon that and that won't be the hardest task. But I see a lot of political paralysis in terms of changing the political system. I don't see any headway." In a deliberately opaque system that prizes consensus and continuity, it is impossible to be certain what Xi stands for and what his priorities will be – still less to know whether he will be able to carry out whatever plans he has in mind. After numerous scandals over corruption, most notoriously over former Politburo member Bo Xilai - now facing prosecution following his wife's conviction for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood - it was perhaps inevitable that Xi would have to address the issue of official abuses and growing public cynicism. "Inside the party there are problems that need to be addressed, especially the problems of corruption, taking bribes, being out of touch with the people, undue emphasis on formalities and bureaucratism, which must be addressed by great efforts," he pledged. But there was no hint that Xi would embrace new methods of tackling the problems. Many believe greater transparency and accountability are needed to root out corruption. Xi also praised the "bravery and wisdom" of the Chinese people, yet went on to add: "Our people love life and yearn for better education, stable jobs, more satisfactory income, greater social security, improved medical and health care and more comfortable living conditions and a more beautiful environment." Zhang Jian, a political scientist at Beijing University, said: "He carefully did not mention people wanting more decisions in their own lives." He noted that Xi had portrayed the Chinese people as being concerned with food and housing but having "no aspirations beyond material goods". Xi is not only the "princeling" son of a venerated revolutionary figure, Xi Zhongxun, but enjoys strong connections across the party and with the military thanks to his previous roles. His second wife, Peng Liyuan, is a famous military singer who was better known than her husband for many years. They have one daughter, who is currently studying at Harvard. As expected the standing committee is entirely male, although there are now two female members of the 25-strong Politburo thanks to the elevation of the Fujian party secretary, Sun Chunlan. She joins Liu Yandong, who some had hoped could reach the top body this year.
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