Guatemalan judge rules six-year-old girl should be returned to birth mother, but Missouri couple insist adoption was legal The US government is caught up in an emotional legal battle over a six-year-old girl said to have been kidnapped from Guatemala in 2006 and later adopted by an American couple. A Guatemalan court has ordered that Anyelí Liseth Hernández Rodríguez should be returned to the country, after a lengthy fight by the woman who claims to be her birth mother. A judge ruled that if she were not returned within two months Interpol would be asked to intervene. But the American couple, Timothy and Jennifer Monahan, of Kansas City, Missouri, said that, in 2008, they had legally adopted the girl, now known as Karen Abigal Monahan. In an interview with the Guardian, the Guatemalan woman, Loyda Rodríguez Morales, 26, said she did not feel anger towards the American family. “I don’t know if they knew she was stolen. All I would like to say to them is that they return my little girl,” she said. Morales said that in 2006 she had been returning from a supermarket with her three children, two sons and a daughter. “I went into the building with my kids behind me. I went into my flat and then straight away I realised my little girl wasn’t there,” she said. “We looked everywhere but there was no sign of her. People who had seen what happened told us that a woman took her and went off in a taxi that was waiting.” She said she and her husband, a construction worker, went to the police, put up posters round the neighbourhood and visited orphanages, but without success. With the help of the human rights group Survivors Foundation, Morales found her daughter on the files of an adoption agency, listed as being in an orphanage in March 2009. But it was too late: according to court records, Anyelí had left the country in December the previous year. Morales said: “All I want is to be with my daughter again. It has been almost five years and that is what I want. It has been very hard, like very hard blows to the heart.” She rejected some people’s suggestions that her daughter would be “better off” in the US. “I can give my children a good life with the affection and love that they need. We live off what my husband earns and are OK. I will do all I can to see they have a good life.” The Monahans have issued a statement through a Washington-based public relations firm, Peter Mirijanian Public Affairs, which indicated that they would not give the child up without a fight. It said they would continue to seek the safety and best interests of “their legally adopted child”, adding: “They remain committed to protecting their daughter from additional trauma as they pursue the truth of her past through appropriate legal channels.” The couple taped a message to their door asking reporters to respect their privacy at a “difficult and confusing time”. The case has provoked strong opinions within Guatemala and the US, with sympathies split, some saying that any “kidnapped child” should be returned, and others thinking that the child, after a period of four years and knowing little of life other than that in the US, would be harmed by being wrenched from her adoptive family. The situation poses a dilemma for the US government, caught between its international legal obligations to comply with the Guatemalan court order and its concern for the American couple and child, who is now a US citizen. Morales is reported have taken a DNA test, which established her as the biological mother, but the US could ask for that to be repeated and also challenge other aspects of the case, in court in Guatemala. The US government is likely to ask the child herself if she wants to return to Guatemala; it would be reluctant to force a US citizen to leave. Agencies dealing with adoption cases, such as the US-based National Council for Adoption, said they could not recall an incident where the government faced such an order from a foreign court. Chuck Johnson, president of the National Council for Adoption, expressed sympathy for the biological mother, the adoptive parents and Anyelí. “This is a no-win situation,” he said. A US justice department spokeswoman, Alisa Finelli, refused to comment of whether steps were being taken to send the child back to Guatemala. “The department declines to comment,” said Finelli. Guatemala United States Adoption Children Jo Tuckman Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk
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Names passed to Steve Coogan by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire will not be disclosed after Scotland Yard intervention The names of several News of the World journalists who ordered a private detective to hack into mobile phones belonging to six public figures will not be publicly disclosed after Scotland Yard intervened to prevent their publication. The names were passed to Steve Coogan on Friday by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the paper, in compliance with a high court order the actor obtained earlier this year. The names are critical to the phone-hacking investigation because they could show how far the practice was widespread at the paper, which was closed down by Rupert Murdoch last month, despite consistent denials from its owner News Group Newspapers. Coogan is one of several celebrities suing the paper for breach of privacy. The high court order instructed Mulcaire to reveal who at the paper asked him to illegally intercept messages left on mobile belonging to former model Elle Macpherson, publicist Max Clifford and four others. Mulcaire, who was employed exclusively by the News of the World, was also told to reveal who at the paper ordered him to target Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor, his colleague Jo Armstrong and football agent Sky Andrew. He was refused leave to appeal against the order earlier this month and handed over the names on Friday, the deadline set by the high court for making the information available. Law firm Schillings was contacted by Mulcaire’s solicitor Sarah Webb of Payne Hicks Beach on Friday and asked not to make the names public. Webb said: “The issues of confidentiality are of concern to the Metropolitan police and we asked Coogan’s solicitors not to disclose the information until the Met could consider the matter.” She added: “The issue is not that my client requires to keep matters confidential but rather that the police require him to. We were concerned that our [client] did not breach orders of the court in this respect. The Met are now dealing [with this] and there is nothing more I can add.” Similar high court orders have contained restrictions on publishing the names of News of the World journalists on the grounds that doing so could compromise Operation Wheeting, Scotland Yard’s ongoing investigation into phone hacking, by tipping off potential suspects. Scotland Yard had not responded to requests for a comment by the time of publication. There is some confusion over whether the order obtained by Coogan allows the names to be released, however. Sources close to the actor insisted they can be identified. News Group’s parent company News International refused to comment. Mulcaire is also taking legal action against News International after it stopped paying his legal fees in July, claiming the company is contractually obliged to do so. Meanwhile, Coogan has also won a separate high court order to force Mulcaire to name the News of the World executives who ordered Mulcaire to hack into his own phone. Mulcaire is appealing against that order on the grounds that he would incriminate himself by complying with it because he would be confessing to a crime he has not been charged with or admitted to. Crucially, that defence is not available to him as regards Max Clifford, Elle Macpherson and the others, because Mulcaire already pleaded guilty to illegally intercepting messages left on their mobiles in the original 2007 phone-hacking court case, which resulted in his imprisonment. Mulcaire was jailed in January of that year along with the News of the World’s former royal editor Clive Goodman. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Phone hacking News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Glenn Mulcaire Metropolitan police James Robinson guardian.co.uk
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Majority of 88 detainees who have died since start of uprising against regime said to have been tortured At least 88 people, including 10 children, have died in detention in Syria since the uprising against the regime began in March in what amounts to “systematic persecution on a vast scale”, according to Amnesty International. The majority of victims were tortured or ill-treated, with injuries ranging from beatings, burns and blunt-force traumas to whipping marks, electrocution, slashes and mutilated genitals. Amnesty documented the names, dates and places of arrest of victims, while independent forensic pathologists have established possible causes of death in some cases by examining film of the bodies. Amnesty’s report was released as at least seven people were killed when thousands protested outside mosques following prayers to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. A 13-year-old boy was among those killed when government forces opened fire in the southern province of Deraa. There were further deaths and injuries in the capital Damascus and the city of Homs, where people poured on to the streets to demand the removal of President Bashar al-Assad in defiance of tanks and troops, witnesses said. Syrian state television showed Assad attending prayers at a mosque in Damascus. In mounting pressure on the regime, the US expanded sanctions to three “principal defenders of the regime” including presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban and foreign minister Walid al-Muallem, both of whom had been part of the pro-reform wing of the regime. At least 2,200 people have been killed since the start of the uprising, according to the UN, as Syrian forces have sought to crush the rebellion, part of the revolutionary wave sweeping across the Arab world. The crackdown against protesters has intensified during Ramadan. Amnesty said those who died in custody over the last few months are believed to have been detained because they took part in protests, or were suspected of involvement in them. The dead included Hamza al-Khateeb, a 13-year-old boy detained at the end of April in Deraa. His death sparked widespread outrage and protests after the corpse was returned to his family bearing evidence of severe torture, including a severed penis. Video of 45 bodies of detainees, taken by family members or activists after they were returned to relatives or dumped on the roadside, was obtained by Amnesty and passed to forensic pathologists. The injuries of Sakher Hallak, a 42-year-old doctor and father of two from Aleppo whose body was dumped days after his arrest on May 25, included broken ribs, arms and fingers, mutilated genitals and gouged eyes, Amnesty said. His brother Hazem, a US-based doctor, told the Guardian Sakher had not been protesting but signed a statement calling on the authorities to end the violence against protesters and allow doctors to treat the injured. Human rights groups and local doctors say medical staff have been prevented from treating injured protesters. “We think he was singled out because of this and also because he visited me in the US for three weeks,” Hazem Hallak said. “I think the authorities were very paranoid about his visit.” A video clip of the body of Tariq Ziad Abd al-Qadr from Homs shows patches of missing hair, marks to the neck and penis possibly caused by electric shocks, whipping marks, stab wounds and burns, Amnesty said. There was evidence of torture or ill-treatment in at least 52 of the 88 cases, according to the report. The death rate shows a significant escalation from previous rates of death in custody, typically five per year. Deaths involving torture appear to have increased in recent weeks, according to Amnesty’s Syria researcher Neil Sammonds and Damascus-based human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh. After a peak in and around Homs – where 40 of the 88 cases came from – new instances are reported on a daily basis. “These deaths behind bars are reaching massive proportions and appear to [show] the same brutal disdain for life that we are seeing daily on the streets of Syria,” said Sammonds. “The accounts of torture we have received are horrific. We believe the Syrian government to be systematically persecuting its own people on a vast scale. “In the context of the widespread and systematic violations taking place in Syria, we believe that these deaths in custody may include crimes against humanity.” Human Rights Watch is also verifying 70 reports of deaths in custody. “There is no doubt that people have died in detention because of torture and other ill-treatment like lack of proper medical care,” Nadim Houry, a researcher in Beirut, said. According to one activists’ group, at least 551 Syrian civilians have been killed during Ramadan, which ends with the festival of Eid al-Fitr. A local network of activists said Syrians were keeping Eid celebrations to a minimum this year out of respect for the families of those who had been killed or are in detention. “There will be no happiness while the martyrs’ blood is still warm,” it said in a statement In protests in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, protesters shouted: “The people want the downfall of the president.” In neighbouring Saqba, crowds held shoes in the air as an insult to the president. Nour Ali is the pseudonym for a journalist based in Damascus Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Amnesty International Torture Middle East Nour Ali guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Bill Nye “The Science Guy” found himself in the tough position Monday of explaining science to Fox Business guest host Charles Payne. Payne began the Freedom Watch segment by pressing Nye to prove that Hurricane Irene was caused by global warming. “I don’t think the word proof is what you are looking for,” Nye told Payne. “Evidence or result of? Yeah.” “Here’s the thing though, Bill,” Payne said. “Ever since Katrina, we heard that the hurricane season is going to be more devastating and it was apocalyptic and the end of the world. And the reality is we haven’t seen that. So, how can Newsweek say this is a new normal? Is this irresponsible or is there any science behind that?” “Well, there’s a lot more science behind it than saying it’s not,” Nye flatly stated. “But that aside, that’s only six years. In geologic times or in terms of climate events, that’s not very long.” “The world is getting warmer, everybody. The world is getting warmer… Do we not agree the world is getting warmer?” “I have no idea,” Payne admitted. “Someone told me it’s one degree in the last hundred years and I’ll take their word for it.” The Fox Business host then changed the subject to Al Gore’s suggestion that climate change deniers need to be confronted just as racists were confronted during the civil rights movement. “[Gore is] very passionate about it,” Nye explained. “As the world has become smaller — this is to say that as communication has become better and better, and we get to know each other better, we all travel all over the world. It’s routine to get on a plane and go to Asia and come back. As we get to know each other, we realize we are all one species; we are all the same human. But in tribal times, the importance of your tribe was so great that you were afraid of other tribes.” “If someone from New England has sex with someone from Papua, New Guinea, you get a human. You don’t get anything else. So, racism is scientifically not especially compelling. If you learn the science of it, you let go of it. And when you learn the science of climate change, in my opinion, you will find it quite compelling and you will want to do something about it rather than pretend it doesn’t happen.” “We brought you on because we knew you could connect the dots,” Payne interrupted. “Although the route you’ve taken is still confusing some of the viewers.”
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enlarge Credit: fanpop.com The Moche lived in northern Peru from about 100-700 A.D. Their molded ceramics are still a highlight in the annals of human accomplishment. If you walk through a museum of pre-Columbian art, it’s easy to spot a Moche piece – the faces are so realistic you expect them to wink at you. Around 500 A.D., the world was experiencing some drastic climate changes. There was a super El Nino weather phenomenon on the west coast. Cataclysmic floods were followed by drought. The Moche, like most ancient peoples, are thought to be very religious. They wanted to thwart this devastation and improve the weather by trying to appease their gods. So they sacrificed masses of their citizens. Just slaughtered hundreds of people in hopes of saving more. Does this sound like religious extremism? Yes. Because it is. Negotiating with nature is a very ancient thing to do: Pre-science, pre-wheel, – pre-written language. As a species, we’ve always seen patterns in natural events and taken it personally. Floods are because of sin – droughts are because of witches. Earthquakes are God’s anger towards women’s suffrage and Chinese immigration, etc. But now we know better. At least, some of us do. Sort of. Now we know the Earth’s crust shifts. It always has. All our continents used to be one; scientists refer to as Pangaea. We know that continuing shift results in earthquakes. Instead of hurricanes just appearing all of a sudden as a result of moral shortcomings, we can now track them via satellite for days. There is also a growing understanding about how global warming has intensified weather patterns, hurricanes have been made worse by pollution and the extraction process for natural gas known as “fracking” has caused earthquakes. Yes, we have a greater knowledge of weather and seismic activities than ever before. So when the East Coast experienced a rare earthquake – there was an archaic response from religious leaders. It wasn’t that these things happen on this planet we all live on – it was because of gay marriage. Rabbi Yehuda Levin told his YouTube audience , “[We] are starting to see the connection.” As if the earth never moved before cake toppers had two grooms. It’s ghoulish opportunism. Just like in the wake of the quake that nearly leveled Haiti and killed thousands, televangelist Pat Robertson claimed it was because Haitians made a pact with the devil to liberate themselves from slavery 200 years ago. So Robertson’s devil ran an 18th century anti-slavery Caribbean underground railroad? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? He has an odd religion. He also chimed into the “what did we do to deserve a non-fatal earthquake in DC?” discussion by claiming a crack in the Washington Monument meant something beyond why not to build a 555-foot marble obelisk on swampland. Then there was a hurricane in the same area within a week. For capitalizing atmospheric interpreters – it’s show time! Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told a rally in Florida – the state with the highest proportion of elderly (think Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries) and hurricanes in the country – that these events are a warning about government spending . Because weather is a quid pro quo with God and the Republican Party’s agenda. It’s time to build a wall (or a levee) between church and weather. Natural disasters aren’t punishment. And religion isn’t a Doppler radar. In 1693, the Massachusetts colonists thought a hurricane there marked the Apocalypse. In April 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an official proclamation for Texans to pray for rain for three days. Rain has yet to come and it’s categorized as a D4 Drought (there is no D5). What does this mean? Nothing. It means church and weather should get a divorce and block each other’s numbers. Since church and state are no longer the same thing – church should secede from climatology. It’s not for the sake of the weather – it’s really for the sake of the church’s credibility. Because really, we could stop letting gays marry, eat all our vegetables, never cheat on our spouses and get to church three times a week – it won’t stop the weather…or the world. Cross posted at TinaDupuy.com
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Oscar winner and activist visits and defends community of 86 Irish Traveller families facing eviction from Essex site If it wasn’t the two strong cups of tea, it was the delicious smell of Mary Ann McCarthy’s “traditional Irish feast” of potatoes and cabbage bubbling on the stove that left Vanessa Redgrave in no doubt about the strength of community at Dale Farm. “I’d be happy to live here with them, that’s for sure,” declared the Oscar-winning actor and activist from the steps of McCarthy’s chalet. Describing Dale Farm as “a strong, wise, warm, gentle community”, Redgrave broke off from her filming schedule to meet the 86 Irish Traveller families who face eviction from the Essex site at midnight on Thursday. The largest unauthorised encampment of Travellers in Britain had never seen anything like it. After two bishops visited in the morning, came the actress. Children clustered round on bikes, dogs fell respectfully silent, and a purple doormat was shaken and laid out for her. “The whole situation is really about planning. There’s no crime being committed,” said Redgrave, standing by two ornamental cannon in McCarthy’s frontyard. “We used to live in communities. We had a post office and we had our little local shops, which would help elderly people. Our communities up and down the country have been decimated and destroyed. Dale Farm hasn’t.” But the Travellers who for 10 years have lived on this greenbelt land which they own close to Basildon will find their community smashed up unless a last-ditch temporary injunction before a high court judge succeeds on Wednesday. If they lose, an £18m eviction process will begin and bulldozers will tear up their chalets and caravans. Visibly moved, Redgrave admitted her determination to stick up for the Travellers of Dale Farm was personal and recalled her actor brother, Corin, who suffered “a crippling cardiac arrest speaking in defence of Dale Farm to Basildon council” in 2005 and never fully recovered. Would Corin Redgrave, who died last year, be disappointed to see Dale Farm a day away from eviction? “A big society is a human society where everybody takes care of each other. Corin wouldn’t be disappointed coming here. Here is a warm place,” said Redgrave. Despite the impending eviction, the warmth was certainly mutual as Redgrave dodged boys playing on a toy ride-on tractor (numberplate: WAR-0412) to meet the residents. “If everybody was like her the world would be a better place. She was such a lovely person,” said Tina, a mother of two, who spoke about the impending eviction’s impact on her children. “They’ve been reared up here, they went to preschool and then primary school and my little girl is booked into secondary school for the new term and now we’re getting kicked off. They want to crush this community, destroy our culture and put us into houses.” Basildon council argues that it is enforcing against Dale Farm – assisted by a £1.2m grant from the communities department and up to £4.65m for policing from the Home Office – as it does against any unauthorised development on greenbelt. With the bishops of Chelmsford and Brentwood joining the UN and Amnesty International in questioning the eviction, the council has reassured Travellers it will not immediately cut off water and electricity to the site and will rehouse all vulnerable residents. But Redgrave joined Travellers who described greenbelt as “a weapon” being used against their community. Redgrave said she had supported Gypsy communities across Europe since she became conscious of how “minorities were destroyed” under Hitler. Alongside Redgrave’s warm adjectives describing their community, residents of Dale Farm added another: safe. One single mother was too scared to give her name for fear doctors would refuse to treat her baby boy and was visibly petrified by the prospect of eviction. “It is terrifying to know you have a nine-week-old baby with nowhere to go,” she said. She claimed Basildon council last year offered a one-bedroom flat for her mother, herself and her sister and brother but she has never been offered alternative accommodation since. She fears being placed in a flat, alone. “This is a very safe community. When my baby gets bigger I’ll know that if he goes outside someone will bring him back,” she said, describing how their life in caravans enabled extended families to support each other. “Obviously everybody would like to have their mum or sister nextdoor. For us it’s going to be a culture shock. [not to have that]“. Grattan Puxon, a veteran Gypsy campaigner, joined Redgrave for tea in McCarthy’s chalet: “This shouldn’t happen. This is not broken Britain. This is Britain strong and healthy and we want to save a small part of it if we can,” he said. Judging by radio phone-ins and the opinions of neighbours, most local people support the eviction – despite the £18m pricetag. But one local resident, Ann Kobayashi, who befriended Dale Farm residents who attend her Catholic church, said she believed the majority mood was “live and let live”. “Their close-knit community exemplifies the big society which is much spoken of,” she said. After Redgrave ducked inside to finally tuck into Mary Ann McCarthy’s meal of potatoes and cabbage, Kathleen McCarthy pointed out how the settled community in Britain might be inspired by the communal strength on show at Dale Farm. “What they can learn from us is how to be more friendly to one another,” said McCarthy. “Our doors are open 24/7. We welcome everybody with open hearts.” The search for a suitable home The fields of Dale Farm were a scrap yard before Irish Travellers moved on to the land 10 years ago. Now the site could be reduced to rubble. The Travellers, many of whom had moved around Essex for several generations, hoped they would eventually get planning permission for the bases they had laid down for their caravans on greenbelt land next door to a legal Gypsy site. They didn’t, although former deputy prime minister John Prescott gave them two years’ leave to remain, during which their numbers increased to nearly 500 people. With legal appeals apparently exhausted, Basildon borough council served the Travellers with a notice to quit by 31 August or face forcible eviction. Private firms have been contracted to carry out the eviction, which could cost the council up to £8m, with a further £10m in police costs. But the Travellers are seeking a last-minute injunction against the eviction, which will be heard before a high-court judge on Wednesday. One Dale Farm resident, Mary Flynn, is a test case: she is seriously ill and dependent on a nebuliser. She has a letter from the council warning that her electricity will be cut off during the eviction process. Campaigner Grattan Puxon (pictured) claims this would be a “death sentence” for her. The Travellers’ legal team will also claim that Basildon council has not properly processed their homelessness forms and is asking for an injunction to delay the eviction until alternative, authorised sites can be identified. Dale Farm residents insist they will move if they can be found pitches on smaller sites (a feature approved by all sides) in the local area, which they praise for its popular primary school and access to healthcare. The Travellers say there are alternative sites nearby which are owned by the Homes and Communities Agency, a government body which, they claim, said they would be suitable for Traveller pitches. Three planning applications are currently being put forward for smaller sites for the Dale Farm residents within the Basildon area, but one has already been rejected by planners. Basildon borough council is reluctant to countenance more Traveller sites in the area. It says it already has among the highest number of authorised pitches in Essex and is making three more pitches available for Travellers each year. It claims other nearby councils should do their bit. A dozen empty pitches that already have planning approval have been offered to Dale Farm by a landowner near Stowmarket in Suffolk, but residents will need more. There are no votes in approving sites for Travellers, and neighbouring councils fear an influx from Dale Farm. Roma, Gypsies and Travellers Housing Communities United Nations Amnesty International Human rights Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk
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Homelessness charity points to direct link between economic downturn and welfare cuts, and rising numbers living on streets The economic downturn and the government’s deep cuts to welfare will drive up homelessness over the next few years, raising the spectre of middle class people living on the streets, a major study warns. The report by the homelessness charity Crisis, seen by the Guardian, says there is a direct link between the downturn and rising homelessness as cuts to services and draconian changes to benefits shred the traditional welfare safety net. In the 120-page study, co-authored by academics at the University of York and Heriot-Watt University, Crisis highlights figures released over the summer which show councils have reported 44,160 people accepted as homeless and placed in social housing, an increase of 10% on the previous year and the first increase in almost a decade. Last year another 189,000 people were also placed in temporary accommodation – such as small hotels and B&Bs – to prevent them from becoming homeless, an increase of 14% on the previous year. Crisis says that with no sign of economic recovery in sight, there are already signs that homelessness is returning to British streets. In London, rough sleeping, the most visible form of homelessness, rose by 8% last year. Strikingly, more than half of the capital’s 3,600 rough sleepers are now not UK citizens: most are migrants from eastern Europe who cannot find work and, unable to get benefits or return home, are left to fend for themselves on the streets. The charity says the evidence is that the current recession has seen the poor suffer the most, but other parts of society may be in jeopardy if the government’s radical welfare agenda is acted on as the economy stutters. “Any significant reduction of the welfare safety net in the UK as a result of coalition reforms may, of course, bring the scenario of middle class homelessness that much closer,” the report states. The charity says that the government needs to reverse cuts to housing benefit and invest urgently in new housing. It also calls on ministers to withdraw the most radical provisions in the localism bill, which would make “temporary accommodation” for needy families just that. Under the new legislation councils would be forced to remove parents and children who have been in a hotel for a year. At present the assistance is open-ended. There is also an alarming trend in what the charity calls the “hidden homeless” – families forced to squeeze into one room rather than a flat. It says 630,000 households are now “overcrowded”, with London and the south-east the worst hit. This trend could worsen: this summer a survey by the National Landlords Association found more than half of private landlords were planning to reduce the number of properties they let to tenants on housing benefits. Crisis says more families will be forced to share an ever decreasing number of homes. In a separate report, Channel 4 News will broadcast further evidence that official figures underestimate the true picture of homelessness. In Crawley, West Sussex, the Open House hostel said it turned away people needing a bed almost 2,000 times last year, although official figures estimate there are just seven homeless people in the town. Two-thirds of homelessness organisations nationwide told Channel 4 there had been a rise in rough sleeping in their area. Leslie Morphy, Crisis’s chief executive, said: “We are extremely worried. Homelessness in both its visible and hidden forms is already rising and as the economic downturn causes further increases in unemployment and pressure on households’ finances, homelessness is likely to continue to rise. This research is clear that it is the welfare and housing systems in the UK that traditionally have broken the link between unemployment and poverty and homelessness, yet these are now being radically dismantled by the coalition government. The government must listen and change course before this flow of homeless people becomes a flood.” Crisis argues that instead of redoubling its efforts to end the “scandal” of homelessness, the government is in effect making it impossible for those on low incomes to pay their rent. It says in the past British welfare policy, unlike the that in the US, has linked housing benefit to actual rents. But the government’s changes break this link and mean that claimants will be priced out of swaths of the country – or end up on the streets in wealthy regions. The report also says the government’s new “affordable” house building regime is likely to generate fewer than 50,000 homes by 2015, “well short of the 80,000 required to meet ministers’ targets”. Gone will be the lifetime tenancies offered by councils which had to give priority to those in need. Instead, under new powers, local authorities will be able to choose families with “local connections”. With the coalition’s welfare reform bill heading to the Lords and MPs voting on the localism bill next week, Labour said Crisis’s warnings were a “timely reminder of a looming homeless catastrophe”. Karen Buck, Labour’s welfare spokesperson, said the government had played down the rising number of people who thanks to the economic downturn were forced to rely on housing benefit. She said that since the government took power another 150,000 families had been forced on to housing benefit. “The numbers relying on housing benefit to help with housing costs have been soaring. These figures include not just the unemployed but hundreds of thousands of working families. Rising rents, benefit cuts and housing shortages risk a homeless catastrophe with all the associated human and financial costs”. Homelessness Communities Housing Charities Voluntary sector Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NY Times Suddenly OK With Warring President: Is Obama Intervention in Syria Next?
August 30, 2011 No Comment
Is Syria next on Obama’s intervention list? New York Times reporters Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers speculate in Monday’s “U.S. Tactics in Libya May Be a Model for Other Efforts .” The text box works in a typical crack at Bush administration foreign policy: “ Using force when justified but not going it alone .”
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The Republican presidential hopeful raised eyebrows with her comments that the weather was God’s way of warning politicians The Republican White House hopeful Michele Bachmann has insisted she was joking when she said a hurricane and quake were God’s warning to Washington, in an effort to control the damage from her latest controversial comments. The Tea Party favourite raised eyebrows with a weekend remark to supporters in Florida that Hurricane Irene, which killed at least 24 people and left millions without power, and an east coast earthquake were God’s way of telling US politicians to cut spending and fix the budget deficit. “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ ” Bachmann said at a campaign event in Sarasota on Sunday. “Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.” Bachmann, among the top three candidates seen to have a chance to win the Republican nomination and take on President Barack Obama next year, made similar comments elsewhere in Florida on Saturday, drawing some laughs from her audience. When the remarks began drawing attention, she went into damage control. “Of course I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think it was anything else,” Bachmann said on Monday on a campaign stop in Miami. “I am a person who loves humour, I have a great sense of humour.” The hurricane drenched Vermont and caused the worst flooding in the state for 80 years. The 5.8-magnitude earthquake, a rare occurrence on the East Coast, shook up Washington and did minor damage to the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. Many comments by Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, have come under scrutiny since she surged towards the head of the Republican election race over the summer. During her campaign in June, she declared that the celebrated American actor John Wayne was from her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, when in fact he was born 150 miles away. She has also been quizzed about a remark that suggested wives should be submissive to their husbands, and in a recent speech she confused Elvis ‘s birthday with the anniversary of his death. Bachmann told her Miami audience on Monday that if she were elected president, “you won’t see any teleprompter in the White House”. She criticised Obama for using one in speeches. Bachmann is popular in the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement and with religious social conservatives. She won an important poll in the early voting state of Iowa earlier this month, but recent surveys have shown her lagging behind the Texas governor, Rick Perry, and the moderate Mitt Romney. A CNN poll on Monday put her in fourth place among Republicans, with 9%, and behind the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who has not declared her candidacy. Bachmann seems to be fighting Perry for the same kind of conservative Republican voters and falling behind. Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said her Irene comment reflected a dilemma for the Minnesotan, that she has to shift right to regain her footing against Perry but, in doing so, she raises questions about whether she is electable. Tea Party movement Republicans Hurricane Irene Natural disasters and extreme weather United States US politics guardian.co.uk
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Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W Bush, pays tribute to ‘one of America’s closest and best allies in the war on terror’ He may or may not welcome it, but Tony Blair has had lavish praise heaped on him by the uber-conservative of US politics, Dick Cheney. In his autobiography published on Tuesday, the self-declared Darth Vader of the Bush administration pays tribute to the former Labour leader. Not only was Blair America’s greatest ally during the Bush years, says Cheney, but his speeches about the “war on terror” were some of the most eloquent he had been privileged to hear. George Bush’s friendship and closeness to Blair have been well documented, but the position of his vice-president, who earned a reputation for secretiveness while at the White House, has been less clear until now. In the 565-page In My Time, Cheney is unrepentant about the most controversial decisions taken by the White House, from the waterboarding of Guantánamo Bay detainees to the invasion of Iraq. Recalling a trip to Europe in March 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq, Cheney says: “I began my trip with a stop in London to visit one of America’s closest and best allies in the war on terror, British prime minister Tony Blair. I have tremendous respect for Prime Minister Blair,” Cheney writes. “He is a Labour party liberal and I am a conservative Republican, and we didn’t always agree on strategy or tactics. But America had no greater ally during our time in office. His speeches about the war were some of the most eloquent I’ve been privileged to hear.” Meeting at Downing Street, Cheney, an early advocate of invading Iraq, said a decision had not yet been made, but invasion was on his mind: “The president wanted to be absolutely clear that if he decided to go to war, we would finish the job. We would remove Saddam Hussein, eliminate the threat he posed and establish a representative government.” The vice-president even made phone calls to lobby Tory MPs on Blair’s behalf. On the eve of the crucial Commons vote in 2003 that authorised the war in Iraq, he writes: “At the request of the British, I
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