|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Power returns to much of Manhattan after Sandy as officials warn residents there is still a 'long, hard road to recovery' The lights were back on in lower Manhattan early on Saturday as New York began to approach normality five days after superstorm Sandy passed through. Power has been restored to about 70% of customers who lost it, according to mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, while New York governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday that 80% of subway service had been restored. Power company Con Ed said that in the pre-dawn hours it managed to turn the power back on for residents in New York City neighbourhoods including Wall Street, Chinatown and Greenwich Village. Just 11,000 customers in Manhattan were still without service, following what the power company described as the worst natural disaster it had ever had to contend with. But beyond Manhattan, serious problems remain. Some 3m homes in the north-east remained without electricity and drivers continued to struggle to fill up their cars at gas pumps across the region. The death toll in the US from Sandy's destructive winds and floods has risen to 102, adding to the scores of people killed in the Caribbean. In a bid to ease the plight of those still suffering the effects of Sandy, the administration gave the green light for the government purchase up to 12m gallons of unleaded fuel and 10m gallons of diesel. The gas is being sent to New York and New Jersey this weekend. Hours of queuing up at the pump has already spilled over into anger in isolated instances. In the New York City borough of Queens, a man was accused of pulling a gun during a confrontation with a motorist over allegations he cut in line. The gas shortage has also led to fears that the cleanup operation could be hampered, with rescue and emergency services amongst those hit. In New Jersey, governor Chris Christie put in place gas rationing to make scarce stocks last longer. Under the "odd-even" plan license plates ending in different numbers would be eligible to fill up on different days. After days of touring devastated communities, Barack Obama is due get back on the campaign trail for the first time on Saturday, with an appearance on the stump in Ohio, a key battleground state. The Democrat has had to walk a fine balance in recent days, not wanting to be seen prioritising his re-election over duties overseeing the clean-up operation. Ahead of returning to the campaign trail, Obama is due to meet with homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano and director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Craig Fugate to discuss the emergency response to the storm. In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Obama focused on the measures put in place to get the north-east region up and running again. "Our number one concern has been making sure that affected states and communities have everything they need to respond to and recover from this storm," he said. But we warned that the "recovery will be a long, hard road for many communities". "There's a lot of work ahead," he added. Indeed, despite the return of power to much on Manhattan, power firms continue to struggle to restore lines for hundreds of thousands of customers. In New York, some 908,000 homes are without electricity, with the Long Island Power Authority alone reporting outages affecting 460,000 families. In New Jersey, more than 600,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity Saturday. Meanwhile, modeling has suggested that the US may have been hit with a bill of $20bn in insured damage and $50bn in loss of economic activity as a result of super storm Sandy. But with the lights back on in lower Manhattan, many New Yorkers shut out from their offices for a week look set to commute to their workplace on Monday under a familiar glow.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rebel forces battle for control of Taftanaz base a day before opposition conference begins in Qatar Syrian rebels have attacked government forces guarding a key air base in the north of the country, activists said, a day before an opposition conference begins in Qatar. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said opposition forces had launched a dawn raid and were battling for control of the Taftanaz base south of Aleppo, close to the road linking the city with the capital, Damascus. Videos posted online purportedly showed the attack, including a rebel vehicle firing rockets and smoke rising over buildings and what appears to be an airstrip. Fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militant group made up of foreign jihadis, took part in the attack, according to the Observatory. Al-Nusra fighters have led attacks on other airbases in the north in past months. The Taftanaz base mainly houses military helicopters, and the attack was intended to disrupt strikes by warplanes and helicopters that have pounded rebel-held towns. The Syrian National Council (SNC), the main exile opposition group, is holding a congress in Doha starting on Sunday, before the launch on Thursday of a plan to bring together the external opposition and the revolutionary councils leading the insurrection inside Syria behind a common programme for a democratic transition. The Syrian national initiative will create a council of about 50 members chaired by Riad Seif, a Sunni businessman who left Syria in June after being imprisoned by the regime. The Doha initiative has been organised by the Qatari government and has drawn support from the US, Britain and France as a way of creating a single coherent Syrian opposition that could take part in peace talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime or, if talks fail, provide a channel for greater military support to the rebels. Russia, however, opposes the plan, arguing that it reneges on an earlier international agreement to pursue the formation of a new government by "mutual consent" of the parties to the conflict. The SNC leadership has also criticised the plan, in which its influence will be diluted, and it is not yet clear which of the divided rebel forces inside Syria will turn up on Thursday or whether they will agree on the common platform once they arrive in Doha. Activists say more than 36,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011. Several attempts at a truce have failed, including a UN-backed four-day ceasefire that was meant to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid last week. On Wednesday the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called for an overhaul of the Syrian opposition leadership and suggested that Washington would handpick more representative leaders, including both those fighting the regime and exiled groups.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Taliban claims responsibility for attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which three guards and two passers-by also died An anti-Taliban politician and five other people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in north-west Pakistan. Fateh Khan, the head of a government-allied regional militia and a leader of the secular Awami National party (ANP), died along with three guards and two passers-by in the blast near a petrol station in Buner, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Police said the bomber triggered a device near a vehicle Khan was in. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. The ANP rules the coalition government in the province and has angered the Taliban by supporting several military offensives in tribal districts. Buner is believed to be a hiding place for the Pakistani Taliban. It is located near the Swat valley, where the 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai was shot and wounded last month for criticising the Taliban's behaviour after it seized the region in 2008. Malala is recovering in the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham after being flown to the UK for treatment. A military offensive broke the Taliban's control over the area in 2009 but attacks have continued.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Radio 4 host says corporation's critics lack perspective, as allegations emerge against actor Leonard Rossiter Jonathan Dimbleby has accused the BBC's critics of showing "disturbing relish" in their attacks on the corporation over the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal, as new allegations were made against another former BBC star. The Radio 4 presenter said there has been a witch-hunt since allegations emerged that the late TV star abused hundreds of young girls and women, some on BBC premises. Separately, the Reggie Perrin actor Leonard Rossiter, who died in 1984, became the latest former BBC star to be linked to sexual offences, accused of involvement in an attempted male rape at Television Centre in the late 1960s. In an interview with the Times, Dimbleby said: "I think it's disgraceful and horribly out of proportion to hound everyone at the BBC in a way that is unwarranted and lacks perspective when the real focus should be on what Savile did wrong. "Paedophilia is a huge national problem that no one thought about 50 years ago and is now something that concerns everyone, but this has become a witch-hunt against the BBC." Blaming the media and politicians for getting their priorities wrong, Dimbleby said: "Organisations that have come under flak recently such as newspapers and MPs want to get their revenge. They think the BBC is too smug and holier-than-thou. But there is a disturbing relish in the way the critics have laid into the BBC, holding today's office-holders to account for what happened 30 years ago." He said it was "highly unlikely" that his father, Richard, a distinguished BBC correspondent from the 1940s to the 1970s, would have known about the Savile abuse at the time. He said calls for George Entwistle and Lord Patten to step down as director general and BBC Trust chairman were "ridiculous". "I don't think this is the worst disaster in the history of the BBC," Dimbleby said. "It has been through crises that go back past Suez into the 1930s. It is always under incredible pressure. However, the licence fee payers are far cooler and wiser than the hyenas in the media. I absolutely think their priorities are to find out who Savile has harmed and whether anyone else was involved and that is what the BBC must do." The Sun reported on Saturday that Rossiter allegedly watched as three BBC staff tried to rape an 18-year-old television extra on the set of drama The Year of the Sex Olympics in 1968. His accuser said Rossiter performed a sex act behind him as he was attacked, and accused the BBC of being a "cesspit of depravity" at the time. On Friday the comedian Freddie Starr was released on bail for a second time after being questioned by police investigating the Savile abuse scandal. The 69-year-old from Warwickshire was held on suspicion of sexual offences before being re-bailed to a date in December. Starr has consistently denied any involvement in the alleged abuse and last month branded Savile "despicable" and "disgusting", urging police to interview him so he could clear his name.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Margaret Jones, who let star sleep overnight at residential school in 1970s, says no one reported any abuse to her Women who claim they were abused by Jimmy Savile at a girls' school were "delinquents" who are "looking for money" by making allegations against the late TV entertainer, their former headteacher has said. But Margaret Jones admitted she was "hoodwinked" by Savile, whom she allowed to sleep overnight at Duncroft Approved School in the 1970s. Allegations linked to three former pupils of the school were made in 2007 but Surrey police said they would not speak to former staff at Duncroft unless there was evidence they had witnessed or been told about sexual abuse. A child protection expert told the Daily Telegraph this week that the failure to speak to the former headteacher as part of the investigation was a missed chance to catch Savile while he was alive. But Jones said no one ever reported any abuse to her. She told the Daily Mail: "They had an opportunity to tell anybody. But it suited them – some of them, not all of them – to wait 30 years. They're all looking for money … they come out of the woodwork for money. I do object to my school being targeted … wild allegations by well-known delinquents." Savile was allegedly allowed to stay overnight at the school and take pupils on unsupervised drives in his Rolls-Royce, according to the Daily Mail. At the time of the allegations the school was run by the children's charity Barnardo's, which told police they had no record of any sexual abuse reported to staff. Former pupils have alleged they reported Savile's abuse only to be dismissed by Jones. The former headteacher said: "I was hoodwinked by Jimmy Savile. I thought he was a nice man. Not one person ever told me about Jimmy Savile. Nobody told me he was a pervert. I've just been talking to one of my [former] staff. We are horrified. "If they didn't tell me about Jimmy Savile, they deserve all they get. They should've reported him. They knew if they reported him to me I'd report him to the police. And I have reported people to the police."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Foreign tankers to be allowed into ports from Gulf of Mexico and military to open reserve supplies for emergency services The US government is scrambling to ease fuel shortages paralysing the north-east in the wake of superstorm Sandy, saying the military will buy motor fuel and truck it there and allow foreign tankers from the Gulf of Mexico to deliver petroleum products.
The Homeland Security Department has waived the Jones Act, a law that normally prohibits foreign-flagged vessels from shipping gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products from the Gulf of Mexico to north-eastern ports. The waiver, effective immediately, requires shipments to leave the Gulf region by 13 November and arrive in the north-east within a week.
With power still out at many ports and gasoline stations hit by Sandy, and as petroleum supplies were robust before the storm, it was unclear how much fuel was needed immediately and how quickly it could get to customers. The US death toll hit 102 on Friday; Sandy had earlier killed 69 people as a hurricane the Caribbean, leaving poorer countries like Haiti struggling to cope. It struck the New Jersey coast on Monday as a rare hybrid superstorm after the hurricane merged with a powerful storm system in the north Atlantic. While power returned to much of Manhattan on Friday, residents of some of the hardest-hit areas still faced a long wait for electricity There were long lines outside gas stations around New York and New Jersey on Friday as supplies ran low. In the New York City borough of Queens, a man was accused of pulling a gun during a confrontation with a motorist who accused him of cutting in line. At noon on Friday the line for gas at the Shell station in the Brooklyn Heights area of Brooklyn weaved around three blocks and stretched back for almost half a mile. "I've been here two and a half hours," said Brian Temporosa. "I've been empty for probably two days now. Luckily I haven't run out yet but if I'm here for another 15 minutes then yeah, I might run out of gas." Krystyne Todaro, 45, had travelled a quarter of a mile to the Shell station in two and a half hours. "This is the worst of what I've had to deal with so far, so I'm OK. It is what it is," she said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to widespread criticism by reversing a decision to go ahead with the New York Marathon. Bloomberg insisted the race could have gone ahead safely but said the controversy was distracting from the rescue effort. The energy department announced that it was tapping the Northeast Heating Reserve for the first time, releasing about 48,000 barrels of ultra-low sulphur diesel for the Department of Defense to distribute to local and federal emergency services in New York and New Jersey.
The fuel will be used to supply emergency equipment, generators, buildings, trucks and other vehicles. The Department of Defense will begin drawing down as soon as Saturday from the reserve, created 12 years ago, which holds about a million barrels of diesel. It expects to give back the fuel within 30 days. In another move to ease the shortages the Obama administration directed the Defense Logistics Agency to purchase up to 380,000 barrels of unleaded gasoline and 317,000 barrels of diesel for distribution to storm-stricken areas. This purchase would be delivered by tanker trucks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. Earlier in the week the administration waived clean gasoline rules throughout most of the eastern seaboard as it struggled to take action after the deadly storm. The Homeland Security Department said it had received only one request from a company, which it did not identify, to waive the Jones Act. The law was created to support domestic jobs in the shipping industry and requires goods moved between US ports to be carried by ships built domestically and staffed by US crews. The American Maritime Partnership (AMP), a domestic maritime industry group, said it was not aware of any cases where US vessels had not been available to transport fuel but it supported waivers in the aftermath of the massive storm. "We will not oppose waivers that are necessary to facilitate delivery of petroleum products into the regions affected by hurricane Sandy," AMP said in a letter to Obama and heads of several government departments. Shipping sources said the slow return of power to ports in New York Harbor had them considering delivering fuel to nearby cities such as Boston. Energy experts said the waiver might not bring immediate relief to fuel-strapped New York and New Jersey, where two refineries were shut by Sandy. But in the longer term shipping alternatives could help ensure steady supply throughout the north-east.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kellogg Brown and Root, formerly part of Halliburton, exposed water plant guards to dangerous carcinogen, court finds A jury has ordered an $85m (£53m) compensation payout by the American military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root – which helped build Guantánamo Bay and has tendered to run key police services in Britain – after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq war. After a three-week trial the jury deliberated for two days before reaching a decision against KBR, which used to be part of Halliburton corporation. KBR was ordered to pay $6.2m to each of the soldiers in punitive damages and $850,000 in non-economic damages. During the Iraq war KBR was the engineering and construction arm of Halliburton, the biggest US contractor during the conflict. KBR split from Halliburton in April 2007 and has since tendered in Britain to run key police services in Surrey and the West Midlands. The US lawsuit was the first concerning American soldiers' exposure to a toxin at a water plant in southern Iraq. The soldiers have said they suffer from respiratory ailments after their exposure to sodium dichromate and fear that a carcinogen it contains – hexavalent chromium – could cause cancer later in life. Another suit from Oregon national guardsmen is on hold while the Portland trial continues. There are further suits pending in Indiana and West Virginia. KBR witnesses testified that the soldiers' ailments were a result of the desert air and pre-existing conditions. Even if they were exposed to sodium dichromate, KBR witnesses argued, the soldiers were not around enough of it, for long enough, to cause serious health problems. The contractor's defence ultimately rested on the fact that it informed the US army of the risks of exposure to sodium dichromate. KBR was tasked with reconstructing the decrepit, scavenged plant just after the March 2003 invasion while troops from the US national guard defended the area. Bags of unguarded sodium dichromate – a corrosive substance used to keep pipes at the water plant free of rust – were ripped open, allowing the substance to spread across the plant and into the air. When KBR was still part of Halliburton it won a large share of Pentagon contracts to build and manage US military bases in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Its former chief executive, Dick Cheney, was US vice-president.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | His jump from the edge of space was watched by millions. Now action man Felix Baumgartner wants to talk about the terror he overcame to break the sound barrier "They call me Fearless Felix," says the man who, with nonchalant courage, fell to earth faster than the speed of sound. Less than three weeks ago, Felix Baumgartner reached an altitude of 128,100 feet in a small capsule attached to a helium balloon before he plummeted back down again through 24 miles of cold blackness at a top speed of 833.9 miles per hour. His space jump was watched live on YouTube by more than eight million people, and the fevered reaction online was matched by saturation coverage in the traditional media. As a curiously driven man, who had dreamed of flying ever since he was a five-year-old boy in Austria, drawing detailed pictures of himself soaring through the sky, Baumgartner had achieved his greatest ambition. He had moved from the often-illegal activity of base-jumping – having blagged his way past lax security at some of the world tallest buildings so his daredevil talents could be noticed – and become one of the world's most celebrated men. Baumgartner sits in a plush chair in a London hotel and arches a wry eyebrow at his cartoonish nickname. "You and I know Fearless Felix doesn't really exist," he says, quietly, and more thoughtfully than might be expected. "He might seem like a cool guy, but I've had to address a real psychological battle. It's been way harder than stepping out into space." He may be a certified celebrity, with an American twang to his Austrian accent, but he talks with the zeal of an ordinary man who has just survived an extraordinary experience. Baumgartner also uses the very human confines of psychological frailty, rather than the vast expanse of space, to frame his achievement. A canny publicist, the 43-year-old is smart enough to recognise that there is real strength in admitting moments of weakness. But there is also something surprisingly moving in his revelations that the source of his suffocating fear was an old-fashioned spacesuit. "I feared and hated the suit because of my desire for freedom. I started skydiving because I loved the idea of freedom. But you get trapped in a spacesuit, and people are adding weights to it every day. "They'd say, 'Right, we need oxygen bottles,' and then a couple of weeks later it would be: 'You need a chest bag.' That chest bag became bigger and bigger and the suit is twice my normal weight. Skydiving is now no fun at all. It's scary. I remember my first dive with this suit. I was standing at the exit at 30,000 feet, and it felt like my very first skydive. The same fear from 25 years ago is back. It never felt good in that suit because it never became a second skin. "Normally, when I skydive, even in winter, I wear very thin gloves. I want to be flexible, with fast reactions. But a spacesuit slows you down. You have big gloves and you cannot move your head very well. A natural movement, when you pull your chute, is to look up. But with the suit you cannot do this. So now I have two mirrors on my gloves. "You open the chute and you look down at the mirror to see if it's fully inflated. Every skill I had developed over the years became pretty useless as soon as I stepped into the space suit. And after 25 years as a professional, it makes you feel weak and exposed." Baumgartner cut a lonely figure as he prepared to leap into exultation or oblivion. But his vulnerability was bound up in claustrophobia. "I only started getting anxious if I was in the suit more than an hour. You can fight your way through an hour. But if it takes five hours you're never going to win that battle. So that's why I had to address it." The problem became so distressing that Baumgartner required psychiatric help. "This is the first time I needed [psychological] help," he winces. "It was so embarrassing in the beginning. They'd say things like, 'How would you describe what happened, to your son?'" He scrunches up his face. "I don't have a son. So I didn't feel like talking to my imaginary son. But at the same time, I thought: 'If it gets rid of my anxiety, I'll talk to my invisible son.'" Suddenly a sombre voice booms out: "Attention please, this is an emergency." Baumgartner's eyes widen. "Is this real?" he asks. "Please leave the building now by the nearest available exit … do not use the lifts or escalators." Fearless Felix and I sit tight and keep talking. Joe Kittinger, the 84-year-old who set the previous record for the highest space jump of 19 miles in 1960, and became Baumgartner's chief adviser, pops his white-haired head around the corner. "It's a real emergency," he says. "We're relaxed," Baumgartner quips. "Good luck," Kittinger says drily as he moves towards the exit. "Hey Joe," Baumgartner shouts, "see you in heaven … " He returns to his story. "Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to have two strangers listening to you talk to your invisible son about your deepest fears?" Even the smell of the suit unsettled him. "It was the smell of rubber. That was always the key moment. But my anxiety started the day before. I would not sleep well, and then you have to drive to Lancaster [in California, where his test capsule was based]. When you get over that last hill you can see Lancaster down there … and you know the suit is waiting. The psychiatrist called it the 'train of negative thoughts'. I was always riding that dark train. He said you have to get off it with positive thinking. It's easy to say, and hard to accomplish. Still, we did it. I started to feel strong again." Yet Baumgartner had walked away from the project for six months. It was only when he saw footage of a replacement doing his job in testing that he was shocked into returning. "I felt jealous," he says, "and I thought: 'You're not supposed to be in my suit.' I saw the BBC film yesterday [Space Dive, which airs on BBC2 on Sunday] and it's disturbing because you see my name on the helmet, then you realise: 'Hey, that's not Felix. Some other guy is in there.' No offence to Rob [the test pilot]. We had this big test and they couldn't say: 'Hey, we'll skip it because Felix is too weak.' But it really hurt my feelings when I saw Rob in my suit. It felt like I'd been replaced. Of course, it was part of the journey, but when you're inside that situation you never like drama." As if to remind us that drama can happen anywhere, a representative of Red Bull, the Austrian company that spent over $18m to help Baumgartner fulfil his dream, urges us to follow her. "If you see fire, tell us," Baumgartner says laconically. "This is real," she says, calmly. "OK," Baumgartner laughs. We leave the hotel and Baumgartner keeps talking, intently. "The toughest moment was when I lost my team after I came back from Austria," he says. "My psychiatrist told me: 'Nobody thinks you can do it anymore. You have to get your leadership back.' I went into this room and I could see everybody sitting on the other side of this table. All my friends. And just by the body language I could tell: 'Nobody thinks I can do it anymore.'" Did Joe doubt him? "Everybody," he says sadly. As a former soldier and a self-proclaimed team-leader and man of action, Baumgartner was shaken by the loss of faith in him. "Art Thompson [the project director]. Mike Todd [his life support engineer]. I never thought Mike would doubt me because he was like my father. He was the key guy in those quiet moments when he was dressing me in the locker room – like a boxer with his coach before he goes to fight. But he was sitting on the other side now. Nobody had faith in me anymore. That was a really bad moment. This claustrophobia was the only weakness I had. It's not my fault. It's just in my mind." Baumgartner's words are poignant rather than plaintive – but he sounds like a sports jock when describing the "game plan" and "strategy" he developed to regain control. "I thought, whatever it takes to get my leadership back, I'm willing to do it. After five days it was working. Two weeks later, everyone was positive and we knew I was ready." Doubt, however, still plagued him. "The worry is I won't fly supersonic or, in the worst-case scenario, I'm not as fast as Joe Kittinger was in 1960. You have to explain to the world that, 52 years later, you're slower than Joe? It's another pressure. I don't think people get what it means to do something when the whole world – from the pope to the president of the US – is watching you." His problems continued. As he floated towards the 24 mile-high mark – it took almost three hours for the balloon to lift his Red Bull Stratos capsule into space – Baumgartner's visor began to cloud as he exhaled. The prospect of doing the jump "half-blind" threatened the mission, and he had to endure various tests before it was established that his equipment was working. He had less time once he had left his capsule, and begun to whirl through space at a speed which sent him into an inevitable spin. "I had one minute to find a solution. While spinning, I'm thinking: 'Should I push the button to release my drogue chute, to stop that spin? But that would mean it's over and I'm not going to fly supersonic – so should I tough it out and find a solution? "I had to maintain my cool and this is what I've been doing the last 25 years – being focused and not freaking out. In my head I was cool-minded. My worst fear was not dying, but failing to fly supersonic. If you're at 3.6 Gs for six seconds, it fires the drogue chute. I was rotating, but it was hard to tell how many Gs I was at. I felt I had it under control and, hey, I'm not dying. But I couldn't know how close the drogue chute was to firing. In the end it was OK, but it was difficult, and that's why Joe held the record for 52 years. Lots of people underestimated it." Baumgartner thinks hard when asked about his jump's sweetest moment. "I had a couple of good moments," he eventually says. "One was standing with my feet outside the capsule just before I stepped off. We'd been working towards that for five years. As soon as I was standing there – completely released from all the cables – I knew it was going to happen. That was a big relief and a really unique, outstanding moment. "And then when you open your parachute you know it's over – I'm still alive! Mike Todd was the last person I saw before going up. He'd said, 'OK, see you on the ground, buddy.' But you could tell he wasn't 100% sure. I wasn't either. We prepare for the worst but hope for the best. And then, three hours later, Mike is the guy I see first after it's all over. Mike worried about me like I'm his son. But when he's happy he looks 16 again. I was looking forward to seeing that smile." This is Baumgartner at his most likable; he is also touching when describing the emotional toll on his mother, Ava, whose sister was buried just a week before he made his jump. His life is not always simple and next week his lawyers will appeal his conviction for punching a lorry driver during a traffic jam in 2010. And so how will a man consumed by outrageous challenges rekindle the intensity of his space jump? "I don't have to," he replies, confirming his plan to become a rescue-helicopter pilot. "I reached a peak and I don't have to top it again. A lot of kids now think of me as Fearless Felix – but I hope I can make fear cool. All these kids can know that Felix also has fear. So they can address their own fears. I did it – at first I would consider the suit a handicap. And handicapped people have to find a way to live with their handicap. The suit was my worst enemy, but it became my friend – because the higher you go, the more you need the suit. It gives you the only way to survive. I learned to love the suit up there. That's an even bigger message than flying supersonic." Space Dive is on BBC2 on Sunday at 8.30pm
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mayor Bloomberg had initially pledged race would go on despite destruction on Staten Island and elsewhere in the city Mayor Michael Bloomberg bowed to intense pressure on Friday over this weekend's New York marathon, cancelling the race which would have taken place against the backdrop of the destruction caused by super storm Sandy. A few hours after delivering a defiant message that the event would go ahead as planned, Bloomberg's office announced the abrupt U-turn, saying that City Hall did not want a "cloud to hang over the race or its participants". The decision came amid growing anger and disbelief that the mayor would press ahead on Sunday even though Staten Island, where the race was due to start, was the borough worst hit by Monday's storm. "While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division," said a statement released on Friday evening on behalf of Bloomberg and the New York Road Runners, the event organisers. "The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination. We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it. "We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event – even one as meaningful as this – to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track." Organisers will give participants additional information in the days ahead, the statement concluded. Runners gave the decision a mixed response. Stephanie Kiahtipes, 35, who lives in Brooklyn, said: "I have put so much effort into this, but I understand and think the city made the right decision. I have my family, my home and I can always run at a later date." Brooke Wood, 31, originally from Australia but now living in New York, said: "I am disappointed not to be running. I had apprehensions about it taking place, but you can't say it is on, then less than 48 hours before the race starts say it is off. "I want to know now whether it has been postponed or cancelled – do I get to run next year. There is not enough information." Earlier on Friday, Bloomberg had insisted the event would go ahead and compared it to the decision to hold the race in 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan. "We have to find some way to express ourselves and show solidarity with each other," he said, adding: "We have to have a city going forward," he added.found himself with little support for holding the event. But he received little support. Christine Quinn, the city council speaker and normally an ally of Bloomberg, broke ranks with him. In a statement, she said: "The decision to move forward with the marathon is not a decision I would have made." She continued: "That said, I think we need to look forward and continue to focus on the task at hand – helping those without electricity, food and water and rebuilding our city." "If it takes one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon I will scream. We have people with no homes and no hope right now," Jimmy Oddo, city councilor representing the stricken borough, tweeted, before news of the cancellation was known And he was not alone in his anger. A growing online campaign demanded the race officials have a change of heart in light of the carnage brought upon Staten Island. To date, some 19 people are confirmed to have died on the borough, nearly half of the total for New York City. But many in the borough feel marginalized in the recovery effort, with focus instead on its more glamourous neighbour Manhattan. Staten Island resident Paul Ferdandez was typical of the frustration felt, describing initial plans to stage the race as a further "slap in the face". "I think it is bullshit, we need some help down here. We need help fixing the beaches, fixing people's houses. Nobody is helping us here, nobody is saying everything," he added. Bloomberg had vowed that emergency resources would not be diverted, adding that the race is a source of revenue for the city, with tens of thousands of out-of-towners either participating or watching the annual race. "There are an awful lot of small businesses that depend on these people. We have to have an economy," he said in a press conference Wednesday. It has been estimated that the annual road generates some $340m in additional economic activity. But as the death toll in Staten Island becomes fully known, the voices of complaint got louder. Concern was not purely related to the possible diversion of resources away from the relief effort. There was also the matter of holding the race in conditions that are far from perfect. Much of lower Manhattan remained without power on Friday. And despite suggestions from utilities firm ConEd that they hope to have electricity restored for most of Manhattan by Saturday, logistically the race could have turn into a nightmare. State governor Andrew Cuomo made it clear earlier Friday that it was Bloomberg's decision. "There's a debate and I understand both sides," he said, pointedly refusing to publicly back the marathon.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Security minister says troops will pull out of regional hotspots, after UN accused Uganda of supporting Congolese rebels Uganda has said it will withdraw its forces from military operations in regional hotspots including Somalia in response to UN allegations that it is supporting Congolese rebels. The security minister, Wilson Mukasa, described the decision as "irreversible" and said another cabinet minister was travelling to New York to explain Uganda's position. In a report leaked last month, a UN panel of experts accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the so-called M23 rebel group commanded by Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord indicted by the international criminal court. "What we've said and what we are proposing to the UN … is that we are going to withdraw from our engagements in Somalia, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo to concentrate on our own security here in Uganda," Mukasa said in Kampala. Ugandan troops account for more than a third of the more than 17,600 UN-mandated Amisom peacekeepers battling al-Qaida-linked Islamist rebels in Somalia. Felix Kulayigye, spokesman for the Uganda people's defence forces, said: "I am not aware of any order to withdraw from Somalia but the UPDF is under civilian authority so if an executive decision has been taken to withdraw, that's fine. We'll not stay an extra day in Somalia when we get that order." The Amisom force has been key to propping up a string of interim governments in Somalia and driving al-Shabaab militants from urban strongholds including the capital, Mogadishu, and the southern port of Kismayu. A sudden and sharp reduction in the force's numbers, especially in Mogadishu, would risk unravelling the steady security gains that allowed the first presidential elections in more than four decades to be held in the capital in September. Ugandan troops backed by US special forces are also leading the hunt for the fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in Central African Republic (CAR), with some stationed in South Sudan. "Uganda benefits financially for its Amisom contribution, and a troop presence in Somalia, CAR and South Sudan gives the military an enhanced footprint across the region. Hamza Mohamed, a London-based Somalia analyst, said: "It's just politics and playing to the gallery. They won't pull out. Things will be quietly settled behind closed doors with perhaps future reports not being so critical." The confidential 44-page report by the UN security council's group of experts, a body that monitors compliance with the UN sanctions and Congo arms embargo, said M23 had expanded the territory under its control, stepped up recruitment of child soldiers and summarily executed recruits and prisoners. The report said Rwandan officials co-ordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations, while Uganda's more subtle support of M23 allowed the rebel group's political branch to operate from within Kampala. Uganda and Rwanda have repeatedly denied the accusations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | October data shows 25th consecutive month of jobs growth under Obama, but US unemployment rate rises slightly to 7.9% The US added 171,000 new jobs in October, far higher than expected and handing president Barack Obama's campaign a major boost four days before the election. It was the 25th consecutive month of jobs growth under Obama, but the rate of growth remained sluggish. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the US to create about 125,000 new jobs in October, following a gain of 114,000 in September – so Friday's numbers were better than expected. August and September's numbers were revised up. Last month's figures helped drive the US unemployment rate below the politically important rate of 8% for the first time since Obama took office in January 2009. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 7.8% to 7.9%. The political spinning began immediately. Mitt Romney said: "Today's increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill." "The jobless rate is higher than it was when president Obama took office, and there are still 23m Americans struggling for work. On Tuesday, America will make a choice between stagnation and prosperity." Obama, speaking at a rally in Hilliard, Ohio, brushed over the job figures, slipping in just a sentence to his normal stump speech. "Today our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs. And this morning we learned that companies hired more workers in October than at any time in the last eight months. The American auto industry is back on top. Home values and housing construction is on the rise. We are less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last 20 years. "We have made real progress but we are here today because we know we have got more work to do. As long as there is a single American who wants a job and can't find one, as long as there are families working harder but falling behind, as long as there is a child anywhere in this country languishing in poverty and barred from opportunity, our fight goes on. We have got more work to do." The Romney campaign has attached great importance to the monthly jobs figures. During the Republican national convention in Tampa, Florida, two months ago, one of Romney's senior strategist set out the basics of their campaign, some of which turned out as planned, such as a strong debate performance. Crucial to the strategy was the unemployment figures for August, released at the end of the Democratic national convention. That figure was a weak 96,000 and handed Romney a major boost. It has now been revised up to 192,000. The Romney campaigns strategy has been further weakened than better than expected jobs figures and an unemployment rate below the symbolically important 8% mark. Perhaps more importantly, superstorm Sandy has moved the economy off the top of the news agenda in the last few days before the election. David Semmens, a senior US economist at Standard Chartered, said the figures were encouraging: "There's a slight tick up in unemployment, but it's for the right reasons; people who weren't looking for jobs are now looking. The upward revisions also suggest that things are picking up." Semmens said that jobs growth was still weak but that the recovery looked like it was on a stable footing. Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at BTIG, said the figure was much stronger than expected: "Despite the improvement though, the rate of job creation remains woefully inadequate to meaningfully affect the unemployment rate, one reason why that rate rose in the month." he said. Nick Pokoluk, director at Personify, a recruitment consultant, said the figures were in line with his recent experience. "Our clients, particularly in technology, engineering, software and healthcare, are more confident. Companies are much more confident about hiring than they were last year. We are even seeing a greater number of counteroffers for skilled workers that employers don't want to lose." But Pokoluk said it was clear big problems remained for less skilled workers and that the market still had a long way to go. Jobs came back in construction, which added 17,000 jobs, the most since January, further evidence of a recovery in the housing market. Manufacturing added 13,000 jobs after cutting back in the previous two months Professional services – such as architects and IT – also added jobs, as did retailers, hotels and restaurants, as well as education and health sectors. Government employment was cut again, losing 13,000 jobs in September, after three months of growth. Paul Conway, former chief of staff of the US department of labor and president of Generation Opportunity, a conservative youth group, said unemployment for 18- to 29-year-olds remained "unacceptably high" at 12%. "We are looking at a generation of young Americans who have been denied economic opportunities," he said. The bureau of labor statistics said superstorm Sandy "had no discernable effect on the employment and unemployment data for October" as the data was collected before the storm.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Votes from American-Israelis could make a difference in swing states, according to iVoteIsrael campaign group An overwhelming majority of Israelis entitled to vote in the US presidential election have cast their ballot for Mitt Romney, according to a poll conducted by an organisation aimed at maximising turnout. Eighty-five percent of the 80,000 American-Israelis who registered to vote through iVoteIsrael backed the Republican candidate, the survey indicated. The organisation claimed that in states where the race is tight, expatriate voters from Israel could make a significant difference. Around 7,500 Israelis are registered to vote in Florida, and 3,500 in Ohio. But Democrats Abroad Israel dismissed the poll as "slanted and extremely partial" because it was based on surveys carried out only at polling stations set up by iVoteIsrael. The acting chairman Hillel Schenker told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "All they're doing is providing information about the people they polled at their polling stations, in places where there are predominantly Orthodox and rightwing Jews." The campaign group says it is non-partisan and its only interest is to maximise the vote among eligible Israelis. It said voter participation had quadrupled from the 20,000 Israelis who voted in 2008, and that between 20% and 25% of all overseas votes this year would come from Israel. Israel's prime minster, Binyamin Netanyahu, has been accused of favouring a Romney victory in next week's election. Relations between Netanyahu and Barack Obama have been severely strained over the issue of the Iranian nuclear programme. Romney is perceived to be more sympathetic to Netanyahu's view that military action may be needed to halt the programme. Romney has consistently sought to portray Obama as failing to maintain the traditionally close ties between the US and Israel. Almost eight in 10 Jewish Americans voted for Obama in 2008, and a majority are expected to vote Democrat in this election.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Maya Fernández Allende vows to be faithful to legacy of her grandfather – Salvador Allende, president who died in 1973 coup Confetti still litters the floor of the modest campaign headquarters and the victorious candidate is obviously exhausted, but for Maya Fernández Allende the real hard work is just about to begin. Allende was just one year old on 11 September 1973 when a rightwing coup d'etat led to the death of her grandfather – Salvador Allende, the then Chilean president. The family fled to Cuba and for three decades the heir to one of Chile's most illustrious and controversial political fortunes was out of the limelight. All that changed last Sunday, when Fernández Allende won the mayorship of Ñuñoa – a district of the capital, Santiago. But in addition to the pressures of office will come the pressure of assuming the Allende legacy. "It makes me proud but [is also] a responsibility," she told the Guardian. "My grandfather was a grand man, he was loyal with his people until the end … that is a principle, a value that is not often seen in politics." A week ago, Fernández Allende's victory was not even discussed as a possibility, as the district had long been held by rightwing politicians. Her opponent Pedro Sabat had been re-elected three times by wide margins and held office for 16 years. But Chile has undergone a transformation over the past 18 months. Citizen groups fighting hydroelectric dams in Patagonia and demanding free university education have sprouted online and filled the streets with dozens of big marches – gathering up to 150,000 students. The upshot was the narrowest of wins for the challenger — by less than 100 votes out of more than 75,000 cast. Fernández Allende put her victory down to a longstanding family tradition: hitting the streets. "I walked the entire district twice," she said as a steady stream of giddy volunteers entered and left the one-storey, four-room office. "When you enter a campaign, you enter to win, not to make a decent stand … I put all my heart into this and it was difficult, versus a mayor who had high voting support, but even before the final announcement I felt it was a victory, nobody had even come close to being that competitive with Sabat. We did this with a team, with a field operation." Students battled regularly with Sabat by occupying his office and shutting down numerous schools with strikes that lasted for as long as six months. Sabat faced strong condemnation for his assessment that a high school seized by female students had degenerated into "a whorehouse". Fernández Allende said: "That comment really shook people up. Even people who did not support the [striking] students thought that was too much." Apart from a whiteboard, the only office decoration was the official photograph of Salvador Allende wearing the Chilean presidential sash and his trademark thick black glasses. "I would have loved to have known him in a more humane way, as a grandfather," said Fernández Allende. "I don't remember him, I was too small. But I am always entertained by the stories of his life that people tell me. Especially that despite his huge responsibilities, he had a great sense of humour. Always [there] with a wisecrack. That kept him going." Fernández Allende, who lived in Cuba for nearly 20 years, added: "The political bug bit me late in life." Even upon her return to Chile in 1992, she did little on the political front besides joining the Socialist party. But in 2008, she won her first election as a concejal, or neighbourhood representative, who works closely with the mayor. She also began to tap into the vein of goodwill still held by her grandfather and was elected to the Socialist party central committee in 2010. But it was the sudden outpouring of anger on the street that really galvanised her career – a sign that her grandfather's legacy of a humane socialist revolution lived on. "The dictatorship did not allow you to express yourself, you might talk and then be disappeared, so people stopped talking," Fernández Allende said. "For 20 years nobody talked to anybody, you did not know who was a spy. There was lots of silence. People became more introverted. [Now] this generation has changed, it has come back to the street, to knock on the door, to bang the table."
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