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President says he will carry on fighting ‘foreign-backed terrorism’ as evidence of human rights abuses mounts Syria has again refused to allow aid into the destroyed suburb of Homs amid mounting evidence of human rights abuses, including the torture of victims at a hospital inside the city. A defiant President Bashar al-Assad said he was determined to go on fighting what he called “foreign-backed terrorism”. “The Syrian people, who have in the past managed to crush foreign plots … have again proven their ability to defend the nation and to build a new Syria through their determination to pursue reforms while confronting foreign-backed terrorism,” he said, according to the state news agency Sana. State television claimed residents were now slowly returning on foot to Baba Amr. It showed men, women and children trudging past ruined and bullet-marked buildings. There was also footage of a cramped tunnel which Damascus says was used to smuggle arms. But locals said the reports had been fabricated. Speaking via Skype from the Insha’at area, which neighbours Baba Amr, one resident, Sami, said: “No one has tried to go back there.” He said the accents of people interviewed on state TV suggested they were from coastal areas and not from Homs. “It makes me laugh when I see state TV,” he said. “We know that it is untrue.” A spokesman for the Red Cross said that despite the authorities giving permission for it to deliver aid and medical supplies to Baba Amr last Thursday, they were still being denied access on the grounds of security. Russia and China have made clear again that they are still standing by the regime in Damascus, while western leaders again ruled out a Libya-style military intervention. The White House said on Tuesday that the president, Barack Obama, was committed to diplomatic efforts to end the violence, saying Washington sought to isolate Assad, cut off his sources of revenue and encourage unity among his opponents. The United States is proposing a new security council resolution demanding an end to the violence in Syria, first by government forces and then by opposition fighters. Residents who fled Baba Amr spoke of bodies decomposing under rubble, sewage mixing with litter in the streets and a campaign of arrests and executions. “The smell of death was everywhere. We could smell the bodies buried under the rubble all the time,” said Ahmad, who escaped to Lebanon, according to agency reports. “We saw so much death that at the end the sight of a dismembered body … stopped moving us.” There was further violence reported across Syria. In Herak, in Deraa province, where the revolt erupted nearly a year ago, residents said armoured vehicles and tanks had massed on the western fringe of the city and in parts of the centre. There were raids reported in the city of Deir al-Zor. Activists also claimed attacks had continued in Rastan. Video footage emerged apparently showing a staff general who had defected to the Free Syrian Army in protest at the assault on the city. In it, Adnan Qassim Farazat, holding his identity card, said: “I declare my defection from the Syrian army to the Free Syrian Army, because of the artillery bombing against Rastan which is continuing violently.” He added: “Houses have been damaged and children and women were killed. This is not the right behaviour of the Syrian army.” Security forces also opened fire on Tuesday on protests in Douma, a suburb north-east of Damascus which was briefly held by the rebels in January, according to reports that could not be verified. Omer Hamza, an activist in Douma, claimed several tanks and armoured vehicles, and ten busloads of shabiha, or armed thugs, were seen in a village north of Yabrud, between Damascus and Homs. “A few houses were damaged and some people were detained,” he said. Four people were killed in Yabrud, he added. Once again three of the bodies were taken by the security forces, he said. A large funeral was held for the fourth victim, Burhan al-Sihli, whose body was recovered. Secretly shot video footage aired on Monday by Channel 4 showed what it said were Syrian patients tortured by medical staff at a state-run hospital in Homs. The video, which Channel 4 said it could not independently verify, showed wounded, blindfolded men chained to beds. A rubber whip and electrical cable lay on a table in one ward. Patients showed what looked like signs of severe beatings. “I have seen detainees being tortured by electrocution, whipping, beating with batons, and by breaking their legs. They twist the feet until the leg breaks,” the employee who made the video said. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East and North Africa Bashar al-Assad Luke Harding Mona Mahmood Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
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Business secretary warns that the government lacks a ‘compelling vision’ beyond tackling Britain’s record fiscal deficit Cabinet unease over the slow pace of economic recovery burst into the open on Tuesday with the leaking of a letter by business secretary, Vince Cable, in which he warned that the government lacks a “compelling vision” beyond tackling Britain’s record fiscal deficit. To the irritation of chancellor, George Osborne, who warned that Britain should prepare for an austerity budget on 21 March, the business secretary told the prime minister in his letter that the government cannot rely on markets alone to revive the economy. Contents of the letter, sent to the prime minister and Nick Clegg on 8 February, were first leaked to the FT on 12 February. But the full version of the highly sensitive letter, in which Cable called on No 10 to accept that the Royal Bank of Scotland will have to be broken up, was published on Tuesday afternoon by the BBC. In the most sensitive section, Cable wrote: “I sense … that there is still something important missing: a compelling vision of where the country is heading beyond sorting out the fiscal mess; and a clear and confident message abut how we will earn our living in future … We can be more strategic and the economic backdrop will increase demands that we are ambitious.” Cable highlighted Lib Dem unease over a central plank of the chancellor’s economic strategy – that the private sector will pick up the slack as the public sector shrinks – as he warned that there are limits to what markets can achieve. “Market forces are insufficient for creating the long term industrial capabilities we need. Despite the biggest devaluation since the war, improvement in the UK’s trade balance has been disappointing. The Labour boom and bust hollowed out the supply chains on which exporters and inward investors depend. “And while controversy rages over bankers’ bonuses, the much bigger problem is the lack of confidence businesses have in their ability to find affordable financing for future investment. All in all, we must law out a strategic vision for where our future industrial capabilities should lie, and how to deliver it.” The letter was leaked hours after the business secretary said the Lib Dems were prepared to drop their opposition to scrapping the 50p top rate of tax if a tax on wealth, with a “mansion tax” on properties with more than £2m their preferred option. Cable told Radio 4′s Today programme: “If the 50p rate were to go – and I and my colleagues are not ideologically wedded to the 50p tax rate – if that were to go, it should be replaced by taxation of wealth, because the wealthy people of the country have got to pay their share, particularly at a time of economic difficulty. How exactly that is configured is a detailed matter for negotiation, but that principle must be upheld, and the mansion tax is actually a very economically sensible way of doing it. But there are different ways of approaching it.” The intervention by Cable caused some irritation in the Treasury which is bracing itself for a tough round of negotiations before the budget in the “quad”, the coterie of the cabinet’s most senior ministers. This group comprises of the prime minister, the chancellor, the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander, Osborne’s number two at the Treasury. Osborne is more open to the idea of a tax on wealth than the prime minister who is highly suspicious of increasing tax on property. The chancellor believes that the best bet is close down loopholes on stamp duty which allow millionaires to register new properties in the name of overseas companies. This means they pay 0.5% in stamp duty on properties worth more than £1m rather than the standard 5%. Osborne warned on Tuesday that there would be no “unfunded giveaways” in the budget. In a speech to the annual dinner of the EEF manufacturers’ organisation, he said: “By facing difficult decisions head on, we have won the credibility which will allow us to constrain inflationary pressure, support long term low interest rates and provided the stability that creates the space for private sector investment. I have a budget in two weeks’ time, I can tell you: we are not going to put that credibility and stability and low interest rates at risk. “The days of unfunded giveaways are over – and they’re not coming back in this budget. Everything has to be paid for.” Osborne risked a row with his coalition partners by calling on Britain’s industrialists to campaign in favour of one of the recommendations in the controversial Beecroft report on employment law. The venture capitalist argued in his report, commissioned by the Downing Street policy guru Steve Hilton, in favour of “compensated no fault-dismissal” for small businesses. The Lib Dems, who were wary of the Beecroft report, agreed to a consultation. Osborne said: “Plenty of trade unions and others will be submitting their evidence for why we shouldn’t do this. If you think we should, and it will increase employment, then don’t wait for someone else to send in the evidence. Send it in yourself.” The negotiations on the budget, in which the Treasury is expected to meet its forecast for a £127bn deficit in 2011-12 with a few billion pounds to spare, have highlighted divisions between the coalition partners and among the Tories. Vince Cable Economic policy George Osborne Liberal-Conservative coalition Tax and spending Conservatives Budget 2012 Budget Nicholas Watt Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk
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Prime minister says Iran is planning an ‘inter-continental nuclear weapon’ but urges Israel to give sanctions more time David Cameron has warned that Iran is seeking to build an “inter-continental nuclear weapon” that threatens the west, as he urged Israel to allow time for sanctions to force the Iranians to change their strategic stance. He was speaking after the cabinet was briefed for an hour by the national security adviser, Sir Kim Darroch, on the imminence of the threat to the UK posed by Iran. It is the first time Cameron has made such an explicit warning that Iran could endanger UK security, and has faint echoes of the warnings from Tony Blair’s government that Iraq could fire weapons of mass destruction with 45 minutes’ notice. It is understood that the government’s National Security Council is also looking at potential reprisals in the UK if Israel were to launch a pre-emptive strike against an Iranian nuclear weapons site. Cameron will be briefed by President Barack Obama next week on the US approach to any such strike when the two leaders meet in Washington. Speaking to MPs on the Commons liaison committee, the prime minister said Tehran’s ambitions were dangerous for the Middle East. But Cameron also added that Iran “is a danger more broadly, not least because there are signs that the Iranians want to have some sort of inter-continental missile capability. “We have to be clear this is a threat potentially much wider than just Israel and the region.” The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told an American Jewish group in Washington on Monday that diplomacy and sanctions had failed and that “none of us can afford to wait much longer” to act against Tehran. On Tuesday six global powers agreed to resume negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programme, calling for “concrete and practical steps” to restore international trust in Tehran’s stated intentions. In a letter to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, the EU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, said the negotiations should restart as soon as possible, at a venue to be decided. Writing on behalf of a negotiating group comprising the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, Ashton said: “Our overall goal remains a comprehensive negotiated long-term solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme, while respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy consistent with the NPT [nuclear non-proliferation treaty].” The last set of talks broke down in Istanbul in January last year. Western diplomats said Jalili refused at that meeting to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear programme or any confidence-building measures previously discussed, such as an exchange of Iranian enriched uranium for foreign-made fuel rods for the Tehran research reactor. At the meeting, the Iranian negotiator laid down preconditions for talks including the lifting of all sanctions and a guarantee that Iran could continue its nuclear programme, including the most controversial element, uranium enrichment. Tehran says the programme is for purely peaceful purposes, but the west and Israel allege it is a front for an effort to build a nuclear arsenal, or at least establish the capacity to build a bomb at short notice. Jalili’s reply to Ashton was delivered in February, four months after her proposal, suggesting talks on “a spectrum of issues” including “Iran’s nuclear issue”. French officials argued that in order to satisfy Israel that all was being done to resolve the nuclear crisis by peaceful means, the international response would have to make it absolutely clear that the talks would have to end with the “full implementation” of UN security council resolutions calling for the suspension of uranium enrichment. That language was spelt out in Ashton’s latest letter. A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), presented to the agency’s board this week, said Iran had tripled its rate of production of 20%-enriched uranium – seen by the west as a particular proliferation threat – and reported that Iran had not co-operated with an inspection visit last month, refusing access to a sensitive military site known as Parchin. Iran is thought to have already developed a ballistic missile which can travel approximately 1,200 miles, but it is also working with the Koreans to turn this into a missile that can accommodate a nuclear warhead. Cameron stressed that Iran should not be seen as “a mini superpower” but as “a disastrous country” with mass unemployment and a dysfunctional economy. He said he still believed the track of sanctions should be pursued, arguing EU-wide sanctions were causing dislocation to the Iranian foreign exchange position and “should not be sniffed at”. He said the next step was to get the Indians and Chinese to also refuse to buy Iranian oil. “The more pressure we pile on Iran through sanctions the more incentive they have to take a different path – it is the best option we have”. The prime minister said that no plans were being laid at this stage to increase the UK military presence in the region. Iran Nuclear weapons Israel Middle East and North Africa David Cameron United States Julian Borger Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
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Financier faces up to 20 years in prison after jury finds him guilty of conspiracy and 12 other charges including obstruction Allen Stanford, the Texan financier, knight of Antigua, Washington power player and billionaire benefactor of English cricket, has been found guilty of orchestrating a $7bn Ponzi scheme. After a six-week trial in Houston, Texas, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy and 12 other criminal charges including obstruction. He was acquitted of one wire fraud charge. Stanford, who turns 62 on 24 March, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced. The jury of eight men and four women had appeared to be deadlocked on Monday and had to be given instructions by the judge, David Hittner. Outside, family members had gathered to offer their support. “I’m hoping for the best,” Stanford’s 84-year-old father, James, told the Houston Chronicle as he waited for the verdict. “We support him 100%. In fact, 150%.” During the trial prosecutors argued that Stanford used his clients’ money to fuel his “lavish lifestyle and his loser companies” in a massive Ponzi scheme that spanned two decades. Stanford, they argued, conned investors into buying certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua, telling them they were a safe investment. Instead the bank was “his own personal ATM”, the prosecutor William Stellmach said. By 2008 Stanford’s bank owed depositors more than $7bn that it did not have and Stanford had blown huge chunks of that cash on luxury yachts, private jets and cricket sponsorship. In damning testimony James Davis, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief financial officer, told jurors his boss was “the chief faker” – a man who threatened to fire anyone who questioned the $2bn prosecutors say he pocketed from his Antiguan bank. The picture that emerged during Davis’s testimony was one of a long spending spree to disaster. By the end of December 2008 Stanford International Bank had only $88m in cash, but claimed to hold $1bn in assets. As worried investors pulled out their cash, Davis told the court Stanford tried to use his beloved Antigua to bail him out. He cooked the books and 1,500 undeveloped acres Stanford had bought on the island for $64m were set to be valued at $3.2bn, Davis told the court. Stanford’s attorneys argued that the bank would be solvent today if the US government had not shut it down in February 2009. They did not put the businessman on the witness stand, although Stanford had reportedly wanted to testify. Allen Stanford United States Antigua & Barbuda Financial sector Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Northumbria police say PC David Rathband pronounced dead at scene after they were called to house in Blyth PC David Rathband, the police officer shot and blinded by Raoul Moat, has been found dead in his home. Northumbria police said they attended his house in the Northumberland town of Blyth following “concerns for his welfare”, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The circumstances of his death remain unclear and a police investigation is under way. A force spokesman said: “Around 7pm tonight, Wednesday February 29, officers received a report of concerns for the welfare of PC David Rathband at his home in Blyth. “Officers attended alongside the ambulance service and PC Rathband was found inside. He was declared dead at the scene. “A police investigation is under way and officers are in the process of informing the family.” The coroner has also been informed of the death, he added. Rathband, a father of two teenagers who joined Northumbria police in 2000, was blinded in both eyes when he was shot at close range during the manhunt for Moat on 4 July 2010. The gunman had shot and injured his ex-partner Samantha Stobbart and killed her new boyfriend, Chris Brown. He was pursued by police for six days before eventually killing himself. Rathband said afterwards he bore Moat no ill will and in July last year was presented with a police bravery award in London. Police Raoul Moat Beatrice Woolf guardian.co.uk
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Javier Espinosa, El Mundo correspondent trapped in besieged Syrian city, is smuggled to safety as fighting rages in Baba Amr Javier Espinosa, the El Mundo correspondent who has been trapped in a besieged suburb of the Syrian city of Homs, has escaped to safety. Espinosa, who has written a series of dramatic dispatches from Homs – some published in the Guardian – was smuggled out afternoon after making the perilous journey out of the city. He was reporting from Baba Amr, the suburb that has been under siege for 25 days, and was one of the tiny group of journalists trapped there when two of them, including the Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin, were killed last week. It was disclosed on Wednesday that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad had refused permission for the UN’s humanitarian aid chief, Valerie Amos, to enter the country, despite the urgings of Moscow. Reports also emerged of heavy fighting on all four sides of the Baba Amr district. Meanwhile Kofi Annan, the new UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, said he would hold talks in New York with the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and member states. He will then meet the Arab League chief, Nabil Elaraby, in Cairo. According to witnesses, the Syrian army’s 4th Division has moved towards the outskirts of Baba Amr, where troops were involved in heavy clashes with members of the Free Syrian Army. Espinosa’s escape follows that of Colvin’s colleague, the Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, who was smuggled to safety on Sunday evening after the journalists were split up during their escape attempt while under attack by government troops. Thirteen activists were killed trying to get them to safety. The campaign group Avaaz, which helped coordinate the escape of Conroy said on Wednesday night that Espinosa had reached Lebanon. In a statement the group said: “Javier Espinosa left Baba Amr with Paul Conroy and the Syrian activists on Sunday. But after the Syrian Army shelled the fleeing party, he was separated from Conroy and the activists as he stopped to tend to the wounded and severely injured. “For several hours he was unaided before he was reunited with a group that were able finally to escort him to safety in Lebanon. “Sadly two more journalists, Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, remain trapped in Homs tonight as a full-scale ground invasion of the Baba Amr neighbourhood appeared to begin. “Government forces were today engaged in an assault on four fronts after the most severe shelling of the last 26 days where over 20,000 people remain.” Bouvier broke her leg badly during the attack that killed Colvin and the French photographer Remi Ochlik last week. Sources of reliable news from inside Homs were scarce on Wednesday as activists in the city were cut off for long periods from communicating with the outside world. The rebels have sworn to fight to the last man, according to Ahmed, an activist who said he had just left Baba Amr. He said other opposition areas of Homs were also under attack but gave no details of casualties. Activists in the city said in a statement: “Pray for the Free Syrian Army. Do not be miserly in your prayers for them.” Speaking via Skype, Ahmed said: “We call on all Syrians in other cities to move and do something to lift the pressure off Baba Amr and Homs. They should act quickly.” However, some activists said leaders of the Farouq Brigade of the Free Syrian Army had already left Baba Amr. Homs, a symbol of opposition to Assad in a nearly year-long revolt, was without power or telephone links, Ahmed said. YouTube footage posted by activists showed army trucks and tank carriers on a highway purportedly heading for Homs. Reports from the city could not immediately be verified due to tight government restrictions on media work in Syria, where Assad is facing the gravest challenge of his 11-year rule. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hicham Hassan, said the violence was making the humanitarian situation more difficult. “This makes it even more important for us to repeat our call for a halt in the fighting,” he said. “It is essential that people who are in need of evacuation – wounded people, women and children – that we are able to offer them that with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.” Libya will donate $100m (£62m) in humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition and allow them to open an office in Tripoli, a government spokesman said, in a further sign of its strong support for forces fighting Assad. Representatives from the Syrian National Council visited Tripoli this week after Mustafa Abdel, chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), made the initial offer earlier this month to host an office there. The UN said on Tuesday that it estimated Assad’s security forces had killed more than 7,500 civilians since the revolt began last March. This figure was significantly higher than previous estimates. This is disputed by Syria’s government, which said in December that “armed terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police during the unrest. France said this week that the UN security council was working on a new Syria resolution and urged Russia and China not to veto it, as they have previous drafts. An outline drafted by Washington focused on humanitarian problems to try to win Chinese and Russian support and isolate Assad, western envoys said. But they said the draft would also suggest Assad was to blame for the crisis – a stance opposed particularly strongly by his long-time ally Russia. But China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, also called for political dialogue in Syria, something ruled out by Assad’s opponents while the bloodshed goes on. Russia has warned against interference in Syria under a humanitarian guise. Avaaz said in its statement about its help in the rescue of Espinosa that it was disappointed “with the irresponsible behaviour of the Spanish Embassy in Lebanon who have released information before all the journalists are safely out of the country”. It continued: “To our immense sadness, 13 brave Syrian volunteers were killed in the evacuation attempt. Three were killed as they tried to help all four journalists to exit Baba Amr on Sunday night. Seven were killed helping French journalists Edith Bouvier and William Daniels back to the Baba Amr field hospital, after their escape was shelled by the Syrian government. “Espinosa and Conroy managed to escape the city, but were subsequently separated in a further shelling attack, apparently targeted by the Syrian army, later that night. Three volunteers died in this.” Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz said: “As the Syrian Army tightens its iron grip around Homs, the staggering bravery of activists has freed another journalist today. “Javier Espinosa risked his own rescue when he was separated as he stopped to attend to wounded activists as they were shelled. We can only hope that the bravery of these individuals is matched by the courage of the international community in stopping the horrific atrocities in Homs today.” Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Bashar al-Assad Middle East and North Africa United Nations Marie Colvin Journalist safety Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
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Shareholders already drafting resolutions ahead of AGM to call for James Murdoch to be removed from News Corp board Shareholders are planning to step up their campaign to oust James Murdoch from News Corp following his decision to quit the UK and return to New York. News Corp announced on Wednesday that Murdoch was giving up his position as executive chairman of News International – the British publishing division hit by the phone-hacking scandal – and returning to New York “to assume a variety of essential corporate leadership mandates”. Shareholders are already drafting resolutions ahead of this year’s annual general meeting to step up pressure for change at the media firm. The deadline to file is May. “It’s business as usual,” said Julie Tanner, director of socially responsible investing at shareholder Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS). “This is a very minor step in the right direction. I have not seen any significant changes in governance policies or a code of ethics.” CBIS led last year’s shareholder revolt against the Murdochs at News Corp’s AGM. That vote ended with 35% of shareholders voting against James Murdoch’s re-election to the board. After subtracting the shares controlled by Rupert Murdoch, 67% of the vote went against James Murdoch. “Given these ongoing allegations, I expect the vote against will be even larger this year,” she said. The Rev Seamus Finn, of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, who also voted against Rupert and James Murdoch and other senior executives at News Corp’s annual general meeting last year, said: “This raises further concerns about the way this company is governed.” “It is clear to us that there are too many conflicts of interest in the way this company is run.” Change To Win (CtW), an advisory group that works with pension funds with over $200bn in assets, also called for Murdoch to resign. Senior policy analyst Michael Pryce-Jones said Murdoch should resign from News Corp and from Sotheby’s, the auction house where he is also a director. CtW has written to Sotheby’s chairman Michael Sovern calling for Murdoch’s removal. “This has been a very bad week for James, who knows what next week will bring,” said Pryce-Jones. “Clearly he is very distracted, he can’t be managing these businesses and dealing with this.” James Murdoch, once News Corp’s heir apparent, is the highest profile executive at the company to lose his job amid a scandal that has led to more than 20 arrests and triggered the closure of the News of the World, News International’s most profitable paper. “We are all grateful for James’s leadership at News International and across Europe and Asia, where he has made lasting contributions to the group’s strategy in paid digital content and its efforts to improve and enhance governance programs,” Rupert Murdoch said in a statement. He said James would “continue to assume a variety of essential corporate leadership mandates, with particular focus on important pay-TV businesses and broader international operations.” But senior media executives in New York have dismissed the suggestion that James can continue to play a major role at the company while the phone-hacking scandal continues. One senior executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Murdoch’s role within the company was becoming increasingly difficult. He said the idea of James Murdoch running any significant part of News Corp’s US business was “ridiculous”. “There’s too much trouble hanging over his head. All this newspaper stuff just seems to get worse by the day. How can anyone expect him to fully commit to anything else? And anyone who works with him is going to be wondering how long he’s going to be around. It would have been easier to let him go. Looks like Rupert is getting sentimental.” News Corporation James Murdoch Rupert Murdoch News International United States Corporate governance Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will ‘guide nation to peace’ North Korea has agreed to suspend nuclear missile tests and uranium enrichment, and submit to international monitoring, in return for US food aid. Washington described the deal, which breaks with the US’s previous assertion that large-scale deliveries of food are not tied to North Korea curbing its nuclear programme, as “important, if limited”. Under the agreement, which was hammered out in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launche. It will also allow the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were forced to leave North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor three years ago. For its part, the US will provide 240,000 tonnes of food for the first time since deliveries were suspended in 2009. Washington also affirmed it does not have hostile intentions toward North Korea and is prepared to take steps to improve relations. Diplomats said it was an important move in assuring Pyongyang the US is not intent on bringing down the communist regime. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was cautious in her description of the agreement to a congressional committee on Wednesday. “The United States still has profound concerns, but on the occasion of Kim Jong-il’s death, I said that it is our hope that the new leadership will choose to guide their nation on to the path of peace by living up to its obligations. “Today’s announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction. We, of course, will be watching closely and judging North Korea’s new leaders by their actions,” she said. “This is just one more reminder that the world is transforming around us, from Arab revolutions to the rise of new economic powers to a more dispersed but still dangerous al-Qaida terrorist network to nuclear diplomacy on the Korean peninsula.” Clinton said the aid would be subject to “intensive monitoring” to ensure food supplies reach those who most need it. Until now Washington has insisted food aid to North Korea was not linked to its nuclear programme. But on Tuesday, Admiral Robert Willard, commander of the US Pacific fleet, told a Senate committee that preconditions for food assistance “now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon”. “There are conditions that are going along with the negotiations with regard to the extent of food aid,” he said. There are differing opinions over whether the deal marks a breakthrough in western relations with North Korea following the death in December of Kim Jong-il and the rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-un, or whether it is a short term attempt by Pyongyang to alleviate a food crisis. North Korea has battled to feed its population since a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people. Aid agencies say the food situation has again deteriorated after a harsh winter hit harvests. George Lopez, professor of peace studies at Notre Dame university who served on the UN panel of experts for North Korea until last year, said the agreement “indicates we have turned a new page with the North Koreans”. “First, the moratorium will be monitored by the return of IAEA inspectors, which is a significant move to nuclear transparency and stability. Secondly, the delivery of large amounts of nutritional foodstuffs sets a tone for other nations to respond to North Korean needs – it is an important confidence building measure,” he said. “Finally, the US has reaffirmed the armistice agreement as a platform for peace and has essentially provided a non-aggression pledge, both important to the North. History shows that nations never fully denuclearise without a public non-aggression pledge from their foes.” In 2005, North Korea reached a deal with the US, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in return for economic aid and other incentives. But the deal fell apart with some blaming Washington for being reluctant to follow through. The following year, North Korea tested a nuclear bomb. Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University said the latest agreement “shows the logjam has been broken between the US and North Korea”. “We have seen it before but the timing is significant; it is so soon after Kim Jong-il’s death. Whatever the shifting factions are, it shows the ones who want to push for peaceful compromise have the upper hand,” she said. “It looks like this small space has been used on both sides to open up a dialogue and I think that’s very positive. The US is talking about a quarter of a million tonnes of food: that is not a token amount like 10 or 20,000 tonnes. It is a diplomatic sign. It is a pretty big gesture by the US if they go through with it all.” She added that the South Korean elections were also likely to reduce tensions. Relations on the peninsula deteriorated sharply after the President Lee Myung-bak took office and ended his predecessor’s policy of free-flowing aid. Others were less optimistic, stressing the agreement’s similarity to previous deals that failed to improve relations in the long term. “History repeats itself … There were nuclear inspectors on site in 2002 and 2007,” said James Hoare, a former British chargé d’affaires in Pyongyang. “People suddenly think it’s all different. Anything that leads to some sort of movement is positive, but there will be lots of voices in the US saying, ‘Come on, we have been there before and you can’t trust them; they broke the agreement last time’ – though my view is that it was the Americans.” Hoare said he thought Pyongyang was keen to secure a source of food ahead of the celebrations in April to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the new leader’s grandfather, revered in North Korea as the country’s founder. Pyongyang has heralded 2012 as the year when the country becomes a “strong and prosperous nation”. North Korea Nuclear weapons International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chris McGreal Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Bill Maher visited the set of Hardball this Monday to discuss why he gave his donation to the Obama Super PAC last week. Despite the weak field on the Republican side and Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney’s series of gaffes, with the money pouring into the PACS on the other side, Maher doesn’t feel anyone who supports President Obama should be taking the upcoming election for granted. Maher said he was “trying to throw a snowball to create an avalanche here to let the liberals who do think that this is already in the bag” since not all of the country sees it that way and thinks the upcoming is going to be close. He missed a couple of other points besides the money to be concerned about in regards to the integrity of the next election, which are the massive voter disenfranchisement which is going on across the country in every state where Republicans control the state governments with the passage of these voter ID laws and those electronic voting machines and tabulators.
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