| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Acquistion of Al Gore's cable channel gives Al-Jazeera a chance to establish a presence where it has only had limited reach Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab news channel which has struggled to win space on American cable television, has acquired Current TV, the channel founded by Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt. Gore and Hyatt, who created the channel in 2005, confirmed the sale in a statement on Wednesday. The terms were undisclosed. "Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling," Gore and Hyatt said. "Al-Jazeera has the same goals and, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us." The acquisition could extend Al-Jazeera's reach beyond a few large US metropolitan areas, where some people can watch Al-Jazeera English. The network's managing director, Tony Burman, in 2010 blamed a "very aggressive hostility" from the Bush administration for reluctance among cable and satellite companies to show the network. Al-Jazeera has attracted respect for its ability to build a serious news product in a short time. But there may be a culture clash at the network. Dave Marash, a former Nightline reporter who worked for Al-Jazeera in Washington, said he left the network in 2008 in part because he sensed an anti-American bias there. Current, meanwhile, began as a groundbreaking effort to promote user-generated content, but has settled into a more conventional format of political talk television with a liberal bent. Gore worked on-air as an analyst during its recent election night coverage. Former New York governor Elliot Spitzer, former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm and Cenk Uygur are currently its lead personalities. Current signed Keith Olbermann to be its top host in 2011 but his tenure lasted less than a year before it ended in bad blood on both sides. Current has largely been outflanked by MSNBC in its effort to be a liberal alternative to the leading cable news network, Fox News Channel. It hired former CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman in 2011 to be its president. Bohrman has pushed the network to innovate technologically, with election night coverage that emphasised social media conversation. Current is expected to post $114m in revenue in 2013, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The firm pegged the network's cash flow at nearly $24m a year. While it has battled low viewership, it is now distributed in about 60m of the 100m homes in the United States with cable or satellite service.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US secretary of state was forced to cancel trips to north Africa and Middle East, but is expected to make full recovery US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has been released from a New York hospital where she was treated for a blood clot in her head. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines says her doctors advised her that she has been making progress on all fronts and are confident she will make a full recovery. He says Clinton is appreciative of the excellent care she received at the hospital and is eager to get back to work. A date for her return to the state department has not been set. The blood clot was discovered on Sunday during a follow-up examination to a concussion Clinton suffered in mid-December. Clinton was admitted to the hospital that night. Clinton suffered the concussion after falling at home while recuperating from a stomach virus. She was unable to attend a congressional hearing into the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, and cancelled trips to north Africa and the Middle East. Her absence from sessions concerning the Benghazi attack provoked some Republican commentators to question the veracity of her condition. Clinton's supporters, meanwhile, have been left wondering whether Clinton would be preparing to run for president in 2016, as expected. When asked about her plans for post-2012 election life in late 2011, she said: "I think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years, of being on the highwire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am." Clinton is set to step down as a secretary of state early this year. Barack Obama nominated senator John Kerry, a former presidential nominee and current chair of the Senate's foreign relations committee, as her replacement. Clinton told the New York Daily News in 2007 that she suffered from a blood clot in her right leg in 1998.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) passes Senate but is not renewed after Republicans take issue with new provisions A bill that would extend funding for domestic violence programs has failed to be reauthorized for the first time since it was signed in 1994. The Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) provides financing to programs that work to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking as well as offer support to victims. The bill was approved for reauthorization by the Senate in April, but failed to make it through the House before the year-end congressional deadline. The bill was successfully reauthorized in 2000 and 2005, but House Republicans took issue with provisions added to the 2012 legislation that attempted to expand protections for undocumented immigrants, Native Americans and members of the LGBT community who are victims of domestic violence. Advocates suggested additions to the bill based on researched trends in domestic violence and worked with both sides of the House and Senate to draft a bill they hoped would make it through Congress before the end of the year. Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy, Futures Without Violence, told the Guardian: "The Senate bill was already very much a bipartisan compromise, it seems very unfortunate that the House chose to fight the provision." Stewart said domestic violence in Native Americans "is at absolute epidemic proportions" and that complications with federal and tribal jurisdiction gives perpetrators little accountability. Vawa provisions would allow tribes to prosecute minor cases of domestic violence and enforce restraining orders. "What Native American women experience is every bit as horrific as what many women around the world in lesser developed countries experience," said Stewart. Existing laws allow for victims of violence to receive immigration visas and the reauthorized bill would recapture visas that weren't used in the first years of the program because people didn't understand how it worked. "The requests for those visas is already higher than the amount of visas there are and the requirements to prevent any form of fraud are already very, very high," said Stewart. The new provisions for members of the LGBT community would allow programs to receive funding regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of victims. Stewart said the additional provisions were modest and was optimistic that the new congress would pass the reauthorized bill in early 2013. Democrat Pat Leahy and Republican Mike Crapo co-wrote the bill reauthorized in 2011 which included the provisions that add protections for undocumented immigrants, the LGBT community and Native Americans. Provisions that expand dating violence programs and programs on campus were also included in the reauthorized bill. In February, Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said he supported the programs funded by the existing bill, but not the new additions. "The substitute creates so many new programs for underserved populations that it risks losing the focus on helping victims, period," Grassley said. Vawa will continue to receive funding through March like other discretionary programs because of a continuing resolution signed by Barack Obama in September. These programs are waiting to see how funds will be allocated with the new budget deal. Currently, Vawa programs receive $412m annually from the US Department of Justice. Vawa programs to help victims of domestic, dating and sexual violence also receive $187m annually through the US Department of Health and Human Services.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republican New Jersey governor singles out 'failure' of John Boehner after Speaker delays vote on hurricane Sandy aid The plain-speaking governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, embarked on an extended tirade against his own party members in Congress on Wednesday, raging against what he described as the "toxic internal politics" of House Republicans. Christie, a high-profile Republican who is among the potential candidates for a run at the presidency in 2016, used invective against his own party usually only heard in attacks from Democrats. Although he was specifically angry over the House's failure to vote on a compensation package for victims of hurricane Sandy, he expanded his rant to criticise House Republicans in general and the House Republican Speaker John Boehner in particular. In the face of heavy criticism from Christie and other Republicans, Boehner scheduled a vote on the aid package for Friday. Christie, speaking at a 40-minute long press conference before that announcement, reflected widespread criticism, mainly on the left but also among independents and many Republicans, that the Tea Party-backed Republicans in the House are a disruptive influence, creating chaos in Washington. "Americans are tired of the palace intrigue and political partisanship of this Congress, which places one-upmanship ahead of the lives of the citizens who sent these people to Washington DC in the first place," Christie said. He added: "America deserves better than yet another example of a government that has forgotten who they are there to serve and why." Referring specifically to the failure to act on the hurricane Sandy package, he said: "Shame on you. Shame on Congress." Christie said that, historically, lawmakers in Washington did not play politics with disaster relief, but in the present atmosphere, everything was the subject of gamesmanship. "They are so consumed with their internal politics, they've forgotten they have a job to do," Christie said. "Everything is the subject of one-upmanship. It is why the American people hate Congress." His anger over hurricane Sandy was echoed by other governors and members of Congress from the north-east. Even before Christie's remarks, the showdown over the fiscal cliff fully exposed the extent of the divisions within the Republican party. Republicans in the Senate, dominated by moderate members who have held their seats for a long time, voted as a largely cohesive unit on Tuesday in favour of the fiscal cliff deal. There were only five rebels, two of them senators who are Tea Party favourites: Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. In contrast with the Senate, the House, whose membership is backed to a greater extent by the Tea Party, was deeply divided. Only 85 Republicans voted for the fiscal cliff deal, with 151 against. The divide was geographical as well as ideological, with a large bloc of those voting in favour predominantly from the more liberal north-east and those against from the more conservative south. At the press conference, Christie said Republicans had failed in their duty by not passing the hurricane Sandy package. Republicans, conscious of keeping down federal spending, have questioned measures in the package that they regard as wasteful. "Last night, the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state," he said. "There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their Speaker John Boehner," he added. He described Boehner's decision to cancel the vote on the aid package as disappointing and "disgusting". Christie is a popular figure and his reputation grew over his handling of hurricane Sandy, in particular his bipartisan posture and his willingness to put aside politics to work with president Barack Obama, even though the White House election was looming. He could struggle to win support among fellow Republicans in mid-west states such as Iowa, where the first of the caucuses are held, because his views on abortion, gun control and immigration are regarded as too liberal. Rubio, who voted against the fiscal cliff deal, is among the present favourites.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New Jersey governor Chris Christie blames Speaker John Boehner for failure as fallout from fiscal cliff vote continues
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With Boehner unable to control House's Tea Party Republicans, Obama warns next debate will have 'catastrophic' consequences The White House and congressional Republicans were gearing up for even bigger economic showdowns after a messy compromise on the fiscal cliff crisis was finally agreed by the House of Representatives The fiscal cliff deal, passed after days of disarray that highlighted the extent of the partisan divide in Washington, raised taxes on the wealthiest but postponed for two months a decision about $110bn in spending cuts to the federal budget. The fudge is almost certain to put the White House and Congress at loggerheads again next month or in early March. As well as the looming battle over spending cuts, the two sides also face a stand-off over raising the federal debt ceiling. President Barack Obama, who arrived back in Hawaii on Wednesday to resume his interrupted holiday, hailed the fiscal cliff deal as the fulfillment of an election promise to raise taxes on the rich. But he spent little time savouring the moment, instead devoting much of his statement on the congressional vote to the battles ahead.
Expressing his frustration with Republicans in Congress, he warned that failure to raise the debt ceiling would be dire. "The consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff," he said. The new 113rd Congress is scheduled to begin work on Thursday, but the November election left its make-up virtually unchanged from its predecessor. The Republicans retain a majority in the House and the Democrats a majority in the Senate. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, is pessimistic, viewing the fiscal cliff showdown as unnecessary and anticipating future collisions. "This whole thing is trumped up," Sabato said. "We've known about the fiscal cliff for 17 months. There's no excuse for what's happened. It's pitiful, and it's going to happen again." He said the two sides remained polarised. "The parties don't speak the same language. It's very clear that the Republican caucus does not like President Obama personally. There's no deference to an election victory. We always used to have that. You got a bit of a honeymoon and a bit of a mandate when you won an election. And now there's nothing." Tuesday proved to be an especially bad day for the Republicans. The vote in the House exposed the depth of divisions not only between Democrats and Republicans but within the Republican party. In the House, the bill was passed by 257 to 167, but the breakdown on party lines showed 151 Republicans voting against the measure, with only 85 Republicans in favour of it.
The divide cut through even the party leadership in the House, with speaker John Boehner voting for it, and the majority leader Eric Cantor and the whip Kevin McCarthy, both more conservative figures than Boehner, voting against. Republicans expressed anger with Cantor and McCarthy for earlier calling on colleagues to rally behind Boehner in voting for the bill and then doing the opposite themselves. Many Republicans, especially those backed by the Tea party, want to remain ideologically pure, able to go back to their districts saying they had not voted for tax increases. Boehner's inability to control his own caucus, in particular the Tea party bloc, is one of the reasons politics in Washington has become so divisive. He is up for re-election for speaker soon after the new Congress convenes at noon Thursday, but so far, there is no suggestion that Cantor or any other Republican plans to mount a challenge. Illustrating the extent to which personal relations have broken down, the Politico website reported a confrontation in the midst of the fiscal cliff negotiations last Friday in which Boehner told the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid: "Go fuck yourself." Boehner is reported to have made the comment in the lobby after Reid had publicly said he was more interested in securing re-election as speaker than reaching a deal. The House passed the bill only after a day of rancorous deliberations, despite the Senate having voted overwhelmingly in favour of it, by 89 votes to eight, in the early hours of the morning. The bill restricts tax rises to individuals earning $400,000 or more a year and households earning $450,000 or more. Estate tax also rises, to 40% from 35%, but inheritances below $5m are exempted from the increase. Benefits for the unemployed are extended for another year. AP calculates that for those earning between $500,000 to $1 million a year it will mean an average tax increase of $14,812 and for those earning more than $1 million, $170,341. Obama, in his statement from the White House, recalled that in the last showdown over the debt ceiling in 2011, the federal government almost shut down. He said that he did not want to repeat that situation and would leave the latest debt ceiling debate to Congress rather than becoming directly involved. In the end, it is difficult to see how the White House can remain aloof, given the consequences of the US being unable to meet its debt obligations. The president expressed concern that repeated battles with Congress over the economy will eat into time that he hoped to use to push through his second-term agenda. "We can settle this debate, or at the very least, not allow it to be so all-consuming all the time that it stops us from meeting a host of other challenges that we face: creating jobs, boosting incomes, fixing our infrastructure, fixing our immigration system, protecting our planet from the harmful effects of climate change, boosting domestic energy production, protecting our kids from the horrors of gun violence," the president said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | US secretary of state in 'good spirits' as she continues to receive treatment at New York hospital for a blood clot in her head US secretary of state Hillary Clinton marked her fourth day in hospital on Wednesday as she received treatment for a blood clot located between her brain and skull. Doctors are treating Clinton, 65, with blood thinners, and expect her to make a full recovery. They also said Clinton had not suffered any neurological damage and was making "excellent progress". Chelsea Clinton has been tweeting from her mother's bedside at New York-Presbyterian hospital, expressing thanks to the doctors treating her mother and to the people wishing her a safe recovery.
Dr Lisa Bardack of the Mt Kisco Medical Group and Dr Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University released a statement Monday on Clinton's condition: "She will be released once the medication dose has been established. In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff." The blood clot was discovered Sunday during a follow-up examination to a concussion Clinton suffered in mid-December. Clinton was admitted to the hospital that night. Clinton suffered from the concussion after falling at home while recuperating from a stomach virus. She was unable to attend a congressional hearing into the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, and canceled trips to North Africa and the Middle East. Her absence from sessions concerning the Benghazi attack provoked some Republican commentators to question the veracity of her condition. Clinton's supporters, meanwhile, have been left wondering whether Clinton would be preparing to run for president in 2016, as expected. When asked about her plans for post-2012 election life in late-2011, she said: "I think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years, of being on the highwire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am." Clinton is set to step down as a secretary of state early this year. Barack Obama nominated senator John Kerry, a former presidential nominee and current chair of the Senate's foreign relations committee, as her replacement. Clinton told the New York Daily News in 2007 that she suffered from a blood clot in her right leg in 1998.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The world's number three car hire firm believes it can turn the 'greener' alternative of car sharing into gold The growing commercial value of car sharing operations was underlined on Wednesday when global hire giant Avis Budget, bought Zipcar for $500m (£307m) – a near 50% premium to its share value. Zipcar, which itself acquired Britain's Streetcar less than three years ago, has 767,000 members, or Zipsters, who pay an annual joining fee and are then charged by the hour to use its vehicles. The Zipcar business is seen by many as a "greener" alternative to traditional ownership models because it encourages less road use. But it is still struggling to turn in a full year of profits. Avis believes it can turn green to gold. "We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company," said Ronald Nelson, chairman and chief executive of Avis. The world's number three car hire firm, founded in 1946 with three cars at Willow Run airport in Detroit, has been trying to bulk up after being overtaken in overall scale by Hertz and already trailing well behind Enterprise. Avis recently lost out to Hertz, which bought Dollar Thrifty – the world's number four car hire company – for $2.6bn, and now says it want to speed up the growth of Zipcar by putting more cars in more locations. "By combining Zipcar's expertise in on-demand mobility with Avis Budget Group's expertise in global fleet operations and vast global network, we will be able to accelerate the revolution we began in personal mobility," said Scott Griffith, chairman and chief executive of Zipcar. Car sharing originates in Europe and Zipcar was founded 12 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specifically to take the concept to the US. It has become popular in cities as individual cars are kept in residential streets, outside workplaces or on student campuses, and many believe it is cheaper than owning your own vehicle. Car sharing clubs give members a smartcard which they use to open the car, eliminating the need to go to an office to collect and return keys. Hertz and Enterprise have launched their own car sharing operations in the past few years, while Zipcar will become an Avis subsidiary and have headquarters in Boston. Avis anticipates that putting the two businesses together will enable it to extract between $50m to $70m in annual savings. The New Jersey-based firm also expects the acquisition will add to its adjusted earnings per share in the second year after it is complete. Avis said it expected certain members of Zipcar management, including Griffith and president and chief operating officer Mark Norman, to help run its day-to-day operations. If Zipcar shareholders approve the deal worth $12.25 per share it is expected to complete later this spring. The boards of both companies – holding 32% of the shares – have already agreed to support the takeover. In Zipcar's most recent quarter net income reached $4.3m while revenues were up to $78m – but much of the profit came from the sale of vehicle emission credits in the US. Griffith said in November that the business, which saw membership grow by 18% in the third quarter, was on track for 2012 to be Zipcar's "first full year of profitability". In recent weeks Zipcar has acquired or completed the integration of two of Europe's largest competitors, Austria's Carsharing and Barcelona-based Avancar, as well as launching the new Zipvan service in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. When Zipcar bought Streetcar in April 2010 it paid $50m, of which almost a third went to Andrew Valentine and Brett Akker, two university friends who had established the business. Avis said it was also on track with its expected financial results for the current year. The company has forecast earnings of $2.35 to $2.45 per share on revenue of $7.3bn. Analysts are expecting earnings per share of $2.42 on the same revenue.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New York congressman Peter King threatens to defect from GOP after Republican leadership opted not to vote on relief bill There was outrage from both sides of the floor in Congress on Wednesday after the Republican leadership in the House opted not to vote on legislation that would have provided billions of dollars worth of Hurricane Sandy relief. New York Republican Peter King threatened to switch parties over the furore, while fellow Republican New York congressman Michael Grimm, whose district includes Staten Island, described the failure to act as a "personal betrayal". The Senate had already voted in favour of the legislation, which proposes $60bn of aid for New Jersey and New York. House Republicans had indicated that the bill would be voted on during the current session, but announced late on Tuesday that it would not be put to a vote. That decision means the bill will likely have to be resubmitted in the new Congress – which opens on Thursday – and clear a number of procedural hurdles for a second time, delaying its implementation. King has effectively gone to war with his own party over the inaction. On the House floor on Tuesday night, he said the decision of Republican leaders was "absolutely inexcusable" and "absolutely indefensible". He added: "We cannot just walk away from our responsibilities." King indicated that he was not ruling out switching parties over the issue and told Fox News: "As far as I'm concerned, I'm on my own." On Wednesday, King said that New Yorkers should refuse to donate to Republicans in retaliation. "They're in New York all the time filling their pockets with money from New Yorkers," King said of his party colleagues, on CNN. "I'm saying: right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace." Grimm, who represents New York's 13th congressional district, where Staten Island and Brooklyn's Bay Ridge were both affected by Sandy, said the decision was "unforgivable". "I feel it is a personal betrayal," Grimm said. "But I think more importantly, when you parse out all the politics, the people of this country that have been devastated are looking at this as a betrayal by the Congress and by the nation, and that is just untenable and unforgivable." The Senate approved a $60.4bn package on Friday to help with recovery from the October storm that devastated parts of New York, New Jersey and nearby states. The House appropriations committee had drafted a similar measure, and a vote had been expected before the 112th Congress ends on Thursday at noon. The House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, told reporters that just before Tuesday evening's vote on fiscal cliff legislation, Cantor told him he was "99.9% confident that this bill would be on the floor, and that's what he wanted". Democrats were left outraged on Wednesday. "I am stunned, stunned," Congressman Rob Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat, told Politico. "I assume there is as tactical consideration here; that the Republican leadership didn't want to be anywhere near a big spending bill after the fiasco of their handling the tax debate. I understand the tactics, but there is a real human need here that is being ignored." New York senator Chuck Shumer told House Speaker John Boehner in a tweet that his decision not to allow a vote on the Sandy bill is a "disgrace, [and] leaves NY residents without crucial aid to recover and rebuild". Some Republicans defended themselves against the criticism, arguing that the bill had been filled with "pork" that had little to do with Sandy relief. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House oversight and government reform committee, told Fox and Friends: "Your two senators packed this with pork," referring to Schumer and fellow New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. "They had the opportunity to have a $27-$30bn dollar legit relief package, packed it with pork, then dared us not to vote on it." Issa said the issue was "unrelated pork" which would not help those affected by the storm. Politico noted that the bill included $150m for fisheries in Alaska and $2m for a new roof for the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuela's vice-president seeks to reassure compatriots following Chávez's emergency surgery three weeks ago Venezuela's vice-president, Nicolás Maduro, has told the country to ignore "enemy" rumours of president Hugo Chávez's imminent demise. Maduro has been at Chávez's bedside in a Cuban hospital but was due to fly home to Caracas on Wednesday. Maduro returns to a country gripped by uncertainty about the wellbeing of a leader who has dominated the political landscape since 1999, but has not been seen in public since he rushed to Havana for emergency cancer surgery three weeks ago. Several new year festivities were cancelled, masses have been arranged for supporters to pray for Chávez's recovery and the government has urged Venezuela to focus on serenity and unity. What many want, however, is definitive news on whether the president will be healthy enough to be sworn in to his fourth term in office on 10 January. On Tuesday night, Maduro, in a pre-recorded interview with regional broadcaster Telesur, said Chávez was "conscious of how delicate his recovery was" and that the president had urged him to keep the Venezuelan people informed "regardless of how hard the truth might be at times". Maduro said: "He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us … to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances." Maduro said in a televised address on Monday that Chávez had suffered "new complications from a respiratory infection" and described the leader's health as "delicate". He said Chávez had held his hand with great vigour and that his face was filled with "gigantic strength". "At times, there have been slight improvements, at times there have been stationary situations," Maduro said, adding that he had faith that Chávez would emerge sooner rather than later from "the situation he is confronting". The news of Chávez's deteriorating health and the cancelled events prompted a flurry of tweets and messages on social networks that claimed Chávez was on life support and his days were numbered. The wave of rumours reached such intensity that Chávez's son-in-law and minister of science and technology, Jorge Arreaza, tweeted from Havana asking Venezuelans to ignore the ill-intentioned rumours. In Tuesday's interview, Maduro, who was named by Chávez as his preferred political heir should he become too ill to govern, referred to the mounting rumours as the result of "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela". He said: "What is behind these lies? Evil and hatred. Rightwing journalists sickened with hatred. They have no limits. They don't know how to respect the feelings of [the president's] daughters. They are capable of mockery and, in doing so, they reveal their sickened souls." As the oil-rich nation contemplated the possibility that Chávez might be unable to assume power next week, some rumours claimed Chávez's closest allies were divided and succession might not be smooth. According to the constitution, a snap election must be called within 30 days if the president should be unable to govern at the time of inauguration. Chávez previously asked the Venezuelan people to vote for Maduro in that eventuality, referring to him as the man capable of moving his self-styled socialist revolution forward. Following Maduro's interview, Diosdado Cabello, the president of the National Assembly, who some regard as second in line to power, tweeted that no one "in the Venezuelan opposition, nor their bosses abroad could attempt against the unwavering will of the revolutionary unity". However, Cabello, a former paratrooper who accompanied Chávez in his 1992 coup, has stated that Chávez is the country's only leader and the constitution allows for him to be sworn in at a later date. He said the will of more than 8 million people who voted Chávez into office in last October's election could not be ignored.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pop star says his prayers are with family of photographer who was hit by vehicle on Sepulveda Boulevard Pop star Justin Bieber says his thoughts and prayers are with the family of a paparazzo who was fatally struck by a car after taking pictures of the singer's white Ferrari sports car in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Beiber's comment came in a statement released on Wednesday by Island Def Jam Music Group. Police said Bieber was not in the Ferrari at the time of the accident and that a friend of the 18-year-old was driving when the car was pulled over for a traffic stop on the side of Sepulveda Boulevard near Getty Center Drive. The photographer was hit by a car after taking photographs of the Ferrari. Los Angeles police officer James Stoughton said the photographer, who has not been named, died in hospital shortly after the crash. No charges are likely to be filed against the motorist.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | John Boehner's tenure as Speaker said to be under threat as House Republicans spread blame for fiscal cliff debacle
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Human rights commissioner reveals sharply increased estimate of death toll as reports say dozens killed in petrol queue air strike At least 60,000 people have died in Syria's conflict, the UN human rights commissioner has said, citing an "exhaustive" study which has sharply increased the number of those believed killed. Before the new UN-commissioned survey it had been estimated that up to 45,000 people had perished during the conflict, so the new calculation increases the death toll by a third. The revised estimate came as it was reported that dozens had been killed on Wednesday after a government war plane bombed a petrol queue in a suburb of Damascus. According to the UN report, almost three-quarters of those listed as killed on both sides of the conflict were men. Estimating casualties is a notoriously difficult process in the midst of an ongoing war, but in this case the UN says it has established the name, place and date of death of each of those it says it has counted. The real death toll is likely to be greater because reports containing incomplete information were excluded and a significant number of killings may not have been documented at all. "There are many names not on the list for people who were quietly shot in in the woods," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay. Over five months of analysis, researchers cross-referenced seven sources to compile a list of 59,648 individuals reported killed between 15 March 2011, and 30 November 2012. "Given there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013," Pillay said. "The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking." "The failure of the international community, in particular the security council, to take concrete actions to stop the blood-letting, shames us all," Pillay said. "Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns." The UN rights chief warned that thousands more would die or suffer terrible injuries if the conflict continued, and repeated her call that those responsible for the killings, which in some cases could amount to war crimes, should be held accountable. "We must not compound the existing disaster by failing to prepare for the inevitable and very dangerous instability that will occur when the conflict ends," she said. "Serious planning needs to get under way immediately, not just to provide humanitarian aid to all those who need it, but to protect all Syrian citizens from extrajudicial reprisals and acts of revenge" like those seen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Congo, she said. The data, which did not distinguish between soldiers, rebels and civilians, also show that the killing in Syria has accelerated. The latest figures came as an attack by a Syrian government jet on a queue of cars waiting at a petrol station in a suburb of Damascus was reported to have killed and injured dozens, according to opposition activists. The missile strike, reportedly by a single Syrian government MiG jet, struck the suburb of Mleiha. According to some reports as many as 30 people were killed in the explosion, although that figure could not be independently confirmed. Horrific amateur video posted online showed two columns of smoke billowing from the scene and over a dozen vehicles on fire. The body of one man, engulfed in flames, was still seated on his motorbike in the queue, while a rescuer carried the torso of a man from the ruins. Mleiha is a Sunni Muslim suburb, one of a number circling the capital which have been at the forefront of the 21-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Assad belongs to the Shia-derived Alawite minority sect. It was unclear why the Syrian military targeted the petrol station, although there had been clashes and shelling in nearby areas in previous days. Mohammed Saeed, an activist who visited the site, said the missile struck as drivers waited in line with their cars at the station. Syria has been facing a fuel crisis, and people often wait for hours for petrol. Another witness, Abu Fouad, claimed the attack took place as a consignment of fuel arrived and crowds packed the station. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "tens of people were killed or wounded". At least 10 bodies were seen in an amateur video. "Many of the people who were there were killed," Saeed said. "Body parts could be seen on the ground." He said the missile made a crater a metre deep. The air raid was one of several to hit the Damascus suburbs on Wednesday. The attack came as fighters seeking to remove the Assad regime attacked the president's forces around a large airbase in Idlib province and also around the Wadi Deif base in north-western Syria and as the international airport in Aleppo was once again closed to flights.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the New Year in Syria starts with more violence in Damascus and Aleppo
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Communities set up local currencies and exchange networks in attempt to beat the economic crisis It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies. But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped. "It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro." In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network. For users such as Ioanitou, the currency – a form of community banking monitored exclusively online – is not only an effective antidote to wage cuts and soaring taxes but the "best kind of shopping therapy". "One Tem is the equivalent of one euro. My oil and soap came to 70 Tem and with that I bought oranges, pies, napkins, cleaning products and Christmas decorations," said the mother-of-five. "I've got 30 Tem left over. For women, who are worst affected by unemployment, and don't have kafeneia [coffeehouses] to go to like men, it's like belonging to a hugely supportive association." Greece's deepening economic crisis has brought new users. With ever more families plunging into poverty and despair, shops, cafes, factories and businesses have also resorted to the system under which goods and services – everything from yoga sessions to healthcare, babysitting to computer support – are traded in lieu of credits. "For many it plays a double role of supplementing lost income and creating a protective web at this particularly difficult moment in their lives," says Yiannis Grigoriou, a UK-educated sociologist among the network's founders. "The older generation in this country can still remember when bartering was commonplace. In villages you'd exchange milk and goat's cheese for meat and flour." Other grassroots initiatives have appeared across Greece. Increasingly bereft of social support, or a welfare state able to meet the needs of a growing number of destitute and hungry, locals have set up similar trading networks in the suburbs of Athens, the island of Corfu, the town of Patras and northern Katerini. But Volos, the first to be established, is by far the biggest. Until recently the city, 200 miles north of Athens, was a thriving industrial hub with a port whose ferries not only connected the mainland to nearby islands but before Syria's descent into civil war was a trading route between Greece and the Middle East. Once famous for its tobacco, Volos was home to flour mills and cement factories, steel and metal works. But, today, it is joblessness that it has come to be known for in a country whose unemployment rate recently hit a European record of 26%, surpassing even that of Spain. "Frankly the Tem has been a life-saver," said Christina Koutsieri, clutching DVDs and a bag of food as she emerged from the marketplace. "In March I had to close the grocery store I had kept going for 27 years because I just couldn't afford all the new taxes and bills. Everyone I know has lost their jobs. It's tragic." Last year, the Greek government stepped in with a law that supported finding creative ways to cope with the crisis. For the first time, alternative forms of entrepreneurship and local development were actively encouraged. Although locals insist the Tem, which is also available in voucher form, will never replace banknotes – and has not been dreamed up to dodge taxes – they say it is a viable alternative. For local officials such as Panos Skotiniotis, the mayor of Volos, the alternative currency has proved to be an excellent way of supplementing the euro. "We are all for supporting alternatives that help alleviate the crisis's economic and social consequences," he said. "It won't ever replace the euro but it is really helping weaker members of our society. In all the social and cultural activities of the municipality, we are encouraging the Tem to be used."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Operation Yewtree police arrest men in Hampshire and west London on suspicion of sexual offences not connected to Savile The Metropolitan police have made two further arrests in their Operation Yewtree investigation into alleged sexual offences by Jimmy Savile and others. A 53-year-old man was arrested in Hampshire and a 59-year-old man held in west London on suspicion of sexual offences on Wednesday. The suspects take the total number of people arrested under Operation Yewtree to nine. The Met police said the two arrests fall under the "others" strand of the investigation, meaning the alleged offences are not connected to Savile. The 53-year-old was taken into custody in Hampshire after his arrest at 8am; the 59-year-old is being questioned at a London police station. Others arrested under Operation Yewtree include former pop star Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr and publicist Max Clifford. Scotland Yard said last month 31 allegations of rape had been made against Savile and 589 people had come forward with information relating to the scandal.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the New Year in Syria starts with more violence in Damascus and Aleppo
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Deaths from crush at New Year's Eve fireworks display has risen to 62 as scores of injured go to hospital The death toll following a stampede at a New Year's Eve celebration in Ivory Coast has risen to 62, as scores of injured people continue to arrive in hospital in the commercial capital Abidjan. Witnesses said seven people were still missing and five bodies remained unidentified, as emergency services continued to work in the aftermath of the tragedy at the main football stadium in the centre of Abidjan. "Yesterday there was a lack of information and many injured people went home," said Diaby Mohamed, a social entrepreneur who is part of a citizens' action group in the aftermath of the disaster. "We asked injured people this morning to come back to the hospital and now they are arriving in their dozens." Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara visited injured people at the Cocody hospital in Abidjan on Tuesday and said that an investigation was under way. Details are still coming to light about the tragedy, which occurred after a fireworks display that was meant to celebrate Ivory Coast's return to peace after a 2011 civil war. Government officials said many of the dead are children aged between eight and 15. Rescue workers, who reached the scene relatively quickly on Monday night, said they found people trampled and suffocated as a crowd of thousands was crushed trying to leave the area around the Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium. Local newspapers reported that the roadblocks were set up by criminal gangs, attempting to steal money and mobile phones. Other witnesses blamed security forces who arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled, and the failure of the authorities to manage a collision between a large crowed trying to leave the festivities and another large crowd arriving at the same time. But there were concerns that an official investigation into the incident would be hampered by the removal of evidence from the scene. "At first people were sad, but now they are angry and I am not sure that the investigation will tell us anything," said Mohamed. "I have been on the ground in the days since this happened, and I saw that all the things that could explain what happened have been removed." "How can you have an investigation when all the evidence has been removed from the scene?"
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Deaths from crush at New Year's Eve fireworks display has risen to 62 as scores of injured go to hospital The death toll after the New Year's Eve stampede in Ivory Coast has risen to 62 as injured people continue to arrive in hospital in the commercial capital, Abidjan. Witnesses said seven people were still missing and five bodies remained unidentified as emergency services continued their work in the aftermath of the tragedy at the main football stadium in the centre of Abidjan. "Yesterday there was a lack of information and many injured people went home," said Mohamed Diaby, a social entrepreneur who is part of a citizens' action group set up after the disaster. "We asked injured people this morning to come back to the hospital and now they are arriving in their dozens." The Ivory Coast president, Alassane Ouattara, visited injured people at the Cocody hospital in Abidjan on Tuesday and said an investigation had begun. Details are still coming to light about the tragedy, which occurred after a fireworks display that was meant to celebrate Ivory Coast's return to peace after a 2011 civil war. Government officials said many of the dead were children aged between eight and 15. Rescue workers, who reached the scene quickly on Monday night, said they found people trampled and suffocated as a crowd of thousands was crushed trying to leave the area around the Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium. Local newspapers reported that the roadblocks were set up by criminal gangs trying to steal money and mobile phones. Other witnesses blamed security forces who arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell and were trampled, and the failure of the authorities to manage a collision between a large crowd trying to leave the festivities and another group arriving at the same time. Concerns have been raised that an official investigation would be hampered by the removal of evidence from the scene. "At first people were sad, but now they are angry and I am not sure that the investigation will tell us anything," said Diaby. "I have been on the ground in the days since this happened, and I saw that all the things that could explain what happened have been removed." "How can you have an investigation when all evidence has been removedfrom the scene?"
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prominent members of ruling party urge annexation of 'Area C' as battle for rightwing votes intensifies before general election Prominent members of Israel's ruling Likud party have proposed the annexation of part of the West Bank as the battle for rightwing votes intensifies before the general election in less than three weeks. Government minister Yuli Edelstein told a conference in Jerusalem that the lack of Israeli sovereignty over Area C – the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli military control in which all settlements are situated – "strengthens the international community's demand for a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines". Ze'ev Elkin, the chairman of the governing coalition, said Israel should adopt a "salami" approach to annexation. "We will try to apply sovereignty over as much as we can at any given moment," he said. A third Likud member, extreme rightwing settler Moshe Feiglin, proposed that the state of Israel should pay Palestinian families to leave the West Bank, using funds earmarked for security measures. "We can give every family in Judea and Samaria [the biblical term for the West Bank] $500,000 [£307,000] to encourage to emigrate … This is the perfect solution for us," he said. The comments, delivered at conference organised by a radical settlers' organisation, "removed the masks" of the Likud-Beiteinu electoral alliance, said Tzipi Livni, former foreign minister and leader of a new centrist party, Hatnua. "Likud-Beiteinu is extreme rightwing, and will lead to the destruction of Zionism and the establishment of a binational state," she said. The rightwing "will make Israel into a boycotted, isolated and ostracised state". The Likud-Beiteinu alliance – led by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Avigdor Lieberman, who recently resigned as foreign minister ahead of a trial on fraud and breach of trust charges – is facing an unexpectedly strong challenge from Jewish Home, a party even further to the right and led by Netanyahu's former chief of staff, Naftali Bennett. A series of polls over recent weeks has indicated that Jewish Home is gaining votes at the expense of Likud-Beiteinu. The latest survey, published in Haaretz on Wednesday, gave the alliance 34 out of 120 parliamentary seats, compared with 42 currently held by its two constituent parties. Jewish Home, whose policy is to annexe Area C of the West Bank, is predicted to take 14 seats, and could overtake Labour to become the second biggest party. Despite Likud-Beiteinu's drop in the polls, Netanyahu is still on course to form the next coalition government. But the strength of Jewish Home's vote is likely to give it leverage in the coalition horse-trading that will follow the election on 22 January. Many observers believe that a string of recent announcements by Netanyahu about expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is an attempt to contain the loss of votes to Jewish Home. Following the comments on annexation of the West Bank, Likud sources told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth: "These extreme statements are actually good for Netanyahu electorally. They serve him in the battle for the rightwing votes that have shifted from the Likud to the Jewish Home." Bennett, 40, who served in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit of the Israeli military and is still a reservist, recently said he would go to jail rather than obey orders to evacuate settlements or outposts in the West Bank. "If I receive an order to evict a Jew from his house and expel him, personally my conscience wouldn't allow it," he said. "Expelling people from this land is a terrible thing. I will work with all my soul and all my might not to let this happen." However, he stopped short of encouraging soldiers to disobey orders. According to the Haaretz poll, the rightwing bloc of parties is set to win 67 seats in the election, while the centre-left bloc, including Israeli-Arab parties, is on course to take 53 seats.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Politicians predict backlash from austerity-weary Greeks as unemployment reaches record 26% In the three years that Greece has been engulfed by the drama of its debt, crises have come and gone. But the next 12 months are likely to be more critical yet with politicians and pundits predicting that 2013 will ultimately define whether Athens remains in the eurozone. For once, Greeks are in accord with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who, adding to the prevailing pessimism, emphasised in her new year address that the worst crisis to ravage Europe since the second world war "is far from over". Few doubt that the continent's most powerful leader had Greece – the country she recently confessed to thinking more about than ever before and not "without a certain inner involvement" – in mind. The uncertainty that has enveloped the nation since the debt drama erupted beneath the Acropolis has not been alleviated by the passage of time. After five straight years of recession, the eurozone's weakest link moves into 2013 with an economy set to further contract, unemployment at a record 26%, one in three living on or below the poverty line, and the worst of austerity yet to come. In the runup to Christmas, even the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, felt fit to admit that despite being the recipient of €240bn in EU and IMF rescue funds – the biggest bailout in global history – Greece could still default on its massive pile of debt, a move that would result automatically in exit from the 17-nation bloc. "We still face a possible risk of bankruptcy," he told the FT, adding that Athens's fate would undoubtedly be determined by the ability of the prime minister, Antonis Samaras's fragile coalition to survive the unrest that will inevitably erupt with enforcement of cuts worth €9.2bn in the new year alone. Much would depend on whether the debt-stricken country meets the expectations of international creditors keeping insolvency at bay. And whether Greeks have the stamina, and their government the resolve, to accept and enact painful reforms. "We can make it [in 2013] if we stick to the programme agreed with the EU and IMF," said Stournaras. "What we have done so far is necessary but not sufficient to achieve a permanent solution for Greece." Analysts speak of a year of two parts, with the German general elections in September expected to play a pivotal role. Only then, say observers, will a newly installed government in Berlin – the main bankroller of bailout funds to date – be prepared to take the potentially costly decision of endorsing an official sector writedown of Athens's staggering €340bn debt load. For while the fiscal adjustment made by Greece is by far the biggest of any OECD country in modern times, there is no one who believes that its debt load is anywhere near managable. "By about June everyone will be talking again about the inability of Greece to perform economically," said Giorgos Kyrtsos, a rightwing political commentator. "If the economy is to function again and the country to remain in the eurozone it has to be absolved of at least 50% of its debt. Currently, the situation is hopeless with debt at 180% of GDP." On 31 January pensioners and civil servants will experience their first real wage cuts – on top of ever-growing taxes and utility prices – in more than a year. "A lot of people, especially in the middle class, are going to find they have no salaries at all, as reductions, ranging from 15 to 20%, are applied retroactively," said Kyrtsos, an opponent of the growth through austerity policies that lenders have placed as the price of further aid. "All the measures we have been talking about for the past six months," he said, referring to the budget reforms the governing coalition has been forced to draft since its election in June, "will have to be implemented and that will create all kinds of side-effects. Unemployment will rise to 30. No civilised society can function like that." With the country so dependent on cash handouts from foreign creditors, Samaras is acutely aware that there is no room for relaxation. The government is hoping that a long-delayed €34bn package of rescue loans, disbursed in December, will finally help energise Greece's near lifeless economy. "But," says Aliki Mouriki, a sociologist at the National Centre for Social Research, "the money that will be thrown into the Greek economy will take a very long time to trickle down to the people. Joblessness will continue to grow, the recession will get worse, more businesses will close. The big question will be who will survive?" With many predicting a backlash by austerity-weary Greeks, there is speculation over whether the ruling alliance will last longer than the spring. An opinion poll released by the Kapa research group this week showed 77.3% were unhappy with the coalition. Last year's double elections took the heat out of a population that long ago reached boiling point, pundits say. "It delayed the expression of unrest," said Mouriki. "But unless people see a way out of this deplorable situation there will be an explosion. Anger and despair are building up. The explosives are there." Many believe a clampdown on tax evasion and the perceived privileges of the rich, as well as a successful privatisation campaign and foreign direct investment will be critical to keeping chaos at bay. "In June the tourist season will begin and that will help," added Mouriki. "But until then we will have to hold our breath."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Country faces year of destiny, with doubts about survival of government and of its eurozone membership as austerity bites In the three years that Greece has been engulfed by the drama of its debt, crises have come and gone. But the next 12 months are likely to be more critical yet with politicians and pundits predicting that 2013 will ultimately define whether Athens remains in the eurozone. For once, Greeks are in accord with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who, adding to the prevailing pessimism, emphasised in her new year address that the worst crisis to ravage Europe since the second world war "is far from over". Few doubt that the continent's most powerful leader had Greece – the country she recently confessed to thinking more about than ever before and not "without a certain inner involvement" – in mind. The uncertainty that has enveloped the nation since the debt drama erupted beneath the Acropolis has not been alleviated by the passage of time. After five straight years of recession, the eurozone's weakest link moves into 2013 with an economy set to further contract, unemployment at a record 26%, one in three living on or below the poverty line, and the worst of austerity yet to come. In the runup to Christmas, even the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, felt fit to admit that despite being the recipient of €240bn in EU and IMF rescue funds – the biggest bailout in global history – Greece could still default on its massive pile of debt, a move that would result automatically in exit from the 17-nation bloc. "We still face a possible risk of bankruptcy," he told the FT, adding that Athens's fate would undoubtedly be determined by the ability of the prime minister, Antonis Samaras's fragile coalition to survive the unrest that will inevitably erupt with enforcement of cuts worth €9.2bn in the new year alone. Much would depend on whether the debt-stricken country meets the expectations of international creditors keeping insolvency at bay. And whether Greeks have the stamina, and their government the resolve, to accept and enact painful reforms. "We can make it [in 2013] if we stick to the programme agreed with the EU and IMF," said Stournaras. "What we have done so far is necessary but not sufficient to achieve a permanent solution for Greece." Analysts speak of a year of two parts, with the German general elections in September expected to play a pivotal role. Only then, say observers, will a newly installed government in Berlin – the main bankroller of bailout funds to date – be prepared to take the potentially costly decision of endorsing an official sector writedown of Athens's staggering €340bn debt load. For while the fiscal adjustment made by Greece is by far the biggest of any OECD country in modern times, there is no one who believes that its debt load is anywhere near managable. "By about June everyone will be talking again about the inability of Greece to perform economically," said Giorgos Kyrtsos, a rightwing political commentator. "If the economy is to function again and the country to remain in the eurozone it has to be absolved of at least 50% of its debt. Currently, the situation is hopeless with debt at 180% of GDP." On 31 January pensioners and civil servants will experience their first real wage cuts – on top of ever-growing taxes and utility prices – in more than a year. "A lot of people, especially in the middle class, are going to find they have no salaries at all, as reductions, ranging from 15 to 20%, are applied retroactively," said Kyrtsos, an opponent of the growth through austerity policies that lenders have placed as the price of further aid. "All the measures we have been talking about for the past six months," he said, referring to the budget reforms the governing coalition has been forced to draft since its election in June, "will have to be implemented and that will create all kinds of side-effects. Unemployment will rise to 30. No civilised society can function like that." With the country so dependent on cash handouts from foreign creditors, Samaras is acutely aware that there is no room for relaxation. The government is hoping that a long-delayed €34bn package of rescue loans, disbursed in December, will finally help energise Greece's near lifeless economy. "But," says Aliki Mouriki, a sociologist at the National Centre for Social Research, "the money that will be thrown into the Greek economy will take a very long time to trickle down to the people. Joblessness will continue to grow, the recession will get worse, more businesses will close. The big question will be who will survive?" With many predicting a backlash by austerity-weary Greeks, there is speculation over whether the ruling alliance will last longer than the spring. An opinion poll released by the Kapa research group this week showed 77.3% were unhappy with the coalition. Last year's double elections took the heat out of a population that long ago reached boiling point, pundits say. "It delayed the expression of unrest," said Mouriki. "But unless people see a way out of this deplorable situation there will be an explosion. Anger and despair are building up. The explosives are there." Many believe a clampdown on tax evasion and the perceived privileges of the rich, as well as a successful privatisation campaign and foreign direct investment will be critical to keeping chaos at bay. "In June the tourist season will begin and that will help," added Mouriki. "But until then we will have to hold our breath."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Coastguards use aircraft to determine condition of Royal Dutch Shell vessel, the Kulluk, which ran aground near Kodiak Island Two aircraft have flown over an oil drilling ship that ran aground in a severe Alaska storm and saw no sign that the vessel was leaking fuel or that its hull had been breached. The Royal Dutch Shell ship, the Kulluk, which was used in the Arctic last summer, ran aground on Monday on a sand and gravel shore off an uninhabited island near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The ship appeared stable, according to federal on-scene response co-ordinator Captain Paul Mehler. "There is no sign of a release of any product," Mehler said during a news conference at an Anchorage hotel. When the storm eases and weather permits, marine experts intend to board the Kulluk to take photos and videos, and then devise a salvage plan. Mehler said the Kulluk is carrying about 143,000 gallons (541,000 litres) of diesel, as well as about 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid. A coastguard C-130 plane and helicopter were used to fly over the grounded vessel on Tuesday morning. The severe weather did not allow marine experts to board the ship, which is being pounded by stormy seas. Mehler said there was a team of about 500 people working on a response to the situation, "with many more coming". The goal remains to get salvagers aboard the Kulluk and the ship refloated, Mehler added. A Shell official said the ship was built with a double-sided hull of reinforced steel that is 3 inches (7.5cm) thick. It recently had undergone $292m (£178.8m) in improvements before being put into service for a short time last summer in the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska's north coast. Stormy weather eased on Tuesday with waves 25-30ft (7.5-9 metres) and winds reduced to about 35mph. Winds were 70mph and waves had reached 50ft overnight, the National Weather Service said. The Kulluk was being towed on Monday by a 360ft anchor handler, the Aiviq, and a tugboat, the Alert. The vessels were moving north along Kodiak Island, to escape the worst of the storm. About 4.15pm the drill ship separated from the Aiviq about 10-15 miles (16km-24km) offshore. The tugboat crew guided the drill ship to a place where it would cause the least environmental damage and cut it loose. Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Shell Alaska, said once the situation is under control an investigation will be conducted into the cause. The coastguard said it would also be investigating and its findings would be made public. US Representative Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, issued a statement on Tuesday expressing his concerns about the situation. "Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies," Markey said. "Drilling expansion could prove disastrous for this sensitive environment."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Coastguards use aircraft to determine condition of Royal Dutch Shell vessel the Kulluk which ran aground near Kodiak Island Two aircraft have flown over an oil drilling ship that ran aground in a severe Alaskan storm and saw no sign that the vessel was leaking fuel or that its hull had been breached. The Royal Dutch Shell ship, the Kulluk, which was used in the Arctic last summer, ran aground on Monday on a sand and gravel shore off an uninhabited island near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The ship appeared stable, according to US federal on-scene response co-ordinator Captain Paul Mehler. "There is no sign of a release of any product," Mehler said during a news conference at an Anchorage hotel. When the storm eases and weather permits, marine experts intend to board the Kulluk to take photos and videos, and then devise a salvage plan. Mehler said the Kulluk was carrying about 143,000 gallons (541,000 litres) of diesel, as well as about 12,000 gallons of lubricating oil and hydraulic fluid. A coastguard C-130 plane and helicopter were used to fly over the grounded vessel on Tuesday morning. The severe weather did not allow marine experts to board the ship, which is being pounded by stormy seas. Mehler said there was a team of about 500 people working on a response to the situation, "with many more coming". The goal remained to get salvagers aboard the Kulluk and the ship refloated, Mehler added. A Shell official said the ship was built with a double-sided hull of reinforced steel that is 7.5cm (3in) thick. It had recently undergone $292m (£178.8m) worth of improvements before being put into service for a short time last summer in the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska's north coast. Stormy weather eased on Tuesday with waves 7.5-9 metres (25-30ft) and winds reduced to about 35mph. Winds were 70mph and waves had reached 15 metres overnight, the US National Weather Service said. The Kulluk was towed on Monday by a 360ft anchor handler, the Aiviq, and a tugboat, the Alert. The vessels moved north along Kodiak Island, to escape the worst of the storm. At about 4.15pm the drill ship separated from the Aiviq about 10-15 miles offshore. The tugboat crew guided the drill ship to a place where it would cause the least environmental damage and cut it loose. Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Shell Alaska, said once the situation was under control an investigation would be conducted into the cause. The coastguard said it would also be investigating and its findings would be made public. Congressman Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, issued a statement on Tuesday expressing his concerns about the situation. "Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies," Markey said. "Drilling expansion could prove disastrous for this sensitive environment."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Scores dead and an estimated 200 injured after New Year's Eve stampede at Abidjan stadium About 60 people have been crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks display. The incident took place near Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said. One of the injured at a hospital said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled. Other reports said the crush happened when thousands of people who were trying to leave the festivities met another large crowd arriving at the same time. "The provisional death toll is 60 and there are 49 injured," the interior minister, Hamed Bakayoko, said in a statement on national television. "During the fireworks everything was proceeding normally," Bakayoko said. "At the end of it people wanted to go home, back to their home districts. "Near the Hotel Tiama and the Houphouët-Boigny stadium there was a stampede. We were notified of injuries and deaths, and as regards casualties, we learnt that there was a heavy toll. The circumstances surrounding the incident will form the subject of an investigation." President Alassane Ouattara, visiting injured people at the hospital, called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was under way to determine what had happened. A Reuters correspondent said bloodstains and abandoned shoes littered the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning. Assetou Toure, a cleaner, said: "My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?" She did not know if her children had escaped unhurt. According to the Associated Press a state radio and a fire department rescue worker, estimated that an additional 200 people were injured. The emergency worker said a crowd of thousands gathered at the Houphouët-Boigny Stadium to see the fireworks and after the display the crowds in the street became a crush in which people were trampled. The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people. Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for west Africa, is struggling to recover from the 2011 civil war in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuela's vice-president attempts to quell rumours of president's deteriorating health during Cuban visit Venezuela's vice-president is returning home from visiting Hugo Chávez in Cuba and said the ailing president's condition remained "delicate" three weeks after cancer surgery. With rumours swirling that Chávez had taken a turn for the worse, Nicolas Maduro said he had met with the president twice and had spoken with him. "He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us … to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances," Maduro said in an interview prerecorded in Havana broadcast on Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur. Both supporters and opponents of Chávez have been on edge in the past week amid mixed signals from the government about the president's health. Chávez has not been seen or heard from since the operation on 11 December operation, and officials announced on Sunday that he faced complications from a respiratory infection. Maduro did not provide any new details about Chávez's complications during Tuesday's interview but urged Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumours were being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela". Maduro said Chávez faced "a complex and delicate situation", but added that he seemed to have "the same strength as always". "All the time we've been hoping for his positive evolution. Sometimes he has had light improvements, sometimes stationary situations," he said. Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised Venezuelan government programmes, recalled the history of the Cuban revolution and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Chávez's socialist Bolivarian Revolution movement. He said that former Cuban president Fidel Castro had been at the hospital, and praised Cuba's government. "Today we're together on a single path," Maduro said. Maduro's political opponents said on Twitter that he sounded like a mouthpiece for the Cuban government, accusing him of withholding key details about Chávez's condition. They have demanded the government provide the country with a full medical report.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Venezuela's vice-president Nicolas Maduro attempts to quell rumours of president's deteriorating health during Cuban visit Venezuela's vice-president is returning home from visiting Hugo Chávez in Cuba and sayid the ailing president's condition remained "delicate" three weeks after cancer surgery. With rumours swirling that Chávez had taken a turn for the worse, Nicolas Maduro said he had met with the president twice and had spoken with him. "He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us … to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances," Maduro said in an interview prerecorded in Havana broadcast on Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur. Both supporters and opponents of Chávez have been on edge in the past week amid mixed signals from the government about the president's health. Chávez has not been seen or heard from since the operation on 11 December operation, and officials announced on Sunday that he faced complications from a respiratory infection. Maduro did not provide any new details about Chávez's complications during Tuesday's interview but urged Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumours were being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela". Maduro said Chávez faced "a complex and delicate situation", but added that he seemed to have "the same strength as always". "All the time we've been hoping for his positive evolution. Sometimes he has had light improvements, sometimes stationary situations," he said. Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised Venezuelan government programmes, recalled the history of the Cuban revolution and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Chávez's socialist Bolivarian Revolution movement. He said that former Cuban president Fidel Castro had been at the hospital, and praised Cuba's government. "Today we're together on a single path," Maduro said. Maduro's political opponents said on Twitter that he sounded like a mouthpiece for the Cuban government, accusing him of withholding key details about Chávez's condition. They have demanded the government provide the country with a full medical report.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live updates as the New Year in Syria starts with more violence in Damascus and Aleppo
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Photographer was taking pictures of singer's white Ferrari when he was hit by vehicle on Sepulveda Boulevard, police say A paparazzo has been killed after being hit by a car while taking photos of Justin Bieber's white Ferrari on a Los Angeles street. Los Angeles police officer James Stoughton said the photographer, who has not been named, died in hospital shortly after the crash on Tuesday evening. Stoughton said Bieber was not in the Ferrari at the time. The sports car was parked on the side of Sepulveda Boulevard near Getty Center Drive after a traffic stop. The photographer was struck as he walked across the boulevard after taking pictures. Stoughton said no charges were likely to be filed against the motorist who hit the man. A call to a spokesperson for the singer was not immediately returned on Tuesday night.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New York Republicans and Democrats angry as session ends without vote on aid for victims of superstorm Sandy Republicans and Democrats from New York erupted in anger late on Tuesday night after learning that the House Republican leadership decided to allow the current term of Congress to end without holding a vote on aid for victims of superstorm Sandy. Peter King, a New York Republican, said he was told by the office of the majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, that Speaker John Boehner had decided to abandon a vote this session. House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters that just before Tuesday evening's vote on fiscal cliff legislation, Cantor told him he was "99.9% confident that this bill would be on the floor, and that's what he wanted". Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said: "The speaker is committed to getting this bill passed this month." In remarks on the House floor, King called the decision "absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible. We cannot just walk away from our responsibilities." The Senate approved a $60.4bn (£37bn) package on Friday to help with recovery from the October storm that devastated parts of New York, New Jersey and nearby states. The House Appropriations Committee has drafted a smaller, $27bn measure, and a vote had been expected before Congress's term ends on Thursday at noon. More than $2bn in federal funds has been spent so far on relief efforts for 11 states and Washington DC, which were affected by the storm, one of the worst ever to hit the north-east US. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (Fema) disaster relief fund still has about $4.3bn, enough to pay for recovery efforts into early spring, according to officials. The unspent Fema money can only be used for emergency services, said Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat. At least 120 people died during Sandy, which battered coastline areas from North Carolina to Maine, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were the hardest hit states and suffered high winds, flooding and storm surges. The storm damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey. In New York, 305,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and more than 265,000 businesses affected. "This is an absolute disgrace and the speaker should hang his head in shame," said Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat. "I'm here tonight saying to myself for the first time that I'm not proud of the decision my team has made," said Michael Grimm, a New York Republican. "It is the wrong decision, and I'm going to be respectful and ask that the speaker reconsider his decision. Because it's not about politics, it's about human lives." The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, said she didn't know whether a decision has been made and added: "We cannot leave here doing nothing. That would be a disgrace."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Barack Obama praises passing of bill calling it a fulfilment of campaign promise to impose higher taxes on the wealthy America's long-running fiscal cliff crisis was finally resolved on Tuesday night when Congress voted in favour of a White House compromise that will impose tax rises on the wealthiest and spare the working-class and middle-class. Barack Obama, in a statement to reporters at the White House, hailed it as a fulfilment of his election campaign promise. "The central premise of my campaign for president was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy at the expense of working, middle-class Americans. Tonight we have done that," he said. Obama, who broke off his holiday with his family in Hawaii to return to Washington to see the crisis resolved, left minutes later to fly back to Honolulu. Before leaving, he issued a warning that he was tired of these repeated showdowns with Congress and would be looking for alternative ways of doing business in Washington. Already the Republicans are gearing up for fresh confrontations as early as next month over spending cuts and the debt ceiling. Obama called instead for a more bipartisan approach on issues such as spending cuts. "The one thing I think hopefully in the new year we will focus on is seeing if whether we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinkmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much," the president said. The end of the fiscal cliff drama came when a large bloc of House Republicans, who had stubbornly opposed the bill, caved in and reluctantly joined Democrats to pass it comfortably by 257 to 167. It exposed the extent of the Republican ideological divide, with 85 voting for and 151 unable to swallow the deal. The Democrats were more cohesive, with only 16 Democrats voting against. The House vote came after the Senate passed the bill in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The bill is a short-term, messy compromise. Without the bill, every taxpayer in America would have faced rises from 1 January. Instead, the increases are confined to the wealthiest 2% of the population. The bill also blocked automatic cuts in federal programmes from defence to welfare due to kick in on 1 January. A decision on cuts has been postponed for two months. Obama, in his White House statement after the House vote, said: "Thanks to the votes of Democrats and Republicans in Congress I will sign a law that raises the tax on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preventing a middle-class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession." The Congressional vote amounts to only a partial victory for Obama. He had promised the new taxes would kick in at $250,000 but, to the dismay of leftwing Democrats, agreed to compromise, in the face of Republican opposition, on $450,000. The Republicans had wanted the threshold set at $1m. America went over the 'fiscal cliff' at midnight on 31 December, with every taxpayer facing an automatic rise. The rises proved temporary. The new legislation reverses this, removing the increases from all but the wealthiest. The White House had warned that failure to reach a deal could unsettle the markets as well as slow economic recovery. It is hoping the deal will calm the markets when Wall Street reopens on Wednesday. Obama, feeling empowered by his election victory in November, had been hoping that he might at last be able to tame the Republican House members, many of them backed by the Tea Party. Although he won a small victory over the fiscal cliff, it is far from the crushing one he had been hoping for. House Republicans are already planning a series of fresh showdowns, beginning next month over spending cuts and the debt ceiling. Obama originally proposed a 'grand bargain' to deal with all of the remaining issues in the hope that he would avoid these regular and debilitating stand-offs with Congress. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, within minutes of Tuesday's vote, flagged up the coming battles ahead over spending and the debt ceiling. So too did the Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who said: "Now the focus turns to spending. The American people re-elected a Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the president accountable." But Obama insisted he had enough of such confrontation. If Congress decides to make an issue of raising the debt ceiling, it would be responsible for the "catastrophic" consequences. The fiscal cliff crisis has been runnning since Obama won the election in early November. Attempts by Obama and the Republican House Speaker John Boehner to do a deal before Christmas collapsed. So too did negotations between the Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart McConnell. In the end, the deal was brokered over the weekend by McConnell and the vice-president, Joe Biden. The bill was passed by the Senate, with 89 senators in favour and eight against, at 2am on Tuesday, too late to prevent the country breaching the midnight fiscal cliff deadline. The bill restricts tax rises to individuals earning $400,000 or more a year and households earning $450,000 or more. Estate tax also rises, to 40% from 35%, but inheritances below $5m are exempted from the increase. Benefits for the unemployed are extended for another year.
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