| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Vice president Nicolas Maduro tells Venezuelan people the president's health is delicate following cancer operation Hugo Chávez has suffered "new complications" following his cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president said, describing the Venezuelan leader's condition as delicate. Vice president Nicolas Maduro delivered a solemn televised address from Havana, saying he had spoken with Chávez and that the president sent greetings to his homeland. Maduro did not give details about the complications, which he said came amid a respiratory infection. "Several minutes ago we were with president Chávez. We greeted each other and he himself referred to these complications," Maduro said, reading from a prepared statement. Maduro was seated alongside Chávez's eldest daughter, Rosa, and son-in-law Jorge Arreaza, as well as attorney-general Cilia Flores. The vice president's comments suggest an increasingly difficult fight for the ailing president. The Venezuelan leader has not been seen or heard from since undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery on 11 December, and government officials have said he might not return in time for his scheduled 10 January inauguration for a new six-year term. "The president gave us precise instructions so that, after finishing the visit, we would tell the (Venezuelan) people about his current health condition," Maduro said. "President Chávez's state of health continues to be delicate, with complications that are being attended to, in a process not without risks." Maduro held up a copy of a newspaper confirming that his message was recorded on Sunday. "Thanks to his physical and spiritual strength, Comandante Chávez is facing this difficult situation," Maduro said. Maduro said he had met various times with Chávez's medical team and relatives. He said he would remain in Havana "for the coming hours" but didn't specify how long. Maduro, who arrived in Havana on Saturday for a sudden and unexpected trip, is the highest ranking Venezuelan official to visit Chávez since the surgery. Before Chávez left for Cuba, he acknowledged risks in the operation and designated Maduro as his successor, telling supporters they should vote for the vice president if a new presidential election was necessary. Chávez said his cancer had come back despite previous surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He has been fighting an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer since June 2011. Maduro's latest update differed markedly from last Monday, when he had said he received a phone call from the president and that Chávez was up and walking. The vice president spoke on Sunday below a picture of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar, the inspiration of Chávez's leftist Bolivarian Revolution movement. Maduro expressed faith that Chávez's "immense will to live and the care of the best medical specialists will help our president successfully fight this new battle." He concluded his message saying: "Long live Chávez."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Doctors monitoring US secretary of state's condition at New York-Presbyterian hospital, says state department spokesman The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has been admitted to hospital after doctors found a blood clot related to a concussion she suffered earlier this month. Doctors made the discovery during a follow-up exam at New York-Presbyterian hospital, Philippe Reines, the deputy assistant secretary of state, told reporters. "Secretary Clinton's doctors discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago. "Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. They will determine if any further action is required." Clinton was expected to stay in hospital for 48 hours while specialists monitor her condition and treat her with anti-coagulants, Reines added. Clinton, 65, had a stomach virus when she fainted due to dehydration three weeks ago, causing the concussion. She had been expected to return to work this week after recuperating at home. She missed a planned trip to the Middle East and north Africa as well as congressional hearings into the September attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans including the ambassador, Chris Stevens. Clinton is stepping down as secretary of state to rest and, it has been speculated, to pave the way for a White House run in 2016. The sudden health concerns have placed her age in the spotlight and a question mark over any presidential bid. The former first lady has been noted as a particularly hard-working diplomat. Earlier this year, she alluded to the effects of heavy travelling. Asked in January at a state department staff event of her intentions after the presidential election, she replied: "I think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years, of being on the high wire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am." She did not completely rule out a return to politics, adding: "Everyone always says that when they leave these jobs." Senior Republicans such as Newt Gingrich have said Clinton, who narrowly lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, would be a formidable opponent in 2016.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama says he intends to strong-arm Congress into scaled- back measures if no deal can be reached by the end of Sunday Hopes of a last-minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff faded on Sunday when Senate leaders failed to meet a target for agreement and said they remained far apart on key issues. Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the Senate's Republican minority, emerged from closed-door talks shortly before 3pm to inform colleagues in the chamber they remained deadlocked. McConnell said no single issue remained an "impossible sticking point" and blamed Democrats for not responding to a Republican offer made on Saturday evening. "It's now 2pm and we've yet to receive a response to our good-faith offer. I'm concerned at the lack of urgency here." He said he called vice-president Joe Biden, with whom he has worked before, to try to "jump start" negotiations. "I'm still willing to get this done but I need a dance partner." Reid said the Republicans had a made a good-faith proposal but that both sides remained apart on "pretty big issues" and that Democrats could not respond. We've been negotiating now for 36 hours or thereabouts. We've been trying … but at this stage we're not able to make a counter-offer." As such, the 3pm target for them to present a framework agreement to colleagues passed with no hint of a deal forthcoming. Reid hoped McConnell and Biden might break the deadlock. "I wish them well." Senate Democrats may yet respond to the GOP offer, he said, "as the day wears on". The announcements cast renewed gloom over Capitol Hill just hours after President Barack Obama made a final pitch to Congress to act on the fiscal cliff. In a rare foray onto the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them. "They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said. The pointed remarks came as lawmakers in Washington prepared for a rare Sunday session. Congress has until midnight on Monday to find a solution to the current fiasco. That deadline will automatically trigger a series of fiscal measures that experts have said could plunge the US back into a recession If no deal is done, 88% of Americans will see their taxes rise on 1 January, a wave of deep spending cuts will start to take effect, and 2 million long-term unemployed people will lose their benefits. The task of reaching a compromise has fallen on Reid and McConnell. Both men were summoned to the White House on Friday, alongside House speaker John Boehner and minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance. After that meeting, Obama said he remained "modestly optimistic" that a deal could be achieved. But since then there has been no firm indication that a grand compromise was indeed obtainable. "I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. Boehner responded saying Americans elected the president to lead, not cast blame. "The president's comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party," Boehner said. "We've been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes'." Hours later, with the clock ticking towards 3pm, Reid and McConnell made their announcement about remaining far apart. The main sticking point is the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings. Obama wants all earners of $250,000 a year and above to shoulder a greater tax burden. Analysts believe that any deal could be anchored on raising taxes for households earning more than $400,000 or $500,000 a year. But many Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote against any increase in tax. Not only could this scupper the chances of a grand deal, it could also see the blocking of the White House's back-up plan to avert the fiscal cliff. Obama has indicated that if Reid and McConnell fail to produce an agreement by the end of Sunday, he will strong-arm Congress into a vote on scaled-back measures that would avert the immediate cost of America heading over the fiscal cliff. That simple "up-or-down vote on a basic package" would stop tax hikes for middle-income Americans, while "laying the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction", Obama said on Saturday. But even that may have difficulty passing through the House, given the entrenched position of some Tea Party-backed Republicans. Obama appeared to prepare for that eventuality on Sunday. "If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on 1 January, then we'll come back with a new Congress on 4 January and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said. But he warned that missing the deadline would still result in "adverse reaction in the markets" and would "hurt our economy badly".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Obama says earlier that he intends to strong-arm Congress into scaled-back measures if no deal can be reached Brinkmanship in Washington took America into a final day scramble to avert the fiscal cliff, after talks between Senate leaders broke up with no deal in sight. Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the chamber's Republican minority, ended more than a day of on-off talks on Capitol Hill without an agreement and with nothing for lawmakers to vote on. It brings closer the prospect that America could plunge off the so-called fiscal cliff at midnight on Monday, triggering swingeing spending cuts and across-the-board tax increases. Talks were expected to resume on Monday, but with the clock ticking inexorably towards the new year deadline, few in Washington were optimistic about a deal. McConnell said no single issue remained an "impossible sticking point" and blamed Democrats for not responding to a Republican offer made on Saturday evening. He called vice-president Joe Biden, with whom he has worked before, to try to "jump start" negotiations. "I'm still willing to get this done but I need a dance partner." Reid said the Republicans had a made a good-faith proposal but that the two sides remained apart on some "pretty big issues" and the Democrats could not respond. "We've been negotiating now for 36 hours or thereabouts. We've been trying … but at this stage we're not able to make a counter-offer." Republican senators withdrew a demand over a new way of calculating inflation that would have cut social security and other social programmes, but the concession failed to bridge the gap between the two sides. The deadlock cast gloom over the US just hours after Barack Obama tried to inject hope with a final pitch to Congress to act on the fiscal cliff. In a rare foray on to the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for the looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them. "They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said. The pointed remarks came as lawmakers in Washington prepared for a rare Sunday session, which convened only to break up hours later with no vote. Congress has until midnight on Monday to find a solution to the current fiasco. That deadline will automatically trigger a series of fiscal measures that experts have said could plunge the US back into a recession If no deal is done, 88% of Americans will see their taxes rise on 1 January, a wave of deep spending cuts will start to take effect, and 2 million long-term unemployed people will lose their benefits. The task of reaching a compromise had fallen on Reid and McConnell. Both men were summoned to the White House on Friday, alongside House speaker John Boehner and minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance. After that meeting, Obama said he remained "modestly optimistic" that a deal could be achieved. But since then there has been no firm indication that a grand compromise was indeed obtainable. "I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, ahead of news that the talks had indeed broken down. Boehner responded saying Americans elected the president to lead, not cast blame. "The president's comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party," Boehner said. "We've been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes'." Reid and McConnell had been tasked with coming up with a solution by 3pm Sunday. But little more than an hour until that deadline, both men took to the Senate floor to announce that both side's position remained far apart. The main sticking point has been the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings. Obama wants all earners of $250,000 a year and above to shoulder a greater tax burden. Analysts believe that any deal could be anchored on raising taxes for households earning more than $400,000 or $500,000 a year. But many Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote against any increase in tax. Not only could this scupper the chances of a grand deal, it could also see the blocking of the White House's back-up plan to avert the fiscal cliff. Obama has indicated that if Reid and McConnell fail to produce an agreement by the end of Sunday, he will strong-arm Congress into a vote on scaled-back measures that would avert the immediate cost of America heading over the fiscal cliff. That simple "up-or-down vote on a basic package" would stop tax hikes for middle-income Americans, while "laying the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction", Obama said on Saturday. But even that may have difficulty passing through the House, given the entrenched position of some Tea Party-backed Republicans. Obama appeared to prepare for that eventuality on Sunday. "If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle-class families do in fact go up on 1 January, then we'll come back with a new Congress on 4 January and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle-class families," he said. But he warned that missing the deadline would still result in "adverse reaction in the markets" and would "hurt our economy badly".
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Only sign of huge US base is pile of rubbish and broken vehicles – and a festering land dispute in a volatile province US forces left behind piles of equipment, an unpaid rent bill and a festering land dispute that threatens to undermine the Afghan government when they moved out of a volatile corner of eastern Kunar province this year, local officials and their former landlords say. The only clue that a base that dominated Pashengar village for years had been abandoned for good was the midnight rumble of a convoy of trucks. In the morning, locals found guards gone, buildings blown up and, scattered around what had been a forbidding military encampment, piles of detritus from years of western living in a remote, mountainous valley. Rows of air conditioning units stuck out of a damaged wall, a giant, dilapidated generator was marooned near shipping containers and twisted, dented vehicles remained. But there was no sign of a cheque for a landlord who said years of rent, running to hundreds of thousands of dollars, was owing to him. "They stayed six years and only paid rent for one year," said Haji Najibullah Khan, who grew up in the Pashengar house that became a US base. He said the departing US commander warned him off pushing for rent money when they met a few weeks before the soldiers drove away in the night. A few kilometres down the road, in the centre of Naray district, the US departure was neater, with a joint base handed over to full Afghan army control. But, even here, there is anger because the base was built on a muddle of small plots shared out among 90 families from the area. They are also claiming that years of back rent is owed by the Americans and are worried they may never see their land again now Afghan government troops are firmly entrenched. The simmering dispute threatens to undermine loyalty to troops ostensibly sent to protect the area. Gul Rahman, the district governor, has attempted to mediate but with little success. "I met the Afghan National Army (ANA) with the elders. Now the army are staying, the people are very angry and asking for the payments they are owed, but no one is listening to them." Land is one of the most sensitive issues in Afghanistan. During 30 years of war, many legal documents have been destroyed, landowners and their families have been killed or become refugees, and people have settled on to land to which they have no legal claim. Haji Usman, headmaster of the Naray boys' high school and owner of about two hectares of land that is now part of the base, led a delegation to Kabul that lobbied successfully for an official investigation and recognition of the villagers' claim to the land. The army is ignoring that finding at its own risk, he said. "The people are very angry that the ANA are not leaving," Usman said. "I don't think most people who have had their land taken would be willing to join the Taliban; this is a village under government control. But there are maybe a few, who live in more remote houses, who will join if this issue is not resolved." Rahman, the district governor, said security problems had kept him from visiting Pashengar, but he had been looking into Khan's situation and believed a sale of the military detritus could help pay some of the rent. "I didn't visit the house but I asked some people about it, so I know that some containers, vehicles and generators were left behind. Some were destroyed but some were OK," he told the Guardian by phone from his heavily guarded offices in Naray. "This equipment left by the Americans could make up perhaps half the rent of Haji Najibullah, or at least a quarter." But Khan said it was mostly worthless in an area of subsistence farmers. "I can't sell any of the equipment because it is not stuff that people in the district use. I just leave it in my yard, because it's quite worthless to me." Afghanistan's landscape is littered with rusting Soviet tanks and other military junk, a constant reminder of the Soviets' troubled decade in the country, but since 2001, foreign forces have gone to great lengths to leave no trace. To abandon even non-military equipment is unusual and perhaps a sign of the challenges facing Naray, which lies at Kunar's northern tip. Poor and isolated, it is a place where insurgents can slip easily across the border from Pakistan or down from lawless Nuristan province, where an insurgent vice-and-virtue police holds sway in some villages. A spokesman for the Afghan army would not comment on the situation in Naray, and the Kunar provincial governor, Fazlullah Wahedi, said he had not heard about the land disputes there. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force declined to comment on the situation at either base. "As a matter of policy, Isaf does not publicly discuss information pertaining to potential or pending claims," said spokesman Charlie Stadtlander. Mokhtar Amiri contributed reporting
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President says he plans to make gun control legislation a key part of second term and hopes for new laws to pass in 2013 President Barack Obama has vowed to put his "full weight" behind forthcoming gun control legislation, while expressing "scepticism" over the National Rifle Association's plan to stage a gun in every school. In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, the president – who has been reluctant to enter into a debate on guns while in office – said he hopes to get new weapons laws through Congress in 2013. The recent shooting at a Connecticut elementary school – in which 20 first-graders were killed alongside six adults – was, Obama said, the "worst day" of his presidency. That incident has reignited debate in the US over its lax gun controls. It was carried out with the use of an apparently legally bought assault rifle owned by the gunman's mother. In Sunday's interview, Obama said that he supported a ban on such weapons and high-capacity bullet magazines "I'm going to be putting forward a package and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it. And I'm going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again," he said in the interview. He also expressed a desire to push through new legislation as quickly as possible. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, Obama assigned vice-president Joe Biden to lead a task force to come up with proposals to clamp down on gun violence. "I'd like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden's task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off," Obama told Meet the Press. Obama also made guarded comments aimed at the influential lobbying group the NRA. The pro-gun group broke its silence over the Sandy Hook massacre a week ago, suggesting that stationing an armed guard in every school across the America would prevent a repeat event. The NRA's comments have been roundly condemned by anti-violence campaigners as insensitive, with the plan itself being dismissed as unworkable, costly and ineffective. Obama fell well short of echoing such criticisms, but he did say he was "sceptical". "I am sceptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. And I think the vast majority of the American people are sceptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem," he said. The president has faced criticism for failing to take on the gun lobby after other mass shootings that have occurred under his watch. During his first term, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence graded him an "F" for failure to tackle the issue. In comments to Meet the Press, the president appeared to give hope to those who believe the latest atrocity would force Obama to act. "And the question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away. It certainly won't feel like that to me," he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With elections due in many key countries, the shifting sands of national power and global influence will be making headlines Where will the major stories of 2013 be? If your country begins with an I, the chances are it is having elections. Otherwise you can look forward to the year of the snake, the start of Barack Obama's second term and a grand Irish homecoming. Oh, and the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle. IranIran's presidential election in June will come at a delicate time as the country faces down acute international pressure over its nuclear ambitions and internal discontent over a tailspinning economy. The hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once grabbed headlines across the world for his controversial statements, will finally have to step down after two consecutive terms in office. The election will be closely watched for any hint that the new administration would compromise on the nuclear issue and open up a way out of the current stalemate. In reality though, the new president will have little power to change course. The fate of Iran's nuclear programme rests in the hands of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all state matters and enjoys a job for life. That said, a new president may still be instrumental in easing tensions, as the reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who served between 1997 and 2005, showed. Khatami is once again being touted as a possible candidate in 2013, but conservatives are signalling that he would only be allowed to run if he distanced himself from the opposition Green movement, which stunned the world with a bloody revolt during the last presidential election in 2009. Ahmadinejad is believed to be grooming his controversial chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his successor, but the president has lost a great deal of his influence in the past two years and Mashaei is seen by his conservative opponents as the head of a "deviant current" attempting to undermine clerical power. Other names mentioned include Tehran's mayor, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf; the speaker of parliament, Ali Larijani; the former speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel; and the former foreign minister and current adviser to the supreme leader, Ali Akbar Velayati. SKD Israel Israel goes to the polls in a general election on 22 January, but no one is expecting a fundamental change in the next coalition government. A rightwing alliance between the Likud party of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu is on course to emerge with the biggest number of seats – about 40 – in the 120-member parliament. Smaller religious and ultra-orthodox parties will give the rightwing a majority. Assuming Netanyahu heads another coalition after the election, there are two key questions for his next term. First, whether he orders a unilateral Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities; and second, whether he makes a serious effort to address the calcified peace process with the Palestinians or continues his strategy of talking about talks while expanding settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. HS IrelandIreland's big plan for 2013 is to get as many as possible of the diaspora to return to the republic on holiday this year, hoping that the influx might help jump-start consumer spending. Dubbed The Gathering, the aim is to bring in an extra 325,000 tourists by encouraging some of the 70 million people who claim Irish heritage to visit. The Gathering is offering €500 (£410) to groups and individuals who enlist a minimum of 10 extra overseas visitors, but not everyone is buying into the idea. The actor Gabriel Byrne has labelled it a "shakedown" of the Irish diaspora. HM Kenya Opportunist politicians, seething ethnic rivalries, two candidates indicted by the international criminal court (ICC) … it's election year in Kenya. The country is still scarred by violence that followed the disputed 2007 poll. More than 1,200 people were killed by police or in ethnic attacks which, according to human rights groups, were planned and financed by leading politicians. These allegedly included Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, who have not allowed the prospect of appearing at The Hague just weeks after the March 2013 election to deter them from running again. "They have turned this election into a referendum on the ICC," said Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, a Horn of Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group. "They have cultivated and choreographed a narrative that the ICC is a creation of the west. If they win, Kenya will have to chart a new course and effectively become a pariah state." Once bitter rivals, Kenyatta and Ruto recently announced an alliance which, it is hoped, will reduce the chances of a violent replay of 2007-08 between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities in the Rift Valley. Kenyatta takes on Raila Odinga in the race to succeed president Mwai Kibaki, who is stepping down after two terms. Localised conflict remains a distinct possibility. In recent months dozens of young police recruits were shot dead in the remote northern Samburu region, more than a hundred people were killed in tribal clashes on the coast and deadly riots rocked Mombasa. Politicians are known to rely on their ethnic communities for support and to manipulate and stoke tensions at election time. A national conflagration, however, seems less likely this time. DS Zimbabwe He turns 89 in February and is still spoiling for a fight. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's love of electioneering is matched only by his hatred of losing. He has declared that elections will be held in March 2013, though June seems a likelier date after a new national constitution is approved. Once again he will take on Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and once again there are omens of violence, intimidation and rigging – officials admit the electoral roll is likely to contain the names of dead people. Last time, in 2008, more than 200 Zimbabweans were killed and many tortured, forcing Tsvangirai to withdraw and enter a power-sharing agreement with Mugabe's Zanu-PF. Since then, the parties have fought like ferrets in a sack while the economy has made a wobbly recovery, but activists still face persecution. It may be harder for the MDC this time. Some feel its ministers have failed to live up to their promises and become too accustomed to their Mercedes-Benzes and other perks. Tsvangirai himself has been battered by revelations about his love life.Recent opinion polls show Zanu-PF moving ahead of the MDC,[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/22/robert-mugabe-popularity-zimbabwe-voters] although most people were unwilling to express a preference. Trevor Maisiri, a senior analyst in southern African for the International Crisis Group,[http://www.crisisgroup.org] said: "It will be a very tightly contested election. It will be a close call and that might lead to a dispute. We might then see another round of negotations and continued power sharing." Maisiri predicted there will not be a bloodbath on the same scale as last time. "Zanu-PF and the state institutions are very careful not to drive the political violence we saw in 2008. Their biggest fear is illegitimacy around another election. So they have been working to create an environment of intimidation on the ground [http://allafrica.com/stories/201211291000.html] so people are cowed into voting for Zanu-PF." Other analysts suggest there will be one major winner: apathy. Miles Tendi, author of Making History in Mugabe's Zimbabwe: Politics, Intellectuals and the Media, said voters do not have the appetite for another turbulent campaign. "Turnout has been declining since 1980. The last elections in 2008 had the lowest ever turnout. "Between 2000 and 2008 there were eight elections in Zimbabwe. Too many elections in a short period diminishes their value. The problem is deepened by the fact that each of these elections produced a contested result. The electorate has lost trust in election institutions and processes. Turnout will also be low because none of the competing political parties have a workable vision for addressing Zimbabwe's problems." DS US Polls show Americans think Barack Obama will have a better second term than first, though there is no shortage of potential pitfalls. Gun control will feature early on, with legislation planned for early in the new year. Immigration reform is another aspiration, though this could get squeezed by the battle over gun rights. Overseas, Syria and Iran look like dominating the agenda for the entire second term, with few easy wins likely on either. IcelandIceland may have a population of only 320,000, but as a showcase for radical democratic reform it is undoubtedly the country to watch in 2013. In April it will hold parliamentary elections, and a entirely new party is hoping to make an impact. Reykjavik mayor Jón Gnarr – formerly a stand-up comedian – has confirmed that he will stand for Bright Future, a new party that has grown out of the Best party, which stormed to victory in the municipal elections in 2010. Its comical campaign video – to the tune of Tina Turner's Simply the Best – promised a polar bear for Reykjavik zoo and free towels in all public swimming pools, and attracted many protest votes in the wake of Iceland's financial crash. But since taking power the party has taken difficult decisions and won plaudits for its "new politics", which includes deciding policy through online debates and communicating with residents via Facebook. Now several members have formed Bright Future and hope they can revive an interest in national politics in a similar way. On his own Facebook page Gnarr recently wrote: "I think Iceland could be the perfect laboratory for the future of democracy, direct democracy, participatory budgeting and other ideas." Or, as he promised in 2010, he may just want to ensure "a drug free parliament by 2020". AT Germany Few people predict anything other than re-election for Angela Merkel in Germany's autumn vote. The speculation is focused more on who will make up the new government than who will lead it. Gerd Languth, professor of political science at the University of Bonn and a veteran observer of German politics, says it will not become clear until election night at the earliest, but he sees the possibility of three different coalition constellations. First is "a new grand coalition" made up of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), "though the SPD would fight tooth and nail for this not to happen, only seeing this as a last resort". Another option is a CDU-Green party grouping, a once unthinkable scenario. "If we assume that the SPD and Greens don't get enough to govern, which is likely to be the case, the Greens – who are so keen to get into government – could well imagine becoming bedfellows with the CDU," he said. "They'd be better placed with the CDU, in terms of the influence they'd have, and the number of ministerial positions they might expect. The Greens are realists." A return to the current coalition between the CDU and liberal Free Democratic party (FDP) is also a possibility, Languth said, but only if the FDP manages to secure the minimum 5% necessary to get into parliament, which has frequently seemed doubtful. Is there any reason then why Merkel would not manage a third term? A complete economic collapse perhaps, which, with recent gloomy predictions for next year, cannot be completely ruled out – though even then, most analysts agree that Germans would tend to want to keep the tried and trusted Merkel at the helm. KC ItalyMario Monti is aiming to stay on as Italian prime minister and Silvio Berlusconi has bounced back from his resignation in 2011 to seek another term, but Italy's centre-left Democratic party is still the favourite to win the February election. "I believe there will be a Democratic party government with Monti asked to come on board as finance minister or as president," said Claudio Cerasa, assistant editor of the Italian daily Il Foglio.Italy's electoral law means Bersani can feel relatively confident of a working majority in the lower house, but the regional basis for representation in the senate means the swing regions of Sicily, Veneto, Campania and Lombardy – where Berlusconi could perform well – could stop Bersani from forming a functioning government, said Cerasa. "It may be up to Monti to help out Bersani in the senate by taking votes from Berlusconi." A broad alliance between Bersani and Monti could prove unwieldy, given that the centrists backing Monti include the heirs to the Christian Democrat party, who take their cues on family policy from the Vatican. Allied with Bersani to his left is Nichi Vendola, the gay governor of Puglia, who is already growling at the prospect of teaming up with the centrists. The concoction recalls Romano Prodi's coalition, which took office in 2006 before coming off the rails in 2008 amid infighting, allowing Berlusconi back in for his third term. TK China2013 is the year of the snake, a polarising creature in China – repulsive to some, auspicious to others – and predictions for the country's coming year are appropriately contradictory and complex. Internet users will probably exceed 600 million as the authorities expand their surveillance and control over the web. The economy will expand rapidly – at a rate of 8.4%, according to the World Bank – while environmental concerns and local government debts continue to snowball. Authorities will crack down on corruption while maintaining a characteristically hard line on dissent. Xi Jinping will formally become China's president in March. Xi presents himself as a strikingly human counterpoint to his stone-faced predecessor, Hu Jintao, but his oft-repeated calls for a "great renewal of the Chinese nation" could portend increasingly assertive actions abroad, especially in disputed areas of the South and East China seas. JK
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Air crash investigation team examining black boxes on Tupolev-204 plane, which slid off Moscow runway, killing five Faulty brakes may be to blame for a Russian airliner sliding off the runway and smashing onto a road near Moscow, killing five people, a member of the crash investigation team said on Sunday. Investigators said they were examining the black boxes to try to determine the cause of Saturday's crash, which cracked the wings off the Tupolev-204 plane and split the fuselage clean into three pieces. If they find bad brakes were at fault, it would match a warning issued to the state-owned Tupolev by Russia's aviation authority to fix problems with the brakes that may have caused a Tu-204 with 70 people onboard to go off a Siberian runway on 21 December. Any sign that the catastrophe during peak holiday travel could have been avoided will worsen concerns over the country's poor air-safety record, despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls. "After landing the pilot uses all the available brake systems on the plane, but for some reason the machine did not stop," a member of the investigation team told the Interfax new agency. "Most likely it was faulty reverse engines or brakes." A fifth crew member of the Red Wing plane, which was travelling without passengers, died of her injuries in hospital on Sunday, the company said. Despite icy weather conditions, the plane had been piloted by an experienced crew with many hours of flying under their belt, according to Russia's aviation safety body. Television footage showed the jet with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken clean off after the crash. A photo showed a crew member, still strapped to a seat, sprawled on the pavement after apparently being hurled far from the plane during its impact with the road barrier. Red Wings, whose fleet includes nine of the Soviet-designed Tu-204 jets, said on Sunday it would not retire them from use. The Russian-built Tu-204, which is comparable in size to a Boeing 757 or Airbus A321, was produced in the mid-1990s but is no longer being made. Russia and other former Soviet republics have some of the world's worst air-traffic safety records, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, the International Air Transport Association said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warns that Syria risks 'Somalisation' and control by warlords as situation deteriorates The international envoy to Syria has warned that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a way cannot be found quickly to end the country's civil war. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy for the Syrian crisis, told reporters in Cairo on Sunday that if the crisis continued Syria would not be divided into states "like what happened in Yugoslavia" but would face "Somalisation, which means warlords, and the Syrian people will be persecuted by those who control their fate". Syrian rebels are fighting a 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war. Since starting his job in September, Brahimi has sought to advance an international plan, reached in Geneva six months ago, that calls for an open-ended ceasefire between rebels and government troops, and the formation of a transitional government to run the country until elections can be held. Over the past week Brahimi has visited Damascus, where he met Assad, and flown to Moscow, one of Syria's closest international allies, where he discussed ways of ending the country's crisis. "The situation in Syria is bad. Very, very bad," Brahimi said after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. "It is getting worse and therefore if nearly 50,000 were killed in nearly two years if, God forbids, this crisis continues for another year, it will not only kill 25,000. It will kill 100,000. The situation is deteriorating." The monthly death toll in Syria has risen recently, as both sides have used heavier weapons and the Syrian army has started using its warplanes to attack rebel-held areas around the country. Brahimi said peace and security in the world would be threatened directly from Syria if there was no solution within the next few months. "I warn of what will come. The choice is between a political solution or of full collapse of the Syrian state." Asked if there was any willingness by Assad and the opposition to go into a political process, Brahimi said, "No, there isn't. This is the problem." He added that the two sides don't talk to each other and help from outside was needed. Brahimi hinted that the Geneva plan might be adopted by the UN security council, saying, "We have a suggestion and I think that this suggestion will be adopted by the international community." The Geneva plan was reached in international conferences this summer and has the backing of Russia and China, which have shielded Damascus, as well as the west. But neither side within Syria appears interested. The rebels reject any efforts that do not call for the ouster of Assad, and Assad's government is unlikely to give up power voluntarily. It is unclear if security council backing would significantly increase the pressure on either side to support it. In Syria, activists reported violence in areas ranging from the northern provinces of Idlib, Aleppo and Raqqa to the capital Damascus and its suburbs, to the central regions of Hama and Homs, to Daraa in the south. Activists said Syrian rebels captured an oil pumping station in the north of the country after days of fighting. The Local Co-ordination Committees and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels captured the station in Raqqa on Sunday. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the station receives crude oil from the nearby province of Hassakha then pumps it to Homs, home to one of Syria's two oil refineries. Rebels have in the past months captured several oil fields in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. The Observatory said the rebels also captured a military post that used to protect the station. The Observatory also reported that rebels fought battles with Syrian troops near the border with Jordan and around a major military industrial area in the town of al-Safira in Aleppo. It added that rebels shot down a helicopter in Idlib, in the north-west.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warns that Syria risks 'Somalisation' and control by warlords as situation deteriorates The international envoy to Syria has warned that as many as 100,000 people could die in the next year if a way cannot be found quickly to end the country's civil war. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy for the Syrian crisis, told reporters in Cairo on Sunday that if the crisis continued Syria would not be divided into states "like what happened in Yugoslavia" but would face "Somalisation, which means warlords, and the Syrian people will be persecuted by those who control their fate". Syrian rebels have been fighting for 21 months against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war. Since starting his job in September, Brahimi has sought to advance an international plan, reached in Geneva six months ago, that calls for an open-ended ceasefire between rebels and government troops, and the formation of a transitional government to run the country until elections can be held. Over the past week Brahimi has visited Damascus, where he met Assad, and Moscow, one of Syria's closest international allies, where he discussed ways of ending the country's crisis. "The situation in Syria is bad. Very, very bad," Brahimi said after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. "It is getting worse and therefore if nearly 50,000 were killed in nearly two years if, God forbids, this crisis continues for another year, it will not only kill 25,000. It will kill 100,000. The situation is deteriorating." The monthly death toll in Syria has risen recently as both sides have used heavier weapons and the Syrian army has started using its warplanes to attack rebel-held areas around the country. Brahimi said peace and security in the world would be threatened directly from Syria if there was no solution within the next few months. "I warn of what will come. The choice is between a political solution or of full collapse of the Syrian state." Asked if there was any willingness by Assad and the opposition to go into a political process, Brahimi said, "No, there isn't. This is the problem." He added that the two sides don't talk to each other and help from outside was needed. Brahimi hinted that the Geneva plan might be adopted by the UN security council, saying, "We have a suggestion and I think that this suggestion will be adopted by the international community." The Geneva plan was reached in international conferences this summer and has the backing of Russia and China, which have shielded Damascus, as well as the west. But neither side within Syria appears interested. The rebels reject any efforts that do not call for the ouster of Assad, and Assad's government is unlikely to give up power voluntarily. It is unclear if security council backing would significantly increase the pressure on either side to support it. In Syria, activists reported violence in areas ranging from the northern provinces of Idlib, Aleppo and Raqqa to the capital Damascus and its suburbs, to the central regions of Hama and Homs, to Daraa in the south. Activists said Syrian rebels captured an oil pumping station in the north of the country after days of fighting. The Local Co-ordination Committees and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the rebels captured the station in Raqqa on Sunday. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads SOHR, said the station receives crude oil from the nearby province of Hassakha then pumps it to Homs, to one of Syria's two oil refineries. Rebels have in the past months captured several oil fields in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. SOHR said the rebels also captured a military post that used to protect the station. SOHR also reported that rebels fought battles with Syrian troops near the border with Jordan and around a major military industrial area in the town of al-Safira in Aleppo. It added that rebels shot down a helicopter in Idlib, in the north-west.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Lawmakers in Washington prepare for rare Sunday session as president emphasises that pressure remains on Congress to act President Barack Obama made a final pitch to Congress to act on the fiscal cliff on Sunday, citing Republican intransigence as Senate leaders struggled to bash out a last-minute deal. In a rare foray onto the weekly round of political talk shows, the president sought to put the blame for looming economic crisis firmly at the door of the Republican party, accusing his opponents of having "trouble saying yes" to any proposal put before them. "They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme," Obama said. The pointed remarks came as lawmakers in Washington prepared for a rare Sunday session. But with hours to go before they were due to sit, it was unclear if politicians would have any fiscal cliff legislation to debate. Congress has until midnight on Monday to find a solution to the current fiasco. That deadline will automatically trigger a series of fiscal measures that experts have said could plunge the US back into a recession If no deal is done, 88% of Americans will see their taxes rise on January 1, a wave of deep spending cuts will start to take effect, and 2 million long-term unemployed people will lose their benefits. The task of reaching a compromise has fallen on Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, who heads the Senate's Republican minority. Both men were summoned to the White House on Friday, alongside House speaker John Boehner and minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was also in attendance. After that meeting, Obama said he remained "modestly optimistic" that a deal could be achieved. But since then there has been no firm indication that a grand compromise was indeed obtainable. "I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement. And now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. The main sticking point is the threshold for raising income taxes on households with upper-level earnings. Obama wants all earners of $250,000 a year and above to shoulder a greater burden. Analysts believe that any deal could be anchored on raising taxes for households earning more than $400,000 or $500,000 a year. But many Republicans in the House have indicated that they will vote against any increase in tax. Not only could this scupper the chances of a grand deal, it could also see the blocking of the White House's back-up plan to avert the fiscal cliff. Obama has indicated that if Reid and McConnell fail to produce an agreement by the end of Sunday, he will strong-arm Congress into a vote on scaled-back measures that would avert the immediate cost of America heading over the fiscal cliff. That simple "up-or-down vote on a basic package" would stop tax hikes for middle-income Americans, while "laying the groundwork for future progress on more economic growth and deficit reduction", Obama said on Saturday. But even that may have difficulty passing through the House, given the entrenched position of some Tea Party-backed Republicans. Obama appeared to prepare for that eventuality on Sunday. "If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4 and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said. But he warned that missing the deadline would still result in "adverse reaction in the markets" and would "hurt our economy badly".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon urges Indian government to act urgently following death of 23-year-old Delhi student The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has urged the Indian government to take action to protect women after a 23-year-old student died of injuries sustained during a gang rape in Delhi. "Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected," Ban said in a statement in which he welcomed efforts by the government but called for "further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice". The intervention of the UN takes the fallout from the incident two weeks ago to a new level and underlines the damage it has done to India's international image, already battered by corruption scandals, a huge power failure earlier this year, and slowing economic growth. The body of the still unnamed victim was cremated according to Hindu rites in Delhi shortly after dawn on Sunday. More details have emerged about her: the eldest of three children, she was reportedly a bright and funny independent woman from a humble background who impressed her tutors at medical college and taught schoolchildren in the family home, a one-bedroom flat, to help with finances. Her father is reported to be a loader at Delhi's airport. Friends quoted by local media said she was planning to marry the 28-year-old male friend she was with when the attack took place. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, met the plane carrying her remains from Singapore, where doctors had tried to save her life following 10 days of treatment in India. Singh and Gandhi, with other senior Indian politicians, have been criticised for their slow and high-handed response to the incident, which has generated outrage, grief and anger across India. "It's been a huge challenge to all of them. They have seen the whole affair as basically a law and order problem. There has been no conversation. But that style of top-down politics is not going to work any more, particularly with young, aspirational urban people," Swapan Dasgupta, a Delhi-based analyst, said. Figures published on Sunday revealed that despite 635 reported cases of rape and 745 arrests in Delhi this year, there has been only one conviction. A total of 572 rapes were reported to Delhi police in 2011, up from 507 in 2010, 469 in 2009 and 466 in 2008. The government has said it will bring in fast-track courts to accelerate the legal process. The funeral was conducted in secrecy and under heavy police guard, with the media abiding by a collective decision to stay away. Demonstrations calling for reforms and the execution of the six men detained for the attack continued in Delhi and other major cities, as they have done every day for nearly two weeks. Despite a major security operation that has kept mourners and protesters away from the centre of the capital, there were some clashes on Sunday afternoon. Local newspapers said more than 18,000 police had been deployed, nearly a quarter of the Delhi force's total strength. India has been plunged into an extraordinary bout of self-analysis following the woman's death. The media has given blanket coverage of the attack, which took place on a moving bus in south Delhi on 16 December. All of Sunday's front pages and news bulletins were devoted to the incident and its aftermath. High profile new year parties in the capital and elsewhere have been cancelled. Bollywood stars have expressed their shame and anger. One of the biggest, Shahrukh Khan, posted on Twitter: "Rape embodies sexuality as our culture and society has defined it. I am so sorry that I am a part of this society and culture." Bollywood itself has been under fire. One columnist spoke of how plots of often classic films "sanctify pestering and stalking of women". The new interest in sexual crimes has led to reports that would have struggled to make it on air or into newspapers in the normal frenzied India news cycle, where often sensationalist TV channels compete ruthlessly. One major newspaper ran a list of sexual crimes against women that have taken place during the ongoing battle between security forces and Maoist guerillas in the centre of the country. Headlined "Women suffer big in India's state vs rebels war", it held both sides responsible.Over the past 24 hours other reported incidents have included women attempting to take their own lives after being gang raped, the attempted murder of a rape victim in Rajasthan and an infant dying after a rape in Gujerat. In West Bengal a woman was reportedly raped by three hospital workers after seeking treatment for her baby. A woman was also allegedly assaulted on a bus in Delhi. One man was arrested. India's courts have a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases, which would take decades to clear if all were heard. Facilities for forensic analysis are few and poorly-equipped. Healthcare in many of the rural areas where assaults are endemic is often rudimentary. The UN has offered to help India "strengthen critical services for rape victims" with technical expertise and other support as required," Ban said. The problem is, however, enormously complex. For example, women in rural India are rendered more vulnerable because a lack of sanitation facilities forces them to defecate in woods or fields after dark. Dasgupta said the affair had laid bare the gulf between India's political elite and younger voters. "There's a big demographic factor that we are beginning to see. How parties react to it will determine their political future," he said. Priyamvada Gopal, page 24
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon urges Indian government to act urgently following death of 23-year-old Delhi student The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has called on the Indian government to take urgent action to protect women following the death this weekend of a 23-year-old student of injuries sustained during a brutal gang rape in Delhi. "Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected," Ban said in a statement in which he welcomed current efforts by the government but called for "further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice". The intervention of the UN takes the fall-out from the incident two weeks ago to a new level and underlines the damage it has done to India's international image, already battered by repeated corruption scandals, a huge power failure earlier this year and slowing economic growth. The body of the still unnamed victim was cremated according to Hindu rites in the Indian capital shortly after dawn on Sunday. More details have emerged about her: the eldest of three children, she was reportedly a bright and funny independent woman from a humble background who impressed her tutors at medical college and taught schoolchildren in the family home, a one-bedroom flat, to help with finances. Her father is reported to be a loader at Delhi's airport. According to friends quoted by local media, she was planning to marry the 28-year-old male friend she was with when the attack took place. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, met the plane carrying her remains from Singapore, where doctors made a last effort to save her life following 10 days of treatment in India. Both Singh and Gandhi, along with other senior Indian politicians, have been heavily criticised for their slow and high-handed response to the incident, which has generated outrage, grief and anger across the country. "It's been a huge challenge to all them. They have seen the whole affair as basically a law and order problem. There has been no conversation. But that style of top-down politics is not going to work any more, particularly with young, aspirational urban people," Swapan Dasgupta, a Delhi-based analyst, told the Guardian. New figures published on Sunday revealed that despite 635 reported cases of rape and 745 arrests in Delhi this year, there has been only one conviction. A total of 572 rapes were reported to Delhi police in 2011, up from 507 in 2010, 469 in 2009 and 466 in 2008. The government has said it will bring in fast-track courts to accelerate the legal process. The funeral was conducted in secrecy and under heavy police guard, with the media abiding by a collective decision to stay away. Demonstrations calling for reforms as well as the execution of the six men detained for the attack continued in Delhi and in other major cities, as they have done every day for nearly two weeks. Despite a major security operation that has kept mourners and protesters away from the centre of the capital, there were some clashes during on Sunday afternoon. Local newspapers said more than 18,000 police had been deployed, nearly a quarter of the Delhi force's total strength. India has been plunged into an extraordinary bout of self-analysis following the woman's death. The media has given blanket coverage of the attack, which took place on a moving bus on the streets of south Delhi on 16 December . All of Sunday's front pages and news bulletins were devoted to the incident and its aftermath. High profile new year parties in the capital and elsewhere have been cancelled. Major Bollywood stars have lined up to express their shame and anger. One of the biggest, Shahrukh Khan, posted on Twitter: "Rape embodies sexuality as our culture and society has defined it. I am so sorry that I am a part of this society and culture." Bollywood itself has been under fire. One columnist spoke of how plots of often classic films "sanctify pestering and stalking of women". The new interest in sexual crimes has led to a series of reports that would have struggled to make it on air or into newspapers in the normal frenzied India news cycle, where often sensationalist TV channels compete ruthlessly. One major newspaper ran a list of sexual crimes against women that have taken place in the course of the ongoing battle between security forces and Maoist guerillas in the centre of the country. Headlined "Women suffer big in India's state vs rebels war", it held both sides responsible.Over the last 24 hours other reported incidents have included women attempting to take their own lives after being gang raped, the attempted murder of a rape victim in Rajasthan and an infant dying after a rape in Gujerat. In West Bengal a woman was reportedly raped by three hospital workers after seeking treatment for her baby. A woman was also allegedly assaulted on a bus in Delhi. One man was arrested. India's courts have a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases, which would take decades to clear if all were heard. Facilities for forensic analysis are few and poorly-equipped. Healthcare in many of the rural areas where assaults are endemic is often rudimentary. The UN has offered to help India "strengthen critical services for rape victims" with technical expertise and other support as required," Ban said. The problem is, however, enormously complex. For example, women in rural India are rendered more vulnerable because a lack of sanitation facilities forces them to defecate in woods or fields after dark. Dasgupta said the affair had laid bare the gulf between India's political elite and younger voters. "There's a big demographic factor that we are beginning to see. How parties react to it will determine their political future," he said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: Chelsea's Rafa Benítez returned to Merseyside to end Everton's unbeaten home record thanks to Frank Lampard
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Supreme court rules ban on Haneen Zoabi's candidacy for being on boat stormed by commandos is unconstitutional An Israeli-Arab politician who took part in a flotilla attempting to breach the blockade of Gaza in 2010 will be able to compete in the general election in three weeks after the supreme court unanimously overturned a ban on her candidacy. A panel of nine judges overruled a decision by the central elections committee to disqualify Haneen Zoabi from seeking re-election as a member of the Israeli parliament. The committee's decision was based on her participation in the flotilla. Following the supreme court's ruling on Sunday, Zoabi said the attempt to bar her from the election was "the result of political and personal persecution against me, against my party and against the Arab public as a whole". But, she added: "This ruling does little to erase the threats, delegitimisation and physical as well as verbal abuse that I have endured … over the past three years." Zoabi, a member of the Israeli-Arab party Balad, was elected to parliament almost four years ago. In May 2010, she was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara, on which nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli commandos intent on stopping the flotilla reaching Gaza. She later had her parliamentary privileges revoked but an attempt to bring criminal charges against her failed. She was assigned special protection after receiving death threats. Last month she spoke out against the Israeli offensive on Gaza, saying Israel was breaking international law and "no military force can crush the people's survival instinct". After a supreme court hearing last week against the disqualification, Zoabi was heckled and jostled by around 30 rightwing activists outside the court, forcing her to take shelter until security guards cleared the area. The court did not issue reasons for its ruling, but will issue a detailed judgment at a later date. Israel's attorney-general said there was insufficient evidence to disqualify Zoabi. Attempts during previous election campaigns to disqualify Israeli-Arab candidates have also been overturned by the supreme court. Israeli-Arabs make up 20% of the country's 7.8 million population, and there are currently 11 members of the 120-seat parliament representing Israeli-Arab parties. Following Sunday's ruling, Zoabi's lawyer, Hassan Jabarin said: "The fact that the repeated attempts to disqualify Arab [members of parliament] and political parties made over the last 15 years have had no legal basis, as the Israeli supreme court has consistently ruled, indicates that the aim of the rightwing is to de-legitimise the elected Arab leadership in Israel. "The case of Haneen Zoabi differs from the others in that an attempt was made to dehumanise her and to attack her personally as a woman. She was also branded as a terrorist simply for participating in the Gaza freedom flotilla, which was a legitimate political act, and even though she has not been indicted for any crime." Likud-Beiteinu, the rightwing alliance headed by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said it would amend the law in the next parliamentary term to "clearly state that anyone supporting terror is automatically disqualified" from being a member of parliament. Other politicians who backed the move to disqualify Zoabi spoke of their regret at the supreme court's decision. Danny Danon, who presented an 11,000-signature petition to the elections committee demanding Zoabi's candidacy be banned, said: "Today the court decided to back the Marmara's terrorist instead of the navy commandos … Zaobi belongs in prison."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The five young children and one adult who died were members of Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Five young siblings and one adult died Saturday when a sport utility vehicle went off an eastern Mississippi road and plunged into a rain-swollen creek, authorities said. Neshoba County sheriff Tommy Waddell said the victims appear to have drowned after their Dodge Durango left a county road just after midnight on Saturday. Waddell identified the five deceased children as 9-year-old Dasyanna John, 8-year-old Duane John, 7-year-old Bobby John, 4-year-old Quinton John, and 18-month-old Kekaimeas John. Family friend Diane Chickaway, 37, also died. The sheriff said all were members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and lived in the Pearl River community east of Philadelphia. The tribe operates a large casino complex in the area. The father of the children, Dewayne John, escaped the vehicle and remains hospitalised for hypothermia and water inhalation. The children's mother, Deanna Jim, and Chickaway's husband, Dale Chickaway, also survived. The group was travelling to Conehatta, another Choctaw community, with Dewayne John driving. Waddell said he has been tested to see if he was under the influence of alcohol, though he said official results aren't in. If officials decide to file charges, Waddell said they probably won't act until Wednesday. It appears none of the nine occupants of the vehicle were wearing seat belts or were in child restraints, the sheriff said. The crash happened on County Road 107, in a rural area near the Neshoba-Newton county line. The area has received heavy rains in recent days, raising the water level of what Waddell described as a normally small creek. The SUV ran off the left side of the road into the creek near the Kitchner community. The sheriff said it wasn't raining and there was no ice on the road. "This accident is not weather-related at all," he said. Waddell said it took several hours for divers from the Philadelphia fire department to find the submerged vehicle and pull it from the water. He said the bodies have been sent to Jackson for autopsies. The Mississippi Highway Patrol will reconstruct the accident starting Sunday to learn more. "It's always sad to hear of the death of a tribal member, but today our tribe experienced a great tragedy with the loss of six beautiful Choctaw souls. I cannot begin to imagine what the friends, relatives and loved ones are feeling," tribal chief Phyliss J Anderson said in a statement. Tribal spokeswoman Misty Dreifuss said funeral arrangements would likely be made Sunday. She said the children are expected to be buried together. Dreifuss said word of the deaths spread quickly through the 10,000-member tribe and that members "definitely have been hit pretty hard". Waddell said that he can't recall a deadlier accident in the county in his 26 years of law enforcement.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: Rafa Benítez returns to Merseyside with his new side. Find out how he gets on with Rob Bagchi's updates NOW
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prime minister Manmohan Singh among officials to receive body off plane from Singapore before family hold funeral in Delhi A woman who died after being gang raped and beaten on a bus in India's capital has been cremated, amid an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence. Sunday's cremation took place during a private ceremony in Delhi soon after the woman's body arrived on a chartered Air India flight from Singapore, where she died at a hospital on Saturday after being sent for medical treatment. After the body arrived at the airport, it was taken to the woman's home for religious rituals before being escorted by police to the crematorium. Security was tight, with no public or media access permitted. Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of New Delhi, and the junior home minister, RPN Singh, placed wreaths beside the body before it was cremated, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, were at the airport to receive the body and meet family who had also arrived on the flight. Hours after the victim died early on Saturday, Indian police charged six men who had been arrested in connection with the attack with murder, adding to accusations that they beat and gang raped the woman. Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the six suspects face the death penalty if convicted. The case has triggered protests across India and raised questions about lax attitudes by police toward sexual crimes. After 10 days at a hospital in New Delhi, the victim, who has not been identified, was taken on Thursday to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital, which specialises in multi-organ transplants. She arrived in extremely critical condition, which then deteriorated. She died with her family and officials from the Indian embassy by her side, according to the chief executive of the hospital, Dr Kevin Loh. Following her death, thousands of Indians lit candles, held prayer meetings and marched through various cities and towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, on Saturday night to express their grief and demand stronger protection for women and the death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. Singh said on Saturday that he was aware of the emotions the attack had stirred, adding that it was up to all Indians to ensure that the young woman's death will not have been in vain. On the night of the attack, the woman and a male friend, who also has not been identified, were on a bus after watching a film when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman's body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police. Gandhi, the ruling party chief, assured the protesters in a statement that the rape victim's death "deepens our determination to battle the pervasive, the shameful social attitudes and mindset that allow men to rape and molest women and girls with such an impunity". Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the woman's death was a sobering reminder of the widespread sexual violence in India. "The outrage now should lead to law reform that criminalises all forms of sexual assault, strengthens mechanisms for implementation and accountability, so that the victims are not blamed and humiliated." Singh said he understood the angry reaction to the attack and that he hoped all Indians would work together to make appropriate changes. "It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channel these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action," he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Former foreign minister, who resigned after allegations were first made, faces counts of breach of trust and fraud Israel's former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was formally indicted on Sunday on charges of breach of trust and fraud, allegations that could hurt his political future if he is convicted. Lieberman resigned this month after he was informed of the pending charges. The justice ministry later revised the wording, though not the charges, and said it filed the indictment in a Jerusalem court on Sunday. Lieberman is accused of advancing a former ambassador after he relayed information to the foreign minister about a criminal investigation into his business dealings. He denies wrongdoing. His Yisrael Beiteinu party is running with prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud in forthcoming elections, and he is expected to serve as a legislator in the next parliament. Meanwhile, Israel's supreme court unanimously rejected an election committee's attempt to disqualify an Arab legislator from running for parliament again next month because she took part in a flotilla that tried to breach Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The legislator, Hanin Zoabi, enraged many Israelis by joining the Turkish-led flotilla, which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nineteen dead, according to officials, as killer smashes truck laden with explosives into Baluchistan bus bound for Iran A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shia Muslim pilgrims in south-west Pakistan on Sunday, killing 19 people, a government official and witnesses said. Earlier on Sunday, 21 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled north-west tribal region, government officials said. Pakistan has experienced a spike in killings over the past year by radical Sunni Muslims targeting Shias who they consider heretics. The violence has been especially pronounced in Baluchistan province, where the latest attack occurred. In addition to the 19 people killed in the bombing in Baluchistan's Mastung district, 25 others were wounded, many of them critically, said Tufail Ahmed, a local political official. The blast completely destroyed the bus that was hit and damaged a second bus carrying Shias that was close by. A witness who was travelling in the second bus told Pakistan's Geo TV the first bus contained over 40 pilgrims heading to neighbouring Iran, a popular religious tourism destination for Shias. A second witness said the bomber rushed by in a truck, swerved in front of the first bus and braked suddenly. The bus slammed into the truck and then a big explosion occurred. Shias make up around 15% of Pakistan's 190 million people. They are scattered around the country but the province of Baluchistan has the largest community, mainly made up of ethnic Hazaras, easily identified by their facial features which resemble those of Central Asians. The 21 tribal policemen who were shot dead were found by officials early on Sunday, in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, said Khan. The 23 policemen went missing before dawn on Thursday, when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in FRP. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks. Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late on Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. Also on Sunday, two Pakistani soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country, security officials said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nineteen dead, according to officials, as killer smashes truck laden with explosives into Baluchistan bus bound for Iran A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shia Muslim pilgrims in south-west Pakistan on Sunday, killing 19 people, a government official and witnesses said. Earlier on Sunday, 21 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled north-west tribal region, government officials said. Pakistan has experienced a spike in killings over the last year by radical Sunni Muslims targeting Shias who they consider heretics. The violence has been especially pronounced in Baluchistan province, where the latest attack occurred. In addition to the 19 people killed in the bombing in Baluchistan's Mastung district, 25 others were wounded, many of them critically, said Tufail Ahmed, a local political official. The blast completely destroyed the bus that was hit and damaged a second bus carrying Shias that was close by. An witness who was travelling in the second bus told Pakistan's Geo TV that first bus contained over 40 pilgrims headed to neighbouring Iran, a majority Shia country that is a popular religious tourism destination. A second witness said the bomber rushed by in a pick-up truck, swerved in front of the first bus and slammed on the brakes. The bus slammed into the pick-up truck and then a big explosion occurred. Neither of the witnesses provided their names while being interviewed on TV. Shias make up around 15% of Pakistan's 190 million people. They are scattered around the country, but the province of Baluchistan has the largest community, mainly made up of ethnic Hazaras, easily identified by their facial features which resemble those of Central Asians. The 21 tribal policemen who were shot dead were found by officials early on Sunday, in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, said Khan. The 23 policemen went missing before dawn on Thursday, when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in FRP. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks. Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late on Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. Also on Sunday, two Pakistani soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country, security officials said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prime minister Manmohan Singh among officials to receive body off plane from Singapore before family hold funeral A woman who died after being gang raped and beaten on a bus in India's capital was cremated on Sunday, amid an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence. The cremation took place during a private ceremony in Delhi soon after the woman's body arrived on a special Air India flight from Singapore, where she died at a hospital on Saturday after being sent for medical treatment. After the body arrived at the airport, it was taken to the woman's home for religious rituals before being escorted by police to the crematorium. Security was tight, with no access to the public or media at the crematorium. Sheila Dikshit, the top elected leader of the city, and the junior home minister, RPN Singh, placed wreaths beside the body before it was cremated, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, were at the airport to receive the body and meet family members of the victim who had also arrived on the flight. Hours after the victim died early on Saturday, Indian police charged six men who had been arrested in connection with the attack with murder, adding to accusations that they beat and gang raped the woman. Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the six suspects face the death penalty if convicted, in a case that has triggered protests across India and raised questions about lax attitudes by police toward sexual crimes. After 10 days at a hospital in New Delhi, the victim, who has not been identified, was taken on Thursday to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital, which specialises in multi-organ transplants. She arrived there in extremely critical condition, and then took a turn for the worse, with her vital signs deteriorating. She died with her family and officials from the Indian embassy by her side, according to the chief executive of the hospital, Dr Kevin Loh. Following her death, thousands of Indians lit candles, held prayer meetings and marched through various cities and towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, on Saturday night to express their grief and demand stronger protection for women and the death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. Singh said on Saturday that he was aware of the emotions the attack has stirred, adding that it was up to all Indians to ensure that the young woman's death will not have been in vain. On the night of the attack, the woman and a male friend, who also has not been identified, were on a bus after watching a film when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman's body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police. Gandhi, the ruling party chief, assured the protesters in a statement that the rape victim's death "deepens our determination to battle the pervasive, the shameful social attitudes and mindset that allow men to rape and molest women and girls with such an impunity". Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the woman's death was a sobering reminder of the widespread sexual violence in India. "The outrage now should lead to law reform that criminalises all forms of sexual assault, strengthens mechanisms for implementation and accountability, so that the victims are not blamed and humiliated." Singh said he understood the angry reaction to the attack and that he hoped all Indians would work together to make appropriate changes. "It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channel these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action," he said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The director tells how he transposed the violent spaghetti westerns of Sergio Corbucci to the antebellum south Acclaimed in the United States and due for release here next month, Quentin Tarantino's western Django Unchained is the violent story of a slave on a mission to free his wife. Tarantino's biggest influences for the film, he says, were the spaghetti westerns of the Italian director Sergio Corbucci. Any of the western directors who had something to say created their own version of the west: Anthony Mann created a west that had room for the characters played by Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper; Sam Peckinpah had his own west; so did Sergio Leone. Sergio Corbucci did, too, but his was the most violent, surreal and pitiless landscape of any director in the history of the genre. His characters roam a brutal, sadistic west. Corbucci's heroes can't really be called heroes. In another director's western, they would be the bad guys. And, as time went on, Corbucci kept de-emphasising the role of the hero. One movie he did, The Hellbenders, doesn't have anybody to root for at all. There's bad guys and victims and that's it. In Il Grande Silenzio, he has Klaus Kinski playing a villainous bounty hunter. I'm not a big fan of Kinski, but he's amazing in this movie – it's definitely his best performance in a genre movie. The hero of Il Grande Silenzio is Jean-Louis Trintignant, playing a mute. By taking his hero's voice away, Corbucci reduces him to nothing. And the film has one of the most nihilistic endings of any western. Trintignant goes out to face the bad guys and gets killed. The bad guys win, they murder everybody else in the town, they ride away and that's the end of the movie. It's shocking to this day. A movie such as André De Toth's Day of the Outlaw, as famous as it is for being bleak and gritty, is practically a musical by comparison with Il Grande Silenzio. Silenzio takes place in the snow. I liked the action in the snow so much, Django Unchained has a big snow section in the middle. Corbucci dealt with racism all the time. In his Django, the bad guys aren't the Ku Klux Klan, but a surreal stand-in for them. They're killing Mexicans, but it's a secret organisation where they wear red hoods; it's all about their racism toward the Mexican people in this town. In Navajo Joe, the scalp hunters who are killing the Indians for their scalps are as savage as the Manson family. It's one of the great revenge movies of all time: Burt Reynolds as the Navajo Joe character is a one-man-tornado onslaught. The way he uses his knife and bum-rushes the villains, rough and tumbling through the rocks and the dirt, is magnificent. I heard he almost broke his neck doing the movie and it looks it. Before The Wild Bunch was released, Navajo Joe was the most violent movie that ever carried a Hollywood studio logo. As I was working on an essay about how Corbucci's archetypes worked, I started thinking, I don't really know if Corbucci was thinking any of these things when he was making these movies. But I know I'm thinking them now. And if I did a western, I could put them into practice. When I actually put pen to paper for the script, I thought, 'What will push the characters to their extremes?' I thought the closest equivalent to Corbucci's brutal landscapes would be the antebellum south. When you learn of the rules and practices of slavery, it was as violent as anything I could do – and absurd and bizarre. You can't believe it's happening, which is the nature of true surrealism. Django Unchained is released on 18 Jan
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