| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Three men and two women in their 20s, who were travelling in the same vehicle, found dead inside the Sasago tunnel Nine people have been found dead inside a motorway tunnel near Tokyo that collapsed and caught fire on Sunday morning, police said, as officials attempted to establish the cause of the accident. The victims include three men and two women, all in their 20s, who were travelling in the same vehicle, Japanese media said. A woman who had been travelling with the group when the accident occurred managed to escape and was being treated for minor injuries. Police said the bodies of a man and two women had been found in a second vehicle, while the ninth victim was confirmed as Tatsuya Nakagawa, a 50-year-old lorry driver who had called his company asking for help after the tunnel's ceiling collapsed. Reports said as many as 150 concrete slabs, each weighing 1.2 tonnes, had crashed to the ground along a 110-metre-long stretch of the Tokyo-bound lane inside the tunnel, which connects Tokyo with central Japan. Firefighters discovered five bodies inside a white van after battling through thick smoke on Sunday afternoon. The rescue operation was temporarily halted amid fears of another collapse. Police said they did not know what had caused the section of the 2.5 mile tunnel, located along a busy stretch of the Chuo expressway about 50 miles west of Tokyo, to cave in. Motorway officials believe that one of the metal rods used to secure the concrete panels to the tunnel's inner walls may have become loose, triggering a chain reaction that rained concrete onto the vehicles below. Another theory is that the structure may have been weakened by a 4.9 earthquake that shook the Tokyo area on 24 November, or by a landslide inside the mountain through which the tunnel passes. The motorway's operator said a routine safety check conducted as recently as October had not revealed any structural faults. Closed circuit TV footage showed rescue workers attempting to remove large chunks of concrete in a frantic effort to reach vehicles trapped beneath. More than a dozen fire engines were lined up outside both entrances to the tunnel, while fleets of ambulances waited to treat the injured. People who were able to drive or walk out of the tunnel said panicked motorists had started driving the wrong way down the motorway after the collapse began; others said they heard people trapped beneath the concrete calling out for help. "While I was driving through the tunnel, concrete pieces suddenly started falling from the ceiling," one man told public broadcaster NHK. "I saw a crushed car catch fire. I was scared, so I left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel." Earlier, firefighters had struggled to reach the scene of the accident - about a mile inside the tunnel - because falling concrete had ignited petrol leaking from trapped cars, sparking a blaze that sent thick black smoke billowing from the tunnel entrance. Another survivor told TV Asahi he had witnessed the cave-in before calling police, who told him to flee. "A few seconds later and my car would have been right in the middle of it," he said. Yoshio Goto, an NHK reporter who was driving through the tunnel when the roof began to cave in, said he had put his foot on the accelerator as soon as he felt pieces of concrete falling on to the roof of his car. "I was a bit too late and pieces of the roof fell on my car," Goto said. "I kept pressing the pedal and managed to get out. Then, when I looked around, I saw that half of the top of my car had been crushed." It is not clear if emergency workers expect to find more bodies beneath the rubble. Officials had initially said seven people were feared missing inside the tunnel, which opened to traffic in 1977. The accident, on one of Japan's busiest motorways, will inevitably raise questions about the safety of the country's large network of tunnels - motorists' quickest route through its mountainous topography. Sunday's accident was the worst of its kind since 1996, when a tunnel in northern Japan collapsed and falling rocks crushed cars and a bus, killing 20 people.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Just hours after Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then himself, his Kansas City Chiefs teammates decided to play and pray as they beat the Carolina Panthers Jovan Belcher's jersey hung from its usual peg at Arrowhead Stadium. Alongside it were all the other tools of his trade: a helmet, shoulder pads, game pants and two sets of cleats – interchangeable depending on the weather and the condition of the field. Long after the conclusion of his team's second win of the season, not an item in the player's locker had been touched. Less than 36 hours earlier, Belcher had taken his own life – shooting himself in the parking lot of the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility even as members of the team's staff sought to intervene. He had driven there after shooting dead the mother of his three-month-old daughter, Kasandra Perkins, at their shared home. And yet, on Sunday afternoon, Belcher's was one of only two lockers left untouched. The other belonged to Kevin Boss, a tight end who is on injured reserve. Shortly before noon local time, the rest of their team-mates had suited up to face the Carolina Panthers – their scheduled opponent for week 13 of the NFL season. Their head coach Romeo Crennel, a witness to Belcher's final moments, stood among them, doing his best to help them to focus on the task at hand. To many observers, such scenario was unthinkable. How could a team be expected to go about their usual business in the wake of such a devastating incident? Is the completion of a sporting fixture now more important than grieving over such loss of life? The decision to press ahead had not been imposed by the league, but reached after lengthy consultation with the team and local authorities. For the Chiefs, Crennel and his players had been given the final say. "I decided to leave it up to [them]," team owner Clark Hunt told the NFL Network. "I called Coach Crennel and asked him to call the captains and see what they thought the right decision was. "So he called the six captains, who heard from their teammates, and they unanimously believed the right decision was to go forward with the game. That's how we made the decision, it was really a team and coaching staff decision." It cannot have been an easy one for Crennel. He had communicated the news of Belcher's death to the team only hours earlier, with quarterback Brady Quinn later noting that the coach had barely been able to get the words out. The alternative, though, might only have been a postponement of a day or two. With both teams having long since used up their bye weeks, there was no wriggle room left on the schedule and the NFL is not in the habit of cancelling games altogether. A poll run by the Kansas City Star found an almost even split between readers who felt the game should go ahead and those who didn't, but in the admittedly self-selecting crowd tailgating outside Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday morning there were few dissenting voices to be found. Just a few minutes' walk from the lot where Belcher shot himself, fans grilled, talked, threw footballs, and otherwise carried on with their usual pre-game rituals. "I think they needed to go out and play it," said Jim Rucker, a season ticket holder of 26 years. "I think that you can see by all the fans here that you can't let one person's actions decide the rest of everyone's lives. It was a tragedy, but I really just feel sorry for the three-month-old daughter left behind. That's the really sad part." There was little sympathy to be found for Belcher, but a great deal for his daughter. "The real victim is his daughter, obviously," said Bob Danley, a regular at Arrowhead since 1978. "Unfortunately in a week she'll probably be forgotten. The story will live on forever, but the daughter will be forgotten. That's the sad part." Danley, a former funeral home worker, has been coming to games since for more than a decade in a customised hearse and said he had not thought twice about his means of gameday transport. "It's probably less appropriate today than most days, but it's still my Chiefs vehicle," he said. "Regardless of one man's mistakes, I'm not going to change that." (The vehicle is red and white rather than black). Despite a listed attendance of 62,860 for the game, it was clear inside the stadium that no more than half of seats were occupied. Nobody could say for sure how much that had to do with the weekend's events, and how much should be ascribed to the fact the Chiefs had not won a game at Arrowhead in almost a year. A Panthers team with a 3-8 record hardly represented a big draw either. After a moment's silence in honour of all victims of domestic abuse, those present began to go through the familiar motions. Fans still substituted a cry of "Chiefs!" for the word "brave" at the end of the national anthem, still booed the Panthers' players as they entered the field and still made a racket as the opposition lined up for key third downs. They still danced in the appropriate manner when Gangnam Style was played over the public address. If not exactly muted, then they had perhaps begun with the volume turned down a notch or two. But as the game progressed, normal service was restored. When Panthers quarterback Cam Newton saw a pass batted down on third-and-20 with less than eight minutes remaining and the Chiefs boasting a rare fourth quarter lead, they responded with a roar worthy of a much larger crowd. Those fans would eventually be rewarded with a 27-21 win that means little for the standings, but which undoubtedly held an additional significance to the players on the field. It was reported by the local ESPN Radio affiliate that a group had been instructed not to wear patches remembering Belcher – the team not wanting to be seen honouring a murderer. But within the locker room many felt conflicting emotions. Running back Dexter McCluster wore a T-shirt commemorating Belcher, while defensive tackle Shaun Smith acknowledged the internal conflict. "I'm going to miss him," he said. "But I feel sorry for [Perkins's] family, too, because they lost a loved one. We've got to continue to stay strong and stay together." Some players declined to speak to the press – most notably Jamaal Charles. The running back had played a starring role for his team, taking 27 carries for 127 yards, but had an even closer involvement in the weekend's tragedy than most, as Perkins was his wife's cousin. Crennel – fresh from an emotional post-game address to his team - did address the media, but stated up front that he would not be answering any questions about the previous day's events. Instead he praised his team for the way they had focused on the task at hand. "I thought that was the best thing we could do," he said of the decision to play. "If for no other reason it takes our minds off our misery for a few hrs." He was under no illusions that it would provide any longer-team relief. "It's not over today, it will still go on tomorrow and the next day and the next day, but life is going to go on as well," he said. "After we leave here, we'll still work through the tragedy we had to endure yesterday." A tragedy which will continue to define the lives of Crennel and many of these players long after Belcher's jersey has finally been taken down. But especially that of a three-month-old girl who will never know her parents.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Chinese foreign ministry statement on North Korean rocket launch says all sides should avoid acts that raise tensions China has expressed concern over its ally North Korea's plans to launch a long-range rocket in mid-December. All sides should work for stability and avoid acts that raise tensions, the foreign ministry said in a brief statement. It acknowledged North Korea's right to the peaceful use of outer space, but said that had to be harmonised with restrictions including those set by the United Nations Security Council. "We hope all relevant parties will do that which benefits peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, hope all sides will respond calmly and avoid exacerbating the situation," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in the statement. The North Korean launch, set for 10 December to 22 December, is likely to heighten already strained tensions with Washington and Seoul as South Korea plans to hold a presidential election on 19 December and President Barack Obama prepares to begin his second term. It would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong-un, who took power following his father Kim Jong-il's death nearly a year ago. That first launch eight months ago earned North Korea widespread international condemnation, despite ending in an embarrassing misfire. Some analysts have expressed skepticism that North Korea has corrected whatever caused the first failure. North Korea says the rocket will be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite. Despite its close ties to North Korea, previous Chinese statements have had little perceptible effect. China is North Korea's only major political ally and its main source of food and fuel for keeping the North's moribund economy from collapsing. However, Beijing has been highly resistant to using any of its leverage to moderate North Korea's behaviour, fearing that could cause an implosion leading to political chaos and a wave of refugees crossing its border.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New world publishing arm to be headed by Robert Thomson, current managing editor of Wall Street Journal Tom Mockridge has resigned as the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International after being passed over for the job of leading a new worldwide publishing arm, which will instead be headed by Robert Thomson, the current managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. Confirmation of Thomson's appointment as well as other details about the new company which is being spun off from News Corp, is expected to come this week according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which was attributed to "people familiar with the matter". Mockridge, the 56-year-old "safe pair of hands" who was parachuted in to lead News International following the phone-hacking scandal, after the resignation of Rebekah Brooks, had been tipped by some as the best-placed candidate for the job post. But after 16 turbulent months in which he has been credited with stabilising the operation, it is understood that he also felt it was an appropriate time to depart after publication of the Leveson report into press standards. It was only last week, on the eve of the long awaited report, that the New Zealander gave his first British interview, in which he told the BBC that statutory regulation of the press would see the state "sending people into newspaper offices to determine what is a good story and a bad story". Since joining the Murdoch empire in 1991, he has risen through the ranks from Foxtel to Star TV and most recently running Sky Italia, which he joined as launch chief executive in 2002. Its business is almost twice the size of News International's operations in the UK, in terms of staff and profits. He also has strong print credentials, having started his career in newspapers. He is a former economics editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, and recently oversaw the launch of the Sunday edition of the Sun. Will Lewis, the former Daily Telegraph editor who has been involved in News International's management and standards committee, which has been engaged in trouble-shooting the fall-out from phone hacking, is regarded as a strong contender to take over Mockridge's post at the group's headquarters in Wapping, east London. Thomson had been regarded in some quarters as a longer shot for the post of the, as yet unnamed, new publishing operation. An Australian, like Murdoch himself, he was once described in an article in the New Yorker as "perhaps his only close friend". Thomson was a close adviser on his $5bn takeover of Dow Jones in 2007. The Wall Street Journal reported that Gerard Baker, who is currently Thomson's deputy, is expected to succeed him at the newspaper. Thomson, 51, was brought into the News Corp fold after getting to know Murdoch while he was US managing editor of the Financial Times. Murdoch made him editor of the Times in 2002 and entrusted him with the role of managing editor of the Wall Street Journal after the buyout of Dow Jones. The split will separate the publishing assets of News Corp, including its British and Australian newspapers, from its entertainment assets, such as the highly profitable Fox News cable channel.
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  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute by minute report: The Pittsburgh Steelers visit the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC North showdown. Follow along with Hunter Felt
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The controversial practice of hunting bears with dogs is about to be banned in the US state. Some veterans on one of their final expeditions share the thrill of the chase The sun is up, first rays streaming through the canopy, and the two hunters pause to inspect tracks – big, dusty imprints with five toes – on the forest floor. They move on, boots crunching twigs as they climb a ridge. "What you reckon the chances we'll get one?" asks Josh Brones, a muscular 37-year-old, adjusting his backpack. Dan Tichenor, 65, tall and rangy, scans the northern California landscape. "More than even." We troop on, single file, in silence. The only sound apart from our footsteps is the panting of Cajun, a hound straining at Tichenor's lead. Up ahead, sniffing bushes and trees for clues, is another hound, Osage, Cajun's father, a grey-muzzled veteran. "He's beginning to show his age but compensates with experience," says Tichenor. An hour later, scaling the ridge, the hunters spot more tracks, fresher than the first. They quicken their pace. Somewhere ahead is an American black bear, Ursus americanus. Osage scampers down a slope and vanishes from view. A few minutes later he begins to bark. Tichenor releases Cajun who takes off like a rocket. The hunters stop and listen to the barking as it wafts up from the valley floor. The dogs appear to be moving west towards Cotton Wood Creek. Tichenor closes his eyes and tilts his head to interpret the barks. He does not doubt his hounds are pursuing a bear. An adjustment in tone and frequency can signal the bear has stopped and the dogs are confronting him, or that it has climbed a tree. "If he's up a tree there'll be a cadence to the barking." Tichenor listens again. "They've stopped moving. Let's go down and see what's happening." The hunters slide with sure feet down a rocky gorge and half an hour later climb the other side, pushing through bramble. Oaks, pines and firs soar overhead. There is a rustling sound behind us and a black shape races down a tree: a young bear, a yearling. It waited for the canine and human interlopers to pass before descending and sprinting away, a blur of fur. The hunters leave him. The dogs are ahead, barking in a frenzy, for they have "treed" a different bear. It clings halfway up a 150ft fir tree, snout and eyes visible amid branches, and peers down at the dogs leaping at the base. The hunters unshoulder their packs. "Got you!" It is the moment they live for. The moment, as they see it, when a millennia-old alliance, that of man and dog, is renewed. "It's reliving a part of our heritage; continuing an ancient tradition," says Tichenor in a Missouri drawl. "It's the ultimate test of a hound-hunter," says Brones, the younger man, a California native. "This is when you prove yourself, show that your dogs are tough and skilled enough to do this." Some 1,700 black bears out of a population estimated between 23,000 to 39,000 can be legally "harvested" in California each year. (Hunters have "taken" – ie killed – 1,300 bears this season so far, so another 400 remain fair game.) Almost half are done so with the help of hounds. Hunters are required by law to eat the meat. But this recent scene in the woods of Yola Bolly, 160 miles north of Sacramento, will be one of California's last. These hunters who trace their lineage back to George Washington, Daniel Boone and Theodore Roosevelt are now the hunted. Last month Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill, banning the hunting of bears and bobcats with hounds. It takes effect on 1 January 2013. A powerful coalition of animal rights activists and Democrats, led by senator Ted Lieu, declared the practice archaic and cruel. The ban will still let hunters kill the same number of bears – but without dogs. An opinion poll suggests 83% of Californians supported the proposal, as did the state's leading newspapers, following the release of video of bloody encounters between bears and dogs. "Allowing packs of dogs to chase bears and bobcats for miles until, exhausted, the animals climb trees to flee the canines and end up trapped, essentially waiting to be shot by a hunter below … is an animal version of The Hunger Games," said the Los Angeles Times. Celebrities such as Ellen De Generes, Doris Day, Bill Maher and Hilary Duff backed the ban. Uggie, the dog from the film The Artist, "wrote" to the governor's dog urging support. ("I've chased a squirrel or two in my day but my people are always nearby keeping an eye on me and making sure I don't get lost or injured in a fight with other animals.") Pressure is expected to grow for similar bans in the 17 other states that allow hunting with dogs. The issue arouses arguably more passion here than Britain's badger cull. The impression of houndsmen as heartless yahoos who persecute wildlife is all the more damning because popular culture depicts their victims as cuddly, honey-loving furballs: Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, Yogi Bear, Smokey Bear, Gentle Ben. Los Angeles has an ongoing love affair with a 400lb intruder who ransacks garbage – he has been nicknamed Meatball and has his own Twitter account (@TheGlendaleBear). All of which raises the question: who are the houndsmen? (Or, to quote one critic: "Who are these animal-murdering scumbags?") And why do they do it? To find out I accompany them on a hunt. Before resuming the scene in Cotton Wood Creek, rewind a day. Waiting outside Sacramento airport, all polished glass and steel, I am collected by Brones in an ancient, dusty Toyota pickup. He is president of the California Houndsmen for Conservation (CHC), which represents about 5,900 hunters. He wears shorts, boots, a baseball cap and a wary smile. I am half-disappointed he does not chew tobacco or play the banjo; Brones, it turns out, is a high-flying IT executive who has travelled the world for companies such as Intel and Apple. He is courteous and intense. "I'm very direct and very passionate. Don't take it the wrong way." We head north, passing rice fields and orchards, and he tells his story. The son and grandson of hunters, as a boy he studied predators and hoped to be a wildlife biologist. Brones fell into IT – "it pays well and I have a wife and two young sons" – but continued the family tradition of breeding hunting hounds. "I don't enjoy being cooped up in an office. I like to be out, away from people, that's my idea of heaven." He loathes cities. "The natural world keeps us grounded. Go to Manhattan: nature is extinguished." Brones is conservative and a member of the National Rife Association but also considers himself an environmentalist. He frets about pollution and opposes oil drilling in Alaska. "There are parts of the planet we should leave alone." He is lyrical about dogs. "They have the traits humans aspire to – loyalty, dedication, unconditional love. They're not moody, always glad to see you. The hound is the best of them, the hero of dogs." Hunting with them, he says, feels spiritual. He points to the hills. "My church is out there." Nothing is sweeter than the sound of their baying. "We call it music." I wonder what bears call it. Brones regrets Britain banned fox hunting with hounds. "I was rooting for the House of Lords." Brones was 17 when he killed his first bear, whose chopped up remains filled his parents' freezer for a year. "He was old and the meat was very tough." Killing, he said, was a moment of sombreness and jubilation. "It's a duality. The culmination of a huge effort. But you have taken a life. You know that bear will never exist again." So why do it? His justification, elaborated as darkness falls and we drive into wilderness, is twofold: California's bear population, having tripled since the 1980s, needs to be controlled because it destroys hives ("contrary to what Yogi Bear will tell you bears are not after honey but baby bees"), kills deer and marauds into towns, threatening human life and property. Second, it is more humane to tree a bear before shooting to determine if it is a suckling sow (which is to be spared), and ensure a clean shot. "Point blank range is a good thing." The alternative, shooting from a distance with a telescopic sight, can inadvertently target sows and wound rather than kill, leaving bears to escape to slow, painful deaths. We spend the night at Tichenor's cabin. It is furnished with bear pelts and mounted deer heads but the coffee table has copies of the Economist. Tichenor is an affable, craggy host. He hunts with a bow but is a retired nuclear-weapons scientist with a PhD in electrical engineering. "Trophy hunters get a bad rap but they'd rather come back empt- handed than take an unexceptional catch," he says. Even so, why hunt at all? "There's no reason to feel guilty about being a member of a predatory species," he says. This is a different era to that which exterminated the Great Auk and American Passenger Pigeon. "There are rules making sure species are not wiped out." Urbanites, he says, tend to imagine wildlife as an extrapolation of the pets on their couch whereas nature is a merciless, pitiless cauldron. "Animals in the wild don't die easily. They get sick and wounded, they're killed by younger rivals, they starve." Adult male bears kill cubs they suspect are not theirs. Female mountain lions struggling for food abandon kittens to save themselves. "If all forms of mortality were equally visible it would be clear the human hunter of today is the most humane hunter in history." But humans don't need to hunt to survive, I say. "Not any more," Tichenor agrees. "We simulate the situation from when we did it out of necessity. But I can't think of anything more natural." Those who buy meat in the supermarket, he says, turn a blind eye to the moral implications. "Think of how many people eat meat without ever killing an animal." Tichenor, who has bagged countless racoons, deer and coyotes, then springs a surprise: he has led groups that treed 269 bears, of which 60 were "taken", but never killed one himself. (His sons killed those whose pelts adorn the couch and a friend killed the one turned into sausages we will eat during the hunt.) Chopping up and hauling a bear's remains out of the forest is arduous and you are permitted only one kill per year so once you take a shot your season is over. "I prefer to take pictures of the bear." Brones, it turns out, has for similar reasons not killed a bear since 2003. I'm baffled. What's the point of chasing bears up trees if you're not going to shoot them? "You'll see tomorrow." And so I find myself the next day scrambling up Cotton Wood Creek, on one of California's last bear hunts with hounds, following the yelping of the hounds Osage and Cajun. We find the the dogs leaping at the base of a fir. Their master fishes a camera from his backpack and records the scene. Above us, half concealed in shadow and branches, perches a sow. She blinks at us in silence. I wonder what she is thinking. A few minutes earlier she had probably been foraging on the forest floor with the yearling we saw descending from the other tree. Now she is being literally hounded. I'm still not sure of the point. "Catch and release," says Brones. "Fishermen do the same thing. Once we leave she'll come down and go about her day." And what do we do? "Look for another bear." We leave the sow – hopefully to reunite with her yearling. Two hours later, hiking through Bear Gulch, the hounds catch another's scent. They race off. They have telemetry collars, helping the hunters locate them with radio equipment, but they prefer to summon the dogs back with a cow horn. There is something elemental about the sound, and I confess a stirring. It is not easy finding a bear. They evolved to elude wolves and each other. And it's not easy trapping one. They can reach speeds of 30mph and, if they choose to fight, can claw, crunch and disembowel. So when the dogs pick up a scent – I am not proud of this – their excitement is contagious. Bear ahead! Or, as it turns out, bears. Osage and Cajun start baying across the valley, prompting a lung-busting trek after them, leading to a huge pine in which shelter a sow and yearling. They are different from the first couple. Their black faces peer down, inscrutable, from a branch about 40ft overhead. "Look, no trembling, no exhaustion," says Brones. In this case he may be right since the chase was quick, just a few minutes. But some chases last hours. There is no scientific consensus about the impact. Jim Akenson, a field biologist who collars bears for studies, and backs hound-hunting, says there is no evidence of harm and that it is the most humane way to capture the animals. Rick Hopkins, a field biologist cited by hound-hunting opponents, says the chase elevates stress and body temperature. "The issue is impact. We don't know if the stress wears off or accumulates." An additional concern is that some bears confront rather than seek refuge. The dogs are not bred to attack, so such encounters tend to be more noisy than bloody but both sides can suffer grievous wounds and, on occasion, death. In this case the treeing is bloodless. Tichenor records the scene, then yanks the dogs away. Mother and yearling watch us trudge back the way we came. Shadows stretch and a long hike out of the valley awaits. The hunt is over. I sort of get it. There is, despite the telemetry collars and energy bars, something primal in chasing quarry with dogs. It requires skill and stamina. There's a thrill to the moment of capture. But this has been a sanitised hunt. No shooting, no chopping, no skinning. "When a bear is shot and falls to the ground, dead, it upsets people," says Brones. "It just does. So why show that? Does a commercial abattoir invite in cameras?" Back in Sacramento, hobbling on creaky knees, I relate the hunt to Jennifer Fearing, who as California senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States led the campaign against hound-hunting. Setting aside whether it is justified to kill bears at all, I say Brones and Tichenor clearly adore the wilderness and, in their own minds, respect it. Is it so bad letting them chase bears up trees? Fearing rejects the idea they are forest guardians. "Hounding is a reckless sport that puts all the animals involved in danger. (It's) tantamount to suggesting a single woman living alone should feel safer because there's a creepy stalker guy 'keeping an eye' on her house and neighbourhood." Fearing, a vegan, has never been on a hound-hunt but says she has "enough of a sense of how it goes" through YouTube videos. If comparing hunters to perverts seems provocative Brones is even more so when he compares Fearing and other foes to Nazi propagandists. Hound-hunting is a remote front in America's culture wars but both sides betray the familiar, mutual scorn and incomprehension. It is easy to caricature the other when you seldom meet it. I end up siding with Fearing. Strip away the arguments about conservation, wildlife control and the (undeniable) hypocrisy of meat-eating urbanites, the hunters do what they do largely because their fathers did it, and because it's fun. That's poor justification to harass bears. Yet, in many ways, the hunters care more about the woods than most urban opponents admit. Banning their tradition is one thing, doing so with whooping glee and contempt is another. Back in his cabin, watching a setting sun dip beneath mountains, Tichenor ponders the defeat. "You know, all we really want is to be seen as human beings."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A day after linebacker allegedly shot his girlfriend before killing himself, team goes ahead with game against Carolina Panthers Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs joined players in a moment of silence for victims of domestic violence Sunday, a day after the apparent murder-suicide of one of the NFL team's linebackers. The game against the Carolina Panthers went ahead Sunday despite the deaths yesterday of 25-year-old Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins. Ahead of the kickoff, supporters of both teams observed a silent tribute to those affected by domestic abuse. It had earlier been stressed that the moment was not to be taken as honouring Belcher, whom police believe fatally shot his girlfriend before taking his own life outside the team's training facility. In a statement released on Saturday, team officials announced that the game against the Panthers would go ahead at the scheduled time Sunday afternoon after discussions with the NFL, Chiefs players and head coach Romeo Crennel. It is believed that Crennel was present in the parking lot outside the Arrowhead stadium when Belcher shot himself in the head. Authorities in Kansas City were first alerted to a domestic incident Saturday morning at a house that the player shared with his 22-year-old girlfriend and their three-month-old daughter. A Kansas City police spokesman, Darin Snapp, said a female caller told police a woman had been shot multiple times. The injured victim was taken to hospital but later pronounced dead by doctors. The caller is thought to have been Belcher's mother, who witnessed the crime. After the shooting, Belcher drove to the team's practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium, still armed with a gun. The stadium was put on lockdown, and officers were called to the scene. Belcher, still in his car, encountered the Crennel and Kansas City Chief's general manager, Scott Pioli. Police said Pioli and Belcher talked for a short while and there was no threat made by Belcher to anyone else. Pioli expressed support for Belcher but as police began to arrive the player started to walk away in the opposite direction. He then suddenly shot himself in the head. "They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him. They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself," said Snapp. Clark Hunt, the Chiefs owner, said in a statement that the entire Chiefs family was "deeply saddened" by "this unthinkable tragedy". Saturday's events dampened the normally festive tailgating ahead of Sunday's games. "It is a sad situation, but to me, ultimately, the man committed murder," said Chiefs fan Tony Alonzo. "The big picture is that it was a murder." For many, thoughts turned to the young child orphaned by Saturday's shootings. "That is who you feel for, this three-month-old child," fan Ira Thomas said before the game. "She has to grow up without her parents and as she gets older someone in the family will tell her what happened and that might set her back a few years." At the stadium there was the odd tribute to Belcher, one fan held aloft a sign stating "RIP #59" – a reference to the linebackers team number. But there was no mention of his name ahead of the moment of silence.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tim Geithner joins House speaker in taking US economic debate to Sunday morning talk shows as sides struggle for agreement Republican leader John Boehner said Sunday he was "flabbergasted" by Treasury secretary Tim Geithner plan to save the nation from the fiscal cliff, in the latest show of brinkmanship over a deal to avert the year end budget crises. His statement came as Washington leaders took to the airwaves amid an escalation in the clash over how to avert the automatic triggering of massive spending cuts and the expiration of across-the-board tax cuts. Geithner went on a media blitz Sunday to defend president Barack Obama's position over the fiscal cliff. With less than a month to go, Geithner said he could not promise Congress would find a solution. If the tax rates expire and cuts are imposed as they stand, the Congressional Budget Office calculates the US will be plunged back into recession and unemployment will spike to 9.1%. "That's a decision that lies in the hands of the Republicans that are now opposing an increase in tax rates" for the wealthiest Americans, Geithner told Fox News Sunday. Geithner told CBS's Face the Nation: "Just remember to extend those tax cuts costs $1tn dollars over 10 years. There is no way we can get back to a balanced plan that put us back on the path to living within our means, protects Medicare, invests in things we need, if you extend those tax cuts." Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, renewed his stand against increased tax rates for the rich. "Here's the problem," Boehner told Fox. "When you go and increase rates, you make it more difficult for our economy to grow." Boehner said if Republicans agreed to give Obama a proposed $1.6tn in new tax revenue, "He's going to spend it," not reduce the deficit. Last week, Obama said he believed the two sides would reach an agreement before Christmas. "We're nowhere," Boehner said Sunday. The president's advisers have set out a plan that calls for the expiration of tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 as part of a plan to raise $1.6tn more in tax revenues over the next 10 years. In exchange, Obama agreed to $400bn in savings from entitlement programmes over the next 10 years but pushed those talks into next year with no guarantees. On CBS, Republican senator Lindsey Graham slammed Obama's plans to tackle the debt crisis by imposing higher taxes on the most wealthy. He said Obama's plans failed to address entitlement reform – cuts in social security and Medicare benefits. Graham championed a plan first put forward by failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney to cap the size of deductions that the rich can take. "If you raise tax rates you get $400bn in revenue and you hurt job creation. If you limit reductions to about $40,000-$50,000 per person, you protect the middle class and you get about $800bn in revenue," he said. "And 100% of Americans are going to lose everything we know as America if we don't fix entitlements. We are becoming Greece because of out-of-control entitlements." "I think we are going over the cliff. It's pretty clear to me they have made a political calculation," said Graham. Geithner said he still believed a deal was possible and that the "political theatre" could be a sign of progress. "I actually think that we're gonna get there," he said on ABC's This Week. "I think we're actually making a little bit of progress, but we're still some distance apart." The row comes amid signs that political deadlock is harming the US economy. Business leaders have said they are holding back on hiring as they deal with the uncertainty created by the fiscal cliff. On Friday, the US releases its latest non-farm payroll figures, the key monthly jobs report which may give a fuller picture of the fiscal cliff's true impact.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As defence looks to get charges thrown out over treatment, judge says trial will not begin until March at the earliest The trial of a US soldier accused of feeding classified documents to Wikileaks is to be delayed further due to debate over whether he was subjected to unlawful confinement, a military judge said Sunday. Pfc Bradley Manning has been behind bars since his arrest in Baghdad in May 2010 on suspicion of being responsible for the largest leak of state secrets in US history. But an attempt by his lawyers to get charges thrown out on grounds that the suspect has already been subjected to unfair punishment while in confinement looks set to lengthen his time on remand. Military judge Colonel Denise Lind announced Sunday that Manning's trial, which had been set to begin on 4 February, would now take place from 16 March at the earliest. Lind is currently hearing evidence relating to restrictions placed on Manning during a nine month stint in military cells in Quantico, Virginia. Defence lawyers have claimed that the extreme custodial regime he was placed under – which included being confined to a 6ft-by-8ft cell for all but 20 minutes every day and being deprived of his clothes at night – amounted to unlawful pre-trial punishment. Psychiatrists have testified that the brig commander in Quantico kept Manning under these harsh conditions despite their recommendations to ease them. During the current sessions, Manning has spoken about the trauma he experienced while incarcerated and the effect that long periods of isolation had on him. "I'm generally a pretty socially extrovert person, but being for long periods of time by myself I was in a pretty stressed situation. I began to really deteriorate. I was anxious all the time, everything became more insular," he said Prosecutors have argued that the conditions in Quantico – which also included being under constant observation from guards – were necessary as Manning was a suicide risk. They showed the court a pink sheet that he had fashioned into a noose. The article 13 hearing current taking place is just one of several ways in which Manning and his defence team are seeking to reduce the severity of any possible sentence. Under the most severe of the 22 counts he faces – "aiding the enemy" – he could be detained in military custody for the rest of his life. In the hope of avoiding that fate, Manning has effectively admitted that he transferred government information to WikiLeaks while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | German chancellor's comments likely to bolster critics who accuse her of concealing the full cost of Greece's latest aid deal Angela Merkel has given her clearest signal yet that eurozone governments may have to take losses on the Greek debt they own, but only if Athens sticks to a painful programme of economic reforms. Fresh from a bruising victory in the Bundestag over Greece's aid plan, the German chancellor told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that a "haircut" could be considered for Greece in two years. "If Greece one day again manages with its revenue without getting new debt, then we must look at and assess the situation," she said. "That is not the case before 2014-15 if everything goes according to plan." The comments may bolster her critic who claim that she has concealed the full cost of Greece's latest aid deal. Merkel added that she was also pushing for tougher sanctions on eurozone members who failed to meet budget targets to be agreed with the European commission (EC), as part of the push for closer fiscal ties within the single currency region. Merkel's authority as chancellor took a knock on Friday when 23 members of her coalition voted against a motion approving a two-year extension to Greece's aid programme, and the advance of €44bn of loans to Athens. But the support of MPs from other parties meant it passed comfortably. Eurozone finance minister are due to discuss the aid programme on Monday at a meeting in Brussels, where Greece's Yannis Stournaras will present details of a bond buyback scheme that must succeed before Athens receives its next tranche of rescue funding. Last week saw some progress in the eurozone crisis, with ministers finally reaching agreement on Greece and the EC approving a €37bn restructuring of Spain's banks. Experts warn that the crisis will continue to rumble on this week. "It is unlikely that any sustainable solution to the Greek problem will be found," said Sony Kapoor of the Re-Define thinktank. "While progress will be made in Spain we will not be hearing the end of problems in Spanish banks anytime soon." Spain's prime minister admitted over the weekend that Madrid might miss its deficit targets for 2012. Mariano Rajoy told the La Razon newspaper that cutting borrowing to 6.3% of GDP this year was "very complicated" and "very difficult", adding: "Our goal is to do things well and we will see what will happen at the end of the year."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | More than 1,600 new Defense Department agents will collect intelligence and report findings to CIA, said to be overstretched The US military plans to send hundreds more spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan that will more than double the size of its espionage network, it was reported Sunday. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon's military intelligence unit, is aiming to recruit 1,600 intelligence "collectors" – up from the several hundred overseas agents it has employed in recent years, sources told The Washington Post. Combined with the enormous growth in the CIA since 9/11 attacks, the recruitment drive will create an unprecedented spy network. "The stars have been aligning on this for a while," an anonymous former senior US military official involved in planning the DIA transformation told the Post. The news is likely to heighten concerns about the accountability of the US military's clandestine programmes amid mounting concerns about the CIA-controlled drone programme. The United Nations said last month that it intends to investigate civilian deaths from drone strikes. The US has refused to even acknowledge the existence of a drone programme in Pakistan. The US military is not subject to the same congressional notification requirements as the CIA, creating yet more potential controversies. With the US pulling out of Afghanistan and operations in Iraq winding down, government officials are looking to change the focus of the DIA away from battlefield intelligence and to concentrate on gathering intelligence on issues including Islamist militant groups in Africa, weapons trades in North Korea and Iran, and the military build up in China. "It's the nature of the world we're in," said the senior defense official, who is involved in overseeing the changes at the DIA. "We just see a long-term era of change before things settle." The DIA's new recruits would include military attachés and others who do not work undercover. But US officials told the Post that the growth will be driven a new generation of spies who will take their orders from the Department of Defense. The DIA is increasingly recruiting civilians to fill out its ranks as it looks to place agents as academics and business executives in militarily sensitive positions overseas. Officials said the sheer number of agents that the DIA is looking to recruit presents its own challenge as the agency may struggle to find enough overseas vacancies for its clandestine agents. "There are some definite challenges from a cover perspective," a senior defense official said. The news comes as the Obama administration faces growing criticism about its use of CIA drones to target enemies overseas. The drone programme will continue under the aegis of the CIA. The DIA agents will concentrate on military intelligence, tracking aircraft development for example, and will report findings to the CIA. The recruitment drive comes after a decade of enormous growth period at the CIA following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since the 9/11 attacks the CIA's counterterrorism center has grown from 300 to over 2,000 agents. But despite the hiring bonanza, officials said that the agency has become overstretched as its activities worldwide have broadened. Hundreds of military assignments are expected to be turned over to the newly arrived DIA operatives. "The CIA doesn't want to be looking for surface-to-air missiles in Libya" when it's also under pressure to assess the opposition in Syria, a former high-ranking US military intelligence officer told The Post. The plan does face opposition in Washington, where critics believe its terms are overly generous to the CIA. Turf wars broke out between the two intelligence agencies after previous efforts by the Pentagon to expand its intelligence role — particularly during Donald Rumsfeld's time as defense secretary. This time the project is being driven by former CIA agents including Michael Vickers, the top intelligence official at the Pentagon and a CIA veteran, and Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and the current secretary of the Defense Department.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Judges say they were unable to enter premises to deliver ruling on validity of panel that drew up draft constitution Egypt's highest court suspended its sessions indefinitely on Sunday after Islamist protesters surrounded the building before a ruling on the fate of the panel that drafted the country's constitution. In a statement, the supreme constitutional court (SCC) called it a "dark day" in the history of the judiciary and expressed sadness at the "psychological assassination" of the court. The judges said they were unable to enter the premises on Sunday, and in a statement said they had "no choice but to announce to the great people of Egypt that they are unable to carry out their sacred duty in such a charged environment, filled with hatred, desire for vengeance and fabricated, imaginary animosity". It is the latest move in a protracted struggle between the Egyptian judiciary and the Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, who issued a decree granting himself extraordinary powers and complete immunity from the courts. The SCC was due to rule on the validity of the constitutional assembly, which had been tasked with drafting the constitution and was also granted judicial immunity in Morsi's decree. The assembly finished the constitution and handed it to Morsi on Saturday. Morsi called for a snap referendum on the document on 15 December. Islamist protesters spent Saturday in a mass demonstration near Cairo University to support Morsi's decree, and at the end of the day some of them moved to the premises of the court, surrounding it throughout the night. The SCC postponed the ruling in the constituent assembly case indefinitely. The SCC was also due to pass a verdict in another case regarding the validity of the Shura council, the upper house of parliament, also granted judicial immunity in Morsi's decree. That too was postponed indefinitely. "What happened at the SCC is an assault on the Egyptian judiciary," said Amr Fathy, of the Cairo-based Arab Centre for Judicial Independence. "Surrounding the building and preventing judges from entering when they are due to rule on two important cases is nothing more than an act of aggression and is unacceptable." An opposition National Salvation Front has been set up to counter Morsi's decree and draft constitution, which has been severely criticised for its ambiguity on minority and human rights, a creeping religiosity and a privileged protection of the military. Liberal and minority members of the assembly had withdrawn before the draft was completed in objection to the vagaries inherent in the text. Matters are further complicated by the legal prerequisite of judicial supervision on the 15 December referendum. Judges have not yet determined whether they will acquiesce to supervising the process or continue their strike, which would be a blow to the legitimacy of the voting process. "The judiciary has announced that it will not call off the strike until the decree is rescinded," Fathy said, "and if that extends to supervision of the referendum then that will lend a blow to the legitimacy of the result. And if the SCC remains unable to perform its duties then an escalation of the crisis is to be expected." Thousands have taken to the streets in the past two weeks against Morsi's decree and against the draft constitution. Opposition forces have rejected both and are expected to announce further steps in the way of escalation, mulling over demonstrations marching towards the presidential palace and a campaign for a general strike culminating in civil disobedience. An open-ended sit-in continues in Tahrir Square, the site of protests that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime, and on Sunday the opposition announced there would be a march to the presidential palace on Tuesday.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Judges were unable to enter premises to deliver ruling on validity of panel that drew up draft constitution Egypt's highest court suspended its sessions indefinitely on Sunday after Islamist protesters surrounded the building before a ruling on the fate of the panel that drafted the country's constitution. In a statement, the supreme constitutional court (SCC) called it a "dark day" in the history of the judiciary and expressed sadness at the "psychological assassination" of the court. Judges were unable to enter the premises on Sunday, and in the statement they said they had "no choice but to announce to the great people of Egypt that they are unable to carry out their sacred duty in such a charged environment, filled with hatred, desire for vengeance and fabricated, imaginary animosity". It is the latest move in a protracted struggle between the Egyptian judiciary and the Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, who issued a decree granting himself extraordinary powers and complete immunity from the courts. The SCC was due to rule on the validity of the constitutional assembly, which had been tasked with drafting the constitution and was also granted judicial immunity in Morsi's decree. The assembly finished the constitution and handed it to Morsi in an official ceremony on Saturday. Morsi called for a snap referendum on the document on 15 December. Islamist protesters spent Saturday in a mass demonstration near Cairo University to support Morsi's decree, and at the end of the day some of them moved to the premises of the court, surrounding it throughout the night. The SCC postponed the ruling in the constituent assembly case indefinitely. The SCC was also due to pass a verdict in another case regarding the validity of the Shura council, the upper house of parliament, also granted judicial immunity in Morsi's decree. That too was postponed indefinitely. "What happened at the SCC is an assault on the Egyptian judiciary," said Amr Fathy, of the Cairo-based Arab Centre for Judicial Independence. "Surrounding the building and preventing judges from entering when they are due to rule on two important cases is nothing more than an act of aggression and is unacceptable." An opposition National Salvation Front has been set up to counter Morsi's decree and draft constitution, which has been severely criticised for its ambiguity on minority and human rights, a creeping religiosity and a privileged protection of the military. Liberal and minority members of the assembly had withdrawn before the draft was completed in objection to the vagaries inherent in the text. Matters are further complicated by the legal prerequisite of judicial supervision on the 15 December referendum. Judges have not yet determined whether they will acquiesce to supervising the process or continue their strike, which would be a blow to the legitimacy of the voting process. "The judiciary has announced that it will not call off the strike until the decree is rescinded," Fathy said, "and if that extends to supervision of the referendum then that will lend a blow to the legitimacy of the result. And if the SCC remains unable to perform its duties then an escalation of the crisis is to be expected." Thousands have taken to the streets in the past two weeks against Morsi's decree and against the draft constitution. Opposition forces have rejected both and are expected to announce further steps in the way of escalation, mulling over demonstrations marching towards the presidential palace and a campaign for a general strike culminating in civil disobedience. An open-ended sit-in continues in Tahrir Square, the site of protests that led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime, and on Sunday the opposition announced there would be a march to the presidential palace on Tuesday.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Blog set up by fugitive software pioneer claims he has been caught, but police and embassy officials say he is still on the run Fugitive software pioneer John McAfee may have been captured on the Belize-Mexico border, according to a post on his website that appears to have come as a surprise to authorities in central America. In the latest twist to the bizarre case, whoismcafee.com – a website set up by McAfee after he went on the run from police wanting to question him over the murder of a neighbour – stated in an update that it had received an "unconfirmed report" of his detention. But on Sunday, authorities in Belize appeared to dismiss the reports. "I do not know where he is supposed to have been captured, but he certainly isn't here at San Pedro police station," said an officer stationed in the town McAfee has called home since 2008. Likewise a source at the US embassy told news agency AFP that people close to the fugitive had denied reports of his capture. A Belize police spokesman also said he had no news of an arrest. The British-born computer programmer, who built up a fortune on the back of the internet security company that bears his name, has been on the run since November 11, when the body of fellow American businessman Gregory Viant Faull was discovered at a neighbouring property. The pair were known to have quarrelled in the past, but McAfee – named as a person of interest in the case – has always maintained his innocence. In a blog, which McAfee began after going on the lam, the fugitive has updated supporters and the media about his life as a fugitive, claiming that he disguised as a drunk German tourist and a peasant hawker to spy on the police investigation. On Friday, McAfee gave an interview with CNN from an unknown location, during which he bemoaned the lack of baths and poor food available to him since going on the run. He granted the American network an interview only after it agreed to a series of checks to ensure that his secret hide-out would not be uncovered. In scenes reminiscent to a cold war thriller, a CNN crew had to deliver a pre-arranged phrase and response before they were granted access to the 67-year-old. During the interview, McAfee again said he had no involvement in Faull's murder and that he had no intention of handling himself over to Belize authorities. He has previously accused police in the central American county of harassment and expressed fears that he would be killed if taking into the cells. In response to those claims, Belize prime minister Dean Barrow described the fugitive as "bonkers". Nonetheless, McAfee appears intent on remaining on the run for as long as is possible. "I will certainly not turn myself in, and I will certainly not quit fighting. I will not stop my blog," he told CNN.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If there is life in Lake Ellsworth, it may have been isolated from the rest of the world for a million years British scientists flew into Antarctica at the weekend to begin an extraordinary search for life in a stretch of water the size of Lake Windermere buried under three kilometres of solid ice. The researchers join a team of engineers who have set up camp on the West Antarctic ice sheet, where the December sun shines night and day, and temperatures plunge far below freezing. In the coming days, the team will use a sterile hot water drill to bore down to the subglacial Lake Ellsworth and retrieve samples of water and sediments that may have been isolated from the rest of the world for a million years. Should life be found lurking in the depths of the lake, it will have evolved in isolation for at least 100,000 years, but probably much longer. Scientists want to know first whether life can endure such harsh environments. If it can, the next question is how. The answers will further our understanding of life on Earth, and inform searches for life elsewhere in the solar system, such as in the ice-capped ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa. "Extreme environments tell you what constraints there are on life," said Mike Bentley, a geologist on the team at Durham University. "If we find a particular set of environments where life can't exist, that creates some bookends: it tells you about the limits of life." Lake Ellsworth is one of more than 360 subglacial lakes in Antarctica that formed when gentle heat from the planet's interior melted the base of an overlying glacier. On Earth, less hospitable environments are hard to imagine. Any organisms that live here are cut off from the air above, and must contend with subzero conditions, few nutrients, complete darkness, and intense pressure. The search for life is only part of the motivation to probe Lake Ellsworth. Through studies of sediment cores drawn up from the lake bed, scientists hope to learn when the overlying glacier waxed and waned, and how the local environment changed over time. The team will spend this week preparing for a three-day drilling operation, due to start on 12 December. To bore into the lake, engineers made a 3.4km-long hose that is strong enough to bear its own weight and a nozzle on the end. The hose is supplied with ultraclean water heated to 90C, which blasts out of the nozzle and melts its way through the ice sheet. Once the team have broken through to the lake they will have 24 hours to sterilise the entrance to the hole with intense ultraviolet light, and lower equipment into the water to collect all the samples they need before the hole refreezes again. "It's pretty exciting to have to do all your science first time within a 24-hour or so window with no chance of a second go," said Dr Matt Mowlem, who developed submersible technology for the project at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. The scientists will collect water samples from various depths of the lake, which is 150 metres deep, by lowering probes that stand nearly six metres tall and weigh 400kg. The first samples are expected on 18 December. The team has two designs of corer to grab sediments from the lake bed. Speaking by phone from a small tent in Antarctica, Chris Hill, a British Antarctic Survey engineer who is managing the programme, told the Guardian about the harsh conditions and the weeks ahead. "It's bloody cold. When we wake up in the morning, the insides of the tents are around -15 or -20C. Today it's -25C outside and there's no wind. It gets right through to your bones," he said. The team will spend six weeks on the ice. The focus of the camp is a tent that houses the kitchen, dining area and office facilities, around which are a handful of smaller tents for sleeping in. In a blizzard, visibility drops to about five metres. "Once we've started drilling we can't stop, or the pipes will freeze and that's that. We have to go to a 24-hour shift pattern for a week and a half to two weeks, and no matter what the weather does, we have to keep going," he said. All the equipment has been tested, but no amount of field trials in Britain can fully replicate the conditions the team will face in Antarctica. "Everything we are doing is new," said Hill. "We're drilling deeper than anyone has drilled with hot water, we're drilling cleaner than anybody has ever drilled before, and we're launching two instruments that are custom-developed and designed for the job. What keeps me awake at night? Everything." The team will remain in Antarctica until January, and spend the festive season at work on the ice. Bleak and challenging as the project is, those who had to stay behind are still envious of their colleagues. "They are going to have a pretty cold Christmas, but I'd love to be there," said Mowlem.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Opposition says new parliament does not represent majority of people, after turnout was officially 43% – and reportedly 28% Kuwait's opposition has claimed a victory by boycotting Saturday's elections and warned that the new parliament does not represent the majority of people in the Gulf emirate, at a time of mounting nervousness about political change throughout the region. Officially the turnout was reported to be 43%, but opposition supporters claimed it was only 28%. Previous elections, including one held in February this year, saw a turnout of around 60%. The boycott means the opposition, composed of tribes, Islamists and youth groups, will now have no representative in the 50-seat parliament. The opposition had objected to the government's unilateral amendment of the electoral law that reduced the number of votes per person from four to one. The change was seen as designed by the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed Al Sabah, to weaken the opposition and to end a state of near paralysis in parliament. The outcome weakens Kuwait's claim to have the most representative political system in the Gulf – even though the ruling family controls most key government posts. Ahmed al-Saadoun, a leading opposition figure, said the election was "unconstitutional". The government defended it. "The election result is the foundation for a new start of development and co-operation between the legislative and executive powers to advance Kuwait and all its people," said the information minister, Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak Al Sabah. Independent analysts questioned the claim. "It is a pro-government parliament," the political scientist Shafeeq Ghabra told Reuters. "Now the government can do all the things it wanted to, which it said it was prevented from doing. The question now is, will it do it? While it has a parliament that does not oppose it, there is a population which is on the opposition's side." Kuwait has seen unprecedented protests in recent months in a crisis that long predates the changes of the Arab spring elsewhere in the Middle East and north Africa. It has been watched closely and nervously by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf neighbours where there is far less political representation. The opposition Popular Committee for Boycotting the Election said the new parliament "does not represent the majority of Kuwaiti people and has lost popular and political legitimacy". The political turmoil of recent years has held up urgently needed economic reforms, including a $108bn development plan aimed at diversifying the heavily oil-reliant economy and attracting foreign investment. Thanks to its oil reserves, which still provide 95% of government revenues, Kuwait is fabulously rich. But it is also underdeveloped in significant ways. Political parties are banned and candidates run as individuals. The election saw big gains for Kuwait's Shia minority, who won 17 of the 50 seats, up from seven in the last parliament, which was dissolved in June. The biggest losers were the three largest Bedouin tribes, which boycotted the polls: more than 400,000 people who had up to 17 MPs in previous assemblies now have just one. Only three women were elected.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police searching for nine-year-old after country's second such attack in two weeks Police are searching for a nine-year-old boy who was taken by a crocodile while swimming in a river in northern Australia. The boy was grabbed by the animal as he swam with a group of people at Port Bradshaw, Northern Territory, on Saturday. Although a group of adults tried to kill the 13ft-long crocodile with spears, it dragged the boy into deeper water and he has not been seen since. The animal was spotted later on Saturday, but armed search parties were unable to shoot it dead. "The crocodile was sighted a number of other times and two shots were fired in an attempt to kill it," Sergeant Alex Brennan of Nhulunbuy police told the Northern Territory News. "The crocodile's gone underwater and hasn't been seen since." Police, parks and wildlife officers and rangers are continuing the search but are growing increasingly pessimistic about finding the boy alive. "It's close to 24 hours since the child went missing," Brennan said. "At this stage there's been no sighting of the child, and we obviously hold grave concerns for his welfare." Two weeks ago, a crocodile snatched a seven-year-old girl who was swimming at a remote waterhole in the Northern Territory. The crocodile was shot dead the next day and the girl's remains found inside. In February last year, a 14-year-old boy was killed by a crocodile while swimming in a creek in the Northern Territory's aboriginal Milingimbi community, east of Darwin. Both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles were hunted to near extinction in Australia, but have become plentiful in the tropical north since they became protected by federal law in 1971. The Northern Territory is estimated to have more than 80,000 saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 7 metres (23ft) long and are the world's largest reptile. They are far more likely to attack humans than are the smaller freshwater crocodiles that also live in the region.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Palestinian official accuses Israel of desperation after second punitive response to UN vote recognising state of Palestine Israel has seized more than $120m (£75m)in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in response to last week's overwhelming vote at the UN general assembly to recognise the state of Palestine. The move came as the PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, returned to cheering crowds in Ramallah in the West Bank following Thursday's vote, in which 138 countries backed enhanced "non-member state" status for Palestine. Only nine countries opposed the move and 41 abstained. The financial sanction is Israel's second punitive response to the vote. On Friday, it announced a big settlement expansion programme. An Israeli official said Israel was entitled to deduct the sum from a debt of more than $200m (£125m) owed by the PA to the Israel Electric Corporation. But he conceded that the move was in response to the UN vote, and that it could be repeated next month. "A lot depends on what the Palestinians do or don't do," he said. The Israeli finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, told Israel Radio: "I do not intend this month to transfer the funds to the Palestinians. In the coming period I intend to use the money to deduct debts the PA owes to the Israel Electric Corporation and other bodies." A spokeswoman for the PA declined to comment, saying Palestinian officials had not been officially notified of the move. But Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official, said Israel was guilty of "piracy and theft" by refusing to hand over the funds, according to news agency reports. Israel had been expected to take punitive measures following the UN vote. A Palestinian official said the withholding of tax revenues was an "act of desperation" in the face of overwhelming international support for a Palestinian state. In the past, Israel has frozen the monthly revenues as a sanction against the PA, resulting in the late payment of salaries for thousands of public servants in the West Bank and Gaza. Sunday's decision followed the announcement – within hours of the UN vote – of a big settlement expansion programme, including the controversial development of highly sensitive land close to Jerusalem. On Friday, Israel said it would build 3,000 new homes in settlements across the pre-1967 Green Line. It also said it would push ahead with the development of an area known as E1, which would close off East Jerusalem – the intended future capital of Palestine – from the West Bank. The announcement drew condemnation from the US and Britain. Around 5,000 people gathered near the PA presidential compound in Ramallah on Sunday to greet Abbas on his return from New York. The world had said a loud "yes to the state of Palestine", he told the crowd. Among the chants from supporters were demands for reconciliation between the dominant and rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, and unity between the West Bank and Gaza. At the Israeli cabinet meeting, Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said: "The PA's one-sided step at the UN constitutes a gross violation of the agreements that have been signed with the State of Israel; accordingly … Israel rejects the UN general assembly decision." The country would "continue to build in Jerusalem and in all areas that are on the map of the strategic interests of the State of Israel", he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As he died, James Krumm fought with his attacker and gave others in the classroom time to escape to safety, police say Gravely wounded by an arrow fired into his head, a college instructor still managed to wrestle with his 25-year-old son who carried out the attack and give his students time to flee the classroom, say police who hailed the actions as heroic. More grisly details of the horrific murder-suicide in Wyoming came to light Saturday, a day after the younger man killed his father's live-in girlfriend and then barged into his father's computer science class and shot him in the head with a high-powered bow and arrow. As James Krumm, 56, then fought with son Christopher Krumm during Friday's attack, the handful of students in the Casper College classroom escaped. Christopher Krumm had just stabbed to death 42-year-old Heidi Arnold at the home she shared with James Krumm two miles away. When police arrived at the classroom, they found Christopher Krumm bleeding from self-inflicted knife wounds and taking his last breaths. James Krumm was dead, Casper police chief Chris Walsh said. "I can tell you the courage that was demonstrated by Mr Krumm was absolutely without equal," he said, adding that the instructor's actions could offer some measure of comfort to those affected by the killings. Authorities believe "around six" students were in the classroom when Christopher Krumm entered, Casper police spokesman Justin Smith said. No students were hurt. Walsh said police still were trying to figure out what motivated Christopher Krumm to attack his father and Arnold, a math instructor at the college. Arnold died of multiple stab wounds. After shooting his father with the arrow, Christopher Krumm stabbed himself, then fatally stabbed his father in the chest in a struggle in the classroom, Walsh said. Police began getting reports about the attack on Arnold soon after they responded by the dozen to the campus attack. Authorities locked down the campus for two hours while they scoured the grounds for any other attackers. They were reassured that Christopher Krumm acted alone. He had smuggled the compound bow _ a type much more powerful and effective for hunting than a simple, wooden bow _ onto campus beneath a blanket, Walsh said. He said Christopher Krumm also had two knives with him, and the knife used was "very large." Arnold's body was found in the gutter of her street, and evidence suggested much of the attack occurred outside the home, Walsh said. Investigators said Christopher Krumm had recently driven to Casper from Connecticut and had been staying at a local hotel. He had no significant history of encounters with police. Authorities were uncertain what went awry in his relationship with his father. "It's difficult to say. I don't think it was very close," Walsh said. In Vernon, Connecticut, police sergeant Timothy O'Connor said officers executed a search warrant at Christopher Krumm's last known address Friday to help authorities in Casper. He didn't know what investigators were looking for or may have found at the home. "Whatever was recovered will be turned over to Wyoming because it is an active investigation," O'Connor said. Casper, population 56,000, is about 250 miles (402 kilometers) northwest of Denver and Wyoming's second-largest city after the state capital, Cheyenne. Wyomingites refer to Casper as the "Oil City" because it is a hub of the state's oil industry. Casper College is one of seven colleges in Wyoming's community college system. The building where the attack happened remained cordoned off by police tape that whipped in a brisk wind. A security guard let students back in, one at a time, to retrieve belongings they'd left behind. Andra Charter, a 20-year-old sophomore, emerged with a coffee mug. She recalled hearing screams outside her biology class before getting word about what had happened. "As we were walking out, there was a girl screaming: 'There's somebody stabbing Mr Krumm!'" Charter said. James Krumm was head of the college's computer science department. He was born north of London and also spent part of his childhood in Germany, according to the college website. The college planned a candlelight vigil and memorial service Tuesday.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Turkish officials say they have evidence Assad regime could resort to ballistic missiles if air campaign against rebels fails Turkey has asked for Nato Patriot missile defences to be deployed on its territory after receiving intelligence that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of missiles, possibly with chemical warheads, Turkish officials have told the Guardian. The officials said they had credible evidence that if the Syrian government's aerial bombardment against opposition-held areas failed to hold the rebels back, Bashar al-Assad's regime could resort to missiles and chemical weapons in a desperate last effort to survive. The Turks believe that the regime's Soviet-era Scuds and North Korean SS-21 missiles would be aimed principally at opposition areas but could easily stray across the border, as Syrian army artillery shells and mortars have done. A missile, especially with a chemical warhead, would represent a far greater threat to Turkish border communities, and so Ankara decided last month to ask Nato to supply Patriot missile defence systems, which can spot an incoming missile and intercept it. "We have intelligence from difference sources that the Syrians will use ballistic missiles and chemical warheads," a senior Turkish official said. "First they sent the infantry in against the rebels and they lost a lot of men, and many changed sides. Then they sent in the tanks, and they were taken out by anti-tank missiles. So now it's air power. If that fails it will be missiles, perhaps with chemical warheads. That is why we asked Nato for protection." The New York Times reported that western intelligence officials had spotted new signs of activity around Syrian military sites where chemical weapons are stored. A senior US official was quoted as saying: "[T]hey're doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons. It's not just moving stuff around. These are different kind of activities." The Syrian regime is believed to have stocks of mustard gas, sarin nerve gas and possibly VX, another nerve agent. Western governments have warned Assad that any use of these weapons would trigger direct military intervention against him. So far, western officials say there are no signs of the regime taking the final steps of preparing chemical artillery shells, missiles or aircraft bombs for use. The deployment of Dutch and German Patriot systems is due to be voted on by those countries' parliaments this week, and Turkish diplomats expect it to be approved. The same two countries supplied the launchers and missiles the last time Patriots were deployed in Turkey, in 2003 during the Iraq war. In recent days the rebel Free Syrian Army has succeeded in shooting down Syrian government aircraft with shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, in a potential turning point, but Turkey still expects a protracted struggle for the upper hand in the bloody civil war, in which it estimates 50,000 people have died. Turkish officials still believe the best chance of a breakthrough that would cut short the conflict would be for Russia to withdraw its backing for Assad, forcing the Syrian president, his family and immediate entourage into exile, and thereby removing the most serious obstacle to talks between the opposition and the government. Russia has blocked any punitive UN security council measures and has supplied the Syrian regime with arms and economic support. In recent weeks it is reported to have flown tonnes of freshly printed banknotes to allow Damascus to pay its soldiers. But Turkish officials believe Russian backing for the Syrian leader is finally fading. "Privately they have been telling us they that they accept he is going to go," a senior official said. Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to fly to Turkey on Monday for bilateral talks with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which Erdogan will keep up the pressure for the Russians to pull the plug on its closest Middle East ally. "We are asking the Russians whether or not they want to help build a stable Syria after Assad," a Turkish official said. A regional peace initiative launched by Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, in August, involving Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, foundered on Saudi objections to Iranian involvement. Both Egypt and Turkey, however, believe that Iran has to be engaged in the search for a peace deal as it is Assad's only regional ally and an important source of weapons. Turkey has sustained the effort by organising three sets of trilateral talks: Turkey, Iran and Egypt, whose leaders met in Islamabad late last month to discuss the Syrian crisis; Turkey, Iran and Russia; and Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Ankara believes that all those relationships will be vital in rebuilding Syria after the conflict, but that Russia's role will be decisive in bringing it to an end.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Turkish officials say they have evidence Assad regime could resort to ballistic missiles if air campaign against rebels fails A request by Turkey for Nato Patriot missile defences to be deployed on its territory followed intelligence that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of missiles, possibly with chemical warheads, Turkish officials have told the Guardian. The officials said they had credible evidence that if the Syrian government's aerial bombardment against opposition-held areas failed to hold the rebels back, Bashar al-Assad's regime might resort to missiles and chemical weapons in a desperate last effort to survive. The Turks believe that the regime's Soviet-era Scuds and North Korean SS-21 missiles would be aimed principally at opposition areas but could easily stray across the border, as Syrian army artillery shells and mortars have done. A missile, especially with a chemical warhead, would represent a far greater threat to Turkish border communities, so Ankara decided last month to ask Nato to supply Patriot missile defence systems, which can spot an incoming missile and intercept it. "We have intelligence from different sources that the Syrians will use ballistic missiles and chemical warheads," a senior Turkish official said. "First they sent the infantry in against the rebels and they lost a lot of men, and many changed sides. Then they sent in the tanks, and they were taken out by anti-tank missiles. So now it's air power. If that fails it will be missiles, perhaps with chemical warheads. That is why we asked Nato for protection." The New York Times reported that western intelligence officials had spotted new signs of activity around Syrian military sites where chemical weapons are stored. A senior US official was quoted as saying: "[T]hey're doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons. It's not just moving stuff around. These are different kind of activities." The Syrian regime is believed to have stocks of mustard gas, sarin nerve gas and possibly VX, another nerve agent. Western governments have warned Assad that any use of these weapons would trigger direct military intervention against him. So far, western officials say there are no signs of the regime taking the final steps of preparing chemical artillery shells, missiles or aircraft bombs for use. The deployment of Dutch and German Patriot systems is due to be voted on by those countries' parliaments this week, and Turkish diplomats expect it to be approved. The same two countries supplied the launchers and missiles the last time Patriots were deployed in Turkey, in 2003 during the Iraq war. In recent days the rebel Free Syrian Army has succeeded in shooting down Syrian government aircraft with shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, in a potential turning point, but Turkey still expects a protracted struggle for the upper hand in the bloody civil war, in which it estimates 50,000 people have died. Turkish officials still believe the best chance of a breakthrough that would cut short the conflict would be for Russia to withdraw its backing for Assad, forcing the Syrian president, his family and immediate entourage into exile, and thereby removing the most serious obstacle to talks between the opposition and the government. Russia has blocked any punitive UN security council measures and has supplied the Syrian regime with arms and economic support. In recent weeks it is reported to have flown in tonnes of freshly printed banknotes to allow Damascus to pay its soldiers. But Turkish officials believe Russian backing for the Syrian leader is finally fading. "Privately they have been telling us that they accept he is going to go," a senior official said. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is expected to fly to Turkey on Monday for bilateral talks with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which Erdogan will keep up the pressure for the Russians to pull the plug on their closest Middle East ally. "We are asking the Russians whether or not they want to help build a stable Syria after Assad," a Turkish official said. A regional peace initiative launched by Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, in August, involving Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, foundered on Saudi objections to Iranian involvement. Both Egypt and Turkey, however, believe that Iran has to be engaged in the search for a peace deal as it is Assad's only regional ally and an important source of weapons. Turkey has sustained the effort by organising three sets of trilateral talks: Turkey, Iran and Egypt, whose leaders met in Islamabad late last month to discuss the Syrian crisis; Turkey, Iran and Russia; and Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Ankara believes that all those relationships will be vital in rebuilding Syria after the conflict, but that Russia's role will be decisive in bringing it to an end.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President puts faith in popular vote to silence critics of government's sweeping powers as about 50,000 rally in Cairo The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has announced a snap referendum on a new constitution that has already deepened divisions in a country still struggling to find its identity more than a year after it emerged from Hosni Mubarak's rule. Morsi, who has triggered a fresh crisis in Egypt by assuming sweeping powers and pushing the constitution through an Islamist-dominated assembly, called the 15 December vote after tens of thousands of his loyalists rallied in support of the document. Opposition leaders have condemned the constitution, saying its basis in Islamic laws could undermine women's rights and freedom of speech. Mohamed ElBaradei called it a violation of universal values and vowed that the struggle against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood would continue. Earlier, an estimated 50,000 people congregated near Cairo University, many bussed in from the countryside to show their support for the president and sharia law. Members of the president's Muslim Brotherhood were joined by large numbers of their Salfi Muslim allies. "I'm here to support Morsi's decree and the constitution. He is the first elected president, and his decisions are all correct," said protester Shaaban Hassan. Fellow protester Mustafa Abdel-Razak stressed that it was a religious duty to support Morsi. "It's a matter of religion, to support my custodian [Morsi]. It is religiously decreed to support my custodian, as long as he does not order us to sin." On Sunday, Egypt's top court postponed a session during which it was expected to rule on the legitimacy of the panel that drafted the constitution. The officials cited "administrative reasons" for the delay, but the announcement came as several thousand Morsi supporters surrounded the supreme constitutional court, preventing members of the judiciary from entering the courthouse in Cairo. Morsi's decree and the resulting furore has repolarised Egyptian politics and society. Opposition forces immediately took to the streets to decry what they termed a dictatorial power grab, which granted Morsi judicial immunity in all decisions and ringfenced the assembly given the task of drafting the constitution. Morsi has insisted that the measures are temporary and will speed Egypt's democratic transition. However, by giving himself extensive powers and putting his decisions beyond judicial challenge he has pushed the country into fresh turmoil. His assertion of authority in a decree issued the day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement dismayed his opponents. Saturday was the first showing of Islamist forces since the uproar began after they cancelled a demonstration last Tuesday because it coincided with opposition forces marching on Tahrir Square. Initially Saturday's protest was scheduled for Tahrir Square, but was relocated to Cairo University to avoid opposition protesters who were continuing a sit-in. In an effort to defuse the crisis, and also avoid possible dissolution by the supreme court on Sunday, the drafting assembly rushed to finish in time for Morsi to ratify it and call the referendum. The final draft drew criticism at home and abroad for its ambiguous language, its weak and contradictory articles on human rights, women's rights and civil liberties, and for the creeping sense of religiosity. The assembly was also criticised for its homogeneous nature after liberal and Christian members withdrew. "We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society," said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester and member of a party set up by ElBaradei. Privately owned media announced a press blackout on Tuesday and Wednesday in protest. Morsi's unilateral actions and refusal to back down have dismayed secular opposition forces, who are adamant that he must rescind these powers before a solution can be discussed. "Morsi's actions display a lack of wisdom," said university professor Mustafa Kamel el-Sayed, who withdrew from the assembly drafting the constitution because of the Islamist domination of the group. "The head of state should try to promote national reconciliation. And by insisting on a course of action which is rejected by a considerable number of Egyptians, the president is basing his power exclusively on one political force, marginalising all others." However, Sayed Sabah Abdallah, a member of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, who was present at the pro-Morsi rally, laid the blame of the current crisis squarely at the door of the secular opposition. "The forces in Tahrir want to bring down this constitution because they know we are the biggest organisational force in the country and that we would sweep the parliamentary elections that must be held right after the constitution is passed in the referendum," he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Five Afghans killed and foreign soldiers wounded after suicide bombers and gunmen target compound in Jalalabad A squad of suicide car bombers and gunmen have targeted the main Nato airbase in eastern Afghanistan, reportedly killing five Afghans and wounding several foreign soldiers. Two men in a Toyota sedan and an SUV detonated their explosives at a vehicle entry gate to the compound in eastern Jalalabad city just before 6am on Sunday, and another six or seven gunmen attempted to rush in through the breach they created. Guards from Afghan and international forces called in helicopters to help fight the group off in a gun battle that the acting provincial police chief, Jamil Shamal, said lasted around half an hour. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, naming one of the suicide bombers as Sadiquallah. One confirmed victim was a young medical student, Saraj al Haq, who was crossing a road at the time. The 25-year-old, from Nangarhar province, was working as a nurse while studying to be a doctor, said Mohammad Sabir, head of the provincial university. The men did not get inside the airport compound, which has been one of the most heavily targeted major military bases in Afghanistan, and no foreign soldiers were killed, Nato said. A spokesman declined to comment how many soldiers were injured or how badly. "Coalition forces at the airbase successfully defended it, a gunbattle took place and I can confirm that coalition airforce were involved," said Martin Crighton, spokesman for the Nato-led coalition. "According to our operational reporting at least one member of the ANSF [Afghan national security forces] was killed and others were wounded." Reuters said the attackers killed five people in all – three Afghan soldiers and a civilian – while seven of the insurgents who launched the followup attack died in the gunbattle. Jalalabad is the main city in Afghanistan's volatile east, an hour's drive from the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban and other insurgent groups are based. The airport, known to the military as Forward Operating Base Fenty, has been the target of several attacks – most recently in February this year, when a suicide car bomber killed nine Afghans, most of them civilians. The Taliban also claimed that attack and said it was in revenge for the burning of copies of the Qur'an by foreign troops. Most foreign bases in Afghanistan have an outer ring of Afghan guards and multiple layers of blast walls and other defences that make it very hard for attackers to get inside the compound or target foreign soldiers. Instead the dead are usually Afghan soldiers and police, or civilians who happened to be in the area. Additional reporting by Mokhtar Amiri
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lee Aldhouse, who is accused of killing Dashawn Longfellow, was arrested in UK after fleeing Thailand in 2010 A British man wanted on suspicion of murdering a former US marine has arrived in the resort town of Phuket for trial after the first-ever extradition of a criminal suspect from Britain to Thailand. Colonel Sinard Ajhanwong, commander of Thai Interpol region 3, said Britain had previously declined to send suspects back under a 1911 extradition treaty. Lee Aldhouse, now 29, was arrested when he arrived at Heathrow airport in London after fleeing Thailand in 2010. Aldhouse is accused of stabbing Dashawn Longfellow, who had been on holiday in Thailand. Police said Aldhouse allegedly killed Longfellow, then 23, on 14 August 2010, after being beaten up by the ex-marine during an earlier brawl at a Phuket bar. Aldhouse was a semi-professional kickboxer who had been living for several years in Phuket, while Longfellow was also studying the sport. Aldhouse's appeal against extradition had been rejected by Britain's high court. "The Thai authorities had fought for his extradition for two years and this is the first time in 101 years that the UK approved a request," said Sinard. "Prior to this case, they had declined to send suspects back, even when they were not British citizens. This time, however, they extradited a British national to us, so that emphasises the significance of this case," he said. Thai legal officials accompanied Aldhouse from Britain. Sinard said Aldhouse appeared very nervous about his rights being honoured under the Thai legal system, "but our prosecutors assured him that he will treated according to international standards of justice". He said Aldhouse will be questioned by investigators before police hand his case to prosecutors.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mudslide caused Sasago road tunnel near Tokyo to cave in and trap vehicles, with people fleeing on foot as fire broke out Police in Japan have found the charred bodies of several people who were trapped inside their vehicle after part of a motorway tunnel collapsed and caught fire on Sunday morning. Japanese media said several vehicles were ablaze after a 100 metre long section of the Sasago tunnel's ceiling caved in shortly after 8am. Firefighters discovered the bodies inside a white van after battling through thick smoke. The number of bodies inside the car is unknown; local media were reporting that as many as seven people were missing. The rescue operation was temporarily halted in the afternoon amid fears of another collapse. Police said they did not know what had caused the section of the 2.5 mile tunnel to cave in. The tunnel is located along a busy section of the Chuo expressway about 50 miles west of Tokyo. Dozens of motorists, including two women who received minor injuries in the accident, left their cars and walked out of the tunnel to safety. "When I was driving in the tunnel, concrete pieces fell down suddenly from the ceiling," one man told public broadcaster NHK. "I saw a crushed car catching fire. I was frightened, left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel." Earlier, firefighters had struggled to reach the scene of the accident after the tunnel filled with smoke. "We have limited information on the accident at the moment but smoke is said to be coming out from the tunnel as an unspecified number of vehicles were burning," a police spokesman said. Television footage showed emergency vehicles parked outside the tunnel's entrance. One man told TV Asahi he had witnessed the cave-in before calling police, who told him to flee. "A few seconds later and my car would have been right in the middle of it," he said. Asahi TV said at least three cars had been trapped inside. One woman who had managed to make her way out of the tunnel reportedly told police that five other people were still inside the rented vehicle in which she had been travelling. There was no information on the exact number of casualties in the accident, which occurred on the Tokyo-bound section of the motorway in Otsuki, Yamanashi prefecture. Yoshio Goto, a reporter for the public broadcaster NHK who was driving through the tunnel when the roof began to fall, confirmed that several cars had been trapped inside. Goto, who emerged safely, said he had seen thick smoke billowing from one end of the tunnel. "I managed to drive through the tunnel but vehicles nearby appeared to have been trapped," local media quoted him as saying. "Black smoke was coming and there seemed to be a fire inside the tunnel."
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