Waiting for kick-off – plight of African footballers left on sidelines in Turkey
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Dream of success in European leagues turns into nightmare of fake scouts and missed chances On a run-down football pitch in the central Istanbul neighbourhood of Ferikoy, about 50 African players come together in the middle of the pitch to sing hymns before their morning training session. On the sidelines, others warm up and do laps, wearing jerseys from Ghanaian, Nigerian and English Premier League teams. They have come to Turkey in the hope of securing a contract with a big local team or, even better, with one in Europe. Yet for many Turkey is no longer a stepping stone to a professional career, but a dead end. Some of the players training in Ferikoy were stars in their home countries, playing in national and first division teams, but have not played professional football since. A sleepy groundsman makes his way across the field, greeting some of the players with a high five. When he starts to collect money from the players, a friendly haggle starts: for many of them, the TL2.50 (90p) is a considerable sum. For Adaquart Manubah, football was an escape – literally: “It was a possibility to get away from the chaos and poverty of Liberia.” His father was a football player, and his 13 brothers all play football for a living. Between 1994 and 1998, Manubah played in the Liberian national team, until the civil war forced him to flee to Ghana. After an odyssey that took him to Nigeria, Malaysia, the Emirates, Bangladesh and India he ended up in Turkey. Now 32, he does not aspire to play in a Turkish team anymore. His dream, he says, is to become an official Fifa agent: “I know players and teams everywhere. I would love to connect talented players with teams all over the world.” But the licence is expensive. “I would need to deposit $500,000 (£316,000) for an official Fifa licence.” He laughs. “I am still saving up.” His favourite team? “Besiktas – they wear black and white. That’s a nice metaphor, isn’t it?” Edo, a Nigerian, came to Turkey more than five years ago. He flew in from Ivory Coast, where he played for a first division club for two seasons, before a Turkish Fifa agent struck a deal with his team’s manager: “He wanted two good players for teams in Turkey, a midfielder and a striker. This is how I got to be here.” But when Edo arrived in Istanbul after completing visa requirements, the Fifa agent was gone, and recruiting for Turkish clubs was over. “I arrived here in May, at the wrong time,” he says. The date of arrival is crucial: “If the transfer season is closed, there is nothing you can do.” It means being caught between a rock and a hard place: with visas only valid for up to one month, simply waiting for the new transfer window is impossible, while clubs usually drop initial invitations to move on to new recruiting lists for new seasons. Edo did not pay the agent to bring him to Turkey, but many families pay thousands of dollars to fake scouts who promise contracts with major teams – only to disappear when the players arrival in Istanbul: “It’s a form of human trafficking,” he says. “You arrive in a foreign country where you don’t know the language, you don’t know anyone. What are you supposed to do?” Many find help in the community of African migrants in Istanbul. Without residence and work permits, some work as translators for businessmen from African countries, others engage in small-scale trading, sending clothes or toiletries back home for their relatives to sell and send back the profits. However, most rely on their families back home: “Their relatives send money – this is how most people survive.” Matters get worse when entry visas expire. “Many players stay put, even without a valid visa,” says Edo. If detained by police, they risk arrest and sometimes deportation. “They don’t want to go back because they still have the hope that maybe some day, some time, something good will happen.” Many cannot afford the plane ticket home, and very few want to either bear the cost of another visa application in their home countries, or the risk of it being rejected. Honour, Edo says, also plays a big part in staying: “Their families, their friends and teammates back home all think they will go on to play in big clubs. They invested a lot. If they come back without having achieved anything, it would be a big shame.” Edo thinks most players never get a chance to prove their talent: “One out of 100 gets the chance of a contract and a club. Many never even get to play in try-outs.” According to him, the mentality of Turkish football managers has much to do with that: “Turkish teams look to take players that have played in European teams before, even very small teams. They look to names, not to talent.” European scouts are more open-minded, he says, but it is hard for African players to get a visa to Europe. “Most players’ standard here is way above the Amateur League,” Edo says. “Yet that is where most African footballers end up, if they get a contract at all.” Why do so many players leave their high-profile African teams to risk getting stuck in Turkey? “If you want to make a name for yourself in football, you need to play in Europe. And the facilities, the pay … is better there.” In many African countries, he says, even first division players struggle to make a living. Jackson Eyinga, a 24-year-old player from Cameroon, was lucky. With the help of his agent, former Cameroonian coach Joseph Ndong, he managed to secure a contract with Ferikoyspor, an Istanbul Amateur League team: one season at a salary of TL1,000 a month. Of the transfer fee – €1,500 (£1,300) – Ndong got 10%. In Cameroon, Eyinga played in the first division, and in the U20 national team. He arrived in Turkey a year ago, on the invitation of Kardemir Karabukspor, a first division club. However, due to the delay of his visa, Eyinga arrived only after the transfer season was closed. His visa ran out, but he decided to stay, and trained in Ferikoy with other African players, hoping to be discovered by another scout. After the African Cup of Nations, a friendly tournament that takes place every year on the Ferikoy pitch, the club decided to sign him up. The transfer is both blessing and curse: should Ferikoyspor rise to the professional third league, Eyinga would have to drop out. Ndong explains: “The third league does not allow any foreign players in the team, so African football players who secure themselves contracts in Turkish amateur teams are stuck there.” Eyinga has a friend who played with Fenerbahce, and hopes he can make it as well. “He has talent,” Ndong insists. “All we need is someone to discover it.” Turkey Africa Middle East Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Waiting for kick-off – plight of African footballers left on sidelines in Turkey
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Dream of success in European leagues turns into nightmare of fake scouts and missed chances On a run-down football pitch in the central Istanbul neighbourhood of Ferikoy, about 50 African players come together in the middle of the pitch to sing hymns before their morning training session. On the sidelines, others warm up and do laps, wearing jerseys from Ghanaian, Nigerian and English Premier League teams. They have come to Turkey in the hope of securing a contract with a big local team or, even better, with one in Europe. Yet for many Turkey is no longer a stepping stone to a professional career, but a dead end. Some of the players training in Ferikoy were stars in their home countries, playing in national and first division teams, but have not played professional football since. A sleepy groundsman makes his way across the field, greeting some of the players with a high five. When he starts to collect money from the players, a friendly haggle starts: for many of them, the TL2.50 (90p) is a considerable sum. For Adaquart Manubah, football was an escape – literally: “It was a possibility to get away from the chaos and poverty of Liberia.” His father was a football player, and his 13 brothers all play football for a living. Between 1994 and 1998, Manubah played in the Liberian national team, until the civil war forced him to flee to Ghana. After an odyssey that took him to Nigeria, Malaysia, the Emirates, Bangladesh and India he ended up in Turkey. Now 32, he does not aspire to play in a Turkish team anymore. His dream, he says, is to become an official Fifa agent: “I know players and teams everywhere. I would love to connect talented players with teams all over the world.” But the licence is expensive. “I would need to deposit $500,000 (£316,000) for an official Fifa licence.” He laughs. “I am still saving up.” His favourite team? “Besiktas – they wear black and white. That’s a nice metaphor, isn’t it?” Edo, a Nigerian, came to Turkey more than five years ago. He flew in from Ivory Coast, where he played for a first division club for two seasons, before a Turkish Fifa agent struck a deal with his team’s manager: “He wanted two good players for teams in Turkey, a midfielder and a striker. This is how I got to be here.” But when Edo arrived in Istanbul after completing visa requirements, the Fifa agent was gone, and recruiting for Turkish clubs was over. “I arrived here in May, at the wrong time,” he says. The date of arrival is crucial: “If the transfer season is closed, there is nothing you can do.” It means being caught between a rock and a hard place: with visas only valid for up to one month, simply waiting for the new transfer window is impossible, while clubs usually drop initial invitations to move on to new recruiting lists for new seasons. Edo did not pay the agent to bring him to Turkey, but many families pay thousands of dollars to fake scouts who promise contracts with major teams – only to disappear when the players arrival in Istanbul: “It’s a form of human trafficking,” he says. “You arrive in a foreign country where you don’t know the language, you don’t know anyone. What are you supposed to do?” Many find help in the community of African migrants in Istanbul. Without residence and work permits, some work as translators for businessmen from African countries, others engage in small-scale trading, sending clothes or toiletries back home for their relatives to sell and send back the profits. However, most rely on their families back home: “Their relatives send money – this is how most people survive.” Matters get worse when entry visas expire. “Many players stay put, even without a valid visa,” says Edo. If detained by police, they risk arrest and sometimes deportation. “They don’t want to go back because they still have the hope that maybe some day, some time, something good will happen.” Many cannot afford the plane ticket home, and very few want to either bear the cost of another visa application in their home countries, or the risk of it being rejected. Honour, Edo says, also plays a big part in staying: “Their families, their friends and teammates back home all think they will go on to play in big clubs. They invested a lot. If they come back without having achieved anything, it would be a big shame.” Edo thinks most players never get a chance to prove their talent: “One out of 100 gets the chance of a contract and a club. Many never even get to play in try-outs.” According to him, the mentality of Turkish football managers has much to do with that: “Turkish teams look to take players that have played in European teams before, even very small teams. They look to names, not to talent.” European scouts are more open-minded, he says, but it is hard for African players to get a visa to Europe. “Most players’ standard here is way above the Amateur League,” Edo says. “Yet that is where most African footballers end up, if they get a contract at all.” Why do so many players leave their high-profile African teams to risk getting stuck in Turkey? “If you want to make a name for yourself in football, you need to play in Europe. And the facilities, the pay … is better there.” In many African countries, he says, even first division players struggle to make a living. Jackson Eyinga, a 24-year-old player from Cameroon, was lucky. With the help of his agent, former Cameroonian coach Joseph Ndong, he managed to secure a contract with Ferikoyspor, an Istanbul Amateur League team: one season at a salary of TL1,000 a month. Of the transfer fee – €1,500 (£1,300) – Ndong got 10%. In Cameroon, Eyinga played in the first division, and in the U20 national team. He arrived in Turkey a year ago, on the invitation of Kardemir Karabukspor, a first division club. However, due to the delay of his visa, Eyinga arrived only after the transfer season was closed. His visa ran out, but he decided to stay, and trained in Ferikoy with other African players, hoping to be discovered by another scout. After the African Cup of Nations, a friendly tournament that takes place every year on the Ferikoy pitch, the club decided to sign him up. The transfer is both blessing and curse: should Ferikoyspor rise to the professional third league, Eyinga would have to drop out. Ndong explains: “The third league does not allow any foreign players in the team, so African football players who secure themselves contracts in Turkish amateur teams are stuck there.” Eyinga has a friend who played with Fenerbahce, and hopes he can make it as well. “He has talent,” Ndong insists. “All we need is someone to discover it.” Turkey Africa Middle East Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Obama administration is fighting back against allegations from Ron Suskind’s coming book Confidence Men that the president’s top advisers undermined his authority and ignored his orders, reports Politico . “This is not what I told the author, this is not what I believe, and anyone who knows me and my…
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Householder, 39, arrested following fatal incident at house in Stockport, Greater Manchester A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an alleged intruder was stabbed to death at a house in Stockport. The 39-year-old man detained by police is believed to be the householder at the home in Bramhall. Police found the alleged intruder, who was in his late 30s, with knife injuries when they were called to the house at 7.50pm on Saturday. He was given first aid by paramedics but died a short time later. A 33-year-old man who is believed to have fled the scene in a white Citroën van, was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of aggravated burglary. The two men reportedly forced their way into the house and threatened the householder before one of the assailants suffered fatal knife injuries. Floral tributes to the dead man – referred to as “Ray”, “Raymond” and “Uncle Raymondo”– from family and friends were placed at the scene. One read: “Love you son. Going to miss you more than anything.” Police said it was understood that two men had entered the house and threatened the occupant, who was alone. His wife and 12-year-old son returned home during the incident but were unharmed. The couple who live at the address were named locally as Vincent and Karen Cooke. Chief Superintendent Tim Forber, of Greater Manchester police, said: “Clearly this is a serious incident in which a man has lost his life and, at this time, we believe the dead man was one of two men who were attempting to carry out a burglary at the house.” A police cordon was in place around the premises. It is the third incident of its kind in Greater Manchester in recent months. In June, Peter Flanagan, 59, fatally stabbed an intruder at his home in Salford after he was confronted by masked men wielding machetes. A month later, florist Cecil Coley, 72, stabbed a burglar at his shop in Old Trafford. Both men were arrested on suspicion of murder but were later released without charge as the Crown Prosecution Service ruled they acted in reasonable self-defence. Crime Manchester Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gleision colliery deaths: four miners mourned across south Wales valleys
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Prayers and tributes shared as local community come to terms with loss of four men found dead in flooded mine Candles were lit, prayers said and fond memories shared as the four men killed in the Gleision mining tragedy were remembered and honoured. Congregations at churches across the south Wales valleys were swollen by people touched by what for many is the worst mining disaster in living memory. Around 100 people attended St John the Evangelist church in Cilybebyll, the closest village to the colliery, where they prayed for the men and their families and sang the hymns Abide With Me and The Lord’s My Shepherd. The Rev Martyn Perry told parishioners: “Our thoughts are with families around the area in communities surrounding ours who are in the process of preparing funerals for their loved ones.” Perry said it was easy to trust in God “when things are going well” but added: “There are other times, like this for example, when we can’t see the purpose, we can’t see a pattern and things are difficult and distressing. We wonder about our ability to trust God.”But Perry said better times were ahead, quoting the last verse of the hymn Be Still My Soul, which promises that “love’s pure joy” will be restored. At nearby St David’s church in Resolven, relatives of one of the dead men, Phillip Hill, carried home a candle lit in his memory. Among the congregation was retired oil worker John Brown, 67, who had known Hill since he was a boy and was haunted by the thought of him dying as water poured into the mine. “It’s beyond belief to think of the blackness and the water,” he said. “I just hope at the end it was quick.” The Rev Peter Lewis said: “Phillip was part of the community and he was brought up here in a house just down from the church. A lot of people knew him, particularly those villagers who worked in the mines.” Messages of support have been sent to the Swansea Valley from as far afield as New Zealand and Alaska. An appeal fund set up to help the families of the men who died raised £30,000 within 24 hours. Prince Charles has become patron of the fund. A spokesman for Clarence House said: “He was invited to be the royal patron and he has close links to that area. He followed the story and was deeply saddened by what happened.” The alarm was raised on Thursday when the shaft the men were working in flooded. Three of the seven who were in the small drift mine – including Powell’s son, Daniel – managed to get out but four were trapped 90 metres underground. Hopes that the men might have found an air pocket and survived were dashed as the bodies were found one by one. All died close together in an area near where they had been blasting. An investigation has begun into the cause of the flooding of the mine, which is owned by the company MNS. One key questions is how much the men knew about the area they were working in. It is not clear yet if they were aware that gallons of water lay so close to the section they were working. While more modern mines are carefully mapped, records about historic workings like those around Gleision are not always kept. On the lane near the colliery, the police cordon has been replaced by a line of floral tributes to Hill, 45, and the other men who died: Charles Breslin, 62; David Powell, 50; and Garry Jenkins, 39. One note for Jenkins read: “Sleep tight – we will always love you.” Another, aimed at all four, said: “The day’s work is done, your tools are on the bar, no more sweat and no more pain.” Wales Mining Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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London mayor severely warned over 2008 mayoral race and criticised by own team for trying to ‘offload’ own work in office Boris Johnson was warned by senior members of his campaign team that he would have his “fucking knees” cut off if he let them down in the 2008 London mayoral race, according to a forthcoming unauthorised biography of the Conservative mayor. The warning was given amid fears that Johnson had failed to grasp that just saying “I’m Boris Johnson” and relying on his charm would not be enough to oust the Labour incumbent, Ken Livingstone, according to a former colleague, Sonia Purnell. Johnson went on to beat Livingstone to run city hall where he was subsequently taken to one side by a senior city hall official and urged to “get a grip” after trying to “offload” the hard work of his job on to others. Purnell’s book, Just Boris, is being serialised in the Sunday Times as the Conservatives prepare to gather for their annual party conference next month, and as Johnson begins for a rematch with Livingstone in the 2012 mayoral election next May. The book revisits much of the details of his childhood and personal life first covered in a previous biography, The Rise of Boris Johnson, written by a former Daily Telegraph colleague, Andrew Gimson. Purnell, who was Johnson’s deputy when he was the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent, recounts how Conservatives settled for Johnson as their mayoral candidate after failing to persuade a long list of high-profile candidates to stand, including the former Tory prime minister Sir John Major. Once installed as candidate, Johnson, who was sacked as shadow arts spokesman in 2004 by the then Tory leader Michael Howard for lying about an affair with his fellow Spectator journalist Petronella Wyatt, was “banned from philandering” during the mayoral campaign and ordered to write down any infidelities that were not yet in the public domain. The party enlisted the help of Lord Marland, a former party treasurer, and Lynton Crosby, the Australian election strategist, to help Johnson’s campaign. The pair, reportedly concerned at Johnson’s laid back approach, allegedly put him on notice that “we’ll cut your fucking knees off” if he let them down. He was told in no uncertain terms to apply “the tightest self-discipline” and warned that if he was a minute late for meetings with campaign donors, Marland would instantly resign. Marland told Purnell: “Boris had been able to wing it all his life through charm, intelligence and bashfulness. He really believed until then, that just saying “I’m Boris Johnson” and playing London Calling would do the job. We had to awaken him to the realisation that if he carried on the same way he really could lose.” Crosby has been enlisted again to spearhead Johnson’s re-election bid. Purnell, who describes Johnson as “the most ruthless, ambitious person I have ever met”, writes that Johnson tried to “offload” much of the hard work to a “top businessman” after being elected London mayor, to avoid having to do the boring aspects of the role himself. She said the idea of having Johnson as a “chairman mayor” supported by “an absolutely top flight chief operating officer” was the brainwave of one of Johnson’s campaign chiefs drawn up before the election amid fears that he did not possess the managerial skills set to run the capital. But the strategy of delegating the day-to-day running of the capital during the first few months of his mayoralty proved a disaster and after four months, according to Purnell, a senior city hall official had words. “In an extraordinary showdown in a restaurant after he was elected, a senior official told Johnson: “Boris, you’ve got to start being mayor. Go out there and be in charge. It was made crystal clear that … Boris could not afford to be semi-permanently out to lunch. He had to get down and dirty, to run things himself,” wrote Purnell. After two months of “near chaos” at city hall Tim Parker, a prominent businessman and former board member of the Audit Commission, came in and took on the chief executive role of “first deputy mayor”. But he stood down just a couple months later – becoming the third senior adviser to quit in the four months of Johnson’s reign, claiming he did not think Johnson needed a full-time first deputy mayor. The claim will resonate with some opposition members of the London assembly who were surprised when less than two years into the job, Johnson announced he was delegating the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority to his deputy mayor for policing, Kit Malthouse. Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the London assembly, said Johnson appears to rely too heavily on the advisers in his mayoralty. She pointed to the way city hall was left in temporary disarray following the death of Sir Simon Milton, Johnson’s chief of staff who died in April and who many saw as the real power behind Johnson’s mayoralty. Ed Lister, the Tory leader of Wandsworth council, was swiftly announced as his replacement. Pidgeon, chairs the assembly’s transport committee, chaired by Johnson, said the Conservative mayor also seems to leave much of the direction for transport policy to his deputy chair, Daniel Moylan. “He’s a very good front man but is not a details man,” said Pidgeon. “It is great having strong individuals in your top team but you have to give the direction and the vision. I don’t think he is doing that in areas such as Transport for London, and that is a problem.” Boris Johnson Conservatives London Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lib Dems vote overwhelmingly to set up panel to consider decriminalising drugs
September 18, 2011 No Comment
Motion also offers show of support for Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, following high profile resignations from body The Liberal Democrats have voted to establish a panel to consider decriminalising the use of all drugs. The panel would also consider a less radical alternative: that possession would remain illegal, but those caught would have to appear before a panel and made to undertake “appropriate education, health or social interventions”, replacing the existing fines and jail sentences on the statute book. Any money made available by these reforms would be used for education, treatment and rehabilitation. The motion also offers a show of support for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, following high profile resignations from the body over disagreements with the then-Labour government, and the coalition’s plan to remove the statutory minimum of scientists sitting on the council . The Lib Dem motion says the council should “retain a majority of independent scientific and social scientific experts in its membership” and that no changes to drug laws should be made without its advice. The panel would carry out an impact assessment of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to evaluate, “economically and scientifically”, the legal framework prohibiting drugs. Ewan Hoyle, a delegate from Glasgow South and the founder of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, moved the motion. Drug policy had been a no-go area for politicians because of “cowardice, pure cowardice”, he said – fear of the reaction from tabloid newspapers. “It’s time politicians looked voters in the eye and attempted to explain complex concepts.” Hoyle added: “I want Nick Clegg to walk into David Cameron’s office and say: ‘This is part of what is needed to get the country out of a hole.’” All motions passed at the Lib Dem conference become party policy – but not coalition policy. Asked if the successful motion meant the drugs panel would now be set up, a party spokesman said: “This gives our MPs and ministers backing from conference to take this into government, to put into the coalition process. It will bind ministers and MPs in the coming years as they move forward, if drugs policy comes up, to act on it where appropriate.” He characterised the motion as “not that different from government policy: to follow the science on drugs”. But Lib Dem frontbenchers stayed away from the debate, although MEPs Chris Davies and Graham Watson did speak in favour of the motion. Davies told the conference: “Far from reducing the supply of drugs, prohibition has actively encouraged their use. It’s a policy that has failed.” Caroline Chatwin, an expert in drugs policy at the University of Kent, said the Lib Dems’ motion represented “an important and positive step forward in the recognition that the harm caused by drug policy can be greater than the harm caused by drugs themselves”. “Every year, many people, particularly young people, are criminalised for the possession of drugs when, apart from their drug use, they are otherwise law abiding citizens,” she said. “This is a state of play that causes harm to both individuals who are criminalised and society in general, which suffers the consequences of large numbers of disaffected and marginalised members. “It is particularly damaging that particular groups, such as disadvantaged black males, are disproportionately stopped by the police on suspicion of minor drug offences, breeding disaffection and alienation amongst whole communities.” She added that although the motion was based on Portugal’s seemingly successful policy of drug decriminalisation, “David Cameron has already sent drug policy advisers to Portugal to investigate the possibility of adopting a Portuguese strategy here – an idea that he ultimately rejected.” But she said that the Lib Dem motion still “falls short of the mark, by leaving the illegal drug trade in the hands of unscrupulous criminals”. The UK Drugs Policy Commission has also backed the thrust of the Lib Dem motion . Roger Howard, the commission’s chief executive, said there was an understandable worry that removing criminal penalties for simple possession could lead to a rise in drug use, but he insisted the move could do some good. “The evidence from other countries suggests there would be no great surge in drug use,” he said. Speaking against the motion in a debate which was at times quite emotional, Julian Cooper, a councillor in Witney, David Cameron’s constituency in Oxfordshire, said the proposal “totally underplays the consequences” of legalising drugs, particularly the health consequences. The motion was passed with only one or two votes against, according to Andrew Wiseman, the chair of the Lib Dems’ federal policy committee. Drugs policy Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrat conference 2011 Liberal Democrat conference Drugs Health Paul Owen guardian.co.uk
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EU’s failure to resolve Greek problem adds to tensions as world’s finance ministers and central bankers gather at IMF Investors are poised for another week of turmoil in the global financial markets as finance ministers and central bankers gather in Washington for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting amid the biggest crisis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers three years ago. A weekend meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland failed to resolve any of the issues in the beleaguered eurozone, instead casting more doubt over the future of Greece by delaying a decision on a much needed €8bn (£7bn) bailout payment until next month. Reports in Greece suggested the EU, IMF and European Central Bank were asking for further austerity measures, including 100,000 public sector job cuts, in an attempt to resolve Greece’s budget deficit and avoid a default. Greece’s prime minister, George Papandreou, who has cancelled plans to attend the IMF meeting in favour of dealing with the crisis, held an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss additional cutbacks before a conference call with the EU and the IMF on Monday. Meanwhile Moody’s is expected to announce imminently whether it plans to downgrade Italy’s credit rating, a move that would escalate the European debt crisis and cause problems for French banks exposed to the country’s debt. Many observers believe last week’s news of a co-ordinated plan by five central banks to pump dollars into the system was designed to improve liquidity in the event of further turmoil. But the political pressures within the eurozone were in focus once more following a predicted defeat for German chancellor Angela Merkel in another state election at the weekend. Sony Kapoor, of the economic policy thinktank Re-Define, said: “The inability of EU leaders to handle the problem of Greece, one of the smaller economies in the EU, does little to inspire confidence in their capacity to tackle the much larger threat posed by the continuing failure of Italy and Spain to be able to refinance themselves at reasonable costs.” Before its annual meeting on Friday, the IMF is likely to cut its growth forecasts for the global economy in the wake of the instability in Europe. At the meeting itself, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to repeat his calls for Europe to stop bickering and take action to tackle the debt crisis, comments that annoyed some EU officials when he made them in Poland on Friday because of America’s own debt troubles. Elsewhere, Adam Posen, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, said the eurozone crisis was the biggest single threat to the global economy. He told Sky News: “It is bigger for the UK than for the US or for other people who are not as tightly tied to Europe. We’re all tied to western Europe, we’re all tied financially, politically, economically, commercially.” Posen said Bank officials, including its governor Mervyn King, were working “very hard to make sure we know where all the linkages are”, adding that banks were as well capitalised as they could be. He also said that Europe’s debt problem was solvable and the rich countries of central Europe should take the loss to alleviate the fear across markets. European debt crisis European banks Bank of England Economics Euro European Union Greece Europe Nick Fletcher guardian.co.uk
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Activists say Ibrahim Mohammed al-Farouj was killed by a bullet to the head At least one child has been shot dead and another arrested as Syrian pupils protested against the government on the first day of the new school year. Eleven-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed al-Farouj from Sanamein was killed by a bullet to the head, activists said, exactly six months after a group of schoolchildren in the southern city of Deraa sparked the first protests of the uprising against president Bashar al-Assad. Some schools remained closed because they had been used as holding centres for detained protesters or because teachers had been arrested, according to sources across the country. In other areas, troops used live ammunition to disperse students who had boycotted classes, chanting “No studying, no teaching until the president is toppled.” Sameh al-Hamwi, an activist in Hama, said: “The government postponed the opening of many schools to Tuesday.” He estimated that more than half the parents in the city were planning to keep their children at home amid fears for their safety. In the flashpoint city of Homs, locals said at least one child was arrested from a school in the wealthy Ghouta area. Amateur footage posted online showed children in another school in the city trampling on posters of Assad . At a third school, children tore up their citizenship textbooks. A former student of Ghasaniee, a school in Homs which had been used as a temporary detention facility, did not re-open, according a former student, who said a friend of his had found the playground full of discarded bullet casings and walls pockmarked with holes. For the past six months, young people have been on the frontline of anti-government protests which broke out after a dozen children – all aged under 15 – were arrested in Deraa for scrawling anti-regime graffiti on a wall. But children have also been victims of the regime’s violent response: 182 Syrians under the age of 18 have been killed and scores more tortured, according to Radwan Ziadeh, a US-based human rights activist from Syria and head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights. In one notorious case, the mutilated body of Hamza al-Khateeb, 13, was returned to his parents in May after he had been arrested by security forces. His neck had been broken and his penis cut off. “Children have been living the deaths and arrests of their family members and even friends,” said Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights lawyer in Damascus. “It has stolen their innocence and childhood.” Nour Ali is the pseudonym for a journalist based in Damascus Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Nour Ali guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Silvio Berlusconi, who should probably be worried about rescuing Italy from financial ruin, has been caught boasting on tape of having sex with eight women in one night—and lamenting that he did not have the energy to get around to three more who were waiting for him, reports the…
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