| |  | | | | | SHUTTING DOWN Feed My Inbox will be shutting down on January 10, 2013. To find an alternative service for email updates, visit this page. | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WikiLeaks founder reportedly suffering from a chronic lung condition after spending months inside Ecuadorean embassy The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung ailment that could worsen at any time and is being checked regularly by doctors, Ecuador's ambassador to Britain has said. Assange, 41, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing. "He has a chronic lung complaint that could get worse any time. The Ecuadorean state is covering Mr Assange's medical costs and we have arranged for regular doctor visits to check on his health," the ambassador, Ana Alban, told a local TV network during a visit to Quito. British officials say Assange will be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy. The building is under constant police surveillance. Ecuador said last month it was worried about Assange's health and asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage to hospital from the embassy if he needed medical treatment. That would allow him to return to the embassy after treatment with refugee status. Assange took refuge in the embassy after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. Ecuador granted him asylum in August and said it shared his fears that he could be sent from Sweden to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks' activities. US and European government sources say the US has issued no criminal charges against him, nor launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
Assange is said to be living a cramped life inside the modest diplomatic mission. He eats mostly takeaway food and uses a treadmill to burn off energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for the lack of sunlight. On Tuesday Assange accused "hard-right" US politicians of pressing European credit card firms to block more than $50m in donations to WikiLeaks, and said that had forced the website to reduce the volume of documents it posted online. Speaking to reporters in the embassy's conference room, Assange said his stay there had been "difficult in many ways" and that any resolution of the standoff would be "a matter of diplomacy". He refused to comment on his health or how long he may have to stay in the embassy, declaring those subjects "off-topic". In late August Assange said he expected to wait six months to a year for a deal that would allow him to leave the embassy.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WikiLeaks founder reportedly suffering from a chronic lung condition after spending months inside the Ecuadorian embassy WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suffering from a chronic lung ailment that could worsen at any time and is being checked regularly by doctors, the Andean country's ambassador to Britain said. Assange, 41, whose website angered the United States by releasing thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing. "He has a chronic lung complaint that could get worse any time. The Ecuadorean state is covering Mr Assange's medical costs and we have arranged for regular doctor visits to check on his health," Ambassador Ana Alban told a local TV network during a visit to Quito. British authorities say Assange will be arrested if he sets foot outside the embassy. The building, located just behind London's famed Harrods department store, is under constant police surveillance. Ecuador said last month it is worried about Assange's health and asked Britain to guarantee him safe passage to hospital from the embassy if he needs medical treatment. That would allow him to return to the embassy after treatment with refugee status. Assange took refuge in the embassy after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. Ecuador granted him asylum in August and said it shared his fears that he could be sent from Sweden to the United States to face charges over WikiLeaks' activities. US and European government sources say the United States has issued no criminal charges against him, nor launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
Assange is said to be living a cramped life inside the modest diplomatic mission. He eats mostly take-out food and uses a treadmill to burn off energy and a vitamin D lamp to make up for the lack of sunlight. On Tuesday, the Australian former computer hacker accused "hard-right" US politicians of pressing European credit card firms to block more than $50 million in donations to WikiLeaks, and said that had forced the website to reduce the volume of documents it posted online. Speaking to reporters in the embassy's conference room, Assange said his stay there had been "difficult in many ways" and that any resolution of the standoff would be "a matter of diplomacy." He refused to comment on his health or how long he may have to stay in the embassy, declaring those subjects "off-topic." In late August, Assange said he expected to wait six months to a year for a deal that would allow him to leave the embassy.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Frank Olsen's family claim CIA threw him from a hotel window and covered up his death after he witnessed torture by agency operatives in Europe The family of a US government scientist who fell to his death from a New York hotel window six decades ago have launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up. In one of the most notorious cases in the organisation's history, bioweapons expert Frank Olson died in 1953, nine days after he was given LSD by agency officials without his knowledge. In the lawsuit, filed in the US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Olson's sons Eric and Nils claim their father was murdered after he witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA killed suspects using the biological agents he had developed. The CIA has long denied any foul play, though it was forced to admit in 1975, more than 20 years after the death, that the scientist had been given LSD in a spiked glass of Cointreau. The agency, which originally told the family the death was a result of job-induced stress, has since maintained that it was a drug-induced suicide. But in a statement on Wednesday, Eric Olson said: "The evidence shows that our father was killed in their custody. They have lied to us ever since, withholding documents and information, and changing their story when convenient. "We were just little boys and they took away our lives – the CIA didn't kill only our father, they killed our entire family again and again and again." The lawsuit alleges that even when the drug details emerged, the CIA embarked on a "multi-decade cover-up that continues to this day." Olson began work at the special operations division (SOP) of the army's biological laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland in 1950. The CIA worked with the SOP researching biological agents and chemical weapons. In 1952 and 1953, he was focused on bioweapons that could be transmitted through the air, according to the lawsuit. In the year of his death, Olson visited Porton Down, the UK's biological and chemical warfare research centre in Wiltshire, as well as bases in Paris, Norway, and West Germany. During these trips, according to the family's lawsuit, he "witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA committed murder using biological agents that Dr Olson had developed". The lawsuit gives no details of the deaths or where they occurred. The family said Olson was disturbed by what he had seen and told his wife, Alice, he wanted to quit. On 19 November 1953 he was taken to a secret meeting Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, where he was given the drink laced with LSD. On 24 November, according to the lawsuit, he told a colleague he wanted to resign. But instead, on Thanksgiving weekend, he travelled to New York for a psychiatric evaluation and checked into the Statler Hotel. In the early hours of 28 November, he crashed through the window of the 13th-floor room he was sharing with a CIA doctor and plunged to his death in the street below. The family lawsuit alleges that, immediately following his death, a person in Olson's room made a phone call. The hotel operator overheard one party say "Well, he's gone." The person on the other end responded simply "That's too bad." The role of LSD in the death only emerged in 1975 during a series of post-Watergate era disclosures about CIA abuses, which revealed programmes on brainwashing, mind control and other human experiments during the early days of the cold war. The Olson case became a symbol for reckless CIA behaviour and government secrecy. Soon after the revelations, Gerald Ford apologised to the family for an experiment gone wrong, the CIA promised a "complete file" of documents into his death and they were awarded a financial settlement. But his sons, who have spent much of their adult lives searching for answers in the case, say their questions have been met with cover-ups and lies ever since. Eric Olson said the CIA had refused to provide documents to the family as recently as last year. Over the years, the Olson family has uncovered evidence they believe supports their theory. Olson's body was exhumed in 1993 and a forensic scientist, James Starrs, concluded that he had probably been struck on the head and then thrown out of the window. Later, the New York district attorney conducted an investigation into his death which was inconclusive. Scott Gilbert, lead counsel in the lawsuit, said: "It's unfathomable that our own government could stand by as its agents, operating on United States soil, killed an American citizen in cold blood, destroyed his family, and then allowed those directly responsible to walk away without so much as a blemish on their personnel files. Instead of putting its energy and resources into doing what is right, the United States – including this administration – has sought to bury this and hide the truth." Jennifer Youngblood, a spokeswoman for the CIA, said the agency did not normally comment on pending court cases. However, she added: "Without commenting on this specific legal matter, CIA activities related to MK-Ultra [a behavioral engineering programme] have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency co-operated with each of those investigations. MK-Ultra was investigated in 1975 by the Rockefeller commission and the Church committee, and in 1977 by the Senate select committee on intelligence and the Senate subcommittee on health and scientific research. In addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the programme have been declassified and released to the public."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bioweapons expert fell from hotel room window nine days after being given LSD in a drink without his knowledge The family of a US government scientist who fell to his death from a New York hotel window six decades ago have launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up. In one of the most notorious cases in the organisation's history, bioweapons expert Frank Olson died in 1953, nine days after he was given LSD by agency officials without his knowledge. In the lawsuit, filed in the US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Olson's sons Eric and Nils claim their father was murdered after he discovered that his biological research was being used to torture and kill suspects in Europe. The CIA has long denied any foul play, though it was forced to admit in 1975, more than 20 years after the death, that the scientist had been given LSD in a spiked glass of Cointreau. The agency, which originally told the family the death was a result of job-induced stress, has since maintained that it was a drug-induced suicide. But in a statement on Wednesday, Eric Olson said: "The evidence shows that our father was killed in their custody. They have lied to us ever since, withholding documents and information, and changing their story when convenient. "We were just little boys and they took away our lives – the CIA didn't kill only our father, they killed our entire family again and again and again." The lawsuit alleges that even when the drug details emerged, the CIA embarked on a "multi-decade cover-up that continues to this day." Olson began work at the special operations division (SOP) of the army's biological laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland in 1950. The CIA worked with the SOP researching biological agents and chemical weapons. In 1952 and 1953, he was focused on bioweapons that could be transmitted through the air, according to the lawsuit. In the year of his death, Olson visited Porton Down, the UK's biological and chemical warfare research centre in Wiltshire, as well as bases in Paris, Norway, and West Germany. During these trips, according to the family's lawsuit, he "witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA committed murder using biological agents that Dr Olson had developed". The lawsuits gives no details of the deaths or where they occurred. The family said Olson was disturbed by what he had seen and told his wife, Alice, he wanted to quit. On 19 November 1953 he was taken to a secret meeting Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, where he was given the drink laced with LSD. On 24 November, according to the lawsuit, he told a colleague he wanted to resign. But instead, on Thanksgiving weekend, he travelled to New York for a psychiatric evaluation and checked into the Statler Hotel. In the early hours of 28 November, he crashed through the window of the 13th-floor room he was sharing with a CIA doctor and plunged to his death in the street below. The family lawsuit alleges that, immediately following his death, a person in Olson's room made a phone call. The hotel operator overheard one party say "Well, he's gone." The person on the other end responded simply "That's too bad." The role of LSD in the death only emerged in 1975 during a series of post-Watergate era disclosures about CIA abuses, which revealed programmes on brainwashing, mind control and other human experiments during the early days of the cold war. The Olson case became a symbol for reckless CIA behaviour and government secrecy. Soon after the revelations, Gerald Ford apologised to the family for an experiment gone wrong, the CIA promised a "complete file" of documents into his death and they were awarded a financial settlement. But his sons, who have spent much of their adult lives searching for answers in the case, say their questions have been met with cover-ups and lies ever since. Eric Olson said the CIA had refused to provide documents to the family as recently as last year. Over the years, the Olson family has uncovered evidence they believe supports their theory. Olson's body was exhumed in 1993 and a forensic scientist, James Starrs, concluded that he had probably been struck on the head and then thrown out of the window. Later, the New York district attorney conducted an investigation into his death which was inconclusive. Scott Gilbert, lead counsel in the lawsuit, said: "It's unfathomable that our own government could stand by as its agents, operating on United States soil, killed an American citizen in cold blood, destroyed his family, and then allowed those directly responsible to walk away without so much as a blemish on their personnel files. Instead of putting its energy and resources into doing what is right, the United States – including this administration – has sought to bury this and hide the truth." Jennifer Youngblood, a spokeswoman for the CIA, said the agency did not normally comment on pending court cases. However, she added: "Without commenting on this specific legal matter, CIA activities related to MK-Ultra [a behavioral engineering programme] have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency co-operated with each of those investigations. MK-Ultra was investigated in 1975 by the Rockefeller commission and the Church committee, and in 1977 by the Senate select committee on intelligence and the Senate subcommittee on health and scientific research. In addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the programme have been declassified and released to the public."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bradley Manning was held in solitary confinement despite expert's claim he was no longer a suicide risk The psychiatrist who treated the WikiLeaks suspect, Bradley Manning, while he was in custody in the brig at Quantico has testified that his medical advice was regularly ignored by marine commanders who continued to impose harsh conditions on the soldier even though he posed no risk of suicide. Captain William Hoctor told Manning's pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade that he grew frustrated and angry at the persistent refusal by marine officers to take on board his medical recommendations. The forensic psychiatrist said that he had never experienced such an unreceptive response from his military colleagues, not even when he treated terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. "I had been a senior medical officer for 24 years at the time, and I had never experienced anything like this. It was clear to me they had made up their mind on a certain cause of action, and my recommendations had no impact," Hoctor said. The psychiatrist was testifying at Manning's court martial for allegedly being the source of the massive leak of hundreds of thousands of confidential US government documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The 24-year-old soldier, who worked as an intelligence analyst until his arrest in Iraq in May 2010, faces 22 counts and possible life in military custody. Manning's defence lawyers are attempting to have the charges thrown out or any eventual sentence reduced by seeking to prove that the soldier was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment at Quantico. During the nine months he was in custody at the marine base in Virginia he was put on suicide watch and a "prevention of injury" order, or PoI, that kept him in solitary confinement and exposed him to extreme conditions that were denounced by the UN and Amnesty International as a form of torture. Hoctor began treating Manning from the day after he arrived at Quantico on 29 July 2010, seeing him initially every day and then later once a week. At first he recommended that the soldier be put on suicide watch - the most stringent form of custody - given that he had mentioned killing himself while previously held in Kuwait and that nooses that he had made were found in his cell. But within a week of seeing Manning he changed his recommendation, reporting to officers that in his medical opinion the soldier could be put on the lesser PoI status. His advice was ignored for a couple of weeks, Hoctor told the court. "At Quantico they often did not immediately follow, or sometimes did not follow at all, my recommendations." The failure to act on the doctor's recommendation was an apparent violation of the instructions under which marine installations operate. The regulations state that "when prisoners are no longer considered to be suicide risks by a medical officer, they shall be returned to appropriate quarters." By 27 August 2010, Hoctor testified, he had spent enough time with Manning to recommend a further easing of conditions. From then on he advised in a regular weekly report that Manning should be taken off PoI altogether and returned to the general brig population. "I was satisfied he no longer presented a risk. He did not appear to be persistently depressed, he was not reporting suicidal thoughts, in general he was well behaved." Specifically, Hoctor was convinced that Manning no longer needed to be subjected to restrictive conditions that included: no contact with other people, being kept in his cell for more than 23 hours a day, being checked every five minutes, sleeping on a suicide mattress with no bedding, having his prescription glasses taken away, lights kept on at night, having toilet paper removed. Only on two occasions did Hoctor report that Manning appeared upset and should be put temporarily under close observation. The first incident occurred in December 2010 when Fox News erroneously reported that Manning had died, and the second in January 2011 when the soldier broke down in tears while in the exercise room. Yet the psychiatrist's recommendation that other than these isolated incidents Manning should be treated like other inmates was consistently ignored. The soldier was kept on PoI throughout the rest of his time at Quantico. The blanket denial of his expert opinion was unprecedented in his quarter century of practice, the psychiatrist said. "Even when I did tours in Guantanamo and cared for detainees there my recommendations on suicidal behaviour were followed." Hoctor said he openly protested about the thwarting of his expert opinion at a meeting with the commander responsible for the brig, Colonel Robert Oltman, on 13 January 2011. At the meeting Oltman informed the doctor that Manning would be kept on PoI "for the forseeable future". Hoctor said that the marine commanders should no longer pretend they were acting out of medical concern for the detainee. "It wasn't good for Manning. I really didn't like them using a psychiatric standard when I thought it clinically inappropriate," Hoctor said. The court heard that Oltman replied: "You make your recommendations, and we'll do what we want to do." Earlier the court martial heard from Oltman himself, who told the judge presiding over the proceedings, Colonel Denise Lind, that he had chosen to overlook Hoctor's advice because he didn't fully trust the doctor. A few months before Manning arrived at Quantico, an inmate of the brig, Captain Michael Webb, had killed himself while under Hoctor's care. "I did not have the utmost confidence in Captain Hoctor," Oltman testified. When that lack of trust was put to Hoctor by Manning's defence lawyer, David Coombs, the psychiatrist replied: "If they felt that way they should have got another person to do the job." Despite the unprecedented conditions that Manning was held under, Hoctor said the detainee coped quite well. "Most people would have found it very difficult, being watched every five minutes, but he did better than expected – I think he decided he was going to be strong."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Environmental Protection Agency accuses oil giant of a 'lack of business integrity' over its behaviour following 2010 Gulf spill BP has been blocked from seeking new contracts with the US government because of the oil company's "lack of business integrity" during the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday. The temporary order bans BP from competing for new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico – such as the auction of 20m acres taking place on Wednesday – or from bidding on new contracts to supply the Pentagon or other government agencies with fuel. While the ban does not affect existing business, it raises wider questions about the company's future in a crucial market. The type of suspension imposed by the EPA typically does not last more than 18 months. But an official said that in this case the ban could be extended because of the ongoing legal proceedings. That could mean BP, the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, would remain under an extended moratorium until all criminal charges and law suits are resolved. BP was clearly taken by surprise and struggled to explain the impact on its business. Its shares fell nearly 2% in London as investors reacted with dismay to the news which puts a major dent in the company's already battered reputation. The finance director of the London-based oil group warned investors at a recent presentation that any outright ban could "affect BP's investment thesis in the US". The order was handed down just two weeks after BP agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges arising from the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, as well as pay a record $4.5bn in fines. The oil company, in announcing its plea deal with the Justice Department earlier this month, had specifically said it did not expect to be barred from future business dealings. "Under US law, companies convicted of certain criminal acts can be debarred from contracting with the federal government," the company said in its statement at the time. "BP has not been advised of the intention of any federal agency to suspend or debar the company in connection with this plea agreement." The EPA said the suspension was based on BP's conduct at the time of the blow-out as well as the 87 days it took to contain the well. Some 4.9m barrels of crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before it was finally capped. "EPA is taking this action due to BP's lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a criminal information," the announcement said. The announcement went on to describe the oil spill as the "largest environmental disaster in US history". It said BP would remain under suspension, and barred from new federal government contracts and transactions, until the company can demonstrate that it meets federal business standards. "Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of federal programmes by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case," the EPA announcement said. The agency gave no further details about the duration of the suspension, and the potential costs to BP were not immediately clear. In its response, BP said the ban would not affect existing business. "The temporary suspension does not affect any existing contracts the company has with the US government, including those related to current and ongoing drilling and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico," BP said. The company said it was working with EPA and the US Justice Department to lift the suspension. "The EPA has informed BP that it is preparing a proposed administrative agreement that, if agreed upon, would effectively resolve and lift this temporary suspension. The EPA notified BP that such a draft agreement would be available soon," the statement said.
The press release also noted that BP had been granted more than 50 new leases in the Gulf of Mexico since the oil disaster. Peter Hutton, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said the EPA action had "real significance", especially as it came days after Lamar McKay, the head of BP in America, was promoted to head of global exploration and production. "The critical question is whether this is a shot across BP's bows to get a settlement, or a more sustained stance, in which case the importance of the context is underlined by comments from BP's chief financial officer, Brian Gilvary, in a recent conference call that such actions could 'affect BP's investment thesis in US'." But Joe Lampel, professor of strategy at the Cass Business School in London, said while the ban was a blow to BP the damage should be relatively limited. "This suspension should be seen as an additional penalty rather than a pressure tactic that the US government often uses when it wants to force firms to concede liability. We do not know how long the ban will last, but I suspect that it will be lifted after a sufficient grace period has passed." In its attempt to consign Deepwater to the past, BP has agreed to pay $7.8bn to settle private claims stemming from the spill, and with the plea deal reached earlier this month, had hoped to limit its criminal liability. It is still on the hook for up to $21bn for environmental damage to the Gulf. Wednesday's move by the EPA presents an additional complication. Meanwhile, two BP rig supervisors appeared in a New Orleans court on Wednesday to be formally charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 11 workers aboard the rig. The supervisors, Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza, are accused of ignoring abnormal pressure readings seen as a red flag of a well blow-out. Kaluza told reporters just before his hearing that he was innocent of the charges. "I think about the tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon every day. But I did not cause the tragedy," he told reporters at the court. "I am innocent and I put my trust, reputation and future in the hands of the judge and jury." A former BP executive David Rainey was charged separately for allegedly lying to Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from the well. All three men were expected to plead not guilty. The EPA action was positively received by a number of key players, including former senator Bob Graham, who had chaired the White House oil spill commission. "I can't put a dollar figure on what that would mean but I would assume that access to one of the larger reserves of petroleum in the world – which the Gulf of Mexico is – would have some economic consequences. And the longer the prohibition, the greater the consequences," Graham told the Guardian. He went on to praise the Obama administration for holding the oil company to account. "I think sending a very strong signal that the federal government is going to be a much better steward of public property and that those who are permitted to explore and then potentially exploit those public properties are going to have to conduct themselves by world-class standards," Graham said. Campaign groups also applauded the move by the EPA. But the Oceana conservation group said the tough line from the Obama administration was undercut by its decision to go ahead with new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. "We are pleased that BP is being penalised for the irresponsible actions," said Matt Dundas, the campaign director. But he went on: "Overall, President Obama is missing the lesson of the Deepwater Horizon disaster which is that offshore drilling is inherently dirty and dangerous and needs to be phased out."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | House speaker John Boehner maintains that Republicans will not vote to raise taxes as president enlists support for his plan Cracks in Republican opposition to tax rises for the wealthy grew bigger on Wednesday as Barack Obama increased pressure on the party to accept a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff crisis before the holidays. Obama, emboldened by his election victory, proposed a bill to stop 98% of taxpayers facing automatic rises in January but imposing increases on the remaining 2% of the highest earners. Deep cuts in spending would be left until next year. "My hope is to get this done before Christmas," he said. Republican congressman Tom Cole, a former chairman of the national Republican congressional committee, broke ranks to say the party should accept Obama's tax proposal. He went further even than three of his Republican colleagues who have said over the last week they might consider accepting rises. But the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, shot down Cole, insisting that the party remained opposed to any such tax rises. Boehner expressed optimism that a deal will eventually be reached. "We all know that we've had this spending crisis coming at us like a freight train and it has to be dealt with. And in order to try to come to an agreement Republicans are willing to put revenue on the table, but it's time for the president and Democrats to get serious about the spending problem that our country has. But I'm optimistic that we can continue to work together to avert this crisis, and sooner rather than later." Obama is campaigning on the issue in a way that he failed to do during similar standoffs in 2010 and 2011. He devoted almost the entire day to the issue: meeting first with working-class and middle-class families that face tax rises in January if no deal is reached, discussing it at his first cabinet since the election and meeting with the chief executives of major companies. On the surface, the Democrats and Republicans seem to be at polar opposites. The Republicans oppose tax rises for the wealthiest but are prepared to support revenue-raising measures, provided they are accompanied by deep spending cuts, including welfare benefits. The Democrats are adamant that taxes for the wealthiest must rise and are resisting cuts in welfare programmes such as Medicaid. But there has so far been little of the harsh rhetoric that accompanied the 2010 and 2011 standoffs. The Republicans too appear less entrenched. Cole, in television interviews, said that though he does not agree with raising taxes on the top 2%, he thought Republicans should accept the deal. He added that there were other Republicans ready to listen to the Democratic proposals. But Boehner told reporters he did not agree with Cole. "He's a wonderful friend of mine and a great supporter of mine, but raising taxes on the so-called top 2% – half of those taxpayers are small business owners. You're not going to grow the economy if you raise the top [2%] rates. It'll hurt small business. It'll hurt our economy." Obama, at his meeting with middle-class families, said: "We don't have a lot of time here. We've got a few weeks to get this thing done." He said if ordinary Americans mobilised to put pressure on the Republicans, "then I am confident we will get it done". He is to take his campaign on the road, heading to Pennsylvania on Friday, visiting the Rodon toy business that risks losing customers during the holiday period if people are worried about their taxes going up in January. If there is no deal by 1 January, all taxpayers will experience rises as Bush-era tax breaks expire. Obama said Congress could pass a law now that would prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody's income. Comprehensive spending cuts could wait until next year. "Families and small businesses would, therefore, be able to enjoy some peace of mind heading into Christmas and heading into the New Year. And it would give us more time next year to work together on a comprehensive plan to bring down our deficits, to streamline our tax system, to do it in a balanced way – including asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more, so that we can still invest in things like education and training, and science and research," Obama said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kayvan Sabeghi says he was left in a jail cell with a ruptured spleen for 18 hours after being beaten by police at Occupy rally A war veteran who claims he was falsely arrested, beaten, and almost died due to neglect in an Oakland prison has launched legal action against the jail, claiming his pleas for help were ignored. Kayvan Sabeghi, 33, was arrested during an Occupy rally in Oakland, California, in November last year. Video footage shows him being beaten with batons and he suffered a lacerated spleen which his attorney Dan Siegel says almost killed him after he was left without treatment for 18 hours in prison. Siegel estimated damages in the case will be upwards of $1m but said his main aim was to change the practices at the jail. "The greater concern that he has is that there be some changes at the jail. It's a big problem that the county has privatised health services in a public jail and that the company that's doing it is more concerned about making money than providing quality care." A private company, Corizon, is hired by the prison authorities to take care of the medical needs of prisoners at Glenn Dyer. Corizon is named as one of the defendants in the suit, along with the county of Alameda, Sheriff Gregory Ahern and an officer at the county sheriff's office. On arrival at the prison Sabeghi told medical officers that he had been beaten by police and he offered to show them his injuries. Corizon staff are accused of refusing to look at Sabeghi's injuries. The suit claims that his condition deteriorated and that despite showing severe distress and vomiting, Sabeghi did not receive treatment for 18 hours and was mocked by prison guards who dismissed his suffering as heroin withdrawal symptoms. It further claims that one officer filmed Sabeghi as he lay on the floor in agony and vomiting. By the time his friends posted his bail, at 2pm the following day, he was so ill he could not lift himself from the concrete floor of his cell. Four hours later his friends came to the prison to get him out and an ambulance was called. "There are a lot of people taken to jail who have substantial medical problems," said Siegel. "There are a lot of people with drug and alcohol problems and they need to be adequately cared for … When you have guards who ridicule people with health problems, that's a setup for failure. Maybe there are some who exaggerate their symptoms but I think they should all be checked out and if someone continues to complain, they should be given the benefit of the doubt. At least get a doctor." The suit further claims that a medical staffer did take Sabeghi's blood pressure but reported, wrongly, that he was a diabetic and alcoholic and sought no further treatment for him. But the authorities in Oakland have rejected the claims. Sgt JD Nelson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, denied any mistreatment and insisted video footage would show officers promptly assisting Sabeghi and arranging an examination. "As his condition worsened, we got an ambulance there," Nelson said. Yet Siegel responded that it was clear to other prisoners that Sabeghi was in genuine distress and they asked guards to get help but were ignored. He added: "Contrary to what the sheriff department's spokesperson said, it was not the case that they responded with any urgency. They only took it seriously when his friends bailed him out and he was unable to leave. "He came close to dying. His doctors said so. He had a ruptured spleen and he was bleeding internally, which is why he got progressively weaker." Sabeghi served tours as a ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq and is no longer in the army. On his return to civilian life he ran a bar in Oakland for a time but has since given that up. He has said he was not participating in the Occupy rally the day he was arrested, but merely trying to get home when he was confronted by police in riot gear. When he refused to change direction he was beaten. Video footage posted on YouTube shows him receiving a number of blows with police batons before being arrested. He was not charged with any crime.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President Obama holds a summit meeting with America's top corporate CEOs, as Republicans bicker over accepting them
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Government jet and helicopter downed within 24 hours
• Surface-to-air attacks seen as major tactical development Syrian rebels are believed to have used surface-to-air missiles to down two government aircraft in less than 24 hours – the first time such weapons have been used in the 20-month insurrection. The downing of the aircraft is being hailed as a significant tactical advance in northern Syria, where fierce clashes between Assad regime forces and rebels over the summer have given way to several months of stalemate and rising despair on the opposition side. A warplane crashed on Wednesday near Darat Azzah outside Aleppo after being shot at from the ground. The wounded pilot was captured. Late on Tuesday, a regime helicopter also crashed. Several videos uploaded to the internet clearly showed a missile hitting it broadside before it plummeted to earth. Meanwhile, at least 50 people have killed and more than 80 wounded by two car bombs in a Christian and Druze district near Damascus early on Wednesday. The devices were detonated in the loyalist town of Jaramana. The government blamed foreign-backed "terrorist groups" for the attack. Opposition groups in Damascus claimed they were not responsible and instead claimed the regime had planted the bombs to instil fear into minority communities. Rebel groups claimed to have seized the missiles used to shoot down the regime aircraft during raids over the past week on regime bases in the north. At least two of the raids are known to have yielded large stocks of weaponry and ammunition. Late on Wednesday, a Syrian rebel posing with a Russian-made heat-seeking missile launcher claimed credit for the attacks. He said the missile he claimed to have used had been part of a stash of weapons stolen during a raid on a nearby base. Such rebel raids have increased dramatically over the past fortnight. At least four large bases are widely reported to have fallen: one in the east of the country, two in the north and one major air force facility near Damascus. Six other outposts are also believed to have changed hands in what is shaping up to be a pivotal phase of the civil war. Opposition groups had been pleading for anti-aircraft missiles to protect them and anti-regime towns and villages in the north from government jets, which have become a growing threat. However, the US, France and Britain have refused to provide them, fearing they could fall into the hands of extremists and be used to attack airliners. The raids on the bases and the use of heat-seekers have raised the stakes sharply in northern Syria, where momentum appears to be steadily shifting in the favour of rebel groups, who until recently had feared that they could not finish what they had started when they launched incursions into Aleppo and Damascus in mid-July. At the forefront of this emerging dynamic are jihadist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-inspired militia whose motivations for fighting the Syrian regime are largely sectarian and at odds with the nationalistic aims of much of the opposition. Jabhat al-Nusra members were solely responsible for the raid on the Mayedin base in eastern Syria over the weekend and are believed to have played roles in the sacking of several northern airfields. A video posted on Tuesday shows members of the group returning to their headquarters with weapons they had looted, including a tank. The gathering strength of the jihadist group, as well as the more potent weaponry now available, is likely to pose a series of challenges to the Assad regime, as it attempts to hold on to Syria's two leading cities. Regime forces have launched extensive operations in opposition areas around Damascus in recent weeks, attempting to consolidate their control of the capital. The fighting in Aleppo has become a series of skirmishes along stagnant frontlines.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Demonstrators who have gathered at New York air base for years say their constitutional right to protest has been compromised after colonel granted strict order of protection Ever since the F16 fighters were replaced by Reaper drones at Hancock Air National Guard base in upstate New York three years ago, peace activists have engaged in regular anti-drone protests outside the facility. In that time they have learned what to expect: holding banners at a site across the road is tolerated; close proximity or blocking gates risks arrest for trespass or disorderly conduct, a fine, or at the most, a few uncomfortable nights in a cell. But now, in what appears to be a significant escalation by the base authorities, the activists have been subjected to what they describe as an "absurd" restraining order which they say breaches their constitutional right to protest. The order was issued by a judge [PDF] following the arrest of 17 protesters accused of blocking all three base entrances to traffic last month. It bans them specifically from approaching the home, school or workplace of Colonel Earl A Evans, a commander at the base. Failure to comply is a felony, punishable by up to seven years in jail. Some of the activists are due to have the charges against them, including disorderly conduct and harassment, heard in Dewitt criminal court on Wednesday. The arrested protesters, three of whom spoke to the Guardian, said they had never heard of Evans, had never met him and did not know what he looked like. He is the mission support group commander of the 174th fighter wing group, according to court documents. Neither his home or school address is known to the defendants or detailed in the order, which names his place of work as 6001 East Molloy Road in Dewitt, New York – the military base. They are also banned from all forms of communication with Evans, including by email. In a deposition to the court dated 25 October, Evans called for an order of protection and prosecution of the arrested protesters to the "fullest extent". He said the blocking of all three gates by the protesters was the "third time that protesters had done an unannounced protest" that resulted in a closure of the gate. Written by hand, in block capitals, Evans wrote: "As an authorised representative of Hancock Field, I request that the court issue an order of protection on each and every defendant arrested such that they are to stay away from Hancock Field and I request prosecution to the fullest extent of the law." The order has created confusion among the activists involved, as they say they no longer know where they can legitimately protest against the unmanned drones which are operated from the base. One of the 17 arrested, Elliott Adams, said: "This is a new tactic to deny us our first amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and to petition our government." Adams, a Vietnam veteran, past president of Veterans for Peace and former mayor of Sharon Springs, accused the military and local law enforcement of increasingly heavy-handed tactics against peaceful protests. In the last 18 months, more than 100 people have been arrested at the base, according to protesters, but in at least a third of the cases, the charges have been dropped. Last year, Adams was among 33 protesters arrested after marching in single file on the side of the road, in what he described as "frivolous charges" which were later dropped. But the latest order is the worst so far, he said. "We are committed to non-violence" said Adams. "It's absurd that this order is all about Evans' personal well being. He's the guy who has spent a lifetime training in delivering violence and killing people and I say that as a veteran myself. Those inside Hancock are the ones with the M16s and assault rifles, the MQ9 drones. We as individuals are obligated to stop our government committing war crimes – that's part of what came out of Nuremberg. This is a misuse of the law." Adams said that he has repeatedly been arrested as he attempted to deliver a letter to the base commander, Colonel Greg Semmel, and others accusing the government of war crimes. The order of protection, issued by Donald Benack, a judge in the Dewitt town court, Onondaga, New York, on 25 October, forbids the 17 activists from contacting Evans, and, specifically, forbids them from the following: …assault, stalking, harassment, aggravated harassment, menacing, reckless endangerment, strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing or circulation, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, forcible touching, intimidation, threats or any criminal offense or interference with the victim or victims of, or designated witnesses to the alleged offense and such members of the family or household of such victim(s) or witness(es) as shall be specifically named Earl A Evans.
The activists, Adams said, had asked if the order meant they had to stay away from the weekly permitted protest across the road from the base. The response from law enforcement officers: if Evans found it "irritating" then it did. Adams now plans to consult an attorney over the best strategy to take over the order. His case comes up in court later this month. Another protester, Mark Scibilia-Carver, said he considered it part of his duty as a Christian to protest at the base, but that the order may deter him. Scibilia-Carver, 60, an arborist from Trumensberg who has already spent five days in jail after being arrested at Hancock in the past, said: "The order of protection threatens a felony and that's seven years. It's very heavy-handed. I'm surprised the judge signed it. I will resist as far as I'm able but I have to think about the possibility of a longer sentence. I didn't do that well in jail the last time." He has used court time in the past to argue the case against drones and has even offered, unsuccessfully in lieu of payment of a $250 fine, to submit a contribution to the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers charity. Scibilia-Carver, who began protesting at the base on Good Friday last year, said: "The US is the biggest imperial force in the world and it seems that poor people are expendable. Civilians get caught up in drone strikes. Even those who are targeted as terrorists are not being afforded the rule of law." The letter of indictment, which protesters have attempted to deliver to Semmel and others, accuses the US government of war crimes, including the killing of innocent civilians, by remote means. It cites the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, who, in 2010, called the use of drones in targeted killings "a highly problematic blurring and expansion of the boundaries of the applicable legal frameworks" which has resulted in "the displacement of clear legal standards with a vaguely defined licence to kill, and the creation of a major accountability vacuum". The letter adds: "There is no legal basis for defining the scope of area where drones can or cannot be used, no legal criteria for deciding which people can be targeted for killing, no procedural safety to ensure the legality of the decision to kill and the accuracy of the assassination."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nationalised Bankia and three others to shed 10,000 jobs in return for €37bn to clean out toxic real estate assets Four failed Spanish banks including the nationalised giant Bankia have been rescued by the eurozone's bailout fund in exchange for brutal cuts to their workforces, branch networks and balance sheets as tens of thousands of small retail bondholders were also hammered. Bankia, Catalunya Banc, Novagalicia and Banco de Valencia were set to shed more than 10,000 jobs in return for receiving €37bn (£29.9bn) to clean out toxic real estate assets that will be transferred to a Spanish "bad" bank. The news came on the heels of OECD forecasts that see unemployment rising above 6 million people next year as the recession-hit country continues to slash government spending, with a jobless rate set to reach 27%. The harsh conditions imposed by Brussels will force the former savings banks to return to their origins and concentrate on looking after the money of small businesses and families after a decade in which they grew fat on the back of a residential housing boom that left them badly exposed when the bubble burst. The banks must shrink their balance sheets by 60% over five years and immediately sell off €45bn of real estate assets to the Sareb bad bank at average discounts above 50%. Bondholders will shoulder a hefty €10bn of losses. They include many small savers lured into buying complex hybrid preference shares during aggressive sales campaigns as Bankia and others struggled to raise money and stay afloat. Bankia announced that its preference shareholders would be forced to take a 39% "haircut" on the value of their investments, which they must exchange for ordinary shares. Bankia's chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, said the bank, which claims to hold accounts for one-in-seven Spaniards, would shed 6,000 workers and close 1,100 branches – or 3% of Spain's high street banking network. It will also sell all holdings in other companies, including a 12% stake in British Airways owner IAG and 15% of the Mapfre insurance company. Banco de Valencia will receive €4.5bn and has been sold to the healthy CaixaBank for just €1 – with European Union competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia insisting this was cheaper than winding it up. "Our objective is to restore the viability of banks receiving aid so that they are able to function without public support in the future," Almunia said. Another round of refinancing, involving a group of mid-sized Spanish banks that are trying to avoid similar conditions by raising money themselves, will be decided on 20 December. The bailout money is being loaned at a rate below 1%, finance minister Luis de Guindos said. "Now that our institution is financially sound, we shall focus on making it profitable because that is the best way to reward our shareholders and also, of course, Spanish taxpayers, so they can recover their investment," Goirigolzarri said. Bankia was created by the merger of seven savings banks which have since been hit by allegations of corruption, cronyism and political interference. Goirigolzarri admitted Bankia had been run as if the Spanish economy would grow eternally.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | There are few forms of journalism more entertaining than a really good bad review. But it has to be done right: here's how Among the terrible reviews of Liz and Dick, this week – "stunningly cynical" (TV Guide), "unbearably hilarious" (Hollywood Reporter), "badly paced, cheap-looking and encrusted with a tinkly, preposterous soundtrack designed to make viewers go insane" (Huffington Post) – none was quite brutal enough to ascend to that category of criticism that sweeps the internet now and then, and warms the darkest recess of the heart: the magisterial takedown. (David Wiegand in the San Francisco Chronicle gave it his best shot with "It's so terrible, you'll need to ice your face when it's over to ease the pain of wincing for two hours." but there wasn't quite enough artistry in his bitching.) No. For a negative review really to fly, it must meet five broad criteria. 1. Have about it the ring of true grievance The most recent example of this, of course, is Pete Wells' assault on Guy Fieri in the New York Times, which generated so much commentary the paper's public editor was obliged to get involved – ruling, in the face of the Poor Guy backlash, that it had, in fact, been fair. It wasn't just the creativity of the approach, delivered in a series of rhetorical questions ("Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?") that went on for so long they pushed past the joke into a kind of crazed, Joycean stream of consciousness; nor the spot-on descriptions of the offending items, most notably the blue drink and the Donkey Sauce. It was the unfakeable sense that Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square had some quality of awfulness about it that struck the reviewer like a personal attack. For all the cuteness of his questioning, the review was powered by real anger at what Wells' perceived to be Fieri's naked disrespect towards his customers. 2. Originality of insult Negative superlatives aren't enough. The bile must be fresh. AA Gill, the Sunday Times restaurant critic with long form in this area, once referred to an offal dish at Bar Shu, in London, as looking "like nothing so much as the bucket under a field-hospital operating table". Matt Taibbi's work on Thomas Friedman is worth a mention here. In his review of Friedman's book Hot, Flat and Crowded, Taibbi quoted one of Friedman's famously convoluted analogies – "the first rule of holes is when you're in one, stop digging. When you're in three, bring a lot of shovels" – and, in what might be seen as the apex of hysterical negativism, really went to town: "First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you're supposed to stop digging when you're in one hole, why should you dig more in three? How does that even begin to make sense? It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if the editors over at the New York Times editorial page spend their afternoons dropping acid or drinking rubbing alcohol. Sending a line like that into print is the journalism equivalent of a security guard at a nuke plant waving a pair of mullahs in explosive vests through the front gate. It should never, ever happen.")
Finally, at the old school, thank-you-I'll-be-here-all-week-have-you-tried-the-veal end of things, the Canadian critic and comedian Milton Shulman really put his back into this setup-joke-punchline approach to restaurant criticism: "A customer … called the waitress after sniffing the food she had served him. 'Do you know what the cook did to this fish? He asked. 'Sure,' said the waitress, 'she grilled it.' 'So now you can take it back to her,' said the customer. 'It's ready to talk.'"
Ba-boom! 3. Target someone who is usually taken seriously, even if only by themselves Lindsey Lohan is too risible a figure at this stage to generate the frisson that comes from negatively reviewing more pompous targets. The best bad reviews are reserved for those who, in the eyes of the reviewer, should know better. Which brings us to Michiko Kakutani, the New York Times book reviewer, who has been known, now and then, to express a dislike. (Kakutani's own work was attacked this week in a pastiche of Wells' Fieri review by David Daley in Salon: "Didn't you think reviewing an actual poet in verse might make your own effort look silly by comparison? Do you sometimes go to a museum and think, "I could do that?" Was your goal only to use the most obvious rhymes? Pages and ages? Fears and jeers? Game and lame? Chump and Trump? Hey, what rhymes with limn?") Over the years, Kakutani has taken on a lot of big beasts – John Irving, John Updike, Martin Amis, Philip Roth – but it was Jonathan Franzen who gave her the pretext to show off just how much can be achieved with a single swipe of the knife, describing his book of autobiographical essays, The Discomfort Zone, as "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass." After which, there was nothing much left to say. 4. Be on the edge of helpless laughter The problem with Liz and Dick is that it wasn't quite bad enough. Now and then, something comes along that prompts commissioning editors to send their journalists to a gig, play or restaurant not quite in the spirit of open-minded curiosity. I remember Helen Pidd, a colleague at the Guardian, being sent once to sit through the West End musical, Behind the Iron Mask, which half the audience seemed also to be attending for less than generous reasons. ("There are hoots of laughter at all the wrong places," she wrote, "and the kind of heckles that would cause cracks even in cast-iron egos. "Don't say anything else!" says a character at one point to the eponymous masked man. "Please don't!" quips a wag in row H.") Psychological point of interest: at some stage, in these types of productions, a corner is turned and the jeering proves so enjoyable, it inspires almost as much warmth and gratitude towards the cast as a hit show. 5. Provoke a fightback from the injured party It's never a good idea, but most can't resist. Guy Fieri took the red-eye from LA to New York to appear on morning TV and accuse Wells of pursing an agenda. Franzen referred to Kakutani as "the stupidest person in New York". (Salman Rushdie just called her "weird".) The only fightback that works is one that is smarter or funnier than the original review, for which we have to look to the late Nora Ephron, in the wake of Alec Baldwin's scathing review of her role in the launch of the HuffPost's divorce section. "Thirty years have passed," blogged Baldwin, "and this woman … seems incapable of one of the most essential components of a 'successful' divorce, and that is forgetting." To which Ephron, naturally and effortlessly outclassing her attacker, replied: "I'm afraid that Alec, whom I love, has confused me with Kim Basinger, which is the first time anyone has ever done that."
Therein the last word.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Yoselyn Ortega, accused of killing Lucia and Leo Krim, to be held without bail while she undergoes psychiatric exam A nanny accused in the stabbing deaths of two children at their upscale Manhattan home pleaded not guilty Wednesday at a hospital where she's been treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. Yoselyn Ortega, who was handcuffed to her hospital bed and wearing a blue hair net, entered the plea through her attorney. She appeared alert but didn't speak during the 10-minute hearing. A judge ordered Ortega held without bail while she undergoes psychiatric exam. A court date was set for 16 January. Police say that on the evening of 25 October, while the children's mother was out with a third child, Ortega repeatedly stabbed Lucia Krim, six, and her brother, Leo, aged two When their mother, Marina Krim, returned with her three-year-old daughter, she found their bodies in the bathtub, with Ortega lying on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck. A kitchen knife was nearby. The children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, had been away on a business trip when the killings occurred. The couple's apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighborhoods, a block from Central Park, near the Museum of Natural History and blocks from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The neighborhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life there. Some of Ortega's friends and relatives said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently, but they still couldn't believe she could have committed such a heinous act.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone governments are deliberately disguising the losses they are taking on Greece's debts, analysts say, as the head of the Bundesbank refuses to hand profits directly to Athens
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President Obama holds a summit meeting with America's top corporate CEOs, seeking support for his tax cutting plan
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded as two cars bombs hit Damascus and Egypt's constitutional crisis deepened
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone governments are deliberately disguising the losses they are taking on Greece's debts, analysts say, as the head of the Bundesbank refuses to hand profits directly to Athens
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Israeli officials change tack after it becomes clear that request for statehood at UN is likely to gather significant support After weeks of shrill warnings over Thursday's United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood, Israel has backed away from threats to cancel the Oslo peace accords and topple the Palestinian leadership. Israeli officials are now playing down any immediate sanctions against the Palestinians after it became clear that the request for statehood is likely to gather significant support, which has strengthened since the Israeli assault on Gaza. Several European countries, including France, Switzerland and Spain, will back the Palestinian move in part out of concern that failing to do so will weaken the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to the advantage of Hamas. The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, previously drew up proposals saying that if the UN vote went ahead "then Israel must exact a heavy price from Abu Mazen (Abbas), including the possibility of toppling his regime and dismantling the Palestinian Authority." Israeli officials warned that funding to the PA could be cut, peace accords cancelled in part or in whole, and unrestricted construction of Jewish settlements authorised. But the threats have not deterred the Palestinians nor a significant number of European countries from supporting their bid for "observer state" which is on a par with the Vatican's position at the UN. Officials in Jerusalem are now instead seeking to disparage the vote as of no great significance in itself. "We won't cancel any of our agreements," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told reporters. "When we choose to respond, we will carefully weigh our options. We will do everything we can that's within Israeli law and within the framework of the agreements we signed with the Palestinians." The Israeli move also came under US pressure. Haaretz reported that the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, warned the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, during talks in Jerusalem last week not to destabilise the Palestinian Authority. Israel says the Palestinian leadership will instead be judged on how it uses the new non-member state status at the UN, particularly over asking the International criminal court (ICC) to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes. Abbas is under considerable pressure from Israel, the US and Britain in particular to renounce the option for the Palestinian Authority to accede to the ICC. Britain said it would abstain in the UN vote unless it received assurances that the Palestinians would not seek to extend the jurisdiction of the ICC over the occupied territories, and unless the Palestinians committed to an immediate and unconditional return to the negotiating table with Israel. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, in a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday, said: "Up until the time of the vote itself, we will remain open to voting in favour of the resolution if we see public assurances by the Palestinians on these points. However, in the absence of these assurances, the United Kingdom would abstain on the vote." The draft resolution released by the Palestinians on Wednesday, however, showed that no such concessions had been made. The Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters that the PA would neither immediately sign up for the ICC nor renounce its right to do so. "I don't believe that we are going to be rushing the second day to join everything related to the United Nations, including the ICC," he said. But Mansour said that if Israel continued to violate international law, in particular by continuing Jewish settlement construction in the occupied territories, then the Palestinians would have to consider "what should we do next to bring Israel into compliance?" "We're not in the business of trying to prolong this conflict and settle scores," he said. "But we are not fools nor dummies. If they don't move in that direction ... then all of us should be considering all other possible options in order to bring them into compliance." The Israeli move to downplay the vote appears to be an attempt to diminish embarrassment at the failure of its efforts to persuade most European countries to abstain in the hopes of denying the Palestinians the legitimacy garnered from the support of democratic countries. The motion is virtually assured of passing because a majority of countries in the general assembly have indicated they will back the statehood measure. A veteran Palestinian peace negotiator, Hanan Ashrawi, called intense pressure from the US and other countries to get Abbas to drop the UN vote "pathetic" and said it harmed Washington's standing in the Arab world.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former commander of Quantico marine base tells pre-trial hearing of ignored protests to Pentagon over condition of jail The former commander of Quantico marine base in Virginia has revealed to the court martial of Bradley Manning that he warned his Pentagon superiors that the jail on the base was insufficiently prepared to deal with the long-term detention of the WikiLeaks suspect. Daniel Choike told a pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland, that when Manning arrived at the brig on 29 July 2010, having been arrested in Iraq on suspicion of being the source of the massive WikiLeaks dump of state secrets, he informed his superior officer in the Pentagon that in his opinion Quantico was not the right place for the soldier should his detention last long. "I didn't feel that PFC Manning should be detained more than 90 days in the brig," he said. In the end, Manning spent nine months at Quantico – three times the maximum Choike thought appropriate. The soldier's treatment there prompted international protests from the UN, Amnesty International and other organisations that likened it to torture. Choike's admission that he had been aware of problems relating to Manning's incarceration at the Quantico brig came on Tuesday, at the end of an intense first day in the latest pre-trial hearing in the soldier's court martial. The army private, who worked as an intelligence analyst in a military base outside Baghdad from 2009 until his arrest in May 2010, faces 22 counts relating to the transfer of hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents to the whistleblowing website. After about seven hours of questioning, Choike told the judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Denise Lind, that he had been concerned from the beginning that the brig at Quantico was unprepared for the long-term detention of such a high-profile case as Manning. He said he was worried about dealing with the media, about co-ordination of command and about medical handling of the detainee. He added that he "constantly" told his superior, Lieutenant General George Flynn, based in the Pentagon, that there were problems with the soldier's prolonged detention in Quantico. The testimony throws into a new light the events at Quantico during Manning's nine-month incarceration. His treatment under a so-called "prevention of injury" order, or PoI, has become a cause célèbre for his supporters, who believe that the soldier was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment in an attempt to squeeze him for information that might prove useful in any ensuing prosecution of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. This week's hearing is attracting considerable media attention, because it holds the promise that Manning might speak in public for the first time. He is listed on the defence roster of witnesses, though he has not yet been added to the official order of play for the hearing. Should Manning be called, it is not likely to be on Wednesday. His defence lawyer, David Coombs, is expected to question first Marine Colonel Robert Altman, who was commander of the brig while the soldier was detained there. Then the defence will turn to three forensic psychiatrists who were responsible for Manning's medical care at Quantico: navy captains William Hoctor and Kevin Moore and army colonel Rick Malone. The defence will be quizzing the doctors about the recommendations they made to the military hierarchy about the state of Manning's mental health. Court documents already released suggest that they advised on several occasions that the soldier was well enough to be taken off the PoI and returned to the general brig population, as he was no longer a suicide risk, yet the marine commanders ignored their specialist advice, in contravention of military rules. Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits punishment before trial of any individual, on the same assumption as that in civilian law that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Should the judge be convinced by the defence argument that Manning was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment at Quantico, she has the power to reduce his sentence should he be found guilty, or even throw out all the charges.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WikiLeaks suspect held at Quantico for nine months despite recommendation of 90 days maximum, pre-trial hearing told The former commander of Quantico marine base in Virginia has revealed to the court martial of Bradley Manning that he warned his Pentagon superiors that the jail on the base was insufficiently prepared to deal with the long-term detention of the WikiLeaks suspect. Daniel Choike told a pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland, that when Manning arrived at the brig on 29 July 2010, having been arrested in Iraq on suspicion of being the source of the massive WikiLeaks dump of state secrets, he informed his superior officer in the Pentagon that in his opinion Quantico was not the right place for the soldier should his detention last long. "I didn't feel that PFC Manning should be detained more than 90 days in the brig," he said. In the end, Manning spent nine months at Quantico – three times the maximum Choike thought appropriate. The soldier's treatment there prompted international protests from the UN, Amnesty International and other organisations that likened it to torture. Choike's admission that he had been aware of problems relating to Manning's incarceration at the Quantico brig came on Tuesday, at the end of an intense first day in the latest pre-trial hearing in the soldier's court martial. The army private, who worked as an intelligence analyst in a military base outside Baghdad from 2009 until his arrest in May 2010, faces 22 counts relating to the transfer of hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents to the whistleblowing website. After about seven hours of questioning, Choike told the judge presiding over the court martial, Colonel Denise Lind, that he had been concerned from the beginning that the brig at Quantico was unprepared for the long-term detention of such a high-profile case as Manning. He said he was worried about dealing with the media, about co-ordination of command and about medical handling of the detainee. He added that he "constantly" told his superior, Lieutenant General George Flynn, based in the Pentagon, that there were problems with the soldier's prolonged detention in Quantico. The testimony throws into a new light the events at Quantico during Manning's nine-month incarceration. His treatment under a so-called "prevention of injury" order, or PoI, has become a cause célèbre for his supporters, who believe that the soldier was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment in an attempt to squeeze him for information that might prove useful in any ensuing prosecution of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. This week's hearing is attracting considerable media attention, because it holds the promise that Manning might speak in public for the first time. He is listed on the defence roster of witnesses, though he has not yet been added to the official order of play for the hearing. Should Manning be called, it is not likely to be on Wednesday. His defence lawyer, David Coombs, is expected to question first Marine Colonel Robert Altman, who was commander of the brig while the soldier was detained there. Then the defence will turn to three forensic psychiatrists who were responsible for Manning's medical care at Quantico: navy captains William Hoctor and Kevin Moore and army colonel Rick Malone. The defence will be quizzing the doctors about the recommendations they made to the military hierarchy about the state of Manning's mental health. Court documents already released suggest that they advised on several occasions that the soldier was well enough to be taken off the PoI and returned to the general brig population, as he was no longer a suicide risk, yet the marine commanders ignored their specialist advice, in contravention of military rules. Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits punishment before trial of any individual, on the same assumption as that in civilian law that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Should the judge be convinced by the defence argument that Manning was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment at Quantico, she has the power to reduce his sentence should he be found guilty, or even throw out all the charges.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone governments are deliberately disguising the losses they are taking on Greece's debts, analysts say, as the head of the Bundesbank refuses to hand profits directly to Athens
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Environmental Protection Agency cites 'lack of business intergrity' in suspension to oil giant over its behaviour in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf spill BP will be temporarily banned from seeking new contracts with the US government because of the oil company's "lack of business integrity" during the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday. The order blocks BP temporarily from competing for new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico – such as the auction of 20m acres taking place on Wednesday – or from bidding on new contracts to supply the Pentagon or other government agencies with fuel. It does not affect existing business. BP is the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, with more Deepwater leases than any other company, according to the BP website. The order was handed down just two weeks after BP agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges arising from the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, as well as pay a record $4.5bn in fines. Two BP rig supervisors were also due in a New Orleans court on Wednesday to be formally charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 11 workers aboard the rig. The supervisors, Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza, are accused of ignoring abnormal pressure readings seen as a red flag of a well blow-out. A former BP executive David Rainey was also due in court on charges of lying to Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from the well. The EPA said the suspension was based on BP's conduct at the time of the blow-out as well as the 87 days it took to contain the well. Some 4.9m barrels of crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was finally capped. "EPA is taking this action due to BP's lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a criminal information," the announcement said. The announcement went on to describe the oil spill as the "largest environmental disaster in US history". It said BP would remain under suspension, and barred from new federal government contracts and transactions, until the company can demonstrate that it meets federal business standards. "Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of federal programmes by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case," the EPA announcement said. The agency gave no further details about the duration of the suspension, and the potential costs to BP were not immediately clear. However, the EPA action was positively received by a number of key players, including former senator Bob Graham, who had chaired the White House oil spill commission. "I can't put a dollar figure on what that would mean but I would assume that access to one of the larger reserves of petroleum in the world – which the Gulf of Mexico is – would have some economic consequences. And the longer the prohibition, the greater the consequences," Graham told The Guardian. He went on to praise the Obama administration for holding the oil company to account. "I think sending a very strong signal that the federal government is going to be a much better steward of public property and that those who are permitted to explore and then potentially exploit those public properties are going to have to conduct themselves by world class standards," Graham said. Campaign groups also applauded the move by the EPA. But the Oceana conservation group said the tough line from the Obama administration was undercut by its decision to go ahead with new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. "We are pleased that BP is being penalised for the irresponsible actions," said Matt Dundas, the campaign director. But he went on: "Overall, President Obama is missing the lesson of the Deepwater Horizon disaster which is that offshore drilling is inherently dirty and dangerous and needs to be phased out." There was no immediate reaction from BP on Wednesday morning. It was also not immediately clear whether the oil company had anticipated this step, as it seeks to consign the oil spill in the past. The oil company, in announcing its plea deal with the Justice Department earlier this month, had specifically said it did not expect to be barred from future business dealings. "Under US law, companies convicted of certain criminal acts can be debarred from contracting with the federal government," the oil company said in its statement. "BP has not been advised of the intention of any federal agency to suspend or debar the company in connection with this plea agreement. BP will continue to work co-operatively with the debarment authority."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Environmental Protection Agency issues suspension to oil giant over its behaviour in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf spill BP will be temporarily banned from seeking new contracts with the US government because of the oil company's "lack of business integrity" during the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday. The order blocks BP temporarily from competing for new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico – such as the auction of 20m acres taking place on Wednesday – or from bidding on new contracts to supply the Pentagon or other government agencies with fuel. It does not affect existing business. BP is the largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, with more Deepwater leases than any other company, according to the BP website. The order was handed down just two weeks after BP agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges arising from the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, as well as pay a record $4.5bn in fines. Two BP rig supervisors were also due in a New Orleans court on Wednesday to be formally charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 11 workers aboard the rig. The supervisors, Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza, are accused of ignoring abnormal pressure readings seen as a red flag of a well blow-out. A former BP executive David Rainey was also due in court on charges of lying to Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from the well. The EPA said the suspension was based on BP's conduct at the time of the blow-out as well as the 87 days it took to contain the well. Some 4.9m barrels of crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was finally capped. "EPA is taking this action due to BP's lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a criminal information," the announcement said. The announcement went on to describe the oil spill as the "largest environmental disaster in US history". It said BP would remain under suspension, and barred from new federal government contracts and transactions, until the company can demonstrate that it meets federal business standards. "Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of federal programmes by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case," the EPA announcement said. The agency gave no further details about the duration of the suspension, and the potential costs to BP were not immediately clear. However, the EPA action was positively received by a number of key players, including former senator Bob Graham, who had chaired the White House oil spill commission. "I can't put a dollar figure on what that would mean but I would assume that access to one of the larger reserves of petroleum in the world – which the Gulf of Mexico is – would have some economic consequences. And the longer the prohibition, the greater the consequences," Graham told The Guardian. He went on to praise the Obama administration for holding the oil company to account. "I think sending a very strong signal that the federal government is going to be a much better steward of public property and that those who are permitted to explore and then potentially exploit those public properties are going to have to conduct themselves by world class standards," Graham said. Campaign groups also applauded the move by the EPA. But the Oceana conservation group said the tough line from the Obama administration was undercut by its decision to go ahead with new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. "We are pleased that BP is being penalised for the irresponsible actions," said Matt Dundas, the campaign director. But he went on: "Overall, President Obama is missing the lesson of the Deepwater Horizon disaster which is that offshore drilling is inherently dirty and dangerous and needs to be phased out." There was no immediate reaction from BP on Wednesday morning. It was also not immediately clear whether the oil company had anticipated this step, as it seeks to consign the oil spill in the past. The oil company, in announcing its plea deal with the Justice Department earlier this month, had specifically said it did not expect to be barred from future business dealings. "Under US law, companies convicted of certain criminal acts can be debarred from contracting with the federal government," the oil company said in its statement. "BP has not been advised of the intention of any federal agency to suspend or debar the company in connection with this plea agreement. BP will continue to work co-operatively with the debarment authority."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Environmental Protection Agency issues suspension to oil giant over its behaviour in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf spill The US Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday that it has temporarily suspended BP and its affiliates from new contracts with the federal government, citing the oil company's "lack of business integrity" associated with the disastrous 2010 Gulf oil spill. Two weeks ago, BP agreed to plead guilty to charges involving the deaths of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded and sank in April 2010, setting off the largest offshore oil spill in the US. BP will also plead guilty to lying to Congress about how much oil was spewing from the blown-out Macondo well. The agency said Wednesday that the suspension is due to BP's "lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response". "Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of Federal programs by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case," the EPA said in its statement. The business implications of the suspension – or its duration – were not immediately clear. More details soon...
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded as two cars bombs hit Damascus and Egypt's constitutional crisis deepened
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Who knows what would-be socialist Barack Obama intends for our windfall millionaire when the Bush-era tax cuts expire?
• What are your chances of winning the Powerball jackpot? At 10.59pm ET today, somebody or bodies look set to join the 1%. After rolling over 16 times, the latest and largest ever national Powerball lottery jackpot now stands at $500m. When and if someone's numbers come in, the newly minted mega-millionaire will face an immediate dilemma: the fiscal cliff. US lottery winners are offered the choice of a lump sum or an annuity. The annuity pays out the winnings in 30 payments made over 29 years. Should the winner die, their winnings will pass to their heirs who can continue taking the payments or cash in what's left. In this case the annuity would be worth $16.66m a year, or $1.38m a month, before tax. But as the neatly named Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, says, most people opt for the lump sum payout. It may seem rash, even downright scary, to take all that money in one go but with the looming budget crisis in Washington, this time it makes more sense than ever. On $500m the winner would immediately face 25% in federal tax plus any state taxes. Some states like New Hampshire and Florida don't take a cut. New Jersey will claim 10.8% and typically the winner's state will charge another 5%, according to Strutt. So that $500m lump sum soon drops to a "measly" $375m in cash before state taxes. The annuity might allow the winner to pay a lower tax rate over the years as they become ever more conversant with the joys of offshore banking, Cayman Island accounts over dinners with Mitt and Ann Romney. But that was all before there's the "fiscal cliff". Who knows what that would-be socialist Barack Obama intends for our windfall millionaire when the Bush-era tax cuts we have been hearing about expire at the end of the year? Paying 25% now rather than more later may be a better bet for the post office worker from Portland, the school teacher from Sacramento, or whoever wins the jackpot. Then there's income taxes to deal with. Lottery winnings are treated as ordinary income – not like the low rates income from investments can attract. Paying this year's top rate of 35% would save $16m if the top rate of income tax goes to 39.6% next year. All this money will also mean more planning for the next generation now that the winner has more than a lifetime collection of Bon Jovi CDs and some credit card debt to pass on. Will estate tax be hit as Congress brawls over how to tackle America's $16tn debt? None of these dilemmas seem to be putting off people lining up to buy tickets. Sales have already hit new highs. The Multi-State Lottery Association announced Powerball sales were up 250% last Sunday compared to the previous Sunday. On Monday sales were up 370% compared to the previous Monday. Typically 60% of sales for the draw occur on the last day and lines are expected for tickets across the US. "I think we have caught the public's imagination," said Strutt.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone governments are deliberately disguising the losses they are taking on Greece's debts, analysts say, as the head of the Bundesbank refuses to hand profits directly to Athens
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sheffield student who created TVShack website will have to travel to US and pay a small sum of compensation, court told Richard O'Dwyer, the university student who created the TVShack website which linked to TV shows and films online for free, has reached an agreement to avoid extradition to the US over copyright infringement allegations, the high court has been told. The 24-year-old Sheffield Hallam undergraduate has signed a draft "deferred prosecution" agreement in the past two days which requires him to travel to the US and pay a small sum of compensation but will mean he will not face a trial or criminal record, the court was told. Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench Division and the third most senior judge in England and Wales, said the deal was a "very satisfactory outcome" to the long-running and highly controversial case. O'Dwyer's supporters have always argued that, if his online venture constituted an offence, it was one committed on British soil and one which therefore should be dealt with in British courts. More than 253,000 people have signed a petition started in June by the Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, calling on the home secretary to block O'Dwyer's extradition to the US on charges that could have carried a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, which pursued the case against him, claims his website earned more than $230,000 (£147,000) in advertising revenue before US authorities shut it down in 2010. More details soon …
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eurozone governments are deliberately disguising the losses they are taking on Greece's debts, analysts say, as the head of the Bundesbank refuses to hand profits directly to Athens
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Letter with 52 signatories including artists and activists also denounces US and EU 'complicity' through weapons sales A group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists have issued a call for an international military boycott of Israel following its assault on the Gaza Strip this month. The letter also denounces the US, EU and several developing countries for what it describes as their "complicity" through weapons sales and other military support in the attack that killed 160 Palestinians, many of them civilians, including about 35 children. The 52 signatories include the Nobel peace laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; the author Alice Walker; the US academic Noam Chomsky; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd; and Stéphane Hessel, a former French diplomat and Holocaust survivor who was co-author of the universal declaration of human rights. "Horrified at the latest round of Israeli aggression against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip and conscious of the impunity that has enabled this new chapter in Israel's decades-old violations of international law and Palestinian rights, we believe there is an urgent need for international action towards a mandatory, comprehensive military embargo against Israel," the letter says. "Such a measure has been subject to several UN resolutions and is similar to the arms embargo imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past." The letter accuses several countries of providing important military support that facilitated the assault on Gaza. "While the United States has been the largest sponsor of Israel, supplying billions of dollars of advanced military hardware every year, the role of the European Union must not go unnoticed, in particular its hefty subsidies to Israel's military complex through its research programmes. "Similarly, the growing military ties between Israel and the emerging economies of Brazil, India and South Korea are unconscionable given their nominal support for Palestinian freedom," it says. The letter opens with a quote from Nelson Mandela: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." The other signatories include John Dugard, a South African jurist and former UN special rapporteur in the occupied territories; Luisa Morgantini, former president of the European parliament; Cynthia McKinney, a former member of the US Congress; Ronnie Kasrils, a South African former cabinet minister; and the dramatist Caryl Churchill.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As legions of fans descend on Wellington, director Peter Jackson explains why there would be no Hobbit films without Martin Freeman It has been six years, two directors, numerous strikes and protests, not to mention a reported $500m in the making, but Peter Jackson's new fantasy trilogy based on JRR Tolkien's beloved 1937 novel The Hobbit will finally be shown to the public today with the premiere of debut movie An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand. The country's capital has been transformed into "the middle of Middle Earth", the fictional world created by Tolkien as a uniquely Anglo-Saxon mythological playground and populated by hobbits, dwarves, elves, dragons, trolls, goblins and wizards. Tens of thousands of fans dressed as all of the above and more are expected to line the 500-metre red carpet leading up to the Embassy theatre, where the likes of Martin Freeman (who plays hobbit Bilbo Baggins), Andy Serkis, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood are expected to attend. Some have come from as far away as the US and Europe for the premiere. New Zealand is hoping for a $400m boost to tourism from publicity surrounding the films, while studio Warner Bros will be hoping for a box office bonanza akin to the financial success of Jackson's previous Lord of the Rings trilogy, which took almost $3bn worldwide between 2001 and 2003. The Hobbit is set 60 years prior to the events of the earlier triptych and was originally intended as two films, both of which were to be directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. But delays caused by financial woes at financial partner studio MGM led to the latter walking away, with Jackson eventually deciding to step up from producer to take them on. Then in August it was suddenly announced that The Hobbit would arrive in three parts, with An Unexpected Journey to be followed by The Desolation of Smaug in December 2013 and There and Back Again in July the following year. Some fans have wondered why a relatively breezy children's novel requires such extravagance, but Jackson himself has been adamant that the project – in the words of Tolkien himself – was "a tale that grew in the telling". Production on The Hobbit has been stymied by a series of unfortunate events, including a fire that destroyed a number of vital miniatures, an enormous feud with a local New Zealand union that at one point looked likely to become a general actors' boycott of the project, and Jackson's own hospitalisation last year for surgery to treat a stomach ulcer. The films are being screened at many cinemas at 48 frames per second (fps), compared with the 24fps that has been the industry standard since the 20s, a brave move that was criticised in some quarters when preview footage was screened to industry figures in April. Last month animal rights activists accused studios of responsibility for the deaths of more than 20 animals, including horses, pigs and chickens, during the making of the film. Jackson has admitted some animals used in the film died on the farm where they were being housed but says none was hurt during filming. Nevertheless, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) is threatening to protest at today's premiere. Speaking at a press conference in Wellington prior to the premiere, Jackson said he hoped the controversies which have ushered in The Hobbit's arrival would not dampen people's enjoyment of the film's release. "At the end of the day we've made a movie we're extremely proud of," he said, adding that he hoped people would make the effort to see An Unexpected Journey in 48fps. Jackson said his only real worry had been a point at which it appeared Freeman might not be able to star as Baggins, who embarks on a quest to wrest a magnificent horde of treasure from a wily dragon in the company of 13 dwarves and the wizard Gandalf. "We never had anyone else in mind," said Jackson. "When we finally had the green light, Martin was tied up with the Sherlock TV show. That was one time I was very, very worried because if the casting of Bilbo was wrong, the films wouldn't work. Bilbo has to carry the heart of the film. He's a fantastic dramatic actor with a great sense of irony and the absurd. "I was very, very down, and I thought we were in serious trouble because the film was approaching very fast. I had downloaded the first series of Sherlock from iTunes and was watching it on my iPad at about 4 o'clock in the morning, and watching Martin I thought there really is no better Bilbo in the world. He's got every quality that we want. I thought, when he needs to go back and shoot the second series we'll stop filming and make that work. It was a pretty radical thing to do but I'm incredibly pleased that we did it." The films may prove a boon for New Zealand tourism, but they have also provided welcome employment for actors from closer to Tolkien's beloved Blighty. As well as Freeman and Serkis, the trilogy's cast includes such British and Irish luminaries as Spooks' Richard Armitage (as dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield), Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown, James Nesbitt as dwarf Bofur, Ian McKellen as wizard Gandalf, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo and Orlando Bloom as the returning Legolas. Billy Connolly stars as dwarf king Dain Ironfoot and Freeman's Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch voices both the Necromancer and the dragon Smaug, though the latter is not likely to turn up until the second movie.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as two cars bombs hit Damascus and the Syrian opposition is due to discuss forming a transition government
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The tension's racking up! Have we forgotten Grizzly Bear again? Why have we left out the Tibetan nose-flute skiffle improvisation? The countdown continues … 20 Plan B – Ill Manors Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Plan B: "The substance of Ill Manors – its righteous storytelling, its propulsive undercarriage – is more gripping than the title track implies. I Am the Narrator may dash busily through a string of sonic cliches – police sirens and the like – but its blend of warped fairytale strings, dub bass and antic Dr Dre swagger persuades the ear. The percussion rolls even harder on Drug Dealer, the album's standout. Offset against beats that seem to be made out of punched walls, guest singer Takura (Chase and Status) provides a wise, sad dancehall chorus." 19 Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Flying Lotus: "Trading as Flying Lotus, Los Angeles producer Steven Ellison has over the last half-decade acquired a fervent following for his melding of experimental hip-hop beats and twitchy glitch-pop. He has been called a Hendrix for the electronica generation, but might more appositely be compared to DJ Shadow. Ellison calls his fourth album, Until the Quiet Comes, 'a collage of mystical states, dreams, sleeps and lullabies', and while the recording can sound slight and semi-formed, live it gains in physicality. It's a twitchy, brooding digital dystopia stripped of any lyrical agenda so all that remains is a mood of restless agitation." 18 Saint Etienne – Words and Music by Saint Etienne Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Saint Etienne: "There's something defiant about the way most of the album is set to music roughly approximate to chart pop, Auto-Tuned vocals and all. It's as if Saint Etienne are guarding against the tendency of ardent, fortysomething music fans to cleave to a kind of combative nostalgia, the steadfast, sneering belief that your past automatically beats anyone's present, that everything was better in your youth. Instead, Words and Music frequently sounds as dizzy with the joy of pop as Saint Etienne did 20 years ago, when their single Join Our Club borrowed the Lovin' Spoonful's question: Do you believe in magic? Now, as then, their answer seems to be: of course." 17 Lana Del Rey – Born to Die Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Lana Del Rey: "Video Games sounded like a unique single, but as it turns out, it was anything but a one-off: the album is packed with similarly beautiful stuff. National Anthem soars gloriously away from a string motif that sounds not unlike that sampled on the Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony. There's something effortless about the melodies of Diet Mountain Dew and Dark Paradise: they just sweep the listener along with them." 16 Taylor Swift – Red Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Taylor Swift: "How she's had time to open her door to such a parade of lovers good and bad, God only knows. On 22 she celebrates her age like a cleaned-up Katy Perry, but Swift has never seemed 22, and it feels dirty trying to imagine her on a night out. Add to this the many vulnerable poses struck by this Brünnhilde of a rockstar, this asbestos and iron-clad Amazonian of a woman, and it's clear that Red is another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed." 15 Cooly G – Playin' Me Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Cooly G: "You hear fragments of lover's rock, dubstep, Soul II Soul, drum'n'bass, UK funky and Massive Attack's stoned melancholy: the end result sounds unearthly, alternately scattered and luscious, and ultimately like no one else. Her vocals – unreconstructed south-London accent, beautifully understated style, lyrics that trace the arc of a relationship going wrong – bring it back down to earth." 14 Grizzly Bear – Shields Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Grizzly Bear: "There are certainly moments when Shields sounds exactly like you might expect something that's been agonised over by a bunch of clever American indie musicians for three years to sound: What's Wrong drifts beautifully along without connecting, its intricate mesh of woodwind, vocal harmonies, jazzy drum patterns and string interludes all good judgment and no gut-punch. But more often, it sounds as if Grizzly Bear have spent their time away digging out the emotions that sometimes get buried beneath the technical fireworks." 13 Chromatics – Kill for Love Reading on mobile? Watch here What we said about Chromatics: Er, nothing, as it turns out. Shame on us! However, we did interview Johnny Jewel of Chromatics, and you can read that very piece right here. 12 Django Django – Django Django Reading on mobile? Watch here What we said about Django Django: "Those worried that British guitar music has lost its ability to refresh old forms should pay heed to Django Django, whose debut album posits an updated psychedelia that beguiles and delights. Their foundations are a rickety, minimal take on the music of the immediate pre-psychedelic era – Hail Bop employs heavily tremeloed surf guitar; Default takes Bo Diddley's shave-and-a-haircut-two-bits beat and bolts on a jerky R&B guitar line – over which are laid skittering electronics and bleached, vibratoless harmonies, as if Django Django's four members were supplicants worshipping the desert sunrise." 11 Miguel – Kaleidoscope Dream Reading on mobile? Watch here
What we said about Miguel: "It's rare that an artist uses their commercial breakthrough as a springboard to radically change course – but that's exactly what Miguel Pimentel has done following his 2011 US R&B No 1, the irresistibly smooth Sure Thing. Beginning on his free Art Dealer Chic EPs earlier this year and more so again here, Miguel has carved out a headier aesthetic. Faded psychedelia (as on Do You … , with its promises of narcotic trysts) blends into startlingly intimate experiments in Purple Rain-esque rock: at times, it feels as though it's just you and him in a vast stadium."
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