You have to admire the pluck of Christine O’Donnell If nothing else, the girl has spunk. Most people would just wilt under the withering criticism that gets directed at her but she just picks herself up and keeps right on going. Sort of the Energizer Bunny of politics, or infotainment personality or whatever hell category she fits into. Take this week: Though she’s been on all the major cable news networks (CNN, O’Reilly, etc), morning shows, national radio and the like promoting her fictional account of last year’s Senate race in Delaware she’s managed to sell only 2000 copies so far of her opus, Troublemaker . A recent book signing in conservative bastion Naples, Florida had only five people bother to attend. O’Donnell took the turnout of five people — members of the media outnumbered customers — at Barnes & Noble in stride. “God bless you, Tom,” she told Tom Bruzzesi of Fort Myers, who said he’s launching his own presidential campaign. “I like her,” Bruzzesi said. “She’s kind of a rogue like me.” “Thank you for coming out today,” O’Donnell said to Louise Campo of Naples. “She interests me. She’s very conservative,” Campo said. O’Donnell, a Christian, then politely turned down a request from a young man who asked her to sign his book on demonology instead of a copy of her book . And now we hear today that Christine’s appearance with Sarah Palin at a tea party rally in Indianola, Iowa has been cancelled . Apparently teabaggers objected to witches attending. From the Wall Street Journal blog : “I made a mistake,” said Ken Crow, president of Tea Party of America. “I assumed there was an open slot and there wasn’t.” Monday night, Mr. Crow told Washington Wire that Ms. O’Donnell would appear. Tea Party of America’s co-founder, Charlie Gruschow, said the group withdrew Ms. O’Donnell’s after receiving numerous “emails from a lot of tea party folks that were very disappointed that she would be speaking.” “We decided not to have her speak,” Mr. Gruschow said. “We felt it was in the best interest of the movement.” Ms. O’Donnell’s spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. But O’Donnell did take to Twitter to express her disappointment : @ChristineOD I was honored to be asked to speak at the Iowa rally this weekend and accepted. Changed my flight to make it work… Then quickly deleted the tweet/whine. UPDATE: O’Donnell will be speaking at the tea party powwow in Iowa this weekend after all, reports CNN late Tuesday. Cue witchcraft jokes. UPDATE 2: Now they’ve invited her again , after the bad publicity. After news spread across the Internet that O’Donnell had been dumped by the same tea party movement that catapulted her to victory last September over Rep. Mike Castle in the GOP Delaware Senate primary, tea party leaders had a change of heart and re-invited O’Donnell. “We’re making room for her,” Crow told The News Journal late Tuesday. “We welcome her and look forward to hearing her speech.” In a statement, O’Donnell said she has “humbly re-accepted their re-invitation.” … “We’re grass-roots people,” said Crow, a retired west Texas rodeo cowboy. “We’re not professional political operatives.”
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Ramzan Kadyrov berates ‘zombified bandits’ for three Grozny explosions which killed nine ‘on the holiest day for all Muslims’ Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechnyan leader, has promised a harsh response after three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the southern Russian republic on Tuesday night, killing nine people and wounding 22. One of the bombers detonated his explosives in Grozny , the capital, when two police officers asked to check his documents as he walked about 150 metres from the Chechen parliament. The other two men set off their devices about 20 minutes later at the same spot as police and passersby gathered. Islamist rebel websites called the bombers martyrs. Seven of the dead were police officers and one was an official from the emergencies ministry. Sixteen of the injured were also police. The attacks took place as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, which is known as Uraza Bayram in Russia. Kadyrov said the attackers were “zombified bandits” and “not people, but the devil incarnate”. He praised officers who had attempted to stop a terrorist attack “on the holiest day for all Muslims, [when] people forgive all wrongs, and help the poor, orphaned and sick”. The explosions proved that “evil must be annihilated” and that a fierce and uncompromising battle was the only way to stamp out the rebels, Kadyrov added. Russia has been fighting an increasingly radicalised Islamist insurgency in its North Caucasus republics since full-scale military operations against Chechen separatists ended a decade ago. Several hundred people die in clashes and terror attacks every year, while the Islamists revived suicide attacks on civilian targets in 2009 after a lull. In one of the most devastating assaults, a bomber struck Moscow’s Domodedovo airport in January this year, killing 37 people. Doku Umarov, the Chechen leader of the insurgency, issued a statement a few hours before the Grozny attacks, saying he was ready to become a suicide bomber. “Today, none of us knows how and when his life will end,” he said. “Allah be praised, I am ready for death at any moment, I am calm and do not worry about that. I am ready for death anywhere, even at the wheel of a Kamaz [truck] with an explosive device.” However, the principal martyrs to the Islamist cause are likely to be young men, who commentators say are vulnerable to recruiting because of abuses by security forces, unemployment and poverty in the region. Investigators named two of the bombers as Magomed Dashayev, 22, from the Chechen town of Urus-Martan and Adlan Khamidov, 21, a student at an oil institute in Starye Atagi, a village near Grozny. Chechnya Europe Global terrorism Eid al-Fitr Islam Russia Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
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Ramzan Kadyrov berates ‘zombified bandits’ for three Grozny explosions which killed nine ‘on the holiest day for all Muslims’ Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechnyan leader, has promised a harsh response after three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the southern Russian republic on Tuesday night, killing nine people and wounding 22. One of the bombers detonated his explosives in Grozny , the capital, when two police officers asked to check his documents as he walked about 150 metres from the Chechen parliament. The other two men set off their devices about 20 minutes later at the same spot as police and passersby gathered. Islamist rebel websites called the bombers martyrs. Seven of the dead were police officers and one was an official from the emergencies ministry. Sixteen of the injured were also police. The attacks took place as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, which is known as Uraza Bayram in Russia. Kadyrov said the attackers were “zombified bandits” and “not people, but the devil incarnate”. He praised officers who had attempted to stop a terrorist attack “on the holiest day for all Muslims, [when] people forgive all wrongs, and help the poor, orphaned and sick”. The explosions proved that “evil must be annihilated” and that a fierce and uncompromising battle was the only way to stamp out the rebels, Kadyrov added. Russia has been fighting an increasingly radicalised Islamist insurgency in its North Caucasus republics since full-scale military operations against Chechen separatists ended a decade ago. Several hundred people die in clashes and terror attacks every year, while the Islamists revived suicide attacks on civilian targets in 2009 after a lull. In one of the most devastating assaults, a bomber struck Moscow’s Domodedovo airport in January this year, killing 37 people. Doku Umarov, the Chechen leader of the insurgency, issued a statement a few hours before the Grozny attacks, saying he was ready to become a suicide bomber. “Today, none of us knows how and when his life will end,” he said. “Allah be praised, I am ready for death at any moment, I am calm and do not worry about that. I am ready for death anywhere, even at the wheel of a Kamaz [truck] with an explosive device.” However, the principal martyrs to the Islamist cause are likely to be young men, who commentators say are vulnerable to recruiting because of abuses by security forces, unemployment and poverty in the region. Investigators named two of the bombers as Magomed Dashayev, 22, from the Chechen town of Urus-Martan and Adlan Khamidov, 21, a student at an oil institute in Starye Atagi, a village near Grozny. Chechnya Europe Global terrorism Eid al-Fitr Islam Russia Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
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Move crushes hopes BP could deflect attention away from its failure to tie up a deal with Rosneft of Russia Hopes that BP could take the focus away from its failure to tie-up a ground-breaking deal with Rosneft in Russia were crushed on Wednesday when black-clad special forces raided its main offices in Moscow. The law enforcement officers were acting with the consent of a court in Tyumen, where minority shareholders are pursuing a $3bn (£1.8bn) compensation claim against BP over the collapse of the share swap with Rosneft. The move comes less than 24 hours after the Russian state-owned oil company triumphantly unveiled an alternative strategic alliance to explore the Russian Arctic with BP’s rival ExxonMobil. Lawyers acting for Andrei Prokhorov, a disgruntled shareholder from BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, said the raid was a reaction to BP’s failure to provide documents on the proposed tie-up between the UK firm and state-owned Rosneft. “We therefore applied once again to the court of arbitration of Tyumen region to have the measures to secure evidence replaced, and on 30 August the court permitted the bailiff to examine documents held by BP Exploration Operating Company Limited,” said Dmitri Chepurenko, a partner in the Liniya Prava legal practice which represents Prokhorov but also – allegedly – the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium led by oligarchs such as Mikhail Fridman. BP dismissed the raid as unnecessary and said there were no grounds for anyone to seek compensation over the collapse of the Rosneft deal. “We do not believe there is any legitimate basis whatsoever for the claim launched against BP in the Tyumen court and we intend to defend our interests vigorously,” said a spokesman at BP’s London headquarters, adding: “We do not believe there are legitimate grounds for today’s raid.” Bob Dudley, the BP chief executive, unveiled the Rosneft share swap and exploration deal in January in a fanfare of publicity, presenting it as a key new initiative following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico blowout which damaged a strategy centred on US deep-water drilling. But the Rosneft arrangement was opposed by the AAR consortium, which argued that the tie-up should be between Rosneft and TNK-BP, not between Rosneft and BP alone. Neither Rosneft nor BP favoured the latter arrangement and the deal fell through in May. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Russia Europe Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Move crushes hopes BP could deflect attention away from its failure to tie up a deal with Rosneft of Russia Hopes that BP could take the focus away from its failure to tie-up a ground-breaking deal with Rosneft in Russia were crushed on Wednesday when black-clad special forces raided its main offices in Moscow. The law enforcement officers were acting with the consent of a court in Tyumen, where minority shareholders are pursuing a $3bn (£1.8bn) compensation claim against BP over the collapse of the share swap with Rosneft. The move comes less than 24 hours after the Russian state-owned oil company triumphantly unveiled an alternative strategic alliance to explore the Russian Arctic with BP’s rival ExxonMobil. Lawyers acting for Andrei Prokhorov, a disgruntled shareholder from BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, said the raid was a reaction to BP’s failure to provide documents on the proposed tie-up between the UK firm and state-owned Rosneft. “We therefore applied once again to the court of arbitration of Tyumen region to have the measures to secure evidence replaced, and on 30 August the court permitted the bailiff to examine documents held by BP Exploration Operating Company Limited,” said Dmitri Chepurenko, a partner in the Liniya Prava legal practice which represents Prokhorov but also – allegedly – the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium led by oligarchs such as Mikhail Fridman. BP dismissed the raid as unnecessary and said there were no grounds for anyone to seek compensation over the collapse of the Rosneft deal. “We do not believe there is any legitimate basis whatsoever for the claim launched against BP in the Tyumen court and we intend to defend our interests vigorously,” said a spokesman at BP’s London headquarters, adding: “We do not believe there are legitimate grounds for today’s raid.” Bob Dudley, the BP chief executive, unveiled the Rosneft share swap and exploration deal in January in a fanfare of publicity, presenting it as a key new initiative following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico blowout which damaged a strategy centred on US deep-water drilling. But the Rosneft arrangement was opposed by the AAR consortium, which argued that the tie-up should be between Rosneft and TNK-BP, not between Rosneft and BP alone. Neither Rosneft nor BP favoured the latter arrangement and the deal fell through in May. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Russia Europe Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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Tesco will start a sale process in the coming months for its 129 small-format Japanese stores in the greater Tokyo area Tesco, the world’s third-biggest retailer, put its loss-making Japanese business up for sale, abandoning an eight-year attempt to break into a tough retail market and underscoring its new boss’s commitment to investor returns. The move is a rare admission of defeat by the British supermarket group and raised speculation it could be prepared to exit its much larger loss-making business in the United States if its current recovery plan fails to deliver. “It shows (new chief executive) Phil Clarke is taking an unemotional attitude to international businesses,” said analyst Chris Hogbin at brokerage Bernstein. Tesco’s shares were up 2.1% at £21.90 in early trading. Japan is the smallest of Tesco’s 13 international businesses, consisting of 129 stores in greater Tokyo employing just over 3,900 people and making less than £500m in annual sales, according to analysts’ estimates. Analysts had long tipped the business for disposal after it failed to make significant inroads into a market dominated by general merchandise operators such as Seven & I Holdings and Aeon. Many foreign retailers have struggled in Japan, hampered by fickle consumer tastes, a super-competitive landscape and prolonged, profit-sapping deflation. French retailer Carrefour and British drugstore chain Boots are among the companies to have pulled out over the past decade. “The move raises hopes that if the US business cannot be moved into profitability within the next couple of years … that too might be disposed,” Citi analysts said, referring to Tesco’s Fresh & Easy chain, which made £186m of losses in the year through February. Tesco chief Clarke, who took over from long-serving predecessor Terry Leahy in March, has laid out a plan aimed at significantly reducing US losses this financial year and moving into profit towards the end of fiscal 2012-13. “Any comparison with Fresh & Easy would be inappropriate,” Clarke told reporters on a conference call, when asked whether the Japanese exit set a potential precedent. Clarke was confident Tesco would find a buyer for the Japanese stores. However, officials at several Japanese retailers said there might not be a lot of appetite for shops which they described as larger than the average convenience store, but smaller than a regular supermarket. RBS analyst Justin Scarborough predicted a sale could raise between £50m and £75m — a minimal sum for a business that made more than £3.8bn of underlying profits in fiscal 2010-11 on sales of more than £67bn. Tesco, which trails Carrefour and US industry leader Wal-Mart Stores by annual sales, had already written down the goodwill on its Japanese business and stopped investing in it, fuelling speculation of an eventual exit. Clarke said it had invested less than £100m in the operation and wanted to focus resources on more promising business in countries such as China and South Korea. Tesco, with over 5,300 stores globally, exited Taiwan in 2005 by swapping assets there for stores run by Carrefour in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Tesco Supermarkets Retail industry Japan guardian.co.uk
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Falling out of love replaces infidelity as top cause of marriage breakdown in survey of divorce lawyers Extramarital affairs are no longer the leading reason why couples decide to split up, according to accountancy firm Grant Thornton’s latest annual study of divorce in the UK. Instead, “growing apart” is now the most popular motivation to file for divorce. Divorce lawyers interviewed by the firm said in 27% of cases falling out of love had led to a marriage breakdown. Extramarital affairs, which had been the prime reason since the survey began in 2003, fell to second place, with 25% citing this. Unreasonable behaviour was given as the reason for 17% of marriage breakdowns and 10% of couples cited a mid-life crisis. Of course couples could be indulging in fewer flings, but Louisa Plumb, associate director, forensic and investigation services at Grant Thornton, suggested that, as in so many areas of life, celebrities could be a factor. “The movement in the reasons for divorce is interesting and certainly difficult to explain. We are seeing an increasing number of ‘celebrities’ putting up with alleged affairs in their marriage or relationship – with Abbey Clancy staying with Peter Crouch, and Cheryl Cole looking set to go back to Ashley. “It may be that this is starting to have an effect on the behaviour of couples affected by extramarital affairs, with more marriages than before surviving a bout of infidelity.” Christine Northam, a counsellor working for the charity Relate , said she thought the change “reflected a slight shift in people’s expectations of relationships”. She said: “While in the past an affair would have been the signal that all was not right in a relationship, now that is not necessarily the case. People are not necessarily having those affairs before they decide the spark has gone out of their relationship.” One thing most celebrities don’t generally have to worry about is money, but this was the reason cited by 5% of divorcing couples. Despite the economic downturn and inflation putting pressure on household budgets, that figure hasn’t increased since last year, but divorce lawyers believe couples have been influenced by the recession. Of those surveyed, 82% said they thought people had delayed divorce proceedings because of the recession, with 54% saying that the lack of value and/or liquidity of personal assets was the greatest contributor to this delay. However, some lawyers said their clients had taken advantage of the economy and divorced during the recession in order to benefit from lower income and asset values and give their partner a lower settlement. “While the economy has officially been out of recession for over a year, there are still clear indicators that financial concerns are one of the driving factors in both the timing of divorces and the settlements that have been awarded,” said Plumb’s colleague Geoff Mesher. “With cuts in public spending and the economy continuing to falter, it would be unsurprising to see a continuation of this trend as asset values and income levels remain unpredictable.” David Salter, joint national head of family law at Mills & Reeve , dismissed the idea that footballers’ wives were behind any changes in couples’ behaviour, but agreed the recession had made a difference. “The downturn is making people very wary about what is at the end of the day an elective purchase,” he said. “House prices have fallen terrifically. Where before you would have sold the house and bought two new homes, that may not be possible any more. Assets are very difficult to value and people are concerned about their jobs.” The research also showed an increase in the number of lawyers working on pre-nuptial agreements for clients after a high-profile divorce case last year . Divorce Family finances Divorce Hilary Osborne guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New humiliation for BP a day after ExxonMobil ended its hopes of developing Arctic offshore oil fields with Russia Bailiffs raided BP’s Moscow offices on Wednesday, a new humiliation for the British oil company a day after ExxonMobil signed an agreement that ended BP’s hopes of developing Arctic offshore oil fields with Russia. The bailiffs gave no reason for the morning raid, in which witnesses said about 15 black-clad special forces officers entered the central Moscow headquarters of BP Trading and sealed it off. But a lawyer for minority shareholders in TNK-BP, BP’s joint venture in Russia, said the raid was connected with a lawsuit they have filed over BP’s failed bid to team up with Russia in the Arctic. “We were ordered to leave the office and work from home,” a BP source said, adding that only senior company officials and lawyers remained in the building with the bailiffs. Tuesday’s pact between US oil company ExxonMobil and Russia’s state-controlled oil group Rosneft on developing Arctic offshore prospects gives Exxon access to potentially substantial reserves in Russia, the world’s top oil producer. Rosneft gained the deal by being able to bring in one of the few companies capable of drilling in the harsh, deep waters of the Arctic. It was a big blow for BP, ending its chances of salvaging its own agreement with Rosneft to develop the same prospects. BP’s deal collapsed shortly after it was announced in January following objections from TNK-BP shareholders which also prevented a parallel $16bn (£9.8bn) share swap deal between BP and Rosneft going ahead. Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), the consortium that represents the shareholders, had objected to the BP-Rosneft pact, saying that BP was obliged to pursue all its Russian ventures through TNK-BP. There is a growing history of bad blood between BP and Russian authorities. Russian security forces searched BP’s headquarters in Moscow in 2008 during a corporate standoff at TNK-BP which resulted in TNK-BP boss Bob Dudley – who is now CEO of BP – being forced out of Russia. BP Oil Oil and gas companies Energy industry Russia guardian.co.uk
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High court decides whether to issue 28-day injunction against eviction notice issued by Basildon council Almost half of the residents of Dale Farm could find legal new homes nearby if Basildon council would consider two new planning applications, Traveller supporters said before a last-minute injunction before a high court judge. An emergency injunction against the eviction notice on more than 80 families living at Dale Farm in Essex is being sought by the Travellers to allow time for the new applications to be heard for smaller sites on brownfield land owned by the government, one of which is within sight of Dale Farm on the outskirts of Basildon in Essex. The high court will determine on Wednesday whether to issue a 28-day injunction against the eviction notice issued by Basildon council. The Travellers would then seek a series of rolling injunctions to delay their eviction from Dale Farm for several months until alternative accommodation can be found. A two-day public inquiry into the second proposed new site three miles from Dale Farm is due to be heard on 22 November. Candy Sheridan, a Traveller and expert in planning law who is assisting Dale Farm residents, said she was optimistic that there was a good case for an emergency stop to be placed on the eviction, which will happen over a number of weeks from Thursday. “We know we’ve got good enough grounds,” she said. According to Sheridan, Basildon council has wrongly claimed to have “exhausted all avenues” in the 10-year planning battle over Dale Farm, leaving it no option but to bring in bailiffs to enforce the eviction of up to 400 Travellers, including more than 100 children. Sheridan said that the council has failed to determine applications submitted for alternative sites in the Basildon area. “All we keep saying to Basildon is why don’t you stop and let’s talk about this,” she said. A spokesman for Basildon borough council said they would not comment further until the outcome of the high court hearing and would be “rigorously” defending its position. If the injunction is refused by the judge, there will be at least 10 pitches available for Dale Farm residents in Suffolk but the vast majority will be forced to live on the roadside if they do not take up Basildon council’s offer of temporary accommodation in social housing. As well as Vanessa Redgrave, the Bishops of Chelmsford and Brentwood visited Dale Farm yesterday. “Our hope is there will be a stay of execution and a chance to look again for a permanent solution which is a solution for the whole community,” said the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Chelmsford. The Rt Rev Thomas McMahon, Bishop of Brentwood, added: “There is a fantastic primary school where all these children go – eviction will disrupt the education for these children and they will have to go to another school where they will be in a minority and discriminated against. “In our society we’ve learned to respect minority groups and here we are breaking one up.” Dale Farm Roma, Gypsies and Travellers Housing Communities Planning policy Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk
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Robbie Crofts remains missing after his girfriend was found washed up on a Wirral beach Detectives investigating the unexplained death of a 17-year-old girl whose body was found on a beach fear her missing boyfriend may also be dead. Hayley Holmes’s body was found on the beach at Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton, Wirral, on Monday morning. A postmortem examination established that she had drowned. Her boyfriend Robbie Crofts was last seen at 8pm on Sunday. Merseyside police believe the couple had spent the day together in Liverpool city centre at the Mathew Street Festival. A pair of women’s sandals and men’s Converse trainers were found close to where Hayley’s body was discovered by a dog walker. A mobile phone was also found. One theory is that they could have gone for a late night swim that went wrong, although the weather on Sunday was very cold for August. Police say they are extremely concerned about Robbie Crofts’s welfare and are appealing for anyone who has seen him since Sunday to contact them. Detective Inspector Rachel Wilson, from Birkenhead CID, said: “We now know that Robbie and Hayley were together on Sunday night and had spent the day at the Mathew Street music festival in Liverpool before returning to New Brighton for a short while. “They were not seen by friends or family after 8pm, but some of their belongings have been found on the beach, near to where Hayley’s body was found. We are understandably concerned about Robbie, as are his family, and we would appeal for anyone with any information to get in touch.” He is described as white, 21, stocky, 5ft 8in tall with short black hair and blue eyes. Hayley was a sixth-form student at Upton Hall RC Convent Grammar School. Headmistress Patricia Young said: “Hayley was a bright, beautiful girl with a bubbly personality and so much potential to fulfil. “Hayley was also a former member of the school council, with a real zest for life and a desire to look after others. “She should have been returning to school next week to start her final year at Upton and begin applying to university. She was looking forward to all the special events planned for the year ahead. “Her friends and teachers are deeply shocked and our hearts go out to her family who are so very proud of her.” Thousands of people have joined a Facebook tribute page in memory of Hayley. Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
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