| |  | | | | | 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Can the Minnesota Vikings beat their division rivals the Green Bay Packers for the second time in two weeks? Find out with Paolo Bandini
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | NFL playoffs: The Packers will travel to San Francisco next weekend after crushing Minnesota at Lambeau Field
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With billions of mouths to feed, we can't go on producing food in the traditional way. Scientists are coming up with novel ways to cater for future generations. In-vitro burger, anyone? The future feast is laid out around a cool white room at Eindhoven's University of Technology . There is a steak tartare of in-vitro beef fibre, wittily knitted into the word "meat". There are "fruit-meat" amuse-gueules. The green- and pink-striped sushi comes from a genetically modified vegetarian fish called the biccio that, usefully, has green- and pink-striped flesh. To wash this down, there's a programmable red wine: with a microwave pulse you can turn it into anything from Montepulciano to a Syrah. For the kids, there are sweet fried crickets, programmable colas and "magic meatballs". These are made from animal-friendly artificial meat grown from stem cells: packed with Omega 3 and vitamins, they "crackle in your mouth". Yum. None of this is quite ready to dish up. The meatballs at the Eindhoven future food show are made from Plasticine; the knitted steak, appropriately, from pinky-red wool. But the ideas aren't fantasy. Koert van Mensvoort, assistant professor at the university, calls them "nearly possible". Van Mensvoort – who is also the brains behind nextnature.net, a must-see website for technological neophiliacs – put his industrial design undergraduates together with bio-tech engineers, marketing specialists and a moral philosopher, tasking them to come up with samples of food that is, technologically, already on our doorstep. The truth, though, is that artificial steak is still a way off. Pizza toppings are closer. The star of the Dutch research into in-vitro meat, Dr Mark Post, promised that the first artificial hamburger, made from 10bn lab-grown cells, would be ready for "flame-grilling by Heston Blumenthal" by the end of 2012. At the time of writing it is still on the back burner. Post (who previously produced valves for heart surgery) and other Dutch scientists are currently working over the problem of how to turn the "meat" from pieces of jelly into something acceptably structured: an old-fashioned muscle. Electric shocks may be the answer. This quest is key to the future of food. It's not what can be done but what we will accept. Some scientists warn that trying to copy the meats humans are used to is futile – another symptom of our ignorant and unsustainable nostalgia about food. "It's simplistic to say 'natural is good', to reject globalisation and hark back to a mythical past when food was still 'true and honest'," says the Dutch intellectual Louise Fresco, a former head of food- innovation research and an advisor to the UN. "It's the default thing to do, to try and replicate what you know," warns van Mensvoort. "It's not how you innovate. We started with horseless carriages, but in the end what we got was cars. 'Natural' is the biggest marketing scam, and the most successful, of all." The technological problems of producing the new hi-tech foods are nothing compared to the trouble the industry is having with the consumers – the "yuck factor", as the food technology scientists across the world like to put it. Shoppers' squeamishness has turned the food corporations, from whom the real money for R&D will have to come, very wary, and super-secretive about their work on GM in America. There's energy behind these projects because of the certainty that 9 billion human beings cannot possibly go on eating food, especially meat, produced in the traditional way. The planet can't take it. Dutch food companies need to cater to a population that eats more pork than any other in Europe, but they do not publicly fund Koert van Mensvoort's work at Eindhoven, or any of the artificial-meat research. That's done by the Dutch government. Van Mensvoort is contemptuous of the food corporations' nervousness, especially when so much is at stake, pointing out that "if the industry sees a word like 'pharmaceutical sushi' they say, 'You can't put our name near that!' They're afraid." I have first-hand experience of this: at a scientific conference on food and nano-technology (engineering at sub-molecular level) an executive from Europe's biggest food company begged me not to print the fact that he was there. It's all Monsanto's fault. "It was a historic mistake that GMO started with herbicides, and that the US government gave the corporations the freedom to introduce them," says Professor Fresco, who wants to feed not just the rich, but the hungry all across a future world of 9 billion people. Monsanto, the Dr Frankenstein of our time, certainly generated appalling publicity around its callous and careless marketing of GM pesticides in the United States and in India. The public's subsequent collapse of faith in bio-tech science, says Fresco, has not just put the brakes on new foods for the rich world. It's also damaging the fight to end hunger. Hundreds of millions of Africans who depend on an unreliable staple, such as cassava, are deprived of the technology that could make it disease- and pest-resistant. GM rice could raise productivity by 40%. "African scientists say, 'Don't you dare bar us from this technology,'" says Fresco. There are risks, she agrees, but she believes we're better able to monitor them than ever before. Though the scientists in Holland avoid the term GM, the quiet consensus is that the technology is coming, the world needs it and that Europe needs to get real about it or be left behind. Could ethical concerns ultimately drive public acceptance of the new food technology? Cor van der Weele, Professor of Humanistic Philosophy at Wageningen University, is convinced that's the case, with artificial meat at least. "People will see the moral benefits of cultured meats. Taking stem cells from a pig rather than killing millions of pigs in factories is already a more attractive idea to consumers." She quotes studies of the viability of growing meat in sunlight-fuelled "bio-reactors" placed in desert areas: the reduction in resources is staggering. "It would require 1% of the land and just 2% of the water that traditional meat production does. And it would involve a 90% reduction in greenhouse gases," she says. Eating real meat in 2035 could be as morally questionable as eating foie gras – and about as expensive. As Dr Mark Post says: "A meat-eater with a bicycle is much more environmentally unfriendly than a vegetarian with a Hummer." All we know for sure is that future meals are going to be more expensive, and won't come in a pill. That job is technically impossible: even the Pentagon's battlefield R&D department has given up trying to cram 2,000 calories into one capsule (it would weigh about half a pound). Besides, we like eating. And though the food industry is brilliant at selling us things we don't need, the customer is still king. Our desires in food are laden with paradox. We love novelty, but are transfixed by nostalgia and tradition. We want to pay less while getting ever better quality. We want natural and healthy, though the two are not necessarily the same. We want to eat better than previous generations, but we revere what those generations ate. Nostalgia, neophilia, hypochondria and snobbery drive the hunter-gatherer today, all sauced with deep scepticism about science, supermarkets and the dark machinations of the "food-industrial complex". None of that seems likely to change over the next 25 years. But what will is the supply of food – more radically than at any time during the 20th century. Climate change and the end of the era of cheap fossil fuels for transport and fertiliser are altering the food system. The world's three most important food crops – rice, wheat and maize – are largely grown in the countries most at risk from rising temperatures, and the predictions are stark. Maize, for a start, can't be grown above 30C. All food futurologists agree we can't go on eating the way we have. But though the organic lobby is convinced that back to basics could solve the world's problems, no serious scientist believes traditional farming alone will work. And so we will have to accept the new and "unnatural" if we want to stay fed. The public already accepts many things as natural that are not – from the bacteria-generated slime that gives bulk to low-fat mayonnaise to the chemicals that taste more real than the real thing (have a look at the label next time you buy "truffle oil"). Author Josh Schonwald has found US bio-tech researchers are already far ahead with the nutrition of the future. As he reveals in his book, The Food of Tomorrow, the labs at the University of California-Davis are gene-splicing to create "grapes spiked with jellyfish, tomatoes spiked with carp…" and lettuce that will last on the shelf for weeks. There may already be pigs genetically engineered to grow up to five times faster. Notoriously – it was the subject of a Greenpeace campaign – there is a tomato made to last longer by using Arctic flounder genes, while in Israel a lemon basil plant crossed with a tomato has tested well with consumers. In Schonwald's view, all that the industry awaits is a relaxation of government regulation that will make development of these foods financially feasible. In the course of writing his book, Schonwald was converted. He began as a technosceptic: now he reckons that categorical rejection of GM is "reckless, dangerous and inhumane". It's the promise of adapting crops to get essential vitamins to millions of the poorest children that sold GM to him. But, historically, hi-tech seems to let down the poor. Chemical fertiliser and pesticide has created dependency and pollution. Medical breakthroughs are for the rich world: drug companies spend more researching erectile dysfunction than they do malaria. But breeding and mutating food species, whether in a lab or on the farm, is the only convincing plan anyone has for feeding the whole world. Something has to give in our present food culture. It doesn't seem possible that food can ever be as cheap again as it was circa the year 2000. In Western Europe we now spend between 10% and 15% of household income on food – 60 years ago it was 60%. Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at London's City University, says cheap food has been unrealistic, because at the moment we don't actually pay its real price: "We've externalised the costs on to the environment, far-off places and cheap labour throughout food chains." Population growth alone is going to push up the price of grain; the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation reckons the planet will need to produce 40% more by 2050, while climate change is already affecting the great bread-baskets of the world. Lang has told the UK government that the oil-dependent food culture is over and that trading bio-diversity for food justice "will lead to Armageddon". When the future food arrives, most of us won't have any choice about what we eat.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In the years of the housing boom, Spain's banks offered 100% mortgages. Now, while receiving millions in public aid, they are throwing people out of their homes. But there's a rebellion under way, report Monica Muñoz and Giles Tremlett He is a locksmith who refuses to open locked doors; neither will he replace their locks with new ones. What may seem a disastrous strategy for Iker de Carlos, a 22-year-old Spaniard starting out in the world of cylinders, pins, bolts and lock springs in his home city of Pamplona, is actually part of a growing civic rebellion in support of the biggest losers in Spain's five-year story of failing, mismanaged banks – those being thrown out of their homes after falling behind on mortgage payments. Tired of accompanying court officials to evict unemployed people as banks foreclosed mortgages, De Carlos consulted his fellow Pamplona locksmiths before Christmas. In no time at all, they came to an agreement. They would not do the dirty work of banks whose rash lending pumped up a housing bubble and then, after it popped, helped bring the country to its knees. "It only took us 15 minutes to reach a decision," says De Carlos amid the racks of keys in the family's shop in the centre of this small northern city best known for its annual bull-runs and the adoration heaped on it by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises. "We all had stories of jobs we had been on where families had been left on the street. When you set out all you have is an address and the name of the bank, but I recall an elderly, sick man who was barely given time to put his trousers on." The logic behind their decision was clear and simple. While Spain's banks mop up billions of euros in public aid, they are also busy reclaiming homes that in some cases they lent silly money for. At the height of Spain's housing madness, banks were, in effect, offering mortgages of more than 100%. They aggressively chased clients – especially among the immigrants who arrived from Latin America in their millions to build new homes – creating an uncontrolled spiral of self-fulfilling, but ultimately doomed, demand. Complex networks of guarantors were pieced together by middlemen among immigrants who often barely understood what they were doing. "Spain must be the only country in the world where banks were allowed to offer 100% mortgages," said Guillermo Perilla, a 31-year-old Colombian immigrant who bought a house on the outskirts of Pamplona for €240,000 in 2005. "Not only that, but in some cases they also offered further loans to the people taking out mortgages. The bank staff were on commission." Seven years after buying his house Perilla, an unemployed painter whose wife works part-time, is fighting foreclosure. The bank has told him his house is now only worth €140,000 and refuses to accept it back in payment for the debt. "But it was their valuer who originally said it was worth a lot more," he said. "Banks inflated prices and now they are making ordinary people pay for them." The bank has now said he can just pay interest for three years: "But that still leaves me with the debt. These things crush you, both morally and physically." Last month, Spain's banks began to receive what will eventually be more than €40bn (£32.5bn) in aid. The number of foreclosures, meanwhile, increased by 134% last year. "Social conflict is being created," said Gonzalo Moliner, head of Spain's higher judiciary council. Properties were often reclaimed through the courts on valuations well below levels at which the loans were given. Those unable to pay can be evicted while still saddled with ever-growing debt. De Carlos believes that Pamplona's locksmiths have now lost 10% of their trade, but recovered their honour and dignity: "This summer we were doing two or three foreclosures a week." The locksmiths' rebellion follows several widely reported suicides by people about to be evicted from their homes. Amaia Egaña, a 53-year-old former socialist councillor in the northern town of Barakaldo, threw herself out of a window just as the court authorities – and their locksmith – were about to evict her in November. "It wasn't suicide," demonstrators who marched through her town later that day shouted. "It was murder." The Roman Catholic bishop of Bilbao called for urgent action to prevent further suicides. "We had a suicide in Santesteban, too, where someone threw themselves out of the window," said Perilla, who now helps to campaign to stop foreclosures. "Banks still don't want to do anything. As you stop paying you cease to exist for them – they don't care if you are sick or if you have children. But they can buckle under pressure. They hate the bad publicity." As Spain enters yet another year of austerity and sky-high unemployment, people such as De Carlos are increasingly fed up with seeing the country's most vulnerable paying for the errors of its banks. Campaigners now regularly form human barricades at the front doors of those due to be evicted from their homes. But things look unlikely to get better. Unemployment, already at 26%, is set to grow, creating still more people who cannot pay mortgages. Iker is one of the fortunate minority in his age bracket with a job. More than 50% of under-25s fail to find work. Spain lost some 800,000 jobs last year. Only Greece – Europe's worst disaster story – can rival the figures. Even Pamplona, a relatively wealthy city at the centre of Navarra, one of Spain's richest and best-funded regions, is feeling the squeeze. Unemployment in the region is 15%, higher than in any other European country bar Greece, Croatia and Portugal – but the lowest in Spain. A quarter of those unemployed joined Navarra's dole queues last year as the region discovered that, despite the presence of major employers such as Volkswagen, it was not immune to the downturn. Like Spaniards elsewhere, people here have almost stopped buying houses. In October only 250 new mortgages were signed in a region of 640,000 people – a sixth of the monthly rate five years ago. Prices have fallen 38% since Spain's housing bubble burst, but are expected to fall further. Loans no longer come from the once proud local savings bank, Caja Navarra. Like many of Spain's regional savings banks, it sank under the weight of its own toxic real estate assets, losing value rapidly and merging with two others before being taken over by a large Catalan bank, la Caixa. In Madrid, the locksmiths of Pamplona are being held up as an example to follow. "You have to fight," said 75-year-old Luis Domínguez. Last year he called in campaigners to prevent court officials throwing him out of his house in the dormitory town of Parla. Now Luis is part of a group who have spent the past 77 days camped out at the doors of Bankia – Spain's fourth-largest bank, which has taken €20bn in rescue money. He is now negotiating a rental agreement with his bank and hopes to pay €250 a month in rent for the next five years. Gladys Cerna, 49, is facing foreclosure on her small flat in Madrid's San Blas neighbourhood. Her bank gave her a 120% mortgage in 2007. "When you sign they turn up with lawyers and economists, and I didn't have any real idea what I was letting myself in for," she said. Spooked by the suicides, prime minister Mariano Rajoy's reformist , pro-austerity government changed the law last year to allow those with large families or very sick dependents to stay longer in their homes. But campaigners say it is not enough. "They have placed a tiny sticking plaster over the problem," said Perilla. "It only covers really extreme cases. Banks will still do whatever they can to evict people." In Pamplona, however, they will now find it harder to find a locksmith to help them.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Man to face charges of attempted murder after shots were fired at officers during disturbances following loyalist rally Riots have broken out in Belfast after police came under gun attack for the first time in the continuing violent loyalist flag dispute. A taxi was hijacked and there are reports that a bus was set on fire just hours after shots were fired at police lines along the Newtownards Road in the east of the city, following a loyalist rally. Police confirmed they were investigating reports of gunshots directed at officers. A spokesman said two men had been arrested, including a 38-year-old who will face charges of attempted murder. The shooting incident marks a significant change in the continued loyalist protests against Belfast city council's decision to restrict the flying of the union flag atop City Hall to 17 designated days. Until then, police had come under attack from petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles. The chairman of the Police Federation, Terry Spence, said he had no doubt that paramilitaries had been involved in the violence. "This is a very sinister development and quite clearly the police came under fire this afternoon from a gunman," he said. "I think what it clearly does demonstrate is that there has been paramilitary involvement in these attacks on police and it has been orchestrated, in the case of east Belfast, by the UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force]." Rioting continued along the Newtownards Road as 100 loyalists attacked PSNI officers. At one stage police used a water cannon to force demonstrators away from the nearby Catholic Short Strand district. Vehicles were hijacked and set alight and there were also reports of petrol bombs being thrown. Earlier, riot squad officers had been bombarded with bricks, bottles, fireworks and smoke canisters.The protesters had been returning to the east of the city after a rally on Saturday lunchtime at City Hall. Nine men and two women aged between 20 and 52 were expected to appear at a special late sitting of Belfast magistrates court in connection with riots over the previous 48 hours. Nine police officers were injured in Friday's trouble, bringing the total number of police casualties since the protests began against the new flag policy to more than 40. Tensions are at boiling point in east Belfast with local loyalists claiming that Saturday's violence exploded only after a baby was injured as demonstrators were passing by the Short Strand area. They alleged that republican youths from the district attacked the loyalist rally, first with missiles hurled across the so-called peace line. Loyalist sources said there was a serious danger of paramilitary ceasefires being broken due to what they claim were "heavy-handed" police tactics in the area. But the MP for east Belfast, the Alliance party's Naomi Long, appealed for an end to three consecutive days of disorder in her constituency. Long, who has been the subject of a loyalist death threat, said it was "deeply disturbing" to hear that shots had been directed at the police. "Peaceful and lawful protest is party of the democratic process, but the frequency with which the law is being broken by blocking roads and damaging property, and the repeated deterioration of protests into riots, means that it is irresponsible to continue to bring people on to the streets," the east Belfast MP said. Long and other Alliance party representatives have come under attack from loyalists because the non-sectarian, centrist party holds the balance of power on Belfast city council. It was Alliance's compromise motion at Belfast City Hall last week that restricted the flying of the union flag there to 17 days. Nationalist councillors were pushing for the total end of flying the union flag atop Belfast City Hall. The compromise measure, however, was not enough for some hardline loyalists who wanted the policy restored where the flag was flown every day of the year. At one stage on Friday the PSNI also had to deploy 39 armoured Landrovers to hold back 300 loyalists, many of them teenagers or younger. It is understood that police received intelligence reports on Friday that loyalist paramilitaries would use live rounds against riot squadofficers if they fired plastic baton rounds at the rioters in east Belfast. The use of live rounds on the Newtownards Road will also raise questions about the stability of loyalist paramilitary ceasefires, with reports that members of the UVF were behind the shooting attack. Police were advising motorists to avoid the Newtownards Road area between Bridge End and Holywood Arches. This was the third consecutive day that the PSNI has come under attack from loyalists in east Belfast. Police also came under attack in the Newtonabbey area, north of the city. Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson has called for an end to the street violence and labelled attacks on police officers as a "disgrace".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Legislature cements Diosdado Cabello's position as third most powerful figure in government Venezuelan politicians re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chávez to head the national assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery. By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the "Chávista"-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier's position as the third most powerful figure in the government, after Chávez and vice-president Nicolás Maduro. "As a patriot … I swear to be supremely loyal in everything I do, to defend the fatherland, its institutions, and this beautiful revolution led by our Comandante Hugo Chávez," Cabello said as he took the oath, his hand on the constitution. He had earlier warned opposition politicians against attempting to use the national assembly to "conspire" against the people, saying they would be "destroyed" if they tried. Thousands of the president's red-clad supporters gathered outside parliament hours before the vote, many chanting: "We are all Chávez! Our comandante will be well! He will return!" If Chávez had to step down, or died, Cabello would take over the running of the country as assembly president and a new election would be organized within 30 days. Chávez's heir apparent, Maduro, would be the ruling Socialist party candidate. Chávez, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area in mid-2011, has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks. Officials say the 58-year-old is in a delicate condition and has suffered multiple complications since the surgery on 11 December, including unexpected bleeding and severe respiratory problems. Late on Friday, Maduro gave the clearest indication yet that the government was preparing to delay Chávez's inauguration for a new six-year term, which is scheduled for Thursday. Maduro said the ceremony was a "formality" and that Chávez could be sworn in by the supreme court at a later date. The opposition says Chávez's absence would be just the latest sign that he is no longer fit to govern, and that new elections should be held. Brandishing a copy of the constitution after his win in the assembly, Cabello slammed opposition leaders for writing a letter to foreign embassies in which they accused the government of employing a "twisted reading" of the charter. "Get this into your heads: Hugo Chávez was elected president and he will continue to be president beyond 10 January. No one should have any doubt … this is the constitutional route," he said as fellow Socialist party lawmakers cheered. The opposition sat stony-faced. One of their legislators had earlier told the session that it was not just the head of state who was ill, but that "the republic is sick". Last year, Chávez staged what appeared to be a remarkable comeback from the disease to win re-election in October, despite being weakened by radiation therapy. He returned to Cuba for more treatment within weeks of his victory. Should the president have to step down after 14 years in office, a new vote would probably pit Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader, against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state. Capriles lost to Chávez in October's presidential election. "I don't think Maduro would last many rounds in a presidential race. He's not fit for the responsibility they have given him," Capriles said after the vice-president's appearance on state television. Chávez's condition is being watched closely by leftist allies around Latin American who have benefited from his oil-funded generosity, as well as investors attracted by Venezuela's lucrative and widely traded debt. The country boasts the world's biggest crude reserves. Despite the huge political upheaval Chávez's exit would cause, the oil industry is not likely to be affected much in the short term, with an extension of "Chávismo" keeping projects on track, while a change in parties could usher in more foreign capital.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In a sequel to last season's NFL Wild Card Weekend, the streaking Cincinnati Bengals are seeking revenge in the playoffs over the sputtering Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Prosecutor says five men charged with murder of 23-year-old student tried to destroy evidence by burning their clothes Forensic evidence from the bus in which a 23-year-old Delhi student was gang-raped links the scene of the crime with men accused of her attack, a public prosecutor in the Indian capital claimed on Saturday. Feelings are still running high in India following the incident three weeks ago, with calls for reforms of laws and policing, and a continuing debate on attitudes towards women. Five men charged with rape and murder have been ordered to appear in court on Monday. It will be their first public appearance since being detained two days after the attack. They face the death penalty. Public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told a judge in the south Delhi suburb of Saket that the men had attempted to destroy evidence by burning their clothes, but that parts of the burnt material had been found to have traces of blood from the victim, who died in a Singapore hospital eight days ago. The men's trial is due to start in a week, in a new fast-track court inaugurated last week specifically to deal with sexual violence against women. The accused, aged between 19 and 35, are currently being held at Delhi's Tihar prisons. A youth alleged to have taken part in the 16 December assault will be tried separately. In his first interview since the attack the male friend of the victim has described how passersby left the pair lying unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour. The graphic account in a television interview is likely to add fuel to public anger at the death, in a country where official statistics show that a rape is reported every 20 minutes and where sexual harassment of women in public places is systematic. The woman's friend told the ZeeNews TV network that he was beaten unconscious before the pair were thrown off a bus they had boarded in the mistaken belief it would take them home after an evening watching the film Life of Pi at a nearby shopping centre cinema. The woman was raped for more than an hour and suffered internal injuries after an assault with an iron bar. The pair lay on the roadside for about 45 minutes before three police vans arrived. Officers then spent a long time arguing about where to take them, the man said. "We kept shouting at the police, 'Please give us some clothes,' but they were busy deciding which police station our case should be registered at," he said. Eventually, the officers fetched a sheet from a nearby hotel. He said they carried the victims to a police vehicle, despite their injuries. Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said records showed the first police van reaching the scene four minutes after it was called. He said it left after seven minutes and arrived at a hospital within 24 minutes. The friend described the pair's attempts to call for help during the attack. "We were shouting, trying to make people hear us. But they switched off the lights of the bus," he said, according to a transcript of the interview. When they were finally thrown out at a roadside near the city's airport, they pleaded with passersby for help, he added in the studio interview. A blue metal crutch was leaning against his chair. "There were a few people who had gathered round, but nobody helped. My friend was grievously injured and bleeding profusely. We were without clothes. We tried to stop passersby. Several auto-rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed down but none stopped for about 25 minutes. Then someone called the police," he said. The man also criticised delays and care at the public hospital where the pair were taken. He said they were again left without clothes or treatment for a long time. Neither the woman nor her friend have been named and the TV channel that ran the interview is under investigation by police, who claim it has threatened their anonymity. His revelations will fuel further criticism of authorities in India, who have alternated between promises of reform and a barely disguised contempt for the largely urban middle-class protesters who have taken to the streets over recent weeks. Huge gaps in the provision of security, healthcare and other basic services supposedly provided by the state have been exposed by the tragedy, deepening public anger. Underground railway stations in Delhi have been closed to prevent gatherings in the city centre. Thousands of police were deployed to protect parliament buildings and the homes of senior officials after the news of the attack spread. Analysts point to a growing gulf between a government used to a traditional opaque and paternalist style of politics and the accountability demanded by new voters. The victim's friend called on the protests to continue. "If you can help someone, help them. If a single person had helped me that night, things would have been different. There is no need to close metro stations and stop the public from expressing themselves. People should be allowed to have faith in the system," he said. He also said he wished people had come to his friend's help when she needed it: "You have to help people on the road when they need help." According to Indian newspapers, the victim had to give a detailed statement twice because of an administrative dispute between officials. Her friend said he lay on a stretcher for four days in a police station without medical assistance after the attack.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The substitute Robin van Persie scored a masterful injury-time equaliser after James Collins had scored twice for West Ham in a cracking cup tie
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party could gain powerful leverage after this month's vote in Israel Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has been forced to recalibrate his election campaign in response to a downward spiral in opinion polls due to a surprise challenge from an ultra-nationalist startup millionaire and veteran of Israel's most elite commando unit. New tactics are expected to be in evidence on Sunday when Netanyahu appears at a youth rally, following the panicked cancellation of an event on Thursday after dismal turnouts at two campaign rallies earlier in the week. On the advice of his campaign strategist, US Republican adviser Arthur Finkelstein, the prime minister will stop making direct attacks on Naftali Bennett, whose far-right Jewish Home party has gained unexpected momentum. Assaults on the 40-year-old Bennett have boosted his electoral appeal, analysts say. Netanyahu will focus instead on extreme rightwing and ultra-religious members of Jewish Home who are in contention to gain parliamentary seats in the election on 22 January – dubbed by some as the "list of lunatics". Bennett has said his candidates are "the best of the best". The battle on the far right of the political spectrum has rattled Likud-Beiteinu, the electoral partnership forged between Netanyahu and the rightwing former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, at the start of the campaign. Netanyahu is reported to have shouted at party workers last week, and Finkelstein flew in from the US a week ahead of schedule to advise on how to staunch the loss of voters. A Jerusalem Post poll on Friday forecast 32 seats for Likud-Beiteinu in the 120-member parliament, down from a total of 42 currently held by the two parties and from Finkelstein's forecast of 47 at the time of the merger. Jewish Home was on course to win 16 seats, putting it within spitting distance of becoming Israel's second-largest party, a position at present held by Labour, who are predicted to take 17 seats. The Post poll followed the pattern of numerous recent surveys showing Bennett's party steadily gaining at the expense of Likud-Beiteinu. Analysts say Bennett's support is strongest among voters under 40. Around a third of those saying they will back Jewish Home, which is strongly identified with the religious right, define themselves as secular. "Bennett's success comes from being young and fresh and offering hope and change," said pollster Rafi Smith. Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent of the Post, said: "Bennett is seen as a cool guy and salt of the earth. You couldn't come up with two things more respected in Israel than hi-tech success and serving in Sayeret Matkal [the elite special forces army unit] – and Bennett has both." The son of US immigrants, Bennett made $145m from selling his hi-tech startup before becoming Netanyahu's chief of staff for four years until 2008. His politics are far right, nationalist and religious. He believes Jews have a God-given right to the whole of Eretz Israel – which includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – and advocates the expansion of settlements. According to Yedidia Stern of the Israel Democracy Institute, "a long-term change in Israeli society" underlies Bennett's immediate popularity. "More and more Israelis are strengthening their Jewish identity, not necessarily becoming more religious but becoming more connected to Jewish identity. We've seen it in academia and the media; now we're witnessing the political expression." The conviction among many Israelis that the Palestinians were unwilling to negotiate an acceptable peace settlement bolstered a belief that "we have to be strong. And to be strong in Israel means to be rightwing," said Stern. Netanyahu remains on course to form the next coalition government and continue as prime minister, however. The rightwing bloc, including the small ultra-Orthodox parties, is expected to win 63-68 seats, giving it a majority, according to Smith. But if Jewish Home's success holds up, Bennett could find himself with powerful leverage in post-election horse trading and in contention to become a minister. However, Smith predicts the party could fall back in the polls over the next two weeks. "Bennett may have peaked too early. He will probably go down by a few seats unless Likud-Beiteinu continues with its misguided campaign against him. But he should still get 11-12 seats. Netanyahu knows he will still be prime minister, but may not succeed in his goal, which was to entrench and extend his power." With just over two weeks to go before the election, 15-20% of voters are still undecided, said Smith.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Man to face charges of attempted murder after shots were fired at officers during disturbances following loyalist rally Police in Belfast have come under gun attack for the first time in the continuing violent loyalist flag dispute. Shots were fired at police lines along the Newtownards Road in east Belfast late on Saturday afternoon during disturbances following a loyalist rally at City Hall to protest over the restrictions on flying the union flag there. The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that it was investigating reports of gunshots directed at officers. A PSNI spokesman said two men had been arrested in a follow-up operation including a 38-year-old man who will face charges of attempted murder. The shooting incident marks a significant change in the continued loyalist protests against Belfast city council's decision to restrict the flying of the union flag atop City Hall to 17 designated days. Until now the PSNI has come under attack from petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles. Rioting continued along the Newtownards Road close to the Holywood Arches as 100 loyalists attacked PSNI officers. At one stage the police used a water cannon to force demonstrators away from the nearby Catholic Short Strand district. The protesters had been returning to the east of the city after a rally on Saturday lunchtime at City Hall. PSNI riot squad officers were bombarded with bricks, bottles, fireworks and smoke canisters during the disorder. Sixteen people arrested on Friday night and Saturday morning in connection with riots over the previous 48 hours appeared at a special sitting of Belfast magistrates court. Nine police officers were injured in Friday's trouble bringing the total number of police casualties since the protests began against the new flag policy to more than 40. At one stage on Friday the PSNI also had to deploy 39 armoured Landrovers to hold back 300 loyalists, many of them teenagers or even younger. It is understood that the PSNI received intelligence reports on Friday that loyalist paramilitaries would use live rounds against riot squad officers if they fired plastic baton rounds at the rioters in east Belfast. The use of live rounds on the Newtownards Road will also raise questions about the stability of loyalist paramilitary ceasefires, with reports that members of the Ulster Volunteer Force were behind the shooting attack. The PSNI was advising motorists to avoid the Newtownards Road area between Bridge End and Holywood Arches. This was the third consecutive day that the PSNI has come under attack from loyalists in east Belfast. Police also came under attack in the Newtonabbey area, north of the city. Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson has called for an end to the street violence and labelled attacks on PSNI officers as a "disgrace".
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police say three victims were killed before officers shot dead suspect, ending hours-long siege in Colorado A gunman shot dead three people at a Colorado home before being killed in an exchange of fire with officers, police said Saturday. A police special weapons team was called to a property in Aurora after gunshots were heard at around 3am. It led to a tense stand-off lasting for hours, between authorities and the shooter, who had barricaded himself inside the home. The confrontation ended at around 9am after the suspect was shot and killed in a firefight with officers, police sergeant Cassidee Carlson said. Investigators say three victims appeared to have been killed before officers arrived. A fifth person escaped uninjured, but Carlson declined to elaborate. Violence put Aurora in the national spotlight in July, after a gunman's rampage inside a movie theater in the Denver suburb left 12 people dead. Prosecutors will go to court Monday to outline their case against the suspect, James Holmes.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Police say three victims were killed before officers shot dead suspect, ending hours-long siege in Colorado A gunman killed three people before being shot dead by officers during a hostage-taking incident in Colorado, police said Saturday. The hours-long standoff ended shortly before 9am, when the suspect opened fire on police through a second-story window of a townhouse in which he had barricaded himself, said an Aurora police spokeswoman, Cassidee Carlson. It was not immediately clear if officers entered the building or shot the man through the window. The incident took place just four miles from where 12 people were killed and 58 wounded during a shooting spree at a movie theater last July. All the victims in the latest violent incident to hit Aurora are believed to have been related to the gunman. At around 3am, police notified neighbors of an emergency situation and evacuated several blocks, Carlson said in a news briefing. One person inside the house had escaped and alerted authorities, she added. It led to a siege lasting some five hours. At 8am, the gunman fired on a police vehicle, leading to an exchange of gunfire, according to local news sources. Police fired tear gas and entered the home, where they found the bodies of three victims as well as that of the gunman. Carlson said the gunman, whose name has not been released, died just before 9am. A neighbor, Michael Ignace, 46, said he had spoken to the gunman and "he seemed like a reasonable guy, and we talked about motorcycles". Police entered Ignace's apartment during the night and alerted him, but he chose to stay in his house, he said. The same Denver suburb was rocked by a mass shooting in July. In that incident, a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Police identified former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes. Prosecutors are due to outline the case against Holmes as a court session on Monday.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As a schoolgirl shot in the head left hospital in Britain, the Pakistan Taliban continued their murderous campaign by turning their guns on health workers and teachers For the teachers and health workers serving the village of Sher Afzal Banda, there were few things more mundane than their daily return journey to work. Every morning a cramped Suzuki minibus owned by the charity Support With Working Solutions (SWWS) would collect them from the junction on a main road and drive them down the rough country track, just wide enough for a single vehicle. In the late afternoon it would bring them back. "She never thought she was running a risk," said Zain ul-Hadi, the husband of Naila, a 28-year-old who led a team providing basic healthcare to some of the 2,000 people who live in traditional mud houses in the village in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. "She had no reason to be scared of anyone." He last spoke to her on Tuesday afternoon, when she called to confirm she would meet him as normal. "She said she was on her way and I said I would be waiting to pick her up." Thirty minutes later she and seven out of the nine people, mostly fully veiled women, riding in the Suzuki would be dead, murdered by as yet unidentified militants while they sat inside the vehicle. The appalling incident has raised fresh alarm about the growing willingness of Pakistan's increasingly brutal militants to attack civilians. Like many other parts of the country where ethnic Pashtuns live, the district of Swabi has had its share of trouble with militancy. But while some schools have been blown up, no one can recall anything like last week's attack. One victim, a male nurse called Umjad Ali, had even moved home from his employment in Karachi after his family feared for his safety in the strife-torn coastal megalopolis. The two gunmen, faces covered with cloth, had picked their site carefully. Their motorbikes were parked at a narrow point where the road dips, forcing traffic to slow down. There were no people or houses for miles around, only fields sown with a young wheat crop. The driver, who survived a bullet in his chest, asked whether he should try to smash past the two sinister, pistol-brandishing men. But Umjad Ali thought it better to stop and talk. In one apparent act of mercy, one of the men pulled Naila's four-year-old son, Ehsan Shehzad, out of the vehicle and threw him into a field after she begged that he be spared. The gunmen asked for everyone's mobile phones, but then began shooting through the windows of the vehicle before the devices were handed over. In a part of the world where people hate to break the worst possible news over the phone, relatives of the six women and one man eventually received calls saying their wives and daughters were "seriously hurt" and they should come immediately. Days on, they are all still in deep shock. "When the Taliban killed the polio vaccination team it occurred to me she could be targeted as well," said Umara Khan, father of Shourat, a 28-year-old who taught in Sher Afzal Banda's small primary school. "But I did not ask her to leave, she loved to teach." Like many of the other families affected, Shourat, with her well-paid NGO job, was the main breadwinner for her household. "What are they trying to achieve? I don't know," said Hussain Wali, the father of Rahilla, a 25-year-old teacher who was also in the Suzuki. "We did not have a sense that women, teachers and health workers would be targeted." On Friday police claimed that one of the culprits blew himself up after the police attempted to arrest him. The incident in Swabi comes after the killing of nine people working on UN-backed anti-polio vaccination teams during a string of attacks last month. In October, Malala Yousafzai, a schoolgirl from the nearby district of Swat, survived being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, who objected to her fight for girls to be educated. Last week she was discharged from hospital in Birmingham after weeks of treatment. In December, militants kidnapped 23 tribal police. Observers say that in the past the militants would probably have tried to trade them for a ransom, but 21 of them were killed with no demands made. "Things are changing, things have been happening that never happened in the past," said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a journalist based in Peshawar who has been covering the tribal area for decades. "Attacking mosques, funerals, graves and, of course, these teachers and health workers." Yousafzai says Pakistan's militants have come to see anyone involved in charitable or development organisations as fair game: "They take it for granted that if you work for an NGO you are funded by the west, that you are trying to change local traditions and customs, you are doing something that is secular. They no longer expect to get any public support, so no effort is being made to win hearts and minds. That is beyond them. Now all they want is to intimidate and pre-empt an uprising against them." For the time being, the people of Sher Afzal Banda are defiant. Local residents say they want the school to be reopened as soon as possible. Javed Akhtar, executive director of SWWS, is considering hiring armed guards for his staff. Like most humanitarian workers, he hates the idea of using guns but sees no alternative. But he fears more trouble. As in nearby Swat, the people of Swabi have a strong commitment to educating their daughters and the district boasts a high female literacy rate. "Malala survived, she was discharged from hospital – that is a big defeat for them," he said. "They now want revenge, they want to kill many Malalas."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | As the Pakistani schoolgirl leaves hospital in Britain, extremists continue their murderous campaign by turning their guns on health workers and teachers For the teachers and health workers serving the village of Sher Afzal Banda, there were few things more mundane than their daily return journey to work. Every morning a cramped Suzuki minibus owned by the charity Support With Working Solutions (SWWS) would collect them from the junction on a main road and drive them down the rough country track, just wide enough for a single vehicle. In the late afternoon it would bring them back. "She never thought she was running a risk," said Zain ul-Hadi, the husband of Naila, a 28-year-old who led a team providing basic healthcare to some of the 2,000 people who live in traditional mud houses in the village in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. "She had no reason to be scared of anyone." He last spoke to her on Tuesday afternoon, when she called to confirm she would meet him as normal. "She said she was on her way and I said I would be waiting to pick her up." Thirty minutes later she and six out of the nine people, mostly fully veiled women, riding in the Suzuki would be dead, murdered by as yet unidentified militants while they sat inside the vehicle. The appalling incident has raised fresh alarm about the growing willingness of Pakistan's increasingly brutal militants to attack civilians. Like many other parts of the country where ethnic Pashtuns live, the district of Swabi has had its share of trouble with militancy. But while some schools have been blown up, no one can recall anything like last week's attack. One victim, a male nurse called Umjad Ali, had even moved home from his employment in Karachi after his family feared for his safety in the strife-torn coastal megalopolis. The two gunmen, faces covered with cloth, had picked their site carefully. Their motorbikes were parked at a narrow point where the road dips, forcing traffic to slow down. There were no people or houses for miles around, only fields sown with a young wheat crop. The driver, who survived a bullet in his chest, asked whether he should try to smash past the two sinister, pistol-brandishing men. But Umjad Ali thought it better to stop and talk. In one apparent act of mercy, one of the men pulled Naila's four-year-old son, Ehsan Shehzad, out of the vehicle and threw him into a field after she begged that he be spared. The gunmen asked for everyone's mobile phones, but then began shooting through the windows of the vehicle before the devices were handed over. In a part of the world where people hate to break the worst possible news over the phone, relatives of the six women and one man eventually received calls saying their wives and daughters were "seriously hurt" and they should come immediately. Days on, they are all still in deep shock. "When the Taliban killed the polio vaccination team it occurred to me she could be targeted as well," said Umara Khan, father of Shourat, a 28-year-old who taught in Sher Afzal Banda's small primary school. "But I did not ask her to leave, she loved to teach." Like many of the other families affected, Shourat, with her well-paid NGO job, was the main breadwinner for her household. "What are they trying to achieve? I don't know," said Hussain Wali, the father of Rahilla, a 25-year-old teacher who was also in the Suzuki. "We did not have a sense that women, teachers and health workers would be targeted." On Friday police claimed that one of the culprits blew himself up after the police attempted to arrest him. The incident in Swabi comes after the killing of nine people working on UN-backed anti-polio vaccination teams during a string of attacks last month. In October, Malala Yousafzai, a schoolgirl from the nearby district of Swat, survived being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, who objected to her fight for girls to be educated. Last week she was discharged from hospital in Birmingham after weeks of treatment. In December, militants kidnapped 23 tribal police. Observers say that in the past the militants would probably have tried to trade them for a ransom, but 21 of them were killed with no demands made. "Things are changing, things have been happening that never happened in the past," said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a journalist based in Peshawar who has been covering the tribal area for decades. "Attacking mosques, funerals, graves and, of course, these teachers and health workers." Yousafzai says Pakistan's militants have come to see anyone involved in charitable or development organisations as fair game: "They take it for granted that if you work for an NGO you are funded by the west, that you are trying to change local traditions and customs, you are doing something that is secular. They no longer expect to get any public support, so no effort is being made to win hearts and minds. That is beyond them. Now all they want is to intimidate and pre-empt an uprising against them." For the time being, the people of Sher Afzal Banda are defiant. Local residents say they want the school to be reopened as soon as possible. Javed Akhtar, executive director of SWWS, is considering hiring armed guards for his staff. Like most humanitarian workers, he hates the idea of using guns but sees no alternative. But he fears more trouble. As in nearby Swat, the people of Swabi have a strong commitment to educating their daughters and the district boasts a high female literacy rate. "Malala survived, she was discharged from hospital – that is a big defeat for them," he said. "They now want revenge, they want to kill many Malalas."
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Non-league Macclesfield and Luton shocked Cardiff City and Wolves in an action packed third round of the FA Cup
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | One man held on suspicion of attempted murder as violence over city hall flag continues in Belfast A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after police came under gunfire in east Belfast amid continuing loyalist rioting. Two men were arrested after shots were fired at Northern Irish police lines on Saturday evening along the Newtownards Road as riot squad officers dealt with a crowd of 100 loyalists. One of those detained, a 38-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Police officers were bombarded with bricks, smoke bombs, fireworks and petrol bombs in the third successive night of loyalist rioting in the city. The police deployed a water cannon in the area to quell the disorder that followed a lunchtime protest at Belfast City Hall against the decision to limit the number of days the union flag can be flown. Up until last month the flag flew every day on top of the hall but following a council vote in December this has now been limited to 17 designated days a year. A police spokesman urged motorists and other members of the public to avoid a section of the Newtownards Road between Bridge End and the Holywood Arches on Saturday evening. On Friday night 39 police armoured vehicles were deployed in east Belfast to cope with an estimated 300 loyalist rioters who were hurling petrol bombs and missiles close to a sectarian border with the nationalist Short Strand area, the only Catholic enclave in the east of the city.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | But Communist party leadership's clean-up is only skin-deep, say analysts, as Beijing censors crack down on expression of dissenting views An anti-corruption drive in China has netted suspects that include an executive accused of cavorting with gigolos, a young woman who owns 11 apartments, a provincial official with 47 mistresses and a vice-mayor with ties to a drug gang. Many alleged misdeeds were exposed by internet users – mostly whistleblowers and rogue journalists – and promulgated via unusually freewheeling coverage in state-owned media. Another, less vaunted government clampdown – this one on dissenting views – leaves little hope for a Chinese people-power renaissance. Over the past week authorities have surreptitiously replaced an outspoken editorial in a liberal newspaper with brazen propaganda, scrubbed an open letter calling for constitutional governance from the internet, and closed down an outspoken Beijing-based magazine for advocating political reform. Communist party secretary Xi Jinping said corruption could lead to the "end of the party". His administration has ruthlessly singled out venal officials and is implementing a series of regulations to limit displays of official waste. Yet analysts say that Xi's anti-graft drive is only skin-deep, and that party leaders will be hard pressed to eradicate corruption while maintaining their perennially hard line on dissent. "For a short period of time, you can have draconian measures that can deter corruption, but in the long term the best way to deal with it is to make sure that there are checks and balances," said Steve Tsang, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham. Yet there are many reasons why a culture of corruption will persist – officials are low-paid and poorly supervised, and the lack of a free press and independent judiciary eliminates any prospect of well-measured oversight. "What we are likely to see, following Xi Jinping's commitment to his new policy, is that government officials will be a lot more careful in not displaying their ill-gotten gains," said Tsang. "They will do enough to reassure Xi that things are under control, and that is as far as they will go." Since Xi became the top Communist party leader in November, the central leadership has made an all-out drive to appear transparent and down to earth. Xi has banned a number of wasteful government practices, including prolonged speechifying and traffic-disrupting motorcades. A ban on expensive liquor at military banquets caused some prestigious brands' stock prices to plummet. The state news agency Xinhua has published extensive profiles of the country's seven most powerful leaders, a well-meaning stab at transparency, although they offer little more than breathless praise. The recent explosion of corruption allegations on China's popular micro-blogs, however, has done more to reveal the depth of the problem than validate official efforts to eliminate it. A blog post on 30 December accused the party secretary of an impoverished county in Yunnan province of purchasing 10 SUVs and getting drunk with a group of attractive women. The vice-mayor of a small city in Guangdong province lost his job after a subordinate exposed his connection to a local drug ring. Blog posts accuse the deputy chief of the province's Land Resource Bureau of having affairs with 47 mistresses and receiving almost £2.8bn in bribes. Chinese media have accused the twentysomething daughter of a former housing official in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, of owning 11 flats. Her 27-year-old brother may own as many as 14. Her family is under investigation. Last week Chinese message boards filled with pictures supposedly showing a female executive at the state-owned China Petrochemical Corporation cavorting with male prostitutes in an upmarket Beijing club. Media reports suggested that an American company may have plied her with the gigolos – and then blackmailed her with videotapes of their encounter – to secure a lucrative building contract in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The woman responded immediately, saying that she would "definitely pursue legal actions against those vicious slanders". There is no doubt that they could ruin her career. In November, Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu was sacked 72 hours after an investigative reporter leaked a five-year-old video of him sleeping with his young mistress to the internet. Hu Yong, a professor at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, said that while China's limitations on freedom of speech were systemic – the party simply does not tolerate perceived attacks on its legitimacy – the growing power of bloggers to expose corrupt officials comes from loopholes in the country's arcane censorship system. "In China it's really hard to use these individual cases to make any predictions about the future," he said. "Because, in the end, the decision-making process is completely opaque." While giving broad latitude to some internet users in the anti-corruption frenzy, Chinese censors have quashed reports that target the party's highest leaders. They blocked the New York Times and Bloomberg websites for publishing exposés on the wealth accumulated by the families of Xi and departing premier Wen Jiabao. Last week propaganda officials in Guangzhou province heavily revised a front-page editorial in the left-inclined newspaper Southern Weekend without the consent of its staff. The published editorial was half the length of the original, brazenly pro-Communist, and laden with factual and typographical errors. Fifty-one Southern Weekend employees signed an open letter calling the disruption "ignorant and excessive". Officials closed one of China's most outspoken and reform-minded magazines on Friday after it published an article calling for constitutional governance and political reform. The Beijing-based Yanhuang Chunqiu's website now shows a picture of a cartoon policeman holding out a badge. "The website that you are visiting has been closed because it has not been registered," it says, without giving further detail. A week earlier, an open letter advocating political reform was posted on the internet and signed by 73 prominent intellectuals, including professors at some of the country's most respected universities. If the Chinese government does not reform, the letter warned, "then official corruption and dissatisfaction in society will boil up to a crisis point and China will once again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution". Online references to the letter have since been deleted. Additional research by Chuan Xu
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | China's Communist party trumpets a new purge on official corruption, but the campaign is diverting attention from fresh crackdown on free speech, say analysts An anti-corruption drive in China has netted suspects that include an executive accused of cavorting with gigolos, a young woman who owns 11 apartments, a provincial official with 47 mistresses and a vice-mayor with ties to a drug gang. Many alleged misdeeds were exposed by internet users – mostly whistleblowers and rogue journalists – and promulgated via unusually freewheeling coverage in state-owned media. Another, less vaunted government clampdown – this one on dissenting views – leaves little hope for a Chinese people-power renaissance. Over the past week authorities have surreptitiously replaced an outspoken editorial in a liberal newspaper with brazen propaganda, scrubbed an open letter calling for constitutional governance from the internet, and closed down an outspoken Beijing-based magazine for advocating political reform. Communist party secretary Xi Jinping said corruption could lead to the "end of the party". His administration has ruthlessly singled out venal officials and is implementing a series of regulations to limit displays of official waste. Yet analysts say that Xi's anti-graft drive is only skin-deep, and that party leaders will be hard pressed to eradicate corruption while maintaining their perennially hard line on dissent. "For a short period of time, you can have draconian measures that can deter corruption, but in the long term the best way to deal with it is to make sure that there are checks and balances," said Steve Tsang, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham. Yet there are many reasons why a culture of corruption will persist – officials are low-paid and poorly supervised, and the lack of a free press and independent judiciary eliminates any prospect of well-measured oversight. "What we are likely to see, following Xi Jinping's commitment to his new policy, is that government officials will be a lot more careful in not displaying their ill-gotten gains," said Tsang. "They will do enough to reassure Xi that things are under control, and that is as far as they will go." Since Xi became the top Communist party leader in November, the central leadership has made an all-out drive to appear transparent and down to earth. Xi has banned a number of wasteful government practices, including prolonged speechifying and traffic-disrupting motorcades. A ban on expensive liquor at military banquets caused some prestigious brands' stock prices to plummet. The state news agency Xinhua has published extensive profiles of the country's seven most powerful leaders, a well-meaning stab at transparency, although they offer little more than breathless praise. The recent explosion of corruption allegations on China's popular micro-blogs, however, has done more to reveal the depth of the problem than validate official efforts to eliminate it. A blog post on 30 December accused the party secretary of an impoverished county in Yunnan province of purchasing 10 SUVs and getting drunk with a group of attractive women. The vice-mayor of a small city in Guangdong province lost his job after a subordinate exposed his connection to a local drug ring. Blog posts accuse the deputy chief of the province's Land Resource Bureau of having affairs with 47 mistresses and receiving almost £2.8bn in bribes. Chinese media have accused the twentysomething daughter of a former housing official in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, of owning 11 flats. Her 27-year-old brother may own as many as 14. Her family is under investigation. Last week Chinese message boards filled with pictures supposedly showing a female executive at the state-owned China Petrochemical Corporation cavorting with male prostitutes in an upmarket Beijing club. Media reports suggested that an American company may have plied her with the gigolos – and then blackmailed her with videotapes of their encounter – to secure a lucrative building contract in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The woman responded immediately, saying that she would "definitely pursue legal actions against those vicious slanders". There is no doubt that they could ruin her career. In November, Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu was sacked 72 hours after an investigative reporter leaked a five-year-old video of him sleeping with his young mistress to the internet. Hu Yong, a professor at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, said that while China's limitations on freedom of speech were systemic – the party simply does not tolerate perceived attacks on its legitimacy – the growing power of bloggers to expose corrupt officials comes from loopholes in the country's arcane censorship system. "In China it's really hard to use these individual cases to make any predictions about the future," he said. "Because, in the end, the decision-making process is completely opaque." While giving broad latitude to some internet users in the anti-corruption frenzy, Chinese censors have quashed reports that target the party's highest leaders. They blocked the New York Times and Bloomberg websites for publishing exposés on the wealth accumulated by the families of Xi and departing premier Wen Jiabao. Last week propaganda officials in Guangzhou province heavily revised a front-page editorial in the left-inclined newspaper Southern Weekend without the consent of its staff. The published editorial was half the length of the original, brazenly pro-Communist, and laden with factual and typographical errors. Fifty-one Southern Weekend employees signed an open letter calling the disruption "ignorant and excessive". Officials closed one of China's most outspoken and reform-minded magazines on Friday after it published an article calling for constitutional governance and political reform. The Beijing-based Yanhuang Chunqiu's website now shows a picture of a cartoon policeman holding out a badge. "The website that you are visiting has been closed because it has not been registered," it says, without giving further detail. A week earlier, an open letter advocating political reform was posted on the internet and signed by 73 prominent intellectuals, including professors at some of the country's most respected universities. If the Chinese government does not reform, the letter warned, "then official corruption and dissatisfaction in society will boil up to a crisis point and China will once again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution". Online references to the letter have since been deleted. Additional research by Chuan Xu
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President uses weekly address to warn of 'catastrophic consequences' if Congress refuses to raise US debt ceiling President Barack Obama signalled on Saturday that he would be pushing a hard line in future talks with Republicans over the looming issue of raising America's debt ceiling. After narrowly averting a crisis over the so-called fiscal cliff – a series of tax rises and spending cuts designed to force action to reduce the country's huge deficit – the US is now facing a second threat to its tepid economic recovery. Though raising the debt ceiling and allowing the government to continue borrowing money has historically been a routine affair, the Republican party is committed to securing major government spending cuts as part of any deal to do so this time. However, if talks fail to secure a deal the US could default on its debt and trigger a major global financial crisis. In 2011, uncertainty over similar brinkmanship, which only ended after a last-minute deal was secured, caused America's credit rating to be downgraded. Obama, fresh from what some have seen as a victory in the fiscal cliff talks, said in his weekly address Saturday that he would not tolerate any threat to raising the debt ceiling by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. "If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time," Obama said, "the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic. The last time Congress threatened this course of action, our entire economy suffered for it. Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again." He added: "One thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they've already racked up." Obama's stance puts him on a collision course with Republicans who are implacably opposed to raising the limit without massive spending cuts. On Friday the newly re-elected House speaker, John Boehner, told a closed-door meeting of Republicans that he will insist on a dollar-per-dollar match between spending reductions and continued borrowing. The Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell, who leads Republicans in the Senate, has expressed similar sentiments. Obama said he was open to spending cuts but not so deep that they threatened economic development. He also said cuts needed to go hand in hand with upping tax revenue. "Spending cuts must be balanced with more reforms to our tax code. The wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations shouldn't be able to take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans," he said. Most observers believe the showdown over the debt ceiling, which has already been breached, causing the federal government to use other measures to continue meeting its spending commitments for the short term, could have far more serious economic consequences than the fiscal cliff crisis.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | All detainees considered suspects after guards halt feline courier carrying mobile phone, saw and drills through gates Prison guards caught a cat carrying a mobile phone and a saw trying to walk through prison gates in north-east Brazil, it has emerged. The guards saw the white cat walking towards them with tape wrapped around its back and stomach. When they looked closer they saw the cat was also carrying drills, an earphone, a memory card, batteries and a phone charger. All 263 detainees in the prison of Arapiraca, a city of 215,000 people in the state of Alagoas, are considered suspects in the plot, which is being investigated by local police. "It's tough to find out who's responsible for the action as the cat doesn't speak," a prison official told local paper Estado de S Paulo. The cat was taken to an animal disease centre to receive medical care. The incident took place on New Year's Day but was first reported by national media on Saturday.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Magnitude 7.5 quake early Saturday prompts warnings, evacuations and 'a bit of panic' but 'no reports of any injuries' A powerful earthquake sparked a tsunami warning for hundreds of miles of Alaskan and Canadian coastline in the early hours of Saturday morning, but the alert was canceled when no damaging waves were generated. The magnitude 7.5 quake and the tsunami warning that followed caused concern in some coastal communities, with alarms sounding and people rushing to higher ground for safety. But the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (ATWC) later said the waves were too small to pose a threat, reaching just six inches above normal sea level in places such as Sitka and Port Alexander. "Initially, in the first 15 to 20 minutes, there might have been a bit of panic," said Sitka police chief Sheldon Schmitt. But he said things calmed down as the town waited for the all clear. The tremor struck at midnight Friday and was centered about 60 miles west of Craig, Alaska, the US Geological Survey said. "Houses shook; mine had things tossed from [the] wall," said the Craig police chief, Robert Ely. But he added that there were "no reports of any injuries, no wave, no tidal movement seen". The tsunami warning was eventually expanded to include coastal areas from Cape Fairweather, Alaska, to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada – an area extending more than 700 miles. The ATWC had warned that "significant widespread inundation of land is expected", adding that dangerous coastal flooding was possible. In its cancellation statement, the center said that some areas were seeing just small sea level changes. "A tsunami was generated during this event but no longer poses a threat," the center said. The Alaska Earthquake Information Center said the quake was widely felt but it received no reports of any damage. "It was the most intense earthquake I've felt in my 10 years here. I'm pretty sure there was stuff falling off of shelves," Schmitt said. "There is no report of any wave activity here." He said that an evacuation sirens and announcements came shortly after the quake, prompting the temporary rush to higher ground. Some people in Craig also moved to safer territory. "Several citizens elected on their own to move to higher ground. Several locations in Craig were set up for staging [and] shelter," said Chief Ely, adding that "no evacuation was ordered". A tsunami warning means an area is likely to be hit by a wave, while an advisory means there may be strong currents, but that widespread inundation is not expected to occur.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Company spokeswoman says 'Missoni and his wife are missing' after Friday takeoff from resort of Les Roques The Italian fashion designer Vittorio Missoni, head of the eponymous fashion house, was aboard a small plane that has disappeared off the coast of Venezuela, a company spokeswoman said on Saturday. "The Missoni family has been informed by the Venezuelan consulate that Vittorio Missoni and his wife are missing, but we don't know any more," said Maddalena Aspes. "The authorities will resume their search for the plane in the morning." Italian media reported that the plane went missing on Friday morning after takeoff from the resort of Los Roques, an archipelago off the coast of Venezuela. Also reported to have been aboard the Britten Norman NB2 twin-engine plane with Missoni, 58, and his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, were another couple and two Venezuelan crew members. Missoni is the son of the founders of the family-owned fashion house famous for its exuberantly coloured knits, featuring bold stripes and zigzags. Vittorio is co-owner with siblings Luca and Angela.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Missoni, wife Maurizia, two friends and two Venezuelan crew 'missing' after Friday takeoff from resort of Les Roques Rescue crews used boats and aircraft on Saturday to search for a small plane that disappeared in Venezuela, while carrying the chief executive of Italy's iconic Missoni fashion house and five other people. Twenty-four hours after the BN-2 Islander aircraft disappeared from radar screens on its short flight from the resort island of Los Roques, no sign of the plane had been found, officials said. "We have no other news" said Paolo Marchetti, a Missoni SpA official, when asked about the plane that was carrying Vittorio Missoni, the head of the company; his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni; two of their Italian friends; and two Venezuelan crew members. Marchetti spoke briefly to reporters as he left company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sumirago on Saturday afternoon. Missoni's younger brother, Luca, who is active in the family-run business, was reportedly traveling to Venezuela on Saturday to monitor search efforts. The newspaper La Repubbica said Venezuelan aircraft, motorboats and helicopters had taken off at dawn Saturday to resume the search for the missing plane, which had been suspended on Friday night. The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Rome, said a specialized ocean-searching naval vessel also was being deployed. Vittorio Missoni is the eldest son of the company's founder, Ottavio, who at 91 still follows the business. The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that Ottavio and his wife, Rosita, were at their home in Italy, along with their daughter Angela, a chief fashion designer with the company, waiting for information about the search. Rosita Missoni designs housewears and Angela's daughter, Margherita, has been infusing the classic designs with fresh appeal. The Missoni house, with its trademark zigzag and other geometric patterns in sweaters, scarves and other knitwear, is one of Italy's most famous fashion brands abroad. Vittorio Missoni has played a key role in marketing the Missoni family creations in Asia, especially in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea as general director of marketing for Missoni SpA. He also spearheaded a push for the company's products in the United States and France. His efforts to expand the brand abroad led him to be dubbed the company's "ambassador". On Friday, Venezuela's interior minister, Nestor Reverol, said the plane had been declared missing hours after taking off from Los Roques, a string of islands popular for scuba diving, white beaches and coral reefs, where the Missonis and their friends were on vacation. Vittorio Missoni has been described as an active sportsman and lover of the outdoors. He and his wife and their friends from northern Italy were scheduled to fly back to Italy on Friday, but their internal flight never made it to Caracas. La Repubblica said the plane disappeared off radar screens shortly after takeoff from Los Roques on what was to been a 90-mile flight to the mainland. The Missoni brand is scheduled to display its latest menswear creations on the Milan runways in a fashion show later this month. On 4 January 2008, another plane returning to the Venezuelan mainland from Los Roques disappeared with 14 people aboard, including eight Italians. The body of the plane's Venezuelan co-pilot later washed ashore, but despite a search lasting weeks no other victims or the wreckage were found. In 2009, a small plane returning from Los Roques with nine people aboard plunged into the Caribbean Sea; all survived.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: Join Ian McCourt for all of the thrills and spills of the afternoon's action in the third round of the FA Cup
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Brighton outpassed and outclassed injury-hit Newcastle on their way to an FA Cup shock that wasn't actually a shock
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Minute-by-minute report: Will the Championship side cause the first upset of the third round? Rob Smyth has the latest
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Men accused of violent assault in Delhi that sent shockwaves through India will make first public appearance since arrest The five men charged with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old year old medical student in Delhi have been ordered to appear in court on Monday. It will be their first public appearance since being detained two days after the attack three weeks ago. The men's full trial is due to start in a week in a new fast-track court inaugurated last week specifically to deal with sexual violence against women. A sixth accused, a juvenile, will be tried separately. Feelings are still running high in India, with many calling for wholesale reforms of laws and policing. The incident has also provoked a fierce debate on attitudes to women. Protests have occurred in neighbouring countries, inspired by the ongoing demonstrations in India. In his first interview since the attack, the male friend of the victim, who died in a Singapore hospital eight days ago, has described how passers-by left the pair lying unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour. The graphic account in a television interview is likely to add fuel to public anger over the death in a country where official statistics show that one rape is reported every 20 minutes and where sexual harassment of women in public places is systematic. The woman's friend told the Zee News TV network that he was beaten unconscious with a metal bar by her attackers before the pair were thrown off the bus. They had boarded it in the mistaken belief it would take them home after an evening watching the film Life of Pi at a nearby shopping centre cinema. The women was raped for more than an hour and suffered internal injuries after an assault with an iron bar. The pair lay on the roadside for around 45 minutes before three police vans arrived. Officers then spent a long time arguing about where to take them, the man said. "We kept shouting at the police, 'Please give us some clothes,' but they were busy deciding which police station our case should be registered at," the man said in Hindi. Eventually, the officers fetched a sheet from a nearby hotel. The man said he himself, despite serious injuries, carried the victim to a police vehicle. Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told Reuters that GPS records show the first police van reaching the scene four minutes after it was called. He said it left after seven minutes and arrived at a hospital within 24 minutes. The friend described the pair's attempts to call for help during the attack. "We were shouting, trying to make people hear us. But they switched off the lights of the bus," he said, according to a transcript of the interview. When they were finally thrown out at a roadside near the city's airport, they pleaded with passers-by for help, he added in the studio interview. A blue metal crutch was leaning against his chair. "There were a few people who had gathered round, but nobody helped. My friend was grievously injured and bleeding profusely. We were without clothes. We tried to stop passers-by. Several auto rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed down but none stopped for about 25 minutes. Then, someone on patrolling, stopped and called the police.," he said. The man also criticised delays and care at the public hospital where the pair were taken. He said they were again left without clothes or treatment for a protracted period. Neither the woman nor her friend have been named and the TV channel that ran the interview is under investigation by police who claim it has threatened their anonymity. His revelations will fuel further criticism of authorities in India who have alternated between public statements promising future reforms and a barely disguised contempt for the largely urban middle-class protestors who have taken to the streets over recent weeks. Huge gaps in the provision of security, healthcare and other basic services supposedly provided by the state have been exposed by the tragedy, deepening public anger. Metro stations in Delhi have been closed to prevent gatherings in the city centre. Thousands of police were deployed to protect parliament buildings and the homes of senior officials after the news of the attack spread. Analysts point to a growing gulf between a government used to a traditional opaque and paternalist style of politics and the accountability demanded by new voters. The victim's friend called on the protests to continue. "If you can help someone, help them. If a single person had helped me that night, things would have been different. There is no need to close Metro stations and stop the public from expressing themselves. People should be allowed to have faith in the system," he said. He also said he wished people had come to his friend's help when she needed it: "You have to help people on the road when they need help." According to Indian newspapers, the victim had to give a detailed statement twice because of an administrative dispute between officials. Her friend said he lay on a stretcher for four days in a police station without medical assistance after the attack.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With the release of Man of Steel looming, we examine why the Superman story retains such power after more than 70 years A movie trailer for this year's eagerly awaited update of the Superman story contains a moment which appears to subvert one of the most famous characters in the American cultural landscape. At first the trailer recounts the familiar story of a child from a distant planet, raised by farmers in Kansas who seek to keep his powers secret and call him by the human name of Clark Kent. But after saving a bus full of schoolmates from drowning, a traumatised teenage Clark confronts his stepfather, who is worried he has revealed his true nature. "What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?" Clark asks. His father replies: "Maybe." It is a shocking piece of moral ambiguity in the Superman universe, where what is right and wrong have traditionally been clear. Along with a mournful soundtrack and arty shots, it is the strongest hint yet that the Superman of 2013, played by British actor Henry Cavill, is going to be rather different. Since his first appearance in Action Comics in 1938, Superman has adapted to changing times. After the second world war broke out, he changed his slogan from fighting for "truth and justice" to fighting for "truth, justice and the American way". That continued during the 1950s, when he became a symbol of muscular American patriotism which could do no wrong. But as the nation grappled with the turmoil of the 1970s and embraced a more diverse culture, Christopher Reeve gave Superman more human qualities. In Richard Donner's 1978 film version of the comic book saga, self-sacrifice suddenly became part of Superman's appeal. That continued through to the 2006 movie starring Brandon Routh when, with an evangelical Christian in the White House and much talk of the war on terror being a conflict with Islam, Superman was depicted almost as a Christ-like figure. Even as recently as this year, the latest DC Comics story had Superman pack in his newspaper job to start a blog. "Superman changes with remarkable rapidity and yet manages to paradoxically project an idea of unchanging virtue," said Professor Benjamin Saunders of the University of Oregon, author of an academic study of superheroes called Do The Gods Wear Capes? So what will the Superman of 2013 look like? Even with the familiar tropes of a Kansas childhood and the Clark Kent alter ego, he is likely to reflect our modern world, which is uncertain and fearful of collapse, whether economic, political or environmental. By seeking to reflect these troubled times Zack Snyder, who is directing the new film, called Man of Steel and scheduled for release in June, will be tinkering with one of the most powerful fictional figures of the 20th century. Fans often like to debate which superhero might beat another in a fight, but in the realm of image-marketing there is no doubt – Superman wins every time. "He is the first global superhero," said Larry Tye, author of Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero. Indeed, Superman's influence is so great that he is spearheading the growing academic study of comic heroes and their role in society. Such figures are seen as fulfilling the same societal function as the myths of ancient Greece or Rome. They are outlandish creatures doing battle for high ideals and teaching us moral lessons. "We need myths to teach us virtues. Eventually those virtues need to be embodied by a person. Mythology has always played that function," said Professor Harry Brod, a philosopher at the University of Northern Iowa. Some have taken the point of the moral teachings of Superman stories further, seeing a powerful philosophical concept behind them. In his book Saunders devotes a chapter to Superman, in which he suggests that the character's immense popularity is a result of his embodiment of goodness. "In terms of 20th-century popular culture, he captures the notion of a Platonic ideal of the good. When Superman is done well, I am not embarrassed to call him a beautiful idea," Saunders said. Other experts in how human cultures work go even further in their efforts to explain the extraordinary longevity of the Superman figure. The 2006 film that made Superman into a Jesus Christ-like figure was perhaps closer to the core of Superman than any other depiction. Just take some of Superman's main attributes. He descends to Earth from a world far away up in the sky. His true father passes him advice as he walks among mere humans. Except if you think he is Moses. With a slight change of emphasis, one can look at Superman's origin story and see an orphan from a people whose home world has been destroyed. He is raised by an adoptive family as one of their own, while hiding his true identity. It is not much of a leap to see the story of Jewish exile in Egypt there. In fact, the Jewish origins of Superman have sparked immense interest. The original comic book character's creators, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, were both Jewish. Brod has written a book, Superman is Jewish? that traces Jewish themes in the story. Some are religious, like the Moses parallels, but others are based in more contemporary views of modern Jewishness. For example, Superman is an outsider in the world in which he finds himself. He is literally an alien. His alter ego Clark Kent is a geek, hiding behind glasses and posing as an intellectual rather than a physical hero. In putting Superman in such clothes, Brod sees a Jewish male fantasy playing out – but one that resonates with mere mortals everywhere. "Clark Kent is timid. He is a Jewish nerd. He is weak and cowardly," Brod said. "But then … little do you know! Beneath that exterior is the power of Superman. Everybody can relate to that, but I believe it is amplified by the Jewish experience." But it is probably unwise to assign Superman's popularity to any one ethnicity. For though he is so often seen as American, he has largely expanded beyond that now. When Tye was researching his book, he put out a call for stories about Superman. He wanted people to tell him what he meant to them. He had expected most responses to come from America. But they did not. "They came from Europe and from Africa. From everywhere," Tye said. In the end, perhaps it does not matter how Snyder directs Man of Steel in 2013. He can take Superman in a darker direction, he can bring out a movie more suited to the arthouse cinemas than the multiplexes. He can make him represent the ominous and confusing world of 2013. But in the end the more he changes the more Superman stays the same. For Superman is not just some sort of unique being flying high above us. In the projection of our desires, hopes and fears, Superman is us.
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