| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Golden Spike, a firm run by former Nasa managers, says it it will be ready to fly first mission by 2020, at $1.5bn per expedition A Colorado start-up run by former Nasa managers plans to conduct missions to the moon for about $1.5bn (£0.9bn) per expedition, a fraction of what a similar government-run operation would cost. The expeditions would use existing rockets and spacecraft under development to fly Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station. Depending on how many customers sign up, the company said it could be ready to fly its first mission by 2020. It did not elaborate on any existing or pending contracts with customers or suppliers. "Our vision is to create a reliable and affordable US-based commercial human lunar transportation system," said former Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin, who serves as chairman of the firm, named Golden Spike. The first mission would require an investment of $7-8bn, said the Golden Spike president, Alan Stern, Nasa's former associate administrator for science. Once established, mission costs would drop to about $1.5bn to fly two people to the moon for up to two days. "This is a game-changer," Stern told reporters in Washington and on a conference call. "We can fly human lunar missions for the cost of a robotic mission." Stern declined to specify how many missions the company would need to sell to turn a profit. "If we only sell three or four expeditions, it's completely upside down. We need to sell a bunch. But we do not need to sell ridiculous numbers," he said. A market study shows 15 to 25 nations can afford lunar exploration and may want to do so, he added. Potential customers include civilian space agencies, corporations, research institutes and some extremely wealthy individuals. "We can make it affordable for mid-sized countries like a Korea, an Indonesia, or a South Africa to be in the business of lunar exploration, which would cost them a great deal more to invent that capability," Stern said. In addition to advance ticket sales, the company is counting on advertising and marketing campaigns to raise funds. Golden Spike is not the first company proposing privately funded missions to the moon. Other firms include Moon Express, a mining outfit, and companies participating in a Google-sponsored competition to land a robotic probe on the satellite. "If I could find investors to get started with, we would be going back to the moon within 10 or 15 years to harvest its energy resources and use them back here on Earth," former Apollo astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt told Reuters in a separate interview. "The return of investment has to be fairly high because of the perceived risk – in addition to the actual risk to that investment capital – but nevertheless I believe it's possible that it could be done," he said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mo Yan, who has won this year's Nobel Prize in literature, says censorship is as necessary as checks at airport security This year's Nobel Prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has been criticised for his membership in China's Communist Party and reluctance to speak out against the country's government, has defended censorship as something as necessary as airport security checks. He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and compatriot. Mo has been criticised by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist Party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice president. His comments on Thursday, made during a news conference in Stockholm, appear unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him. Awarding him the literature prize has also brought criticism from previous winners. Herta Mueller, the 2009 literature laureate, called the jury's choice of Mo a "catastrophe" in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter last month. She also accused Mo of protecting the Asian country's censorship laws. China's rulers forbid opposition parties and maintain strict control over all media. Mo said he doesn't feel that censorship should stand in the way of truth but that any defamation, or rumours, "should be censored." "But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest principle," he said in comments translated by an interpreter from Chinese into English. Mo is spending several days in Stockholm before receiving his prestigious prize in an awards ceremony next Monday. He won the Nobel for his sprawling tales of life in rural China. In its citation, the jury said Mo "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm. "When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary." Mo also dodged questions about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Peace Prize winner. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring a bold call for ending China's single-party rule and enacting democratic reforms. China's reception of the two Nobel laureates has been worlds apart.
While it rejected the honour bestowed on Liu, calling it a desecration of the Nobel tradition, it welcomed Mo's win with open arms, saying it reflected "the prosperity and progress of Chinese literature, as well as the increasing influence of China." Although Mo has previously said he hopes Liu will be freed soon, he refused to elaborate more on the case. "On the same evening of my winning the prize, I already expressed my opinion, and you can get online to make a search," he said, telling the crowd that he hoped they wouldn't press him on the subject of Liu. Some, however, have interpreted Mo's October comments as if he hoped the release of Liu would make the jailed activist see sense and embrace the Communist Party line. Earlier this week, an appeal signed by 134 Nobel laureates, from Peace Prize winners such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Taiwanese-American chemist Yuan T Lee, called the detention of Liu and his wife a violation of international law and urged their immediate release. But Mo suggested he had no plans of adding his name to that petition. "I have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me to do something I don't do it," he said, adding that has been in his stance in the past decade. Mo is to receive his Nobel prize along with the winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in a separate ceremony in Oslo on the same day.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The lawsuit, filed in the court where he will be tried, says network saw teenager's death as opportunity to increase ratings George Zimmerman, the man who shot black teenager Trayvon Martin in February, is suing US television network NBC, saying the broadcaster intentionally edited and repeatedly aired a non-emergency phone call he made to police before shooting and killing Martin "to create the myth" that he was a racist. Attorneys for Zimmerman, who maintains he shot Martin in self-defence in February during a struggle, said the lawsuit seeking an undisclosed amount in damages was filed in the same central Florida court where he will stand trial in June for murder. "NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, so it set about creating the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain," the defamation lawsuit says. "NBC created this false and defamatory misimpression using the oldest form of yellow journalism: manipulating Zimmerman's owns words, splicing together disparate parts of the [police] recording to create the illusion of statements that Zimmerman never actually made." NBC denied any wrongdoing in a statement issued late on Thursday. "We strongly disagree with accusations made in the complaint. There was no intent to portray Zimmerman unfairly. We intend to vigorously defend our position in court," the network said. The edit in question, which aired on the network's morning show, Today, in April, made it appear that Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, told police that Martin was black without being asked. In fact, the full tape reveals that Zimmerman only did so in response to a question. Former NBC News president Steve Capus, who stepped down this month, said in April that the edit was a mistake, not deliberate misrepresentation. Capus said at the time that a producer made the editing error, and that the network's editorial controls simply missed the selective editing of the phone call. The network apologised to its viewers, and two NBC staffers named as defendants in the lawsuit were fired. But the complaint says the network never apologised to Zimmerman "for deliberately portraying him as a hostile racist who targeted Martin due to his race." The misleading edit of the call led to significant pressure on the network from critics who claimed it had exacerbated already inflamed racial tension surrounding the case.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | TVShack founder avoids prosecution under copyright laws and says: 'It is a pity the UK government didn't try and resolve this'
A British student's two-year fight to avoid extradition to the US ended in less than five minutes on Thursday, when Richard O'Dwyer signed an agreement in a New York court to avoid prosecution and a potential 10-year jail term for breaking copyright laws with the file-sharing website he set up as a teenager.
The 24-year-old spoke only to confirm his name and his understanding of the three-page agreement, which was reached last week by his legal team and US prosecutors. The brief hearing in lower Manhattan marked the end of an ordeal that dates back to October 2010, when O'Dwyer was arrested by City of London police, accompanied by US customs officials, in his student room in Sheffield. Outside court, O'Dwyer and his family criticised the British government's response to the case, saying they had received little support from the Home Office. Theresa May, the home secretary, approved O'Dwyer's extradition to the US despite opposition from the public, press and some politicians. "I'm very happy it's finally over with," O'Dwyer told the Guardian, outside the court in lower Manhattan. "I still believe I never committed any crime. I'm very happy the US government has decided to drop the case against me. It just really is a pity the UK government didn't try and resolve this without us having to come all the way over." The hearing, in New York's southern district court, lasted only a few minutes. O'Dwyer, wearing a blue hooded top and denim jeans, with union-jack boxer shorts visible above the waistband, signed the document as his mother, Julia O'Dwyer, looked on from the back of the small courtroom. Under the terms of the "deferred prosecution agreement", which was agreed last week, the student pledged that he would not break any laws and would remain in contact with a US correctional officer over the next six months. He was also ordered to pay the US dollar equivalent of £20,000, which represents profits earned by his website between December 2007 and November 2010. The money will be used to "repay victims whose copyrights were infringed by TVShack", according to the agreement. O'Dwyer set up TVShack, which linked to programmes and films available for free online, in 2007. He was arrested on allegations of copyright infringement three years later, but a criminal investigation in the UK was dropped. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency shut down the website and accused O'Dwyer of breaking US copyright laws, prompting his two-year fight to avoid extradition. Julia O'Dwyer, who campaigned hard on her son's behalf, told the Guardian outside court that she had been frustrated by the British government's handling of the case. She said: "We're really pleased to have been here and to sort this matter out without needing for Richard to be subjected to extradition and incarceration and criminalisation. It's just a pity that the British authorities couldn't have allowed us to sort this out in the UK." She praised supporters of her son, but was critical of the British authorities. "That doesn't feel very nice that your own government gives you no support. We've had tremendous support from the public, from the press, from our legal team, other victims. But the Home Office, the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], the politicians – no support at all." The case has had a high profile in Britain. The Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, launched a campaign in June, with an article in the Guardian in defence of O'Dwyer. Wales described the student as the "human face" of a global battle between film and TV industries and the wider public. More than 253,000 people signed a petition set up by Wales which called upon the home secretary to block O'Dwyer's extradition to the US. May insisted she would not back down on her approval of the extradition. The decision proved highly unpopular among the British public – a YouGov poll found that 46% of respondents believed O'Dwyer should not be prosecuted at all, and that only 9% thought he should be sent to the US for trial.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Retired software mogul who is wanted as 'person of interest' in Belize murder case plans to appeal denial of political asylum The former software mogul John McAfee was taken to hospital in Guatemala on Thursday, after complaining of chest pains while being detained by local authorities. McAfee fled from Belize to Guatemala after the murder of one of his neighbors, Gregory Faull. McAfee is a person of interest in the case and is wanted by Belize police for questioning. He initially refused to go to a hospital, saying he had relied on Chinese herbal medicine after suffering a heart attack in 1993. "Last night I had a little bit of pain, but I am fine this morning," McAfee told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't like western medicine... if the people around me are kind and compassionate, that's all that matters in life. The people of Guatemala are very kind people, so I have no complaints." A government doctor said McAfee's heart rhythm and blood pressure were normal and that he had not suffered a heart attack during the night. McAfee was detained by Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday, after illegally crossing into the country. Belize police expected McAfee to return after he was denied asylum on Thursday, but his lawyer said he would appeal, which could give him more than 48 hours more in Guatemala. McAfee is being represented by Telésforo Guerra, a former Guatemala attorney general who is the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Venegas. Belize has not issued a warrant for McAfee's arrest but McAfee has said that he has been harassed by the Belize government and that he has documentation that proves it is corrupt. "Seven months ago the Belizean government sent 42 armed soldiers into my property," McAfee said. "They killed one of my dogs, they broke into all of my houses, they stole, they arrested me and kept me handcuffed in the sun for 14 hours. I was taken to jail and it was only the intervention of the US embassy that got me out of jail." McAfee is the founder of the anti-virus software company that bears his name. He sold the company in 1994 and invested in several other technology ventures before retiring to Belize in 2008. His whereabouts in Guatemala were uncovered when data regarding his location was embedded in an iPhone photo accompanying an article about him in Vice magazine entitled: "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers." On Tuesday, he confirmed he was in Guatemala with his girlfriend. McAfee and cartoonist Chad Essley have been keeping the public updated on McAfee's life on the run through a blog, whoismcafee.com. Earlier on Thursday, Essley posted a request from McAfee that asked readers to tweet, email or call the president of Guatemala and "beg him to allow the court system to proceed, to determine my status in Guatemala, and please support the political asylum that I am asking for". McAfee has been blogging from jail, after someone lent him a computer. He has said that he has been treated kindly by Guatemalan police and that they had provided some "excellent" coffee. "So far, my experience on the inside of this establishment has worn away a bit of my natural cynicism and added a measure of hope for humanity," McAfee wrote.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Retired software mogul who is wanted as 'person of interest' in Belize murder case plans to appeal against denial of asylum The former software mogul John McAfee was taken to hospital in Guatemala on Thursday, after complaining of chest pains while being detained by local authorities. McAfee fled from Belize to Guatemala after the murder of one of his neighbors, Gregory Faull. McAfee is a person of interest in the case and is wanted by Belize police for questioning. He initially refused to go to a hospital, saying he had relied on Chinese herbal medicine after suffering a heart attack in 1993. "Last night I had a little bit of pain, but I am fine this morning," McAfee told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't like western medicine... if the people around me are kind and compassionate, that's all that matters in life. The people of Guatemala are very kind people, so I have no complaints." A government doctor said McAfee's heart rhythm and blood pressure were normal and that he had not suffered a heart attack during the night. McAfee was detained by Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday, after illegally crossing into the country. Belize police expected McAfee to return after he was denied asylum on Thursday, but his lawyer said he would appeal, which could give him more than 48 hours more in Guatemala. McAfee is being represented by Telésforo Guerra, a former Guatemala attorney general who is the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Venegas. Belize has not issued a warrant for McAfee's arrest but McAfee has said that he has been harassed by the Belize government and that he has documentation that proves it is corrupt. "Seven months ago the Belizean government sent 42 armed soldiers into my property," McAfee said. "They killed one of my dogs, they broke into all of my houses, they stole, they arrested me and kept me handcuffed in the sun for 14 hours. I was taken to jail and it was only the intervention of the US embassy that got me out of jail." McAfee is the founder of the anti-virus software company that bears his name. He sold the company in 1994 and invested in several other technology ventures before retiring to Belize in 2008. His whereabouts in Guatemala were uncovered when data regarding his location was embedded in an iPhone photo accompanying an article about him in Vice magazine entitled: "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers." On Tuesday, he confirmed he was in Guatemala with his girlfriend. McAfee and cartoonist Chad Essley have been keeping the public updated on McAfee's life on the run through a blog, whoismcafee.com. Earlier on Thursday, Essley posted a request from McAfee that asked readers to tweet, email or call the president of Guatemala and "beg him to allow the court system to proceed, to determine my status in Guatemala, and please support the political asylum that I am asking for". McAfee has been blogging from jail, after someone lent him a computer. He has said that he has been treated kindly by Guatemalan police and that they had provided some "excellent" coffee. "So far, my experience on the inside of this establishment has worn away a bit of my natural cynicism and added a measure of hope for humanity," McAfee wrote.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Same-sex marriage licences issued without a hitch but many are wary of federal government interfering with cannabis possession Paul Harris has spent the past 15 years issuing marriage licences in Vancouver, Washington, but throughout it all has been deprived of the right to marry his partner of four decades. Until Thursday, when Harris finally got to sit on the other side of the counter as Washington issued its first marriage licences to gay couples after the move was approved by a popular referendum last month. "On the way to work I was thinking of all that's happened over our lives together," Harris said of the 40 years he has spent with his partner and soon-to-be husband, James Griener. "The resignation of a president (Richard Nixon), landing a man on the moon, 9/11, the election of our first African American president. You know, we have been together for a lot of time. But to be able to get a marriage licence seems surreal. "When I finally sat down on the other side of the counter for a change and had one of the staff issue a marriage license it just hit me that this is real. My emotions took over at that point and I couldn't hold back the tears. I call it man tears." Harris, who wore a white rose in his suit to mark the occasion, stood at the door of the Clark County marriage licence office welcoming the 34 couples who arrived by mid morning, well up on the usual traffic. They included Susan Deen, a building repair specialist for the city, and CJ Joyce, a customer service representative, who have been together for 14 years and plan to marry on Sunday, the first day permitted by the new licences. "It's mind boggling," said Joyce. "It's very special because I didn't know I would ever be see this. I'm 64. I grew up being a homophobe. It's a very big deal." Joyce handed over $64 in return for the licence and a ceremonial certificate. "Thanks for doing this," she said to the clerk. "I can't say how happy I am." The clerk replied: "This is a fun day. Everybody's happy." The all round delight at the Clark County marriage licence office was in stark contrast to the introduction of another Washington state ballot measure on Thursday – the legalisation of possession of small amounts of marijuana – which was shrouded in uncertainty and confusion. Although it is now legal under state law for anyone over 21 to possess up to one ounce of the drug, there is still no legal means to buy it, and officials were grappling with how to administer the new law without falling afoul of national legislation. Federal officials have gone so far as to threaten to prosecute state bureaucrats who facilitate the sale of the drug. The referendum authorised the state liquor board to administer marijuana shops along similar lines to the sale of alcohol but it's expected to take up to a year to get that off the ground. In the meantime there is no legal way to buy the drug except with a doctor's certificate through a medical marijuana dispensary. But owners of legal dispensaries are keeping a low profile after one in Vancouver was shut down by federal authorities after publicly praising the new legislation. Plans by supporters of marijuana legalisation for "smoke ins" in Vancouver were nixed by local health officials who said they fell afoul of cigarette smoking laws and a provision on the new regulations that only permit the use of marijuana in private. The federal government has warned colleges they risk losing government funding if they permit marijuana use on campus, even in the privacy of college dorms and housing. Still, Vancouver city council this week authorised the growing of pot in specific areas, mostly industrial zones, for medical use. Local police departments are also treating the new regulations with caution. Mitch Lackey, police chief in Camas, which neighbours Vancouver, told the city council last month that he will continue arresting people for marijuana procession until the federal government says whether it will move against the Washington law. "It's ridiculous," said Matty Hoffman, a mechanic who said he will not be deterred by the lack of a legal marijuana outlet. "The people of this state voted and the federal government should respect their wishes. If the police stop me they will have no right to ask me where I got my stuff provided it's not more than an ounce. So they'll have to catch me in the act of buying." There is no such uncertainty around gay marriage after it was passed by the Washington state legislature and affirmed by the referendum. That's a relief to Harris and Griener who were married to each other once before, in neighbouring Oregon in 2004. But the Oregon supreme court struck down the gay marriage regulations a few weeks later and so their marriage was annulled and their money refunded. Harris was not confident the voters of Washington would endorse gay marriage. "I expected it to fail. When they told me, I said: 'Are you sure? Are they having a recount?' No, it's real. I thought: oh my God. The people in the state of Washington affirmed this. It's because attitudes are changing in our time. It's because we're not as threatening. We're not looked at as people who are deviant and shouldn't love each other. It was just an absolutely momentous moment," he said. Harris said he did not go into a civil partnership with Griener because he felt it smacked of discrimination. "I didn't want to settle for anything other than full marriage," he said. "We did not know that it would ever happen. I think in order to be included in society, and not just be on the fringe of society, I wanted to be included." Deen said she feels that at last the stigma she has lived with much of her life is falling away. "I think the US is growing up because the younger generation these days don't mind. They just don't care. President Obama has children who ask: why can't they (gay couples) get married?" she said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Violent street battles stop – for now – but country remains locked in confrontation Egypt's Republican Guard restored an uneasy calm to the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce clashes in which seven people were killed, as the political crisis worsened over Mohamed Morsi's decrees extending his power. The president, criticised for his silence in the past few days, addressed the nation, accusing some of the opposition protesters of serving remnants of the old regime and vowing never to tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his "legitimate" government. He also announced that a "comprehensive and productive" dialogue with the opposition will start on Saturday and said the referendum on the disputed constitution, at the heart of the crisis, would go ahead as scheduled on 15 December despite opposition demands to rescind the document. Morsi also refused to rescind the decrees of 22 November which gave him near absolute powers. Earlier, hundreds of his Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had camped out near the palace withdrew before a deadline set by the Republican Guard. Scores of opposition protesters remained but were kept behind a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks. Egypt has seen sporadic clashes throughout nearly two years of political turmoil after Hosni Mubarak's departure in February 2011. But Wednesday's street battles were the worst yet between Morsi's supporters and opponents, who threw stones and petrol bombs at each other, stoking fears that the standoff will grow even more polarised and violent. Wednesday's clashes began after the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, announced that supporters were heading for the palace. Afterwards the area surrounding it looked like a warzone. Officials said 350 people had been wounded in the violence. Morsi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new dictatorship. He insists his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of Mubarak-appointed judges from sabotaging a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition. Opposition groups have coalesced into a "national salvation front" led by the veteran reform figure Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the leftwing politician Hamdeen Sabahy and former Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa. The latter two contested last summer's presidential elections. Earlier in the day a small crowd milled about, some of them keeping up the chants against Morsi. Further marches by anti-Morsi protesters reached the palace later in the evening. As the crowds grew, protesters chanted: "The Brotherhood cannot be trusted," and "Where are the Brotherhood, the revolutionaries are here." Chants of "leave" and "the people want to bring down the regime" – famous from last year's anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square – rang out. "The Brotherhood are trying to get everything they want by force," said an engineering student, David Farid. "It is like coercion because they have everything and they feel that they can do what they want and to hell with everyone else." The opposition insists that the national dialogue Morsi has called for to avert the crisis cannot take place until the decree is rescinded and the referendum delayed. The draft constitution has been criticised for its content and the way in which it was rushed through by an assembly lacking minority and liberal voices who withdrew in objection to many of the articles. It has been criticised for its lack of protection for women and minority rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression. Maha Azzam of the London-based thinktank Chatham House said the situation had worsened. "A large section of the opposition have always felt uncomfortable with the election result that brought Morsi to power," she told al-Jazeera TV. "What we are seeing is an ongoing power struggle. The majority would want to go a referendum and see this out." Egypt is at a critical point, Azzam said. "Morsi is trying to cement his power and he is trying to do it step by step. But there are many spoilers and many people who are unhappy with an Islamist element and what some see as a hidden agenda. But we have seen 30 years of propaganda against the Muslim Brotherhood." Underlining international concern about the crisis, the UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, urged the Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters and prosecute anyone inciting violence, including politicians. "The current government came to power on the back of similar protests and so should be particularly sensitive to the need to protect protesters' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Pillay said in Geneva.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mohamed Morsi supporters withdraw before deadline set by army amid worsening standoff with opposition over decrees Egypt's Republican Guard restored an uneasy calm to the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce clashes in which seven people were killed as the political crisis worsens over Mohamed Morsi's controversial decrees extending his power. The president, criticised for his silence in the last few days, had been expected to address the nation, but failed to do so amid suggestions he may do so on Friday. Hundreds of his Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had camped out near the palace withdrew before a deadline set by the Republican Guard. Scores of opposition protesters remained but were kept behind a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks. Egypt, scene of the second and biggest of the revolutions of the Arab spring, remains locked in confrontation over a presidential decree that two weeks ago granted Morsi extraordinary powers, including immunity from any judicial challenges. The situation was then exacerbated by a rush to complete a draft constitution that Morsi called to be put to a referendum scheduled for 15 December. Egypt has seen sporadic clashes throughout nearly two years of political turmoil after Hosni Mubarak's departure in February 2011. But Wednesday's street battles were the worst yet between Morsi's supporters and opponents, who threw stones and petrol bombs at each other, stoking fears that a standoff which already has Egypt bitterly divided will grow more polarized and violent . Wednesday's clashes began after the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party announced that supporters were heading for the palace. Afterwards the area surrounding it looked like a war zone. Officials said 350 people had been wounded in the violence. Morsi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship". He insists his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of Mubarak-appointed judges from sabotaging a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition. Opposition groups have now coalesced into a "national salvation front" led by the veteran reform figure Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy and former Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa. The latter two both contested last summer's presidential elections. Earlier in the day a small crowd milled about, some of them keeping up the chants against Morsi. Further marches by anti-Morsi protesters reached the palace later in the evening. As the crowds grew protesters chanted: "The Brotherhood cannot be trusted," and "Where are the Brotherhood, the revolutionaries are here". Chants of "leave" and "the people want to bring down the regime" — famous from last year's anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square – rang out. "The Brotherhood are trying to get everything they want by force," said an engineering student, David Farid. "It is like coercion because they have everything and they feel that they can do what they want and to hell with everyone else." The opposition insists that the national dialogue Morsi has called for to avert the crisis cannot take place until the decree is rescinded and the referendum delayed. The draft constitution has been criticised both for its content and the manner in which it was rushed through hurriedly by an assembly lacking minority and liberal voices who withdrew in objection to many of the articles. It has also been criticised for its lack of protection for women and minority rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression. Maha Azzam of the London-based thinktank Chatham House said the situation had worsened. "A large section of the opposition have always felt uncomfortable with the election result that brought Morsi to power," she told al-Jazeera TV. "What we are seeing is an ongoing power struggle. The majority would want to go a referendum and see this out." Egypt is at a "critical point", Azzam said. "Morsi is trying to cement his power and he is trying to do it step by step. But there are many spoilers and many people who are unhappy with an Islamist element and what some see as a hidden agenda. But we have seen 30 years of propaganda against the Muslim Brotherhood." Underlining international concern about the crisis, the UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, urged the Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters and prosecute anyone inciting violence, including politicians. "The current government came to power on the back of similar protests and so should be particularly sensitive to the need to protect protesters' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Pillay said in Geneva.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US secretary of state asks Russia to lean on Assad regime but Damascus accuses west of creating pretext for invasion The US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, warned that events on the ground in Syria were accelerating on Thursday before a surprise meeting in Dublin with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. "The pressure against the regime in and around Damascus is increasing," she said. The US and Britain urged Russia to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to refrain from using chemical weapons as Syria's crisis escalates. But Assad's government again insisted it would not use such weapons. In signs of a vigorous media counter-offensive from Damascus, Syrian officials insisted that they had no intention of using chemical weapons and accused the US and European countries of "conspiring" to create the impression that they would, in order to justify intervention. Speaking after the meeting, Brahimi said Russia and the United States would seek a "creative" solution to drag Syria back from the brink, and that he wanted peace based on the Geneva Declaration, which calls for a transitional administration. "We haven't taken any sensational decisions," Brahimi said, calling Syria's situation "very, very, very bad". "We have agreed that we must continue to work together to see how we can find creative ways of bringing this problem under control and hopefully starting to solve it. "We have also talked a little bit about how we can work out hopefully a process that will get Syria back from the brink. To put together a peace process that will be based on Geneva." Clinton held a bilateral meeting with Lavrov and Brahimi met separately with Lavrov before the three sat down together. Syrian opposition sources reported at least 100 more dead in another 24 hours of fighting across the country and in suburbs of the capital. By nightfall the highway to Damascus international airport was closed as rebels clashed with government forces. Fighting was also reported on the main road north from the capital to Aleppo. With expectations growing for a showdown in Damascus, a French consultant resident in the city described regularly hearing explosions and shooting with fighting now occurring a few minutes drive from the centre. Jean Pierre Duthion told the Guardian via Skype: "It is becoming a ghost city, a city under siege. People are not going out at night. Most of the streets are blocked." But Duthion said he did not expect a so-called 'battle for Damascus' to take place. "The army is still strong," he said. "The Syrian army is not desperate …They are motivated and determined and are ready to respond. It is not an army that is losing and trying their best to keep some positions. They are attacking. I don't think we are going to face a situation of a big number of [rebel] fighters coming to attack." He described the chaotic scenes in the capital, as regime forces fought for control of some of the city's districts with the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA). "The south-east of Damascus is not under control of the FSA - you don't have a FSA commander managing all the districts, but it definitely not a place the army controls [either]. It is a chaotic situation," Duthion said. William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, used the Dublin meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to urge Lavrov to use Russia's influence to end the "appalling situation on the ground" and to advance a political transition, the Foreign Office announced. But Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Miqdad, said: "Syria stresses again, for the 10th, the 100th time, that if we had such (chemical) weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide." Such reports were "theatre," he told the Lebanese TV station al-Manar, the voice of Hizbullah. Barack Obama and other Nato leaders have warned that using chemical weapons would cross a "red line" and have immediate unspecified consequences. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, issued a similar warning in a letter to Assad. "We remain very concerned that as the opposition advances, in particular on Damascus, that the regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons," the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said on Thursday. "The intelligence that we have causes serious concerns that this is being considered." But Miqdad said: "We fear a conspiracy … by the United States and some European states, which might have supplied such weapons to terrorist organisations in Syria, in order to claim later that Syria is the one that used these weapons." Amid concern about the escalating fighting western governments are preparing to step up their support for the anti-Assad opposition at a conference in Morocco next week. But the newly-formed Syrian National Coalition is still squabbling over the composition of a transitional government its backers insist must include representatives of all Syrian communities. It remains unclear whether the US and the EU will, as expected, recognise the SNC as the "sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people," as Britain, France and several Arab countries already have. Britain is also seeking an amendment of the EU arms embargo to allow the supply of body armour and night vision goggles to the Syrian opposition. Western governments have been wary of openly supplying weapons to the armed opposition because it is so fragmented and they fear the influence of extremist or jihadi groups. In a related development, the US state department backtracked from earlier comments, saying that it does not know the whereabouts of the Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, who disappeared earlier this week and is widely believed to have defected. Spokesman Mark Toner said that US officials have seen various reports regarding Makdissi's location but couldn ot confirm any of them — except that he is not in the US. Toner said on Wednesday the US understood that Makdissi was in London. British officials have flatly denied that.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Todd Stern seems to overlook even his own government's reports that indicate US would be nowhere 16.3% cut by 2020 The Obama administration has been vigorously defending its climate record at the Doha conference in Qatar. But it appears that Todd Stern, the US state department climate envoy, has been rather selective with his facts. In his sole press conference at the meeting, Stern told reporters the US was on track to meet its commitment on cutting emissions by 2020, citing a report by the Resources for the Future thinktank. The report said that incoming Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal-fired power plants, along with other measures, could lead to a 16.3% cut in emissions by 2020. "The US has done quite significant things in the president's first four years, in his first term," Stern said. "I saw just the other day actually a report by Resources for the Future which is a quite good kind of environmental economic thinktank in Washington that projects us to be on track for about a 16.5% reduction based on the policies that we have in place now." That figure is not far off Barack Obama's admittedly modest target of 17% cut on emissions from 2005 levels, which he offered to the UN climate meeting at Copenhagen in 2009. The problem was, however, that Stern overlooked official US government reports indicating the US would be nowhere near a 16% cut by 2020. He also overlooked several different cautions included in the RFF report (pdf). Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who first drew reporters' attention to the gap, said the most accurate projections indicate America is well short of meeting even the modest commitment Obama made in 2009 for cutting the emissions that cause climate change. The 2013 outlook from the Energy Information Administration, released just this week, gives a far less rosy picture than Stern. The government agency projected only a 9% reduction in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 – and emissions would then creep back up again by 2040. Meyer said Stern's colleagues at the White House Council for Environmental Quality told him at Doha that US emissions would be down about 10% from 2005 levels. "So clearly the gap to be closed is a significant one, requiring further domestic initiatives," Meyer said in an email. A State Department official responded to a requests for clarification by quoting from the RFF report, which said: "The United States is about on track to achieve President Obama's Copenhagen pledge with respect to mitigation goals." However, the State Department official also acknowledged that the RFF report assumed actions not yet taken by the EPA. The current EPA actions, on their own, would not bring the US up to the target. "The RFF estimate assumes additional regulatory action beyond what has occurred to date," the official said in an email.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | World's second largest aircraft engine manufacturer said the Serious Fraud Office had approached the business over allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China Rolls-Royce faces the threat of a multimillion pound fine on both sides of the Atlantic after the industrial group revealed that concerns about bribery and corruption have been flagged to Britain's Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice. The world's second largest aircraft engine manufacturer said the SFO had approached the business over allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China. A subsequent Rolls-Royce investigation, carried out by a law firm, found "matters of concern" in those countries and other unspecified markets. The company said the findings had been passed to the SFO and involved "intermediaries" in those markets. "The consequence of these disclosures will be decided by the regulatory authorities. It is too early to predict the outcomes, but these could include the prosecution of individuals and of the company. We will co-operate fully," said Rolls-Royce. The SFO declined to comment, but it is understood that the organisation has yet to launch a formal investigation. Sources familiar with the allegations said the main concerns arose in the "past and distant past", with the most dated issues relating to events in the 1980s and 1990s. However, some allegations relate to incidents that occurred after 2000. It is understood that the Rolls-Royce investigation has also scrutinised an allegation that a well-connected individual in Indonesia was paid $20m to supply Rolls-Royce aircraft engines to a carrier. Another allegation suggests a second individual was paid $1m a year. Rolls-Royce said it had "significantly strengthened" its compliance procedures in recent years, including the establishment of a new ethics code, but took a further step on Thursday with the announcement that it will appoint an "independent senior figure" to review its compliance regime and report to the board's ethics committee. Rolls-Royce's chief executive, John Rishton, said in a strident statement that the company would not tolerate "improper business conduct of any sort." He added: "This is a company with exceptional prospects and I will not accept any behaviour that undermines its future success". Shares in Rolls-Royce fell 3% to 885p, valuing the company at £17.1bn. Tony Woodcock, head of regulatory litigation at Stephenson Harwood, a law firm, said co-operating with the SFO investigation will not spare Rolls-Royce from prosecution. The SFO's new boss, David Green, has indicated that the organisation will tackle a perception that it is more amenable to settlements than prosecutions. "The current policy of the SFO is that a company cannot avoid prosecution simply by raising a flag and conducting an internal investigation. There has been a significant change of emphasis from the previous Director's stance on this. Nonetheless, it will mitigate a company's position on sentencing," said Woodcock. The DoJ has been informed of the investigations but declined to comment further. The investigation of bribery charges has become a major priority for US authorities, particularly of US companies charged with bribing overseas officials. Companies including Avon and News Corp are currently under scrutiny. But the US authorities have also rigorously pursued foreign firms alleged to have bribed officials. In 2010 UK defence giant BAE Systems paid $400m (£249m) to settle corporate bribery charges after pleading guilty to making false statements to the US authorities. At the same time BAE Systems paid a £30m fine in a settlement with the SFO after admitting to a book-keeping misdemeanour over the sale of an air traffic control system to Tanzania.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Public Interest Declassification Board urges Obama to shake up 'outmoded and unsustainable' security classification system The US government's handling of state secrets is out of date, over-cautious and incapable of keeping up with the vast quantities of electronic data produced in the digital age, a federal committee says in a report to President Barack Obama that is published on Thursday. The report from the Public Interest Declassification Board, an advisory committee set up by Congress, paints a devastating picture of a secrecy system that is "outmoded and unsustainable". The credibility of the system is under threat, it says, from widespread over-classification that in turn is fostering the growth of leaking of government information. "The current classification system is fraught with problems. It keeps too many secrets, and keeps them too long; it is overly complex... and a culture persists that defaults to the avoidance of risk rather than its proper management," the report says. At worst, the report warns, the expansion of secrecy in the modern world of digital communications could undermine democratic accountability: "At its most benign, secrecy impedes informed government decisions and an informed public; at worst, it enables corruption and malfeasance." The board's conclusions point to a mounting crisis that faces the US government over secrecy. On the one hand, it is producing petabytes – that is, quadrillions of bytes – of classified information every year. On the other hand, the increasing number of leaks of classified information, which the board suggests is directly linked to the mushrooming of secrecy, is being stamped on more ruthlessly by the Obama administration than ever before. The 1917 Espionage Act has been wielded six times since Obama entered the White House, twice the number of prosecutions started by all previous administrations combined. One of the six individuals to have fallen foul of the Espionage Act is Bradley Manning, who faces possible life in military custody for having supplied hundreds of thousands of state documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. Manning downloaded classified material for which 4.2 million Americans have security clearance – almost as many people as the population of metropolitan Washington. Experts say that with such a huge number of individuals able to access gigantic quantities of secret documents, many of which should not have been classified in the first place, it is no wonder that leaking is becoming a growing problem. "The system is losing integrity, and that in turn makes people more likely to leak," said Amy Bennett, assistant director of openthegovernment.org . Bennett pointed out that the WikiLeaks trove of US diplomatic cables leaked by Manning included such portentous confidential documents as a description of a lavish wedding in Dagestan, in the North Caucusus. "That was just funny, it didn't deserve the level of security the government had given it," she said. The board's report is being seen by campaigners for freedom of information as an important first step in fixing a broken classification system that was set up on paper 70 years ago. In its set of recommendations, the board suggests that the three current levels of classification – top secret, secret and confidential – should be simplified into two, that official documents relating to time-specific events should be released to the public as soon as the event is over, and that the system should be modernised to exploit new digital technologies. Crucially, it says that the White House has to take the lead in forcing the changes through. "There is little recognition among Government practitioners that there is a fundamental problem," the report says. "Clearly, it will require a Presidential mandate to energise and direct agencies to work together to reform the classification system."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Startups are springing up all over Berlin, as the once 'poor but sexy' German capital expands into a creative technology hub Berlin is poor, but sexy – Mayor Klaus Wowereit's decade-old slogan still describes Germany's capital very well. Unemployment is high compared with other German cities and businessmen in proper suits and ties are a rare sight. But something in Berlin's attitude towards business is changing. Startups are sprouting all over the capital. Some people are already speaking of Berlin as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Most of the firms are just in their infancy. Others, such as the music platform SoundCloud or the social game developer Wooga are well-known even in California or London. "Berlin is punk meeting tech," says Swedish-born Eric Wahlforss, one of the founders of SoundCloud. According to Wahlforss, Berlin is creative, cheap and full of talented people. And the talents are starting to cluster. SoundCloud is already in the buzzing and expanding tech hub called Factory, based in the fashionable district of Prenzlauer Berg. Others include 6Wunderkinder, wish-list website Toast and Firefox developer Mozilla, and there is space for more. Google wants a hand in the growing startup market and plans to subsidise entrepreneurs with about €1m (£808,000) in the next three years and is offering seminars and mentors. "It is all about creating a network," says Factory co-founder Simon Schaefer. He wants to offer a campus, to be ready next summer, based on the one that Google and Facebook have in the real Silicon Valley. Another model is Silicon Roundabout, on the outskirts of the City in London, which home to last.fm, TweetDeck and Livemusic. With an eye to the bohemian lifestyle of urban web workers, Factory plans to offer open space offices, restaurants, a gym, a barbecue pit, basketball court and roof garden with auditorium. Berlin has a particularly good reputation for app developers. Besides 6Wunderkinder, which has developed a task management platform called Wunderlist, there is Readmill, a social app for booklovers, and Amen, an app to share opinions about people, places, things and ideas. The actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher invested in it and has helped burnish Berlin's name as the place to be for startups. "When you are here you know what the trends are," says Mozilla's press spokeswoman, Barbara Hüppe. In just a few years, the German capital has become a magnet for "creatives", founders of internet startups, and people working in the media. According to the state-owned KfW bank, Berlin's proportion of so-called "founders", measured by the working population, is higher than anywhere else in the country; 2.5% compared with 1.67% elsewhere in Germany. "We checked out Vienna, London and Barcelona, but in the end decided to build up our business in Berlin," says Wahlforss, of the early days of SoundCloud, an online music site set up in 2007, which now has more than 10 million registered users. Although his company was backed by the British private equity company Doughty Hanson, others were not so fortunate. "But the situation has improved for everyone," he thinks. Serious follow-up investments are still missing. "Compared to the US we have fewer investors, especially those guaranteeing a longer-term financing with more money," says Schaefer. Even with a first investment it is difficult for a startup to grow in a saturated market. Olaf Jacobi, a partner at Target Partners, leading venture capital investors in Germany, says more than nine of every 10 new businesses do not make it. The ideas need to lead to consistent success, but is often difficult to assess if the business model works. After a while some just disappear, without ever breaking even. Then most of the entrepreneurs just start a new firm. One major advantage of Berlin is the low cost of living. "Berlin is like a magnet for talented people. If you can not find people from Berlin, you often find people who are willing to move to Berlin. The good thing is, that we do not have to compete with banks or other big companies like Twitter, Facebook and credit card payment firm Square," said Edial Dekker, founder of event-organiser and city-explorer website Gidsy. According to a study by the thinktank Initiative for a New Social Market Economy (INSM) the percentage of highly qualified academics in Berlin has risen faster than anywhere else in Germany in the last three years. That also makes it easier to find suitable staff. Jens Begemann, founder and chief executive of Wooga – inventor of Monster World and Diamond Dash – and a rival to the US game company Zynga, said: "Compared to other European capitals the costs for food and accommodation are really low. That attracts young and creative people from all over the world who like to work in tech or creativity-related businesses." He knows what he is talking about. He employs 250 people of 35 different nationalities, all based in a colourful, loft-style office in trendy Prenzlauer Berg. SoundCloud recently poached some Google employees from San Francisco, a hint of the interest a Berlin startup can generate further afield. However, although many businesses may move seamlessly between London and Berlin, it is much harder for internet entrepreneurs to make the leap across the Atlantic and compete globally with the established tech companies of Silicon Valley. "California is the measure of all things in the internet scene," admits Klaus-Heiner Röhl of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. According to Jacobi, Silicon Valley is more than 30 years ahead of the German market. "At a particular time most of the startups have to go abroad to become a huge player," says Hüppe. California also offers the best-qualified staff and lawyers. According to a McKinsey study about the internet economy, the United States dominates the global internet supply ecosystem. It captures more than 30% of global internet revenues and more than 40% of net income. But the study found Germany had a lot of potential. In 2011 internet transactions directly contributed 3.2% to Germany's GDP, against 5.4% in the United Kingdom and 3.8% in the United States. That is what drives German startups and makes investors confident. The internet economy has room to move upwards and play a larger role. The Brooklyn-based handmade and vintage marketplace website Etsy recently expanded into the German market with a new office in Berlin. Etsy's manager for Germany, Caroline Drucker, says that besides cheap rents and creative people there is also "a sense of excitement about the future". "The end result of all this is that entrepreneurs do not need so much initial capital as in other cities. That is why they try more and have less fear to fail," said Drucker. Geekettes
Women are still under-represented in the tech world. But the Berlin Geekettes want to change that. Set up a year ago by Jess Erickson, an American, the Geekettes describes themselves as an organisation for building relationships between women in the technology sector. They concentrate on networking events and mentoring partnerships, where more experienced women act as mentors to budding young female technology engineers and entrepreneurs. They already have more than 300 members. The Geekettes have all had to make their way in a male-dominated world. One is Amélie Anglade, a developer at the online audio distribution platform SoundCloud, who tries to get more tech-savvy women into programming. Erickson works for General Assembly, a global network of campuses for people seeking opportunity and education in technology, business and design. "Working in Berlin's startup world fills my days with adrenaline-packed experiences. The opportunities for me to learn are endless. This space allows me to collaborate with people from many different backgrounds in an international setting. I can honestly say that this is an empowering moment in my life," Erickson said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Lavrov, Clinton and Brahimi to meet in Dublin
• Six dead in clashes between pro and anti-Morsi protesters
• Morsi due to give TV address as crisis worsens
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Guatemalan authorities awaiting instructions from Belize police, who want McAfee as 'person of interest' in neighbour's murder The fate of John McAfee remained unclear on Thursday as authorities in Guatemala, who ended the software pioneer's increasingly peculiar status as a blogging fugitive when they arrested him at the hotel where he was hiding, awaited instructions on what to do with him. Police in Belize, where McAfee has lived for the past four years, are seeking him as a "person of interest" in the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. Citing his distrust in the Belizean government, McAfee went on the run. Since his arrest, McAfee appears to have been blogging from jail, where he says he is being "treated like a king" and has been given access to a computer. But it remains to be seen how long he will enjoy the pleasures of detention in Guatemala. "We are awaiting instructions from the foreign ministry. It will be the foreign relations department that decides the process," said interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, following McAfee's arrest on Wednesday at a hotel in an upscale part of Guatemala City. McAfee has declared his intention to seek asylum in Guatemala but after his arrest, a government spokesman said he expected that McAfee would be expelled from the country. However, there is no international arrest warrant for McAfee, and his lawyer Telésforo Guerra, a former Guatemala attorney general and the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Venegas, is seeking an injunction for his release. Speaking to press on Wednesday, McAfee said he had been harassed by the Belize government and that he has documentation proving that there is "intense corruption at all levels of the police and government". "I have for five years lived in Belize peacefully," McAfee said. "Seven months ago the Belizean government sent 42 armed soldiers into my property. They killed one of my dogs, they broke into all of my houses, they stole, they arrested me and kept me handcuffed in the sun for 14 hours. I was taken to jail and it was only the intervention of the US embassy that got me out of jail." McAfee retired to Belize in 2008. He made millions as founder of his eponymous anti-virus software company, which he sold in 1994. Cartoonist Chad Essley, who has been helping McAfee run the blog cataloging his life on the road, posted on whoismcafee.com that McAfee had been arrested in Guatemala on Wednesday. Three posts have appeared on the blog since then, reportedly written by McAfee from jail, where he says he is being treated "like a king". "I am in jail in Guatemala," McAfee wrote. "Vastly superior to Belize jails. I asked for a computer and one magically appeared. The coffee is also excellent." McAfee is also engaging with blog readers. One commenter named Jenny offered McAfee some advice on relationships with a large age gap, to which McAfee replied: "I'm too old for pre-nups. Thank you for your support, my friend." According to his most recent dispatch, entitled "Can't Sleep," McAfee's girlfriend is currently under the charge of his attorney and Israeli bodyguards. In the blogpost, he also wrote about a prison warden who is providing him access to a computer. "He makes me coffee and tells tender stories about his life," McAfee said. "He is a good companion. I believe I could spend weeks in the desert with him as a sole companion without once becoming irritated." McAfee said he has reached out to the US and UK embassy in attempt to stay out of Belize. He has indicated that he is bored while in jail but continues to speak warmly about his treatment there. "So far, my experience on the inside of this establishment has worn away a bit of my natural cynicism and added a measure of hope for humanity," McAfee said. McAfee added, however, that the language barrier had presented difficulties during his detainment: "Only Ennati speaks any English, and then not enough to catch much humor, so my joking has fallen largely on bewildered but kindly faces." McAfee has been on the run for three weeks. His location was revealed on Monday when Vice magazine accidentally shared GPS data in a photo accompanying an article titled: "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers." He initially claimed to have embedded the false data himself in the photo before admitting on Tuesday that he was in Guatemala. The magazine has been putting together a documentary and magazine piece about its time on the run with McAfee and has released a video of his arrest in Guatemala. In the video, McAfee, clad in a purple polo shirt, speaks to Guatemalan authorities. He is then driven away from the scene, smoking a cigarette.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Twenty-five years after its release, the duet about a couple who have fallen on hard times is still considered by many to be the greatest Christmas song ever Once upon a time a band set out to make a Christmas song. Not about snow or sleigh rides or mistletoe or miracles, but lost youth and ruined dreams. A song in which Christmas is as much the problem as it is the solution. A kind of anti-Christmas song that ended up being, for a generation, the Christmas song. That song, Fairytale of New York by the Pogues, has just been reissued to mark its 25th anniversary; it has already re-entered the Top 20 every December since 2005, and shows no sign of losing its appeal. It is loved because it feels more emotionally "real" than the homesick sentimentality of White Christmas or the bullish bonhomie of Merry Xmas Everybody, but it contains elements of both and the story it tells is an unreal fantasy of 1940s New York dreamed up in 1980s London. The story of the song is a yarn in itself: how it took more than two years to get right and became, over time, far bigger than the people who made it. As Pogues accordion-player James Fearnley says: "It's like Fairytale of New York went off and inhabited its own planet." Appropriately for a song that pivots on an argument, there is disagreement as to where the idea originated. Fearnley, who recently published a memoir, Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues, remembers manager Frank Murray suggesting that they cover the Band's 1977 song Christmas Must be Tonight. "It was an awful song. We probably said, fuck that, we can do our own." Singer Shane MacGowan maintains that Elvis Costello, who produced the Pogues' 1985 masterpiece Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, wagered the singer that he couldn't write a Christmas duet to sing with bass player (and Costello's future wife) Cait O'Riordan. Either way, a Christmas song was a good idea. "For a band like the Pogues, very strongly rooted in all kinds of traditions rather than the present, it was a no-brainer," says banjo-player and co-writer Jem Finer. Not to mention the fact that MacGowan was born on Christmas Day 1957. The Pogues had formed amid the grimy pubs and bedsits of London's King's Cross in 1982. Although their name ("Pogue mahone" means "kiss my arse" in Gaelic) and many of their influences were Irish, most of the band weren't, and their interest in folk songs and historical narratives roamed far and wide. They aspired to timelessness. Finer first tried writing a song about a sailor missing his wife at Christmas but that was dashed on the rocks by his own wife, Marcia Farquhar, who called it "corny", says Finer. "So I said OK, you suggest a storyline and I'll write another one. The basic plotline came from her: this idea of a couple falling on hard times and coming eventually to some redemption." He says there's a "secret history" to the story: "a true story of some mutual friends living in New York." MacGowan, whose contribution to this piece comes in the form of a dialogue written by long-term partner and biographer Victoria Mary Clarke, declines to elaborate: "Really, the story could apply to any couple who went anywhere and found themselves down on their luck." While Finer retained the uptempo reel from his abandoned maritime tale, MacGowan worked on the slower verses and chorus. The singer had never seen New York but it was on his mind. As the Pogues toured Europe in autumn 1985, they almost wore out a video of Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Leone's epic tale of Jewish mobsters in interwar New York. (Ennio Morricone's elegiac title theme seeped into Fairytale's opening melody: don't all good fairytales start with "Once upon a time"?) In Here Comes Everybody, Fearnley writes: "A stable perception was never reachable as to whether Shane was a genius or a fucking idiot." There is the public image of MacGowan as a wayward alcoholic with a bombsite of a mouth and a wheezing ghost of a laugh. Then there is the clever, diligent craftsman who sweated for two years to make Fairytale of New York perfect. The first demo was recorded by Costello at the same time as The cinematic romance of A Rainy Night in Soho, MacGowan's first song to draw on his love of Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. When he brought that song into the studio in early 1986, Fearnley remembers: "He meant business, much more than before. It was awe-inspiring to see him in the rehearsal room with his suit on and an attitude." But Fairytale of New York, from the same session, doesn't sound like an embryonic classic. The melody limps, the lyrics stumble and the action begins in Ireland: "It was a wild Christmas Eve on the West coast of Clare," sings Cait O'Riordan. "I looked 'cross the ocean, asked what's over there?" Clearly, it needed work. "I don't think the band was capable of playing the song as it needed to be played at that point," says Finer. "Shane and I batted arrangements around for ages and we'd periodically try and record it. Shane's a tireless and meticulous editor." "Every night I used to have another bash at nailing the lyrics, but I knew they weren't right," says MacGowan. "It is by far the most complicated song that I have ever been involved in writing and performing. The beauty of it is that it sounds really simple." Costello prosaically suggested calling it Christmas Day in the Drunk Tank. MacGowan pointed out that this did not sound like a hit. At the time Finer was reading JP Donleavy's 1973 novel A Fairy Tale of New York, the picaresque story of a bereaved Irish-American's return home from Ireland to Manhattan. MacGowan later visited the novelist to ask his blessing to borrow the title. (Years later, Donleavy told the BBC that he loved the song but "realised straight away that it didn't really have anything to do with my book".) A short time later, in February 1986, the Pogues finally made it to New York itself, to start their first ever US tour, and they weren't disappointed. "It was a hundred times more exciting in real life than we ever dreamed it could be!" says MacGowan. "It was even more like New York than the movies!" After their debut at a club called the World, their backstage visitors included Peter Dougherty, who came to direct the video for Fairytale of New York, and actor Matt Dillon, who appeared in it. MacGowan remembers Dillon, the rising star of Rumble Fish and The Outsiders, kissing his hand and saying: "I dig your shit, man, I love your shit!" It was a year later that Murray approached U2 producer Steve Lillywhite to helm the next Pogues album. The sessions at London's RAK studios in the unusually hot summer of 1987 went so well that the band decided to have another crack at Fairytale. When they said they were struggling to blend MacGowan and Finer's sections, Lillywhite's solution was absurdly simple: record them separately and edit them together later. "It was a beautiful time," says Lillywhite. "I got the Pogues when they were really firing and before too much craziness got involved. As long as I got them early in the day it was great." Fearnley was tasked with arranging the strings (a job completed by Fiachra Trench) and colouring in the scene- setting piano part, drawing on Tom Waits, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein's score for On the Waterfront. "I wanted to get American music into it," he explains. MacGowan originally wanted the orchestra to interpolate the refrain from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas but "Phil Chevron [Pogues guitarist] told me that was a bad idea. He was right." Only one hurdle remained. Cait O'Riordan had left the band in October 1986, leaving nobody to complete the duet. "I think at some point almost any female with a voice was a contender," Finer jokes, mentioning fellow RAK clients Chrissie Hynde (feasible) and Suzi Quatro (less so). "One person I certainly hadn't thought of was Kirsty [MacColl] and I don't think anyone else had." "To be honest they weren't 100% convinced that Kirsty was the right person," says Lillywhite, who was married to MacColl. She was well-liked but her solo career was becalmed due to stage fright and contractual problems. Lillywhite suggested recording MacColl's part at his home studio over the weekend and seeing what the band thought. "I spent a whole day on Kirsty's vocals. I made sure every single word had exactly the right nuance. I remember taking it in on Monday morning and playing it to the band and they were just dumbfounded." But MacGowan, who was so impressed that he re-did his own vocals, insists: "I was madly in love with Kirsty from the first time I saw her on Top Of The Pops. She was a genius in her own right and she was a better producer than he was! She could make a song her own and she made Fairytale her own." (Since MacColl's tragic death in 2000, her part has been taken by singers including Sinéad O'Connor, Cerys Matthews, Katie Melua, Victoria Clarke and Jem Finer's daughter Ella.) In the finished version the story finally acquires the ring of truth, but it's still teasingly elliptical. Does the argument take place after the man leaves the drunk tank or does the whole song unfold in his sozzled head? After all, Once Upon a Time in America is told almost entirely in flashback. And while the "cars big as bars" and the singing of Galway Bay (a 1948 hit for Bing Crosby, beloved of Irish immigrants) place the action in the 1940s, MacGowan suggests that the characters are much older, remembering their glory days. And can we trust the narrator anyway? "The guy is a bum who is living on the street," says MacGowan. "And he's just won on a horse at the unlikely odds of 18-to-one, so you're not even sure he is telling the truth." He says that both characters are versions of himself. "I identified with the man because I was a hustler and I identified with the woman because I was a heavy drinker and a singer. I have been in hospitals on morphine drips, and I have been in drunk tanks on Christmas Eve." The song's brilliance is sealed by its final verse when MacGowan protests, "I could have been someone", and MacColl shoots back: "Well, so could anyone." Then MacColl accuses, "You took my dreams from me," and MacGowan responds, with all the warmth he's been withholding: "I kept them with me babe/I put them with my own." So in its final iteration the chorus is no longer a tauntingly ironic reminder of better times but the tentative promise of reconciliation. "You really don't know what is going to happen to them," says MacGowan. "The ending is completely open." The Pogues shot the video in New York during Thanksgiving week. The air was bitterly cold and fairy lights twinkled in the trees. Matt Dillon played the NYPD officer who arrests MacGowan but he was too nervous to manhandle him until the shivering singer snapped: "Just kick the shit out of me and throw me in the cell and then we can be warm!" Contrary to the lyrics, the NYPD didn't have a choir, so Dougherty hired the force's pipe band instead. When it turned out that they didn't know Galway Bay, they mouthed the only lyrics they all knew: the Mickey Mouse Club chant. In the black-and-white performance footage, closely modelled on a BBC2 documentary about Billie Holiday, it was decided that MacGowan should sit at the piano while Fearnley wore the singer's rings to imitate him for the closeups. "I'm the fucking piano player and I wanted people to know that," says Fearnley. "It was absolutely humiliating. But it looks better. You have to find your proper place for the benefit of the project." Fairytale of New York had a galvanising effect on everyone involved. When MacColl joined the Pogues on tour, she gained the confidence to relaunch her solo career, and the Pogues only narrowly lost the Christmas No 1 to the Pet Shop Boys' Always on My Mind. "Going to No 1 in Ireland was what mattered to me," MacGowan says now. "I wouldn't have expected the English to have great taste!" For Lillywhite: "I love the fact that it's never been No 1. It's for the underdog." This Christmas, as the song enters the charts for the 10th time, the Pogues will play a show to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Although they fired MacGowan in 1991 ("What took you so long?" he replied), they reunited a decade later. So Fairytale of New York has ended up being a parable of the band's life together: the youthful optimism, the bitter recriminations, the uncertain detente. "We told a similar story ourselves," agrees Fearnley. "We've all had hopes and we've had our conflicts, but there's some other damn thing that's binding us all together and hopefully always will." The ending is completely open. Fairytale of New York is out now on seven-inch vinyl on Rhino and digitally on iTunes. The Pogues play the O2 in London on 20 December. With thanks to Victoria Mary Clarke.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | David Mamet hasn't got much to shout about on Broadway at the moment, unlike the much-praised star of one of his two flops The world is divided into two types of people: diehard Al Pacino fans, and the rest of us. Both were in attendance at a half-empty matinee performance this week of the Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet's Pulitzer prize-winning 1982 depiction of a crooked Chicago real-estate office. The faithful dutifully applauded as the curtain rose on the faded figure of the 70s superstar. As he began to speak, they leaned forward enthusiastically. The rest of us leaned forward too. But that was only to try to grasp what Pacino was saying. At best he mumbled and muttered his opening lines, at worst the lines didn't even leave his mouth but seemed to give up the fight somewhere between his Adam's apple and his lips, before drifting off inaudibly into the scenery. The play doesn't officially open for another two nights – halfway through its 10-week run. This delayed opening (it has so far been playing to audiences in preview) gave rise to an irritated piece by the New York Times critic Charles Isherwood a couple of days ago. "Critics have not been invited to attend until later this week, more than six weeks after the show began previews," Isherwood wrote. "By that late date, you may reasonably ask, who will care what the critics have to say?" Well quite, but there was nothing stopping Isherwood or one of the other Times reviewers from buying a ticket and going earlier. Jon Landman, the culture editor of the Times, confirms that the paper does not have an official policy of waiting until opening night. "There's no policy, really," he said in an email. "Just common practice, which is to honor the preview period for the familiar reasons. Occasionally, in egregious cases in which the preview is clearly being extended for reasons we consider cynical or otherwise illegitimate, we make an exception." Isherwood called the delay an "egregious attempt to avoid critical scrutiny for mercenary reasons". Perhaps it wasn't egregious enough to merit a break in convention by Times critics. No matter. On Wednesday, I went their place. Ticket sales are, supposedly, brisk. "We have a full house," an usher told me a minute before curtain-up, when I asked to change my seat. "A lot of people are in the bar and the tour buses are always late." Well, a lot of people must have stayed in the bar and maybe the tour buses got lost because the empty seats never filled. This is not good news for Mamet, who has already had to deal with one disaster this week – the early closing of his latest play, The Anarchist, starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. Trashed by critics, it will close after 17 performances. As for Glengarry Glen Ross, I completely understand the reason for the delayed opening. That is not to say it is a completely wretched production. There are some fine performances on the drab set of the Schoenfeld Theatre, most notably from the TV stars in the cast. Bobby Cannavale (Will and Grace, Boardwalk Empire, Nurse Jackie) is outstanding as Ricky Roma, the part Pacino played in the 1992 movie version of the play. John C McGinley (Scrubs) steals the show in the first act, as Dave Moss. And Richard Schiff (Toby in the West Wing) does a solid version of Toby in the West Wing. But Pacino' s performance in the first half, as the washed-up salesman Shelley Levene, was just dreadful. "Why does he always play Jews?" the woman next to me complained as the curtain went up for the intermission, after a brisk 45 minutes. "He's an Italian." She had a point. Pacino's last big Broadway role was as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, also directed by Daniel Sullivan. At least then he tried to look the part, wearing a yarmulke and peyos. In Glengarry Glen Ross, with his graying hair trimmed in the typical Hollywood dude layered look, he didn't look or sound remotely Jewish. In fact some of his scenes with Cannavale seemed straight out of The Sopranos. When he's not mumbling, Pacino is a shouter. At least then you can hear him. But when he starts, the shouting is endless. I felt like shouting back: "Enough! Stop!" But apparently shouting is stagecraft for passion, so there was no stopping Pacino as the part called for his character to return to the office bubbling over with the news that he had closed a deal. The diehards didn't mind. As the curtain fell they leaped to give Pacino a standing ovation. The rest of us leaped to our feet too – and rushed for the exit.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cook says Apple will build some lines in US and not China and admits it 'screwed up' when it dumped Google's maps for its own Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has promised to shift production of one of its Mac lines to the United States from China by next year and admitted that the company "screwed up" when it dumped Google's maps for its own in September. In his first media interviews since taking up the CEO post on the death of founder Steve Jobs, Cook said Apple was already sourcing more of its parts in the US, and would spend $100m next year to move production of the unspecified computer line from China. He also said the company was working extremely hard to improve the functionality of its maps feature. The interviews, with Bloomberg Businessweek and NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams, come as Apple has seen sharp falls in its stock as investors fret about intensifying competition from rivals such as Samsung in the smartphone and tablet markets. There are also concerns about the effects of the fiscal cliff crisis on capital gains tax, which could make shareholders liable for high payments on shares. Cook's comments are published on the day that a judge in California began hearing post-trial arguments from Samsung and Apple over the case in which a jury awarded Apple $1bn for patent and design infringements by its South Korean rival. In his NBC interview, Cook noted that the main cost of making a PC or smartphone comes in buying chips, many of which are made in the US. But the issue of where Apple assembles its products has been touchy for Apple: its Chinese manufacturing partner Foxconn has faced significant criticism over working conditions at its factories, and some politicians in the United States have criticised Apple for not doing more to support the US economy. Cook told Bloomberg that Apple's plans for Mac production in the US would include more than just final assembly of the chosen product line. "This doesn't mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we'll be working with people and we'll be investing our money," Cook told Bloomberg Businessweek. He did not say where in the country the Macs would be made. The new US-made line is likely to represent only a tiny piece of Apple's overall production – iPhones and iPads form the largest part of Apple's business and will continue to be made overseas. On the maps issue, Cook defended the decision to drop Google maps in principle, suggesting Google blocked the provision of turn-by-turn navigation and voice direction. "We had a list of things that we thought would be a great customer experience [on maps], and we couldn't do it any other way than to do it ourselves," Cook told Bloomberg. But he added: "We couldn't do it any other way than to do it ourselves" – suggesting that Google blocked those services to the iPhone. The work began some years before, not in order to cut Google out, but to provide customers with the services, Cook said. "And the truth is that it didn't live up to our expectations. We screwed up." But he added: "We're putting all our energy into putting it right … we've got a huge plan to make it even better." Apple was heavily criticised over some problems in the maps it provided, such as the misidentification of locations, and missing details about public transport compared to Google's. Cook wrote a public letter of apology and in October fired the head of iPhone software, Scott Forstall. It also ousted John Browett, the Briton who formerly ran Dixons and had been Apple's head of retail. Forstall's failure, Cook implied in the Bloomberg interview, was that he couldn't bring enough collaboration to the company. The firings were intended to "get us to a whole new level of collaboration", Cook said. That hints that Forstall, who had particularly been identified as insufficiently collegiate, had become too divisive within the company for Cook's liking. "I despise politics," Cook said. "There is no room for it in a company. My life is going to be way too short to deal with that. No bureaucracy … no politics, no agendas. When you do that, things become pretty simple." The converse "sucks the life out of you". Instead, the task of running the stores presently falls to Cook himself, while the software line is the responsibility of Sir Jonathan Ive, who Cook said "has the best taste of anyone in the world and the best design skills". He hinted that Apple has "some really cool ideas" in the field of wireless – perhaps something involving phones. Steve Jobs explicitly told him not to try to second-guess his decisions after his death. Cook said he was told by Jobs: "I saw what happened when Walt Disney passed away. People kept looking around, and they asked what Walt would have done… I never want you to ask what I would have done. Just do what's right." Cook declined to discuss what products might be forthcoming from Apple's stable. But he did say that a growing amount of the parts used in Apple products are made in the US, including the processor for the iPhone and iPad – by Samsung in Texas. He said that he wants to keep Apple in its unusual format to maximise innovation: "Creativity and innovation are something you can't flowchart out. A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a BP of innovation or something. Everybody in our company is responsible to be innovative." He pointed out that 80% of Apple's revenues are from products – the iPhone 5, iPad mini, and revised iPad – that "didn't exist [in shops] 60 days ago. Is there any other company that would do that?" But Apple still sticks to a number of traditions – such as the "Monday morning meeting" which began under Jobs, which begins at 9am and discusses "everything in the company that's important, every new product". Asked how he feels about suing a company that is also Apple's biggest supplier, he replied: "I hate litigation. I absolutely hate it. For us, this is about values. We tried every other avenue [to settle] and so we'll see what happens in the future." Cook said that being the full-time chief executive, rather than the part-time basis on which he did it when Steve Jobs was ill in 2004, 2010 and then 2011, is "different" and has been "a bit of a surprise" – but equally, he said he loves it. He said that he is a private person, and that "I don't feel famous". Cook also revealed that he gets hundreds of informal emails every day from customers with praise and criticism. Apple, he believes, has always engendered strong emotion in its customers – whether positive or negative. "Customers got angry with Apple and would yell and scream – but they would keep buying," he said. By contrast, they would simply switch suppliers between PC manufacturers such as Dell and Compaq.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aid group Swedish Committee for Afghanistan says Nato and Afghan troops damaged its building and used it as jail Nato forces stormed into a clinic in central Afghanistan, damaging doors, windows and medical equipment, before using it as a jail and military command centre, in violation of the Geneva conventions, according to the aid group that runs the facility. Nato and Afghan troops were dropped off by helicopters late one October evening and headed straight to the clinic, according to the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, which has published details of the assault on their small centre in Wardak province, a few dozen miles south-west of Kabul. The soldiers knocked down a wall to enter the building, damaged doors, windows, examination beds and other equipment, and detained clinical staff and civilians inside. And for the next two and a half days they brought dozens, maybe hundreds of prisoners through the clinic, using it as a jail, logistics hub and for mortar fire, contravening the Geneva conventions, which protect medical centres. "The protection of medical persons and facilities, and respect for their neutrality was one of the founding principles of international humanitarian law," said Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer and senior programme officer at the US Institute of Peace. "This latest incident is a serious violation … if true, it's incredible to me that they not only raided this clinic but that [Nato] command allowed them to continue occupying it for days afterwards." The takeover of the clinic was the worst assault on the Swedish Committee's medical services since a bitter civil war over a decade ago, said the group's country director, Andreas Stefansson. "I can't recall when we have had a clearcut occupation of a clinic for several days. We'd have to go back to the 1990s where you'd have warring groups that would kick out the medical staff and take over the whole building," he told the Guardian in Kabul. Afghanistan is in desperate need of help to improve healthcare for its 30 million people. It is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic, one in five children die before their fifth birthday, and in southern provinces acute malnutrition among infants is near the levels expected in a famine zone. But Stefansson said aid groups working on health issues felt their work was being seriously undermined because of regular abuse of their buildings and staff by government forces and troops from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). The Swedish Committee has decades of experience in Afghanistan. "Most NGOs who deliver healthcare in this country experience this almost on a monthly basis; that there are breaches in different provinces, where the Afghan National Army, or ISAF, or special forces basically don't show the level of respect they should for health facilities," he said, after meeting other healthcare organisations to discuss the problem. "We are getting quite fed up with it." Among the most common problems are soldiers forcing their way into a hospital while searching for insurgents, demanding medical records, and pressuring doctors and nurses for treating suspected Taliban, sources from the health sector said. The military and police have sometimes set up headquarters in compounds that house hospitals and clinics, or just outside, and medical facilities get caught in crossfire, or are used as cover during attacks. Insurgents have targeted healthcare facilities with deadly assaults, including a truck bomb at a hospital in Logar province that killed dozens last summer. The Swedish Committee said that this autumn in Wardak province a suicide bomber damaged a midwifery school and dormitory they ran, and a bomb destroyed part of another clinic. Ultimately it is Afghans in need of medical help who suffer from the intrusions as fearful civilians stay away, and it gets harder to recruit qualified staff in troubled areas. When government or Nato forces use compounds, insurgent groups are more likely to harass doctors, nurses and the centres from which they operate. "It puts us in jeopardy because [local people] of course question the neutrality of the healthcare delivered, and it also puts us in problems with opposition groups who believe we have alternative agendas," Stefansson said. The Swedish Committee said it had met Isaf commanders, who acknowledged the takeover breached international laws, said the use of the clinic was a mistake, and promised "actions will be taken" to avoid similar incidents. "Isaf confirmed at the meeting that their policies are clear regarding respecting the Geneva conventions, claiming that the occupation of the clinic was unintentional," the group said in a statement. Isaf did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tea Party hero Jim DeMint announces he is quitting the US Senate as polls show backing for the Democratic position of tax increases on the wealthy
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hi-tech job growth is three times faster than other areas of the private sector all across US, California economist calculates Jobs growth in the technology sector is beating the rest of the economy by three to one, according to a study of the industry released on Thursday. Since 2004, the bottom of the dot-com bust, employment growth in the hi-tech sector had grown at a pace three times faster than the private sector as a whole and has proved more resilient through the recession-and-recovery period, according to the report commissioned by Engine Advocacy, a tech start-up lobbyist and conducted by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The report found growth not just in the more famous hi-tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Seattle but in nearly all communities across the US. It found 98% of US counties had at least one hi-tech business establishment in 2011. Delaware topped the list of states for growth in hi-tech employment in 2011 at 12.8%. Greensboro-High Point in North Carolina was the county with the fastest growth, a startling 36.3%. The report calculates that each hi-tech job creates 4.3 jobs in the wider community, thanks in part to wages that are 17%-27% higher than peers in other fields. By comparison, the average manufacturing job creates 1.4 jobs in the wider community. Demand for hi-tech jobs is expected to outstrip demand for jobs across the US economy through at least 2020. Hi-tech industries are projected to grow by 16.2% over the nine-year period, compared to 13.1% for the rest of US industry. Mike McGeary, co-founder, said: "The tech sector isn't just about Silicon Valley or New York any more. It's about Boise, Idaho, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, South Carolina. It's a national phenomenon." Enrico Moretti, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley and author of The New Geography of Jobs, said of the report: "This study addresses an important question: how important is hi-tech employment growth for the US labor market? As it turns out, the dynamism of the US hi-tech companies matters not just to scientists, software engineers and stockholders, but to the community at large. While the average worker may never be employed by Google or a hi-tech startup, our jobs are increasingly supported by the wealth created by innovators."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tea Party favourite joins Heritage Foundation in further sign that extreme wing of GOP is weakened after heavy election defeat South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has announced that he is resigning from Congress, in the latest signal that the Tea Party influence over the Republican party is beginning to wane. DeMint, an outspoken fiscal and social conservative, said he would step down to become the head of right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation. His exit is likely to be felt in the fiscal cliff negotiations and in the continued repositioning of the GOP. "I've decided to join the Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas," he said in a statement. "My constituents know that being a senator was never going to be my career." He will receive a $1m salary. DeMint, 61, made a name for himself as an unyielding voice in opposition to taxes and spending within the Republican party, frequently excoriating his own side for any signs of compromise. Just this week he made a savage attack on the Republican House offer to avert the fiscal cliff. Born and raised in South Carolina, DeMint was re-elected to a second term as the state's junior senator in the 2010 midterms, an election period which is looking increasingly like a high-water mark for the Tea Party. A raft of staunch conservatives won election that year – many of them backed by DeMint himself. But in November the extreme conservative wing of the Republican Party was weakened as a succession of right-wing candidates lost winnable seats. "This is an urgent time," DeMint said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news on Thursday. "Because we saw in the last election we were not able to communicate conservative ideas that win elections." Thomas A Saunders, chairman of the board of the Heritage Foundation, saiid DeMint had shown "that principled conservatism remains a winning political philosophy". Saunders added: "His passion for rigorous research, his dedication to the principles of our nation's founding, and his ability to translate policy ideas into action make him an ideal choice to lead Heritage to even greater success." During the 2012 election DeMint was one of the few Republicans to endorse Missouri senate candidate Todd Akin's after his comments on "legitimate rape" were widely condemned. Akin ultimately lost. DeMint had previously been criticised for saying gay people and unmarried mothers should be banned from teaching positions. DeMint has become a kingmaker within Republican conservative circles in recent years but his decision to leave Congress is a further sign that the extreme conservative wing of the Republican party is weakened in the wake of the 2012 elections. Earlier this week, House Republican leaders conducted a mini-purge of hardline conservatives, with speaker John Boehner warning that colleagues who challenged the party from the right could expect similar treatment. Without DeMint to rally the flagging forces of reaction within Congress, the chances of Republicans and the White House coming to a sensible and timely agreement on tax and spending to avert the fiscal cliff is likely to be strengthened. It may also be a sign that the Republican party nationally has accepted the need to moderate its image and its policies if it wants to regain the White House after two successive heavy defeats.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Startups are springing up all over Berlin, as the once 'poor but sexy' German capital expands into a creative technology hub Berlin is poor, but sexy – Mayor Klaus Wowereit's decade-old slogan still describes Germany's capital very well. Unemployment is high compared with other German cities is high and businessmen in proper suits and ties are a rare sight. But something in the city's attitude towards business is changing. Startups are sprouting all over the capital. Some people are already speaking of Berlin as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Most of the firms are just in their infancy. Others, such as the music platform SoundCloud or the social game developer Wooga are well-known even in California or London. "Berlin is punk meeting tech," says Swedish-born Eric Wahlforss, one of the founders of SoundCloud. According to Wahlforss, Berlin is creative, cheap and full of talented people. And the talents are starting to cluster. SoundCloud is already in the buzzing and expanding tech hub called Factory, based in the fashionable district of Prenzlauer Berg. Others include 6Wunderkinder, wish-list website Toast and Firefox developer Mozilla, and there is space for more. Google wants a hand in the growing startup market and plans to subsidise entrepreneurs with about €1m (£808,000) in the next three years and is offering seminars and mentors. "It is all about creating a network," says Factory co-founder Simon Schaefer. He wants to offer a campus, to be ready next summer, based on the one that Google and Facebook have in the real Silicon Valley. Another model is Silicon Roundabout, on the outskirts of the City in London, which home to last.fm, TweetDeck and Livemusic. With an eye to the bohemian lifestyle of urban web workers, Factory plans to offer open space offices, restaurants, a gym, a barbecue pit, basketball court and roof garden with auditorium. Berlin has a particularly good reputation for app developers. Besides 6Wunderkinder, which has developed a task management platform called Wunderlist, there is Readmill, a social app for booklovers, and Amen, an app to share opinions about people, places, things and ideas. The actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher invested in it and has helped burnish Berlin's name as the place to be for startups. "When you are here you know what the trends are," says Mozilla's press spokeswoman, Barbara Hüppe. In just a few years, the German capital has become a magnet for "creatives", founders of internet startups, and people working in the media. According to the state-owned KfW bank, Berlin's proportion of so-called "founders", measured by the working population, is higher than anywhere else in the country; 2.5% compared with 1.67% elsewhere in Germany. "We checked out Vienna, London and Barcelona, but in the end decided to build up our business in Berlin," says Wahlforss, of the early days of SoundCloud, an online music site set up in 2007, which now has more than 10 million registered users. Although his company was backed by the British private equity company Doughty Hanson, others were not so fortunate. "But the situation has improved for everyone," he thinks. Serious follow-up investments are still missing. "Compared to the US we have fewer investors, especially those guaranteeing a longer-term financing with more money," says Schaefer. Even with a first investment it is difficult for a startup to grow in a saturated market. Olaf Jacobi, a partner at Target Partners, leading venture capital investors in Germany, says more than nine of every 10 new businesses do not make it. The ideas need to lead to consistent success, but is often difficult to assess if the business model works. After a while some just disappear, without ever breaking even. Then most of the entrepreneurs just start a new firm. One major advantage of Berlin is the low cost of living. "Berlin is like a magnet for talented people. If you can not find people from Berlin, you often find people who are willing to move to Berlin. The good thing is, that we do not have to compete with banks or other big companies like Twitter, Facebook and credit card payment firm Square," said Edial Dekker, founder of event-organiser and city-explorer website Gidsy. According to a study by the thinktank Initiative for a New Social Market Economy (INSM) the percentage of highly qualified academics in Berlin has risen faster than anywhere else in Germany in the last three years. That also makes it easier to find suitable staff. Jens Begemann, founder and chief executive of Wooga – inventor of Monster World and Diamond Dash – and a rival to the US game company Zynga, said: "Compared to other European capitals the costs for food and accommodation are really low. That attracts young and creative people from all over the world who like to work in tech or creativity-related businesses." He knows what he is talking about. He employs 250 people of 35 different nationalities, all based in a colourful, loft-style office in trendy Prenzlauer Berg. SoundCloud recently poached some Google employees from San Francisco, a hint of the interest a Berlin startup can generate further afield. However, although many businesses may move seamlessly between London and Berlin, it is much harder for internet entrepreneurs to make the leap across the Atlantic and compete globally with the established tech companies of Silicon Valley. "California is the measure of all things in the internet scene," admits Klaus-Heiner Röhl of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research. According to Jacobi, Silicon Valley is more than 30 years ahead of the German market. "At a particular time most of the startups have to go abroad to become a huge player," says Hüppe. California also offers the best-qualified staff and lawyers. According to a McKinsey study about the internet economy, the United States dominates the global internet supply ecosystem. It captures more than 30% of global internet revenues and more than 40% of net income. But the study found Germany had a lot of potential. In 2011 internet transactions directly contributed 3.2% to Germany's GDP, against 5.4% in the United Kingdom and 3.8% in the United States. That is what drives German startups and makes investors confident. The internet economy has room to move upwards and play a larger role. The Brooklyn-based handmade and vintage marketplace website Etsy recently expanded into the German market with a new office in Berlin. Etsy's manager for Germany, Caroline Drucker, says that besides cheap rents and creative people there is also not much bureaucracy in Berlin. "The end result of all this is that entrepreneurs do not need so much initial capital as in other cities. That is why they try more and have less fear to fail," said Drucker. Geekettes
Women are still under-represented in the tech world. But the Berlin Geekettes want to change that. Set up two years ago by Jess Erickson, an American, the Geekettes describes themselves as an organisation for building relationships between women in the technology sector. They concentrate on networking events and membership partnerships, where more experienced women act as mentors to budding young female technology engineers and entrepreneurs. They already have more than 100 members. The Geekettes have all had to make their way in a male-dominated world. One is Amélie Anglade, a developer at the online audio distribution platform SoundCloud, who tries to get more tech-savvy women into programming. Erickson works for General Assembly, a global network of campuses for people seeking opportunity and education in technology, business and design. "Working in Berlin's startup world fills my days with adrenaline-packed experiences. The opportunities for me to learn are endless. This space allows me to collaborate with people from many different backgrounds in an international setting. I can honestly say that this is an empowering moment in my life," Erickson said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Earliest weddings scheduled to take place Sunday in first of three states that voted to recognise gay unions on election day Two women who have been a couple for 32 years were among the first to be granted a same-sex marriage licence in Washington state early on Thursday morning. A law legalising same-sex unions took effect at midnight, and officials geared up for a flood of applications from gay and lesbian couples eager to exchange vows. In Olympia, the state capital, the Thurston County auditor's office planned to grant marriage licenses to the 15 same-sex couples who entered a lottery to be served first at midnight. Lisa Brodoff and Lynn Grotsky, partners of nearly 32 years, became the first same-sex couple in Thurston County, and likely the state, to receive a marriage license, to the cheers of a crowd of other same-sex couples and supporters. "We have the greatest feeling of happiness and relief and excitement," said Brodoff, 57, a law professor at Seattle University. Grotsky, a 56-year-old social worker, told Reuters that when she and Brodoff became a couple, they were afraid to tell acquaintances and co-workers that they were lesbians. "Everything was a fight and a conflict," Grotsky said. "Now it's like we're regular people." Washington made history last month as one of three US states where marriage rights were extended to same-sex couples by popular vote, joining Maryland and Maine in passing ballot initiatives on 6 November recognising gay unions. Washington became the first of those states to put its law into effect – it became law at the stroke of midnight – and same-sex marriage is set to go on the books in Maine on 29 December and in Maryland on 1 January. Under Washington state law, all couples must get their marriage certificates at least three days in advance. So the first wave of same-sex Washington weddings – expected to number in the hundreds – is scheduled for Sunday. In Seattle, about 150 same-sex couples lined up outside county offices shortly before midnight, waiting in a festive atmosphere for the doors to open to obtain marriage licenses. Some sat in lawn chairs and others brought late-night picnics. The Democratic-controlled state legislature in Washington passed a bill to legalise gay marriage in February, and Democratic governor Christine Gregoire swiftly signed it into law. But opponents collected enough signatures to temporarily block the measure from taking effect and force the issue onto the state ballot in November. Voters passed it by 54% to 46%. "It feels like we're on even ground," said Derek Hoffman, 33, who received a license in Olympia to marry his partner of 10 years, Chris Waterman, 35. "Like not being less than other people." Olympia residents Tina Roose and Teresa Guajardo said they would wait until 15 December to marry, having reserved the majestic state capitol rotunda for a pre-Christmas wedding ceremony. The uncertainty of the ballot initiative process proved a bit of a nail-biter as Roose and Guajardo waited for the election results to see if they could keep their reservation. "I am able to marry the person that I love," Roose said. She said the couple had invited others, both gay and straight, to tie the knot alongside them at the capitol. "I just ran into a colleague today at a grocery," added Roose, a retired librarian. "She was so excited. She asked all the typical questions like: 'What are you going to wear?'" As for those who voted against same-sex marriage, Roose said she hoped they would be won over "with love". "You can only change people's attitudes one heart at a time," she said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US secretary of state to hold mediated discussion with Sergey Lavrov in Dublin to try to make diplomatic breakthrough Hillary Clinton and the top Russian diplomat will hold a surprise meeting on Thursday with the United Nations' peace envoy for Syria, signaling fresh hopes of an international breakthrough to end Syria's 21-month civil war. The US secretary of state, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and mediator Lakhdar Brahimi will gather in Dublin on the sidelines of a human rights conference, a senior US official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. She provided few details about the unscheduled meeting. Clinton and Lavrov met separately on Thursday for about 25 minutes. They agreed to hear Brahimi out on a path forward, a senior US official said. The two also discussed issues ranging from Egypt to North Korea, as well as new congressional action aimed at Russian officials accused of complicity in the death of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky. The US and Russia have fought bitterly over how to address Syria's conflict, with Washington criticizing Moscow for shielding its Arab ally. The Russians responded by accusing the US of meddling by demanding the downfall of President Assad's regime and ultimately seeking an armed intervention such as the one last year against the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. But the gathering of the three key international figures suggests a possible compromise. At the least, it confirms what officials describe as an easing of some of the acrimony that has raged between Moscow and Washington over the future of a Syria, whose stability is seen as critical given its proximity to Iraq, Lebanon and Israel. The threat of Syria's government using some of its vast stockpiles of chemical weapons is also adding urgency to diplomatic efforts. Western governments have cited the rising danger of such a scenario this week, and officials say Russia, too, shares great concern on this point. On Thursday, Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad accused the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. He warned that any such intervention would be "catastrophic." In Ireland's capital, one idea that Brahimi could seek to resuscitate with US and Russian support would be the political agreement strategy both countries agreed on in Geneva in June. That plan demanded several steps by the Assad regime to de-escalate tensions and end the violence that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011. It would then have required Syria's opposition and the regime to put forward candidates for a transitional government, with each side having the right to veto nominees proposed by the other. If employed, the strategy would surely mean the end of more than four decades of an Assad family member at Syria's helm. The opposition has demanded Assad's departure and has rejected any talk of him staying in power. Yet it also would grant regime representatives the opportunity to block Sunni extremists and others in the opposition that they reject. The transition plan never got off the ground this summer, partly because no pressure was applied to see it succeed by a deeply divided international community. Brahimi's predecessor, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who drafted the plan, then resigned his post in frustration. The United States blamed the collapse on Russia for vetoing a third resolution at the UN security council that would have applied world sanctions against Assad's government for failing to live by the deal's provisions. Russia insisted that the Americans unfairly sought Assad's departure as a precondition and worried about opening the door to military action, even as Washington offered to include language in any UN resolution that would have expressly forbade outside armed intervention. Should a plan similar to that one be proposed, the Obama administration is likely to insist anew that it be internationally enforceable — a step Moscow may still be reluctant to commit to. In any case, the US insists the tide of the war is turning definitively against Assad. On Wednesday, the administration said several countries in the Middle East and elsewhere have informally offered to grant asylum to Assad and his family if they leave Syria. The comments came a day after the US and its 27 Nato allies agreed to send missiles to Turkey's southern border with Syria. The deployment, expected within weeks, is meant solely as a defensive measure against the cross-border mortar rounds from Syria that have killed five Turks, but still bring the alliance to the brink of involvement in the civil war. The United States is also preparing to designate Jabhat al-Nusra, a Syrian rebel group with alleged ties to al-Qaida, as a foreign terrorist organization in a step aimed at blunting the influence of extremists within the Syrian opposition, officials said Wednesday. Word of the move came as the State Department announced Clinton will travel to the Middle East and North Africa next week for high-level meetings on the situation in Syria and broader counter-terrorism issues. Clinton is likely then to recognize Syria's newly formed opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, according to officials. The political endorsement is designed to help unite the country against Assad and spur greater non-lethal and humanitarian assistance from the United States to the rebels.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Six dead in clashes between pro and anti-Morsi protesters
• Army deployed to protect presidential palace
• Morsi advisers and referendum chief resign
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Abhisit Vejjajiva and deputy could face death penalty over use of live ammunition during anti-government protests in 2010 The Thai authorities have charged the former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over the use live ammunition that led to civilian deaths during a military crackdown on an anti-government protests in 2010. He was charged on Thursday along with the former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban over the deaths of so-called red-shirt protesters. "They allowed security forces to use weapons and live ammunition that led to the death of civilians," said Tarit Pengdith, the head of the department of special investigation (DSI). The decision to press charges was influenced by an inquest ruling into the death of a taxi driver, Phan Kamthong, during the protests. In September, the court found that troops, acting on orders from state officials, killed Phan. If found guilty, the two politicians could face the death penalty. Neither was present when the charges were read out. Thousands of protesters, supporters of another former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, had taken to the streets of Bangkok in March 2010 to demand fresh elections. More than 90 people died during the protracted protest. Suthep headed the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, a crisis control centre that authorised "live fire" zones during the protest and used emergency powers to shut down websites, radio stations and a television station, according to the charges. Government-backed troops forcibly dispersed the crowd on 19 May, prompting rioting and arson attacks in which more than 30 buildings were set ablaze. Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is now prime minister. Her Puea Thai party (PTP) beat Abhisit's Democrat party in an election in July 2011 and he became leader of the opposition. "The DSI is working at the behest of the government and the investigation is completely one-sided," said Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, a Democrat party spokesman. "The DSI wants to put pressure on Suthep to admit responsibility for the 2010 deaths and we will fight back." Last September, the truth for reconciliation commission, set up by Abhisit's government to investigate the deadly clashes, issued a 351-page report that laid blame for the deaths on the military and a group of militants who hid among the protesters. The charges are a way for the ruling PTP to pressure the opposition over the conflict and bring Thaksin home from self-imposed exile in Dubai, said Kan Yuenyong, director of Siam Intelligence Unit, a thinktank in Bangkok. "Suthep and Abhisit can't avoid a trial because so many lives were lost. They will have to accept some responsibility," he added. "Thailand has never jailed a politician for ordering a military crackdown on civilians so if Suthep and Abhisit are convicted, that would be a first." Some question the DSI's neutrality, accusing Tarit of backing Abhisit's viewpoint when he was in office, then switching to Yingluck when the PTP came to power. "For the country to get out of this cycle of violence, justice needs to be impartial and accountability accepted on both sides including violence committed by protesters," said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch. Abhisit and Suthep will be summoned for questioning and to hear the charges against them on 12 December.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy accused of giving orders for live ammunition to used during anti-government protests in 2010 The Thai authorities have charged the former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over ordering the use live ammunition that led to civilian deaths during a military crackdown on an anti-government protests in 2010. He has was charged on Thursday along with the former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban over the deaths of so-called red-shirt protesters. "They allowed security forces to use weapons and live ammunition that led to the death of civilians," said Tarit Pengdith, the head of the department of special investigation (DSI). The decision to press charges was influenced by an inquest ruling into the death of a taxi driver, Phan Kamthong, during the protests. In September, the court found that troops, acting on orders from state officials, killed Phan. If found guilty, the two politicians could face the death penalty. Neither was present when the charges were read out. Thousands of protesters, supporters of another former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, had taken to the streets of Bangkok in March 2010 to demand fresh elections. More than 90 people died during the protracted protest. Suthep headed the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, a crisis control centre that authorised "live fire" zones during the protest and used emergency powers to shut down websites, radio stations and a television station, according to the charges. Government-backed troops forcibly dispersed the crowd on 19 May, prompting rioting and arson attacks in which more than 30 buildings were set ablaze. Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is now prime minister. Her Puea Thai party (PTP) beat Abhisit's Democrat party in an election in July 2011 and he became leader of the opposition. "The DSI is working at the behest of the government and the investigation is completely one-sided," said Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, a Democrat party spokesman. "The DSI wants to put pressure on Suthep to admit responsibility for the 2010 deaths and we will fight back." Last September, the Truth for Reconciliation Commission, set up by Abhisit's government to investigate the deadly clashes, issued a 351-page report that laid blame for the deaths on the military and a group of militants who hid among the protesters. The charges are a way for the ruling PTP to pressure the opposition over the conflict and bring Thaksin home from self-imposed exile in Dubai, said Kan Yuenyong, director of Siam Intelligence Unit, a thinktank in Bangkok. "Suthep and Abhisit can't avoid a trial because so many lives were lost. They will have to accept some responsibility," he added. "Thailand has never jailed a politician for ordering a military crackdown on civilians so if Suthep and Abhisit are convicted, that would be a first." Some question the DSI's neutrality, accusing Tarit of backing Abhisit's viewpoint when he was in office, then switching to Yingluck when the PTP came to power. "For the country to get out of this cycle of violence, justice needs to be impartial and accountability accepted on both sides including violence committed by protesters," said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch. Abhisit and Suthep will be summoned for questioning and to hear the charges against them on 12 December.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuelan president's unexpected trip to Cuba for follow-up cancer treatment prompts fears of rapid decline in health Fears about the health of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, have re-emerged since his unexpected trip to Cuba last week for follow-up treatment after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery earlier this year. In a letter to the national assembly, which had to approve the trip, he said the treatment would include hyperbaric oxygenation, which involves breathing pure oxygen inside a sealed chamber, to repair bone and tissue damaged during radiotherapy. Chávez, who was diagnosed with an unspecified type of cancer 18 months ago, has not been seen in public since 15 November, when he held a meeting with ministers. Aides have confirmed his attendance this Friday at a regional Mercosur summit in Brazil. But there is speculation that the recently re-elected president may be facing graver health problems than the government is willing to admit. "I am under the impression that Chávez's health has suffered a rapid decline. The effort he put into the re-election campaign has had an impact on his illness. He had to leave practically in an emergency and without the formalities and public acts that usually accompany his departure," said Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper Tal Cual. Most of Chávez's cancer treatment has been carried out in Cuba in secrecy. The few brief health reports have been made almost entirely by the president. He has been careful not to disclose the type of cancer he has, describing it simply as a "tumour the size of a baseball" that was removed from his pelvic region. Since first being diagnosed with cancer following emergency surgery while on a trip to Cuba on June 2011, Chávez has flown to Havana for two additional operations and numerous sessions of chemotherapy. Unlike previous trips to Cuba, when Chávez continued to carry out presidential duties such as televised conferences with his ministers in Havana or tweeting updates on his health, the 58-year-old leader has been uncharacteristically silent. Since his sudden departure on 29 November, the only message from Chávez, who declared himself to be cancer-free in July, has been via his minister of information, Ernesto Villegas, who tweeted this week that the president had named a new group of ambassadors using an electronic signature. Chávez's own Twitter account has been inactive since 1 November. This latest trip comes two weeks before regional polls. The elections could give the president's party control of most of the 23 governorships, which, as Chávez has said, would consolidate "his perfect victory". But his absence could be felt at the polls as strong support for the president does not always trickle down to others in his party. Villegas said Chávez would be back by 10 January, when he is scheduled to be sworn in for a fourth term. "We have Chávez for a while longer," he said. According to Venezuelan law, if an elected president were to become unable to rule within the first four years of his mandate, elections would have to be called within 30 days. In the meantime, Venezuelans can do nothing but wait for news of their president's health. "The whole country is in this expectant mode. It's as if we were waiting for Godot," Petkoff said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuelan president's unexpected trip to Cuba for follow-up cancer treatment prompts fears of rapid decline in health Hugo Chávez is expected to miss an important regional summit in Brazil on Friday, raising fears that the Venezuelan president's health may have taken a turn for the worse. Chávez was absent from Thursday's preparatory meeting for the Mercosur summit, and a spokesman for the Venezuelan ministry of foreign affairs refused to say whether he would attend on Friday. "I have no information on the matter. President Chávez could very well surprise us there, or we could be receiving a statement in the next minutes," a spokesman, Victor Castellanos, told the Guardian. Fears about Chávez's health have resurfaced since his trip to Cuba last week for follow-up treatment after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery this year. In a letter to the national assembly, which had to approve the trip, he said the treatment would include hyperbaric oxygenation – which involves breathing pure oxygen inside a sealed chamber – to repair bone and tissue damaged during radiotherapy. Chávez, who was diagnosed with an unspecified type of cancer 18 months ago, has not been seen in public since 15 November, when he held a meeting with ministers. A spokesperson for the Brazilian foreign affairs ministry had previously confirmed his attendance this Friday at the regional Mercosur summit in the Brazilian capital. But there is speculation that the recently re-elected president may be facing graver health problems than the government is willing to admit. "I am under the impression that Chávez's health has suffered a rapid decline. The effort he put into the re-election campaign has had an impact on his illness. He had to leave practically in an emergency and without the formalities and public acts that usually accompany his departure," said Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper Tal Cual. Most of Chávez's cancer treatment has been carried out in Cuba in secrecy. The few brief health reports have been made almost entirely by the president. He has been careful not to disclose the type of cancer he has, describing it simply as a "tumour the size of a baseball" that was removed from his pelvic region. Since first being diagnosed with cancer following emergency surgery while on a trip to Cuba on June 2011, Chávez has flown to Havana for two additional operations and numerous sessions of chemotherapy. Unlike previous trips to Cuba, when Chávez continued to carry out presidential duties such as televised conferences with his ministers in Havana or tweeting updates on his health, the 58-year-old leader has been uncharacteristically silent. Since his sudden departure on 29 November, the only messages from Chávez, who declared himself to be cancer-free in July, have been via his minister of information, Ernesto Villegas, who tweeted this week that the president had named a new group of ambassadors and had approved additional aid for victims of the 2010 landslides using an electronic signature. Chávez's own Twitter account has been inactive since 1 November. This latest trip comes two weeks before regional polls. The elections could give the president's party control of most of the 23 governorships, which, as Chávez has said, would consolidate "his perfect victory". But his absence may be felt at the polls as strong support for the president does not always trickle down to others in his party. Villegas said Chávez would be back by 10 January, when he is scheduled to be sworn in for a fourth term. "We have Chávez for a while longer," he said. In the meantime, Venezuelans can do nothing but wait for news of their president's health. "The whole country is in this expectant mode. It's as if we were waiting for Godot," Petkoff said.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pregnant duchess heads home after treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, saying she is feeling 'much better' The pregnant Duchess of Cambridge has left the King Edward VII hospital after being admitted on Monday suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, a very severe form of morning sickness. Smiling, and carrying a bunch of flowers, she left accompanied by the duke at around 10.45am on Thursday. Responding to questions about how she was feeling, shouted by waiting journalists, she replied: "Much better." She will now go to Kensington Palace, where she and Prince William have a small cottage, and she is expected to rest. In a statement, a St James's Palace spokesman said: "The Duchess of Cambridge has been discharged from the King Edward VII Hospital and will now head to Kensington Palace for a period of rest. "Their royal highnesses would like to thank the staff at the hospital for the care and treatment The Duchess has received." The duchess is believed to be less than 12 weeks pregnant, possibly just two months. The royal couple were forced to go public about her condition far earlier than they wanted because of her admission to hospital for treatment. She became unwell while staying at her parent's Berkshire home at the weekend, and was driven to the hospital by Prince William on Monday afternoon. She is understood to have been severely dehydrated, and is believed to have been receiving fluids on a drip. She is being treated by the Queen's current surgeon-gynaecologist, Alan Farthing, and his predecessor Marcus Setchell. She has cancelled all her engagements for this weekend. Palace officials said when she was admitted that she would spend several days in hospital, and would then require a period of rest at home on being discharged. The King Edward VII hospital, in central London, found itself at the centre of controversy earlier this week when it was revealed its staff had been duped by two Australian radio DJs posing as an implausible Queen and Prince of Wales, into divulging intimate medical details of her condition. William visited the hospital every day after his wife's admission, and arrived at the hospital shortly after 10am on Thursday. On Wednesday the duchess was visited by her younger siblings, Pippa, 29, and James, 25, who stayed for around an hour. Her mother, Carole Middleton, visited later.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Proposals to conduct 'scientific' whale hunts similar to those carried out by Japan provoked storm of international criticism
South Korea has dropped plans to resume whaling in its coastal waters amid a storm of international criticism, and will instead use non-lethal methods to conduct research into the mammals. The country provoked anger when it announced plans at a meeting of International Whaling Commission [IWC] in Panama in July to conduct "scientific" whale hunts similar to those carried out by Japan in the Antarctic every winter. The decision to ditch the plans became official when the government failed to submit a formal proposal to the IWC by the 3 December deadline. "After gathering opinions from various sides, the government is now in the process of finalising its plan to study whales through non-lethal techniques, like many other countries such as Australia do," the Korea Herald quoted a fisheries ministry official as saying. The IWC's 1986 ban on commercial whaling allows member countries to hunt whales for scientific research, with the meat then sold on the open market. Japan, which uses the loophole to kill hundreds of whales every year, is expected to send its whaling fleet to the southern ocean in the next few weeks. South Korea initially said an increase in whale stocks in its coastal waters had prompted the decision to resume whaling. The fisheries ministry said rising whales numbers posed a threat to squid and fish stocks. The ministry reportedly began to reconsider following criticism from anti-whaling nations and an online petition that attracted more than 1,000000 protest emails in three weeks. "The world does not support commercial whaling, even when it is disguised as scientific research," said Greenpeace International oceans campaigner John Frizell. "The decision by South Korea to listen to its own people and the global community and abandon a whaling programme modelled on that of Japan is a huge win for the world's whales." South Korean media said the fisheries ministry had come under fire from other ministries for announcing the plans without consulting them. The International Fund for Animal Welfare welcomed the move and urged South Korea to reduce the number of whales that get entangled in fishing nets. Meat from the by-catch is sold in cities such as Ulsan, the home of the South Korean whaling industry. "The government of Korea made the right call and should be commended for it," said Patrick Ramage, the director of the fund's global whale programme. "Whaling in the name of science is unnecessary, and killing whales for commercial purposes is a proven ethical, ecological and economic loser in the 21st century. "We stand ready to support Korea in whatever appropriate way as it embarks on state-of-the-art, non-lethal whale research in Korean waters."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Supporters of Mohamed Morsi and opposition activists engage in street battles outside the presidential palace Overnight clashes in Cairo between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohamed Morsi and opposition activists have killed at least five people, according to state television. As the country further descended into political turmoil over the constitution drafted by Morsi's allies, street battles outside the presidential palace were the worst violence since Egypt's latest crisis erupted on 22 November, when Morsi assumed near unrestricted powers It was also the first time supporters of rival camps have fought each other since last year's uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. An report by state television early on Thursday quoted the health ministry as saying five people were killed and 446 people were injured as angry mobs battled each other with firebombs, rocks and sticks outside the presidential complex long into the night. The fighting erupted late on Wednesday afternoon when thousands of Morsi's Islamist supporters descended on an area near the presidential palace where around 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in. The Islamists, members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, chased the protesters away from their base outside the palace's main gate and tore down their tents. Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate of reform, accused Morsi's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack against peaceful demonstrators. "We hold President Morsi and his government completely responsible for the violence that is happening in Egypt today," he said on Wednesday. "A regime that is not able to protect its people and is siding with his own sect, [and] thugs is a regime that lost its legitimacy and is leading Egypt into violence and bloodshed." As dawn broke on Thursday at least four tanks were deployed outside the presidential palace, the Reuters news agency said, citing witnesses, and three armoured troop carriers were in the street outside the palace. The opposition National Salvation Front, which ElBaradei is part of, is demanding Morsi rescind decrees giving him near unrestricted powers and shelve a disputed draft constitution that his Muslim Brotherhood allies passed last week. The opposition says dialogue on Egypt's future can only begin once the decree has been rescinded. The decrees grant Morsi judicial immunity in all decisions and extended this legal protection to the constitutional assembly and the upper house of parliament, the shura council. Morsi has always insisted that it is a temporary measure that will automatically rescind when a constitution is passed. The clashes in Cairo began after the vice-president, Mahmoud Mekki, spoke to the press to say that there would be no backing down by Morsi. But in a conciliatory gesture he added that amendments to disputed articles in the draft constitution could be agreed with the opposition. A written agreement could then be submitted to the next parliament, to be elected after a referendum on the constitution on 15 December, he said. Shortly after, the president's supporters moved against the opposition activists camped outside the presidential palace and the clashes, which lasted late into the night began. Witnesses said the two sides threw petrol bombs and stones at each other. Mina Nader, an anti-Morsi protester, said: "The Brotherhood must be dragged in the streets like dogs, there is no salvation without blood after what they have done. Morsi must fall." Other protesters were heard chanting: "The people want the fall of the regime." Morsi's supporters shouted back: "Defending Morsi is defending Islam." Three members of Morsi's advisory team resigned on Wednesday over the crisis. Seif Abdel Fattah, Ayman al-Sayyad and Amr al-Leithy all tendered their resignations, bringing to six the number of presidential staff who have quit in the wake of a decree that has triggered countrywide violence. The previously announced resignations included a Christian and a woman. They were part of a presidential staff assembled by Morsi in an effort to build an inclusive administration. State institutions, with the partial exception of the judiciary, have mostly fallen in behind Morsi. The army, the muscle behind all previous Egyptian presidents in the republic's six-decade history, has gone back to barracks, having apparently lost its appetite to intervene in politics. The US, worried about the stability of a state that has a peace deal with Israel and to which it gives $1.3bn in military aid each year, called for dialogue. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton said dialogue was urgently needed on the new constitution, which should "respect the rights of all citizens". Clinton and Morsi worked together last month to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. William Hague, the foreign secretary, called for restraint on all sides. He said Egypt's authorities had to make progress on the transition in an "inclusive manner" and urged dialogue. "We call on the Egyptian authorities to make progress on transition in an inclusive manner, which allows for a constructive exchange of views. "We urge all parties to resolve their differences through a process of dialogue which allows all voices to be heard.
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