|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Can the Redskins finally get a Thanksgiving Day win over their NFC East rivals? Find out with Paolo Bandini
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lord Patten says he will stay on as Trust chairman after appointing former head of BBC News to director general role A secret 10-day emergency process culminated in the appointment of Royal Opera House chief executive Lord (Tony) Hall to the £450,000-a-year job of running the BBC, as the corporation turned to a former veteran to help begin the process of recovering from the Jimmy Savile and Newsnight crises. Hall, 61, was the only person approached by chairman Lord Patten, who is himself under fire over the appointment of the short-lived previous director general George Entwistle. He was selected after a confidential meeting of the BBC's governing Trust on Tuesday about which Patten said: "We interviewed him and he interviewed us." Patten added that he was relieved to appoint "a man who wasn't available first time round," saying that "almost everybody said he would be the best candidate". And he insisted that having completed the rushed process that he would serve out his four-year term as chairman, despite criticism of his handling of the Savile crisis. Hall joined the BBC as a trainee in 1973 after studying philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, Oxford. He spent 29 years at the corporation, rising to become head of BBC News, where he was once on the receiving end of a death threat in the aftermath of the death of Jill Dando. He ran the news division for 11 years mostly under John (now Lord) Birt, before moving over to run the Royal Opera House in 2001. At Covent Garden, Hall is credited with stabilising the institution, in management turmoil when he arrived, and helping it shed its elitist image, by, for instance, introducing cut price nights for readers of the Sun. The new director general made a brief appearance at Broadcasting House, saying that "it's been a really tough few weeks for this organisation" but added that he was "absolutely committed to our news operation" and that he believed the BBC was "an essential part of the UK" and "part of who we are". He took no questions, but went to visit the broadcaster'snewsroom and found, even after more than a decade away, he knew "half the people there". With so little time to consider his strategy for the BBC, Hall could offer few clues as to how he would lead it. He will have the task of agreeing new licence fee settlements and a new royal charter by 2017 – and a reorganisation of the BBC's governance looks likely as Hall is sceptical about the effectiveness of the BBC Trust which acts as a regulator. Hall said it was important to "have the right team in place" to run the BBC. At the moment, the broadcaster is currently without a director of television, a controller of radio and its director of news, Helen Boaden, is facing questions over whether she played any part in the suppression of an investigation into Savile's child abuse, which was quashed by the Newsnight's editor Peter Rippon last year. Patten said that he hoped Hall would work closely with Tim Davie, the acting director general, who is the only survivor of the broadcaster's senior managers in place earlier this year. Hall, a crossbencher, will retain his seat in the Lords, when he takes up the post in March 2013. His pay is below the level received by Mark Thompson, who, in some years, received more than £800,000 in pay and pension contributions during his eight-year tenure. The incoming director general will, unusually, be old enough to draw a BBC pension in his time in charge, although the BBC declined to say how much. However, his accrued pension was worth £82,000 a year in 2001, according to the BBC annual report of the year when he left. The surprise elevation was widely welcomed inside and outside the BBC. David Dimbleby, the presenter of Question Time, said he thought Hall was "a good public face for the BBC. I feel like I'm serving in the Royal Navy when the message came in: 'Winston is back.'" Maria Miller, the culture secretary, praised his "very strong track record" before reminding him that it was "important now that Tony Hall gets to grips quickly" with the organisation to "restore public confidence". The BBC Trust decided to take the unusual step of making a direct approach to Hall after a series of meetings in the wake of Entwistle's resignation the weekend before last. Ironically, Hall did not apply for the job when it last became vacant as a result of Thompson's departure earlier this year – partly because he felt he was too old - and told Patten that he believed it was time for a new generation to take on the job. However, with the BBC stricken first by the Savile child abuse revelations and then shattered by the disastrous Newsnight broadcast that wrongly linked Lord McAlpine to historic child sexual abuse in North Wales, Hall told friends that he "felt that it was his duty" to take the job. Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, said that he believed that Hall was "the right man to run the BBC" given that he has both experience of the organisation and spent "10 years outside the BBC". At 61, Yentob said, he believed that Hall had "the judgment and wisdom" to run the BBC – and that his age was not a barrier.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Stock markets rise as the long slowdown in global output could be coming to a speedy end, according to latest reports Strong manufacturing figures from China and the US fuelled speculation that a long slowdown in global output is rapidly coming to an end. Commodity prices jumped and stock markets lifted after China's manufacturing sector expanded for the first time in 13 months in November. The Chinese data, which has shocked analysts over the last year as each month revealed that output tightened further, closely followed a report that showed US manufacturing grew this month at its quickest pace since June. News that the world's largest economies are expanding, albeit at historically low levels, was enough to overcome weak figures from Britain and the eurozone where industrial output contracted and the outlook remains increasingly gloomy. UK manufacturers' total orders remained largely unchanged from October's slump, with a particularly poor showing from UK customers, although export orders improved. As a result, expected output dropped to its weakest level since the end of last year, with 9% more manufacturers expecting to cut orders than are expecting to increase them. Anna Leach, head of economic analysis at the CBI, which carried out the survey, said: "Overseas demand has improved in this month's survey, but this has not been enough to lift overall demand and support the modest expectations for growth in production levels found in the previous survey. "Business confidence continues to be undermined by uncertainty over events in Europe and the fast-approaching US fiscal cliff. However, we expect UK growth to pick up somewhat in 2013 as this uncertainty gradually subsides and global growth increases." The UK economy grew by 1% in the third quarter but there are concerns that it will shrink again in the fourth quarter, raising the prospect of a triple-dip recession at the beginning of next year. Germany's manufacturing sector shrank in November as did that of France, which also saw a sharp drop in employment as factories closed and employers laid off staff. Germany, which has suffered from the recent decline in demand for goods in China and the US, could see a resurgence as key export destinations recover. A more positive view of Germany's prospects and those of other European countries as well as the US and China lifted the FTSE 100 39 points, taking the index of Britain's top companies to 5791. The rise was led by mining companies that expect a resurgence in output to increase demand for copper and other metals. Many analysts believe worries over the US fiscal cliff, which would bring forward tax rises and spending cuts, are overstated. They believe Washington will be unwilling to choke off the US recovery. The US is widely recognised as recovering strongly after several years wrestling with the sub-prime mortgage crisis and a weakened banking sector. Much of the housing sector has recovered, with prices stabilising in most states, while the banks are considered robust and ready to lend to small businesses. HSBC's monthly purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China improved to 50.4 for November on a 100-point scale on which numbers over 50 indicate expansion. That was a moderate improvement from October's 49.5 and is the first time in 13 months that the reading has been above 50. The PMI index measures overall manufacturing activity by surveying numerous indicators including orders, employment and actual production.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Robert Griffin III threw for four touchdowns as the Washington Redskins sealed their first-ever Thanksgiving Day win over the Dallas Cowboys
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Overall EU spending proposed by Herman Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand David Cameron failed on Thursday night in his bid to persuade European council president Herman Van Rompuy to agree to €6bn (£4.85bn) in EU administration costs. In his latest proposal, Van Rompuy declined to agree to any further cuts in administration. Cameron did manage to secure modest cuts in the Connecting Europe budget, where Van Rompuy agreed to a €4.5bn cut. The prime minister had suggested a cut of €20bn. The British rebate was not discussed. This meant that the Van Rompuy proposal - exempting rural payments to new member states from the rebate and asking the UK to contribute to the rebate - remains in place. The latest Van Rompuy draft says on the rebate: "The existing correction mechanism for the UK will continue to apply. The last part of the current own resources decision related to the breakdown of rural development expenditure is no longer applicable. Temporary corrections in the form of lump sum growth projections (in current prices) in annual GNI based contributions during the period 2014-2020 will be granted to the following member states - €2.8bn to Germany, €1.15bn to the Netherlands, and €325m to Sweden. All corrections (the UK correction and the temporary lump sum corrections) will be fully financed by all member states based on the GNI key." One EU official said many in Brussels believe that Britain is taking a tough stance on the relatively small administrative spending to mask a change of tack in Cameron's plans for a real terms freeze in the overall EU budget. While Cameron told Van Rompuy he was pleased with big budget cuts tabled last week by Brussels, the spending proposed by Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand. The Van Rompuy paper reduced European commission budget proposals by €81bn. Stepping up his campaign against eurocrats, Cameron urged further cuts to administration costs by: • Increasing the retirement age to 68 for all EU officials now under the age of 58. The current retirement age is 63. This would save €1.5bn. • Cutting the overall EU pay bill by 10% for officials, saving €3bn. • Lowering the pension cap from 70% of an official's final salary to 60%, saving €1.5bn. A UK official said: "These are not dramatic changes. The commission and others are telling the Greeks, the Italians and others that they should put the retirement age up to 68. In the UK we have cut [public sector] pensions to a career average salary. They argue that it is very difficult legally to change people's terms and conditions. Well, we have managed it in the UK." The commission has proposed increasing the administrative budget from €56bn to €63bn. Van Rompuy has proposed a trim to €62.63bn. Cameron told Van Rompuy the EU should follow the example of Whitehall which has imposed cuts of between 25%-30% in administrative costs. One British official said: "We can save tens of billions compared with what is on the table." While Van Rompuy was said not to have responded to UK demands, José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, was reported to have reacted defensively. Under pressure from Barroso, Van Rompuy has already minimised his proposed cuts to eurocrats' terms and conditions to €500m over seven years. Some of the British demands are also supported by the Germans and the Dutch. EU officials accept it is difficult to argue with the need for cuts in the cost of administration during a time of austerity, though there is anger that Britain has declined to publish the salaries of its diplomats in Brussels. They receive generous housing allowances and live in the most exclusive areas of Brussels such as Ixelles in the centre and Tervuren on the outskirts. Cameron is encouraged by Van Rompuy's proposed "payment ceiling" – the amount that is due to be paid out – of €940bn, compared to the first European commission payment ceiling of €987.6bn. Britain is insisting that the overall figure has to come in below €940bn. But Cameron appeared resigned to accepting he would not achieve his original target figure of €886bn. The administration costs of the EU represent only 6.4% of the overall budget. Senior UK officials admit that big savings cannot be made there, but emphasise that the issue is "very symbolic" not only, but especially, in Britain. Cameron highlighted the "Connecting Europe" project, which is designed to connect the continent through transport and energy infrastructure projects.One EU official said: "David Cameron lectures us all on the need to draw up a budget for growth. And yet he now wants to cut the very part of the budget that will build up transport, energy and broadband infrastructure." Another EU official pointed out that it is designed to help fund the proposed high speed rail link from London to Birmingham and the electrification of the Great Western rail line. Cameron's decision to target the growth budget and administrative costs for cuts shows Downing Street has accepted that Britain will not win any further cuts in the two highest areas of expenditure. These are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds that help build the infrastructure of poorer areas, notably in eastern Europe. France's president, François Hollande, arrived at the summit incensed at proposed cuts to the farms budget of some €60bn compared to the current seven-year period and also embittered at having currently to fund a quarter of Britain's annual €3.6bn rebate. He sought to gain the support of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, before the summit started, but was said to have found little sympathy. The French said they were in no hurry to reach a deal, indicating that the summit could collapse in failure over the next 48 hours.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Overall EU spending proposed by Herman Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand David Cameron launched an attack on the EU's bureaucracy on Thursday, demanding €6bn (£4.85bn) in cuts to the pay, pensions and perks of thousands of European officials over seven years from 2014. As the prime minister prepared to water down his initial demands for swingeing cuts in overall EU spending, he handed a list of proposed cuts to the entitlements of EU officials to the European council president, Herman Van Rompuy. One EU official said many in Brussels believe that Britain is taking a tough stance on the relatively small administrative spending to mask a change of tack in Cameron's plans for a real terms freeze in the overall EU budget. While Cameron told Van Rompuy he was pleased with big budget cuts tabled last week by Brussels, the spending proposed by Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand. The Van Rompuy paper reduced European commission budget proposals by €81bn. Stepping up his campaign against eurocrats, Cameron urged further cuts to administration costs by: • Increasing the retirement age to 68 for all EU officials now under the age of 58. The current retirement age is 63. This would save €1.5bn. • Cutting the overall EU pay bill by 10% for officials, saving €3bn. • Lowering the pension cap from 70% of an official's final salary to 60%, saving €1.5bn. A UK official said: "These are not dramatic changes. The commission and others are telling the Greeks, the Italians and others that they should put the retirement age up to 68. In the UK we have cut [public sector] pensions to a career average salary. They argue that it is very difficult legally to change people's terms and conditions. Well, we have managed it in the UK." The commission has proposed increasing the administrative budget from €56bn to €63bn. Van Rompuy has proposed a trim to €62.63bn. Cameron told Van Rompuy the EU should follow the example of Whitehall which has imposed cuts of between 25%-30% in administrative costs. One British official said: "We can save tens of billions compared with what is on the table." While Van Rompuy was said not to have responded to UK demands, Jose Manuel Barroso, the commission president, was reported to have reacted defensively. Under pressure from Barroso, Van Rompuy has already minimised his proposed cuts to eurocrats' terms and conditions to €500m over seven years. Some of the British demands are also supported by the Germans and the Dutch. EU officials accept it is difficult to argue with the need for cuts in the cost of administration during a time of austerity, though there is anger that Britain has declined to publish the salaries of its diplomats in Brussels. They receive generous housing allowances and live in the most exclusive areas of Brussels such as Ixelles in the centre and Tervuren on the outskirts. Cameron is encouraged by Van Rompuy's proposed "payment ceiling" – the amount that is due to be paid out – of €940bn, compared to the first European commission payment ceiling of €987.6bn. Britain is insisting that the overall figure has to come in below €940bn. But Cameron appeared resigned to accepting he would not achieve his original target figure of €886bn. The administration costs of the EU represent only 6.4% of the overall budget. Senior UK officials admit that big savings cannot be made there, but emphasise that the issue is "very symbolic" not only, but especially, in Britain. Cameron highlighted the "Connecting Europe" project, which is designed to connect the continent through transport and energy infrastructure projects. The European commission has proposed increasing this by 350% – from €8bn to €36bn. Britain believes this should be merely doubled to €16bn. One EU official said: "David Cameron lectures us all on the need to draw up a budget for growth. And yet he now wants to cut the very part of the budget that will build up transport, energy and broadband infrastructure." Another EU official pointed out that it is designed to help fund the proposed high speed rail link from London to Birmingham and the electrification of the Great Western rail line. Cameron's decision to target the growth budget and administrative costs for cuts shows Downing Street has accepted that Britain will not win any further cuts in the two highest areas of expenditure. These are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds that help build the infrastructure of poorer areas, notably in eastern Europe. France's president, Francois Hollande, arrived at the summit incensed at proposed cuts to the farms budget of some €60bn compared to the current seven-year period and also embittered at having currently to fund a quarter of Britain's annual €3.6bn rebate. He sought to gain the support of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, before the summit started, but was said to have found little sympathy. The French said they were in no hurry to reach a deal, indicating that the summit could collapse in failure over the next 48 hours.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Felipe Calderón wants country formally known as the United Mexican States to simplify its name Mexico's president is making one last attempt to get the United States out of Mexico – at least as far as the country's name is concerned. The country's formal name is the United Mexican States, but few people use it. President Felipe Calderón wants to make it simply Mexico. Calderón said the name was adopted in 1824 to imitate the country's northern neighbour, but Mexicans did not need to emulate anyone. The constitutional reform would have to be approved by both houses of congress and a majority of the 31 state legislatures. Calderón leaves office on 1 December. He first proposed the name change as a congressman in 2003. The bill did not make it to a vote.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Egyptian president angers opponents with measures preventing courts from challenging any laws passed since he took office Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, has granted himself far-reaching powers and immunity from legal oversight as he ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak over the killing of protesters during the country's revolution. In a surprise move, Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who was instrumental in securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, issued a series of measures preventing Egypt's courts from challenging any laws or decrees passed since he assumed office in June. The decrees prevent the courts from attempting to dissolve the upper house of parliament or the body tasked with drawing up the country's new constitution, both dominated by his Islamist allies. The declaration came barely 24 hours after Morsi was praised by Barack Obama for his role in bringing the latest round of the Gaza conflict to an end. There was outrage from Morsi's political opponents, including the prominent opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, who accused him of usurping authority and becoming a "new pharaoh". "Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh," ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account. "A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences." Abdel-Halim Qandil, editor of as-Sawt newspaper, told al-Jazeera TV: "Morsi was elected a president. Now he is behaving like a king. This is a coup against the Egyptian revolution." Shadi Ghazali, a revolutionary activist, said: "Morsi said he was president of all Egyptians, but in fact he is president of the Muslim Brotherhood only." The move is likely to fuel growing public criticism that Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood have monopolised power while doing little to tackle Egypt's endemic woes. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Cairo on Thursday to protest for a fourth day running against Morsi's policies and to criticise the Muslim Brotherhood. The decree for a retrial of the former president Mubarak and other ex-regime officials accused of killing protesters is designed to appease anger at what is seen as the widespread impunity they have enjoyed in the courts. But Morsi's method of doing it is likely to lead to further polarisation in the still fragile country. Defending the move, Gehad al-Hadad, a senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood, said the new laws would become "void" when Egypt had a new parliament and constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood's website said the moves were necessary to "protect the revolution and achieve justice", and claimed Morsi did not "choose to have all powers" but the move was "forced" on him by the corrupt old Mubarak system. The move was doubly surprising as until now Morsi, who has had the power to proclaim laws since the parliament's lower house was dissolved in June, has been extremely circumspect in the use of his authority. The declaration comes in the midst of an increasingly acrimonious battle over the writing of Egypt's new constitution. Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the constituent assembly during the past week in protest at what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they fear are trying to push through a document that will have an Islamist slant, marginalising women and minority Christians and infringing on personal liberties. The constituent assembly, tasked with drafting the new constitution, cannot now face a legal challenge that might lead to it being dissolved, and the parliament's upper house, the Shura council, has also been put beyond the scope of a legal challenge to its constitutionality. Several courts are looking into cases demanding the dissolution of both bodies. Parliament's lower chamber, also dominated by Islamists, was dissolved in June by a court decision on the grounds that the rules governing its election were illegal. Under the new powers – described as temporary until the new constitution is drawn up, a process that has been extended by two months – the president is "authorised to take any measures he sees fit in order to preserve the revolution, to preserve national unity or to safeguard national security". The statement says "all constitutional declarations, laws and decrees made since Morsi assumed power … cannot be appealed or cancelled by any individual, or political or governmental body until a new constitution has been ratified and a new parliament has been elected. All lawsuits against them are declared void." "We need stability and that's why we cannot afford to have this legal wrangling going on forever," Morsi's spokesman, Yasser Ali, told the Egyptian website al-Ahram. "The president wants to shorten the transitional period and have the new constitution and new people's assembly as soon as possible. This explains why [Morsi] wanted to give members of the constituent assembly more time to overcome their differences. The new declaration gives the assembly two more months to work on the constitutional draft." He added: "Egypt's new constitutional declaration does not target any political group or person but is rather an attempt to achieve the demands of the 25 January revolution." Heba Morayef, of Human Rights Watch, said judicial reform as well as holding those responsible for crimes during the revolution was to be welcomed, but the new powers were alarming. "While it is a good decision to appoint a new public prosecutor and reopen these cases, this was not the way to do it. In the coming months these decrees mean he cannot effectively be challenged by the courts. And that's terrifying," she said. Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Institute thinktank, said: "This is not about amassing more power but preventing a challenge in the courts to the power he already he has. Morsi does not have much respect for those opposing him in any case. He sees them – and their use of the courts – as trouble-making and self-interested. "He has a sense of democratic entitlement, His view is you've elected me for four years now get out of my way and let me do it. After four years if you don't like, elect someone else. But democratic entitlement can lead to demagoguery. He has been very careful up till now how he has used his powers, but this time he has overstepped himself."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Judge orders repayment of $1.3bn to 'vulture funds' as debt campaigners hit out at speculators' behaviour Argentinian politicians and global debt campaigners have responded with fury to a US court judgment that risks plunging the country back into default. Elliott Capital Management and Aurelius Capital Management, regarded as "vulture funds" by Buenos Aires, won a ruling in a New York court on Wednesday that could force Argentina to hand over $1.3bn (£816m) in repayments and interest to the tiny minority of bondholders who refused to sign up to a hard-fought writedown of its debts after the country defaulted in 2001. Judge Thomas Griesa upheld his own ruling of last month backing Elliott Associates, and said: "Argentina owes this and owes it now." In a strongly worded statement, Griesa said that Argentina should make repayments to the so-called holdouts at the same pace that it is repaying the vast majority of bondholders who did agree to a debt-swap. He also warned that US-based bank BNY Mellon, which handles Argentina's debt payments to US-based bondholders, would be acting "in active concert" with the republic, if it failed to comply with the ruling. If some of the country's repayments were diverted to the vulture funds, however, it could reduce the amount available for Argentina's other lenders, pushing it into a technical default on more than $60bn in outstanding debts. Buenos Aires has repeatedly made clear that it has no intention of paying anything to the plaintiffs in the case. Nick Dearden, director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: "It is completely outrageous that the intransigence of a couple of speculators can bring a sovereign nation to the verge of bankruptcy. These vulture funds never lent money to Argentina – they gambled on a crisis that caused enormous poverty and suffering in that country." Agustín Rossi, leader of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's bloc in the lower house of congress, described the ruling as "absolutely despicable". A spokesman for BNY Mellon said: "As we indicated in our filing with the court, in our role as trustee we do not believe we should be bound by the injunction." Investors pushed up the price of insuring against a fresh default by Argentina , with short-dated credit default swaps putting the probability at 60%. Argentina's $95bn default more than a decade ago came in the midst of a wrenching financial and political crisis, after the International Monetary Fund withdrew financial support and the government decided it could no longer afford to prop up the value of the peso, which was pegged to the dollar. After years of fraught negotiations with investors, more than 90% signed up to a drastic writedown of more than 70% on the value of their debts in two separate deals in 2005 and 2010, which cleared the way for Argentina to return to international financial markets. But with no agreed international process for handling the bankruptcy of a state, the consequences of Argentina's default have played out over more than a decade, through scores of separate court rulings. Before the New York judge's latest ruling, Fernández, the president, had already made it clear that her government does not intend to negotiate with the holdouts. "We will not surrender money at the cost of hunger and exclusion for millions of Argentines," she said at a public appearance at a steel plant in Villa Constitución earlier this month. "We are not going to give in," she said. "We need to be intelligent, sensible and calm and not respond to provocations from those who want restore an ultraconservative regime that destroyed Argentina." "These funds are vultures who seek to profit by betting on a technical default," Hernán Lorenzino, the economy minister, said in anticipation of the ruling, warning that Argentina would fight the holdouts all the way. He pledged to pursue the issue through higher US courts. "We will continue defending Argentina's interests at every instance necessary and that includes going before the US supreme court." The judge's decision comes at what is perhaps the most difficult moment in Fernández's presidency, with popular discontent rising because of her government's failure to correct an economy that has begun stagnating after nearly a decade of continuous growth. Argentina was brought to a virtual standstill on Tuesday by the first national strike against her presidency, organised by the same Peronist labour unions who were once her staunchest supporters.The country ground to a halt as labour leaders demanded wage hikes to offset a yearly inflation rate that independent economists estimate at a yearly 25%. The middle class had already taken to the streets earlier this month when a million protesters took to the streets in various cities across Argentina also protesting against high inflation, economic stagnation, corruption in government and the rising crime rate that seems to be accompanying the ailing economy.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Alarm spreads nationwide after holy month attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi add to ongoing threats and drive-by shootings Although sectarian fanatics in Pakistan have long targeted Shia Muslims during the holy month of Muharram, Ashgar Naqvi had no particular reason to be fearful on Wednesday night as he attended a procession in Rawalpindi. "This procession happens every year," said the 32 year old. "It's been going on for 40 years with no mishap." But this year the Taliban decided to widen their war against Shias. At around 11.20pm a Taliban suicide bomber moved towards the crowd gathered near an Imambargah prayer hall, where worshippers were singing songs mourning the death of a grandson of Prophet Muhammad. "He was stopped by a guard who wanted to search him and he blew himself up," said Naqvi, who recalled a horrific scene of body parts and terrified worshippers. "People were rushing around, calling out the names of loved ones." The attack, which killed 23 people and wounded 60, came just hours after another bombing in Karachi. Although the port city has borne the brunt of such sectarian attacks over the years this assault was a particularly vicious double bombing, possibly designed to kill and injure rescuers. Adding to growing national alarm, some Shias received a text message yesterday, reading "Kill, Kill, Shias". Experts say the long-standing problem of sectarianism is getting worse, with authorities unable – or some fear unwilling – to stop it. This year the violence has begun well before the most sensitive day of all, Ashura, which falls on Saturday. "Targeting a city like Rawalpindi in this way is quite unique," said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies. "They are trying to destabilise the state and send a message to the public that this government is incapable." According to some estimates up to 20% of Pakistanis, including the country's revered founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, are Shias. But on Thursday a Taliban spokesperson told the Associated Press that the movement would remain at war with a religious minority they consider "blasphemers". "We will continue attacking them," he said. In the last year the attacks have spread into areas that were once free of such attacks, particularly the eastern city of Quetta, where a community of ethnic minority Hazaras, who are overwhelmingly Shia, have been targeted. The assaults include drive-by shootings of Hazara bystanders by gunmen riding on motorbikes. And in the mountainous, northern province of Gilgit-Baltistan, Shias have been taken off public buses and executed. Human Rights Watch has claimed the Pakistani state considers some of the Sunni extremist groups as useful allies, and therefore turns a blind eye to their activities. The county must "stop appeasing extremists and start holding them accountable," said Ali Dayan Hasan, the organisation's director in Pakistan. The threat of violence has hit business in Karachi, the country's economic hub, with offices, shops and schools all closing mid-week. "We are taking precautions but there are more than 600 congregations and 129 processions in Karachi alone," said Fayyaz Leghari, chief of police in Sindh province. "We can check people who come to the Imambargah but the processions are naturally very vulnerable." The interior minister, Rehman Malik, has announced extraordinary measures to counter the risks. Yesterday he said he was considering shutting down all mobile phone services in major cities for the three days. Earlier he attempted to ban motorbikes from the streets of Karachi, a huge city with poor public transport and more than one million registered motorcycles. Amid media outrage he was forced to back down by a court order.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sandy Island 'may turn up nearby' after geologists find no trace of it despite featuring on Google Earth and various maps For more than a decade it has featured on the world's maps. Viewed from Google Earth, Sandy Island appears as a dark, tantalising sliver, set amid the shimmering vastness of the Pacific Ocean. But when marine scientists arrived at the island in the Coral Sea off Australia they were in for something of a shock: it didn't exist. Where there was supposed to be a sandy outcrop complete with palm trees, a few coconuts and maybe a turtle there was merely blue undulating water. The Australian scientists, led by Maria Seaton, a geologist at Sydney University, had embarked on a voyage to study plate tectonics. They spotted that the enigmatic island lay along their route. But there were several puzzling discrepancies: though the island appeared on the Google Earth map, there were no images of it. It had also featured for the past 12 years on the usually reliable world coastline database. But there was no sign of it on their sea chart. Dr Steven Micklethwaite, a crew member from the University of Western Australia, recalled: "We went upstairs to the bridge and found that the navigation charts the ship uses didn't have it. "And so at that point we thought: Well, who do we trust? Do we trust Google Earth or do we trust the navigation charts? " The scientist added: "This was one of those intriguing questions. It wasn't far outside of our path. We decided to actually sail through the island ... Lo and behold there was nothing! The ocean floor didn't ever get shallower than 1300 metres below the wave-base. There's an island in the middle of nowhere that doesn't actually exist." Micklethwaite told the Sydney Morning Herald that the ship's captain was nervous about running aground and proceeded cautiously as they made their "un-discovery". "We all had a good giggle at Google as we sailed through the island. It was one of those happy circumstances in science. You come across something somebody has never noticed before." The scientists would now send the correct data to the authorities to get the world map fixed, he said. The non-discovery took place during a 25-day expedition by Australia's Marine National Facility, on board its RV Southern Surveyor research vessel. Had the island existed it would have belonged to France, since its location near the archipelago of New Caledonia is in French territorial waters. (If real and emphatically Gallic, it would presumably have been called Île de Sable, rather than the less than inspiring Sandy Island.) Speaking on Thursday, Danny Dorling, president of the British Society of Cartographers, said it was not surprising that the error had crept in. "You can't create a perfect map. You never will," he said. "Our current world map is a collection of highly accurate satellite maps and some of the oldest data collected from Admiralty charts." The mistake would have been surprising if the location had been a busy shipping lane or populated area, Dorling said. "The Coral Sea is in the middle of nowhere." Humans have been making maps for thousands of years. They probably predate writing. (The earliest – a cave painting 30,000 years old – shows some early humans in a rectangle.) According to Dorling, maps serve two purposes: one practical, to help us navigate and find our way around; the other existential, to give us a sense of perspective, and to define our place on a large and ever-changing planet. "It gives you a sense of identity," he said. Dorling also said that in the case of Sandy Island it was probably human error that had led to its creation. Charts were, after all, originally compiled by sailors using a watch and measuring longitude, with ancient sailors travelling by the stars. Far from being fixed, the world map is mutable too: with new islands and archipelagoes appearing following volcanic eruptions, and others disappearing in the same way. The cartographer said it was just possible that Sandy Island – now a non-island, according to its Wikipedia entry – would have the last laugh. "It's unlikely someone made this island up. It's more likely that they found one and put it in the wrong location. I wouldn't be surprised if the island does actually exist, somewhere nearby." Isles of wonderAtlantis The legendary island has been the subject of discussion and parody since ancient times. According to Plato, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune". This was 10,000 years ago. No-one has been able to find it since. Numerous locations have been suggested: the Mediterranean, the middle of the Atlantic, Turkey, Crete, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico and southwestern Andalusia. Despite its enduring appeal, scholars can't agree if Atlantis really ever was a naval power, or a historical fiction dating back to earliest times. Laputa Invented by Jonathan Swift, Laputa is a flying island or rock that features in Gulliver's Travels. Its residents use magnetic levitation to manoeuvre the island in different directions. Laputan society is divided between the educated - who practice maths and astronomy - and servants. A tyrant is in charge; he crushes his enemies by landing on them. San Serriffe Less famous, perhaps, than Atlantis but no less worthy, San Serriffe is a fictional island nation created by journalists at the Guardian. The nation was invented as an April Fool's Day spoof in 1977; a description of it ran over 10 pages and appeared to fool some people. San Serriffe was located in the Southern Ocean (not far from Sandy Island, relatively speaking) Its inhabitants were called the Flong; for many years the autocratic General Pica was its ruler; happily, it later became democratic.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nine claimants argued Madonna's performance in St Petersburg would adversely affect Russia's birthrate It is the country that has sent members of the punk band Pussy Riot to crumbling prison colonies and its richest man to an isolated northern jail. But Russia met its match on Thursday when it attempted to silence the world's biggest pop star. Madonna was widely criticised in Russia this summer for voicing support for Pussy Riot during a Moscow concert and speaking out for gay rights during a performance in St Petersburg. A senior official called her a "moralising slut" for the former, and nine claimants brought a $10.7m lawsuit against her for the latter. On Thursday a court St Petersburg ruled against the plaintiffs, members of various conservative groups who argued that Madonna's comments violated a new law banning the promotion of "homosexual propaganda" to minors and would lead to the destruction of the nation. Violation of the law is punishable by fines of up to 500,000 roubles (£10,000). During a day-long hearing, the court examined YouTube footage and was shown screenshots of Madonna's Facebook page as proof that the material girl was crazy for gay rights. "I am here to say that the gay community and gay people here and all around the world have the same rights – to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love," Madonna said during the performance in August, as concert-goers waved gay pride flags and flashed pink wristbands the pop star had handed out as symbols of support. The claimants argued that Madonna's performance would adversely affect Russia's birthrate and therefore its ability to maintain a proper army. They cited posts on the Facebook page condemning the law as proof she had prior knowledge of the potential criminality of expressing herself. Madonna ignored repeated requests to attend the hearing, held in a tiny courtroom in Russia's second city. "St Petersburg's laws were brutally violated," one of the claimants, Marina Yakovlyeva, told the court, news agencies reported. "In the coming years, this type of violation could become the norm. But we have created a precedent – any artist coming to our city will know now what laws exist." Russia has been harshly criticised over the law, which has also been adopted in eight other regions. Some MPs have floated introducing it on a federal level. Adoption of the law in St Petersburg, long seen as Russia's most westernised city and its cultural capital, has led to a global outcry. All Out, a gay rights group, as called on travellers to boycott St Petersburg. The Canadian government has issued advisories to gay citizens planning to take a holiday there. The judge in the case, Vitaly Barkovsky, deliberated for more than an hour before delivering his verdict, but appeared to treat the case with scepticism from the start. After one claimant, Vitaly Orlovsky, said Madonna's concert would prompt the divorce rate to skyrocket, Barkovsky asked him why he was suing no alcoholics, since alcoholism was a well-known cause of divorce in the heavy-drinking country. Vitaly Milonov, a local MP who has led St Petersburg's anti-gay campaign, accused Madonna of showing no respect for the court and said the star's actions answered the question "who's that girl". "You can see what kind of person she is – for her, Russia is a cow from whom she can come and get milk – that is, money – and then leave, while not following our laws," he told the Guardian.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Amy Adams has ditched the ingenue roles for unforgettable turns in classy awards fodder from big-name directors – and now she has worked with Clint Eastwood in Trouble With the Curve It's an absolutely archetypal American face; you can read a multitude into it. Look long enough at Amy Adams' pre-Raphaelite cascade of orange-red hair, her pale complexion – with its susceptibility, no doubt, to freckles and sunburn – the upturned chin, the tough-cookie set jaw, and the slender sloping nose, and soon enough you will discern the possibilities: Anne of Green Gables, Annie, if she was still young enough, or one of Willa Cather's doughty Nebraska Plainswomen – Thea Kronberg, perhaps, from The Song of The Lark – Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother, eyes fixed for ever on the middle distance, or any number of western farmwives or lady-gunfighters. Take names from Henry James or Edith Wharton – Daisy Miller, Undine Spragg – and Adams can be imagined embodying them all with ease and subtlety. In her most recent movie, Trouble with the Curve, she's the estranged daughter of another American icon, Clint Eastwood, no less, while in her most impressive – and unsettling – performance in several years, in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, she is the womanly power behind the throne of yet another American archetype – Philip Seymour Hoffman's avuncular, alcoholic religious fraud Lancaster Dodd. Twelve years ago, Adams played the lead in Cruel Intentions 2; she was suddenly lucky second-string Hollywood cannon fodder with a string of teen comedies and horror spoofs behind her, and the usual Young Hollywood TV guest-credits – That 70s Show, Charmed, Providence, Smallville, and a memorable arc as Jenna Fischer's redhead doppelganger on The Office. Ten years ago, she finally scored big, nabbing the showy part of girlfriend to then It Boy Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Nine years ago, the phone hadn't rung once since Catch Me If You Can, and she was thinking about jacking in the thespian life altogether, until a little no-budget movie named Junebug came her way. And look at her now: The Master is the second movie in which she has held her own in opposite Hoffman, the actors' actor of our age, and she has already made two movies – Doubt and Julie and Julia – with Meryl Streep. She earned one Oscar nomination for Junebug and another for David O Russell's The Fighter (she'll get another for The Master, you watch), and will soon be working once again with Russell, a director uninterested in letting his performers settle into any comfortable groove. Next up, Superman's girlfriend in Man of Steel. It's all happening. And yet, she says, she sometimes forgets who she is, and how famous. "I still think I'm like the poor girl from Colorado who worked three jobs to buy a car. That's still my mentality, so I'll be walking down the street, and I forget what I do and who I am. And someone will come up to me and say hi, and I'm thinking, I must know you, and I realise that, no, I don't know them and they don't know me. At all! Really, I've only been in the public eye since – in a bigger way – really only since Junebug and Enchanted, and I was already 30, 32 by then so I'd already had a whole life when nobody cared at all about me. I was more used to that." You get that feeling when you meet her. She's open, welcoming, warm, more concerned about your comfort than her own ("don't sit there with the hot sun in your eyes ... try here"), and today she's happier to be here than she sometimes is on these occasions. An assistant lays down a fat pile of posters for the movie and she asks: "Am I supposed to sign these at the same time – because I can multitask!" She looks up, leaving the Sharpie and the signing until later. "Sometimes you're doing this and you're revisiting a movie that wasn't that great an experience when you made it, or there were conflicts with people you didn't like or whatever. This one is nice to talk about, though." In Trouble with the Curve, she plays the estranged daughter of crotchety baseball scout Clint Eastwood, who tags along on his scouting tour when his eyesight starts to go, and tries to repair their relationship. So, given that Clint Eastwood occupies roughly the same space in the American psyche as the faces on Mount Rushmore and the dollar bill, how was it to be up close all of a sudden? "He's very warm and generous, and there's a great humility about him. I've worked with people who project a lot more sort of masculine intimidation naturally – and that's not him at all. I think also, having worked with all these people on his crew together for so long, he's not at all guarded with them on set, so it makes the day go quickly and efficiently, and gets you through a lot of set-ups. There's a bit of shorthand between people when they've worked together for that long – you feel like you're being allowed into his family. That really helps if you're playing a role like Mickie and you have to be this daughter confronting her father, which is not easy to do if you feel intimidated. And I wasn't at all intimidated. When you could really make Clint laugh, he gets a really teethy laugh and it's so rewarding to get one of those. I always felt a certain sense of victory if I could get him to laugh like that." And it's a movie about athletes in which Adams competently knocks a number of pitches off into the wide blue yonder. I suspect tomboy tendencies in her youth. Did that come naturally? "Not at all! Though I do come from a family of athletic people. I just don't have a propensity for catching balls. My hand-eye coordination is terrible, so I had to train a lot. But I do love being, I won't say it … it's that line from Grease: 'If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.'" She titters away. "Learning how to catch, how to pitch, how to swing, I worked with a coach. It was really empowering, cause I've never been good at it. I realised I just was afraid of getting hit in the face with the ball. Wisely so, I guess, given that my current profession calls for people with intact faces. Oh God, this … it's like a minefield of balls-in-the-face jokes …" She was an army brat until she was nine. How did that affect her? "It definitely makes you a little bit more transient, which can turn out to be a good quality in life, and in fact has helped me in what I do. When you're picking up and moving it does create ... well, I can sleep anywhere, which is really useful, it turns out, on movie sets. But what it really does is teach you how to adapt and change and fit into a new group or school, and that really is a lot like turning up to a new movie project and finding your place." Ten years after beginning to make her mark, Adams still trails behind her the residue of innocence and naivete that gathered around her after she appeared in Junebug. Followed shortly after by her winning turn as an animated Disney princess cast into a cynical live-action Manhattan in Enchanted, Junebug limited perceptions of Adams' gifts for a couple of years." Junebug was a small independent movie about what "back home" means to southerners. Adams played Ashley Johnsten, a Georgia girl so naive and innocent, so impossibly kind and sweet, that literally one ankle or elbow in the wrong place from Adams would have brought the entire movie to a calamitous halt. One is astounded that a figure so unworldly can be delivered with such absolute, unironic conviction – you leave the movie remembering almost nothing except her performance. "I felt so free in that role. There were no consequences. I never knew if anyone would even see the movie. I wasn't even sure at that point that I was going to continue acting. There was no studio nosing about. It was the most free I have ever been as an actor ever. You can't go back to a time like that." Junebug was surely what earned her Enchanted, which largely thanks to Adams (and her equally gung-ho costar James Marsden) was an instant Disney classic, resting on the absolute conviction she gave to a character who talks to butterflies and believes you can make someone love you by singing at them. By now, with Catch Me, Junebug and Enchanted, she had played three eye-catching naifs in a row – which didn't reflect her own view of her own abilities. "If you hold those characters up next to each other, similar as they are, there's no way that they belong in the same world. But you really have to be careful you don't become the go-to girl for that kind of thing." David O Russell to the rescue, then. "He met me and he said: 'Oh you are so not a princess type – we'll have to do something about that!' He said: 'I just want to expose that side of you, and give you the opportunity to shed the whole princess thing, because that isn't who you are – it's just one aspect of the work you've done.'" In The Fighter, Russell gave Adams Charlene, the hardscrabble working-class Irish-American bartender who takes on boxer Mark Wahlberg and, better yet, the grotesquely toxic matriarchy that he calls a family. I remember she has a tonne of siblings. "There's six others – we are a baseball team!" So she can fight? How many brothers? "Four." So she can fight! "Oh sure, but trust me, the sisters, the girls, we give just as good as we get in a family like ours!" In one much talked-about scene in The Master, Adams, playing the imperious and scary wife of religious charlatan Lancaster Dodd, delivers a ferocious Lady Macbeth-like dressing-down to her husband as she furiously masturbates him over a bathroom sink. "That scene was in the script from the beginning. It was actually one of my favourite scenes upon reading it because it helped let me know who the character was, and how much control and the lengths she will go to to maintain it … Yes, people tend to remember that moment." The Master and the masturbator. Ladies and gentlemen, Amy Adams could be acting at this level for another 40 years. Plenty of archetypes to get to yet. I cannot wait. • The Trouble with the Curve is released in the UK on 30 November
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Doctors hail 'one for the history books' after Andrea Temperino defied rare neurological disorder to give birth by C-section Doctors in Florida have pulled off a medical first that saved the lives of a pregnant woman and her triplets twice over, defying a rare neurological illness that nearly killed all four. Andrea Temperino, 34, was left close to death and reliant on a mechanical ventilator to breathe for her when she developed a complex form of the neuromuscular disease Myasthenia Gravis eight weeks into her pregnancy. It is the only known case of its kind involving a patient with unborn triplets. After seven weeks in hospital, she recovered. But three months later, she suffered a second life-threatening condition that left doctors with only minutes to save her and her babies. Temperino and her infants, who were delivered by emergency C-section at 30 weeks gestation, are now doing well at the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. "We must have had someone watching over us, to have found these people who saved my wife and my babies' lives – not once, but twice," said Anthony Temperino, also 34. "Without them, for sure, all four would have been dead." Andrea said: "They are my little miracles. I'm just so happy it's all over and we have the lives of our three precious babies." The Temperinos, of Coral Springs, Florida, were told by fertility specialists eight years ago that they had a "0% chance" of having children of their own but, after lifestyle changes that included transitioning to an all-organic and natural diet, celebrated the arrival of their first child, Ayden, last year following in-vitro-fertilisation treatment. In June this year, following the implant of two more fertilised eggs, Andrea Temperino discovered that she was pregnant again – this time with triplets. But the joy was short-lived as her health inexplicably deteriorated, leaving her struggling to breathe and swallow and with a severely drooping eyelid, confounding doctors at the first hospital where she sought help. "I was having to beg and plead, I was calling war. We were getting nowhere with finding out what was wrong with her, or even getting some of them to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with her," Anthony Temperino said. Taking the decision after 10 days to seek help elsewhere, he took his wife to the emergency room at Jackson Memorial Hospital. "At this point she can't breathe properly, she can't walk, she can't swallow. She's just trying to survive. I was praying: 'Please God, let the doctors figure this out because I'm going to lose her,'" he said. She was diagnosed within hours as having Myasthenia Gravis with MuSK, a chronic, auto-immune neuromuscular disease in which antibodies attack the receptors that allow brain signals to reach the body's muscles. As doctors struggled to bring the condition under control, she ended up in intensive care for eight days, where doctors inserted a breathing tube to keep her alive. "They said 'We need to do this quick, she's leaving us,' and I said 'Where's she going?' I didn't realise at first what they meant," said Anthony Temperino, a commercial pilot. Dr Shahnaz Duara, medical director of the neo-natal intensive care unit at Jackson's Holtz Children's Hospital, said: "What's truly amazing is that Mrs Temperino was at one point so close to collapse, so sick, and yet none of that seems to have transferred to her babies. Her obstetrician had said to me: 'I don't know if I can get her to a point where there will even be any babies for you to take care of.' It was a very serious situation but through it all, those three babies hung in there." After seven weeks in hospital she was discharged, only to suffer a further emergency three weeks ago when the babies' placenta separated from the wall of the uterus – a life-threatening condition known as placental abruption, causing massive bleeding. Within 15 minutes, she was in an operating theatre surrounded by 25 doctors. Identical twins Austyn and Alexander, and fraternal triplet Ashton were all delivered within one minute. All are now thriving and expected to survive. Andrea Temperino's neurologist at Jackson, Dr Ashok Verma, said that the case is "one for the medical history books." "For a while it was a hard situation … MuSK doesn't respond to the usual medication for MG – in fact she didn't respond at all – and it took a long time to turn things around. I told her 'You are my most precious patient, because there's not just one of you but three other lives to take care of.' I wanted to come out of this with all four of them and we did." He added: "And after all that, this crazy woman was telling me yesterday: 'Next, I want a girl.'"
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After Obama won 71% of the bloc, GOP campaigner Carlos Gutierrez turns to convincing party to embrace a shift in tone The head of Mitt Romney's campaign to attract Latino voters during the presidential election has warned fellow Republicans that unless they embrace immigration reform they are in danger of destroying the party's reputation as the guardian of economic freedom and prosperity. Carlos Gutierrez, former commerce secretary under George Bush and the man who spearheaded of Romney's outreach to the Hispanic community, has called on the Republican party to drop its perceived hostility towards the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US or risk alienating the increasingly powerful Latino vote. He has set up a Super Pac called Republicans for Immigration Reform to instill new thinking within the conservative movement. "What we want to do with the Super Pac is to provide some intellectual cover to Republicans so that they can move forwards without being politically hindered. If we are to remain the party of entrepreneurs and economic freedom and American prosperity, we have to also be the party of immigration," Gutierrez told the Guardian. Gutierrez is one of a growing number of influential Republicans who have spoken out since Romney's defeat on 6 November in favour of reform. Key party figures, including the speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, former presidential candidate John McCain and the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, have signalled that they are ready for a radical rethink. The sharp shift in political tone on the right of American politics is a reflection of simple electoral mathematics. Romney lost in no small part because he succeeded in driving Latino voters into the Democratic camp with his talk about the "self-deportation" of undocumented immigrants during the primary contest for the Republican nomination. Analysis of exit polls by the Pew Research Center shows that Hispanics flocked to Barack Obama by 71% to Romney's 27% – a demographic landslide only surpassed in modern times by Bill Clinton in 1996. An overwhelming 77% of Hispanic voters – all of whom are by definition US citizens – said that they wanted undocumented immigrants to be given a chance to become legal residents. Pew's work underlines the inexorable rise of the Latino vote, which accounted for 10% of all voters in this year's presidential election, up from 9% in 2008 and 8% in 2004. The growing power of the Hispanic electorate was particularly pronounced in three vital battleground states – Colorado, Florida and Nevada – all of which Obama won convincingly. Gutierrez said that Romney had fallen foul of the Republican primary trap, where presidential candidates are forced to adopt far-right positions in order to appeal to the extremist rump of the party and win the nomination. Romney tried to find his way back to a more moderate stance on immigration in the general election against Obama, but by then it was too late. "I did a lot of campaigning in Florida and Virginia, and I saw that the Republicans' far-right positions in the primaries had scared Hispanic voters. Things like 'self-deportation' that weren't ever really defined but sounded very scary," Gutierrez said. The sudden outpouring of self-criticism on the part of Republican leaders about the party's aggressive immigration position raises the prospect of a bi-partisan push on reform for the first time since Bush failed to pull off a deal in 2006. Obama has promised to make a comprehensive reform package a priority of his second term, saying that he expects Congress to propose a reform bill early next year. "There's clearly a consensus among Republican leaders that we have to change the tone with which we talk about immigration policy and Hispanics in general," said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who has tracked the rise of the Latino vote for many years. "There's a recognition that some adjustment needs to be made in the party's policies, though there's no consensus yet as to what the new approach should be." There are already signs of the conservative movement splitting into two main camps. Marco Rubio, the ebullient Florida senator who is already positioning himself for a run on the White House in 2016 , has been pressing for limited immigration reform that would be confined to so-called "Dreamers" – young Latinos brought to the US illegally as infants. Other senior Republicans, including Gutierrez, want to see more comprehensive reform that would address the conundrum of all 11 million undocumented immigrants. "We believe that most Republicans want to solve this problem. They recognise that our laws are 50 years old and no longer work, and that this issue is all about finding new human capital for the 21st century." Republicans for Immigration Reform, which Gutierrez has formed together with Charlie Spies, co-founder of Romney's largest Super Pac during the election, Restore Our Future, argues that all undocumented immigrants should be given a path towards legality. They would be encouraged to register with the US government after which they would be granted an authorisation card that would allow them to work. Gutierrez stresses that under the new Super Pac's reform proposals, there would be no automatic route to citizenship. Legalised immigrants would have to apply for a Green Card just like everybody else.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | PM targets infrastructure project and administration as he presses for cuts to the seven-year European budget at summit David Cameron is pressing for tens of billions of euros in cuts to the EU's next seven-year budget as the price for Britain's agreement at the Brussels summit, which could run into Saturday morning. The prime minister, who declared on arrival in Brussels that he would be "negotiating hard" on behalf of British taxpayers, has identified European commission plans to promote economic growth as a key area for cuts. The prime minister's move has sparked a furious backlash in Brussels. One EU official said: "David Cameron lectures us all on the need to draw up a budget for growth. And yet he now wants to cut the very part of the budget that will build up transport, energy and broadband infrastructure." The prime minister found himself under fire after he told Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, that Britain would like to see cuts for the 2014-2020 EU budget in: • The "Connecting Europe" project, which is designed to connect the continent through transport and energy infrastructure projects. The European commission has proposed increasing this by 350% – from €8bn (£6.5bn) to €36bn. Britain believes this should be merely doubled to €16bn. • The new EU external action service and the wider EU administration budget. The European commission has proposed increasing this from €56bn to €63bn. Van Rompuy has proposed a trim to €62.63bn. Cameron told Van Rompuy that the EU should follow the example of Whitehall which has imposed cuts of between 25%-30% in administrative costs. One British official said: "We can save tens of billions compared with what is on the table." Cameron's decision to target the growth budget and administrative costs for cuts shows Downing Street has accepted that Britain will not win any further cuts in the two highest areas of expenditure. These are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds that help build the infrastructure of poorer areas, notably in eastern Europe. Van Rompuy pleased No 10 when he proposed cutting the original European commission budget from €1,053bn to €973bn. This represents a cut on the last seven-year budget, which ran from 2007-2013, and which is worth €994bn. But No 10 said this did not go far enough because it only covered the "commitment ceiling" – the absolute cap on expenditure. Downing Street instead demanded details of the "payment ceiling" – the amount of money that would be distributed. Van Rompuy is understood to have suggested this would be set at €940bn which is €2bn lower than the €942.8bn "payment ceiling" in the last budget. British officials had suggested that they would like to see the budget set at €886bn. EU officials now expect Britain to accept the new Van Rompuy ceiling of €940bn. François Hollande, the French president, and Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, rejected Van Rompuy's compromise proposal out of hand. France benefits from CAP funding while Spain benefits from structural funds. Aides to Hollande said Paris was in no hurry to strike a deal this week. "France has time until 2014," they said. Paris's biggest issue is a proposed cut of around €60bn in the common agricultural policy compared with the seven years until 2013 and that fact that France now funds around a quarter of the UK rebate. "The United Kingdom is paying less than its wealth, France more," said a senior French official. "France pays a billion of the 4bn cost of the British rebate." Both the Germans and French appear sanguine about the prospects of stalemate and failure over the next few days, with Paris incensed at being the biggest contributor to the British rebate and the Germans anxious about having to pay more to finance the EU. "Germany will stay the biggest net contributor by some distance. We know that," said a senior German government official. "But that must stay in reasonable relation to the other net contributors. We will retain the UK rebate, but it must be bearable for the other net contributors." He added that it would "not be crippling" if the EU's national capitals "need a few more months". The Germans currently get a €2bn rebate and the Dutch €1bn, both of which are due to expire at the end of next year and which both governments insist must stay. Any cuts to "Connecting Europe" will hit the Germans. The modernisation project is being used by Germany to revamp its domestic energy market as it turns away from nuclear power. Britain appeared to be making less of a fuss over its rebate amid signs that Van Rompuy is to back away from plans to make every EU member state – and therefore Britain – make a contribution. As he arrived in Brussels for the crucial summit, Cameron said: "These are very important negotiations. Clearly at a time when we are making difficult decisions at home over public spending it would be quite wrong – it is quite wrong – for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU. So we are going to be negotiating very hard for a good deal for Britain's taxpayers, for Europe's taxpayers, and to keep the British rebate."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Panel of experts in New York warns next six months are critical for putting public opinion behind infrastructure improvements Hurricane Sandy might be fresh in the American public's memory, but for advocates seeking action on climate change time is running out. At a recent event, engineering, disaster preparation and climate science professors at Columbia University urged lawmakers to take advantage of the public's post Hurricane Sandy interest in global warming and push through bold policies. "Memory fades very fast," said civil engineering professor George Deodatis at the university event Monday. "The next six months to a year will be critical." Critical because public opinion, especially with sluggish economy and specter of the fiscal cliff, could change soon. Many of the infrastructure investments that the scientists suggested would cost tens of billions of dollars. Although the professors didn't present a comprehensive plan, they all agreed that a combination of mammoth infrastructure projects would be essential for preparing the United States' coastal communities for rising sea levels. Some of their suggestions include new building codes, moving power lines below ground, wetland restoration, flood barriers, sea gates and the possible relocation of some coastal communities. The Earth Institute's Jeffery Sachs, who introduced the event, also suggested a carbon tax – but that option is widely regarded as a political impossibly because Congress is so divided. Despite the potential hurdles Irwin Redlener, a public health professor, cautioned against complacency and argued that the United States shouldn't wait any longer for meaningful policy. "We keep on thinking about these big events like wake up calls," said Redlener. "But really they're more like snooze alarms. I'm hoping that won't be the case here" To decide on and push through these reforms Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior scientist at Columbia's Nasa-Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that cities were providing the best examples of leadership. Rosenzweig specifically lauded New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg who in 2008 created the New York City Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, which brought together all the managers of critical infrastructure in New York's metropolitan region, including cell phone companies and utilities. Rosenzweig praised Bloomberg for his willingness to include scientists in the discussions and his ability to bring different groups together. Redlener, however, stressed that leadership also meant getting tough with climate denial. "It's more than just gathering people in groups to talk about what the issues are," said Redlener. "This has to do with the real hardcore bully pulpit leadership where the president of the United States says: 'I'm committed to taking this on.'" Another issue raised at the event was the science behind climate change. Many models have labeled Sandy a once-in-a-multi-century storm, but those models might not take into account the extent of global warming. "If someone considers that Sandy was a 1,000 year event, what we have to do is go to a completely different model than if we consider Sandy was the 100 year event or the 200 year event," said Deodatis. "But because we have new conditions this might be the new standard of a 100 year event or even a 50 year event." The staggering toll of destruction wrought by the super storm thrust the issue of climate change back into the political conversation after it was largely ignored during the campaign season. Shortly after the storm New York State governor Andrew Cuomo said: "Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns I think is denying reality." Bloomberg also came out strongly in favor of aggressive policy when he endorsed president Obama citing the president's willingness to confront global warming. After his re-election Obama seems to have taken the message to heart. In his first press conference since his reelection he acknowledged that his administration had "not done as much as we need to" to develop climate change policies and that during his second term Americans would hear more from him on the issue.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Critics say proposal was 'absurd' and described it as a backdoor way of trying to pass 'personhood' legislation Republican lawmakers in Michigan, a state which eliminated tax credits for children last year, have proposed a tax credit for unborn foetuses of 12 weeks gestation. If the measure, outlined in two bills heard by the house tax policy committee on Tuesday, becomes law it would be the first of its kind in the US. Critics said the proposal was "absurd" and described it as a backdoor way of trying to pass "personhood" legislation which would give rights to an embryo and crack down on abortion. The Michigan house of representatives this year passed part of a three-bill package that would restrict access to abortion and heavily regulate clinic that performs them. Republican leaders have come under fire for banning a Democrat from speaking after she said the word "vagina" in a debate on an abortion bill earlier this year. One of the main sponsors of the foetus tax credit bill, Jud Gilbert, a Republican representative of Algonac, said the rationale behind it was to recognise that mothers have additional bills to pay. "You're recognizing the fact that people have additional expenses, another person to take care of," he told told Mlive. "Money saved there could be contributed to doctor's bills and all kinds of things." Gilbert said the move would speed up a tax exemption that parents only get when a child is born. However, tax exemptions for children and families have been cut in the state, to the extent that another 9,000 children have been forced into poverty as a result, according to policy groups. Progress Michigan, a progressive watchdog, said it was a "sneaky way to pass personhood legislation." "It's clear Lansing Republicans have the wrong priorities by wasting time on these extreme bills," said Zack Pohl, executive director of Progress Michigan. "This is really a backdoor way of passing extreme personhood legislation, which has been rejected by voters in states across the country. Even worse, this would create a special new tax credit for unborn fetuses, after Lansing Republicans eliminated the tax credit for living, breathing children last year. It's time for our elected leaders to get their priorities straight." Last year, the state legislature and governor eliminated a child tax credit deduction which went to 2.35 million children in the state, worth $57m, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy. In addition, changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which dropped from 20% to 6% for families in 2011, drove 9,000 children in the state into poverty, the MLPP told the Guardian. A spokeswoman for the group said she did not want to comment on the foetus tax credit. Meghan Groen, the director of government relations at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, said the bill was absurd and said that it set a dangerous precedent. She said: "We don't have child tax credit here in Michigan, that has been eliminated." She said of the foetal tax credit bill: "The way they have drafted it, it is not for pre-natal care, but is for the fetus. To focus on the fetus above all else is dangerous. There are a lot of women here who are looking to provide for their children right now and their needs are not being met." Analysis by the non-partisan House Fiscal Agency estimates the state would lose between $5m and $10m a year in tax revenue through the change. Groen said that state Republicans were ignoring the message from voters on election night, when five local anti-abortion candidates were replaced by five pro-choice candidates backed by Planned Parenthood. Among them was the main backer of the abortion bill, HB 5711, Deb Seanessay, who lost her seat to Theresa Abed. "After the election, there was a clear message sent saying we do not want legislators interfering in women's health decisions" said Groen. "We are looking to solving the problems of the economy and jobs."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President calls on campaign team to spread the word about looming deadline when tax rises and spending cuts will kick in Barack Obama has enlisted the help of his formidable grassroots army of volunteers in the battle with Republican members of Congress over the fiscal cliff, the January 1 deadline for a deal on tax and spending. The Obama for America campaign team, which has remained intact post-election, sent out a message to supporters saying that though there is a lot of stake, with their help a deal is possible. It comes after reports of no progress by the Republican and Democratic teams left behind in Congress over the Thanksgiving holiday period to start work on a compromise package. The White House move suggests it has learned the lesson about the impact of grassroots opinion from the battle over healthcare reform. At that time, Democrats failed to match Republican and Tea Party groups who piled the pressure on Congress through the mail, in town hall meetings and in protests on Capitol Hill. The Obama campaign team, in an email to its extensive network of supporters, said: "Right now, president Obama is working with leaders of both parties in Washington to reduce the deficit in a balanced way so we can lay the foundation for long-term middle-class job growth and prevent your taxes from going up." It calls on them to spread the word about Obama's position to friends, families and neighbours. It said he wanted a balanced budget that will extend tax cuts for 98% of the population, eliminate tax cuts for the wealthiest and cut spending by $3tn. "These problems are challenging, but they're solvable. In fact, the Senate has already passed a bill to keep your taxes low. The House needs to pass it, and Congress should get it to the president as soon as possible," the OFA mail said. If there is no deal by 1 January, all taxpayers will faces rises and automatic spending cuts will be imposed across the board, from the military to welfare. Hopes for a bipartisan deal rose last Friday when Obama met Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, who expressed comments about needing to work together to secure a deal. Since that meeting, Obama has been away in Asia, only returning to Washington on Wednesday, while senior congressional leaders have returned to their home states until after Thanksgiving. They have left staff members from their teams to begin work on the framework of a deal, but the initial negotiations have not been fruitful. Republicans and Democrats have accused one another just setting out their standard party policies, with little in the way of compromise being offered. Politico quoted Hill Democrats as saying the Republicans were not being serious about crafting a deal that Obama could accept. The Republicans, according to Politico, want to freeze the Bush-era tax cuts that include the wealthiest and cut back welfare programmes. This may be just a matter of the two sides setting out their initial negotiating positions before moving towards common ground. But the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, who on Friday had been talking up the prospects of a bipartisan settlement, also added to the sense of gloom when, in an op-ed for the Cincinnati Enquirer, he insisted Obama's healthcare reforms had to be put on the table. Boehner said that healthcare reform, which is due to be implemented fully by 2014, involved huge increases in spending and had to be part of any discussion about reducing the federal deficit. He insisted that what he called Obamacare had to go because it added a massive, expensive and unworkable programme at a time when the national debt was already mammoth. "We can't afford it, and we can't afford to leave it intact. That's why I've been clear that the law has to stay on the table as both parties discuss ways to solve our nation's massive debt challenge," Boehner said. The Republicans want to cut back subsidies to help people pay for health insurance. But the Obama administration, since the election, has been pushing ahead with the final measures to ensure that the health reforms, which extend care to tens of millions more Americans, will be implemented in full by 2014. Obama has repeatedly said he views the health reforms as eventually contributing to a reduction in care costs.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lord Patten reveals that Royal Opera House chief executive, Lord Hall of Birkenhead is to succeed George Entwistle Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall has been appointed as director general of the BBC, just a week-and-a-half after the hapless George Entwistle resigned from the job – in a secret, emergency process aimed at restoring stability to the crisis hit broadcaster. Hall is due to take up his post in early March 2013 when acting director general Tim Davie steps down. Lord Patten, writing to BBC staff on Thursday to announce the appointment, said that Hall – Lord Hall of Birkenhead, was "the right person to lead the BBC out of its current crisis and help rebuild public trust in the organisation" – after an extraordinary period in which the broadcaster has been enveloped by criticism over the handling of the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal. Hall, 61, was director of BBC news, and was a candidate for the top job in 1999 when Greg Dyke secured the position. He went off to run the Royal Opera House for 11 years, taking over an organisation that was itself in crisis. Under his tenure, the Opera House tried to shed off its elitist image, by hosting televised public performances outdoors in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere. Patten said that Hall was "an insider and is currently an outsider. As an ex-BBC man he understands how the corporation's culture and behaviour make it, at its best, the greatest broadcaster in the world. "And from his vantage point outside the BBC, he understands the criticisms that are levelled at the corporation – both those that are justified and those that are not. But perhaps most importantly, given where we now find ourselves, his experience as a former BBC journalist will prove invaluable as the BBC looks to rebuild its reputation in this area." He will be paid £450,000 a year – the same as his predecessor, but substantially below the sums paid to Mark Thompson, who left the BBC in September. The BBC Trust said it took the unusual approach of making a direct approach from to Hall and he accepted without the broadcaster speaking to anybody else. Hall did not apply for the job when it last became vacant as a result of Mark Thompson's departure earlier this year – partly because at 61 he felt he was too old. Patten said that the accelerated recruitment process was justified in the interests of licence fee payers, with the chairman noting that "Tony Hall wasn't available" when Entwistle was appointed in July. Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, said that he believed that Hall was "the right man to run the BBC" given that he has both experience of the organisation and spent "10 years outside the BBC". At 61, Yentob said that he believed that Hall had "the judgment and wisdom" to run the BBC – and that his age was not a barrier to running an organisation despite the intense pressures that saw off Entwistle. Hall has run the Opera House since April 2001 but had been telling close friends he was looking for a change – while maintaining in public that he was "happy in his job" as speculation about his name swirled. "It's been a difficult few weeks – but together we'll get through it. I'm committed to ensuring our news services are the best in the world. I'm committed to making this a place where creative people, the best and the brightest, want to work," he said. "And I know from my first days here as a news trainee, to my time as head of news and current affairs, to my time now at the Royal Opera House, that I can't do it on my own. Having the right teams working together, sparking off each other, is key." The BBC said that Hall is already in receipt of a corporation pension after more nearly 30 years' service and will not benefit from any extra pension payments as director general. Egon Zehnder, which was paid about £200,000 for advising the BBC on the disastrous appointment of Entwistle, helped out for free on this occasion. Hall was born in Birkenhead and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, Oxford. He joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1973 and worked on a wide range of TV and radio news programmes, before being made editor of the BBC1 Nine O'Clock News in 1985. Two years later he was appointed editor of news and current affairs, the first time the role had been combined, as part of then deputy director general John Birt's at the time controversial reorganisation of the BBC's news division. Hall became director of news and current affairs in 1990 and was regarded as one of Birt's key lieutenants after he became director general in 1992. He ran BBC News for more than a decade before leaving the corporation for the Royal Opera House in 2001, overseeing the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC News 24 and BBC News Online. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hostilities cease between the two sides after eight days of fighting claims more than 160 lives A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians appeared to be holding on Thursday after eight days of fighting in the Gaza Strip that claimed more than 160 lives. Several rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel shortly after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, according to Israeli police, but there were no casualties and no sign of an Israeli response. Under the truce, which will be guaranteed by Egypt on the Palestinian side, Israel agreed to "stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals". In exchange it committed "all Palestinian factions" to "stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel including rocket attacks and all attacks along the border". Gazans awoke to discover the ceasefire had survived its first few hours. The mosque loudspeakers, largely silenced over the past week of fighting, resumed their dawn calls to prayer. The area's diminished and struggling fishing fleet once again put to sea, albeit under the watch of Israeli gunboats and constrained by tight restrictions on where they can work. Gaza City's notorious traffic jams once again began to build as Palestinians returned to work, or to clean up the wreckage of their shops and businesses. Convenience stores and cafes pulled up the shutters for the first time in a week. But the incessant buzz of the Israeli drones, like an annoying unseen insect, is a constant reminder that a halt to the rockets is not an end to conflict. Leaders on both sides were quick to claim victory. Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, said at a press conference in Cairo that Israel had "failed in its adventure" when it launched attacks on Gaza and had been forced to accept Palestinian terms. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said Israel had destroyed thousands of missiles as well as Hamas installations. The conflict has claimed the lives of at least 161 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, while five Israelis died. Many people in Gaza regard the ceasefire as a victory for Hamas, which is seen as having resisted a deliberate escalation in violence by Netanyahu, in order to bolster support in January's general election. The truce – announced in Cairo by Egypt's foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton – included a pledge to open border crossings. That could ease the five-year blockade of the coastal enclave, a key point certain to be the focus of differing interpretations as the dust settles. But even as the truce was being announced, Netanyahu warned more "forceful" action might be required if the ceasefire failed, a reference to a threatened ground invasion of Gaza which was postponed by Israel after pressure from the US president. Speaking at a press conference, Netanyahu said the operation had destroyed "thousands of missiles" as well as Hamas installations. Israel could not "sit with their arms folded" under attack, he said. He also repeated his veiled threat of a wider army operation if the ceasefire failed: "I know there are citizens expecting a more severe military action, and perhaps we shall need to do so." Netanyahu's statement came as an instant poll by Israel's Channel 2 television revealed that 70% of Israelis opposed the ceasefire deal. Meshaal, speaking in Cairo, welcomed the ceasefire and said "the Israeli conspiracy" that had sought election propaganda and to "test Egypt" had "failed in its objectives". After the deal was struck Barack Obama called Netanyahu to commend him for agreeing to the Egyptian proposal and told him he would seek more money for the Iron Dome defence system that has protected Israel from rocket attacks. Israel launched well over 1,500 air strikes and other attacks on targets in Gaza, while more than 1,000 rockets pounded Israel after the fighting began on 14 November. Announcing the ceasefire in Cairo, Clinton commended Egypt's mediation. "This is a critical moment for the region. Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone for regional stability and peace." She also thanked Egypt's Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, for his mediation efforts and pledged to work with partners in the region "to consolidate this progress, improve conditions for the people of Gaza, and provide security for the people of Israel". Despite securing support from western governments for its initial military operation against Hamas, Israel had failed to win US and European backing for a ground invasion as a series of key US allies in the region, led by Egypt and Turkey, strongly protested against the Israeli assault. The agreed truce, mediated by Morsi and his spy chief, Mohamed Shehata, came after days of talks and frantic shuttle diplomacy involving regional leaders, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and Clinton. The deal as it stands – despite comments by Clinton that efforts would continue for a wider settlement – leaves considerable areas of friction and uncertainty. However, an Israeli government source said, following the ceasefire agreement, an "ongoing dialogue will start within 24 hours" covering underlying issues of concern to both parties. They include the further relaxation of border restrictions and the issue of targeted assassinations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attack targets Shia Muslim procession, wounding at least 62, and follows mosque bombing in Karachi A Taliban suicide bomber has struck a Shia Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people in the latest in a series of bombings targeting the sect during its holiest month of the year. The bomber attacked the procession around midnight on Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital, Islamabad, said Deeba Shahnaz, a rescue official. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six police officers. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, said Shahnaz. Police tried to stop and search the bomber as he attempted to join the procession but he ran past them and detonated his explosives, said a senior police official, Haseeb Shah. The attacker was also carrying grenades, some of which exploded. "I think the explosives combined with grenades caused the big loss," he said. "It was like the world was ending," said one of the victims, Nasir Shah, describing the blast. He was being treated at a local hospital for wounds to his hands and legs. Earlier on Wednesday, the Taliban set off two bombs within minutes of each other outside a Shia mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing at least one person and wounding several others, senior police official Javed Odho said. The Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, said the group was responsible for the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi. "We have a war of belief with Shiites," Ahsan said. "They are blasphemers. We will continue attacking them." The Sunni-Shia schism over the true heir to Islam's Prophet Muhammad dates to the 7th century. Shias are currently observing the holy month of Muharram; on Saturday, they will observe the holiest day of the month, Ashoura, which commemorates the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson. The country has a long history of sectarian violence carried out by extremist Sunni and Shia Muslims. Most attacks in recent years have targeted Shias, who make up a minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country. The Pakistani government increases security every Muharram to protect Shias, but attacks regularly occur, and activists have criticised the government for not doing enough to safeguard the sect.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | November manufacturing data shows the Chinese economy is recovering from its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis China's manufacturing has expanded for the first time in 13 months in a further sign that the world's second largest economy is recovering from its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis. HSBC said on Thursday its monthly Purchasing Managers' Index improved to 50.4 for November – more than 50 indicates expansion. That was a moderate improvement from October's 49.5. It is the first time in 13 months that the reading has been above 50. The PMI index measures overall manufacturing activity by surveying numerous indicators including orders, employment and actual production. The Chinese numbers are rare good news for the world economy, which has slowed as Europe's chronic debt crisis worsened and the American economy stagnated. HSBC economist Qu Hongbin said the survey showed that China's economic recovery was gaining momentum, but remained fragile. "This calls for a continuation of policy easing to strengthen the recovery," he added. Chinese leaders have cut interest rates twice since early June and are pumping money into the economy through higher spending by state companies and on building airports and other public works. They have avoided a larger stimulus after their multibillion-dollar spending in response to the 2008 global crisis fuelled inflation and a wasteful building boom. Analysts have cautioned that a Chinese recovery is likely to be "L-shaped", meaning the decline might have stopped but improvements in growth should be gradual. That would be a setback for exporters of commodities and other goods counting on China to help drive a rebound in global demand. The HSBC report is based on data compiled from questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in more than 420 manufacturing companies.
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