| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rocket launched close to first anniversary of death of former leader Kim Jong-il North Korea launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday in what it said was an attempt to put a satellite into space. The rocket was launched close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan. The launch, reported by South Korean media, was confirmed by South Korea's defence ministry. Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile. North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear-related tests under UN sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. The latest launch comes after a failed attempt in April that fizzled less than two minutes after blastoff. Japan and South Korea put their armed forces on alert prior to the launch. The rocket is scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage splashing down off the Philippines before launching the satellite into orbit. Most political analysts believe the launch is designed to bolster the credentials of new leader Kim Jong-un as he cements his rule over the country of 22 million people. A government official in Seoul said recently that the transition of power to Kim Jong-un did not appear to be going as smoothly as anticipated and there were signs that the regime was concerned over the possibility of rising dissent. Plans for the launch have drawn criticism from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the US as well as Nato and the United Nations. The north's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed "deep concern" over the launch but is thought unlikely to back any further sanctions. North Korea launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday and may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space, the stated aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket was launched just before 10am Korean time (1.00am GMT) and flew over the Japanese island of Okinawa. Its April rocket launch was aborted after less than two minutes' flight. South Korea and Japan called meetings of their top security councils after the launch. Japanese television station NHK said the second stage of the rocket had crashed into seas off the Philippines as planned. It was not immediately clear if the third stage carrying the satellite had made it into space. There was no immediate announcement from North Korea on the launch. It made a formal announcement when the April launch had failed, but has previously claimed that it put a satellite into space in 2009, something no one has been able to verify. The rocket was launched close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan. Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile. North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear-related tests under UN sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. The rocket's path was scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage splashing down off the Philippines before launching the satellite into orbit. Most political analysts believe the launch is designed to bolster the credentials of new leader Kim Jong-un as he cements his rule over the country of 22 million people. A government official in Seoul said recently that the transition of power to Kim Jong-un did not appear to be going as smoothly as anticipated and there were signs that the regime was concerned over the possibility of rising dissent. Plans for the launch had drawn criticism from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the US as well as Nato and the United Nations. The north's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed "deep concern" over the launch but is thought unlikely to back any further sanctions against.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Man who took instrument to the world and collaborated with western greats has died aged 92 in San Diego Ravi Shankar, who has died aged 92 in San Diego, was the Indian maestro who put the sitar on the musical map. George Harrison called him "the godfather of world music" and it was Shankar's vision that brought the sounds of the raga into western consciousness, thus bridging the gap between eastern and western music for the first time. In a long career he was still winning awards in 2002 when his album Full Circle/Live at Carnegie Hall (2000) achieved a Grammy for best album in the world music category. Shankar's distinction as a sitar player was his brilliant virtuosity, creativity and vast range of musicianship. In the west, certainly, his name is also synonymous with the music of India. Shankar was born in the holy city of Benares, now better known as Varanasi. The youngest of five sons, his family were Bengali Brahmins from Jessore, now in Bangladesh, and much influenced by the reformist ideas propagated by writers such as Rabindranath Tagore. The Shankars were part of what became known as the Indian Renaissance. Ravi's father was a Sanskrit scholar who became chief minister of Jhalawar state. His passion for music began when he first heard Vedic chants as a child in Benares. But his first commitment was to dance. His eldest brother, Uday, was a dancer who had worked with Anna Pavlova before setting up a music and dance company to perform Indian dance in the west. Ravi, along with his mother and brothers, moved to Paris in 1930 to be with him, and Ravi became the youngest member of the company, specialising in cameo dance roles. For two years, he went to a Catholic school leading the life of a French school boy. (His fluency in French became a prized possession.) In Paris he heard western classical music for the first time. He loved the guitar artistry of Andrés Segovia and the singing of Feodor Chaliapin. Opera, too, enchanted him. However, back in India, he set his heart on becoming a sitarist after listening with rapture to the melodious playing of an older boy. He resolved to learn from the famous sitar teacher and performer Ustad Inayat Khan, the father of the celebrated sitarist Vilayat Khan and the sarodist Imrat Khan, but on the day of the initiation ceremony Shankar fell ill with typhoid. Later, aged 18, he was apprenticed to Ustad Allauddin Khan, a disciple of Wazir Khan, who was a direct descendent of the legendary Tansen, the chief musician of the Mughal emperor Akbar. For seven years Allauddin Khan was Shankar's musical mentor and through this connection Shankar inherited a great tradition of classical music. In his autobiography, My Music, My Life (1969), Shankar says that Baba, as he called his teacher, made his pupils practise for hours on end and often resorted to severe corporal punishment. However, on only one occasion did Baba smack him on the hands. (Later, although the marriage did not last, Shankar married Allaudin Khan's daughter Annapurna, herself an accomplished musician.) Shankar gave his first concert in 1939, and in 1940 began playing recitals with Allauddin Khan's son the sarodist Ali Akbar Khan on All India Radio. It was in Mumbai in the mid-40s that Shankar first made an impression. He wrote the music scores for two notable Indian films, Dharti ke Lal (Children of the Earth, 1946) and Neecha Nagar (The City Below, 1946), and composed for the Indian People's Theatre Association. During 1946-47 he was involved with producing and composing music for a ballet titled The Discovery of India, which was based on Jawaharlal Nehru's celebrated book of the same name. He later founded and became the musical director of All India Radio's first National Orchestra and was sent on foreign cultural tours by the Indian government. His energy was amazing. In between his arduous performing schedule, he composed the music for Satyajit Ray's classic Apu Trilogy (the films were made over a period of four years from 1955-59). He also composed a concerto for the sitar (1971), performed by the LSO and conducted by André Previn, with Shankar playing the sitar. In the early 60s Shankar made his first study of jazz and Indian classical music in Improvisations. He went on to teach Indian music to John Coltrane and Don Ellis. His piece Rich á La Rakha was composed for Buddy Rich and Alla Rakha. Then, in 1966, he met George Harrison and Paul McCartney at a friend's house in London. A few days later, he gave George his first sitar lesson at the Beatle's home in Surrey. Later that year, George and his wife, Pattie, went to India and the guitarist underwent an intensive period of sitar tuition. From this partnership came Shankar Family & Friends (1974) Shankar also created a musical partnership with Yehudi Menuhin. They had met in 1951 when Menuhin was visiting India, though Shankar vividly recalled having seen the violinist at rehearsals when they were boys in Paris in the 30s. The men played for each other and became friends. In 1967, they played for the UN general assembly at a human rights day celebration. They also recorded three albums together, the first of which won a Grammy award. Performances at the great 60s pop festivals – Monterey, Concert for Bangladesh and Woodstock – brought Shankar even more firmly into the west's popular gaze and saw him established as a pioneer of cross-over sounds. His Kinnara School of Music functioned both in Bombay and Los Angeles. In his 70th year celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall, he performed with Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Marielle Nordmann and his old-time partner, the tabla wizard Alla Rakha, the father of the renowned musician Zakir Hussain. His long association with Alla Rakha was mutually satisfying and artistically enriching. He had many friends and admirers. Yet, in India especially, there were classical musicians who were envious of his international success and criticised his association with popular icons in the west. Though his technique was faultless, the spiteful accused him of showmanship. His genius, of course, lay in a combination of gravitas and gaiety. There have not been many musicians who could get on famously with both the Beatles and Menuhin. Indeed, Shankar not only transcended culture, race and geography but also had no difficulty with the generation gap and the phenomenon of class. The children of the flower-power generation turned a deaf ear to their elders but listened most intently to the stranger on the shore. Showered with citations and awards, the Indian republic made him a Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India) and Britain made him an honorary knight. In the US he received several doctorates and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In later years he divided his time between Encinitas, California, and Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, where the Ravi Shankar Institute of Music and the Performing Arts, fully functional by 2003, was the culmination of his lifelong dream. Housed in an elegant pink granite building, it attracts students from all over the world. He is survived by his second wife, Sukanya, and their daughter Anoushka who, diligently tutored by her father, is a well-known sitar player. He also leaves a daughter, Norah Jones, the Emmy award-winning singer, from an earlier relationship with the concert producer Sue Jones. Shubhendra, his son from his first marriage, predeceased him. Ravi Shankar, musician and composer, born 7 April 1920; died 11 December 2012
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US says satellite appears to have reached orbit as surprise early lift-off is condemned as breach of ballistic missile ban North Korea appears to have successfully sent a satellite into orbit, US military officials have said after the regime launched a long-range rocket in defiance of international pressure to abandon what many see as a test of its ballistic missile capability. The US, Japan and other countries immediately condemned the launch as a violation of international sanctions amid calls for further measures against Pyongyang. US missile warning systems detected the rocket after it lifted off from a site on North Korea's west coast, said officials at the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad), adding that the rocket deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit around Earth. Norad said the three-stage Unha rocket had taken its expected southerly course, with its first stage falling into the Yellow Sea west of South Korea and the second landing in the sea east of the Philippines. "Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit," Norad said. "At no time was the missile or the resultant debris a threat to North America." South Korea and Japan said they were unable to immediately confirm Norad's report. In a triumphalist TV announcement accompanied by stirring string music and images of a snow-covered landscape, North Korea's state media said the country had successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite. The launch from the Tongchang-ri site in North Pyongan province at 9.49am local time took the world by surprise. Speculation had mounted that it would be delayed by at least several days while North Korean engineers fixed what had been described as a "technical deficiency" in the rocket's first-stage control engine module. North Korea had said it was extending the original 13-day launch window by a week until 29 December. On Tuesday satellite images suggested that the rocket had been emptied of fuel and removed from its launchpad. Wednesday's apparent success has raised the stakes in international efforts to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its ballistic and nuclear missile programmes. It follows four previous unsuccessful attempts to put satellites into space using long-range rockets. The most recent attempt came on 13 April – two days before the centennial of the birth of the country's founder and Kim Jong-un's grandfather, Kim Il-sung – when another three-stage rocket disintegrated less than two minutes after lift-off. In an unusual show of candour the regime quickly admitted that the launch had been a failure. But if reports about the success of this latest launch are correct, the regime can reasonably claim to have significantly improved its technological know-how. The North has frequently dismissed accusations that it uses rocket launches as a cover to test its ballistic missile technology which, if perfected, could give the regime a projectile capable of reaching the US mainland. North Korea insists the rocket launch was intended to send an Earth observation satellite into orbit. North Korea is believed to have weaponised enough plutonium for about half a dozen rudimentary nuclear weapons, although experts say it has yet to develop a warhead small enough to mount on a missile. Daniel Pinkston, deputy project director of the North East Asia programme at the International Crisis Group, said the earlier-than-expected launch suggested there had either been a misperception along the way or a deliberate operation to mislead observers. But Pinkston said no one should be surprised by the North's decision to fire another rocket. "It would be absolutely illogical for them not to do it," he said. "They have invested tremendous amounts of resources in this over decades. They want to possess the capabilities: this is dual use technology with both military and peaceful applications. They are supposed to be a strong and prosperous and powerful country ... this is what you do." The apparently successful launch will have bolstered the credentials of the North's 29-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, who was anointed just under a year ago after the death on 17 December 2011 of his father, Kim Jong-il. Reports from North Korea had said the latest rocket launch would proceed "at the behest" of the late dictator. "If the rocket actually makes it into space and releases a working satellite it will be a major moment in the country's history and a huge propaganda success for the North Korean regime," said Martyn Williams of the North Korea Tech blog. The South Korean military detected the rocket as soon as it was airborne, according to the South's Yonhap news agency. "Shortly after liftoff an Aegis radar system in the Yellow Sea detected the move," a military official was quoted as saying. The US, Japan and South Korea had applied pressure on the North Korean regime to abandon the launch, saying it violated UN security council resolutions banning it from using ballistic missile technology and would invite further sanctions. The UN security council imposed tough sanctions after the North conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009. China, the regime's only major diplomatic ally and chief benefactor, voiced "deep concern" but is expected to oppose further sanctions. Japan on Wednesday requested an emergency meeting of the UN body to discuss its response. Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, said: "I strongly condemn the satellite launch today." The UK government would summon the North Korean ambassador in London, he said. "This provocative act will increase tensions in the region. I deplore the fact that [North Korea] has chosen to prioritise this launch over improving the livelihoods of its people. "It is essential that [North Korea] refrain from further provocative action and take constructive steps towards denuclearisation and lasting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." The anticipated launch had raised anxiety levels in the region, days before both Japan and South Korea elect new leaders and weeks after China completed its once-in-a-decade leadership change. Japan had positioned missile defence systems on the southern island of Okinawa but reported that no debris had fallen on to its territory. South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, convened an emergency security meeting. The country had positioned three Aegis warships equipped with SPY-1 radar off its western and southern coasts to track the rocket's path. Ban Ki-moon deplored the launch, said the office of the UN secretary general.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | South Korea and Japan confirm surprise early lift-off as nations line up to condemn breach of ballistic missile ban North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday morning, defying international pressure to abandon what many see as a test of its ballistic missile capability and risking fresh sanctions. Reports said the three-stage Unha rocket appeared to have followed its expected trajectory. Japan said the first stage had splashed down in the Yellow Sea west of South Korea and the second landed in the sea east of the Philippines. North Korea's state news agency, the KCNA, said the country had successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite. There was no immediate independent confirmation that a satellite had made it into orbit. The launch from the Donchang-ri site in North Pyongan province at 9.49am local time took the world by surprise. Speculation had mounted that it would be delayed by at least several days while North Korean engineers fixed what had been described as a "technical deficiency" in the rocket's first-stage control engine module. Daniel Pinkston, deputy project director of the North East Asia programme at the International Crisis Group, said the early launch suggested there had either been a misperception along the way or a deliberate operation to mislead observers. But Pinkston said no one should be surprised by the North's decision to fire another rocket. "It would be absolutely illogical for them not to do it," he said. "They have invested tremendous amounts of resources in this over decades. They want to possess the capabilities: this is dual use technology with both military and peaceful applications. They are supposed to be a strong and prosperous and powerful country ... this is what you do." North Korea said recently it had extended the original 13-day launch window by a week until 29 December. On Tuesday satellite images suggested that the entire rocket had been emptied of fuel and removed from its launchpad. The apparently successful launch will have bolstered the credentials of the North's 29-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, who was anointed just under a year ago after the death on 17 December 2011 of his father, Kim Jong-il. Reports from North Korea had said the latest rocket launch would proceed "at the behest" of the late dictator. Wednesday's move follows four previous unsuccessful attempts to put satellites in space using long-range rockets that cast doubt on North Korean claims it had dramatically improved its technological know-how. The most recent attempt came on 13 April – two days before the centennial of the birth of the country's founder and Kim Jong-un's grandfather, Kim Il-sung – when another three-stage rocket disintegrated less than two minutes after lift-off. In an unusual show of candour the regime quickly admitted that the launch had been a failure. John Delury, of Yonsei University in Seoul, suggested the North felt it had to go ahead with the latest launch after the humiliating failure in April. "They couldn't even try to spin that as a partial success," he said. "They set it up as a big moment to celebrate the centenary of Kim Il-sung, a major celebration, and completely failed – and they openly admitted it. I think domestic legitimacy is the primary thing." North Korea watchers agreed that Wednesday's launch appeared to have been successful. "If the initial reports of the launch are correct, the rocket appears to have followed closely the path originally announced by North Korea," said Martyn Williams of the North Korea Tech blog. Williams, who has been following preparations for the launch via satellite images, said: "That alone makes it more successful than April's launch attempt. If it actually makes it into space and releases a working satellite, it will be a major moment in the country's history and a huge propaganda success for the North Korean regime." The South Korean military detected the rocket as soon as it was airborne, according to the South's Yonhap news agency. "Shortly after liftoff an Aegis radar system in the Yellow Sea detected the move," a military official was quoted as saying. The US, Japan and South Korea had applied pressure on the North Korean regime to abandon the launch, saying it violated UN security council resolutions banning it from using ballistic missile technology and would invite further sanctions. The UN security council imposed tough sanctions after the North conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009. China, the regime's only major diplomatic ally and chief benefactor, voiced "deep concern" but is expected to oppose further sanctions. Japan on Wednesday requested an emergency meeting of the UN body to discuss its response. Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, said: "I strongly condemn the satellite launch today." The UK government would summon the North Korean ambassador in London, he said. "This provocative act will increase tensions in the region. I deplore the fact that [North Korea] has chosen to prioritise this launch over improving the livelihoods of its people. "It is essential that [North Korea] refrain from further provocative action and take constructive steps towards denuclearisation and lasting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." Pinkston said that while the US and others would take the issue to the security council, he thought a presidential statement was a more likely outcome than a fresh resolution. China might sign up to a presidential statement and criticise the North in private but Pinkston said he was sceptical about whether they would take action "that really raises the costs" for North Korea. The North has frequently dismissed accusations that it uses rocket launches as a cover to test its ballistic missile technology which, if perfected, could give the regime a projectile capable of reaching the US mainland. North Korea is believed to possess several rudimentary nuclear weapons, although experts say it has yet to develop a warhead small enough to mount on a missile. North Korea insists the rocket launch was intended to send an Earth observation satellite into orbit. Two hours after Wednesday's launch no reliable information was immediately available on the fate of the satellite. The anticipated launch had raised anxiety levels in the region, days before both Japan and South Korea elect new leaders and weeks after China completed its once-in-a-decade leadership change. Japan had positioned missile defence systems on the southern island of Okinawa but reported that no debris had fallen on to its territory. South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, convened an emergency security meeting. The country had positioned three Aegis warships equipped with SPY-1 radar off its western and southern coasts to track the rocket's path.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Man dressed in camouflage, armoured vest and mask kills two people before turning gun on himself, say police A gunman has shot dead two people, wounded another and then killed himself at a shopping mall in the US city of Portland, Oregon. Witnesses said the man wearing camouflage and what looked like a hockey mask fired rounds fire from a military-style rifle near the food court at Clackamas Town Centre. Parents with children joined other shoppers rushing to stores' backrooms for safety as police moved in. The Clackamas county sheriff's office later said the gunman was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A shopper told KATU-TV he saw a man lying on the floor with a gun next to him. "I can confirm that we believe at this point that there was one and only one shooter involved and that that shooter is deceased," sheriff's spokesman Lieutenant James Rhodes told a press briefing. "In addition to that we have at least one patient who was taken from the mall with a traumatic injury and at least two that were deceased in addition to the shooter." Authorities went store to store confirming there was only one shooter and escorted hiding shoppers outside. Austin Patty, 20, who works at Macy's, said he saw a man in a white mask carrying a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest. The gunman said: "I am the shooter," as if announcing himself, then began firing. Witnesses said the mall's Santa Claus was among those who ducked for cover.
The mall is one of the Portland area's busiest. It has about 185 stores and a 20-screen movie theatre. Sheriff's deputies said it would remain closed during the investigation of the shooting.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rocket launched close to first anniversary of death of former leader Kim Jong-il North Korea launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday in what it said was an attempt to put a satellite into space. The rocket was launched close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan. The launch, reported by South Korean media, was confirmed by South Korea's defence ministry. Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile. North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear-related tests under UN sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. The latest launch comes after a failed attempt in April that fizzled less than two minutes after blast-off. Japan and South Korea put their armed forces on alert prior to the launch. The rocket is scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage splashing down off the Philippines before launching the satellite into orbit. Most political analysts believe the launch is designed to bolster the credentials of new leader Kim Jong-un as he cements his rule over the country of 22 million people. A government official in Seoul said recently that the transition of power to Kim Jong-un did not appear to be going as smoothly as anticipated and there were signs that the regime was concerned over the possibility of rising dissent. Plans for the launch has drawn criticism from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States as well as NATO and the United Nations. The North's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed "deep concern" over the launch but is thought unlikely to back any further sanctions. North Korea launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday and may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space, the stated aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket was launched just before 10am Korean time (1.00am GMT) and flew over the Japanese island of Okinawa. Its April rocket launch was aborted after less than two minutes flight. South Korea and Japan called meetings of their top security councils after the launch. Japanese television station NHK said the second stage of the rocket had crashed into seas off the Philippines as planned. It was not immediately clear if the third stage carrying the satellite had made it into space. There was no immediate announcement from North Korea on the launch. It made a formal announcement when the April launch had failed, but has previously claimed that it put a satellite into space in 2009, something no one has been able to verify. The rocket was launched close to the first anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan. Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile. North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear-related tests under UN sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. The rocket's path was scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage splashing down off the Philippines before launching the satellite into orbit. Most political analysts believe the launch is designed to bolster the credentials of new leader Kim Jong-un as he cements his rule over the country of 22 million people. A government official in Seoul said recently that the transition of power to Kim Jong-un did not appear to be going as smoothly as anticipated and there were signs that the regime was concerned over the possibility of rising dissent. Plans for the launch had drawn criticism from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States as well as Nato and the United Nations. The North's only major diplomatic ally, China, has expressed "deep concern" over the launch but is thought unlikely to back any further sanctions against.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Barack Obama says US will recognise opposition coalition as the de facto administration of Syrian regions under rebel control Barack Obama has said the US will formally recognise a Syrian opposition coalition as the de facto administration of regions under rebel control in a move that further saps the legitimacy of president Bashar al-Assad's rule. The president's announcement, in an interview with ABC News, comes as Washington attempts to bolster support for rebel groups it regards as acceptable to western interests while attempting to isolate others. Obama said the US has thrown its weight behind the coalition because he said it is open and representative enough to include various ethnic and religious groups. "We've made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime" he said. But the president did not address whether the US is now prepared to arm the rebels or offer other military support similar to the air bombardment in support of Libya insurgents fighting Colonel Muammar Gadaffi nearly two years ago. Obama's comments came before a meeting between senior US state department officials and Syrian opposition leaders, under the umbrella of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, in Marrakech, Morocco on Wednesday at which the recognition agreement is expected to be formalised. Hours earlier, the Obama administration declared one Syrian resistance group, the al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant, a terrorist organisation and an al-Qaida front. "Not everybody who is participating on the ground in fighting Assad are people that we are comfortable with," said Obama. "There are some who I think have adopted an extremist agenda, an anti-US agenda." The recognition of the coalition comes amid growing disillusionment among Syrian opposition fighters, some of whom have complained of being abandoned by the US when other countries, including Britain, France and Turkey, have already recognised the coalition. They have compared the lack of active American backing with the support given to rebels in Libya. Washington expects to work with the Syrian opposition coalition to established its authority in areas now under rebel control, in part by working with local councils. That is intended not only to isolate extremist groups but to prepare the coalition to take national power if and when Assad is overthrown.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Proposal falls short of what president is looking for but suggests Boehner and Obama are edging towards a compromise Republican congressional leaders have sent a new proposal to the White House as part of the negotiations aimed at preventing America being forced over the fiscal cliff on January 1. Although the latest GOP counter-offer falls far short of what Barack Obama is looking for, it suggests the two sides are edging towards a compromise. The Republicans reported that Obama, too, is showing signs of a willingness to bend since his initial proposal, which included $1.6tn in new revenue. A new White House offer delivered on Monday cut this to $1.4tn, according to GOP figures, though this is still way above the $800m they are ready to accept. Many members of Congress are hoping that a deal will be in place by Friday next week so they can head off for a long, uninterrupted Christmas and New Year break. But Obama and the Republican leadership would have to reach agreement by early next week to allow time for the legislation to be passed by both the Senate and the House by next Friday. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, said the timeframe was feasible but would be tight. "I think it's going to be extremely difficult to get it done before Christmas, but it could be done," he told reporters. Speaking before details of the Republican counter-offer emerged, Reid said: "We can do things very quickly, but this is not something we can do easily, at least as far as bill-drafting goes. But until we hear something from the Republicans there's nothing to draft." Shortly afterwards, the office of the Republican House Speaker, John Boehner, announced the counter-offer, though without disclosing the details. "We sent the White House a counter-offer that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more American jobs," a spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel, said. "We're still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the balanced approach he promised the American people." Obama and Boehner met at the White House on Sunday to work on a deal. The Republicans, having been strenuously opposed to any tax rises, appear to be ready to accept an increase in taxes for the wealthy proposed by Obama. But they are expressing unhappiness that Obama is not prepared to match this with deep cuts in federal spending, particularly on entitlement programmes. In a rare intervention from the House floor at the start of business on Tuesday, Boehner called on Obama to identify specific spending cuts. "Where are the president's spending cuts? The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff," Boehner said. He added: "Well, here's what we do know. We know that the president wants more 'stimulus' spending and an increase in the debt limit without any cuts or reforms. That's not fixing our problem. Frankly, it's making it worse. "And on top of that, the president wants to raise tax rates on many small business owners. Now, even if we did exactly what the president wants, we would see red ink for as far as the eye can see. That's not fixing our problem, either – it's making it worse and it's hurting our economy." If there is no deal in place by January 1, sharp tax rises and cuts in spending will automatically kick in. The White House spokesman Jay Carney expressed hope that a compromise will emerge. "There is a deal out there that is possible," he told the daily White House briefing.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Officials defend decision not to prosecute in money-laundering case despite HSBC's 'blatant failure' to implement controls US authorities defended their decision not to prosecute HSBC for accepting the tainted money of rogue states and drug lords on Tuesday, insisting that a $1.9bn fine for a litany of offences was preferable to the "collateral consequences" of taking the bank to court. Announcing the record fine at a press conference in New York, assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer said that despite HSBC"s "blatant failure" to implement anti-money laundering controls and its wilful flouting of US sanctions, the consequences of a criminal prosecution would have been dire. Had the US authorities decided to press criminal charges, HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking licence in the US, the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilised. HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, said it was "profoundly sorry" for what it called "past mistakes" that allowed terrorists and narcotics traffickers to move billions around the financial system and circumvent US banking laws. Breuer said Mexican drug traffickers deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars each day in HSBC accounts. The bank processed cash for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, regarded as the most powerful and deadly drug gang in the world, among others. At least $881m in drug trafficking money was laundered throughout HSBC accounts. In order to handle the "staggering amounts of cash", the bank even widened the windows at some branches to allow tellers to accept larger boxes of money. HSBC also helped rogue states including Libya, Sudan, Burma and Iran to work around US rules banning them from using US financial system in a scheme that went on for decades. Breuer was pressed on why the US authorities had agreed to a deferred prosecution deal for the bank. He dismissed accusations that prosecutors had not been hard enough and said that the Justice Department had looked at the "collateral consequences" to prosecuting the HSBC or taking away its US banking licence. Such a move could have cost thousands of jobs, he said. HSBC has already sacked all the senior staff involved in the scandal, and agreed to stringent monitoring – the first time a foreign bank has agreed to such oversight. "In this day and age we have to evaluate that innocent people will face very big consequences if you make a decision," said Breuer. "I don't think anyone is alleging that HSBC was the mastermind of the scheme," he said. Rather it was their "incredibly lax" monitoring that was to blame. "HSBC was a vital player," he said. "But they are not the Sinaloa cartel." Breuer added that a "sword of Damocles" was now hanging over HSBC and that any future transgressions would have dire consequences for the bank. "HSBC is being held accountable for stunning failures of oversight – and worse, that led the bank to permit narcotics traffickers and others to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through HSBC subsidiaries and to facilitate hundreds of millions more in transactions with sanctioned countries." In Mexico the bank "severely understaffed" its compliance department and failed to implement an anti-money laundering programme despite evidence of serious risks. A complex scheme known as the black market peso exchange (BMPE) was used to launder the cash. Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, said: "New York is the centre of international finance, and those who use our banks as a vehicle for international crime will not be tolerated." Stuart Gulliver, the chief executive of HSBC, once again apologised for the scandal. He said: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again." He insisted HSBC was "a fundamentally different organisation" now. It is the largest ever fine for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer in a report by the US Senate. The fine for HSBC came a day after Standard Chartered paid £415m to US regulators, and as banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS brace for a wave of fines in coming days for attempting to rig the Libor inter-bank lending rate following the £290m penalty levied on Barclays in June. As part of the deal, HSBC has undertaken a five-year agreement with the US department of justice under which it will install an independent monitor to assess reformed internal controls. The bank's top executives will defer part of their bonuses for the whole of the five-year period, while bonuses have been clawed back from a number of former and current executives, including those in the US directly involved at the time. John Coffee, a professor of law at Columbia Law School in New York, said
the fine was consistent with how US regulators have been treating bank infractions in recent years. "These days they rarely sue individuals in any meaningful way when the entity will settle. This is largely a function of resource constraints, but also risk aversion, and a willingness to take the course of least resistance," he said. Despite the size of the fine, HSBC's shares on the London stock exchange rose by 2.8p to 644p. Last month HSBC announced third-quarter pre-tax profits to $3.5bn (£2.2bn). Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Investec, said the fine was slightly lower than the $2bn he had been pencilling in to his forecasts. But he said: "HSBC's settlement with the US authorities will include a deferred prosecution agreement with the department of justice of five years' duration. Given HSBC's ongoing US business and other continuing conduct investigations, this sword of Damocles is not without teeth, albeit based on what we know, we are regarding the $1.921bn settlement as de facto 'final'."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's all quiet on the fiscal cliff front as both the Obama administration and Republicans tone down their rhetoric
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid to be moved rapidly into the most deprived areas, says Syrian National Coalition The leaders of Syria's western-backed opposition are to unveil plans on Wednesday to rapidly move hundreds of millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid into the most deprived areas of the country. The announcement, hailed as a watershed moment for the movement, will be made at the Friends of Syria summit in Marrakech attended by regional and western backers of the opposition. The event is intended to cement claims by the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) to be an alternative to the government of the embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. The US has signalled it will recognise the SNC as a "legitimate" representative of the Syrian people because it has moved to organise itself into a more inclusive and relevant body. Britain, France, Turkey and some Gulf states announced their endorsements last month. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had been expected to announce the US move on Wednesday', but she has fallen ill with a stomach virus and the deputy secretary of state, Bill Burns, will attend the event instead. Western legitimacy is seen by opposition leaders as an essential step to attract support among Syrians, many of whom, fatigued by 21 months of war, would prefer Assad to remain in power if it prevented a further descent into chaos. The opposition movement plans to move aid into Syria through local activists and newly formed civil administrations. It is expected to try to bypass the Free Syria Army (FSA) networks, but will accept help from the main rebel group in securing safe corridors. Only a trickle of aid has reached increasingly desperate communities inside Syria, where up to 2 million people are thought to have been internally displaced. The United Nations announced on Tuesday that the number of registered refugees outside the country had topped 500,000 and was continuing to rise daily. The crumbling of state authority is being felt in most parts of the country. The vacuum being created appears to have galvanised into action critics of the Assad regime who have so far remained largely on the sidelines. Moves against the regime have so far centred on sanctions against key figures and the Syrian economy, parts of which are steadily grinding to a halt. However, diplomatic moves have sharply intensified over the past week and prospects have risen of a military intervention, an unpopular option in Whitehall and the Pentagon. The increased interest in the Syrian crisis in Washington, London and Paris is in part due to fears that cornered Syrian officials may authorise the use of chemical weapons. The government in Damascus has strongly denied it would use its stockpiles of sarin and mustard gas, claiming "terror groups" may instead do so. The US officially prescribed a jihadist group fighting in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, as a terrorist organisation on Tuesday, alleging it is an alias for al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) that has claimed responsibility for about 600 attacks, including 40 suicide bombings. An official from Barack Obama's administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the transition to a post-Assad government was gathering speed and the US did not want extremists dictating the shape of the transition. He said the al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant rejected the mainstream Syrian opposition groups' vision of a tolerant society and free elections. "It is an extremist organisation that has to be isolated," the official said. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "Al-Nusra has sought to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition while it is, in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes. AQI emir Abu Du'a is in control of AQI and al-Nusra." Abu Shahid, a fighter with the Tawhid brigade, was among several FSA fighters who reacted angrily to the US decision. "Jabhat al-Nusra are not terrorists. They are working hard for us. They are fighting with us," he said. "Jabhat al-Nusra has been helping Syria. The Americans by contrast have done nothing. And now they say everyone with a beard is a terrorist." Shahid said his unit mostly conducted its own operations but had co-operated with jihadist fighters in the battle for Aleppo. "The boys from Jabhat al-Nusra are brave. They give food and supplies to the people," he said. Shahid expressed provisional backing for Syria's new opposition coalition: "We like the coalition for now. But when the regime is finished, we will see. If we don't like it, we will make a new government." Haji Abu Mohamed, a Syrian living near Aleppo, responded more positively to the US clampdown on Jabhat al-Nusra. "We want normal Islam, and a normal Islamic country. We need democracy. That's our target," he said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Political crisis deepens as judges refuse to oversee referendum on new constitution proposed by president An International Monetary Fund loan to Egypt has been delayed until next month, intensifying the political crisis gripping the country, it was announced on Tuesday. The announcement of the delay came as judges voted decisively against overseeing Saturday's referendum on a controversial new constitution. In a further sign of the seriousness of the country's political stalemate the defence minister in charge of Egypt's military, Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, called for a "national dialogue meeting" on Wednesday to try to find consensus between the Muslim Brotherhood and opposition groups. The delay in the $4.8bn (£3bn) loan, which was agreed last month, occurs amid mounting protests against the government, which has faced accusations that it is behaving in an authoritarian fashion by issuing decrees and attempting to push through a new constitution. As rival factions gathered in Cairo for more demonstrations, the finance minister, Mumtaz al-Said, said the delay in the loan agreement was intended to allow time to explain a heavily-criticised package of economic austerity measures to the Egyptian people. "Of course the delay will have some economic impact, but we are discussing necessary measures [to address that] during the coming period," the minister told Reuters, adding: "I am optimistic … everything will be well, God willing." Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, on Monday backed down on planned tax increases, which are seen as vital for the loan to go ahead, within hours of their being announced. Opposition groups, already angry over other measures taken by Morsi, had greeted the tax measures, which included duties on alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and a range of goods and services, with furious criticism. The main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front (NSF), is to decide on Wednesday whether to boycott the referendum or campaign for a no vote. The latest bout of unrest has so far claimed seven lives in clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and opponents who are also besieging the presidential palace. The elite Republican Guard, which protects the palace, has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the graffiti-daubed building, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades. The army has told all sides to resolve their differences through dialogue, saying it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel". For the period of the referendum, the army has been granted police powers by Morsi, allowing it to arrest civilians. However in the latest reversal for Morsi, the presidency was forced on Tuesday to clarify that anyone arrested by the army would face civil rather than military courts. The military has portrayed itself as the guarantor of the nation's security but so far it has shown no appetite for a return to the frontline political role it played after the fall of the country's former leader Hosni Mubarak, which severely damaged its standing. Morsi and his key allies in the Muslim Brotherhood have stumbled through a series of worsening crises since he was praised for his key role in mediating a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. In the immediate aftermath Morsi granted himself sweeping new powers that saw the biggest demonstration in Egypt since the revolution almost two years ago that ousted Mubarak. In continuing street violence, masked men attacked a sit-in in the early hours of Tuesday morning, firing birdshot at the protesters.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | He wrote his best music in the 1980s, and continues to inspire. Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard give five reasons why the purple one still reigns He's every DJ's best friendAlexis Taylor: "With Prince, it's not just the big hits that go down well in DJ sets. There's a track from the early 1980s called Cloreen Baconskin that's 15 minutes long, and is basically just a jam session with him playing bass and putting on a strange voice to bark orders at Morris Day on drums. I played it when I was DJing in Brussels, right in the middle of a more housey set, and it went down amazingly well, people kept coming up and asking me what it was because the voice is so raw and the drumming is so amazingly simple. I've played that track to a lot of people and they're always intrigued by it." He took pop to brave new places
Taylor: "Prince was a pop musician – he never went off and made an unlistenable avant-garde record. But he could still do disorientating things in the studio. He might speed up one backing vocal while slowing down another, and make it all fit together with a regular-speed lead vocal, all at the same time. I also love the sparseness of his productions. Whereas most funk records are full of bass, he was happy to strip it away. Kiss is extremely minimal – I think it only has eight tracks of music in it – and yet it's still this huge pop song." Joe Goddard: "Some of Prince's records feel closely tied to the 1980s, but sonically they still sound modern. That's because he was so adventurous with his ideas, lyrics, production and use of rhythms – the music escapes sounding dated. He was a big fan of the Eventide Harmonizer, an effects-processor used to add delays and reverb. Like Brian Eno, he used it to do a lot of quite brilliant things to vocals, drum tracks and so on. He was fearless and driven, creating music quickly, and without ever stopping to wonder whether his push for new sounds would alienate his audience." He's the ultimate rarities artistTaylor: "I've given a lot of money to bootleggers over the years. I used to buy tapes in Camden market and even now I'll trade with people when I come across someone who's got things I don't have. You can find a lot of stuff from his vault [Prince's vast collection of unreleased material, including albums, films and fully produced music videos] fairly easily, and that's what I've been listening to over the last five or so years – more than the original albums. There are hundreds of brilliant things there, as good if not better than the music that came out. Some stuff from the Parade era is great, such as Others Here With Us, a bizarre and frightening song. Movie Star, which came out on the Crystal Ball compilation, is another favourite – it's a witty send-up of a successful person in the mid-80s who does loads of drugs and attends all the premieres. I also love the original version of Irresistible Bitch, from about 1982, which is a very dark disco tune with growly, raspy vocals. I'd love him to officially release all the songs from his vault, but for whatever reasons, Prince is very protective of his own catalogue. He's one of the great showmenGoddard: "When it comes to playing live, Prince is just so confident in his ability. He teases the crowd with segues between popular songs, covers and extended versions, and is quite happy to play slow jams for half an hour if that's what he feels like. As a musician, I understand how hard that is to achieve. Seeing him feels like a link to the great showmen and band leaders of American music – James Brown always comes to mind." Taylor: "Perhaps the greatest gig I ever saw was Prince while he was playing the 21 nights at the O2. I managed to get a ticket to one of those aftershow club nights he was doing, where you never knew if he would turn up or not. It was just a real privilege to watch him in a venue that small, to be in the third row, seeing everything he was doing, and for him to play a completely different set from the two-hour one he'd just played in the main room. The next night he'd turn up and play a completely different set – obscure tracks and reworkings. He was clearly having so much fun, while at the same time being completely in control. He kept me thrilled right up until 3am or whenever it was he finally finished." He's a lifelong inspirationTaylor: "Hot Chip have always been inspired by Prince. It's mainly the actual groove – the way melodic and rhythmic patterns interlock together – that we take from him. But sometimes he's influenced me directly. The song Hittin' Skittles was about someone I knew, but also about the Prince song The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.
And of course we had a song called Down With Prince, which came out in 2004 and was about all the people referencing Prince at that time. I didn't like it because musically they were just copying him in such an exact way that it seemed to miss the point. Prince never copied anyone, he was always so original. That song had a very serious sentiment, but it was also quite light-hearted, too. I mean, you can't really be angry with other people for liking Prince!" .
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Richard Branson insists deal does not sound death knell for Virgin Atlantic brand – despite Willie Walsh's speculation America's Delta Air Lines has bought a 49% stake in Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic carrier and struck a collaboration alliance which will see the two group's work together in competition with British Airways, the market leader in transatlantic aviation. Delta will pay $360m (£224m) to Singapore Airlines, ending the Asian groups disappointing 12-year investment in Virgin. Singapore Airlines had acquired the near-half share from Branson in 2000 for £600m. Virgin's new partnership arrangements with Delta, which will require clearance from competition authorities, have been presented as a direct response to the controversial alliance between American Airlines and BA which handed the two airlines 60% of the transatlantic market four years ago. Sir Richard Branson has insisted the much-anticipated deal with Delta does not sound a death knell for the Virgin Atlantic brand – despite speculation to the contrary from Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA parent IAG, in recent days. Publicity around the tie-up between Delta and Virgin came close to descending into farce as Branson and Walsh taunted each other over the likely consequences for the airline established by the Virgin entrepreneur 28 years ago. After Walsh disparagingly suggested that Delta would not tolerate Branson's brand for long, suggesting the US airline was really largely focused on securing Virgin's Heathrow slots. Branson hit back, provocatively proposing a £1m bet that the Virgin brand would remain in existence for at least five years. Later, Branson claimed on his blog that the goading exchanges had got even more puerile. "Glad to see Willie Walsh's rather childish response to my bet proposal," he posted. "Rather than the losing company giving the winner's staff £1m, he wants the loser to receive a knee in the groin." On more serious matters, Branson said: "For almost three decades Virgin Atlantic has been punching above its weight. We fought hard to stop BA and American Airlines getting together but they created a complete giant across the Atlantic. Now we are partnering with Delta we can give them a real run for their money which is, I suspect, why BA's chief executive has behaved the way he has over the last couple of days." While the two businesses will co-operate closely in many areas, generating significant – but undisclosed – savings, the Delta and Virgin liveries will remain distinct, leading to some suggestions the deal could lead to consumer confusion. Customers at New York's John F Kennedy airport will be able to use either the Delta or the Virgin lounge which are alongside one another, while in years to come Delta's operations at Heathrow are expected to move alongside those of Virgin's at terminal three. The collaborative operation will bring together Virgin's six round-trip flights a day from Heathrow to JFK with a further three operated by Delta. While both sides acknowledged deal negotiations had been hard fought, Delta's chief executive, Richard Anderson, sought to smooth over suggestions of any remaining tensions or cultural clashes with Branson's airline. "To be associated with a great business leader and a great business brand like this is truly humbling for us at Delta," he insisted, adding that Delta and Virgin cultures would "mesh well together". Branson earlier this week insisted he would remain in control of Virgin, and on Tuesday reiterated the point. "Ignore the press speculation – I'm not going anywhere," he said. Both Delta and Virgin were emphatic in their insistence that the collaboration would improve rather than damage consumer choice. Virgin's chief executive Steve Ridgway said the alliance "will be combatting their [BA's] dominance of 60% of the North Atlantic [flight market]". Branson said the deal was necessary to create a partnership that would "give the rest of the industry a true run for their money". The Virgin founder said he had asked Anderson if there was any truth to Walsh's claims that Delta intended to kill off the Virgin brand. "He replied: 'No! This makes my blood boil. The whole purpose is to join our brands together.'"
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Manning lawyer says in closing arguments that military's refusal to listen to experts amounted to unlawful pre-trial treatment The defence lawyer for the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning has accused the US military of intentionally keeping the soldier on extreme suicide-prevention restrictions while at Quantico marine brig, even though they knew that he was not a risk of self-harm. Giving his closing arguments to the the judge at Fort Meade in Maryland, David Coombs said that from the very highest military levels down, there had been a resistance to listening to medical advice and a determination to subject Manning to sustained restrictions. The defence is claiming that amounted to unlawful pre-trial punishment, and are calling for all charges against the soldier to be dismissed as a result. Coombs rejected arguments given by prosecution witnesses that the enduring silence that Manning had maintained for much of his nine months in Quantico that this was a sign of his potential suicidal state of mind. "It's clear Manning does the only sane thing, and that's to stop communicating with these people, because when he says anything it's used against him," Coombs said, according to a courtroom report by Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake. Prosecution lawyers for the US government will give their closing arguments on Tuesday afternoon at the end of an epic court battle that has seen the internal workings of the Marine decision-making machine laid bare. The hearing has lasted far longer than intended – amid intense testimony about Manning's handling while detained at the Quantico base in Virginia between July 2010 and April 2011. His defence motion calls for all 22 charges against him to be dismissed on grounds that he was subjected to unlawful pre-trial punishment. Manning has been accused of "aiding the enemy" – in effect al-Qaida – by passing hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He faces possible life in military custody with no chance of parole. The US government has been attempting to justify the treatment that was meted out to Manning in Quantico. Throughout the nine months he spent in the brig there, he was held in maximum security status and subjected to harsh restrictions under a "suicide watch" or "prevention of injury" regime designed to protect the soldier against himself. In his closing words, Coombs said the most astonishing thing about Manning's time in the Quantico brig was not his suicidal tendencies, but quite the opposite: the fact that he remained sane and did not completely lose his mental composure despite the severe conditions in which he was held. To be kept on suicide-prevention restrictions for nine months, as Manning was, is virtually unheard of in military jails. Over 10 days of proceedings, a clear picture emerged of how Manning was trapped in a Kafkaesque paradox in which whatever he did – or didn't do – was taken as proof of his suicidal tendencies. Psychiatrists reported virtually every week that he was in good mental health and no risk to himself, yet every week they were overruled by military officers at the brig. A three-member panel of officers considered Manning's regime every month in a so-called classification and assignment board. The court learned that the form used to make the assessment of his mental condition was filled out in advance of the meetings, making a mockery of the safeguards that they were supposed to uphold. The court also heard from chief warrant officer Denise Barnes, who was commander of the Quantico brig during part of Manning's captivity there. In her testimony, she blamed the exceptionally long period in which the soldier was held on extreme suicide-prevention restrictions on Manning's own reticence – if he had come forward and explained to her that he was not intending to harm himself instead of remaining silent she would have listened. Yet the court also learned that when Manning did speak out about his conditions, that too was taken as evidence of suicidal risk. When he protested about the absurdity of his situation, observing that if he wanted to commit suicide he could do it using the elastic from his underpants, Barnes took him literally and ordered that he strip naked every night as a precautionary measure. "There was never an intent to punish Manning," Barnes testified. The intelligence analyst's experiences at Quantico provoked an international outcry and prompted the UN rapporteur on torture to denounce it as a form of torture. After the UN began raising the alarm the head of marines' corrections, chief warrant officer Abel Galaviz, was sent to the brig to investigate. He told the court that he had concluded that military corrections policy had been broken on numerous occasions in regard to the inmate. Manning had been kept on suicide watch – the most extreme form of restrictions – longer than he should have been. "I felt that although he was removed [from suicide watch], it could have been done in a more timely manner than it was," Galaviz said. Manning's underpants should not have been removed in the circumstances in which they were, Galaviz also testified.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After two weeks of revelatory testimony, prosecution concedes some treatment soldier faced at Quantico was overly rigorous The epic courtroom battle between the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning and the US government over his alleged pre-trial punishment has drawn to a close, with the soldier's lawyer accusing the military of treating him like a zoo animal and the prosecution countering that in its view he was entitled to have just seven days removed from any eventual sentence. The two-week hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, lasted far longer than intended and turned into a dramatic spectacle in which Manning effectively turned his court-martial on its head and put the US military on trial. In his closing argument, the soldier's main civilian lawyer, David Coombs, said that the most amazing element of his nine-month solitary confinement under suicide-prevention restrictions at the marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, was that his spirit had remained unbroken. "Being watched or viewed almost as a zoo animal for that period of time has to weigh on somebody's psyche," Coombs told the court. Over 10 days of intense legal proceedings, lasting for up to eight hours every day, a clear picture emerged within the courtroom of how Manning, 24, had been trapped in a Kafkaesque paradox. Whatever he did – or didn't do – was taken by his military captors as proof of his suicidal tendencies. The court heard from psychiatrists who had reported virtually every week that Manning was in good mental health and no risk to himself. Yet every week they were overruled by military officers at the brig. Manning was made to strip naked at night and to stand to attention in the nude in front of his military superiors at morning call. For weeks he was held in his 8x6 ft cell for 23 hours and 40 minutes every day. In his summing up, Coombs suggested that the military had been more concerned to protect itself from media criticism than it was about following its own guidelines and treating Manning properly. "They were more concerned with how it would look if something happened to Pfc Manning than they were about whether Pfc Manning was actually at risk. Their approach was: 'Let's not have anything happen on our watch. Let's not let anything happen that's going to make us look bad.'" Coombs added that correct military procedures had suffered a "complete breakdown … All logic by anyone who could affect change for Pfc Manning was checked at the door." Manning has been charged with "aiding the enemy" – in effect al-Qaida – by passing hundreds of thousands of confidential US documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He has effectively admitted passing government information to the site but has not accepted that by doing so he acted as a traitor. In its closing argument, the US government made some concession to the defence claim that he was subjected to overly rigorous suicide-prevention controls. It conceded that the inmate should have been taken off suicide watch – the most stringent regime possible – more swiftly, in line with the advice from brig psychiatrists. But the prosecutors only accepted that Manning had been subjected to seven days of unwarranted suicide watch, and called the judge to award a 1:1 reduction in the soldier's eventual sentence. That would mean that Manning would be entitled to just seven days of credit in recognition of what he went through in Quantico, a reduction that would come off a maximum possible sentence of life in custody with no chance of parole. The offer outraged Manning supporters. Nathan Fuller of the Bradley Manning support network, tweeted: "So the U.S. government argues that Bradley Manning should be sentenced to the rest of his life in prison...minus seven days." Manning supporters were also outraged by a comment made in closing argument by Major Ashden Fein, the chief government prosecutor. "When brig officials saw someone who was not like others, they tried to figure it out to the best of their abilities on a daily basis." In earlier testimony the court, the judge has heard that at the time he transferred government information to WikiLeaks Manning was struggling with deep emotional conflicts including his desire to have gender re-alignment. The burden of proof lies with the US government to show that the maximum security status and suicide-prevention measures it imposed throughout the nine months in Quantico were justified. The unprecedented length of time Manning spent in solitary confinement supposedly because he was a risk to himself prompted the UN rapporteur on torture to denounce it as a form of torture. The judge presiding over Manning's court-martial, Colonel Denise Lind, now has a mountain of transcripts and admitted evidence to wade through before she can issue her ruling on the defence motion. The earliest she is likely to do so would be in the next pre-trial hearing scheduled for 8 January.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican governor to sign two laws expected to weaken workers' rights over loud objections of state's labour supporters Some 10,000 protesters marched on the Michigan state capitol on Tuesday, in a show of force by unions fighting the spread of controversial right-to-work legislation in a growing number of US states. Protesters defied freezing temperatures to demonstrate against union-limiting legislation passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in Lansing. Union members had begun massing outside the capitol building before dawn, with the numbers swelling into the thousands as buses delivered opponents of the measures from across the state. Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to lower wages and fewer protections for workers. Supporters say the package of bills will help create jobs. The latest bill, passed on Tuesday by the Republican-controlled state House of Representative, deals with public-sector workers. Another bill focusing on the private sector was approved last week. The Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, is expected to sign them into law by Wednesday. Hundreds of protesters were in the capitol building as the latest vote was taken. Union members, many wearing red T-shirts, ringed the circular balconies that span four floors inside the elaborate dome of the state capitol. The deafening noise could be heard throughout the building as protesters stamped their feet and clapped their hands. "Right to work – shut it down," protesters chanted, as police officers, some armed with what appeared to be paintball guns, looked on. The capitol was closed briefly at around 10am due to overcrowding, said inspector Gene Adamczyk from the Michigan state police. He said some protesters had since left and officers were allowing people in on a one-in-one-out basis. "We have over 10,000 between inside the building and outside the building right now," Adamcyzk said. As of 10.30am there had been no arrests or injuries, he added. Outside the capitol building, thousands of union members fanned out across a frozen lawn. A street leading towards the east of the city was thick with flags and signs as protesters bellowed a mixture of union chants and anti right-to-work slogans. "I know what happened in other right-to-work states," said Jean Karr, who was stood with her shoulders hunched to try and keep out the cold. "Michigan's always been a union state and it's always been one of the top states." Karr, a retired nurse who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said the impact of the right-to-work legislation could be severe. "The unions are going down which means the Democrats will go down because that is a big supporter of the Democrats. When you lose the Democrats you lose all social programmes, you lose everything." Gary Chesnutt, a 59-year-old United Auto Workers member, had come to the rally dressed as Santa. The one giveaway was the blue hat – worn to demonstrate support for the Democrats, Chesnutt explained. "Unfortunately our state capitol is full of the GOP, which are wrong for workers," Chesnutt said. He had travelled from Hillman, in north Michigan, to protest the "right-to-work-for-less bill", Chesnutt said. "It'll destroy our economy over the long term. It's a blatant out-and-out attempt to break the unions, and I don't like freeloaders. There'll be freeloaders in the workplace getting all the benefits of wages and time off and grievance procedure, for free, that I'll have to pay for in my union. It's plain wrong. "People have got a right not to go get employed in a job that has a union. They can go anywhere else, there's lots of places that don't have unions." Michigan has the fifth-highest percentage of union workers in the US, with 17.5% of workers in union jobs. Michigan will become the 24th state to introduce "right to work" legislation when Snyder signs the package of bills into law. Unions argue that wages in right-to-work states are lower than those which do not have the legislation. In February last year a study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states are on average 3.2% lower than states without such legislation. Opponents of the law in Michigan also say that the bills had been rushed through the legislature, something Republicans deny. Democrats said Republicans had wanted to act to pass the law before a new state senate takes office next month – when the Republicans will be weakened, as the party lost five house seats in the November elections. In one signal of the hostility between opposing sides, supporters of the right-to-work legislation booked the steps of the state capitol building and pitched two huge tents on the capitol lawn. As the grass filled with thousands of union demonstrators the two largely empty tents became a subject of ridicule among some members of the crowd. Annie Patnaude, from Americans for Prosperity, the conservative organisation which had pitched the slightly busier of the two tents – there were around 20 people inside the cavernous space at around 10am – said more supporters of the legislation had wanted to come to the capitol but were intimidated by the union presence. "On Thursday there were a lot of threats, intimidation and violence. One of our activists even got punched in the face," Patnaude said. Of the right-to-work law Patnaude said "the basic issue is freedom". "No one should be forced to join and pay dues to a union in order to keep their job. That's the basic issue." By 12.30pm both tents where on the ground, reportedly yanked down by protesters. The Americans for Prosperity tent had been trodden into the ground, dirty bootprints all over the white canvas. A group of men wearing hard hats were posing for photos in the middle of the wreckage.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican governor to sign two laws expected to weaken workers' rights over loud objections of state's labour supporters About 10,000 protesters marched on the Michigan state capitol on Tuesday, in a show of force by unions fighting the spread of controversial right-to-work legislation in a growing number of US states. Protesters defied freezing temperatures to demonstrate against union-limiting legislation passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in Lansing. Union members had begun massing outside the capitol building before dawn, with the numbers swelling into the thousands as buses delivered opponents of the measures from across the state. Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to lower wages and fewer protections for workers. Supporters say the package of bills will help create jobs. The latest bill, passed on Tuesday by the Republican-controlled state House of Representative, deals with public-sector workers. Another bill focusing on the private sector was approved last week. The Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, is expected to sign them into law by Wednesday. Hundreds of protesters were in the capitol building as the latest vote was taken. Union members, many wearing red T-shirts, ringed the circular balconies that span four floors inside the elaborate dome of the state capitol. The deafening noise could be heard throughout the building as protesters stamped their feet and clapped their hands. "Right to work – shut it down," protesters chanted, as police officers, some armed with what appeared to be paintball guns, looked on. The capitol was closed briefly at around 10am due to overcrowding, said inspector Gene Adamczyk from the Michigan state police. He said some protesters had since left and officers were allowing people in on a one-in-one-out basis. "We have over 10,000 between inside the building and outside the building right now," Adamcyzk said. As of 10.30am there had been no arrests or injuries, he added. Outside the capitol building, thousands of union members fanned out across a frozen lawn. A street leading towards the east of the city was thick with flags and signs as protesters bellowed a mixture of union chants and anti right-to-work slogans. "I know what happened in other right-to-work states," said Jean Karr, who was stood with her shoulders hunched to try and keep out the cold. "Michigan's always been a union state and it's always been one of the top states." Karr, a retired nurse who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said the impact of the right-to-work legislation could be severe. "The unions are going down which means the Democrats will go down because that is a big supporter of the Democrats. When you lose the Democrats you lose all social programmes, you lose everything." Gary Chesnutt, a 59-year-old United Auto Workers member, had come to the rally dressed as Santa. The one giveaway was the blue hat – worn to demonstrate support for the Democrats, Chesnutt explained. "Unfortunately our state capitol is full of the GOP, which are wrong for workers," Chesnutt said. He had travelled from Hillman, in north Michigan, to protest the "right-to-work-for-less bill", Chesnutt said. "It'll destroy our economy over the long term. It's a blatant out-and-out attempt to break the unions, and I don't like freeloaders. There'll be freeloaders in the workplace getting all the benefits of wages and time off and grievance procedure, for free, that I'll have to pay for in my union. It's plain wrong. "People have got a right not to go get employed in a job that has a union. They can go anywhere else, there's lots of places that don't have unions." Michigan has the fifth-highest percentage of union workers in the US, with 17.5% of workers in union jobs. Michigan will become the 24th state to introduce "right to work" legislation when Snyder signs the package of bills into law. Unions argue that wages in right-to-work states are lower than those which do not have the legislation. In February last year a study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states are on average 3.2% lower than states without such legislation. Opponents of the law in Michigan also say that the bills had been rushed through the legislature, something Republicans deny. Democrats said Republicans had wanted to act to pass the law before a new state senate takes office next month – when the Republicans will be weakened, as the party lost five house seats in the November elections. In one signal of the hostility between opposing sides, supporters of the right-to-work legislation booked the steps of the state capitol building and pitched two huge tents on the capitol lawn. As the grass filled with thousands of union demonstrators the two largely empty tents became a subject of ridicule among some members of the crowd. Annie Patnaude, from Americans for Prosperity, the conservative organisation which had pitched the slightly busier of the two tents – there were around 20 people inside the cavernous space at around 10am – said more supporters of the legislation had wanted to come to the capitol but were intimidated by the union presence. "On Thursday there were a lot of threats, intimidation and violence. One of our activists even got punched in the face," Patnaude said. Of the right-to-work law Patnaude said "the basic issue is freedom". "No one should be forced to join and pay dues to a union in order to keep their job. That's the basic issue." By 12.30pm both tents where on the ground, reportedly yanked down by protesters. The Americans for Prosperity tent had been trodden into the ground, dirty bootprints all over the white canvas. A group of men wearing hard hats were posing for photos in the middle of the wreckage.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama administration imposes sanctions on Syrian resistance group and says al-Qaida has been supplying cash and weapons The Obama administration has declared one of the Syrian resistance groups an al-Qaida front, as part of a gradual move by the US towards recognition of more moderate elements of the opposition. The State Department said the al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant, which is taking part in the fight on the ground against president Bashar al-Assad, is an alias for al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and designated it as a "foreign terrorist organisation". The Obama administration said that AQI has been supplying money, weapons and manpower to the al-Nusra Front. Sanctions imposed as a result of the declaration against the al-Nusra Front will have almost no practical impact, other than to make travel for senior members of the group more difficult. The move is primarily diplomatic, aimed at isolating the group from what the Obama administration views as the more tolerant parts of the Syrian resistance. The move comes the day before an international conference in Morocco at which the US is expected to take further steps towards the eventual recognition of the Syrian opposition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people, as other countries have done. The Obama administration has faced criticism from Republicans and from foreign affairs specialists in Washington that it risks helping extremist groups inside the resistance that are hostile to the US. An Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the transition to a post-Assad government in Syria is gathering speed, and the US did not want extremists dictating the shape of the transition. He said the al-Nusra Front rejected the vision of the mainstream Syrian opposition groups of a tolerant society and free elections. "It is an extremist organisation that has to be isolated," the official said in a telephone conference call with reporters. He said the aim was to expose the role of a-Nusra amid concern that its influence was expanding. The official hoped that countries in the region supporting the fighters would take note. In a statement issued Tuesday morning, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "Since November 2011, the al-Nusra Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations – in major city centres including Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Dara'a, Homs, Idlib, and Deir al-Zor. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed. "Through these attacks, al-Nusra has sought to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition while it is, in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes. AQI emir Abu Dua is in control of both AQI and al-Nusra." Additional sanctions were also imposed against senior figures and groups inside the Assad government accused of being involved in repression.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bank guilty of 'blatant failure' to implement money-laundering controls and wilfully flouted sanctions, US prosecutors say HSBC was guilty of a "blatant failure" to implement anti-money laundering controls and wilfully flouted US sanctions, American prosecutors said, as the bank was forced to pay a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to settle allegations it allowed terrorists to move money around the financial system. Hours after the bank's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was "profoundly sorry" for the failures, assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer told a press conference in New York that Mexican drug traffickers deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars each day in HSBC accounts. At least $881m in drug trafficking money was laundered throughout the bank's accounts. "HSBC is being held accountable for stunning failures of oversight – and worse," said Breuer, "that led the bank to permit narcotics traffickers and others to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through HSBC subsidiaries and to facilitate hundreds of millions more in transactions with sanctioned countries." In Mexico the bank "severely understaffed" its compliance department and failed to implement an anti-money laundering programme despite evidence of serious risks. A complex scheme known as the black market peso exchange (BMPE) was used to launder the cash. Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said: "New York is the centre of international finance and those who use our banks as a vehicle for international crime will not be tolerated." In the latest embarrassment for Britain's banks, Gulliver said: "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," he said, insisting Britain's biggest bank was "a fundamentally different organisation" now. It is the largest ever fine for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer in a report by the US Senate. The fine for HSBC comes barely 24 hours after Standard Chartered paid £415m to US regulators, and as banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS brace for a wave of fines in coming days for attempting to rig Libor following the £290m penalty slapped on Barclays in June. Gulliver was promoted to chief executive two years ago during a management reshuffle caused by the decision by Lord Green, the chairman, to quit to join the government as a trade minister. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which Green represents, said: "The report by the US Senate sub-committee sets out in detail the evidence submitted to it and the action taken by HSBC to ensure compliance with US regulations at the time that Lord Green was group chairman. At the time of the report's publication HSBC expressed its regret that there were failures of implementation and Lord Green has said that he shares that regret." David Bagley, the bank's head of compliance, dramatically quit before the US Senate committee hearing into the case in July and, on Monday, HSBC named a former US official, Bob Werner, as head of group financial crime compliance, a newly created role, as the bank prepared for the fine related to drug allegations. The penalty includes a five-year agreement with the US department of justice under which the bank will install an independent monitor to assess reformed internal controls. The bank's top executives will defer part of their bonuses for the whole of the five-year period, while bonuses have been clawed back from a number of former and current executives, including those in the US directly involved at the time. HSBC has managed to avoid being criminally prosecuted – a move that could have stopped the bank operating in the US. HSBC's share price rose by 2.8p to 644p despite the size of the fine. Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Investec, said the fine was slightly lower than the $2bn he had been pencilling in to his forecasts. But he said: "HSBC's settlement with the US authorities will include a deferred prosecution agreement with the department of justice of five years' duration. Given HSBC's ongoing US business and other continuing conduct investigations, this sword of Damocles is not without teeth, albeit based on what we know, we are regarding the $1.921bn settlement as de facto 'final'." Gulliver stressed that the bank had co-operated with the US authorities. "Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters," he said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world," he added. The US Senate said the bank had operated a "pervasively polluted" culture that lasted for years, allowing HSBC to move billions around the financial system for Mexican drug lords, terrorists and governments on sanctions lists. HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the US operations, for instance, which the Senate was told was tied to drug money. HSBC said it also expected to finalise an "undertaking" with the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority, "shortly". The bank has spent $290m on improving its systems to try to avoid a re-run of the events.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It's all quiet on the fiscal cliff front as both the Obama administration and Republicans tone down their rhetoric
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New investigation puts deaths at nearly 100 since 1900 – many young, black males sent to the institution for minor infractions The scale of abuse at a notorious youth residential school in Florida has been laid bare with the release of a report by investigators who say they have evidence of almost 100 deaths at the institution. Investigators say they believe more graves are yet to be uncovered at the Arthur G Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, which closed a year ago following revelations of the widespread physical and sexual abuse of youths sent there since early last century. It means the enormity of the outrage, in which survivors have told gruesome stories of regular beatings, rapes and even murders by staff members, is much greater than reported by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2010, when the agency announced the presence of 31 grave sites. "We found nearly twice as many burials as were thought to exist, but many of them had been lost in the woods under brush and trees," said professor Erin Kimmerle, head of a team of anthropologists and archaeologists from Tampa's University of South Florida called on to look into deaths at the reform school from 1900 to 1960. "The cause and manner of death for the majority of cases are unknown. Where causes could be documented, the most common were infectious disease, fires, physical trauma and drowning." Many of the victims were young black males sent to the harsh reform school for often minor infractions such as truancy or "incorrigibility". Kimmerle's team also studied what little historical documentation and burial records survived and found that deaths commonly followed escape attempts or occurred within three months of a new "inmate" arriving there. "No understanding of the Florida State Reform School over the course of its history can be understood without consideration of the impact and implications of segregation, particularly those relating to criminal justice," she said.
"The majority of boys committed to the school and that died there were African American." According to their report, the team found records showing 45 individuals buried on school grounds between 1914 and 1952, with 31 bodies sent elsewhere for burial. There were 22 more cases in which no burial site was listed. Of the 98 deaths they confirmed, two were adult staff members and the rest children aged from six to 18. Despite the growing scale of the scandal, and graphic recent accounts of life at the school from those who once attended, no charges are expected. Teachers who worked there are mostly long dead, and the FDLE announced two years ago that it was unable to substantiate claims that deaths were caused by school staff or that any staff members abused boys. The university's report, however, will now be submitted to state authorities for review and possible further investigation. The team will continue to work at the site, having won permission from Department of Environmental Protection to investigate the historic land. "Even at the time that recorded deaths occurred, dating back to 1914, multiple investigations and reports summarised different accounts of who died and the surrounding circumstances," the report concluded. "Many family members and witnesses believe children died under suspicious or questionable circumstances. Therefore uncertainty, speculation and folklore regarding these deaths are prevalent today. "Given the lack of existing documentation and the incomplete recording of information, many questions persist about who is buried at the school and the circumstances surrounding their deaths." Survivors call themselves the "White House Boys" after a small white building in the 1,400-acre site where children as young as five were chained to walls or tied to a bed and beaten. "There's just too many stories," one survivor, Roger Kiser, said in an interview with NPR earlier this year. "I know of one that I personally saw die in the bathtub that had been beaten half to death. I thought he'd been mauled by the dogs because I thought he had ran. I never did find out the true story on that. "There was the boy I saw who was dead who came out of the dryer. They put him in one of those large dryers." Jerry Cooper, 67, told NPR that some of his classmates in the 1950s and 60s had committed no crimes. "A lot of orphans were there that did not have places at times, and they were sent to Marianna," he said. "We had many, many boys who was there for smoking in school, that were incorrigible. We weren't bad kids. We might have needed help in some respect. But that wasn't the place to find it." Dozens more who went to school have come forward with similar tales of murder, torture and brutality but no criminal case has ever been made, and a Leon County judge dismissed a civil class-action lawsuit against the state on behalf of the victims in 2010 because the statute of limitations had expired.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow how the day unfolded as rival protesters gathered in Cairo
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Letter signed by 15 organisations calls on US to impose sanctions on Rwanda over human rights abuses in DR Congo Leading campaign groups and thinktanks have written to Barack Obama accusing him of a failed policy over Rwanda's support for rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and calling on the president to impose sanctions. The letter – signed by 15 organisations including George Soros's Open Society Foundations, Global Witness, Freedom House and the Africa Faith and Justice Network – follows the seizure last month of the eastern Congolese town of Goma by a rebel group, M23. A recent report by a United Nations Group of Experts describes M23 as commanded by General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and under the ultimate control of the Rwandan defence minister, General James Kabarebe. In the letter, the groups said that US efforts at "quiet diplomacy to address Rwandan involvement in eastern Congo have failed to deter Rwanda's continued incursions and use of proxy armed groups" responsible for egregious human rights abuses in 15 years of conflict. "As the situation once again dramatically deteriorates in eastern Congo, the US response to the crisis has patently failed and is out of step with other western nations," they wrote. "Since the M23 was created in the spring of 2012, US officials continued to place faith in engaging Rwanda in a constructive dialogue. This approach has clearly failed to change Rwanda's policy, as evidenced by the direct involvement of the Rwandan army in the recent takeover of Goma, as documented by the United Nations Group of Experts." The criticism is likely to again focus attention on Susan Rice, the embattled US ambassador to the UN and frontrunner to be the next secretary of state. She has been at the forefront of American efforts to shield the Rwandan government from criticism over its involvement in Congo. The UN group's report says: "Rwandan officials co-ordinated the creation of the rebel movement as well as its major military operations", as well as providing troops and arming the group. It recommends imposing sanctions against Rwandan officials responsible, including Kabarebe. Kabarebe told the Rwandan parliament on Monday that the country's military played no role in the creation of M23 and accused the UN group of inventions. "The fabrication of data by the Group of Experts was done so poorly that we already knew what they were planning the next day," he said. European countries have cut or suspended aid to Rwanda following the UN report. Eleven days ago, Britain announced it would stop £21m in aid after describing UN evidence of Rwandan complicity in the Congo conflict as "credible and compelling". The UK has been among Rwandan president Paul Kagame's closest allies and its decision to distance itself from him was a significant diplomatic blow. The letter to Obama urges the president to join EU nations in cutting aid and to follow a recommendation by the UN Group of Experts to impose sanctions against Rwandan officials involved with the rebels. "As a responsible supporter of the UN sanctions regime, the United States should push to impose sanctions on all individuals identified in the UN Group of Experts final report, including senior Rwandan government officials, and those individuals and entities supporting criminal networks through the trade in natural resources," it said. "The United States should cut all military assistance and suspend other non-humanitarian aid to the Rwandan government, while publicly condemning Rwanda's support for the M23." The US has already frozen some military aid to Rwanda over its support for M23. The agencies also call on Obama to appoint a presidential envoy to focus on the crisis. "Your envoy would leverage America's economic, political, and military influence to ensure that all parties fully co-operate with an international political process, and also work closely with the proposed UN envoy," the letter said. Separately, Human Rights Watch has called on the US to pressure Kagame to end Rwanda's intervention in Congo. Last month it said the Obama administration should "publicly support sanctions against Rwandan officials backing the armed group M23". "The US government's silence on Rwandan military support to the M23 rebels can no longer be justified given the overwhelming evidence of Rwanda's role and the imminent threat to civilians around Goma," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. "The US government should support urgent sanctions against Rwandan officials who are backing M23 fighters responsible for serious abuses." US policy toward Rwanda has been heavily influenced by guilt over Washington's failure to intervene against the 1994 genocide of the country's Tutsis. But the leeway given to Kagame comes out of understanding of the difficult political balancing act he faces as well as for the progress he has made in rebuilding Rwanda. Some of the criticism of US policy has focused on Rice, who is regarded as a leading apologist for Kagame. She served on Bill Clinton's national security council at the time of the genocide and played a part in the failure to intervene. Rice pledged to do all in her power to prevent a similar slaughter in the future after travelling to Rwanda six months after the genocide and visiting one of the massacre sites. "The memory of stepping around and over those corpses will remain the most searing reminder imaginable of what our work here must aim to prevent," she said in 2009 in a speech to mark the UN's Genocide Remembrance Day. But that has translated into largely unwavering support for Kagame. Foreign Policy magazine reported that during recent debates over M23, Rice pushed back in UN meetings on attempts by Britain and France to bring sanctions to bear against Rwanda. "It's eastern Congo. If it were not the M23 killing people it would be some other armed groups," the magazine reported Rice as saying. Foreign diplomats have accused Rice of attempting to block publication of evidence gathered by a UN Group of Experts and of watering down a recent UN security council resolution naming Rwanda as supporting the insurgent group. Those moves have ruffled feathers among a few senior US diplomats at the State Department who see Rice as having too much personal involvement in the cause, at the expense of older hands. "I have heard some kick back from some career senior officials in State because she played a key role in causing that information [in the UN report] to be delayed," said Mark Lagon, a former assistant secretary of state who is now a human-rights specialist at Georgetown University and a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Department of Justice to look into claims that Arkansas police used excessive force in death of unarmed Eugene Ellison, 67
• Fresh testimony casts doubt on original police account Federal prosecutors in Washington have launched a criminal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of an unarmed 67-year-old man by an off-duty police officer in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to a letter seen by the Guardian. The Department of Justice's civil rights division is also looking into accusations that the Little Rock police department has exhibited a "pattern of misconduct" in relation to use of force. Eugene Ellison, an African American war veteran, was killed by Donna Lesher two years ago, on 9 December 2010. While working off duty as a security guard in the apartment complex where Ellison lived, Lesher entered his home uninvited with another officer after spotting his door was open, refused to leave when asked and, following a physical altercation, shot him dead. Lesher and her partner, Tabitha McCrillis, were cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal inquiry. But it has since emerged that Lesher's husband was a supervisor in the LRPD homicide department, which carried out that investigation. Last week the Guardian revealed new testimony from Vincent Lucio, another officer present at the shooting, who said Ellison had not presented a deadly threat, that Lesher and the other officers were all outside when she opened fire into the house, and that she had failed to issue any warning. Ellison's two sons, both LRPD veterans themselves, have launched a lawsuit against the department and had appealed to Eric Holder, the US attorney general, to carry out a civil rights investigation of the shooting. Troy Ellison, currently an LRPD detective, welcomed the federal investigation as uplifting news and said it brought the family a real "sense of relief". "Getting someone to finally take a look at this objectively is all we've ever asked for," he said. His brother Spencer, a former detective, said: "Our family is elated that the DOJ is willing to take a deeper look at this case." Their lawsuit accuses Lesher and the LRPD of using excessive force, of an illegal warrantless entry and a of cover-up in the case. The family also allege that the physical evidence does not corroborate the officers' version of events. Neither Lesher nor McCrillis have been subject to any disciplinary action. In a letter dated 4 December, assistant attorney general Thomas Perez informed the family's lawyer, Michael Laux of Balkin and Eisbrouch, that a "criminal civil rights investigation" was under way. He invited Laux to send any relevant information in the case to his department and said: "You can be assured that if the evidence developed in the course of our investigation shows that there is a prosecutable violation of any federal criminal civil rights statutes, appropriate action will be taken." In their letter to Holder in October, the Ellison family also alleged a "troubling pattern of police misconduct" at the LRPD. They claimed that internal investigation into such misconduct are intended to "exonerate police officers who have committed excessive force, illegal warrantless entries, and other unlawful acts in the course of their duties". In his reply, Perez said that the request for a "pattern and practice investigation into the Little Rock police department" has been forwarded to the special litigation section, which has the authority to investigate such complaints. He said that when a systematic pattern or practice is determined to exist, the division has the authority to initiate a civil action over the misconduct. A spokeswoman for the LRPD said: "The Little Rock police department does not have a comment in cases that are in litigation."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three men arrested as part of Serious Fraud Office and City of London police arrest investigation into manipulation of Libor Three British men were arrested on Tuesday as part of the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the manipulation of Libor. The SFO and City of London police arrested three men aged 33, 41 and 47 after searching a house in Surrey and two properties in Essex. The three were taken to a London police station to be interviewed "in connection with the investigation into the manipulation of Libor". The SFO's investigation into Libor rigging was sparked by the £290m fine levied on Barclays in June, which led to the departures of the bank's chairman Marcus Agius, chief executive Bob Diamond and newly promoted chief operating officer Jerry del Missier. The SFO did not name the men or say where they were employed. The director of the SFO, David Green, has told MPs that he knows the agency will be largely judged on the success of the Libor investigation and had deployed 40 staff on the cases which involve more than one firm. The SFO announced a formal investigation into the complex rate-rigging affair on 6 July and by the end of that month had already concluded that it had the powers to conduct a criminal investigation. While the Financial Services Authority and regulators in the US have fined Barclays, individuals involved have not been formally named or reprimanded. Barclays head of investment banking Rich Ricci told the banking standards committee that it had "terminated the employment of five people and that 13 staff had been disciplined in total. Baclays is so far the only bank the regulators have penalised, but speculation is rife that other banks will face penalties before the end of the year. The FSA said that eight financial firms in total, and not just banks, were the subject of investigations by the City regulator.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuelan president places deputy in charge but vows to return from Cuba after 'absolutely essential' fourth procedure Hugo Chávez is scheduled to undergo cancer-related surgery in Havana on Tuesday, his fourth operation in 18 months. After announcing on Saturday night in Caracas that a thorough examination had detected a recurrence of malignant cells, the Venezuelan president returned to Cuba on Monday morning for further surgery. "It is absolutely necessary, absolutely essential that I undergo this new surgical procedure. And this must happen in the next days. The doctors had suggested it be yesterday, yesterday at the latest, or this weekend," Chávez said during a nationwide broadcast. He said he had returned to Venezuela to reveal this latest development and to designate his vice-president, Nicolas Maduro, as his successor should he be unable to reassume power. But he vowed to return. Chávez first underwent surgery 18 months ago to remove an undisclosed type of cancer from his pelvic region. The announcement was accompanied by demonstrations of solidarity both at home and from leaders and Chávez supporters around the world. In Venezuela on Sunday, hundreds of supporters gathered in main squares around the country to conduct group prayers and chant slogans of support. A vigil presided over by Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, was held in La Paz and attended by Hollywood actor and long-time admirer Sean Penn. "I admire President Chávez for his courage and his freedom to fight … Chávez is one of the most impressive forces this planet has, and it is with this same force that we must express to him our love," Penn said. The Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, accompanied Chávez to Havana and met Raoul and Fidel Castro. He referred to Chávez as a "historical president and an extraordinary human being". During a televised meeting with the upper echelons of the Venezuelan armed forces, Chávez said he was not stepping down from power, only handing it temporarily to Maduro, who stood by his side. Chávez was elected for a fourth consecutive term in October and is scheduled to be sworn in on 10 January. He has been in power since 1998. The Venezuelan constitution stipulates that if the president is declared unable to govern within the last two years of his office the vice-president will take over until the end of the presidential term, when new elections must be called. State TV images broadcast at 7am showed Chávez hugging several of his closest allies on the tarmac. Before boarding the plane he held up a closed fist and uttered one of his traditional salutes: "Long live the fatherland".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top executives to defer part of bonuses for five years as bank prepares to pay $1.9bn over claims it moved drug money HSBC is to pay a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to settle allegations that it laundered money for drug cartels and broke sanctions in the US to allow terrorists to move money around the financial system. In the latest embarrassment for Britain's banks, the HSBC chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was "profoundly sorry" as he confirmed the scale of the fine. It is the largest ever for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer in a report by the US Senate. "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," he said, insisting Britain's biggest bank was "a fundamentally different organisation" now. The fine for HSBC comes barely 24 hours after Standard Chartered paid £415m to US regulators, and as banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS brace for a wave of fines in coming days for attempting to rig Libor following the £290m penalty slapped on Barclays in June. Gulliver was promoted to chief executive two years ago during a management reshuffle caused by the decision by Lord Green, the chairman, to quit to join the government as a trade minister. A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, which Green represents, said: "The report by the US Senate sub-committee sets out in detail the evidence submitted to it and the action taken by HSBC to ensure compliance with US regulations at the time that Lord Green was group chairman. At the time of the report's publication HSBC expressed its regret that there were failures of implementation and Lord Green has said that he shares that regret." David Bagley, the bank's head of compliance, dramatically quit before the US Senate committee hearing into the case in July and on Monday HSBC named a former US official – Bob Werner – as head of group financial crime compliance, a newly created role, as the bank prepared for the fine related to drug allegations. The penalty includes a five-year agreement with the US department of justice under which the bank will install an independent monitor who will assess the bank's changed internal controls. The bank's top executives will defer part of their bonuses for the whole of the five-year period, while bonuses have been clawed back from a number of former and current executives, including those in the US directly involved at the time. HSBC has managed to avoid being criminally prosecuted – a move that could have stopped the bank operating in the US at all. HSBC's share price rose by 2.8p to 644p despite the size of the fine. Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Investec, said the fine was slightly lower than the $2bn he had been pencilling in to his forecasts. But, he said: "HSBC's settlement with the US authorities will include a deferred prosecution agreement with the department of justice of five years' duration. Given HSBC's ongoing US business and other continuing conduct investigations, this sword of Damocles is not without teeth, albeit based on what we know, we are regarding the $1.921bn settlement as de facto 'final'." Gulliver stressed that the bank had co-operated with the US authorities. "Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters," he said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world," he added. The US Senate said the bank had operated a "pervasively polluted" culture that lasted for years, allowing HSBC to move billions around the financial system for Mexican drug lords, terrorists and governments on sanctions lists. HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the US operations, for instance, which the Senate was told was tied to drug money. HSBC said it also expected to finalise an "undertaking" with its home regulator, the Financial Services Authority, "shortly". The bank has also spent $290m on improving its systems to try to avoid a re-run of the events.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | France calls for a new government to be formed and says Cheik Modibo Diarra's arrest bolsters the case for foreign military intervention Mali's prime minister resigned on state television in a broadcast at 4am local time on Tuesday, hours after soldiers who led a recent coup burst into his home and arrested him. Cheik Modibo Diarra appeared somber in his national address, saying: "Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation are hoping for peace. "It's for this reason that I, Cheik Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government on this day, Tuesday, 11 December, 2012. I apologise before the entire population of Mali." A police officer and an intelligence official confirmed that the 60-year-old Diarra had been arrested at his private residence at around 10pm on Monday by soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, the leader of the country's recent coup. Diarra was getting ready to leave the country for Paris and the plane that was due to take him was already taxiing at the airport. It's unclear if the trip to France was planned, or if Diarra had gotten wind of the pending arrest and was trying to flee. France called on Tuesday for a new government to be formed quickly and said Diarra's arrest and resignation bolstered the case for foreign military intervention. "These developments underline the need for the rapid deployment of an African stabilisation force," French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot told reporters. The security officials said the prime minister was forced into a car and driven to the Kati military camp, the military base where the 21 March coup was launched under the orders of Sanogo. For several weeks, tension has been mounting between the officers who led the coup and Diarra, the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint when they handed back power to a transitional government. The police officer, who was on duty on Monday night at Bamako's international airport, said the plane that was to take the prime minister to France was stopped by members of the group Yerewoloton who had invaded the airport and were searching cars. Yerewoloton is a violent citizen's movement, which is believed to be backed by the junta. In May, they broke through the security cordon at the presidential palace. Once inside, they beat up the newly appointed interim president, 70-year-old Dioncounda Traore. The beating of Traore brought immediate international condemnation and it was after the 21 May incident that coup leader Sanogo was forced to retreat from public life. He has kept a low profile in recent months, emerging only occasionally to criticise a military plan by the nations neighbouring Mali, which want to send 3,300 troops to take back Mali's north from armed Islamist groups. Diarra, an astrophysicist who previously led one of Nasa's Mars exploration programs, was initially seen as in step with Sanogo. Critics lambasted him for frequently driving to the Kati barracks to see the coup leader, apparently to seek his advice long after Sanogo was supposed to have handed power to civilians. In recent weeks though, Diarra has appeared to be taking stances that sometimes conflict with Sanogo. Last weekend for example, Diarra helped organised a demonstration calling for a United Nations-backed military intervention to take back Mali's north, which fell to Islamic extremists in the chaos following the coup. On Monday at the United Nations, France circulated a UN Security Council resolution that would authorise the deployment of an African-led force to oust al-Qaida-linked militants who seized Mali's northern half. The United States, however, wants the troops to be trained first for desert warfare, UN diplomats said. Experts on Mali have voiced skepticism over the military intervention, specifically because the plan initially put forward by the African Union gives a central role to the Malian military, which is still in the hands of Sanogo. African diplomats who were involved in the negotiations with Sanogo earlier this year, leading to the creation of Diarra's transitional government, say the coup leader does not want foreign forces on Malian soil because it would dilute his power.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eldest grandchild Ndileka says she has no idea when former South African leader will be discharged from hospital Nelson Mandela is suffering from the recurrence of a lung infection, officials said on Tuesday, as South Africa continued to pray for the 94-year-old statesman's health. Mandela has been undergoing medical tests since Saturday at a military hospital near Pretoria. "Doctors have concluded the tests, and these have revealed a recurrence of a previous lung infection, for which Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, using Mandela's clan name. "President [Jacob] Zuma thanks the public for continuous support to former president Mandela and his family at this time." The announcement ended speculation about what was troubling South Africa's anti-apartheid hero and first black president. Government officials had repeatedly declined to say what caused the military, responsible for Mandela's care, to keep him in hospital for four days. Ndileka Mandela, his eldest grandchild, admitted she has "no idea" when he is likely to be discharged. "He's still well," she said on Tuesday. "We just want to be left alone as a family to process." George Bizos, a lawyer who defended Mandela in the Rivonia trial half a century ago, said he had learned of his friend's lung infection from family members before it was made public. "I accept the integrity of the medical team looking after him. They have managed the condition in the past and I trust they will succeed again." Bizos conceded is it hard to be certain about the health of a 94-year-old, but added: "We wish him well and he's in good hands. We hope he will soon be back home at his house in Johannesburg or his house of preference recently, Qunu [in Eastern Cape province]." As in previous health scares, developments have been followed intensely by South Africans and the media. "Nation prays for Madiba," was a front-page headline of the Sowetan newspaper. In January 2011, the Nobel peace prize laureate was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. The disarray and information vacuum that followed prompted the South African military to take charge of his care while the government controls updates about his health. Mandela has had a series of health problems during his life. He contracted tuberculosis during his years in prison and had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985. In 2001, he underwent seven weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. In February this year, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. Dr Mark Sonderup, the vice-chairman at the South African Medical Association, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper this week: "I'm not sure we should press the panic button every single time a man of his age has the sniffles. But unfortunately, we have to accept that simple health matters for a person of that age can turn very serious, very quickly." Mandela made his last public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 football World Cup.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Longstreth was at his most direct and heartfelt as Dirty Projectors sent a love letter to the joy of music Over the years a viewpoint seems to have taken hold that Dirty Projectors are a band to admire rather than truly love. That their music represents some grand inside joke, rather than anything with an actual beating heart behind it. And that their fondness for, say, translating songs into the ancient script of Mesopotamia, the first non-pictographic written language as practised in 5,000BC between the Tigris and the Euphrates in the city of Ur, might possibly be considered a little pretentious. That some people were still trotting this line out after hearing the band's sixth album, Swing Lo Magellan, seems remarkable. Not just because the outlandish intellectual ideas here were matched with music that was so clearly warm, personal and of a striking beauty, but also because the closing song, Irresponsible Tune, explicitly stated the power of music perhaps more eloquently than anything else recorded this year. On that track, David Longstreth stretched his bafflingly elastic vocals around such simple yet poetic declarations as: "In my heart there is music, in my mind is a song/ But in my eyes, a world: crooked, fucked up and wrong." Funnily enough, the song itself sounded like a "crooked, fucked up and wrong" version of the Orioles' doo-wop hit Crying in the Chapel, but as an open-hearted love letter to the magic of music, it was up there with Lou Reed's Rock & Roll. Reading on mobile? Listen here
This being Dirty Projectors, you would hardly expect the rest of the album to be as concise or direct. There were, inevitably, impenetrable moments (the gruelling, guitar wrangle of Maybe That Was It) and, sure, an album named after a 16th-century Portuguese explorer was perhaps never going to appeal to those who buy their albums from Tesco. Yet it didn't take many repeat plays for Swing Lo Magellan to reveal its vast treasures: Amber Coffman's soulful lead vocal hooks on Socialites; the way the stripped back Just from Chevron deployed a brief yet devastatingly effective swell of strings; the breathtaking vocal climaxes of Coffman and Haley Dekle on the chorus of Gun Has No Trigger, a song that managed to question society's ability to enact dissent while also sounding like While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Longstreth's early love for the Beatles is frequently on display here). Earlier this year, Longstreth told the Guardian his songs have always been personal, but this time the band weren't "hiding behind some obtuse conceptual frame". Given that past concepts have included covering Black Flag albums from memory and composing operas about the Eagles' Don Henley, it's no surprise this made Swing Lo Magellan the band's most accessible work to date. And whereas anyone who arrived here directly from Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe might baulk at the idea that this was a pop record, the melodies were always strong and – thanks to their ability to ricochet off into the most unexpected places – frequently startling too. If you didn't "get" Dirty Projectors before, then Swing Lo Magellan was the album that opened the door a little to smooth your way in. And perhaps that's what made it the band's greatest triumph to date – that they could show off this magnificently, without ever really looking like they were showing off at all.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three men arrested as part of Serious Fraud Office and City of London police arrest investigation into manipulation of Libor Three British men were arrested on Tuesday as part of the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the manipulation of Libor. The SFO and City of London police arrested three men aged 33, 41 and 47 after searching a house in Surrey and two properties in Essex. The three were taken to a London police station to be interviewed "in connection with the investigation into the manipulation of Libor". The SFO's investigation into Libor rigging was sparked by the £290m fine levied on Barclays in June, which led to the departures of the bank's chairman Marcus Agius, chief executive Bob Diamond and newly promoted chief operating officer Jerry del Missier. The SFO did not name the men or say where they were employed. The director of the SFO, David Green, has told MPs that he knows the agency will be largely judged on the success of the Libor investigation and had deployed 40 staff on the cases which involve more than one firm. The SFO announced a formal investigation into the complex rate-rigging affair on 6 July and by the end of that month had already concluded that it had the powers to conduct a criminal investigation. While the Financial Services Authority and regulators in the US have fined Barclays, individuals involved have not been formally named or reprimanded. Barclays head of investment banking Rich Ricci told the banking standards committee that it had "terminated the employment of five people and that 13 staff had been disciplined in total. Baclays is so far the only bank the regulators have penalised, but speculation is rife that other banks will face penalties before the end of the year. The FSA said that eight financial firms in total, and not just banks, were the subject of investigations by the City regulator.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Eldest grandchild Ndileka says she has no idea when former South African leader will be discharged from hospital Nelson Mandela is suffering from the recurrence of a lung infection, officials said on Tuesday, as South Africa continued to pray for the 94-year-old statesman's health. Mandela has been undergoing medical tests since Saturday at a military hospital near Pretoria. "Doctors have concluded the tests, and these have revealed a recurrence of a previous lung infection, for which Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, using Mandela's clan name. "President [Jacob] Zuma thanks the public for continuous support to former president Mandela and his family at this time." The announcement ended speculation about what was troubling South Africa's anti-apartheid hero and first black president. Government officials had repeatedly declined to say what caused the military, responsible for Mandela's care, to keep him in hospital for four days. Ndileka Mandela, his eldest grandchild, admitted she has "no idea" when he is likely to be discharged. "He's still well," she said on Tuesday. "We just want to be left alone as a family to process." George Bizos, a lawyer who defended Mandela in the Rivonia trial half a century ago, said he had learned of his friend's lung infection from family members before it was made public. "I accept the integrity of the medical team looking after him. They have managed the condition in the past and I trust they will succeed again." Bizos conceded is it hard to be certain about the health of a 94-year-old, but added: "We wish him well and he's in good hands. We hope he will soon be back home at his house in Johannesburg or his house of preference recently, Qunu [in Eastern Cape province]." As in previous health scares, developments have been followed intensely by South Africans and the media. "Nation prays for Madiba," was a front-page headline of the Sowetan newspaper. In January 2011, the Nobel peace prize laureate was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. The disarray and information vacuum that followed prompted the South African military to take charge of his care while the government controls updates about his health. Mandela has had a series of health problems during his life. He contracted tuberculosis during his years in prison and had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985. In 2001, he underwent seven weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. In February this year, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. Dr Mark Sonderup, the vice-chairman at the South African Medical Association, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper this week: "I'm not sure we should press the panic button every single time a man of his age has the sniffles. But unfortunately, we have to accept that simple health matters for a person of that age can turn very serious, very quickly." Mandela made his last public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 football World Cup.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2Day FM says minimum of £325,000 will be paid to family of Jacintha Saldanha, who was found dead after taking hoax call The Australian radio station behind the hoax call to the London hospital treating the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge has pledged to donate all its advertising profits until the end of the year to a fund for the nurse who took the phone call and was later found dead. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, a mother of two from Bristol who answered the call before transferring it to another nurse, died on Friday in a suspected suicide at her nurses's accommodation near King Edward VII hospital in London two days after the radio prank was broadcast internationally. In a statement, Southern Cross Austereo, which owns Sydney's 2Day FM, expressed its "deep regret for what has taken place in these tragic and unforeseen circumstances". It said a minimum contribution of A$500,000 (£325,000) would be made. Advertising was suspended on the station on Saturday afternoon but will resume on Thursday. "All profits from advertising on 2DayFM until the end of the year will be donated to an appropriate fund that will directly benefit the family of Jacintha Saldanha," the owners said. The company has also cancelled its Christmas party. A postmortem was carried out yesterday. An inquest into the nurse's death is to be opened tomorrow. Scotland Yard would not comment on a report in the London Evening Standard that a suicide note had been found addressed to her family. The private hospital, where Saldanha had worked for more than four years, has established a memorial fund to help her husband, Benedict Barboza, and two children, a daughter 14, and a son, 17. Questions continued to be asked about who at 2Day FM had authorised the call to be broadcast without the consent of the nurses. The DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who made the call in the early hours of Tuesday last week, have said it was standard practice for them to record an item and then hand it over to be assessed by others. Southern Cross Austereo's chief executive, Rhys Holleran, said on Monday that the station had attempted to contact the hospital "no less than five times" before broadcasting the pre-recorded material. A spokesman for King Edward VII said no one from either the hospital's senior management, or the company that handled its media inquiries, had spoken to 2Day FM before the prank call was broadcast. Lord Glenarthur, chairman of the hospital, welcomed the decision by the radio station's owners to make a sizeable donation to the nurse's family, saying: "I have today read that Southern Cross media group have pledged to make a minimum donation of A$500,000 to an appropriate fund. We would certainly welcome such a donation to [our] Jacintha Saldanha Memorial Fund." He added that the fund had received many donations from around the world. David Cameron, giving evidence to the House of Commons liaison committee, was asked by the Labour MP Keith Vaz, who has met Saldanha's grieving family, if they should be given all the information possible about her death. "Of course," he replied. "It is a dreadful case and an absolute tragedy for the family. When you read of how hard she had worked across her life and all the things she had done and how much she cared about health and looking after people … as I said yesterday, I am sure there are lessons to learn. When any of these things happen, having the full facts of the case doesn't bring anybody back, but it does, I help people come to terms with what has happened."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2Day FM says minimum of £325,000 will be paid to family of Jacintha Saldanha, who was found dead after taking hoax call The radio station behind the prank call to the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was staying has pledged to donate all advertising profits until the end of the year to a fund that will benefit the family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who took the call and was later found dead. In a statement, Southern Cross Austereo, which owns 2Day FM, said a minimum contribution of A$500,000 (£325,000) would be made. Advertising was suspended on the station on Saturday afternoon but will resume on Thursday. "All profits from advertising on 2DayFM until the end of the year will be donated to an appropriate fund that will directly benefit the family of Jacintha Saldanha," Southern Cross Austereo said. The company referred to its "deep regret for what has taken place in these tragic and unforeseen circumstances". It also offered condolences to Saldanha's family. Its chief executive, Rhys Holleran said: "We are very sorry for what has happened. It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family. "We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time." Advertisers began to desert the radio station not long after news broke of Saldanha's death. The first two were supermarket giant Coles, and telecoms company Telstra. Coles said on its Facebook page on Saturday: "We understand Australians are clearly angry and upset by what appear to be tragic consequences of the 2Day FM UK hospital prank," and instructed 2Day FM to remove all Coles group advertising from the station. Coles has not yet responded to Austereo's announcement of a donation to a fund for Saldanha. Telstra confirmed its advertising on the station – which it also withdrew on Saturday – would remain suspended until an investigation into the prank call had concluded. Questions continued to be asked about who at 2Day FM authorised the prank call to be broadcast without the consent of the nurses who had been recorded. On Monday, the two DJs involved in the call spoke to commercial television networks in Sydney. They said they did not know who vetted their prank call but that it was standard practice for them to record an item and then hand it over to be assessed by others. Holleran said on Monday that the station had attempted to contact King Edward VII hospital "no less than five times" before broadcasting the pre-recorded material. A spokeswoman for the hospital said no one from the hospital's senior management or anyone at the company that handled its media inquiries had spoken to 2Day FM before the prank call was broadcast.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Marine conservation group acquires ship from unsuspecting Japanese authorities through US firm The marine conservation group Sea Shepherd has scored a propaganda victory over Japan after it emerged it had bought its newest anti-whaling vessel from the Japanese government, apparently without its knowledge. The $2m dollar vessel, which previously belonged to the country's meteorological agency, was bought from unsuspecting Japanese authorities by a US company, re-registered in the Pacific island of Tuvalu as the New Atlantis, and delivered to Australia by a Japanese crew. The ship, which was unveiled on Tuesday in Hobart, was reflagged to Australia and named after Sam Simon, the founding producer of The Simpsons TV series and a prominent animal rights campaigner. It is the newest addition to a fleet of four Sea Shepherd vessels that is expected to pursue Japan's whalers soon after they leave for the Antarctic later this month. "We have four ships, one helicopter, drones and more than 120 volunteer crew from around the world ready to defend majestic whales from the illegal operations of the Japanese whaling fleet," said Sea Shepherd's founder, Paul Watson. Watson will join this season's campaign, called Operation Zero Tolerance, despite jumping bail in Germany after being placed on an Interpol wanted list for allegedly endangering a fishing vessel crew in 2002. To compound Japan's embarrassment, the 184ft vessel was previously moored in Shimonoseki, home to the country's Antarctic whaling fleet, after being retired by the meteorological agency in 2010. In its past incarnation as the Seifu Maru, the ice-strengthened vessel's duties included gathering data on ocean currents for Japan's north Pacific whaling fleet, according to Sea Shepherd. The group has pursued Japan's whalers across the icy waters of the Southern Ocean every winter since 2005. In February, the whaling fleet was called back to port early with just one-fifth of its planned catch following clashes with activists. The Sam Simon's skipper, Lockhart MacLean, said he hoped to intercept the whaling fleet's factory ship before a single whale was killed. "The goal is to find the factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, and to pin the bow of this ship on the stern of that factory ship throughout the duration of the campaign, and send them home without any whales killed," he told Reuters. "We're confident we can seriously impact their whale quota. This year all four of their harpoon ships are going to be tied up by our four ships, and the goal is that no harpooning can be done." Sea Shepherd's hi-tech powerboat, the Ady Gil, sank after a collision with a Japanese whaling ship in January 2010. The international court of justice in the Hague is due to rule next year at the earliest on a move by the Australian government to end Japan's Antarctic whaling programme. A clause in the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling allows Japan to kill almost 1,000 whales each year for what it calls "scientific research". The meat is sold to restaurants and supermarkets, although the public's waning appetite for the delicacy has created a huge stockpile of unsold produce. A recent survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare found that more than 88% of Japanese had not bought whale meat in the past 12 months.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chief executive 'profoundly sorry' as bank prepares to pay $1.9bn (£1.2bn) over claims it moved money for drug lords HSBC is to pay a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to settle allegations it laundered money for drug cartels and broke sanctions in the US to allow terrorists to move money around the financial system, in the latest embarrassment for Britain's banks. The bank's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was "profoundly sorry" as he confirmed the scale of the fine – the largest for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer. "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," he said, insisting Britain's biggest bank was "a fundamentally different organisation" now. He took the helm two years ago during a management reshuffle caused by the decision by Stephen Green, the chairman, to quit to join the government as a trade minister. David Bagley, the bank's head of compliance, dramatically quit before the US Senate committee hearing into the case in July and on Monday HSBC named a former US official – Bob Werner – as head of group financial crime compliance, a newly created role, as the bank prepared for the fine related to drug allegations. The penalty includes a five-year agreement with the US department of justice under which the bank will install an independent monitor who will assess the bank's changed internal controls. "Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters," Gulliver said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world," he added. The US Senate said the bank had operated a "pervasively polluted" culture that lasted for years, allowing HSBC to move billions around the financial system for Mexican drug lords, terrorists and governments on sanctions lists. HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the US operations, for instance, which the Senate was told was tied to drug money. HSBC said it also expected to finalise an "undertaking" with its home regulator, the Financial Services Authority, "shortly". The embarrassment for HSBC comes barely 24 hours after Standard Chartered paid £415m to US regulators, and as banks brace for a wave of fines for attempting to rig Libor following the £290m penalty slapped on Barclays in June. Gulliver repeated that the bank had clawed back bonuses of those involved. The bank has also spent $290m on improving its systems to try to avoid a re-run of the events.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | FTC investigating whether firms are in breach of existing laws and says little progress made on ensuring children are protected Most mobile applications aimed at children collect information – including device IDs, location data and phone numbers – without their parents' permission, according to a Federal Trade Commission report released Monday. The FTC is also launching investigations to see whether some of these app companies are acting in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) or the Federal Trade Commission Act. "While we think most companies have the best intentions when it comes protecting kids' privacy, we haven't seen any progress when it comes to making sure parents have the information they need to make informed choices about apps for their kids. In fact, our study shows that kids' apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said. The most commonly shared information was the device ID that can contain personal information including names, phone numbers, friends lists, emails and location data. Of the 400 apps reviewed, 235 shared this information with third parties. Nearly 60% of the apps send information from a device to developers, advertising networks, analytics companies or other third parties. Of these third parties, a very small group receives the information, which the FCC says could allow these companies to create detailed profiles on children based on how they interact and use different apps. Many of the apps also failed to disclose in-app features including advertising, links to social media and the ability to purchase virtual goods. The FTC first surveyed children's mobile apps last year and released its findings in February 2012. The FTC felt that mobile application companies had failed to address the commission's concerns. "All of the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job," said Leibowitz. "We'll do another survey in the future and we will expect to see improvement." Of the surveyed apps, the FTC found only 20% disclosed information on their privacy practices. Kathryn Montgomery, a spokesperson for the Center for Digital Democracy, said in a statement that the FTC's findings show "a widespread disregard for children's privacy rules." "In the rapidly growing children's mobile market, companies are seizing on new ways to target children, unleashing a growing arsenal of interactive techniques, including geo-location and use of personal contact data" Montgomery said. "It is clear that there is an urgent need for the FTC to update its Coppa regulations and to engage in ongoing enforcement." This study was released as Center for Digital Democracy and other privacy rights groups are issuing support for a proposed update to Coppa, which requires online companies to obtain permission from parents before collecting information from children under 13. If passed, the proposed update would make changes accounting for technological advancements made since the act was went into effect in 2000. It would limit the amount of time companies can keep data collected on children, and that third parties who collect the information adequately protect it.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Egypt is braced for rival rallies by supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi and martial law has returned in the run up to Saturday's referendum
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cancellation of Middle East visit comes as US brands Syrian rebel group with alleged ties to al-Qaida as terrorist organisation Hillary Clinton has pulled out of a weeklong trip to the Arab world because of a stomach virus. The cancellation of the US secretary of state's trip came as the Obama administration declared a Syrian rebel group with alleged ties to al-Qaida as a terrorist organisation. The announcement was one of several Clinton planned to bring with her to North Africa and the Middle East as part of a US effort to enhance co-operation with moderates in the Syrian coalition fighting Bashar al-Assad and isolate extremists. Clinton's deputy, William Burns, will take her place on the trip to Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. "Since she's still under the weather, we'll be staying put this week instead of heading to North Africa and the Middle East as originally planned," Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. On the first stop, in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on Wednesday, Burns is expected to recognise Syria's new opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, officials said. Clinton had been expected to make the declaration, which is designed to reward anti-Assad leaders for making their movement more inclusive and facilitate greater US assistance. Earlier on Monday, the administration took action against the rebel militia Jabhat al-Nusra, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings on Syrian government targets and raised fears of growing Islamist extremism among the opposition. By branding the group a terrorist organisation, the US government is freezing any assets Jabhat al-Nusra holds in the US and barring Americans from doing business with the group. The action has not been announced officially, but was included on Monday in the Federal Register, the unofficial daily publication for US government rules and notices. In the notice, the state department described the group as part of al-Qaida in Iraq.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chief executive 'profoundly sorry' as bank prepares to pay record penalty over claims it moved money for drug lords HSBC is to pay a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) to settle allegations it laundered money for drug cartels and broke sanctions in the US to allow terrorists to move money around the financial system, in the latest embarrassment for Britain's banks. The bank's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, said he was "profoundly sorry" as he confirmed the scale of the fine – the largest for such an offence and even greater than the £940m the bank had feared it faced after the allegations first surfaced in the summer. "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again," he said, insisting Britain's biggest bank was "a fundamentally different organisation" now. He took the helm two years ago during a management reshuffle caused by the decision by Stephen Green, the chairman, to quit to join the government as a trade minister. David Bagley, the bank's head of compliance, dramatically quit before the US Senate committee hearing into the case in July and on Monday HSBC named a former US official – Bob Werner – as head of group financial crime compliance, a newly created role, as the bank prepared for the fine related to drug allegations. The penalty includes a five-year agreement with the US department of justice under which the bank will install an independent monitor who will assess the bank's changed internal controls. "Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters," Gulliver said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the global financial system. To this end we will continue to work closely with governments and regulators around the world," he added. The US Senate said the bank had operated a "pervasively polluted" culture that lasted for years, allowing HSBC to move billions around the financial system for Mexican drug lords, terrorists and governments on sanctions lists. HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the US operations, for instance, which the Senate was told was tied to drug money. HSBC said it also expected to finalise an "undertaking" with its home regulator, the Financial Services Authority, "shortly". The embarrassment for HSBC comes barely 24 hours after Standard Chartered paid £415m to US regulators, and as banks brace for a wave of fines for attempting to rig Libor following the £290m penalty slapped on Barclays in June. Gulliver repeated that the bank had clawed back bonuses of those involved. The bank has also spent $290m on improving its systems to try to avoid a re-run of the events.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Athens is seeking more bids from bondholders after failing to meet a target to buy back bonds worth €30bn
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cheik Modibo Diarra was arrested at his home around 10pm on Monday by soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo Mali's prime minister resigned on state television in a broadcast at 4am local time on Tuesday, hours after soldiers who led a recent coup burst into his home and arrested him. Cheik Modibo Diarra appeared somber in his national address, saying: "Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation are hoping for peace. "It's for this reason that I, Cheik Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government on this day, Tuesday, 11 December, 2012. I apologise before the entire population of Mali." A police officer and an intelligence official confirmed that the 60-year-old Diarra had been arrested at his private residence at around 10pm on Monday by soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, the leader of the country's recent coup. Diarra was getting ready to leave the country for Paris and the plane that was due to take him was already taxiing at the airport. It's unclear if the trip to France was planned, or if Diarra had gotten wind of the pending arrest and was trying to flee. The security officials said the prime minister was forced into a car and driven to the Kati military camp, the military base where the 21 March coup was launched under the orders of Sanogo. For several weeks, tension has been mounting between the officers who led the coup and Diarra, the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint when they handed back power to a transitional government. The police officer, who was on duty on Monday night at Bamako's international airport, said the plane that was to take the prime minister to France was stopped by members of the group Yerewoloton who had invaded the airport and were searching cars. Yerewoloton is a violent citizen's movement, which is believed to be backed by the junta. In May, they broke through the security cordon at the presidential palace. Once inside, they beat up the newly appointed interim president, 70-year-old Dioncounda Traore. The beating of Traore brought immediate international condemnation and it was after the 21 May incident that coup leader Sanogo was forced to retreat from public life. He has kept a low profile in recent months, emerging only occasionally to criticise a military plan by the nations neighbouring Mali, which want to send 3,300 troops to take back Mali's north from armed Islamist groups. Diarra, an astrophysicist who previously led one of Nasa's Mars exploration programs, was initially seen as in step with Sanogo. Critics lambasted him for frequently driving to the Kati barracks to see the coup leader, apparently to seek his advice long after Sanogo was supposed to have handed power to civilians. In recent weeks though, Diarra has appeared to be taking stances that sometimes conflict with Sanogo. Last weekend for example, Diarra helped organised a demonstration calling for a United Nations-backed military intervention to take back Mali's north, which fell to Islamic extremists in the chaos following the coup. On Monday at the United Nations, France circulated a UN Security Council resolution that would authorise the deployment of an African-led force to oust al-Qaida-linked militants who seized Mali's northern half. The United States, however, wants the troops to be trained first for desert warfare, UN diplomats said. Experts on Mali have voiced skepticism over the military intervention, specifically because the plan initially put forward by the African Union gives a central role to the Malian military, which is still in the hands of Sanogo. African diplomats who were involved in the negotiations with Sanogo earlier this year, leading to the creation of Diarra's transitional government, say the coup leader does not want foreign forces on Malian soil because it would dilute his power.
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