| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In first interview since re-election, president sticks to requirement of higher taxes on the wealthiest 2% as a non-negotiable point Barack Obama has rejected the latest proposal from Republican leaders on how to avoid the fiscal cliff, dismissing their offer as unbalanced and based on faulty calculations. A day after senior Republicans led by John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, put forward their package of increased tax revenues and cuts in entitlements, Obama poured scorn on it, calling it "still out of balance. When you look at the math, it just doesn't work". Obama's objections to the Boehner ideas, given in his first television interview since winning re-election on 6 November, centre on its lack of tax increases for the top 2% of US earners. Over the past few days the president has doggedly stuck to this point as a non-negotiable element of his fiscal plans. "We're going to have to see the rates on the top 2% go up, and we're not going to be able to get a deal without it," he said in an interview with Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg TV. Under their plans, the Republicans would allow an increase in tax revenue but through attacking the deductions that people are granted rather than by increasing the tax rate for high-income households. Obama said that the only way such an approach would add up would be if "you completely eliminated for example charitable deductions, that means every hospital and university and not-for-profit agency across the country would suddenly find themselves on the verge of collapse." The president did hold out a possible carrot to the GOP, however, when he suggested that the deal that would need to be done in the next two weeks to avoid the fiscal cliff occurring on 1 January would be "down payments" on a longer term solution. "We're not going to be able to come up with a comprehensive entitlement reform package that gets it all done in the next two weeks," he said. That opened the prospect of a temporary solution being found now, with the promise of a more substantial deal further down the line. Feasibly, that could involve the tax rate on the top earners rising now to 39.6% as the president insists, but being lowered again towards the end of 2013 by which time extensive tax reforms, properly conceived, could be introduced. "We'd have to have some specific down payments now, recognising that we would then have to continue to work to see if we can come up with even better ideas to reduce healthcare costs over the long term," he said. As the standoff between the White House and the GOP continued, the debate over how to combat the fiscal crisis widened, with a cross-party group of state governors arriving in Washington. With 40% of federal discretionary spending relating to grants to the 50 states, governors are worried that they will become the fall-guy as cuts are passed on to them. Despite the impasse, Obama sounded an optimistic note on the US economy which he said was poised to take off. "Let's make sure we don't have a self-inflicted wound, because there are a lot of silly games played up on Capitol Hill." The president deflected a question from Bloomberg TV on whether Republican attacks on the UN ambassador Susan Rice had "boxed him into a corner" over her possible appointment as secretary of state. Rice is presumed to be Obama's first choice to replace Hillary Clinton, but her comments on the attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans died, has engulfed her in a conservative firestorm. Obama said he had not yet made a decision on who to nominate to be secretary of state, and swatted away the query by saying "the most important thing we can do for national security is to get our economy right".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Activists step up pressure on president to turn vague promises made since re-election into concrete policies for the future Campaigners handed Barack Obama a climate change to-do list for his second term on Tuesday, in an attempt to push the White House to live up to its environmental promises. Environmental groups are urging Obama to view his re-election, and renewed public attention to climate change after hurricane Sandy, as a historic moment. "He passed historic healthcare legislation," Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who is one of the strongest champions of climate action in Congress told a forum hosted by Climate Desk. "Now he needs to work on climate change." Markey, along with other experts at the event, offered up a list of options Obama can take to "flex his executive muscle" and push Congress and government agencies into action. The Natural Resources Defense Council, hosting its own event, came up with an even more detailed prescription: setting out a plan for phasing out old and inefficient coal-fired power plants in the next 20 years that would reduce carbon pollution by 26%. Power plants are responsible for 40% of America's carbon emissions. The NRDC plan calls for power plants to switch from coal to cleaner fuels – like natural gas – or avoid carbon pollution by installing more efficient equipment. Campaigners are trying to keep up the pressure on the Obama administration to act on climate change, and to turn the president's vague promises since his re-election into concrete policies. The pressure on Obama represents a change of tactics for campaigners. Environmental groups had been reluctant to push Obama too hard on climate during his first term – a decision some campaigners now say they regret because it allowed the issue to disappear from the public agenda. Markey argued Sandy had changed the political dynamics of climate change. "If you are a Republican above the Mason-Dixon line is it no longer going to be possible for you to start making jokes about climate. That era is gone," he said. "Republicans now have to be more respectful of science." He admitted it would be unrealistic to expect Obama or Congress to adopt a carbon tax in the next few months. But Markey said there were other options available. Obama just needed to "set the tone" – or risk the opportunity slipping away. The items on his wish list on Tuesday included: • A commitment from Congress to extend tax credits for wind farms, which are due to expire at the end of this year • A commitment from Obama to use the full authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions from large industrial sources, especially existing fleet of coal-fired power plants • Adoption of more ambitious efficiency standards for new federal government buildings and for household appliances such as washing machines and freezers. The standards have been drafted and are under review at the White House. • Adoption of a national renewable electricity standard – which would require the entire country to get a share of its electricity from sources such as wind and solar. About 30 states currently have a renewable electricity standard already. Others at the Climate Desk event went even further, calling on Obama to create a national performance standards for all energy sources. That would defuse political tensions between the fossil fuel industry and other energy sources, said Bill Becker, director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. "He need not oppose oil. He need not oppose oil. He would oppose pollution and water waste," Becker said. He called on Obama to draft a detailed road map for America's transition to a clean energy economy. Vicki Arroyo, director of the Georgetown Climate Center, said Obama needed to get the White House's own climate change task force in order. The task force was under-staffed – operating at the same level as in the Bush era – and had lagged behind on preparing for future disasters, such as Sandy, she said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gay rights activists lament judge's decision to issue a temporary ban on the law, but only for three healthcare providers Gay rights campaigners have expressed disappointment at a federal court decision to limit the scope of a California law banning psychotherapists from trying to alter the sexuality of young gay people. US district court Judge William Shubb issued a temporary ban on the new law, although he restricted his order to the three providers who appealed to him to overturn the measure. He ruled that the first amendment rights of licensed psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in "reparative" or "conversion" therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people. "Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of [conversion therapy] that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech," Shubb wrote in his ruling on Monday. The judge also disputed the California legislature's finding that trying to change young people's sexual orientation puts them at risk for suicide or depression, saying it was based on "questionable and scientifically incomplete studies". The law, which was passed by the state legislature and signed by governor Jerry Brown in October, states that therapists and counselors who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards. It is set to take effect on 1 January. Although the ruling is a setback for the law's supporters, the judge softened the impact of his decision by saying that it applies only to three people: psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay. The exemption for them will remain in place only until Shubb can hold a trial on the merits of their case, although in granting their request for an injunction, the judge noted he thinks they would prevail in getting the law struck down on constitutional grounds. Bitzer, Duk and Welch were represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a Christian legal group. President Brad Dacus said he thought Shubb's ruling would have a chilling effect that would keep the licensing boards that regulate mental health professionals from targeting other practitioners. "If there are any, we can easily add them to the case as a plaintiff," Dacus said. "We know we will have to have another hearing on the merits, but to be able to get a preliminary injunction at this stage is very telling as to the final outcome, and I'm very encouraged by it." Complicating the outlook for the law is that another federal judge in Sacramento is considering similar arguments from four more counselors, two families and a professional association of Christian counselors, but has not decided yet whether to keep the ban from taking effect. Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said: "We are disappointed by the ruling, but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit. "We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate healthcare professionals to protect patients." Lawyers for the state argue that outlawing reparative therapy is appropriate because it would protect young people from a practice that has been rejected as unproven and potentially harmful by all the mainstream mental health associations.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Picture of man in the moments before being fatally struck by train prompts questions photographer's role in helping him The New York Post has provoked a storm of outrage from readers and commentators over a cover on Tuesday that shows a haunting image of a man who has been pushed onto the path of a subway train, seconds from death. The chilling photograph, one of at least two of the incident by freelancer R Umar Abbasi, shows Ki Suk Han standing upright on the tracks, his left arm or possibly both arms on the platform, trying to scramble to safety as a Q train bears down on him. Moments later, Han, 58, was killed by the subway train. His attacker, who was seen in a video taken by a passer-by, escaped. A suspect is now in police custody. Paul Browne, the New York police department spokesman said detectives were questioning the suspect on Tuesday afternoon. The bystander, who recorded part of an argument between the two men, turned the video over to police, who released it on Monday night, according to NBC News. The man who allegedly pushed Han is heard swearing and saying "Leave me alone … stand in line, wait for the R train and that's it." The New York Post, which published Abbasi's photograph with the strap line "Doomed: Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die", attracted harsh criticism for its use of the image, while on social media, many questioned Abbasi for not helping the man. Gothamist, which has published Abbasi's work in the past, ran a piece asking if it is ethical for other news outlets to republish the picture. The Washington Post carried a damning opinion piece by Jonathan Capehart in which he said that Abbasi had plenty of time to help the man. Abbasi, who was working on another assignment for the Post when he was on the 49th Street subway platform, told the newspaper on Tuesday that he saw Han being hurled onto the tracks by an assailant "out of the periphery of my eye". He ran towards the train, repeatedly firing off his flash to warn the driver. "I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash" said Abbasi. Another photograph by Abbasi shows Han sitting dazed on the rails after being hurled onto them by his attacker, trying to get up. The train slowed, according to the Post, but Han was unable to escape in time. He was taken to Roosevelt hospital, where he was pronounced dead. "The most painful part was I could see him getting closer to the edge" said Abbasi. "He was getting so close. And people were running toward him and the train." The Post has suggested, in a video about the incident, that Abbasi was "not strong enough" to help Han. "Not being strong enough to physically lift the victim himself, the photographer used the resources available to him and began rapidly flashing his camera to signal the driver to stop," says freelance producer Kenson Noel. When contacted by the Guardian on Tuesday, Noel confirmed he produced the film in the field. He said he did not speak to Abbasi directly but that a number of people were involved in making the film. He was unable to comment about who provided the assessment of the photographer's physical strength, he said. When asked if Abbasi had a disability, Noel said: "As you can imagine, any average person of average strength lifting someone from below the ground" would be difficult. Noel referred the Guardian to the Post's city desk, but staff there were unable to clarify further. A person who would only give his first name, John, in the newspaper's photography department agreed to forward an email to Abbasi. "I don't know who made the assessment, but you can ask Uman when you talk to him" said John. Abbasi did not respond to emails form the Guardian sent via the Post and Gothamist. The latter has run two photographs by Abbasi of a topless protest in New York. On Twitter and Facebook, many people expressed their distaste over the image and criticised the photographer for not doing more to help Han.
In a piece on the Atlantic Wire, Alexander Abados Santos said: "Getting a conductor's attention with a flash – and maybe even blinding him with it – doesn't seem like the way you'd necessarily help someone that's clinging to the subway platform. And that's the burning question on the Twitterverse's mind" Gene Russianoff, staff attorney and spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, a New York City transit riders' advocacy group, told USA Today that the newspaper cover "was distasteful," but added, "we live in a country with free speech". "I gasped when I saw the cover," he said. Laura Kaplan, a second-year resident at Beth Israel Medical Center was also on the platform when the tragedy occurred. She told the Post she rushed over to help the dying man. "People were shouting and yelling when it happened, but then people ran the other way," Kaplan, 27, told the Post. "I heard what I thought were heart sounds," she said, but Han never took a breath. She was unable to get into position to administer CPR. Han lived with his wife and college-age daughter in Elmhurst. His wife told the Post that the couple had had an argument before he left the house at around 11am. "We had a fight" she said. "I kept calling him and calling him to see where he was but he didn't answer."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Jihad Makdissi, former frontman of Bashar al-Assad, is regime's senior Christian
The former Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, is on his way to the United States after apparently defecting, the Guardian has learned. Makdissi, the most senior Christian official yet to abandon Bashar al-Assad's regime, was reported on Monday to have variously been sacked or defected and to have arrived back in London, where he used to serve in the Syrian embassy. But usually reliable diplomatic sources revealed on Tuesday that he is en route for – or already in – the US after managing to leave the capital, Damascus, for Beirut. He was not in the UK, British officials insisted. In Washington, a state department spokesman said: "We are not in a position to confirm his actions or whereabouts." Amid continuing violence inside Syria, state media reported that 28 children were killed when a school was hit by mortar fire at the Wafideen camp north of Damascus. In Brussels, Anders-Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary general, warned that any use of chemical arms by Syria would meet an "immediate" international response. Alliance foreign ministers later approved the deployment of Patriot anti-missile batteries to the Turkish-Syrian border. Makdissi himself has not made any statements but his brother Sami said on his Facebook page that an announcement would be made "shortly". Confusingly, Sami was later quoted by a Lebanese news website, al-Nashra, as denying that Jihad had defected and claimed that his Facebook page had been hacked into. Makdissi was spokesman for Syria's foreign ministry from shortly after the uprising against the Assad regime erupted in March 2011. Fluent in English and a communications professional, he presented the government's version of events during visits by Arab League and UN missions and mediators, and in the wake of several massacres. When government forces were blamed for killing 103 people, including 49 children, in Houleh near Homs last May, Makdissi dismissed what he called a "tsunami of lies". Many opposition supporters described his departure as an escape rather than a defection, since he had served the regime loyally for so long – "a rat deserting a sinking ship," said one. But others praised his patriotism and decency. Reports from Damascus said that Makdissi's house in the Mezzeh area had been burned. Syria's new opposition coalition did not comment on the reported defection. But Ausama Monajed, of the Syrian National Council, another anti-Assad group, said: "It is another huge blow to the regime, similar to the defection of the prime minister Riyad Hijab. Makdissi has been their mouthpiece, the person who used to legitimise their actions against the people. It tells you that regime is on its last legs. Its demise will come soon." Syrian state media did not mention the story. But it was seized on by western governments. "If the man charged with lying to the outside world can't stomach Assad any more it is a pretty damning indictment of the regime – and a message to others who might be thinking of following suit," one diplomat said. In the past the US has debriefed Syrian defectors – including the head of its chemical arms forces – but has been content to let other governments help Syrian officials flee. Washington did not want to get involved with Manaf Tlass, the army brigadier general and close Assad associate who was helped to escape by French intelligence and was backed by Saudi Arabia. Hijab was supported by Jordan and the Gulf state of Qatar. Syrian opposition sources suggested there could be a role for Makdissi and other former officials in the transitional government, which is due to be formed in Morocco next week, as long as they do not have "blood on their hands". Western governments are urging that it include members of Syria's minorities, especially Christians and Assad's Alawite sect. In western capitals there is a sense that Syria's 20-month crisis is accelerating as rebel forces pose an increasingly serious challenge to the government, especially in the Damascus area. Last week the CIA reportedly issued an assessment that Assad would fall within eight to 10 weeks. President Barack Obama warned on Monday of unspecified consequences if the regime used chemical weapons. Syria has said that it would not use them against its own people. Nato's Anders-Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday: "The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community and if anybody resorts to these terrible weapons I would expect an immediate reaction." Israel, Turkey and Jordan all fear that such weapons might be used or seized by rebels and are believed to have contingency plans to seize and neutralise them. The US and Britain are also prepared to act.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Infrared, by much garlanded Canadian novelist, wins dubious honour for explicit writing
Read an extract from the novel A long, shuddering gasp of relief will no doubt have been heard from the losers, as the Canadian author Nancy Huston scooped the least coveted book award of the year, the Literary Review's Bad Sex prize, for her 14th novel, Infrared, about a woman who likes to snap her lovers in the throes of passion. The judges were seduced by her vivid imagery, which included such descriptions as "flesh, that archaic kingdom that brings forth tears and terrors, nightmares, babies and bedazzlements", and "my sex swimming in joy like a fish in water". Huston, who now lives in Paris, was either too busy or too bashful to attend the ceremony in London, but 400 guests raised a toast to her, none more heartily than the authors she vanquished, who include the distinguished BBC Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason, poet Craig Raine and veteran novelist Tom Wolfe, a previous winner in 2004. The two authors who had been believed to be a shoo-in for the prize, JK Rowling (for her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy), and Fifty Shades of Grey creator EL James, were both in the end eliminated reluctantly by the judges before the shortlisting stage – Rowling because her writing wasn't nearly bad enough, and James because the prize, established to draw attention to bad sex writing "and discourage it" specifically rules out pornographic or intentionally erotic literature. The prize, presented by the actor Samantha Bond, was collected on Huston's behalf by her publisher, Atlantic, but the author did send a pert statement. "I hope this prize will incite thousands of British women to take close-up photos of their lovers' bodies in all states of array and disarray," she said. Huston was unfancied by Guardian readers, who in a poll of the shortlisted authors were far more drawn to Wolfe's Back to Blood, Sam Mills's The Quiddity of Will Self, and Raine's The Divine Comedy, which between them attracted more than 70% of the votes. But in the end, Huston carried the night. Her prize – a a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s" – will need to find shelf room in an already-bursting awards cabinet: Huston has in the past won France's premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, the Prix Femina, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2010 for her novel Fault Lines. The prize ceremony was held in the august surroundings of the Naval & Military Club in St James. The name by which it is better known undoubtedly explains the choice of venue – The In & Out club.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US firm will have to use annual filing this month to explain 'what all the fuss has been about', says Tom Selling Hewlett-Packard could be forced into a full disclosure this month of the accounting improprieties it claims to have unearthed at Autonomy, the Cambridge software firm whose value it has slashed in half following a £6.2bn acquisition last year. HP, which bought Autonomy as part of an ill-fated attempt to move away from low-margin hardware into high-growth software sales, will have to use its annual filing, expected on 17 December, to "tell the public in clear language what all the fuss has been about", according to a former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adviser, Tom Selling. The value of Autonomy on HP's books was cut by £3.1bn in late November, and Selling said investors were now entitled to "know what HP's management knows". HP's annual filing is likely to be closely watched by the incoming interim SEC chair, Elisse Walter, who is currently a commissioner at the US financial markets watchdog and is considered a candidate for the permanent position. In a statement, the company said: "HP will disclose the relevant material and appropriate level of detail as required under SEC rules." Regulations state that the risks and issues affecting the company must be outlined in detail in the section headed Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, known as MD&A. SEC guidance is that the report should give investors the chance to see the company "through the eyes of those who manage that business". HP's case that Autonomy management misled investors and potential buyers centres on hardware sales classed as software, and how Autonomy reported revenues from resellers and digital archive hosting deals. However, the company has produced almost no numbers to back up its case. HP's chief executive, Meg Whitman, who has asked accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a forensic review, has refused to name specific deals, members of staff or other companies involved. Autonomy's founder and former chief executive, Mike Lynch, who on Tuesday launched a website to rebut HP's claims, says he "utterly rejects" the allegations and has asked for details of how HP arrived at its £3bn figure. Selling, a former fellow to the SEC's office of the chief accountant, urged the SEC to "hold HP's feet to the fire" to ensure it made a full disclosure. "SEC rules will eventually compel HP to tell the public in clear language what all the fuss has been about," he wrote on his blog. "In this instance, such a statement can only mean that investors are entitled to the following specifics: what management knows as of the date of filing; how they know it and when they came to know it; how it changes expectations of future profitability and liquidity (quantified to the extent possible)." Management will have to outline the actions it is taking to mitigate the damage. HP has asked the SEC and the UK's Serious Fraud Office to investigate. Despite suggestions that it could take advisers and former Autonomy management to court, HP has yet to file a lawsuit relating to its claims. Lynch launched AutonomyAccounts.org on behalf of the former Autonomy management team "as a public point of contact for Dr Mike Lynch and other former managers at Autonomy with the wider world". Among the first postings are an open letter published last week by Lynch and a timeline of his company's achievements.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police think crime similar to the one made famous in Truman Capote's novel may have been committed by the same duo Two men hanged almost five decades ago for a murder that inspired one of the greatest true-crime novels of all time could soon be unmasked as the perpetrators of another violent slaying in Florida, cold-case detectives believe. Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock were featured in Truman Capote's sixties classic In Cold Blood that chronicled the brutal murder of a young Kansas couple and two of their four children at a remote farmhouse six years earlier. The two were convicted and hanged in 1965. Now, a judge will rule whether their bodies can be exhumed to try to match them to a similar 1959 killing in Osprey, Florida, in which another young family was shot to death, a crime that shocked the small rural community. Kim McGath, a detective with the Sarasota County sheriff's office who has been working the cold case for four years, believes DNA evidence might show that the pair was responsible for the deaths of Cliff and Christine Walker and their children Jimmie, 3, and Debbie, 2. In what McGath calls "the most plausible theory", Smith and Hickock, who had been on the run from authorities in Kansas for a month, and who were seen in Florida hustling for odd jobs in the week leading up to the 19 December murders, attacked the Walkers in their home after setting up a bogus deal to sell them a new car. They were already suspects in the 15 November murders in Holcomb, Kansas, in which Smith slit farmer Herbert Clutter's throat then shot his wife, Bonnie, daughter, Nancy, 16, and son, Kenyon, 15, with a shotgun. "The case remains unsolved and we have no way of knowing how long this process will take, but we hope to get to a point where we can compare evidence and arrive at a conclusion where we have sufficient evidence to say they did it, or clear them," Captain Jeff Bell of the sheriff's office told the Guardian. "We never close any unsolved homicide, especially one as traumatic as this was for the family and for the community." Smith, who was 31 at the time, and Hickock, 28, were named as possible suspects in the Walker murders in January 1960 by the then-Sarasota County sheriff Ross Boyer. He told the Sarasota-Herald Tribune newspaper that there were "a lot of unanswered questions" about their involvement. But there is no record of his detectives ever travelling to Nevada to interview them following their capture in Las Vegas, and the pair was cleared when they passed since-discredited lie detector tests. In an interview for Capote's book, Smith claimed that he first read about the Walker case in a newspaper and found it "amazing". He reportedly told Hickock: "Know what? I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't done by a lunatic, some nut that read about what happened out in Kansas." Detective McGath said that the suspects could not be pinned to the crime back then because of the more primitive forensic procedures of the era, and because investigators allowed the crime scene to be contaminated. For example, press photographers were let into the home where Mrs Walker was raped and all four victims were shot, and a police vehicle drove over tyre tracks outside. However, advances in DNA testing mean that semen samples and a previously unidentified hair found on Mrs Walker's body and elsewhere in the house, and a bloody cowboy hat discovered at the scene, can now be analysed and possibly matched to the dead men. Captain Bell said that even if the request for exhumation was approved it was not certain that the condition of the bodies would yield credible samples. "Fifty years on, we don't know what we will find," he said. "I've been with the sheriff's office for 30 years and none of us has much experience of doing this." Detective McGath, Bell said, had spent many hours, often in her own time, sifting diligently through "volumes and volumes" of paperwork and talking with surviving relatives of the Walkers, in Florida and elsewhere. "We don't have any way of knowing if this will solve the case but she has put us in the best position to do so and hopefully bring closure to the family and the community," he added. Libby Webster, 57, a former neighbour of the Walkers who said she used to play with the children, said the crime left a lasting imprint on the residents of Osprey for years afterwards. "We did not lock our doors ever until this happened. I remember feeling afraid for the first time in my young life then. I sensed the fear in my parents, and they had never shown any fear before that happened," she said in a Facebook message. "It is so sad. I hope and pray they find who [did] this horrible crime. It is too bad the evil ones are already dead. I can only hope and pray that God will serve justice for the Walker family."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President seen leaving Cairo palace in convoy as opponents gather to condemn assumption of new powers Egyptian security forces have clashed with opponents of Mohamed Morsi outside the presidential palace in Cairo to protest against his assumption of new powers. The march came amid rising anger over decrees Morsi has passed that give him sweeping powers. Opponents say the drafting of a new constitution has been rushed and is a move towards dictatorial rule. Morsi has called for a referendum on the draft constitution on 15 December. Marchers chanted that "the people want the downfall of the regime", and held placards bearing slogans of "no to the constitution". One witness said he had seen Morsi's convoy leave the palace from a side gate during the clashes. He said: "I was part of the Abbasiya march. When the fighting started, a lot of teargas was fired and we were pushed back. The babrbed wire barricade was opened, a convoy of cars left the palace, and then we were allowed to come closer. After that, we entered the street." The near-daily protests represent Egypt's worst political crisis since Hosni Mubarak, was ousted, nearly two years ago. Since then, the country has been divided into two, with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood alongside ultraconservative Salafi Islamists on one side, and youth groups and more liberal organisations on the other. Security forces cordoned the palace off with barbed wire, at which most protesters stopped to chant slogans against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. On a cordoned-off side street, security forces clashed with a section of the protesters and fired teargas to disperse them. The security forces then abruptly withdrew, leaving an empty police truck that protesters climbed up on to as people filled the street. Members of the forces that were left behind were escorted away before they could be set upon. Other protesters milled about in the gardens surrounding the gates of the presidential palace. A few hundred protesters also gathered near Morsi's house, in a suburb east of Cairo, chanting slogans against his decree and against the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he emerged to win the presidential election in June. As the crisis from Morsi's decree and the subsequent furore over the referendum continues, further schisms were apparent within the judiciary when the judges of the state council refused to supervise the referendum. Their announcement came a day after the judiciary's highest body, the state judicial council, announced that Egypt's judges would do so.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Trevor Reid, who has quit after investors failed to approve a gold-plated retention plan following the merger with Glencore, will walk away with £5.45m Xstrata's chief financial officer is to quit the miner following its takeover by Glencore, becoming the first director to abandon ship after investors failed to approve a gold-plated retention plan as part of the deal. Trevor Reid was due to receive almost £11m by 2014 under the controversial pay package. As it is, he will walk away with £5.45m, which the company said was his contractual entitlement after a change of control. His departure will fuel fears of an exodus from Xstrata following the £50bn takeover. Although shareholders finally approved the deal last month, they rejected £140m of retention bonuses for managers, which one investor dubbed "egregious". Reid had been due to stay on as CFO, but his future was thrown into doubt when it was announced that Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis would be replaced at the helm of the combined group by Glencore's current boss, Ivan Glasenberg. The CFO had a seat on the board at Xstrata, but would not at the combined group. Reid is the third of Xstrata's top directors to announce his departure, following Davis and chairman Sir John Bond, who said he would step down after shareholders ignored his recommendation and twice voted against the pay plan he had supported. Now 51, Reid was brought in by Davis when Xstrata was set up in 2001 and, with a tight-knit team of executives, helped build it into a diversified mining group. Davis said on Tuesday: "Eleven years ago, I persuaded Trevor to leave a successful banking career to embark upon the transformation of a struggling company in a precarious financial position with limited options. Xstrata's evolution has exceeded even our initial ambitions and is a testament to Trevor's skills and contribution as an executive director and CFO." Reid has agreed to stay on for six months to help with the integration.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As Obama meets state governors, Republican leadership proposals to cut spending without increasing tax rates on the wealthy are criticised by both sides
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Nato is set to approve Turkey's request for Patriot missiles on its border with Syria and Obama issues another warning to Assad over chemical weapons
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kathryn Bigelow's latest war thriller is a riveting account of the hunt for Bin Laden which imagines a remorseless CIA agent battling dead ends and the doubts of her colleagues We think we know about how Osama bin Laden was killed, about the failed attempt in Tora Bora and the manhunt that followed, the Seal Team Six raid in Pakistan and the burial at sea. But in unrelenting and intimate detail, Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty enriches and complicates that story, focusing on the intrepid CIA agents who led the hunt, the minor and major tragedies that made it take so long, and the obsessions that made it possible. Though some of the details are fictionalised – including Jessica Chastain's lead character, Maya – Zero Dark Thirty has the weight of modern history behind it, taking us through CIA black ops sites and torture chambers, touching briefly on the 2005 London bombings and Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, and opening with a harrowing, audio-only recreation of 9/11 using phone calls from inside the burning World Trade Centre. Even as Mark Boal's script burrows inside the specifics of CIA work and asks us to keep track of a multitude of operatives and terrorists, it never loses sight of the stakes of the historic manhunt, which continued even after many in the CIA believed Bin Laden was already dead. Played with incredible, coiled precision by Chastain, Maya is the vital centre of this massive and wide-reaching film, doggedly pursuing Bin Laden for nearly 10 years along countless dead-end leads. Tipped off to the existence of a courier with close ties to Bin Laden, Maya hunts him down across international borders using interrogation, torture and even the occasional Lamborghini bribe. She has help from some colleagues (notably Jason Clarke and Jennifer Ehle) and constant skepticism from others, such as Kyle Chandler's CIA bureau chief and, eventually, CIA head Leon Panetta (played by James Gandolfini in a brief appearance). Maya's determination and refusal to show emotion, even after brutal tragedy, makes her an intimidating figure, but with the benefit of hindsight and Chastain's remarkable performance, we root for her impossible cause anyway. Operating on the investigative rhythms of a procedural, with occasional pops of suspense and sudden violence, Zero Dark Thirty shifts into a markedly different mode near the end, following the precise movements of the Seal Team Six mission that actually killed Bin Laden. That superb sequence may be what audiences are expecting from Bigelow, director of heart-pumping thrillers such as The Hurt Locker and Point Break, but the adrenaline of the end wouldn't mean nearly as much without the methodical hunt that comes before it. It shouldn't go unnoticed that Bigelow, the first woman in history to win a best director Oscar, has looked behind the all-male Navy Seal team that killed Bin Laden and found a woman – several of them, actually – who set it all up. Maya's femininity affects her character in many fascinating, tiny ways, but it's just one of the many rich details that makes Zero Dark Thirty so riveting. Telling a nearly three-hour story with an ending everyone knows, Bigelow and Boal have managed to craft one of the most intense and intellectually challenging films of the year. Rating: 5/5
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Clash between France and Germany means Ecofin meeting cannot finalise plan for euro area banking supervision. Ministers must meet again next week
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as Nato is set to approve Turkey's request for Patriot missiles on its border with Syria and Obama issues another warning to Assad over chemical weapons
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As Obama meets state governors, Republican leadership proposals to cut spending without increasing tax rates on the wealthy are criticised by both sides
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fugitive software pioneer's location accidentally revealed by location data on photograph tweeted by journalist covering him Software pioneer John McAfee has confirmed on his blog that he is in Guatemala with reporters from Vice magazine, a day after they accidentally revealed his location by failing to scrub data in a photo published online, McAfee is on the run from Belize police who say he is a person of interest in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. He has been on the run since 11 November and has said that he is suspicious of the Belize authorities who want to question him about the murder. In the blog post, McAfee also said that he is set to meet with Guatemalan officials on Tuesday morning and that he will hold a press conference on Wednesday. "I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days," said the blog post on Tuesday. "It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries. I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning." His location was uncovered when a Twitter user spotted embedded location data on an iPhone photo accompanying a Vice article from Monday headlined: "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers." As news of the technological mistake made its rounds online, McAfee went on the blog chronicling his life on the run to say that he had doctored the photo to include false location data. The post has since been deleted, as have all posts written between 1 December and 4 December. Those three days of posts also included claims that McAfee had been caught at the Mexico-Belize border. Cartoonist Chad Essley is helping McAfee maintain the blog and a Twitter account while on the lam and is working on a graphic novel about the eccentric millionaire. Vice has established itself as the most recent confidante of McAfee, following Wired reporter Joshua Davis, who spoke frequently with McAfee when he initially went on the run. Vice said they had been documenting McAfee's journey for the past several days. Following the location data news, Vice posted a Tuesday night story that includes a now-broken link to McAfee's blog under the headline: "John McAfee Update: Quite Frankly We Don't Know What the Fuck Is Going On." McAfee made millions as founder of the anti-virus software company that bears his name. He sold the company in 1994 then invested in other tech ventures before retiring to Belize in 2008. He was living on a beachside compound on a Belize island when Faull was found dead with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. McAfee has expressed fears that he was the attackers intended target and reportedly buried himself in sand when Belize police sought him for questioning in the case.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prime minister gives newspaper editors until Thursday to show progress in agreeing on reformed regulatory structure David Cameron has told national newspaper editors they must implement the Leveson report recommendations in their entirety if the government is to hold off introducing a new press law. The prime minister gave them until Thursday to demonstrate they were making progress on agreeing a reformed structure of regulation. Cameron spent about 20 minutes at what was described by participants as a "good meeting" attended by almost every Fleet Street editor on Tuesday morning. He emphasised that "at the end of this very short process you've got to come up with a regulatory system that is exactly what Leveson asked for", statute excepted. The prime minister then handed over to the culture secretary, Maria Miller, and Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister, who is Cameron's policy fixer and has been handed the task of helping deal with the legal aspects of implementing the Leveson report. Among those present were the editors of the Daily Telegraph, the Sun, the Mirror, the Guardian and the Times – with Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, the most notable absentee, because he was attending a funeral. Echoing the prime minister, Letwin said that Leveson, minus statute, had to be implemented "line by line". This prompted some questions from those present about whether it would be necessary to introduce a system that would allow for third-party complaints from pressure groups whose ultimate aim may be to influence news agendas in their preferred direction. Otherwise there was little dissent at the meeting, with a handful of editors taking to Twitter to give their own reaction. Lloyd Embley, the Mirror's editor-in-chief, wrote afterwards: "there is a firm belief that papers can deliver Leveson principles far more quickly without legislation – better for public and free speech." Held in an upstairs room at No 10, normally competing editors sat at a conference table with ministers, where jugs of water were provided. Craig Oliver, the prime minister's director of communications, was also present, and agreed after the meeting that it could be reported. Letwin outlined the steps he was taking to ensure the successor to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) would be robust, even without a statutory backstop. He said he would have more detailed information for consideration "in 10 days, two weeks maximum", saying he had the "entire government legal team at work". Letwin said he would develop specific proposals to ensure a new, low-cost press tribunal – designed to handle libel, privacy and other quasi-legal complaints – was recognised by the courts as a body that could reach binding settlements, levy damages and award costs, partly by amending the existing civil procedure rules. He said he would create a method of verification by an "unimpeachable, impartial" individual or body that would certify that the new press regulator was compliant with Leveson in all respects. This "ironclad" system – operating outside statute, "but independent beyond a shadow of doubt" – could also appoint the first chairman, Letwin said. Leveson had proposed this verification role could be taken on by the statutory regulator Ofcom, raising concerns that state oversight was being introduced. Letwin would not be drawn on the precise nature of this verification body or process, saying the details still needed to be sorted out. But he insisted it could only verify the new regulatory system if it was "exactly, to the letter, compliant with Leveson". He warned editors they could only water down Leveson by "a very, very tiny fraction" if they wanted to avoid the statutory route. There was little discussion about what the government would do if a publisher or newspaper refused to sign up to the new regulator. But with few signs of dissent in the industry, there is a belief that the benefits of membership, principally from having access to the cut-price tribunal system, would ensure owners and editors were eager to join. Ministers would only consider intervening if the industry could not design a Leveson-style regulator. Letwin said the industry's proposed system of voluntary contracts was, to some extent, irrelevant, if the body was Leveson-compliant and if the arbitration system could be used as an incentive to join. In a statement released after the meeting, Miller said the event was "a good starting point" but there were was "a huge amount of work for the industry to do", and while she had "grave concerns about legislation, if the industry fails to deliver then it will be the only option left". She made it clear that Lord Justice Leveson found the proposals for PCC reform previously drawn up by Lord Hunt, the chairman of the PCC, and Lord Black, chairman of the PCC financing body Pressbof, "unconvincing". Those attending Tuesday's meeting also included the Times editor, James Harding; the Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger; the Independent editor, Chris Blackhurst; the Financial Times editor, Lionel Barber; and the Sunday Times editor, John Witherow. Peter Wright, the former Mail on Sunday editor, deputised for Dacre, while Paul Ashford, the editorial director at Northern & Shell, represented Richard Desmond's Daily Express and Star titles. The only female principal present – other than Miller – was Sarah Sands, the editor of the Evening Standard. Some editors raised concerns about proposed changes to the Data Protection Act and protection of sources, but were told this was not central to the main issue of regulation. Emerging from the meeting, Tony Gallagher, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, tweeted: "19 editors and industry reps, 9 mandarins, 3 ministers and 1 PM. We got coffee and still tap water. No beer and sandwiches." He said the meeting "felt like the summoning of the five families" from the film The Godfather. Victims of phone hacking were outside the meeting heckling editors as they went in. The editors agreed they would have a private meeting, organised by Harding and without ministers, Hunt or Black present, later this week to discuss issues of concern. It is likely to be a critical meeting in which the industry will begin to agree the detailed design of the body that will replace the PCC. Responding to the prime minister's demand that editors produce an improved version of self-regulation to avoid legislation, Evan Harris, director of Hacked Off said: "The editors and the prime minister are deliberately missing the point. Lord Justice Leveson said that it was essential to underpin whatever system the press developed with a legal guarantee of independence and effectiveness. Whatever emerges this week, next week or next year from the editors is irrelevant to the essential requirement that a body is set up in law to verify that the scheme is good enough and stays good enough. "Victims and their political supporters will not allow any sham Cameron-Murdoch pact to cloud the issue."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Coombs criticises the WikiLeaks suspect's detention at Quantico military prison in rare speech outside courtroom David Coombs, the civilian lawyer representing Bradley Manning at his court martial for supplying WikiLeaks with a trove of US state secrets, has described the soldier's treatment in solitary confinement at Quantico marine base as criminal and a blot on the nation's history. Making rare comments outside the courtroom, Coombs addressed an audience of Bradley Manning supporters in a Unitarian church in Washington on Monday night and lashed out at the military hierarchy for allowing the intelligence analyst to be subjected to nine months of harsh suicide prevention regime against the advice of doctors. "Brad's treatment at Quantico will forever be etched into our nation's history as a disgraceful moment in time," he said. "Not only was it stupid and counter-productive, it was criminal. An entire group of individuals, who I have no doubt were honourable, chose to turn a blind eye to how he was being treated … They cared about something more: the media impact." Coombs made his criticism in his first and what will probably his only speech in a civilian setting since he became Manning's lawyer two years ago. He explained to the audience that he has consciously avoided all public engagements and interviews with the press partly on Manning's instructions and partly because the soldier "deserved an attorney entirely focused on the courtroom". Manning was arrested in May 2010 for allegedly handing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and videos of helicopter attacks to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. He has effectively admitted to passing the information, but denies the most serious charge, that he "aided the enemy" by doing so. The comments on Quantico are all the more poignant because the Article 13 hearing – a defence motion alleging unlawful pre-trial punishment of the WikiLeaks suspect – is still ongoing at the court martial in Fort Meade Maryland. Coombs had timed Monday night's speech to mark the end of the hearing and the transition from the motion phase to the trial phase of the proceedings, but there has been such lengthy witness testimony, including two days in the stand by Manning, that it has been extended and will reconvene on Wednesday. Despite his excoriating remarks on Quantico, Coombs painted a generally optimistic picture of Manning's state of mind now and of his hopes for the future. He described the jail facilities at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where Manning was transferred in April 2011 from Quantico, as having "magical waters" that had healed his client. Asked about Manning's current state of mind, Coombs said: "He is very excited about having his case move forward. He is very encouraged at this point by the way things are going, and confident they will ultimately turn out OK for him." Coombs recalled one conversation in which he had asked Manning what he wanted to do in future. "He told me his dream would be to go to college, and then into public service and perhaps one day run for public office. I asked him why, and he said: 'I want to make a difference.'" He went on: "I hope that some day soon Brad can go to college and give back in public service. But he doesn't have to worry about making a difference – he has made a difference." Coombs spent 12 years in active military duty and is a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. He told the audience that given his extensive experience of military justice he was convinced that a court martial system was more likely than the civilian courts to give Manning a fair trial. "People are often suspicious that the military judge may be subject to pressure and the the system is built to obtain a certain outcome, but having in the state and federal courts I can tell you the court martial system is by fair the fairest." Coombs made a stern warning about the first charge facing his client – "aiding the enemy" – a clause of the espionage act that carries a maximum sentence in this case of life in military custody. Speaking generally, he called the charge a "scary proposition" as it held up the threat of prosecution of anybody who passed information to the press even if they had no intention of that information being used by the enemy. "Right there, you will silence a lot of critics of our government, and that's what makes our government great – that we foster criticism and through it make changes. This is a very serious charge not just for my client but for all of us in America." Coombs thanked on Manning's behalf the 72,000 people who have written personally to the soldier in custody, and the 14,000 people who have donated to his defence fund. One of those supporters, he said, was Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower from the Vietnam war era, who has spoken out on Manning's behalf. History had judged Ellsberg very well, Coombs said. "I hope that history will judge PFC Bradley Manning in a similar light."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Militias train male and female recruits for possible offensive amid anger over delayed international intervention Sitting on the roof of his mud-walled compound on a hillside near Bamako, Amadou Maiga is dreaming of war. As the spokesman for the Gando Iso militia, Maiga says Malians cannot wait for international help to reclaim the north of his country from Islamist extremists. So they are preparing to take matters into their own hands. "If we wait… we will give time for these terrorists to occupy the area because, according to the information, on the ground, more terrorists are coming," he said, from his home in Boulkassoumbugu, a suburb of the Malian capital. The UN security council is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss plans for a 3,300-strong regional Ecowas force to enter Mali, but it is unlikely any sort of military operation will begin before next September. Last week the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said military force may be required as a last resort, but stressed the importance of dialogue over war. The militias are angry about the delay, and about the suggestion that Mali's government will offer the minority Tuareg separatists autonomy in exchange for joining the fight against al-Qaida-affiliated insurgents. "There is nothing to negotiate with these criminals who killed people, who broke everything, who looted everything on the way," Maiga said. Gando Iso, meaning sons of the land, is one of three militia groups unofficially supported by the government which have been training fighters at army military camps in Sevare, outside Mopti, 400 miles north of Bamako. Since the coup in March that left power precariously shared between a weak interim government and military junta leaders, the militias have gathered around 3,000 men and women who are willing to start a rebellion. "We don't want to work outside the law but if we have to do it… then we will take the decision to go," Maiga said. The militias, many of which are accused of atrocities in earlier rebellions against the Tuareg, add another dangerous dimension to the crisis in the west African country. Gregory Mann, a professor at Columbia University specialising in the history of Mali, said there was a risk that militias would pursue their own objectives and "open the Pandora's box of the conflict; a set of grudges and grievances that have been difficult to contain in the past". Ganda Iso is a successor to the Ganda Koy militia, whose name means masters of the land. They are disorganised, lack leadership and yearn for revenge against the minority Tuareg separatists, who have fought for more than 50 years demanding the independent state of Azawad. "Every day people are calling me, [saying] 'I want to go [to fight], I want to go,'" said Maiga. Many civilians, who had been hoping for outside military intervention before the end of the year, now say they will take up arms to reclaim their country. "I am ready to go and fight myself," said a 40-year-old mother of three from Bamako. "If I have to take a weapon and be in front of them and fight why should I not to do it? This is my country… I don't have anywhere else to go," she said. She wiped tears from her face as she remembered the refugees she visited in the camps in neighbouring Niger. "We don't have oil, we don't have all this mineral wealth, but we are still human beings," she said. More than 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the north of the country since insurgents began moving through towns and villages looting and raping earlier this year. About 50,000 are in Bamako. In a small hall in the centre of the city, 15 displaced women share a meal of jollof rice. Aramata Maiga, 62, explained how rebels looted her clothing shop in Gao, leaving only the chairs. "They are killing soldiers. They are killing citizens. They are killing everyone," she said. Maiga has been sharing a room with her six children at a friend's house for eight months. She has no idea whether her home and business are still standing, but she's tired of "living in hell here in Bamako" and wants to go back to "fight to free my place". At the chaotic Banke bus station in eastern Bamako, smoke-spewing buses leave for Gao and Timbuktu every day full of people returning to check on their property, livestock and, in some cases, stay behind in rebel-held areas – despite the risk. "Many adults are returning to participate in the liberation in order to be there on D-day when the army returns," said Amadou Touré, a deputy mayor in Bamako responsible for registering the internally displaced people in his region. Touré criticised the delayed military intervention. "It speaks of an international community who doesn't understand what's at stake at all," he said. He is still hopeful the Malian army, which left the country divided in two after abandoning its northern posts with barely a fight, will take action. "It's simple. All we ask of the Malian army is to stick to their positions. They won't even need to fight – they just have to come and the people will help." Analysts say the talk of a civilian rebellion is more than just bravado, and fear for the escalation in violence. Mann warns that Malians cannot rely on their army to support them. Ordered to retreat rather than fight, they lack equipment, money and clear leadership. "There's not a shred of evidence that the Malian army can actually perform," said the professor. "It's an army consistently weakened by internal fighting. My suspicion is that's why there's a delay in the international intervention." Country in crisisMali was left rudderless in March when a coup by military officers, angry at the lack of action against northern Tuareg separatists, ousted President Amadou Toumani Touré ahead of the April elections. It paved the way for the Tuareg rebel groupthe Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) to take advantage of the power vacuum and overthrow the weak Malian army. They seized control of the north, declaring the independent state of Azawad. They soon merged with the Ansar Dine rebel group but the partnership did not last; Mujao, Ansar Dine and al-Qaeia in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), armed groups linked to al-Qaida, turned on Tuareg MNLA and captured the northern cities of Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao, destroying Muslim shrines and enforcing strict forms of Sharia law. A new government has since been formed in Bamako, but military junta leaders still hold much of the power.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Clash between France and Germany means Ecofin meeting cannot finalise plan for euro area banking supervision. Ministers must meet again next week
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pair held on suspicion of links to Mohamed Merah, who killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three paratroopers A man and a woman have been arrested in southern France on suspicion of links to an Islamic militant who killed Jewish schoolchildren and French paratroopers this year, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. The arrests, the first in the case since March, may throw new light on suspicions that Mohamed Merah did not act alone in the attacks, which left seven dead. Merah was later killed in a shootout with police. One of Merah's brothers, Abdelkader, is already in custody on preliminary charges of complicity in the killings. Their oldest brother is among those who have suggested a third man may have played a role. The man arrested on Tuesday was picked up in the city of Albi in southern France, and the woman – his ex-girlfriend – was arrested in Toulouse, the prosecutor's office said. It released no other details. An official with the prosecutor's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man was the key suspect. The Sipa news agency said the man was suspected of helping obtain the scooter used in the attacks. Merah told police during a standoff before his death that he carried out the killings of three paratroopers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi over a nine-day period in March. Merah had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and was under loose surveillance by French security services, which have since acknowledged lapses and promised to tighten up procedures. While authorities initially described him as a "lone-wolf" terrorist, lawyers for victims' families were sceptical. "We know that he didn't kill alone," lawyer Patrick Klugman, who represents some victims' families, said on LCI television. "We want everyone who helped him, who hid him … brought before justice." Samia Maktouf, lawyer for the father of one of the paratroopers, told Sipa that she was expecting more arrests of suspected accomplices "in France and abroad".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Our countdown of the year's best albums continues with Hot Chip's In Our Heads. On their stellar fifth album, the great British pop group combined fun, warmth and sincerity What a lovely group Hot Chip have become. Quietly, unassertively – this is the most diffident of bands – they have crept up in music's outside lane, surpassing flashier and more boastful groups, accumulating a catalogue that now stands comparison with the best English pop has offered over the last 30 years or so. I draw the line back 30 years because In Our Heads was their 80s album. "I've been listening to quite a lot of that music," Joe Goddard told me earlier this year, when I interviewed him and Alexis Taylor. "It wasn't particularly conscious, but I guess some of the instruments on it are from that period. We used a Roland Juno 60, which was an early 80s classic, on most of the tracks on the record. That wasn't particularly conscious; it's just that was the keyboard that was around in the studio were using that sounded amazing." That was particularly evident on Don't Deny Your Heart, a piece of music so gloriously adept in its weaving together of various strands of 80s pop, underlaid by Al Doyle's scratchily Chic guitar line. It's a song in which no element is the result of chance, in which ingredient is layered upon element, all adding some tiny lustre to the song – from the yelps at the beginning to that punk-funk outro. Not one single second of Don't Deny Your Heart bores. Reading on mobile? Listen here
The great triumph of Hot Chip has been to put the cratedigger mentality into the service of pure pop. During the course of our conversation about In Our Heads, they managed to refer to Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks, 50 Cent, Chic, the Beach Boys, Madlib, Timbaland, J Dilla, Giorgio Moroder, the Esso Trinidad Steel Band, Pavement, Destiny's Child, the Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Prince, Oasis, Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, Blur, Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, Chicago juke music, Kraftwerk, Kate Bush, the Beatles and DFA. The music they love might sometimes crop up in their own recordings as direct references – their use of steel pans comes from being so impressed with their use in 50 Cent's PIMP – but more often it's incorporated seamlessly into their own DNA, in a belief that pop can be both adventurous and inclusive: that an indelible melody and an open-hearted lyric are not cheap tricks, but the heart of what has always made the best pop, not just the bestselling pop. That's why the accusations that they're a musical equivalent of an archly raised eyebrow seem so very odd. There's nothing insincere about Hot Chip, with the themes of fidelity – between lovers, and among friends – that were developed on 2010's One Life Stand continued on In Our Heads. They sing of the quotidian experiences that are the source of our most profound feelings: the feeling of a loved one's warm skin against you as you wake in the morning; about how freedom is not all it's cracked up to be when you long for emotional security. Even the sex song, Night and Day (which comes nearest to conforming to the namedropping nerds stereotype with its mid-section Abba/gabba/Zapp/Zappa rap), posits desire not as an end in itself but as a means to a greater intimacy: "If I could be inside you, darling," may be unusually blunt – but that use of the word "darling", an everyday endearment rather than a pick-up line, places it within a relationship, as does the desire to be "the centre of your life". Crucial to all of this, surely, is the fact that Goddard and Alexis Taylor are both now fathers. And while Taylor told me he felt the themes of In Our Heads had been developing over the course of their career, he said it had also become apparent once the album was complete that "the joy of seeing new life" had informed their writing. And that the real idea motivating the album was "songs about optimism, songs about struggling to find a way to be optimistic". The one thing Goddard and Taylor complained about when we spoke was cynicism. The cynicism, especially, of people who make music not because they love it, but because it's a vehicle for their ambition. What they adore, they said, is innocence and naivete in music. It's astonishing, and wonderful, that these men in their thirties – with families and responsibilities and careers and artistic ambitions – can make music that captures uncorrupted joy, without shirking more complex emotional terrain. Hot Chip: the great British pop group.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As the Duchess of Cambridge receives hospital treatment, global news crews begin intense coverage of pregnancy and beyond And so it begins. The pregnant Duchess of Cambridge remained in hospital on Tuesday morning, while outside the massed ranks of the international media waited – for developments. Frankly, there were few facts for the rows of weary presenters filling airtime on TV channels across the globe, some of whom had been working through the night. But cameras were trained on the entrance to the private King Edward VII hospital in central London to photograph any visitors. The duchess, who is suffering from acute morning sickness known as hyperemesis gravidrum, was expected to be in hospital for several days, St James's Palace said on Monday. It is understood she is less than 12 weeks pregnant, possibly only two months. The duchess is likely to be taking anti-sickness tablets and have a drip in her arm so she can receive fluids intravenously. William, who drove his wife to hospital on Monday afternoon from her parents' home in Berkshire, returned at around 11.30am on Tuesday. Her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, and sister, Pippa, were also expected to visit later. International interest in the royal baby, who will be third in line to the throne, is intense. Camera crews descended on Monday evening, an early indication of the level of media interest the couple will endure throughout the pregnancy and beyond. Parking bays outside the hospital were suspended on Monday night. Rather alarmingly the notice said the suspension would remain until March 2013. "Hope we're not going to be here that long," said one photographer. The American network ABC, called in 11 production crew for the hospital watch. Australian networks, because of the time difference, were broadcasting through the night. "There's lots to talk about. Speculating on the baby's name. Reassuring viewers that Kate is OK and it's just morning sickness. Speculating on whether, because of the acute morning sickness, it might be twins," said one sleep-deprived journalist. Mexican crews jostled with Japanese for space. Germany was well represented too. "It's the fact she is pregnant, something everyone has been waiting for. She and William are not just British royals, they are international celebrities. The interest in Germany is immense," said one. Congratulations continued to flood in. Julia Gillard, the prime minister of Australia, called it "delightful news" and said it would "bring joy to many around the world". John Key, her counterpart in New Zealand, said the nation would sympathise with Kate's condition and wished her a speedy recovery. Jay Carney, press secretary to Barack Obama, said: "On behalf of everyone here in the White House, beginning with the president and the first lady, we extend our congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the welcome news this morning out of London that they are expecting their first child."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | More than 50,000 forced to flee as Bopha sweeps across south of country and officials warn death toll is likely to rise One of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines this year barrelled across the south of the country on Tuesday, killing at least five people and forcing more than 50,000 to flee. Typhoon Bopha hit the Davao region at dawn. Gusts of wind of up to 120 miles an hour ripped roofs from homes and a 300-mile wide band of rain flooded low-lying farmland. The storm toppled trees, triggered landslides and sent flash floods surging across the region's mountains and valleys. In the gold-mining province of Compostela Valley, three children were killed after their house was hit by boulders and mud during a landslide. Grieving relatives wrapped their bodies in blankets and placed them on a basketball court in Maparat village. "The only thing we could do was to save ourselves. It was too late for us to rescue them," said Valentin Pabilana, who survived the landslide. In nearby Davao Oriental, a poor agricultural and gold-mining province about 620 miles southeast of Manila, an elderly woman was killed when her house was struck by a tree, said Benito Ramos, an ex-army general who now heads the government's disaster-response agency. A man died a few hours later when a tree knocked him down while he was riding his scooter on a road in Misamis Oriental province, Ramos said. He said the death toll was expected to rise once soldiers and police reached far-flung villages cut off by fallen trees and floods. Regional disaster-response officer Liza Maso said she was trying to confirm an army report that a flash flood washed away a truck carrying an undetermined number of people in New Bataan town, also in Compostela Valley. Some 20 typhoons and storms normally lash the archipelago nation each year but the southern provinces are unaccustomed to such fierce weather. A rare storm that took the area by surprise last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless. Officials were taking no chances this year, and on Monday the president, Benigno Aquino III, appealed for people in Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously. "This typhoon is not a joke," Aquino said after meeting disaster-response officials. "But we can minimise the damage and loss of lives if we help each other," he added. Aquino outlined preparations, including evacuations and the deployment of army search and rescue boats in advance. Authorities also ordered small boats and ferries not to venture out along the country's eastern seaboard, warning of rough seas with waves of up to four metres high. In Compostela Valley, authorities halted mining operations and ordered evacuations to prevent a repeat of deadly losses from landslides and the collapse of mine tunnels seen in previous storms. Bopha, a Cambodian word for flower or a girl, is the 16th weather disturbance to hit the Philippines this year. Forecasters say at least one more storm may hit before Christmas. _
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Clash between France and Germany means Ecofin meeting cannot finalise plan for euro area banking supervision. Ministers must meet again next week
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Revolutionary Guards say ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters when it entered Iranian airspace Iran's Revolutionary Guards have captured a US drone flying over the country's airspace, state media has reported. The Fars news agency said on Tuesday that the Boeing-made ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters when it entered Iranian airspace and was subsequently captured by a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards. General Ali Fadavi, the Guards' navy chief, was quoted as saying the "intruding" drone was now in Iran's possession. "The US drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guards' navy air defence unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace," Fadavi said. "Such drones usually take off from large warships." Fadavi gave no further details of the incident. There was no immediate comment from the US navy's 5th fleet, based in Bahrain. The seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and US drones in the past year. Last month, Iran claimed a US drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned Predator aircraft came under fire at least twice but was not hit and that it was over international waters. In April this year, Iran claimed it had copied technology from a US drone brought down in December 2011 on its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tehran said it recovered data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret drone equipped with stealth technology. As proof, Iranian military cited the drone's flight log, saying it had flown over Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout two weeks before he was killed by US special forces. After acknowledging the loss of the drone, US sources said their software was encrypted and of little intelligence value. The US blamed the loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone on a technical problem, while Iran claimed it brought it down electronically by disrupting its GPS system.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Revolutionary Guards say ScanEagle drone entered Iranian airspace but US navy says that none of its drones is missing Iran's Revolutionary Guards have captured a US drone flying over the country's airspace, state media have reported. The Fars news agency said on Tuesday the Boeing-made ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters when it entered Iranian airspace and was subsequently captured by a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards. General Ali Fadavi, the Guards' navy chief, was quoted as saying the "intruding" drone was in Iran's possession. "The US drone, which was conducting a reconnaissance flight and gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guards' navy air defence unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace," Fadavi said. "Such drones usually take off from large warships." However, the US navy said that none of its drones was missing. "The US navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles (UAV) operating in the Middle East region. Our operations in the Gulf are confined to internationally recognised water and air space," a US navy spokesman in Bahrain said. "We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently." If true, the seizure of the drone would be the third reported incident involving Iran and US drones in the past year. Last month, Iran claimed a US drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the unmanned Predator aircraft came under fire at least twice but was not hit and that it was over international waters. In April this year, Iran claimed it had copied technology from a US drone brought down in December 2011 on its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tehran said it recovered data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret drone equipped with stealth technology. As proof, Iranian military cited the drone's flight log, saying it had flown over Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout two weeks before he was killed by US special forces. After acknowledging the loss of the drone, US sources said their software was encrypted and of little intelligence value. The US blamed the loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone on a technical problem, while Iran claimed it brought it down electronically by disrupting its GPS system.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | European finance ministers are discussing proposals for a single supervisory mechanism for banks in Brussels today
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dispute between Paris and Berlin over plans for banking union mean a deal is unlikely at today's Ecofin meeting in Brussels
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Concerns rise over country's ageing infrastructure as police search offices of Nexco Central after nine die in tunnel collapse Police in Japan have raided the offices of the operator of a motorway near Tokyo where nine people died after the ceiling of a tunnel collapsed on Sunday. The incident sent hundreds of tonnes of concrete crashing on to passing cars and raised concerns about the country's ageing infrastructure. Central Japan Expressway, known as Nexco Central, was being investigated on suspicion of professional negligence after it emerged the firm had conducted only basic safety checks, and had not carried out major repairs to the ceiling of the tunnel since it opened 35 years ago. Company officials say the accident could have been caused by ageing bolts used to secure the concrete panels, which aid ventilation, to the tunnel's inner walls. There is also speculation that the bolts had been loosened by earthquakes. The firm said no structural faults had been found when the tunnel underwent rudimentary checks during a routine inspection in September. "They are searching our offices," said Osamu Funahashi, a spokesman for the government-owned firm. "We are giving them our full co-operation." Raids were also carried out at several other locations connected with the company. Television footage showed about a dozen uniformed police entering Nexco Central's headquarters in Nagoya, central Japan, early on Tuesday. Japanese media reported heavy traffic on alternative routes in the area, saying that the motorway's closure had begun to affect the flow of goods between Tokyo and the west of the country. Police have so far confirmed nine deaths from the accident, which occurred on Sunday morning after suspended concrete slabs worked loose from the tunnel walls and crashed on to three vehicles travelling below. At least one of the vehicles caught fire, creating thick black smoke that billowed from both ends of the tunnel. About 270 concrete panels, each weighing up to 1.5 tonnes, fell during the accident inside the Sasago tunnel, which links Tokyo with central and western Japan. Huge pieces of concrete were scattered along a 130-metre stretch of the 4.7km (2.9-mile) tunnel. The road remained closed while emergency workers resumed their search for victims, while officials said the affected stretch of motorway was unlikely to fully reopen this year. The long operation ahead to remove the concrete debris from the road and make the tunnel safe again was expected to cause widespread disruption, particularly as millions of people head to their hometowns ahead of the new year. The tunnel is located along the Chuo expressway, a major artery used by about 47,000 vehicles a day. Rescue workers said they had not ruled out the possibility of finding more bodies, but they did not believe anyone else was still in the tunnel. Recovery work was halted overnight while emergency reinforcements were carried out to prevent further collapses. The victims included three men and two women, all in their 20s, who were travelling in the same van when it was crushed by falling debris before catching fire. It took three hours to extinguish the blaze. The only victim named so far is Tatsuya Nakagawa, a 50-year-old lorry driver who had called a colleague shortly after the accident to ask for help. Some of the other victims were so badly burned it could take days to identify them. The prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, offered his condolences to the victims' families. "I offer my sincere prayers to those who lost their lives or were injured in this accident," he said. "I have ordered the transport ministry to do everything possible to help the injured and to quickly establish the cause of the accident so that something like this never happens again." The tragedy is expected to lend greater urgency to the debate over public spending on Japan's infrastructure, much of which was built in the 1960s and 70s, as the country prepares for a general election on 16 December. The accident, which occurred about 50 miles west of the Japanese capital, has raised questions over the safety of tunnels of a similar age and design. The transport ministry ordered immediate inspections of 49 other motorway and road tunnels, part of a nationwide network of more than 1,500 tunnels that offer motorists an easy route through Japan's mountainous terrain. About a quarter of the tunnels were built more than 30 years ago, the ministry said. Sunday's accident was the worst of its kind since 1996, when a rock slide caused by the collapse of a tunnel in northern Japan engulfed cars and a bus, killing 20 people.
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