| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move by communist regime expected to boost rightwing candidates in forthcoming elections in Japan and South Korea Fears about renewed North Korean military aggression sparked by Pyongyang's successful launch of a long-range rocket on Wednesday are likely to boost rightwing and nationalist candidates in crucial elections due in Japan and South Korea within the next week, regional analysts warned. As a wave of international condemnation engulfed North Korea following what it claimed was a peaceful satellite launch, Shinzō Abe, a noted hawk and leader of Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic party opposition, demanded immediate action to punish the isolated communist state. "Japan should work together with the international community to adopt a new resolution at the United Nations to strongly condemn North Korea. The rocket launch was outrageous. The international community needs to impose harsh sanctions," Abe said. Abe, a former prime minister who is tipped to unseat the ruling Democratic party government in this weekend's closely-fought parliamentary election, could be a big beneficiary of North Korea's action, said Christopher Hughes, a regional expert and professor of international politics at Warwick University. "The North has played directly into the hands of Japan's conservative rightwing and nationalist forces," Hughes said. "This is very much an 'I told you so' situation for Abe. It's a gift from Kim Jong-un [the North Korean leader] to the Japanese right." Far-right Japanese parties that claim North Korea and its main ally, China, pose a fundamental threat and that advocate Japanese rearmament, including with nuclear weapons, would also benefit from an upsurge in tensions, Hughes said. "It legitimises their arguments for a tougher line and the expansion of Japan's military strength. They are North Korea-bashers but they are also taking aim at China," he said. The rocket row is likely to have a similar impact in South Korea where the main conservative candidate in the 19 December presidential elections, Park Geun-hye, has taken a tough stance on North Korea, demanding it abandon missile tests and renounce nuclear weapons. The North has denounced Park as a "fascist". Park's spokesman described the launch as a "serious provocation" before attacking her main rival, Moon Jae-in, who has advocated unconditional talks with the North. Park would pursue "strong national security", the spokesman said. He accused Moon of being "ignorant of the reason why the international community is concerned and against North Korea's long-range rocket launching test". US missile warning systems detected the rocket on Wednesday 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 liftoff. In an unusual show of candour, the regime quickly admitted the launch had been a failure. If reports about the success of this latest launch are correct, the regime can reasonably claim to have significantly improved its technological knowhow. 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 North Korea's 29-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, who was anointed last year after the death 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." 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.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fellow passengers said the software tycoon looked depressed and dishevelled as he entered the US on a flight to Miami after weeks on the run John McAfee, the fugitive software tycoon wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of his American neighbour, arrived in Miami on Wednesday night. Fellow passengers aboard his flight from Guatemala City, where the eccentric 67-year-old was released this morning after a week of detainment, said they were prevented from disembarking while he was taken away. Airport spokesman Greg Chin said that federal agents greeted McAfee at the door of the plane and helped him through immigration and customs formalities. A short time later, a posting on McAfee's website announced that he was at a hotel in Miami's upscale South Beach neighborhood. Investigators in Belize want to talk to McAfee as "a person of interest" in the murder of Florida builder Gregory Faull, his neighbour on the island of Ambergris Caye, last month. Faull, who had quarrelled with McAfee over his "vicious dogs" was found shot in the head, although McAfee has strongly denied any involvement in blog posts during a month on the run. Guatemalan authorities arrested him and his 20-year-old girlfriend Samantha Vanegas at a hotel in the capital city last week and he spent a week in a detention center before a judge ruled he was in the country illegally and ordered his immediate deportation. In an interview with reporters in Guatemala earlier Wednesday he said that travelling to Miami was his only option. "I can't take a flight that stops in any other country and there are only two flights going to America today. I'm happy to be going home," he said. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days." McAfee flew alone, having tweeted earlier that he and Vanegas had been "forcibly separated". He said he hoped that she would join him in the US later. Fellow passengers said McAfee looked tired and dishevelled at the end of the flight. Matt Meehan, of Blackpool, said that passengers were told to stay in their seats "for a security check" after the plane reached the gate in Miami, then a flight attendant called McAfee's name and asked him to join security officers at the front. "He looked like he was expecting it," Meehan said. "He looked resigned. He was sat towards the back of the plane and he walked slowly down the aisle." Roberto Vincent, from Guatemala City, said he thought McAfee, dressed in a dark suit and carrying a black backpack, looked "depressed". "He looked just like a guy who'd been in jail for a week, he looked very tired like he hadn't slept in days," he said. During his detention in Guatemala, which included a day in a police hospital for stress and hypertension, McAfee had access to a computer and spoke frequently to reporters. He said he believed he had become "an embarrassment" to authorities in the country, who were trying to end years of hostile relations with Belize, and apologised to the president Otto Perez Molina for his presence in the country. The United States has an extradition treaty with Belize and it is likely that authorities will seek his return for questioning. "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid. I would go so far as to say bonkers," the Belize prime minister, Dean Barrow, said after McAfee fled the country for Guatemala. "He ought to man up and respect our laws and go in and talk to the police." McAfee, who founded and later sold the internet anti-virus company that shares his name, insists he left Belize because he would not pay $2m in bribes, a claim the authorities deny, and said he would be killed if he ever returned to the country to which he had retired. "I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years," he told said when asked what he would do if he was sent back to the US.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Who, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen are on the call sheet for the Hurricane Sandy benefit gig at Madison Square Garden in New York. Join us as we live blog the entire event
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Invitation to Moaz al-Khatib comes at meeting of world leaders in Marrakech but formal US recognition criticised as insufficient The Obama administration has invited the head of the newly recognised Syrian rebel coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, to Washington as the US attempts to build a sympathetic administration to slot into place and keep hostile Islamist forces at bay when President Bashar al-Assad falls. The invitation to Khatib came at a meeting in Morocco of western and Arab nations backing the Syrian uprising at which the US gave formal recognition to the Syrian National Coalition for Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the "legitimate representative of the Syrian people". The US move has been criticised as belated and insufficient, in part because of Washington's hesitation to supply weapons to the coalition while more radical groups in Syria, including an al-Qaida affiliate declared a terrorist organisation by Washington on Tuesday, are evidently armed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. "It might be one of the last moments in which the US can positively affect the situation on the ground," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Centre, who was in the room at the meeting in Marrakech on Wednesday. "There is some resentment from the rebels. There's still a belief that the US is pursuing a low maintenance policy. It may well be too little too late. The situation on the ground is more and more complex. There's fragmentation. And there is a great danger that the situation can completely slip out of control and take on a dynamic which none of this can positively effect. And in this case many could point to the relatively sanguine role the US has taken." Shaikh said the US strategy is to build up the National Coalition as a credible administration ready to take over the government when Assad falls. "They seem to be establishing some offices on the ground, working with the local councils. Also, it presents an alternative address if the regime was to fall tomorrow, even if it's not a very well formed one at this point," he said. "Whether it's able to stop the fighting dynamics on the ground, we'll have to wait and see." Robert Danin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for the Middle East who is now with the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the US is right to be cautious, and that it is counting on any post-Assad regime being open to influence because it will require American assistance. "It's not too little too late. It's little, but this is going to be a long, drawn-out saga. The regime is not about to fall tomorrow. It's obviously on the ropes but there's still time to regain influence here," he said. "There's going to be a day after when Syria will have tremendous needs. The argument is that by getting in later in the game with the opposition we have forfeited a certain degree of goodwill. That's probably true, but hard to measure. "Here's the real challenge: coming up with a shared vision for a post-Assad Syria. That's a long road and they're going to need help. They're going to need financial help, they're going to need technical help. There'll be tremendous opportunities there for the United States to assist." But Marina Ottaway, who specialises in the Middle East at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Washington's emphasis on support for a political coalition is mistaken. "The Syrians know the action is inside the country and the US has been looking at the groups outside. No fighting group is really represented in the coalition. What the US is doing is creating this artificial organisation that I think is destined not to have much of an impact after Assad goes," she said. "I have been watching liberation movements and armed groups and insurrections for 30 years and I cannot think of a situation where a government in exile in the end prevailed over the fighters inside the country. It would be extraordinary if they succeeded." Khatib flagged up his concern at American attempts to separate the National Coalition from some of those doing the fighting after the US designated one of the rebel groups, the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate and a terrorist organisation on Tuesday. The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed," Khatib told the meeting in Morocco. "We might disagree with some parties and their ideas and their political and ideological vision. But we affirm that all the guns of the rebels are aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical criminal regime." The US state department said the designation of the al-Nusra Front as a terrorist organisation was intended to "strengthen the legitimate opposition". "We are trying to make the point that those fighting in Syria's name ought to be doing so in a manner that reflects the Syria that they want to have, not reflecting a terrorist or al-Qaida shaped future," said the department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. But Shaikh said Khatib feels undermined by the American move because the al-Nusra Front has played an important part in some of the most intense fighting, such as around Aleppo, and it is popular with some Syrians. "It kind of puts him and the coalition on the spot. They're trying to build their own bona fides with the people on the ground, and it seems as if the al-Nusra Front does enjoy some support on the ground," he said. "There was a genuine disagreement on this but I guess they'll agree to continue to disagree on this." What the US and its western allies are not offering at the moment is weapons, even though the declaration at the meeting agreed on "the legitimate need of the Syrian people to defend itself against the violent and brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad". "For now we have decided not to move on this," said the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius in Morocco. "We shall see in the coming months." Shaikh said it is possible that the Gulf states will step up weapons shipments and that Europeans will join them before too long. Danin said the US has one eye on what happened in Libya. "The preferred American outcome all along would have been a military coup. That would have removed Bashar and his top men and would have provided maybe a pathway towards a more inclusive Syria," he said. "It's clear that one of the biggest hesitations about going in is what you inherit and what we would be responsible for the day after. We see in Libya the dangers of going in, toppling a dictator and then not taking full responsibility for the day after. We're seeing the ramifications in Mali and the spread of weapons from Libya."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Shares representing 1% of conglomerate's class A stock bought from estate of unnamed investor Billionaire Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway spent $1.2bn buying its own shares from the estate of an unnamed investor. The anonymous purchase was made at $131,000, or 117% of book value. Berkshire said it bought 9,200 Class A shares from "the estate of a long-time shareholder". The shares represent 1% of Berkshire's Class A stock. Buffett – known as the Sage of Omaha – has always been reluctant to conduct share buybacks and agreed to it last year only after Berkshire hit historically low valuations. In its most recent filing, Berkshire said it had not made any repurchases in the first nine months of 2012, and spent just $67.5m on buybacks in 2011. Berkshire's Class A shares rose after its announcement, up 2.8% at $134,500. The repurchase came less than a month before the looming "fiscal cliff", automatic tax rises and spending cuts set for 1 January that the White House and members of Congress are negotiating to avoid. Among other levies, the estate tax is expected to rise in the new year package by as much as 20 percentage points. Buffett was a signatory to an open letter released on Tuesday that called for a lower starting point for the tax and a higher tax rate, beginning at 45%. "We believe it is right to have a significant tax on large estates when they are passed on to the next generation. We believe it is right morally and economically, and that an estate tax promotes democracy by slowing the concentration of wealth and power," the 33 signatories wrote in the letter released by the campaign, United for a Fair Economy. Buffett has been publicly campaigning for more than a year for higher taxes on the wealthy, even lending his name to a proposal called the "Buffett Rule" that failed in Congress.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Software pioneer fled to Guatemala from Belize after being named as a person of interest in the murder of his neighbour John McAfee's wish to return to the United States appears to have been granted after officials in Guatemala said the eccentric software pioneer would be deported to his home country. McAfee fled to Guatemala from Belize after being named as a person of interest in the murder of a neighbor and fellow expatriate in Belize, Gregory Faull. After spending three weeks on the run and slipping across the border into Guatemala, he was detained in Guatemala City where he has been held for the past week on immigration violations. An immigration official in Guatemala said McAfee was scheduled to leave for the United States on a Wednesday afternoon flight. "Complying with migration law, John McAfee is to be deported to his country of origin," Guatemala immigration office spokesman Fernado Lucero told Reuters. McAfee said he was booked on a flight to Miami at 3.30pm local time. "That was the only option I had. I can't take a flight that stops in any other country and there are only two flights going to America today." The US has an extradition treaty with Belize, meaning if the authorities there charges McAfee with an extraditable offense, and requests his extradition, he could be be sent back to the country. As yet, McAfee has not been charged with any crime. McAfee, who has dual British citizenship, has expressed distrust in the Belize government and claims to have evidence of internal corruption. The government, in turn, has expressed doubts about McAfee's mental stability – the country's president called him "bonkers." McAfee has posted numerous scribes against the Belize government on the blog whoismcafee.com ,where he and his allies have been posting updates on his situation daily. On Wednesday, he explained that posts written under the name Harold M had actually been by him and that he had been treated well by Guatemalan authorities. "The Guatemalans, by the way, have been as nice to me as my own family," McAfee said "The guards and orderlies have been supportive and have treated me with kindness." On Sunday, he answered questions in the detention center and said he hoped to return to the US which he left in 2008 to retire to Belize. "I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years," McAfee said. "My long-term plan was simply to get away from Belize, think, and decide what to do." McAfee has been unusually outspoken about his life on the run, contacting reporters by phone, email and in-person since he went into hiding November 11. This openness seems to have contributed to his eventual arrest in Guatemala after journalists from the fringe-culture magazine Vice, who for a time had been accompanying McAfee, left embedded location data in a photo they posted online. Though Vice has lost its association with McAfee, Montreal-based production company Impact Future Media announced Monday that it had secured the intellectual property rights to McAfee's life story. The company said it was seeking investors for the project, tentatively titled Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee. McAfee's friend Chad Essley is also represented by the company, which will help with the production and publishing of Essley's graphic novel and animated documentary on McAfee.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Opponents of President Morsi say they were detained for hours and beaten while security forces chose not to intervene A number of people detained during the 5 December clashes between supporters of President Mohamed Morsi and his opponents have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of torturing them. Clashes broke out around the presidential palace when Morsi supporters descended on an opposition sit-in and dispersed it, removing the tents and assaulting the protesters, including women, say the opposition. The clashes intensified when more opposition protesters joined and the resulting violence led to nine deaths and more than 700 injuries. The clashes followed a contentious decree issued by Morsi in late November that granted him extraordinary powers. Morsi has called for a referendum on Saturday on a draft constitution rushed through to avert the current crisis. The opposition National Salvation Front said on Wednesday it would campaign for a 'no' vote rather than a boycott if the referendum goes through with the requisite judicial supervision and appropriate security measures. If these conditions were not met, it would call for a boycott. Liberals, secularists, Christians and other critics say the draft is full of obscurely worded clauses that could give clerics the power to introduce sharia law. They say the 100-member constituent assembly tasked to draft the constitution was packed with Islamists and ultraconservatives who ignored other groups' concerns. During the fighting earlier this month, Muslim Brotherhood members captured and detained opposition protesters, holding them for hours and beating them, according to the testimonies of those present. This was done in the plain sight of security forces present at the palace who did not intervene, they claim. Ola Shahba said she was kept tied up for hours in a republican guard kiosk outside the walls of the palace. "They caught me and were looking for the cross on my wrist, thinking I was Christian. I was beaten and detained. The police supervised the detainment, one officer was joking with them about which one of them would do me over. They insisted that I was paid to be there, and asked me silly questions about which embassy I went to to receive funds," she said. An ex-diplomat, Yehia Negm, said he had also been detained in the same group. He said he was interrogated over which embassy he received funding from, and he said that Muslim Brotherhood leaders were present. The Muslim Brotherhood has denied all accusations of firing on protesters. In a statement released the day after the clashes, the government accused protesters of plotting against them. "The plot ended with an attempt to storm the presidential palace in order to topple the regime and oust the legitimate head of state. This was aborted when pro-Morsi demonstrators sacrificed their lives and shed their blood to protect the legitimacy of the revolution and popular will." The statement also offered condolences to the families of "our martyrs". Reda Senussi, whose brother Mohamed, 22, was shot that night, alleged that members of the Muslim Brotherhood approached his family at the morgue hoping to convince them to have his brother's body included in a funeral procession arranged by the Brotherhood over their fallen. The Brotherhood has said that all the casualties from that night were from their side. Reda said his brother was returning from work when he was shot and was not affiliated with either side. The ninth death following the clashes was confirmed by the ministry of health on Wednesday. Journalist Al-Husseini Abu Deif was declared clinically dead after being shot in the clashes. Journalists gathered in front of the journalists' syndicate in Cairo for a memorial.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BBC presenter is the suspect in 199 crimes in 17 areas of the country, while NSPCC says allegations have 'left a deep scar' A senior police officer in charge of the Jimmy Savile investigation has warned of more arrests to come as he disclosed that the late BBC presenter had been accused of 31 rapes in seven different areas of the country. Revealing the scale of the investigation, Commander Peter Spindler said 450 individuals had made allegations against the former BBC celebrity, mostly of sexual assault. It is understood that 139 individuals made allegations against others including celebrities and people in positions of power. The scoping exercise into the scale and nature of allegations against Savile had been completed, Spindler said, but police activity against other alleged abusers was still continuing. "Our officers will continue to investigate allegations made against those who potentially can be brought to justice. More arrests nationally will be forthcoming," he said. "Our response should send a clear warning to anyone today now in a position of power and influence who abuse their status to sexually exploit children and young people: victims will be listened to and robust action taken." Officers are still collating the data from their inquiry into the activities of Savile over several decades, but the 10-week investigation has uncovered sexual abuse allegations on an unprecedented scale. Peter Watt, director of the NSPCC, children's charity, said the scale of the child abuse allegations uncovered had "left a deep scar on the consciousness of the country". Watt added: "We must do all we can to ensure this never happens again by listening to children, taking them seriously and taking action to protect them. Sadly, Savile's victims had to wait decades for help. We have a historic opportunity to learn from the past and make a difference to how we protect children today." The joint Metropolitan police/NSPCC report on Savile is due to be published in full in the new year. Spindler said 82% of the alleged victims who had come forward were women. About 80% of those who contacted police reported alleged assaults that took place while they were children or adolescents. Seven men – including singer Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr, DJ Dave Lee Travis, BBC producer Wilfred De'ath and publicist Max Clifford – have been questioned by the Savile inquiry team, Operation Yewtree. All seven deny wrongdoing. Spindler said its officers had also assisted in the arrest of three other individuals elsewhere in the country. It is understood these include the BBC Radio 5 Live reporter Stuart Hall, who was arrested by Lancashire police and charged last week with three counts of indecent assault dating back nearly 40 years. Spindler said the scale of the investigation and the number of victims who had come forward had given officers the opportunity to provide as clear an overview as possible of Savile's activities over several decades. Operation Yewtree has recorded 199 crimes in 17 forces in which Savile is the suspect. The inquiry had given " a voice to those who had come forward", said Spindler, and it would help "shape future child protection safeguards". "The report is based on information provided from the hundreds of victims who have come forward since early October," said Spindler. "These levels of reporting of sexual abuse against a single individual are unprecedented in the UK and 12 other inquiries or related reviews have been launched since the television broadcast on 4 October [in an ITV documentary] in which five women recounted being abused by Savile." As a result of the massive publicity about the Savile investigation and the questioning of seven individuals in relation to the linked inquiry into historic child abuse, reporting of child exploitation, rape and sexual assaults had significantly increased, to the police and to other agencies, Spindler said. He said there had been a fourfold increase in reports to the Metropolitan police's child abuse investigation teams. In the month before the launch of Operation Yewtree, the teams received 55 reports of historic rape and serious sexual offences. In November, the month following the revelations about Savile, reporting rose to 299 incidents. Operation Sapphire, the Met's rape investigation command, received a 100% increase in reported cases in October and November in comparison with 2011 figures, according to Spindler. This spike goes against the general trend of a 15% reduction in rape reporting year on year. In Greater London, 1,444 rape reports were made from April to the end of September, a 15% fall on 2011 figures. The NSPCC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre also experienced similar increases in reporting, Spindler said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nato and US officials say short-range missiles detected looked like Scuds, as Syrian opposition wins international recognition Forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad's regime have fired Scud missiles at rebel fighters in Syria, according to US and Nato officials, in what appears to be a further escalation of the conflict. In Brussels, a Nato official expanded on a report in the New York Times, saying that a number of short-range ballistic missiles had been launched inside Syria. "Allied intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets have detected the launch of a number of unguided, short-range ballistic missiles inside Syria this week … Trajectory and distance travelled indicate they were Scud-type missiles," said the Nato official. Meanwhile, Syria's new opposition body received full political recognition from more than 100 countries on Wednesday in a move that takes it a step closer to being declared a government-in-exile. The nascent organisation, known as the Syrian National Coalition, immediately reached out to the country's Alawite community, a core Assad constituency which has largely remained loyal to the regime throughout the 21-month crisis. Chastened by criticism that opposition members had done little to convince minorities that they have a stake in a post-Assad Syria, the coalition's new leader, Moaz al-Khatib, called on Alawites to rise up against regime rule. "We send a direct message to the Alawite brethren," he said. "The Syria revolution is extending its hand to you, so extend your hand back and start civil disobedience against the regime because it repressed you like it repressed us." The coalition's messages at the "Friends of Syria" meeting in Morocco were carefully tailored to a receptive audience that pledged around $250m (£150m) in aid – $100m each from Qatar and Saudi Arabia alone. However, while denouncing the extremism that has crept into some elements of the armed opposition, Khatib, a former imam of the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, called on the US to reconsider its move to designate the Jabhat al-Nusra group as a terror organisation. "The decision to blacklist one of the groups fighting the regime as a terrorist organisation must be re-examined," Khatib, told the meeting in Marrakech. "There is nothing wrong with fighting in the name of Islam. He added: "We can have ideological and political differences with certain parties, but the revolutionaries all share the same goal: to overthrow the criminal regime of President Bashar Assad." The statement is unlikely to have been well received in Washington, which will welcome Khatib as the official leader of Syria's opposition, following an invitation given to him at the conference by the deputy secretary of state for the Middle East, William Burns. The US designation of Jabhat al-Nusra, which Washington says is an alias for al-Qaida in Iraq, was made on Tuesday after months of examining the group's emerging role in the civil war, especially in eastern and northern Syria and in Damascus. While eschewing Jabhat al-Nusra's radical, sectarian ideology, many Syrian rebel units refuse to condemn the group, because it is giving them a military edge that they cannot produce by themselves. The decision to proscribe the group has not gone down well with some rebel units, but was strongly defended by Burns. "The step that we took with regard to the designation of the al-Nusra Front raises an alarm about a very different kind of future for Syria, about the direction that a group like al-Nusra will try to take Syria to impose its will and threaten the social fabric of Syria," he said. Three bombs, at least one of them a suicide bomb – a hallmark of Jabhat al-Nusra – were reported to have been detonated outside Syria's interior ministry late on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding more than 20. Large-scale bombings have battered Damascus since early this year and the capital remains an active war zone, with rebel groups on the southern outskirts attempting to oust loyalist forces who control the central city, the heart of the regime's power base. While providing the opposition with the political legitimacy it had coveted throughout the past year, western backers continue to balk at providing weapons to the rebels. France said on Wednesday that it had not yet reached a decision to arm the rebels, while William Hague said Britain was reserving all options. "I believe that of all the meetings we have had so far for the friends of Syria, this will turn out to be the most significant," he said. Earlier meetings had ended in a failure to get earlier incarnations of the coalition to act as a cohesive, or inclusive political body. The US and European states have invested much diplomatic capital since late in the summer in establishing convincing structures in both the civilian and military side of the opposition that could be used to channel desperately needed aid into Syria. Distributing the aid will be the first challenge for the new group, which now must deal with an emerging humanitarian crisis. More than 2 million people have been internally displaced by fighting that has ravaged cities and small communities and left large numbers of the population, who are now in the grip of winter, barely able to meet subsistence needs. "We look to the coalition to continue creating more formal structures within the opposition and to accelerate planning for a democratic political transition that protects the rights, the dignity and the aspirations of all Syrians and all communities," Burns said, announcing that the US had pledged $14m towards direct humanitarian aid.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bernanke calls unemployment an 'enormous waste of potential' as Fed plans fresh asset buying to try to kickstart US economy Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve chairman, called unemployment an "enormous waste of human and economic potential" as he set new targets for the central bank's massive economic stimulus programme Wednesday. After a two-day meeting, the Fed said it will keep interest rates at close to zero until the unemployment rate drops below 6.5%. The central bank also rejigged its multi-billion dollar monthly asset-buying programme in a fresh attempt to kickstart the lacklustre US economy as Bernanke warned that the argument over the fiscal cliff threatened to derail the recovery. In its final meeting of the year, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) said economic activity and employment had "continued to expand at a moderate pace in recent months, apart from weather-related disruptions". Although the unemployment rate has declined, the FOMC said it remained "elevated" and set itself a target for reducing the numbers out of work. The US unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low last month of 7.7%, but the latest fall was driven in part by people quitting the labour force. Bernanke said the decision to set targets made the Fed's policy more "transparent". The shift is a major move for the Fed, which had previously said it intended to keep interest rates near zero at least until mid-2015. Chicago fed president Charlie Evans has been pressing for the Fed to commit to easing monetary policy until unemployment was 7% or core inflation was above 3%. The policy has become known as the "Evans Rule". The move underlines the Fed's concern with US unemployment, which remains high even though the country has officially been out of recession since June 2009. Bernanke warned once again that failure to reach an agreement over the fiscal cliff would have dire consequences for the US economy. Unless a compromise on the year end expiration of tax cuts and imposition of spending cuts can be reached "the economy will, I think, go off a cliff," he said. "I don't think the Federal Reserve has the tools to offset that event," he said. Bernanke said it was "exceptionally important and urgent" that a solution is reached. "I'm hoping that Congress will do the right thing on the fiscal cliff," he said. "There's a problem with kicking the can down the road." As the Fed seeks to drive down unemployment and stimulate the economy, the FOMC said it would begin buying $45bn of long-term Treasury bonds each month. The stimulus programme will replace another asset-buying scheme known as Operation Twist. The latest asset-buying programme follows on from the Fed's decision to launch a third round of "quantitative easing" – QE3 – in September, aimed at stimulating the economy by buying mortgage-backed assets. QE3 is also an open-ended programme, unlike its predecessors. The US is now buying a total of $85bn a month in assets between its stimulus programmes. "In determining how long to maintain a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy, the committee will also consider other information, including additional measures of labour market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial developments," the FOMC said. Eleven out of 12 Fed officials on Wednesday voted to continue QE3, which buys $40bn of mortgage-backed securities each month. "Taken together, these actions should maintain downward pressure on long-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative," the FOMC said. "In short, the Fed is aggressively trying to add to the economy's strength, but its accommodation has become more clearly conditional. The impact of asset buying is debatable, but over time the effects are significant, in our view. The main risk is that inflation expectations start rising significantly; that has not happened so far," Jim O'Sullivan, chief US economist at HFE said in a note to clients. "Come stronger unemployment results, elevated inflation readings, or Mayan apocalypse, it seems like Bernanke and his friends on the FOMC are just gonna keep on buyin'," Janney Fixed Income Strategy said in a note to clients.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | International community condemns move by leaders of March coup and urges them to return Mali to constitutional order Mali's interim president has named a replacement prime minister less than a day after his predecessor was forced out and put under house arrest, provoking international condemnation. The arrest has deepened concerns about Mali's stability at a time when the international community was considering backing a military intervention, including Malian soldiers, to claim the country's north from the hands of radical Islamists. The president of neighbouring Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, who has served as a mediator, said on Wednesday that the latest developments threatened to worsen the Malian crisis. Longtime civil servant Diango Cissoko was chosen late Tuesday as the new prime minister in Mali's transitional government, first set up after the military coup in March. The military ousting of his predecessor Cheikh Modibo Diarra has prompted fierce criticism from the UN, US and African Union, among others. The president of the AU commission strongly condemned recent events in Mali and called for the "complete subordination of the army and security forces to civilian rule". German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle also warned that the forced resignation made western countries wary of getting involved in a military incursion in the north. "One thing is clear: our offers of help come with the condition that the process of restoring constitutional order in Mali be conducted credibly," he said. The latest developments have also raised concerns among ordinary Malians. Maouloud Daou, who lives in Hombori, a city under the control of radical Islamists, said: "We don't really understand the reaction of Captain Sanogo [the coup leader]. Instead of creating an atmosphere of understanding between politicians in Bamako to resolve our problem in the north, Sanogo still continues to create trouble in Bamako." Cissoko, 62, held a number of positions under the administration of longtime president Amadou Toumani Touré, who was overthrown by mutinous soldiers in March. Coup leader Sanogo never relinquished control despite pledges to do so, and on Monday forces loyal to him arrested Diarra at his home. Junta spokesman Bakary Mariko acknowledged that soldiers allied with the coup leader had detained the previous prime minister and had him under house arrest. Mariko said Diarra was "not getting along" with either the interim president or Sanogo. Two security officials, including a police officer and an intelligence agent, confirmed that Sanogo had ordered the prime minister's arrest. On state television on Tuesday, Sanogo accused Diarra of pursuing his personal ambitions rather than the good of the country. "We didn't force him. We facilitated [his resignation]. A few weeks ago, he himself told us that if we really wanted him to leave, that he would hand in [his resignation] but not to the president of the republic, nor to any other authority – only to us," said Sanogo. "Yesterday we realized that it was really necessary for him to resign. And it's for this reason that we brought him to Kati." Diarra was initially seen as being in-step with Sanogo. Critics lambasted him for frequently driving to the Kati barracks to see the coup leader, long after Sanogo was supposed to have handed power to civilians. In recent weeks though, Diarra has taken stances that sometimes conflicted with Sanogo. Cissoko won favour with Sanogo by giving him equal standing with the interim president and prime minister during mediation efforts to resolve Mali's political crisis. The military's meddling in state affairs has concerned the international community. Many worry that supporting the operation will simply further arm and embolden the very officers responsible for Mali's current state. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called Diarra's arrest a setback for Mali. "We need Sanogo and his brothers-in-arms to stay out of politics," she told reporters. The UN security council threatened to impose sanctions against those blocking a return to constitutional order in Mali and called on the armed forces to stop interfering in state affairs.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Move by communist regime expected to boost rightwing candidates in forthcoming elections in Japan and South Korea Fears about renewed North Korean military aggression sparked by Pyongyang's successful launch of a long-range rocket on Wednesday are likely to boost rightwing and nationalist candidates in crucial elections due in Japan and South Korea within the next week, regional analysts warned. As a wave of international condemnation engulfed North Korea following what it claimed was a peaceful satellite launch, Shinzō Abe, a noted hawk and leader of Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic party opposition, demanded immediate action to punish the isolated communist state. "Japan should work together with the international community to adopt a new resolution at the United Nations to strongly condemn North Korea. The rocket launch was outrageous. The international community needs to impose harsh sanctions," Abe said. Abe, a former prime minister who is tipped to unseat the ruling Democratic party government in this weekend's closely-fought parliamentary election, could be a big beneficiary of North Korea's action, said Christopher Hughes, a regional expert and professor of international politics at Warwick University. "The North has played directly into the hands of Japan's conservative rightwing and nationalist forces," Hughes said. "This is very much an 'I told you so' situation for Abe. It's a gift from Kim Jong-un [the North Korean leader] to the Japanese right." Far-right Japanese parties that claim North Korea and its main ally, China, pose a fundamental threat and that advocate Japanese rearmament, including with nuclear weapons, would also benefit from an upsurge in tensions, Hughes said. "It legitimises their arguments for a tougher line and the expansion of Japan's military strength. They are North Korea-bashers but they are also taking aim at China," he said. The rocket row is likely to have a similar impact in South Korea where the main conservative candidate in the 19 December presidential elections, Park Geun-hye, has taken a tough stance on North Korea, demanding it abandon missile tests and renounce nuclear weapons. The North has denounced Park as a "fascist". Park's spokesman described the launch as a "serious provocation" before attacking her main rival, Moon Jae-in, who has advocated unconditional talks with the North. Park would pursue "strong national security", the spokesman said. He accused Moon of being "ignorant of the reason why the international community is concerned and against North Korea's long-range rocket launching test". US missile warning systems detected the rocket on Wednesday 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 liftoff. In an unusual show of candour, the regime quickly admitted the launch had been a failure. If reports about the success of this latest launch are correct, the regime can reasonably claim to have significantly improved its technological knowhow. 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 North Korea's 29-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, who was anointed last year after the death 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." 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.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | House Republicans hold meeting with John Boehner and claim there is little hope of resolving negotiations before Christmas Republican members of Congress expressed dismay on Wednesday about the prospect of reaching a deal with the White House to resolve the fiscal cliff crisis before Christmas. At the end of an hour-long briefing with House speaker John Boehner, Republican members were despondent leaving the meeting, complaining there has been little progress and there was nothing resembling a legitimate deal on the table on tax and spending. In spite of the expressions of gloom about a deal, the fact that Obama and Boehner are still negotiating offers some hope of an eventual compromise. The Republicans also appear to be less intransigent and less ideologically driven, than they were were during the 2010 and 2011 showdowns. Boehner, who spoke to Obama on Sunday and again Tuesday, confirmed that Obama had lowered his demand for new revenue from $1.6tn to $1.4tn, but still far short of the $800bn the Republicans say they are willing to support. Boehner said the $1.4tn could not get through the Republican-dominated House. The Republican majority leader, Eric Cantor, who also spoke at the Republican meeting, warned members to brace themselves for staying in Washington until Christmas Eve and to return again in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. The deadline for a deal on tax and spending is January 1. "We've said we're committed to staying here. We're going to stay here right up until Christmas Eve, throughout the time and period before the New Year, because we want to make sure we resolve this in an acceptable way for the American people," Cantor said. What makes a deal possible is that the Republicans, in spite of all their instincts to the contrary, are willing to accept tax rises in January. They identified the biggest sticking point as the fact that Obama was not prepared to match the tax rises with deep spending cuts. Boehner seems to have the support of his members, something he lacked in the 2010 and 2011 showdowns, when he faced resistance and even open revolt, particularly from newly-elected members backed by the Tea Party. The meeting was held in part to bolster that support. Republican congressman John Campbell, from California, after leaving the meeting, said he was unimpressed by what Obama had offered so far. "The negotiations are nowhere. I do not know whether our president is incapable of negotiating or is not interested in it." He added: "It is clear that in spite of the fact that they are talking, they are getting nowhere. I have done things with the Democrats. Tell me: what spending are they willing to cut? What entitlements are they prepared to cut? Not 10 years from now. The taxes are going to go up in 20 days. They are talking about spending cuts that come into effect in 20 years.We are not going to get anywhere as long as that is their position." On taxes, Campbell said: "We hate tax increases. We think it's a bad idea. But we have said 'all right, we will go there' – but we have had no response. The Democrats say they do not want to reform entitlements, but they will have to. Until they go there, I do not see how this is ever going to get resolved." Andy Harris, from Maryland, echoed Campbell. "The president still has not presented a plan. The president wants to increase taxes and talk about spending cuts later. That is not a plan." Another Republican member of Congress, Marsha Blackburn, from Tennessee, chatting in the corridor outside the meeting, said: "The speaker is hanging on in there. We would like to think the president would agree to some spending cuts."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Protesters turn out alongside right-to-work demonstrators against bill activists say ignores message sent by election result Among the thousands of protesters who took to the streets in Michigan on Tuesday against the state's right-to-work laws were hundreds dressed in pink T-shirts and waving banners, determined to highlight another issue they say is in danger of being overshadowed: the state's sweeping assault on women's health. Last week, while much focus was on the union-limiting legislation going through the state legislature at the same time, a package of bills that would restrict women's access to abortions and could restrict birth control were passed by the state Senate. They will now be considered by the House. One would allow physicians, hospitals and other health providers to refuse to provide services to patients when there is a "moral" or "conscientious" objection. It would also, on the same grounds, allow employers to refuse to pay for services. Michigan already has a conscientious objection provision that allows healthcare providers to refuse to perform abortions. Other bills approved by the Senate would ensure that health plans participating in Michigan's proposed "Obamacare" health exchange would not cover abortions unless women seeking insurance buy an optional abortion insurance "rider" to have such services covered. The extreme measures were inserted into a package of bills to reform healthcare provider Blue Cross Blue Shield, into a nonprofit, mutual insurer. In an editorial on Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press said the measures could turn Michigan into "the nation's most regressive state in terms of reproductive rights". It has described the idea that a healthcare worker can refuse to provide services to patients as "obscene" and has urged the state governor, Rick Snyder, not to sign them. Republican senators have said they support them because people who are against abortion should not see their payments help to cover abortion. But Democrats and pro-choice campaigners say that insured people already help pay for other services they may object to, such as liver transplants for alcoholics. Meghan Groen, the director of government relations at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan, said it was an unprecedented attack on women's health by the Republican legislature, which has ignored the message sent to them by the election result. Opposition to the measures have come from healthcare providers, the American Council for Civil Liberties and a huge number of Michigan women, she said. Groen said the effect of the legislation was "extremely broad". "We're not just talking about abortion or women's health. An insurer could refuse to provide coverage, an education provider could refuse to provide education, or counselling services. Any facility of institution can create a policy saying that they refuse to provide any service if it interferes with their conscience." Groen said the legislation could take away benefits that 80% of plans in Michigan cover. "You are talking about taking away services that are currently permitted." "The insurance ban would ban abortion coverage in all plans in the state of Michigan. This is very extreme in terms of any state that has restrictions on abortion. Back in 2001, we had an anti-choice Republican governor that vetoed such legislation." After passing in the state Senate, the bills are expected to be heard in committee in the house this week. According to Roger Kahn, a Republican senator for Michigan who broke with his party to vote against the bill, it could allow doctors to refuse to write birth control prescriptions and open the door to refusing other services. "I don't know how this doesn't violate the oath I took, when I promised to resuscitate someone with TB or treat someone with Aids," he said, according to the Detroit Free Press. Michigan is already expected to pass an omnibus House bill, which would restrict abortion access by imposing additional regulations on abortion clinics and effectively shutting some down. The bills would prevent all insurance plans in Michigan from covering abortion unless a woman would die without the procedure. The broad nature of the state bills have led to comparisons with Ireland, where last month a young pregnant woman died after an Irish hospital refused to perform an abortion that would have saved her life after she began miscarrying. The death of Savita Halappanavar caused outrage worldwide. Writing in her blog on Monday, Jennifer Dalven, the director of ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, wrote that the Michigan bills were "dangerous and wrongheaded" and said: "to pass it in the wake of Savita's death is unthinkable". She said: "A pregnant woman who enters an emergency room should be guaranteed that she will get the care she needs if something goes terribly wrong. This should go without saying, but apparently some Michigan politicians need reminding: saving a woman's life must be every hospital's first priority." A conscience clause would reduce the number of facilities offering abortions in the state and, as many areas in Michigan are rural, it could affect some areas more than others. Groen said: "In suburban areas, you could drive around and seek out a hospital that would treat you. But when you are in 80% of the state, you may have nowhere else to go." "The Irish case proves that doctors don't always know what a life-threatening decision is."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican House speaker to hold press conference as report suggests GOP and Obama are edging closer to a deal. Follow developments live
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kristina Shevchenko, 15, one of at least three people shot when man opened fire in Portland suburb before killing himself A teenage girl wounded in a shooting spree at an Oregon shopping mall that left three dead, including the suspected gunman, is in serious condition, a hospital official said on Wednesday. Kristina Shevchenko was one of at least three people shot when a man wearing what appeared to be a hockey mask opened fire with a rifle at the crowded Clackamas Town Center in the Portland suburb of Happy Valley. Police will release the names of the victims and the shooter at a news press conference at 10am PT on Wednesday, Clackamas County under-sheriff Matt Ellington said on CNN. Shevchenko's name was released by the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital on authorization of her family. "The family is doing OK," Shevchenko's brother, Yevgeniy, said. He said his sister was 15 years old and declined further comment. In a Facebook posting Tuesday night, Yevgeniy Shevchenko said: "As of now she is stable and sleeping. The bullet went trough bruising her lung; it missed any vital organs and it missed her ribs. She will need two more operations. We appreciate any and all support including your prayers! Thank you." Ellington said on CNN that police have recovered a rifle, multiple shell casings and a mask matching the one witnesses said was worn by the shooter. He said authorities have no idea of the motive of the gunman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and appears to have had no connection to the victims. The afternoon rampage touched off panic inside the mall, sending thousands of shoppers streaming out as police and fire crews arrived. The incident marked the latest in a string of shooting attack this year that included the killing of 12 people and wounding of 58 at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado. In Oregon, police evacuated terrified shoppers, who were reported by local media and via Twitter to have hidden in the back rooms of shops as gunshots rang out in the 1.4m sq ft mall. High school student Hannah Baggs, 14, told the Oregonian newspaper that she got a close look at the gunman before he entered the mall and opened fire. "He was, like, 10ft away from us, wearing a white mask and carrying something heavy with both hands," Baggs said in a report on the newspaper's website. "He went running into the store." Police and Swat teams established a perimeter around the scene and worked to evacuate the mall as they searched for the gunman. Video footage from inside the mall, aired on CNN, showed shoppers heading toward exits with their arms raised above their heads. Ellington said the Clackamas Town Center mall had been used recently by police for a mass evacuation drill.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Youngest ever editor of the Murdoch-owned newspaper says it was made clear News Corp wanted to make new appointment James Harding has resigned as Times editor after five years, telling journalists on the paper that he was leaving because News Corporation had made it clear it wanted him to go. Harding summoned staff to a meeting at 3.30pm on Wednesday to announce that he had resigned. He will leave the paper – and publisher News International – at the end of the month. In his resignation speech in the Times newsroom Harding told shocked colleagues: "It has been made clear to me that News Corporation would like to appoint a new editor of the Times. I have, therefore, agreed to stand down. I called Rupert [Murdoch] this morning to offer my resignation and he accepted it." Harding added: "This job is a constant privilege and I hope you will, like me, look back with a sense of achievement at the work we have done." He said he was "proud" of the paper's campaigns on tax avoidance, adoption and cycling and its "unflinching foreign coverage". He thanked Murdoch for the "great honour" he did him in appointing him editor of the paper and said it was "a privilege and a point of pride" to work there. Those in the newsroom for the announcement said that Harding was hugged by his emotional deputy editor Keith Blackmore, who will take over as interim editor. In tears, Blackmore said that he was "the best editor the times ever had". Stunned Times journalists took to Twitter to express their shock. Sports journalist Patrick Kidd said he was "immensely saddened" by Harding's "enforced resignation". He was "universally admired, a real positive force". Reporter Fay Schlesinger tweeted: "James Harding's departure is a massive loss for us. Office quietest I've ever known it." The timing of the resignation is particularly surprising given that Harding is been leading negotiations between editors and with No 10 in the wake of the Leveson inquiry over how to design a reformed system for press regulation that will operate without statute. He is understood to have been in close talks with No 10 about how to create a body to certify the work of the press regulator that would be set up by royal charter – and chaired last Wednesday's meeting at the Delaunay restaurant, at which editors broadly agreed to sign up to the non-statutory provisions of the Leveson report. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said: "James has been a distinguished editor for the Times, attracting talented staff to the paper and leading it through difficult times. I have great respect for him as a colleague and friend, and truly hope we can work together again." Harding said in News International's official statement: "For any journalist, it is an extraordinary privilege and a point of pride to see your work appear beneath the masthead of the Times, the greatest name in newspapers in the world. "I feel hugely honoured to have been given the opportunity to edit the paper and deeply grateful for the experience of working among the finest journalists in the world. This paper has an unrivalled history and, I am extremely confident, a long and impressive future ahead of it." Harding was appointed in late 2007 following the promotion of Robert Thomson to run Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal following Rupert Murdoch's $5bn acquisition of the US financial information and news publisher. He was the youngest ever editor of the title, aged 38 when he took over. He came under criticism over the paper's decision to unmask the anonymous police blogger NightJack after his computer was hacked by former Times journalist Patrick Foster. Murdoch told the Leveson inquiry that he was "appalled" that a Times lawyer had misled the high court over how the paper came to reveal Richard Horton's identity and said he was "disappointed" that Harding decided to publish the story in the first place. In an email to staff, outgoing News International chief executive Tom Mockridge praised Harding's "energy, wit and inspiration" and the Times' coverage of key events including Olympic Games. He added: "Since his appointment as editor in 2007, James has guided the Times through transformational change. Under his leadership the title has embraced the huge advancements in technology, whilst remaining true to the heart of the story and its world-renowned reputation as the paper of record. "In the face of industry-wide pressures on circulation, the Times has managed to steady its market share and expand its subscription model." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | One of youngest editors of the Murdoch-owned newspaper says it was made clear News Corp wanted to make new appointment James Harding has resigned as Times editor after five years, telling journalists on the paper that he was leaving because News Corporation had made it clear it wanted him to go. Harding summoned staff to a meeting at 3.30pm on Wednesday to announce that he had resigned. He will leave the paper at the end of the month and it is understood he is unlikely to stay on in another job at Times publisher News International or parent company News Corp. In his resignation speech in the Times newsroom Harding told shocked colleagues: "It has been made clear to me that News Corporation would like to appoint a new editor of the Times. I have, therefore, agreed to stand down. I called Rupert [Murdoch] this morning to offer my resignation and he accepted it." Harding added: "This job is a constant privilege and I hope you will, like me, look back with a sense of achievement at the work we have done." He said he was "proud" of the paper's campaigns on tax avoidance, adoption and cycling and its "unflinching foreign coverage". He thanked Murdoch for the "great honour" he did him in appointing him editor of the paper and said it was "a privilege and a point of pride" to work there. Those in the newsroom for the announcement said that Harding was hugged by his emotional deputy editor Keith Blackmore, who will take over as interim editor. In tears, Blackmore said that he was "the best editor the times ever had". John Witherow, the editor of the Sunday Times for the last 15 years, is being tipped as a possible replacement, along with his deputy Martin Ivens. The appointment of a new Times editor must be approved by the independent directors of Times Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes it, as part of a legally binding agreement entered into by Murdoch when he acquired the paper in 1981. Stunned Times journalists took to Twitter to express their shock. Sports journalist Patrick Kidd said he was "immensely saddened" by Harding's "enforced resignation". He was "universally admired, a real positive force". Reporter Fay Schlesinger tweeted: "James Harding's departure is a massive loss for us. Office quietest I've ever known it." The timing of the resignation is particularly surprising given that Harding is been leading negotiations between editors and with No 10 in the wake of the Leveson inquiry over how to design a reformed system for press regulation that will operate without statute. He is understood to have been in close talks with No 10 about how to create a body to certify the work of the press regulator that would be set up by royal charter – and chaired last Wednesday's meeting at the Delaunay restaurant, at which editors broadly agreed to sign up to the non-statutory provisions of the Leveson report. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said: "James has been a distinguished editor for the Times, attracting talented staff to the paper and leading it through difficult times. I have great respect for him as a colleague and friend, and truly hope we can work together again." Harding said in News International's official statement: "For any journalist, it is an extraordinary privilege and a point of pride to see your work appear beneath the masthead of the Times, the greatest name in newspapers in the world. "I feel hugely honoured to have been given the opportunity to edit the paper and deeply grateful for the experience of working among the finest journalists in the world. This paper has an unrivalled history and, I am extremely confident, a long and impressive future ahead of it." Harding was appointed in late 2007 following the promotion of Robert Thomson to run Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal following Rupert Murdoch's $5bn acquisition of the US financial information and news publisher. He was the second youngest ever editor of the title, aged 38 when he took over. He came under criticism over the paper's decision to unmask the anonymous police blogger NightJack after his computer was hacked by former Times journalist Patrick Foster. Murdoch told the Leveson inquiry that he was "appalled" that a Times lawyer had misled the high court over how the paper came to reveal Richard Horton's identity and said he was "disappointed" that Harding decided to publish the story in the first place. Harding began his career on the Financial Times. He opened the paper's Shanghai bureau and went on to become bureau chief in Washington before joining the Times as business editor. In an email to staff, outgoing News International chief executive Tom Mockridge praised Harding's "energy, wit and inspiration" and the Times' coverage of key events including Olympic Games. He added: "Since his appointment as editor in 2007, James has guided the Times through transformational change. Under his leadership the title has embraced the huge advancements in technology, whilst remaining true to the heart of the story and its world-renowned reputation as the paper of record. "In the face of industry-wide pressures on circulation, the Times has managed to steady its market share and expand its subscription model." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Critics, Cheney apologists and liberals are at each others' throats, but film needs the scenes – as inaccurate as they are "I'm betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie Zero Dark Thirty," wrote New York Times columnist Frank Bruni at the weekend, firing the opening salvo in a week-long conflagration between critics and columnists on Kathryn Bigelow's new film about the hunting and killing of Osama bin Laden – more specifically, the role that torture played in that hunt. "No waterboarding, no Bin Laden," said Bruni. "That's what Zero Dark Thirty appears to suggest." As the awards rolled in – best film and director from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle were quickly followed by the top honors from the National Board of Review and Boston film critics – liberal ire mounted. "I don't believe that this film is being so well-received despite its glorification of American torture," said Glenn Greenwald in these pages, despite not having seen the film. "It's more accurate to say it's so admired because of this." This calculated kick to the shins elicited a swift response from the film community, not least New York magazine's Mark Harris, who went mano-e-mano with Greenwald on Twitter. To take a step back for a minute, Zero Dark Thirty does depict several torture sessions, under Bush, which produce information, which are shown eventually leading to Bin Laden's courier, and thence to Bin Laden himself. This reading of events – that torture led to the killing of Bin Laden – is demonstrably false. According to several official sources, including Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate intelligence committee, the identity of Bin Laden's courier, whose trail led the CIA to the hideout in Pakistan, was not discovered through waterboarding. Greenwald is therefore perfectly entitled to his dismay. Anything that feeds the posturing of pumpkinheads like MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, charming his morning viewers with schoolboyish enthusiasm for cramming men into coffins, is a Bad Thing. On the other hand, making films that stem the posturing of pumpkinheads, while a noble aim in the abstract, is ultimately a fruitless and quixotic endeavor. Pumpkinheadedness is a self-replenishing resource. And Greenwald's guesses as to what the tone of Zero Dark Thirty might turn out to be, were he to see it – "glorifying", "noble", "clinging tightly to patriotic orthodoxies" – while reasonable guesses, given the number of jingoistic, gung-ho tubthumpers Hollywood does produce every year, prove to be way off-target. Zero Dark Thirty is not that film. Anybody going into it expecting to come out air-punching the good ol' USA are in for a shock leaving them shaken not stirred. The movie does indeed make a case for torture. But guess what? It looks surprisingly similar to a movie making the case against it. The torture in the film is squalid, sickening and prolonged. The innocent-looking huts in which it takes place, bathed in chalky sunlight, have the corrugated drabness of Nazi death camps. The head bully-boy – played by ruggedly handsome New Zealand actor Jason Clarke – is as magnetic as Ralph Fiennes was in Schindler's List. And these are our heroes. As David Edelstein said in his review: "As a moral statement, Zero Dark Thirty is borderline fascistic. As a piece of cinema, it's phenomenally gripping – an unholy masterwork." The word "fascist" gets kicked around a little too much in connection with the arts. As a general rule, if something involves the purchase of a theatre ticket, rather than a jackboot pressing on your carotid, it's probably not fascism. And I'm as bored as the next man by people telling me I must be made "uncomfortable" by a film – to have my moral certainties shaken, my ambivalence nursed and doubts explored and so on. Too often, it means merely a cross-hatching of symmetrically-opposed sympathies – a studied neutrality, as neat as the certainties it opposes. Confounding one's certainties is such a routine part of our liberal arts diet that I can't believe anyone is remotely confounded anymore. Rare is the film in possession of the real thing – deep, full-bore ambivalence – and the few that are happen to be masterpieces: Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers, a film that pulls off the impossible feat of being both pro- and anti-terrorist at the same time; or Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's Wagnerian epic about the Vietnam war that is also a Gonzo, gung-ho classic thanks to the contributions of writer John Milius, a self-proclaimed Zen anarchist and NRA member, who hated all the hippies infesting Hollywood at the time, and who wanted to shoot the film in Vietnam while it was still going on in order to teach them all a lesson: We would have arrived in time for Tet probably … and all these people who were in school with me, who had done all these terrible things like planning to go to Canada, and do something as drastic as getting married to avoid the war … they were willing to go to Vietnam … They wanted to carry lights and sound equipment over mine fields, and I think Warner Bros probably backed off because they figured most of us would probably be killed.
But Milius's jingoism survives in the film – it's there in the ride-of-the-Valkyrie sequence, and the surf's-up scene on the beach, with Robert Duvall, himself a GI kid who grew up in a military family and served two years in the US army during the Korean war, squatting on his heels, bare-chested, taking in the "smell of napalm in the morning". It is among the greatest of all war scenes, lyrical and barbaric in equal measure, and it couldn't have been made except by a film-maker in two minds about war. How could anyone be otherwise? Why did Bigelow and Boal make up the stuff about torture getting Bin Laden in their film? Who knows. Maybe they wanted a dramatic opening. The word is that Boal "went native" at the CIA and fell in love with his sources. As much as one might hate anything that adds to the self-justification of thugs like Cheney, Zero Dark Thirty would be a lesser film without those scenes. It's Breughelian frieze of America's secret history, would feel incomplete without them – artistically redacted. I'll be interested to see what kind of audience it gets.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Markets await Ecofin meeting and hope Federal Reserve will throw another $45bn of electronic money at US economy
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Accounts at Rupert Murdoch's firm reveal payoff to former chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks walked away with £10.8m from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation as compensation after she resigned from her position as chief executive of News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, UK accounts published by News Corp show. The total is higher than the £7m that Brooks, who also counted David Cameron and Tony Blair as friends, had previously been thought to have taken home and is far in excess of the £3.5m payout believed to have been given at the time of her departure from News International in July 2011. Accounts for NI Group Ltd, the UK holding company for News Corp's Sun and Times titles plus its HarperCollins British book business, and other related companies disclosed the payment – the first time the company has confirmed how much Brooks received – ahead of its expected public market listing in 2012. The accounts say that an unnamed director received £10.852m as "compensation for loss of office". That money includes "various ongoing benefits" – including the funding for the costs of an office in Marylebone for two years, and for the cost of providing her some staff for the same period of time. It is understood that person is Brooks. A close ally of Rupert Murdoch, who once described her as his "larrikin" – mischievous youth – she edited the News of the World and the Sun in succession before taking over as chief executive of News International in the summer of 2009. Brooks will also have "all legal and other professional costs" relating to the various court cases she is fighting paid for by News Corp "until those investigations are concluded" – and the company noted that it expected further costs to be incurred, costs not factored in the accounts for the year to 1 July 2012. The former chief executive is facing three sets of charges in relation to alleged criminality at the News of the World and News International. She has been accused of conspiring with her husband, Charlie, and others to pervert the course of justice and frustrate an investigation by the Metropolitan police into the publisher. She is also facing two charges in relation to conspiring to intercept the voicemails of individuals including those Milly Dowler. She is also facing a charge in relation to corrupt payments allegedly made to a former Ministry of Defence official for stories, alongside the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay. The accounts did not say if there was any clawback arrangement to reclaim any money should Brooks be found guilty of a criminal offence relating to her employment. But on the last occasion when reports of the size of her severance circulated, News International sources indicated that money would have to be paid back if a court returned a guilty verdict. Overall, NI Group, reported a loss of £189.4m after tax – although the deficit at Britain's largest newspaper group stemmed largely from £250m worth of charges relating to the closure of the News of the World and legal bills relating to phone hacking and other police investigations. The company ran up legal bills of £140.9m, redundancy and restructuring costs, relating mainly to the closure of the News of the World, of £29.8m. The £150m sale of its historic Wapping print plant and headquarters also prompted a loss on the disposal of £59m. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ecofin debates banking supervision as Federal Reserve throws another $45bn of electronic money at US economy
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russian president uses speech to attack 'meddling' in domestic affairs Vladimir Putin has warned against foreign meddling in Russia's politics in a speech designed to spell out his priorities for the year ahead. "Direct or indirect meddling in our domestic politics is unacceptable," Putin told a gathering of around 1,000 politicians in the Kremlin's grand St George Hall on Wednesday. "A figure who receives money from abroad for his political work, and thus serves some foreign interest, cannot be a politician in Russia." Putin's comments built on a year-long campaign designed to paint members of the growing opposition to him as agents of the west. It was a rare moment of attack in a 90-minute speech that saw Putin more calm and subdued than usual. Amid rumours of back trouble, the 60-year-old leader often leaned on the podium as he addressed the crowd. The opposition is planning to march on Saturday to the Lubyanka, a building that housed the Soviet-era KGB and today houses its successor the FSB, in the first major gathering in months. Dozens of activists have been arrested and dozens more questioned in a far-reaching campaign designed to strike fear into those who dare protest against Putin. Putin used his speech to pay lip service to liberal ideals. "Russia does not and cannot have any political choice but democracy," Putin said. "I want to say, and even stress, that we share those universal democratic principles taken around the whole world." The opposition to Putin arose after the powerful leader announced his intention to return to the presidency after four years as prime minister. Activists complained of widespread fraud in the elections that followed. Putin acknowledged that something was missing in Russian society, and lay the blame at an absence of moral values. "It's painful for me to talk about this today, but I am required to say this. Today, Russian society has a clear deficit of spiritual principles – mercy, compassion, mutual suffering and support – a deficit of that which through all of history made us stronger, which made us proud," Putin said. He called on officials to "strengthen the strong spiritual and moral fabric of society". He also called on officials to re-instate patriotism in Russian schools, and urged Russian businesses to be patriotic. He then called for the "de-offshore-isation" of the Russian economy, referring to the fact that many Russian businesses are owned via shell companies in order to avoid taxes. Putin attempted to convey that his recently launched anti-corruption campaign was a serious move to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt government. He told the officials gathered that Russian politicians and their close relatives should be banned from keeping money in foreign banks or owning shares in foreign companies. As the crowd began to clap, he stepped in to say: "Wait to applaud, you might not like what comes next."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Russian president uses speech to attack 'meddling' in domestic affairs Vladimir Putin haswarned against foreign meddling in Russia's politics in a speech designed to spell out his priorities for the year ahead. "Direct or indirect meddling in our domestic politics is unacceptable," Putin told a gathering of about 1,000 politicians in the Kremlin's grand St George Hall on Wednesday. "A figure who receives money from abroad for his political work, and thus serves some foreign interest, cannot be a politician in Russia." The Russian president's comments build on a year-long campaign designed to paint members of the growing opposition to him as agents of the west. It was a rare moment of attack in a 90-minute speech in which Putin was more calm and subdued than usual. Amid rumours of back trouble, the 60-year-old leader often leaned on the podium as he addressed the crowd. In the first major gathering in months, the opposition is planning to march on Saturday to Moscow's Lubyanka, the building that was the base of the Soviet-era KGB and now houses its successor, the FSB. Dozens of activists have been arrested and dozens more questioned in a far-reaching campaign designed to strike fear into those who dare protest against Putin. He used his speech to pay lip service to liberal ideals. "Russia does not and cannot have any political choice but democracy," he said. "I want to say, and even stress, that we share those universal democratic principles taken around the whole world." The opposition to Putin arose after he announced his intention to return to the presidency after four years as prime minister. Activists complained of widespread fraud in the elections. Putin acknowledged that something was missing in Russian society, and lay the blame at an absence of moral values: "It's painful for me to talk about this today, but I am required to say this. Today, Russian society has a clear deficit of spiritual principles – mercy, compassion, mutual suffering and support – a deficit of that which through all of history made us stronger, which made us proud." He called on officials to "strengthen the strong spiritual and moral fabric of society" and to reinstate patriotism in Russian schools. He urged Russian businesses to be patriotic and called for the "de-offshore-isation" of the Russian economy, referring to the fact that many Russian businesses are owned via shell companies in order to avoid taxes. Putin attempted to convey that his recently launched anti-corruption campaign was a serious move to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt government. He said politicians and their close relatives should be banned from keeping money in foreign banks or owning shares in foreign companies. As the crowd began to clap, he stepped in to say: "Wait to applaud, you might not like what comes next."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Panamanian woman detained after arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.4kg of cocaine concealed in breast implants Spanish authorities have arrested a Panamanian woman who arrived at Barcelona airport with 1.38kg of cocaine concealed in her breast implants. The interior ministry said on Wednesday border police had noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on the woman's chest and pale patches beneath her skin. The woman said she had recently had breast implant surgery. Officers were suspicious and sent her to a local hospital where the implants were removed and found to contain cocaine, the ministry added. The woman had flown in from Bogotá, Colombia. European authorities routinely submit passengers arriving from Latin America to stringent checks to combat drug smuggling.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UN general assembly vote could put access to quality and affordable healthcare for all on new development agenda The UN general assembly is expected to vote in favour of a resolution for universal health coverage on Wednesday, reflecting a growing international consensus on the importance of affordable access to healthcare. The UN resolution calls on its members to ensure they have health systems that avoid significant direct payments at the point of delivery and a mechanism to pool risks among the population to avoid catastrophic healthcare spending and impoverishment as a result of seeking care. Supporters of the resolution, which is backed by the US and the UK, say the UN vote would be a step towards putting universal health coverage in the post-2015 development framework. In 2010, the US president, Barack Obama, forced his bitterly fought healthcare reform bill through Congress, bringing near-universal coverage to Americans. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines universal health coverage as "securing access to adequate healthcare for all at an affordable price", and the idea has been steadily gaining ground in recent years. Universal health coverage received a big boost with the publication in 2010 of the WHO's report Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage, which led to more than 60 middle- and low-income countries requesting technical assistance and advice to move towards universal health coverage. The WHO's director general, Margaret Chan, has campaigned assiduously for universal healthcare. She told the Lancet magazine in September that universal coverage is "the most powerful unifying single concept that public health has to offer, because you can realise the dream and the aspiration of health for every person irrespective of what class you belong to, whether you are a woman, or whether you are poor". The Lancet series in which the magazine urged the world to move towards universal healthcare was notable in carrying a piece by David de Ferranti. Now president of the Results for Development Institute, De Ferranti was on staff at the World Bank in the 1980s and was one of the chief proponents of the introduction of user fees. Explaining his apparent Damascene conversion, he told the Guardian's Sarah Boseley in October how the current situation is different to that of 30 years ago. Since then, economic growth rates, higher incomes and more available resources have put universal healthcare within reach for developing countries. De Ferranti said: "In the presence of more resources and the ability not just financially but administratively of countries to manage these programmes, which was again not there 30 years ago, it just now makes eminent sense … to move towards universal health coverage systems." In a study in October, the World Bank said that over the past five years, government-sponsored schemes in India have contributed to a significant increase in the population covered by health insurance, scaling up at a pace possibly unseen elsewhere in the world. More than 300 million people, or more than a quarter of India's population, had gained access to some form of health insurance by 2010, up from 55 million in 2003-04. More than 180 million of these were people living below the poverty line. Given these trends, the study projected that by 2015, more than 630 million people, or about half of India's population, could be covered with some form of health insurance. In 2015, spending through health insurance is likely to reach 8.4% of total health spending, up from 6.4% in 2009-10, said the study. Health Poverty Action, a UK-based NGO that has campaigned for the UN resolution, believes health services should be financed in a way that ensures everyone has access to quality care regardless of wealth, through taxation and social insurance. Martin Drewry, its director, said: "Every day, lives are lost because people simply can't afford to pay to see a doctor. It's a disgrace. If all countries had a system in which people didn't have to pay on the spot fees, like ours in the UK, millions of lives would be saved. Say what you like about the NHS, no one is turned away because they can't afford to pay." Health experts say 40% of the world's population – 2.8 billion people – have some form of risk-pooled health insurance, yet every year more than 7 million children and newborns die from preventable causes and nearly 300,000 women die due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jacintha Saldanha was discovered at flat near King Edward VII hospital where Duchess of Cambridge was being treated The nurse found dead after a hoax call to the hospital treating the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was found hanged, the Guardian understands. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, a mother of two from Bristol, was discovered unconscious at her nurses' flat near the private King Edward VII hospital in central London on Friday morning. A postmortem has been carried out, with the results expected to be officially announced at the opening of the inquest into her death on Thursday morning at Westminster coroners court. The Guardian confirmed a report on Sky News that she had been found hanged. Scotland Yard would not comment on the reports. Saldanha was the nurse who answered a hoax call to the hospital from two Australian radio DJs in the early hours of Tuesday last week, just hours after the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted for acute morning sickness. The nurse, who had worked at the hospital for more than four years, was discovered at around 9.30am on Friday morning. Reports that she left a suicide note have not been confirmed. The death is not being treated as suspicious, and the inquest is expected to be opened and adjourned on Thursday as inquiries continue. The family of the nurse are set to receive more than £350,000 from Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of the Sydney station 2Day FM, whose presenters rang the hospital inquiring about the duchess's medical condition and posing as the Queen and Prince of Wales. Saldanha is understood to be the nurse who answered the call, then, believing she was talking to members of the royal family, transferred it to a duty nurse on the duchess's ward. The DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, have spoken of their devastation over the "unforeseen consequences" of the call. Both are off air at the moment. The station has cancelled its Christmas party, and pledged to donate profits from advertising until the end of the year to a fund to help Saldanha's family. The hospital has set up a memorial fund to help support her husband and two teenage children. A Scotland Yard spokesman said on Wednesday the postmortem result "would be announced tomorrow at the inquest".
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US, UK, Japan, South Korea and UN condemn launch while China urges 'prudent and moderate' response to situation
North Korea's successful rocket launch has provoked rapid and widespread condemnation, with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, deploring a clear and "provocative" breach of security council resolutions. However, a tempered response from the North's main ally, China, which expressed regret but called for a careful reaction, suggests that a push for fresh action by the world body is likely to struggle. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said dialogue was the way forward, adding that China believed the council's reaction "should be prudent and moderate and conducive to maintaining stability and avoiding escalation of the situation". Earlier the White House condemned the act as an irresponsible decision that threatened regional security, while in Britain the foreign secretary warned it would increase tensions and urged Pyongyang to take constructive steps towards denuclearisation. William Hague added in his statement: "I deplore the fact that the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] has chosen to prioritise this launch over improving the livelihood of its people." South Korea's president held an emergency national security council meeting and the country's foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, warned that the North would face grave consequences. Japan immediately requested UN security council consultations on the launch, its foreign ministry said, describing the event as something it "cannot tolerate". Morocco, which holds the rotating presidency, said the security council would hold closed-door discussions on Wednesday. The US, Japan and South Korea said last week they would seek further action by the council if the launch went ahead. Wednesday's White House statement, from National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, urged: "The international community must work in a concerted fashion to send North Korea a clear message that its violations of UN security council resolutions have consequences." Russia and China had both warned North Korea not to go ahead with the launch, but most experts doubted that they would allow a new resolution. Russia voiced "deep regret" on Wednesday, saying the North had defied the opinion of the international community. But Daniel Pinkston, the deputy director of the International Crisis Group's North East Asia programme, said that while China might sign up to a presidential statement from the council and criticise the North in private, he doubted whether they would take action "that really raises the costs" for North Korea. Rory Medcalf, the director of the international security programme at the Lowy Institute, said: "Even if it has achieved what it can claim is a satellite test with a civilian dimension, it does not detract from the impact this will have on strategic mistrust in North Asia. "I don't see any good options. It's not clear what incentives they [the US] were holding out on this occasion to stop the test. Back in April there was an option of withholding the aid package. I'm not sure if there was a similar one in offer so they have even fewer carrots to withhold than last time." He added: "The critical question is how the US-China relationship handles this. At least we are going to see Obama come to this from a position of confidence, secure in the knowledge of his second term." Wei Zhijiang, professor of international relations at Sun Yat-sen University, said: "The launch didn't give consideration to China's security in north-east Asia. Because of the rocket, the US, South Korea and Japan will further strengthen their military co-operation in north-east Asia, which will squeeze the strategic space for China and damage its interests." But he said that while the North's move would have some negative impact on bilateral relations, it would not fundamentally affect them. Leonid Petrov, an expert on the North at the University of Sydney, wrote that the launch "sends the strong signal to the world that international sanctions against North Korea don't work and it's time to return to the negotiating table. "Altogether, the launch strengthens Kim Jong-Un's regime and elevates the stakes in the Korean security dilemma to a new height."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rocket launched close to first anniversary of death of former leader Kim Jong-il North Korea appears to have http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/dec/12/north-korea-launches-rocket-video, 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 liftoff. In an unusual show of candour the regime quickly admitted 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 North Korea's 29-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, who was anointed last year 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.
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